The Compass

Issue date: 3/11/08 Section: Opinion

I've been hearing guys grumble about women's history month.

"Women have a history month, why don't we?"

Since the beginning of time, everything revolved around men. Men were the heads of the families and tribes. They were the respected artists and musicians. They make up most upper-level business positions. They were all the mathematicians and scientists. They got to vote, drive, read and write.

If they're doing all that, what do they expect women to do?

Cook. Clean. Child-bear and rear.

What a great life.

Don't get me wrong. Being a stay-at-home mom is hard work and an honorable thing to do. I wouldn't mind doing it for a while. I would get bored, though.

Anytime women wanted rights or wanted to be recognized for something honorable, they had to fight. Several women writers back in the day had to write under male aliases.

Who has heard of Aurore Dupin? How about George Sand? Dupin was a great female writer of nineteenth century France. She wrote under the pen name George Sand so she could be published and actually receive attention.

Harriet Martineau, an English sociologist, lived and wrote in the 1800s. Long before many of the revered male sociologists were kicking, she was making incredible observations and writing them. Even though she was published, no one heard about her because she was ignored and suppressed. She used to hide her writings under her sewing if anyone came by while she was writing. Sociology was too "masculine."

What about when women wanted to vote? They had to fight! They had to march and picket among other things.

"I Love Lucy" was a wonderful sitcom. Not only because it was funny and touching, but because it gave so many women hope. Lucy was a somewhat normal woman who married. But, unlike many women of the time, Lucy spoke her mind and wore pants.

Today most CEO positions, editor-in-chief positions and math or science related jobs are held by men. The women who actually make it to those positions earn less, even though they usually do the same - if not more - work than the men. According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey from Jan., there are 75, 427 thousand men over 20 years old employed, while there are 65, 098 thousand women over 20 years old employed.

The women who make it that far in life deserve a month to be appreciated. African-Americans have a month, Hispanics have a month. Women should have a month, too.

Not only in the workplace and civil rights areas do we women suffer, but also in the domestic arena. Men hardly ever get raped or sexually assaulted. Women are the victims of those crimes. They are also more likely to be abused by males in relationships (intimate or familial).

Men who complain about women getting a history month have obviously never suffered through pregnancy or giving birth. The pelvis of a woman isn't even big enough for a grown woman to put her fist into. I've heard it said that giving birth is a lot like trying to squeeze a grapefruit through a straw…

Have you ever realized that many of the things women have to go medically through have their roots in masculine words? MENstruation, MENopause, Gynecology, HYsterectomy….

It is quite obvious that women deserve the month of March to be honored and remembered.

As my boyfriend so eloquently put it, "Women can have one history month. Men get every other month, anyways."

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