March 2014- A Month Now Almost Past

MARCH 2014, A MONTH ALMOST PAST

Basketball's March Madness-Lenten Ashes and Prayer, A Saint Patrick's Irish Fling-Chilly and Gray Day First Day of Spring!    Time for early Spring Cleaning-meaning-Dust I must.

Hold the soft cloth in my aging 86th year old blue vein hand to dust a four generation picture in a gold Victorian frame once thought quite grand.

The Youngest Generation, My Mother, Born in 1898, Nearly Four.

The Other Three Generations Of Women- Those That Came Before.

A Precious, Vivid, Visual Reminder That March Is Also

"National Women's History Month"

                                                                           
 For in March 1857- I Read- It All Began Indeed-With Women- New York Factory Workers- Poorly Paid- Working Long Hours In Deplorable Conditions- United They Arose- Became Bold We Are Told, And Thus The Fight For Women's Rights Began.  

It was well over a century later by Presidential Proclamation in the year 1987, the month of March will annually be celebrated as National Women's History Month.



I look in the frame at the Faces of the Women who Came Before Me.  They wanted to be Stronger, Better Educated, Wives and Mothers.  They chose to attend "Female Institutes" the Forerunners of Universities, thus Teaching was also a profession they chose.  They gave their voices to the causes of Temperance and Sobriety (the WCTU) Women's Suffrage was their big cause (Ever Pushing for Women's Voting Rights) and as Methodist Women they heard the financial need, the early missionary call as women in the mission field off to China went (Encouraging the Women not to Bind their Babies Feet)  In other words, Bibles some well hidden, were also sent!

As we come to TODAY, our nation trains women in the Military to serve proudly wherever duty may demand and women serve as Pastors in churches throughout our vast land. The Women who followed in my own family became Teachers - Store Keepers- Bankers-a Social Worker and one with a Medical Degree.

Now, Equal Pay for Equal Work for women that according to the "statistics", I shall not live to see.  But "The Glass Ceiling"- though not shattered totally
Today, I see the Cracks grow ever wide.

We As Women Must Take Great Pride
For With Faith In God, Dedication And Dignity
We Continue A Force Of Change And Strength Throughout All History.

Marolyn Donnelly Stout, 2014 National Women's History Month



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