"LENT AND WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH"

 “LENT AND WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH”

I have always been intrigued that Women’s History Month (and Black History Month) often intersect with the season of Lent.  Lent is a 40-day period before Easter in which we are asked to consider our captivity to the powers and to seek ways to find some measure of liberation from our captivity.  As my friend and co-author Dr. Catherine Meeks puts it: “Be a half shade braver today.” In Lent, we are asked to make that step into a bit more of bravery, as we walk with Jesus to the Cross.  Whether you are a Christian believer or not, the journey to the Cross is a reminder of our deep captivity to the powers of fear, violence, and death.  Currently no one personifies that more than the Trumpster, but more of that next week.

This week, I want to consider our captivity to male supremacy, to the idea that men are superior to women, that women should take many steps back and let the men lead, because men are the superior gender.  Women’s History Month is a time to think about that deep captivity.  Even though I was raised by strong women – my mother and my surrogate grandmother Gran – I still breathed in that foul air of male superiority, believing that men were superior and should be in charge of everything.  Even though I had a powerful example of a woman in charge of life – my mother, Mary Stroupe (for her story, see my book “She Made A Way”) – I still could not appropriate that model.  It is an example of how the powers and principalities work – they capture our imaginations and make us unable to see a different world, indeed the world that God intends.

I began to loosen the hold of patriarchy and male supremacy on my heart as I became a young adult, but I would not fully engage it until I met the powerhouse named Caroline Leach.  She was so much like my mother – strong, independent bowing to no man – but being a different generation than my mother, she had the language and the fierceness to be a strong advocate for equal rights for women.  I was attracted to her for so many reasons, but this fierceness and this commitment to equal rights was a strong magnetic force for me.  And we got married a year later (still going after almost 52 years!). So, I am thankful to all the strong women who have modeled for me and have engaged me on this issue of equal rights for women.

I was reminded of this vein of equal rights for women when we visited the National Archives in DC with our daughter Susan (another strong woman who has taught me so much about the battle for equal rights for women).  Some of you may not be aware that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has now been ratified by 38 states, meeting the requirement for becoming an amendment to the Constitution.  Proposed in 1923 by Alice Paul and finally passed by Congress in 1972, it was ratified by 35 states (3 short of the 38 needed) by 1979.  It sat there for almost 40 years until momentum picked up again, with Nevada ratifying it in 2017, Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2020.  Before he left office in 2020, President Biden pronounced that it was now the law of the land.  Given these circumstances, why hasn’t it become part of the Constitution?  The power of male supremacy is still the obstacle.  In order for an amendment to become part of the Constitution, the lead archivist at the National Archives must pronounce that it has been ratified.  So far, this has not happened with the ERA, and during our visit at the National Archives, we asked several docents if we could speak to the archivist about approving the ERA, but of course, they demurred on it and said that we would need to make an appointment.  But we are hoping that just those few approaches could poke some consciences.

If you’d like to do your part on this, contact the National Archivist at inquire@nara.gov or public.affairs@nara.gov or postal mail at

National Archives and Records Administration

700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20408

Contact your Congressperson too!

    We are in a battle for our lives on this, so let’s find ways to speak up and act up on behalf of equal rights for women.  Your ancestors and your grandchildren will give you thanks and praise for it.  Do it for Women’s History Month!