"THE RESISTANCE TO EQUALITY"

 “THE RESISTANCE TO EQUALITY”

Writing about the Trumpster in Women’s History Month may seem like an oxymoron (and he is that, minus the “oxy”), but his election and terms as President represent the deep resistance to equality for women that runs through American history and world history.  There were several factors that led to Trump’s re-election as President, including Joe Biden’s tragic decision to run again after the headwinds of the 2022 midterm elections, and the spiraling inflation that roared as we recovered from Covid.  But, no factor was stronger in Trump’s re-election (or original election in 2016, for that matter) than his signals that he was running to build on his original platform of white, male supremacy.  From his legal convictions on sexual harassment to his lewd comments about women in his first presidential campaign, Trump has demonstrated a contempt for women and a commitment to keep male supremacy proud and strong.

Let us not think, however, that Trump is an anomaly – his voice echoes the voice of people of all races and classes, a voice indicating that women should step back, keep quiet, and serve men.  We’ve known it in our family as well as in society.  Caroline and I are nearing completion of a book that we are writing on our pioneering work as a clergy couple in the Presbyterian Church.  We each took a chapter to write a bit of background on our individual stories. Caroline remarked on how painful it was to look back and remember how devalued and dismissed she had felt as a woman seeking ordination as a minister in the early 1970’s.  She often was dismissed by male dinosaurs but also by seemingly enlightened males who felt that the ministry was not for women.  I was blessed to know Caroline’s paternal grandmother, Sophie Leach, who was born in 1882.  I remember us asking her about women getting the vote in the 19th Amendment in 1920.  Sophie responded that she did not think that women should get the right to vote, but once they did, she voted in every election just to show the men that women could do it.  

As I wrote last week, I was raised by strong women – my pseudo-grandmother Bernice Higgins (whom we called “Gran”- and actually, she was my great-grandmother’s sister) - and by my mother Mary Stroupe.  My mother had moved in with Gran, who was a widow by that time, after my father had abandoned my mother and me for another woman.  Though there were strong men on the periphery of our lives, our household was headed and managed by women.  Despite the presence and influence of these strong women in my formative years, I still breathed in the poison of patriarchy, of male supremacy.  I never sat down and chose male supremacy – it rather chose me.  That poisonous atmosphere of male supremacy is passed from one generation to another – it is the “power of the prince of the air,” to use St. Paul’s powerful metaphor from the second chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians.  I breathed in patriarchy like I breathed in racism.  I don’t know what I would have chosen, if I had a choice, but in my defense, I did not have a choice in my formative years.

In the early days of the feminist movement, I remember my mother’s resistance to it.  I was a young adult by then, and I had begun to change my thinking and my imagination on the issues of equality and justice for women.  I remember engaging my mother on the women’s movement, and I noted that she was one of the strong, independent women who had laid the groundwork for my ability to be converted from my captivity to the idea of male supremacy.  Since I was her beloved son speaking, she begrudgingly acknowledged that these “new” women might have some valid points in their push for equality for women.  Then we both met Caroline Leach, who blew the doors off our resistance.

So, let us make no mistake here in these Trumpster years.  Though women have made much progress, the resistance to gender equality remains deep and powerful.  Unfortunately, that resistance will remain with us after the Trumpster has gone to his place in the lower chambers.  We may have all kinds of levels of thoughts on the idea of women’s equality, but let us dedicate ourselves and renew our commitment to working for the idea that all people, including women (especially women) are created with equal dignity.  As Sweet Honey in the Rock put it so well in the “Ella’s Song,” based on the remarkable life of Ella Baker, “we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it’s won.”  There are many captives to male supremacy out there – let’s work to help all of us find some liberation.