Making Herstory: Speaker Pelosi

[Tuesday_Morning]

Found this by annatopia:

http://soapblox.net/texaskos/showDiary.do?diaryId=2323

I'm sure that much will be written about her choice of the color purple. After all, the press tends to write about superfluous details like that when they cover female elected officials. And I wouldn't be suprised if people assume that she chose purple in order to project an aura of bipartisanship. That would be false. Purple was the color of the suffragists, and Speaker Pelosi's choice shows her respect for those early trailblazers. She clearly understands the historical implications of her election.

Of today, Speaker Pelosi said:

This is an historic moment - for the Congress, and for the women of this country. It is a moment for which we have waited more than 200 years. Never losing faith, we waited through the many years of struggle to achieve our rights. But women weren't just waiting; women were working. Never losing faith, we worked to redeem the promise of America, that all men and women are created equal. For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling.

Annatopia puts it in perspective:

This is an historic moment and I congratulate Speaker Pelosi on this remarkable achievement. As a woman I am bursting with pride, and I can't help but reflect on the long road we've taken to get to this moment.

The first widely read feminist manifesto was published in 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. This work sparked feminist movements worldwide and inspired women to demand that they be granted equitable legal status.

At the time, women in America still generally had no legal status. I mean that literally. If a women was unmarried, she belonged to her father. Once she married, she belonged to her husband. And heaven forbid her husband passed away before she did, because in most cases the widow would revert to "non person" status.

Congratulations, Speaker Pelosi.

I, too, am bursting with pride today. Thank you.