On September 5, 1995, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton made a speech before the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. Controversial and blacked-out by Chinese radio and TV, she declared that “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.” Galvanized by her challenging message, representatives from 189 nations signed on to a platform for action committed to “the full and equal participation of women in political, civil, economic, social, and cultural life.”
“Women’s rights are human rights,” repeated over and over for 25 years since Beijing, is not a new phrase. In the 1830s, the Grimke sisters, the first nationally known white female advocates for women’s rights, were preaching about human rights under the Authority of the Bible, in “parlor meetings” and in a national lecture tour. In letters on the “equality of the sexes,” Sarah Grimke wrote, “I know nothing of man’s rights or woman’s rights; human rights are all I recognize.” Her younger sister Angelina agreed, writing, “Whatever is morally right for a man to do is morally right for a woman to do. I recognize no rights but human rights.”
Their advocacy was condemned by ministers of the Congregational Church. One hundred seventy five years later, Senator Phil Gramm, of Texas, would declare the World Conference attended by First Lady Clinton as one “shaping up as an unsanctioned festival of anti-family and anti-American sentiment”--remarks that parallel those heard around America 150 years earlier after the first conference on women’s concerns in Seneca, New York in 1848.
Angelina (left) and Sarah Grimke. In the 1800s, the two sisters became the first nationally known female advocates for women’s rights.
Inspired by the message of the Grimke sisters (Sarah wanted to become a lawyer like her father, a South Carolina Supreme Court Justice, who didn’t support women’s equality but acknowledged that “had she been a man, she would have been a most excellent lawyer in South Carolina”), the First Women’s Rights Conference drafted 16 sentiments calling for the rights: to college education, to debate and speak out, to own and control property, for protection against domestic abuse, for equal pay for equal work, and for the right to vote on laws that shaped economic and cultural policies. These were rights that did not exist for women at the time.
The 1848 action plan unveiled at the First Women’s Rights Conference was signed by 69 attendees including men. It would take seven decades of marches, arrests, and organization before the right to vote would be confirmed by the action of one man and one vote in the Tennessee Legislature in August of 1920.
Colleges did open their doors, though professors would still sully women’s participation in their classroom as taking the space of a more worthy male (as attested to by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg). It wouldn’t be until June 10, 1963, approximately 120 years after its advocacy, that President John F. Kennedy signed into law the equal pay act abolishing wage disparity based on sex. Over these many years, little by little, the sentiments expressed in the First Women’s Rights Conference were addressed in our nation. Not so much in the world at large.
In Beijing, Hillary Clinton made the empowerment of women worldwide a cause to be dealt with. As Secretary of State, the “Hillary Doctrine” focused on women’s rights and violence against women as a national security issue. Research by independent firms began to show evidence that gender inequality and violence against women were linked to the stability of a nation, and the best predictor of a nation’s peacefulness. Clinton and others declared that when women are disempowered and dehumanized, extremism grows, leading to potential authoritarian political power and security challenges.
The Hillary Doctrine produced some changes for women around the globe. Twenty-five years ago, domestic violence was a crime in only 13 countries—today it is illegal in over 100. Twenty-two countries have a female head of state—an increase of 10 since 1995. Though less than 25 percent of representation, women, nonetheless, have been elected to national parliaments. One hundred five women are members of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Nancy Pelosi, as Speaker of the House, is the first woman to break the marble ceiling.
On September 5, 2020, the 25th anniversary of the Beijing speech, which is rated among the top 100 speeches of this century, citizen Hillary Clinton spoke up again about women’s rights, saying,“It is no longer enough to talk about women’s rights. We need to talk about women power...embracing the concept of women’s rights is not the same as achieving full equality...It is no longer acceptable to talk of human rights and woman’s rights as two separate topics...The rights of women and girls is the unfinished business of the 21st century.”
Deep seated biases, however, are harder to change than passing anti-discriminatory laws. So, what’s ahead for women in the next 100 years? I don’t have a crystal ball, so I looked to the predictions of past crystal ball seers.
Edgar Cayce, a very religious man and a proclaimed clairvoyant, said that when asleep, he saw issues he never saw when awake. His responses to thousands of questions asked of him in the 1930–40s are collected and researched for accuracy in predictability in the Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
There were no specific questions about women’s rights that I found, but Cayce did predict 1,000 years of peace that would follow a spiritual battle between the forces of light (the Spirit of Love, Joy, Kindness, ) and forces of darkness (the Spirit of Hate, Lovers of Self and Power, and anti-Christ). In 1940, he saw a future humanity in danger of being consumed by the forces of darkness that could be averted if, through individual free will, humanity changes its behavior to embrace “your neighbor as yourself.” If, as research shows, women empowerment leads to stability for the family of humans and a more peaceful and prosperous world, then the predicted Golden Age of 1,000 years of peace, whenever that comes, should insure women’s rights as human rights.
Four hundred years earlier, Nostradamus, in his book The Prophecies, written in 1555, did allude to a feminist revolution during the latter years of the 20th century according to author Manuela Masceti. In her book, published in 1995, she interpreted Nostradamus’ third volume to describe “dramatic new power at the dawn of millennium (across Europe) to establish rights that have been denied to women.”
So again, what is ahead?
The current pandemic could have catastrophic impact on women, the caregivers of families and mankind. They are first to be fired and low on the wage scale. The impact of social unrest has pushed women’s concerns to the back burner. Domestic abuse seems to have increased. Health and access to contraception and insurance and employment is under attack. There are struggles ahead to recover and gain what has been recently lost.
But as we pass through a perceived Armageddon assault on the values many women hold dear for themselves, family, friends, and community, there is optimism ahead. In the City of Annapolis, which realistically is ahead of so many other places in respect for women, long-time community activist Anna Greenberg and protector of our environment Kate Fritz see an increase in the number of women in elected leadership positions, and even a female president of the United States within the next 100 years.
Greenberg suggests that as more women are engaged in science, medicine, and politics, women may even master the dynamics of humanity. (Perhaps ushering in the 1,000 years of peace.) And why not? In 2018, 102 women were elected to create the most culturally diverse Congress of all time. This year, 2020, 301 women who survived primary battles are on the Congressional Ballot, a substantial increase in women of color as well as Republican women with viewpoints generally more moderate than their party. The energy for women in elected office, what some call the “heart of resistance,” seems here to stay. By 2050, census data predicts there will be no dominate race in America. Women leaders that represent the issues of concern in their districts—addressing issues overlooked my men who didn’t have the experience of shuffling between the work place and child care—will expand women’s rights, bringing reforms in health, schooling, and caregiving.
Fritz believes women will lead the policy changes necessary to mitigate climate change and that executive leadership roles in nonprofits will lead the way for women empowerment. Women are generally more collaborative in governing style than the pyramid hierarchy style of men. This could elevate inclusivity for “all voices to be heard at the table.” Transparency and representative government could get an uptick as women in leadership roles increases.
Despite America’s leadership on equality of the sexes, income disparity still exists and representation on corporate boards is still way behind European countries, where laws insure parity. We have a way to go to achieve parity in America and to overcome cultural sexism. But as Senator Elizabeth Warren has said again and again, “You don’t get what you don’t fight for.”
On September 5, 2020, Hillary Clinton further suggested that to break down the inequality plateau, women need to invest in ourselves and sisterhood, to call out sexism, and to transform the devaluing of care giver work.
Of note, women in occupations as teachers, and within childcare and elder assistance are counted for economically on Social Security payout. Women who stay at home and provide those same services receive no economic benefit. Additionally, as COVID-19 has decimated the caregiver industry, more women will leave the workforce to provide schooling and other caregiver services at home. They may have left paying jobs, but currently there is no compensation for stay-at-home care-giving women. Within the next 100 years, we could see a future benefit be advanced for stay-at-home caregivers. Closing the gender pay gap in the workforce, economists predict, could benefit the global economy by trillions of dollars within five years (at a time when the economy is nearing collapse). National economic benefits could be a catalyst to move women forward in the workplace.
In 2017, millions of women marched to protest sexism and misogyny and how to confront the imbalance in power and decision making that impacts female quality of life. Mary Beard, writing in Women Power: A Manifesto explores misogyny that has shaped the world for centuries and suggests we need a different view of power; one that views “the ability to be effective, to make a difference in the world, and the right to be taken seriously, together as much as individually.”
How to break deep seated biases is our challenge over the next 100 years. Reaching parity in the world of economics and politics and providing stability to the security of nations is the goal. Achieving gender equality requires recognition of the responsibility we all share with one another and that human rights are the standard for all.
Will the business of the next 100 years to form this most perfect union—breaking down bias, achieving economic security, achieving parity, and gender equality—be effective. The jury is out. But “you don’t get what you don’t fight for.” For Generation X, Millennials, Generation Z, and beyond, I believe they are up for the fight to make a difference.
