Remember the ladies

I long to hear that you have declared an independency — and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Abigail Adams in a letter to her husband, John Adams on March 31, 1776

It’s always the women. Women are the strivers, the survivors, and the fixers. Women bring life into the world and sustain it.

During the birth of our nation, Abigail Adams, the wife of the second President of the United States, John Adams, asks that women be included in the laws governing this new land. At the time of her letter, John Adams and other men, who were members of the Continental Congress, were preparing to fight for America’s independence from Great Britain.

Now, 246 years later, although we live in a vastly different world than the one Abigail Adams inhabited, we are still asking for equality. The Equal Rights Amendment has not been ratified. Many of us are increasingly made aware that our rights, even though enshrined in settled law, are tenuous. How can this be? What is to be done?

We will move forward, as we always have and as we always will. This painting is a painting of hope. Amanda Gorman points out that there is always this hope if we are brave enough to see it and to be it. I wanted this painting to be as bright as our future and as colorful as our shared landscape. The wonky flowers are symbols of the beauty in life even as it is now contrasted with the din of our modern technological age and the slippery slope of our political discourse. There is still bright light and color in our world. In this painting, I’ve embedded thirteen dates to remind us of some of the milestones that signify the changing role of women in America.

After much reading about significant firsts for American women, I narrowed my list down to the following thirteen dates.

1776 – Abigail Adams’ letter to her husband
1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell — first woman to graduate from medical school in the U.S.
1851 – Soujourner Truth posed her famous question, “Ain’t I A Woman?” at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, OH
1917 – Jeanette Rankin — first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Thank you, Montana!
1920 – Ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote! This is sometimes called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.
1955 – Rosa Parks, an American hero, refused to give up her bus seat in Jim Crow days in Montgomery, AL
1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor — first woman Justice on the Supreme Court
1983 – Sally Ride — first American woman in space
1993 – Janet Reno — first female Attorney General of the U.S.
1997 – Madelaine Albright — first female Secretary of State of the U.S.
2007 – Nancy Pelosi — first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, third in line for the Presidency
2016 – Hillary Clinton — first female Presidential nominee
2021 – Kamala Harris — first female Vice President of the U.S.

Our trajectory is upward and our path is clear. Our journey promises to be fraught with the usual stumbling blocks and challenges, but onward we go.