Women's Day

We're celebrating women this week, but it seems that Rick Santorum and a lot of his supporters are missing the point.
We are celebrating the freedom of women - their ability to enter the workforce, to be students in any discipline, to have families and be productive members of the society in other ways at the same time, and to be treated as full members of the society they live in, whatever they choose to do.
I was in the first wave of women who broke into the ranks of upper management and the professions in America. It was only 40 years ago, and the quiet determination, overt battles, seeking of mentors and champions in male colleagues who could and would support our efforts, the humiliations swallowed for the greater goal of being accepted in an all-male club...these were tough and exhausting times and we fought and sistered to keep up our determination, and we cried alone at night and wondered if it was ever going to produce results.
But, the performance results came and they proved we could do whatever we were asked to do, and then we were accepted, slowly and often with bitterness in the eyes of the men who offered their hand to us. But, times changed and the bitterness became fatigue and finally overt agreement that we belonged.
Along the way, there were young men who took on our cause and without their acceptance, I wonder if we would have won so quickly. Many thanks to them. And, vitally important, there were senior male figures who understood that there was no stepping back from the change and so they embraced it and guided and championed us.
I take time to review all this, without the details that are still emblazoned in my soul even 40 years later, because I do not understand today's women and their apparent belief that Rick Santorum and his followers are in any sense "woman friendly." They are not. Their goal is to keep women at home as child bearers - an ancient and extremely important role - but they will not recognize that women may play other roles as well. It is a raw attempt, not even embellished with flowery language about how important women are for our common future.
Make no mistake, abolishing birth control will force women back into the defining role of wife and mother. We will become once again second-class citizens with little freedom to pursue our own dreams and intellectual goals and with no independent means to do so. We will be tied to a man's generosity, or lack thereof.
And, finally, I wonder, just what is the fundamental difference in quality between an extremely conservative Christian man who would deny women their freedom to bear or not bear children from the radical Islamist who denies the same thing, but who tacks on a veil or burka and refusal of medical treatment and education.
They both walk on the same road toward the suppression of women's fundamental right to be a free human being.