In the upcoming midterm elections, Democrats are hoping for a Blue Wave, while Republicans are hoping for a Red Wave. Both parties, though, and especially Republicans, need to beware another wave – the Pink Wave.
After SCOTUS overturned Roe v Wade, there was a major surge in women registering to vote. Women have been raising serious hell since the news of the overturn was leaked. Politicians who support abortion bans are on thin ice, while judges and voters alike are blocking antiabortion laws or finding ways around them. Petitions calling for making reproductive rights the law of the land abound; I have signed and shared a number of them. Some Republicans are even calling for the party to at least review its abortion stance.
Cue the late Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman.”
For far too long, women have been second-class citizens of the United States. Our grandmothers, great-grandmothers, great-great-grandmothers, and further back fought like tigresses to secure the right to vote. It took 133 years from when the Constitution was first written down to when women gained suffrage. It took another century for a woman to be elected Vice President of the US. Even today, women are under-represented in government at many levels. We have plenty of ladies in Congress, in state and local positions, even some women governors; but still the percentage of female elected officials does not reflect the percentage of our population that has XX chromosomes. In addition, some of these women are Republicans, members of the very party that is plotting to undo decades of social and moral progress. They are of course entitled to their political views, but supporting the degenerating GOP reeks of hypocrisy.
Women today still face discrimination and bigotry in many fields, as well as healthcare. Female patients frequently suffer arrogant dismissal of their symptoms. Pregnant women are often treated like brood livestock – an OB/GYN’s attention is all too often 100% on the fetus and 0% on the womb-bearer. Even women doctors fall into the trap of prejudice against female patients.
In the job world women are still second best. The gender pay gap still persists, and is worse for women of color than for white women, though it is gradually closing. Women tend to be overlooked for promotions in many fields even when their work is just as good as that of their male peers, if not better. They are underexposed in the art world, which is the reason for the legendary Guerrilla Girls. Of all the people who have won the Best Director Academy Award, so far only one has been a woman.
We women are mad as hell, and we’re not gonna take this anymore. More and more we are flexing our political muscles. Remember the Women’s March in 2017, which caused hobby shops to run out of pink yarn because so many people knitted Pussy Hats? It was the largest single day protest in modern US history, and five and a half years later the activism it stirred up hasn’t ebbed. As mentioned above, there has been a serious uptick in the number of women registering to vote over the last few months. More and more women are running for office, from dogcatcher to State Governor.
The ERA, which should have been part of the Constitution decades ago, may be on the cusp of ratification. The current U.S. Congress has more female members than ever before, the majority of them Democrats; and we voters have an opportunity to increase that number even more this year. The 2022 elections are a watershed that could tip the balance of power back towards Regular Joe and Jane, and reverse many of the gains by the sexist extreme right.
Patriarchs beware: Females of the species are getting politically active and politically savvy. We are women, hear us roar in numbers too big to ignore.
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