Remember the Ladies
“Remember the Ladies.”
Since Abigail Adams wrote that phrase on March 31, 1776, while our country was in the labor pangs of being born, women have been demanding that America “Remember the Ladies.”
Last night when President Biden said, “Madam Speaker. Madam Vice President. No President has ever said those words from this podium … and it’s about time,” I couldn’t help feeling that the stars twinkled a bit brighter with the smiles of Abigail Adams, along with all the women who have fought tirelessly for equal rights and equal opportunities for women over the 244 year since that letter was written.
Women of both political parties shared screenshots and shout outs about the historic nature of the moment. It was something that we had never seen before, and, agree or disagree with their politics, the accomplishment of the Speaker of the House and the Vice President will make it easier for all women, both liberal and conservative, to have our voices heard.
Or at least I thought so before I read the comment sections under most of my conservative female friends.
Under the celebratory pictures of women literally holding these seats at the table for the first time were comments from Republican men deriding not only the women on the dais but also the women celebrating the history of the moment.
Just when I thought that, after 244 years, the guys would have finally gotten it, they proved to be just as obtuse as good ole John Adams when he laughed at his wife’s letter saying, “I cannot but laugh… We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems.”
The Republican Party has a woman problem (or is it a problem with women). You don’t have to go back 244 years to see that, but rather just look at the vitriol being thrown at Liz Cheney. Ten Republicans voted to impeach President Trump, but somehow the bulk of the outrage has been laid at the feet of the better known of the two women who voted in the affirmative.
According to the Pew Research Center, since 1980 women voters have outpaced male voters on election day, a gap that is widening. Those women also tend to identify as Democrat or lean Democrat. In 1994, the split was 48 percent leaning left to 42 percent leaning right; that number has grown to 56 percent to 38 percent.
After the display of Republican men mansplaining to women why they shouldn’t celebrate seeing women occupying two of the the most powerful positions in our government, I can’t imagine why the GOP keeps losing the female vote.
I know that the Republican Party sees woke culture as a more dangerous plague than COVID-19, but do they have to act like they would all be happy to wear masks if the lady version would silence their shrill little voices?
Even though it is usually only the first phrase of Abigail Adams’s entreat to her husband that is quoted, it is worth reading the rest of it.
“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. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”
Her warning should not fall on deaf ears.
