“Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom alone is more precious than rubies and nothing you desire can compare with her.” Proverbs 8:10-11
On March 8th, we celebrated International Women’s Day. And by celebrated, I mean, a few people remembered and acknowledged a handful of impactful women on their social media accounts. There were no parades or streamers or balloons or cakes declaring the importance of the day. There was not a rush at the post office of cards and packages crisscrossing the globe acknowledging the importance of the 3.8 billion female humans that populate this planet.
Nope. Just a mention on Twitter. Just a picture on Facebook or a story on Instagram acknowledging grandmothers and aunts, friends and cousins, mothers and wives. A simple mention. A nod. And guess what? In the implicit grace of the female gender, we didn’t even mind. We didn’t ask for a party or a special-report on the evening news. We just woke up, like we do every other day, put on our clothes, made ourselves breakfast and got to work getting stuff done.
What do we get in return for our dedication and steadfastness? Overworked and underappreciated.
The book of Proverbs is smack-dab in the middle of the Bible. It is considered to be one of the three books of wisdom in scripture and was written by King Solomon himself. Proverbs opens with Lady Wisdom. Lady Wisdom has wise teaching on all manner of things including work, relationships, sex. spirituality, integrity and much more. Lady Wisdom is available to those who seek her out and she encourages a healthy respect for God. Isn’t it interesting that Solomon, inspired by the Holy Spirit, would personify wisdom as a woman; a wise woman spreading knowledge and sharing with those who need what she has to offer?
Women hold careers while rocking babies. They put dinner in the crockpot while they put breakfast on the table. They balance modesty and femininity. They memorize tax tables and bus schedules. They know where the mayonnaise is. They keep the pantry stocked. They wash the clothes, the dishes and the family dog... sometimes all in the same day. Women rotate the tires on their car after they balance the checkbook on the way to get their mammogram. (That might be an exaggeration, but maybe not as far off as you might think.) We run companies. We run bake sales. We run 5Ks and Ironman Triathlons. We bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan...
If you are looking for the epitome of womanhood, I’d like to draw your attention to a little lady some like to call Rosie the Riveter. Do you remember her?
I’m sure you have seen the iconic poster, depicting a woman in a dark-blue work shirt, hair confined to a red polka-dot handkerchief, flexing her bicep and exclaiming “We can do it!” in a word-bubble above her head. You may not have noticed the caption at the bottom of the image though. It reads “War Production Co-Ordinating Committee''.
Rosie the Riveter was a campaign in World War II to bring women into the workforce. One of the first steps in the modernization of women.
So many American men had been shipped overseas to fight in the war, that domestic production of much needed supplies, tradesmen, riveters, as well as the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, were in desperate need of workers. This is where the War Production Co-Ordinating Committee stepped in and introduced the homemakers of the USA to Rosie. She was capable. She was strong. She was patriotic and she was obedient. The war effort needed Rosie. The servicemen overseas needed Rosie. Uncle Sam himself needed Rosie. And Rosie arose to the call…
Subsequently, inspired by Rosie, so did many other American women across the country.
Up until World War II a woman’s place was in the home. But Rosie made the way to women in all manner of careers. There was a catch, though. At the end of the war, the troops came back. The men came back to their careers, came back to the rivets and the supply lines and the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Where did that leave Rosie and her fledgling workforce?
I can imagine that many of the women who answered the call of their country in World War II were happy to return to their children and their stoves and their suburban comfort. But the door had been opened. The appetite was whet. We may vainly resent Rosie and wish that she had left well-enough alone. If it weren’t for her, many of us would not have to perform the constant juggling act that is being a woman in the 21st Century: job, home, family, hobbies, activities, responsibilities, etc., etc., etc. However, it was Rosie who dissolved (to some degree) the stereotype of women as weak and unintelligent. She fostered a view of women as capable outside of the home. She broke a glass ceiling that many didn’t even know existed.
Lady Wisdom was the first. She offered wise counsel. And then generations later, there was Rosie. She invited her sisters to bless the world with their skills, talents, abilities and passions. Rosie opened the door that Lady Wisdom had erected. And it has become our job to walk through it. Walk through the door and give to the world in a way that only a woman can give; with a whole heart, with every ounce, until we are emptied of our strength and our purpose and our desire and our Self… And then we will turn around and do it all again the next day, and the next, and the next...
We don’t need to be acknowledged with a day on the calendar. We don’t need a parade or a party or a balloon bouquet... All we ask for in return is the respect that we are due...
And chocolate. I don’t think I know a woman who would turn down chocolate.
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