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DEFINE A WOMAN 

 

CHIMEZIRIM EVELYN OPARA 

FOUNDER AND CEO OF HEAL- 4U MAGAZINE

JULY 19, 2022

DEFINE A WOMAN

In a world led by technology, a simple internet search leads one to the definition of a woman – “of or denoting the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs; an adult female human being”. Yet, in order to truly “define a woman”, society needs to be cognizant of the fact that a woman is not and never has been “the weaker gender”. When we preach equality, we preach impartiality. In order to truly encapsulate the value of a woman, and in order to rightly “define a woman”, it must first be elucidated that women are invaluable and are vital to the human race.

To some, this statement may seem unacceptable, while others might view it as categorizing men as less. But when you live in a world where you are unremittingly ridiculed, degraded and seen as inferior, you grow to understand that the reason why they silence you is because they fear the force behind your being. “We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.”  – Malala Yousafzai (2014) 

For centuries, women have been tossed in the shadows and for centuries, women have been continually silenced. I beg your pardon to say that it is high time for females to realize the importance of our voices. It’s time to understand that we are more than the objects society deems us to be. It is high time that women build skin as tough as the Calabar Burrowing Python so that those that try to silence us realize what it means to truly be a woman. It is high time to achieve the fairness that women have campaigned for centuries. 

The start of a long journey for the fight for equality began exactly 63,553 days ago today-July 19,2022. On July 19,1848, the first women’s right  convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York and lasted through until July 20, 1848. The idea of the Seneca Falls Convention was conceived by two women, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton after women were prohibited from the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention.Stanton and Mott were attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention with their husbands when they discovered that the convention excluded female delegates based solely on their sex. As a result, Stanton and Mott resolved to hold a women’s rights convention 

However, numerous examples exist of leading women who argued for recognition and equality prior to this landmark event. One such female would be Abigail Adams who wrote a letter to her husband and future president, John Adams, urging him to “remember the ladies” at the Continental Congress held to secure American independence from Great Britain. Yet still, it took nearly 150 years for  the House of Representatives to pass the 19th Amendment, a lasting effect secured from the Seneca Falls Convention granting women the Right to Vote. 150 years. 15 decades. Generations of women fighting to achieve a basic human right. That was the amount of time it took for the leaders of America, the land of the free and home of the brave, to reluctantly give in to pleas and demands for a fundamental human right. 

Yet again, despite how many steps women take forward, it’s always as though society pushes them 5 steps backward. According to the Marriam-Webster dictionary, the legal definition of an implicit human right stated in numerous amendments(first, third, fourth, fifth, ninth) found in the Bill of Rights , known as the right to/of privacy, is “the right of a person to be free from intrusion into or publicity concerning matters of a personal nature”.

This Constitutional right was argued by Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, attorneys who represented Norma McCorvey, otherwise known by the ​​pseudonym, Jane Roe in the Watershed case of Roe v Wade (Jane Roe v Henry Wade). At the time of the case, Roe sought to overcome and overturn the overreaching Texas abortion laws in order to grant women the ability to make decisions concerning their own bodies.About 50 years ago, in 1970, women had no control over decisions they wanted to make over issues concerning their own bodies. Why? What separates a man from a woman and each party’s ability to make decisions? Eventually, a unanimous decision in favor of Roe was announced. As much as a victory this was, this came as a bittersweet moment. Determined to limit the freedom of women, Dallas County District Attorney, Henry Wade, declared that despite the ruling, any doctor who assisted in providing abortions in Texas would be arrested. Some may ask, “Then what exactly was the point?” What exactly was the point of incessantly arguing for your right to privacy when in actuality the leaders in position were set on limiting your freedom? Ultimately, Jane Roe never did receive the abortion she so strongly campaigned for because she, along with other Texan women had to wait for two and a half years until the Supreme Court decided to take up the case. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled and granted women the right to have an abortion; the right to privacy. 

For 49 years, although shunned by society, women had the right to privacy. For 49 years, women finally had control over decisions pertaining to their bodies. But this was a short-lived freedom that soon came to an end on June 24, 2022 when the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision to overturn Roe v Wade, consequently overturning the right to receive an abortion. In the words of Linda Coffee, an attorney who oversaw the landmark case, “To take away the right to privacy is to take a giant step backward in American history” 

When will the protests cease? When will the march and the constant fight for equality come to a stop. When will women be recognized as equal counterparts of males? The day we truly achieve egalitarianism, is the day we stop advocating. As Audre Lorde once said, “ I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own” 

 

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