On the Eve of 13

Hello and welcome to a bright-blue sky Saturday here in Wannaska country. Today is March 8th -  International Women's Day and the eve of the Seventh Grader's thirteenth birthday.

"Hezký svátek!" my husband greeted me this morning. "I don't have a name day," I answered. "True, but today is International Women's Day. Happy Holiday!"

This short article from NBC New York Channel 4 hits the historic highlights of this holiday:

• In 1908, roughly 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay, and voting rights. This was a turbulent time in the industrialized world that saw not only a vast population growth but also the rise of radical ideologies that further accentuated women's oppression and inequality.
• In 1909, activist and former factory worker Theresa Malkeil proposed the Socialist Party of America hold a "National Women's Day."
• The following year, 1910, a group of German delegates proposed the idea of an annual Women's Day at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen.
• In March 1911, more than one million people attended Women's Day rallies across Europe, campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, hold public office, and end discrimination.
• In February 1917, Russian women led a huge strike for "Bread and Peace" to end World War I, food shortages, and the tsarist political system.
• This led to abdication of the Czar, and the new provisional government became the first of a major power to grant women the right to vote. (Note: According to Wikipedia, New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections from 1893. Women were able to run for election from 1919.)
• Until the 1970s, International Women's Day was celebrated mainly in other socialist countries like Spain and China, before it was adopted by second-wave feminists.
• In 1975, the United Nations General Assembly officially declared March 8 to be International Women's Day.
• International Women's Day is now celebrated in more than 100 countries and has been made an official holiday in more than 25 countries. (The U.S. is not one of them.)

Curious about U.S. history on the subject, I perused this convenient high-level summary, Voting Rights Act: Women's Right to Vote, A Timeline of Obtaining Equality, provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Middle East District.  Note that "Middle East" in this context refers to a geographic swath of the United States.

• 1776 - Abigail Adams writes to John Adams, founding father, upon talks of the constitution, begging him to consider: “remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable 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 particular 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.”
• 1848 - The first women’s rights convention. Sixty-eight women and 32 men (including Frederick Douglass ) signed the Declaration of Sentiments.
• 1869 - The legislature of the territory of Wyoming passes America’s first woman suffrage law, granting women the right to vote and hold office. When Wyoming gained statehood in 1890, it became the first state to allow women the right to vote.
• 1870 - The Fifteenth Amendment was passed 100 years after Adams' counsel. "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." (However, Native Americans still could not enjoy the rights granted by this amendment.)
• 1920 - The Ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is completed, declaring “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” It is nicknamed “The Susan B. Anthony Amendment” in honor of her work on behalf of women’s suffrage. (Unfortunately, states still had the right to decide which women would be allowed to vote.) 
• 1965 - The Voting Rights Act of 1965 officially enforced the 15th amendment of the constitution.
• 1966 - Betty Friedan, author of 1963’s The Feminine Mystique, helps found the National Organization for Women (NOW), using, as the organization now states, “grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.”
• 1972 - Title IX of the Education Amendments signed into law by President Richard Nixon. It states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.“
• 1982 - President Ronald Reagan signs a 25-year extension of the Voting Rights Act which contains stronger provisions against discrimination. “As I’ve said before, the right to vote is the crown jewel of American liberties, and we will not see its luster diminished.”

After putting together this almanac summary together, what comes to mind is this phrase: Women's rights are human rights.

Which brings me to the Seventh Grader's birthday. "What do you want to do on this last day of being twelve?" I asked her. "Just do my homework and play Minecraft," she said. 

While I suggest that she journal about the last day of being twelve, and tomorrow to journal the first day of a new era - being a teen! - she assures me she will feel tomorrow how she feels today.

I observe her from my cozy chair in the living room, doing her homework at the kitchen counter. I see a girl who is confident and powerful. She believes in herself. She has no doubt she belongs in the world and will bring value to it.

As her mother, on the eve of her thirteenth birthday, that is my greatest wish.