Earlier this month, the media carried stories about terrorist fighters in Nigeria who stoned women and girls in forced captivity just prior to their rescue by the military. Some survived the senseless stonings. Others didn’t.
It’s beyond disheartening that women and girls in some parts of the world today are still treated as incriminating documents to be shredded.
Since 9/11, our lives have changed dramatically. Communication is space-aged. Commonplace access to the wealth of human knowledge on the Internet resembles the stuff of last century’s science fiction. With technological breakthroughs seeming to occur most every day, the future is now. We’re immersed in it.
Yet sometimes it feels as though we’re still relying on yesterday’s perspectives to address global relationships.
No political party, religion, corporation or nation can predict with certainty what the world will look like 10 or 20 years from now, but a few things seem certain. First, there’s no ironclad guarantee that what happens somewhere else won’t reach our soil, despite anyone’s best efforts. Second, unpredictability brings uneasiness. What will Iran do? Will the Islamic State last, and how far will its reach extend? What’s al-Qaeda’s next move? If North Korea can hack Sony Pictures, what else is on the horizon, and by whom?
Today’s issues cry out for new beliefs to take root in our thinking. In a world where 17-year-olds wear suicide vests or hack sensitive networks, “might makes right” ensures nothing for the future.
What has this got to do with the stoning of girls and women? Plenty. Women just don’t seem to be fully human yet. For millennia, women have played such a subordinate role, or no role, in shaping global events that it seems ingrained in our collective DNA to have lingering doubts about their capacity to lead.
According to the latest two in three Americans think the country is ready to elect a woman as president. In other words, one-third of our population thinks the country can’t yet choose a woman.
Although the imbalance of power has been a reality for ages, what’s especially troubling is the slow rate at which it’s changing. Here at home, the U.S. Congress on Sept. 11, 2001 , or 13.6 percent. Today, 104 women hold seats, or 19.4 percent. At this rate, equal representation won’t happen for more than 70 years. For those who believe balance is urgently needed, this is disappointing.
Kelly Paul, wife of Republican presidential nominee Rand Paul, recently released her book, “True and Constant Friends: Love and Inspiration from Our Grandmothers, Mothers and Friends.” Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker wrote this about it: “Women share a universal connection that transcends politics and time. Whatever the source … the shared power of human creation, or the hidden bearings that evolved through millennia to aid women’s survival — it does seem to be constant and true.”
The world could use equal influence and leadership from a constant and true source. Women’s innate abilities to connect are sometimes considered meaningful and valuable in certain arenas, but detrimental and a potential weakness on a world stage in shaping global events. To the contrary, those abilities are sorely needed right now.
Kathy Ayers works for a health care technology corporation in the Denver Tech Center.
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