Women are potent forces of change
Awoman’s place has always been in the resistance. Throughout history, women have been excluded from political institutions, forcing them to find other ways to produce change within their communities. As a result, they have been the most potent forces of social change, not from holding positions of power in political hierarchies, but from their involvement in nonviolent movements.
Take Jo Ann Robinson, leading activist in the Women’s Political Council of Montgomery during the Civil Rights Movement. She, and the many women working with her, fueled the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott.
Women like Gloria Steinem and Angela Davis were active in second-wave feminism and black feminist movements during the 1970s. Their activism was a response to the low status — even invisibility — of women at the time; in 1970, women worked in just 9 percent of all professions, according to Clara Bingham’s book Witness the Revolution.
According to the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, women constituted 46.9 percent of the labor force in 2018. And as women have become more visible in the workplace, their voices have only become louder, with an even stronger ability to produce change.
Today, women like Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg represent two female forces in global movements. Twenty-two-year-old Yousafzai, the Pakistani author of the renowned book I Am Malala, won a Nobel Peace Prize at age 17 — the youngest person to receive the award — for her ongoing efforts to advocate for equal education. Meanwhile, 17-year-old Thunberg, Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2019, has established herself as one of the most fierce environmental activists for her dedication to organizing climate strikes around the world.
However, not all women prefer peaceful methods to organize change.
Jessica Trisko Darden, researcher and co-author of Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars, argues one cannot assume women are always propeace and anti-war because women sometimes make up at least 40 percent of nonstate rebel groups, dependent on the political environment and social norms.
Whatever issue lacks awareness and whatever movement needs momentum, Darden says, achieving broad societal support requires women to be in the picture.
In the United States, before an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit in 2012, women were banned from ground combat positions. Plaintiff Mary Jennings Hegar, recipient of both the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor Device for her service in Afghanistan, argued that the exclusion of women from combat was unconstitutional.
In many cases throughout history, women’s contributions in combat have been crucial. One example is the Nachthexen, or “night witches,” of the 588th Soviet Night Bomber Regiment, who dropped more than 23,000 tons of bombs on Nazi targets. This all-female regiment, led by Marina Raskova, flew more than 30,000 missions and emerged from World War II as the most highly decorated unit of the Soviet Air Force.
The night witches are one example of many in which women have played key roles in military history. These women prove the derogatory phrase “you fight like a girl” is not only outdated but simply incorrect. Women have been, and continue to be, valiant fighters, and they deserve recognition and respect.
In an interview, Darden explained, “If you don’t [include women], you’re only drawing on the talents and support of 50 percent of a population, and that’s no way to wage a revolution.”