Us vs Them

Lately I’ve been hearing lots about women’s rights and their place in male dominated organizations. This is perhaps just because of who I am surrounded by, but I still believe it deserves a little conversation. In the last one hundred years women have seen huge advancements. We’ve received (after putting up a fight) the right to vote, we entered the work force in droves, laws were enacted to protect women from discrimination.

Legally women are equal to men and have all the same rights. Yet, we still struggle. In church organizations the clergy are mostly male. Even in my own faith the leadership is male based on the priesthood that is exclusive to men. This is not at all an issue for me. It is how God intended it. Classrooms find males favored over female students. Women are harassed in public by men. There are a lot of women, strong and important even, that feel that this inequality is unfair and wrong.

I would contend that it’s not unfair or wrong at all, but simply human nature. In any group of people we sort ourselves out as “us verse them” type groups. And both groups will claim superiority but power is rarely shared. Somehow one group absorbs all power and then uses it to keep down the other group that claims their value in existence. Some brief examples. The Egyptians and The Jews. Well, I saw Exodus and I’ve read the book. It didn’t go so well for the Jews for many centuries. They were enslaved. Fast forward many more centuries and black Africans became this other group that was free for the kidnapping. They were also enslaved until the nations got their senses together and stopped being dingbats. Then in the middle of the 20^th century we had Hitler and he decided he didn’t like the Jews. (Seriously, that’s a tortured group of people. At least they’ve got God on their side.) Although not enslaved, they were just murdered in large batches. If they were lucky they just got put to work and were tortured. And throughout all of this women have been seen as less than men, while men have maintained power.

In the last century though we have become an enlightened people. We are bucking the trends and patterns of our ancestors so that we can do and be better. Still nothing is going to change over night. We have to continue to work towards improvement. No one is going to give women the power they’re fighting for. They have to stand up and take it back. The power that we seek is within us. Men are not required to pull it out of us or wait around for it to come out. That’s not in their nature. So, if we want our place in existence we have to make it. We have to stand up for ourselves and just be the powerful group we know we can be. And hopefully with this new enlightenment we don’t have to prove our superiority but can simply live in peace with men.