Volume 46 - No. 03
January 21, 2016
by Frederick Gomez
In a male-dominated society we often forget how vital women are, not only in terms of procreating our species, but in their overall importance in shaping our destiny and civilization. The fact that women, inherently, think differently than their male counterparts gives them a unique advantage of ‘thinking outside the box’ in key situations that have helped turned the tide of history. That women have a different vantage point in comprehension and attitude than males is, often, startling as well as humorous. Their unique attitude is captured in the following amusing anecdote which illustrates the different viewpoints between the sexes: An English professor wrote the following sentence on the blackboard, “A woman without her man is nothing.” The professor then instructed his students to punctuate the sentence correctly. The men wrote: “A woman, without her man, is nothing.” In turn, the women wrote: “A woman: without her, man is nothing.” Both sides were grammatically correct in their punctuation of the same sentence, yet the meanings of the sentence are now diametrically opposed! A world without women would mean a world without the likes of Nefertiti (ca. 1370 BC – ca. 1330 BC), the revolutionary Egyptian queen whose reign saw the wealthiest period of ancient Egyptian history. Or the great and powerful Cleopatra (69 BC – 30 BC), the last active pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt, and a pivotal figure in history. The list seems endless: Joan of Arc (1412 –1431), who successfully led the French to victory at Orleans; Catherine the Great (1729-1796), one of the greatest political leaders of the Eighteenth Century; Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 – 1896), anti-slavery campaigner, whose novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” was a best seller. President Abraham Lincoln went so far as to say that her books were a major factor behind the American civil war.
But that was the distant past. What about now, in today’s modern world? Where are all these great women today? Men often are unaware of these feminine movers-and-shakers that, quite literally, continue to alter the world we live in today. The egocentric bubble we often exist in does not allow us to see outside our own society to better appreciate what is truly happening in the ‘bigger picture of life,’ today. For
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example, few know of Benazir Bhutto (1953 – 2007), the first woman to become head of state of a Muslim country. She became the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan on December 2, 1988, serving for two non-consecutive terms (1988-90 and 1993-96). She helped move Pakistan from a dictatorship to a democracy! No small feat in a Muslim world. For a reality check, 62% of the world’s total Muslim population live in South and Southeast Asia (not the Middle East), with over 1 billion followers. The world’s largest Muslim population in any country is Indonesia, followed by Pakistan. Mrs. Benazir Bhutto made a difference in that part of the world. After completing her early education in Pakistan, she continued her higher education in America, where the experience left an indelible imprint on her life. Bhutto once said her time at Harvard University were “The four happiest years of my life!” and said it formed the very basis of her belief in democracy. But she paid the supreme sacrifice for her ideals in implementing these social reforms, such as helping transform her country into a
democracy, as well as helping women and the poor. She was assassinated in 2007. But her work lives on. History records the words of her acceptance speech as Prime Minister, wherein her love of American ideals made a difference in her life: “We gather together to celebrate freedom, to celebrate democracy, to celebrate the three most beautiful words in the English language: ‘We the People.’” She helped change the world we live in today.
And yes, we all know of the first woman Prime Minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher (1925 – 2013), nicknamed “The Iron Lady.” Thatcher ruffled a lot of male feathers when she was quoted as saying, “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” It may surprise you to know that the term, “Iron Lady,” was first applied to Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir (1898 – 1978), before Britain’s Margaret Thatcher. How tough was Golda Meir in the volatile Middle East? She was greatly feared and respected, causing former Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, to call her,
“The best man in the government.” And just because she was a woman, her Arab enemies thought she might be stereotypically weak. Their perception of women, in this case, was quickly re-evaluated as a deadly mistake. She once quipped, “I understand the Arabs wanting to wipe us out, but do they really expect us to cooperate?” She was not afraid to use Israel’s nuclear arsenal if pushed too far, “Do you think we’re so particular whether we die by nuclear weapons or conventional weapons?” But, what about World War II? Certainly, that was a man-driven war that was won solely by men, right? I mean, overall, men won it, with some bit of help from women, like all those ‘Rosie the Riveters.’ Well, this may shock you out of your socks, but, if it weren’t for women scientists in the Second World War, we just might have lost that big donnybrook! Exaggeration? Hmm, most scholars today think otherwise. As all historians are aware, the
‘A World Without Women?’ Continued on Page 2