By Jamie Strickland
I’ll be honest. As a woman in the workplace, I’ve never felt particularly oppressed.
That’s not to say I haven’t faced challenges that are uniquely female.
But as far as my education and career, I’ve had opportunities. I’ve had a voice. I’ve been able to work where I want, go where I want and learn what I want. I’ve had license over my own decisions.
As a student of history, I am fully aware that this didn’t happen by accident.
Every freedom that I am afforded — that my daughter enjoys — exists because someone who came before us fought for it.
It wasn’t until 1974 in this country that nationwide, women could get a credit card or open a bank account in their own name without a male cosigner or the permission of their husband. 1974! I was born in 1982.
The reason I can move through life with choices, independence and opportunity is because other women already won those battles. They marched for the right to vote. They pushed into places where they weren’t welcome. They defied expectations and proved they could work in roles they were never expected to. They spoke up when it would have been easier — and sometimes safer — to stay quiet.
Women’s History Month matters not because every woman’s life is a story of struggle, but because progress has a past. Rights, opportunities and cultural shifts don’t happen passively. They were hard won by women who insisted on education, on fair treatment, on the ability to work, lead and make their own decisions.
That sense of normalcy we now have in navigating our own lives is the very evidence of their success, and it’s our job to keep that baton moving.
The story of women’s history is not just in the major milestones recorded in text books, either.
It’s also in fathers who put a tool in their daughters hands for the first time. Teachers who introduced girls to subjects once considered inappropriate for them. Women who balanced work and raising children long before their work was even recognized as such.
Women’s History Month is an opportunity to say thank you — not just to famous women in textbooks, but to grandmothers, mentors, coworkers and community leaders whose influence is woven into our lives.
This issue of Johnston Now Magazine is dedicated to celebrating the women of Johnston County who are working hard to make our ancestors’ dreams come true. One step, one achievement and one new opportunity at a time.
Progress has a past, and we are its future.
