It’s International Women’s Day. So, why March 8? It was the day in 1908 when 1,500 women marched in New York City demanding shorter working days, better pay, and the right to vote. Just the month before the Supreme Court held that a state could limit the workday for women to 10 hours a day. Most factories at that time required at least 12.
Women have borne the brunt of hardship during the pandemic. Most of the caregivers in nursing homes and hospitals are women; women have lost jobs because they had to stay home with their children while schools were closed; the overwhelming majority of nursing home residents who died are women.
In the rest of the world, Europe, Asia and Third World countries, women continue to bear a disproportionate share of illness and death because women have been and continue to be the primary caregivers for the sick.
Prayer for the Day
Life-changing God who walks with us before we call on you,
We seek to understand you and what you call us to do;
Bringing us into community, we listen for your voice
Which sometimes comes in surprising places.
Turn the water of or souls into the wine of your Spirit
So we serve you more fully and completely.
We ask this in the name of him who served even to the end,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thoughts for the Day
Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.
- Hilary Rodham Clinton, speech at International Women’s Conference 1995
Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. … It shouldn’t be the exception.
- Ruth Bader Ginsberg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1933-2020)
Wisdom is radiant and unfading and easily discerned by those who love her,
And is found by those who seek her.
She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her
One who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty,
for she will be found sitting at the gate.
Wisdom of Solomon 6: 12-14
Note: The Wisdom of Solomon was written for Jewish communities in Greek which has gendered nouns. This is the reason the word wisdom has feminine pronouns.