Women's History Month

March is Women's History Month. The national theme for 2024 is "Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.” Throughout 2024, we acknowledge the example of women who embrace everyone and exclude no one in the common quest for freedom and opportunity. The list of women who made an impact on history is long.

The Christian view of women has been limiting to say the least. Their contribution as a created being is to be in a 'supporting' role to her husband. He body, even though miraculous, at times is only applauded as an incubator for new life. Her VALUE is as caretaker and nurturer of home and family. Recently, there has been fear stoked with the possibility of women being returned to the supporting role by a plan drawn up by Republicans named Project 2025. Established in 2022, the project seeks to recruit tens of thousands of conservatives to Washington D.C., to replace existing federal civil service workers it characterizes as the "deep state", to further the objectives of the next Republican president. Being backed by Evangelicals, people fear their biblical views will also be incorporated/legislated into Project 2025.

There has always been a time when women were needed in more than just a supporting role and that will always remain true. Attempts to teach history in schools, is an attempt to keep people from knowing their individual contributions shape a country and world. Women must remember, no matter who the world 'tells' them thy are, they were created for a reason and purpose. First, lets look at some women who had a PURPOSE and then look at the REASON for their creation.

1. Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888). Alcott worked to support her family through financial difficulties at an early age, and managed to write “Little Women,” one of the most famous novels in American history. Her other famous writings include “Little Men” and “Jo’s Boys.” (Recommended biography here.)
2. Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906). Anthony played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement. In 1878, she and co-workers presented an amendment to Congress that would give women the right to vote. In 1920, Sen. Aaron A. Sargent, R-Calif., introduced the bill and it was ratified as the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. (Recommended biography here.)
3. Clara Barton (1821-1912). Barton founded the American Red Cross and served as its first president. She was a nurse during the Civil War for the Union Army. (Recommended biography here.)
4. Nellie Bly (1864-1904). A journalist, she launched a new kind of investigative reporting. She is best known for her record-breaking trip around the world by ship in 72 days. (Recommended biography here.)
5. Amelia Earhart (1897-1939). Earhart, the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, received the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for her accomplishments. Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared in 1937 over the central Pacific Ocean while attempting to fly around the globe. (Recommended biography here.)
6. Jessie Benton Fremont (1824-1902). Fremont was a writer and political activist. She was considered the brains behind her husband, John C. Fremont, and his famous exploration westward. She turned his notes into readable books and made connections in Washington, D.C., that eventually made him famous. (Recommended biography here.)
7. Marguerite Higgins (1920-1966). Higgins was a reporter and war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune during WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. She advanced the cause of equal opportunity for female war correspondents and was the first woman awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Foreign Correspondence in 1951. (Recommended biography here.)
8. Grace Hopper (1906-1992). A computer scientist and Navy rear admiral, Hopper played an integral role in creating programs for some of the world’s first computers. (Recommended biography here.)
9. Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910). Howe was a poet and author, her most famous work being “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” She was also a social activist for women’s suffrage. (Recommended biography here.)
10. Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897). Jacobs, a writer, escaped slavery and later was freed. She published a novel, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” credited as the first to highlight the struggles of rape and sexual abuse within slavery. (Recommended biography here.)
11. Barbara Jordan (1936-1996). Jordan was a lawyer, educator, politician, and civil rights movement leader. She was the first southern African-American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first African-American woman to give a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. (Recommended biography here.)
12. Coretta Scott King (1927-2006). The wife, and later widow, of Martin Luther King Jr. played an important role in preserving the legacy of the civil rights leader. Following his assassination in 1968, she founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. She later lobbied for her late husband’s birthday to be recognized as a federal holiday. (Recommended biography here.)
13. Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987). Luce was an author, conservative politician, and U.S. ambassador to Italy and Brazil. She was the first woman appointed to an ambassadorial role abroad. Luce served in the House of Representatives from 1943-1974. (Recommended biography here.)
14. Dolley Madison (1768-1849). Madison was the nation’s first lady during James Madison’s presidency from 1809-1817. She helped to furnish the newly reconstructed White House in 1814, after the invading British burned it to the ground, and is credited with saving the Lansdowne portrait of George Washington from the flames. (Recommended biography here.)
15. Sandra Day O’Connor (1930-Present). A lawyer, O’Connor became a celebrated judge and eventually the first female justice on the Supreme Court, serving from 1981-2006. President Ronald Reagan appointed her. (Recommended biography here.)
16. Rosa Parks (1913-2005). Parks was the most prominent female face of the civil rights movement. In December 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat in the “colored section” of a bus to a white man and was charged with civil disobedience. She is known as “the mother of the freedom movement.” (Recommended biography here.)
17. Sally Ride (1951-2012). A physicist and astronaut, Ride joined NASA in 1978. Five years later, in 1983, she became the first American woman to go to outer space. (Recommended biography here.)
18. Sacagawea (1788-1812). Sacagawea was a Lemhi Shoshone woman best known for her expedition with Lewis and Clark through the territory of the Louisiana Purchase. The Native American traveled from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean with the explorers. (Recommended biography here.)
19. Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016). Schlafly was a constitutional lawyer and conservative political activist. She is best known for her critiques of radical feminism and her successful campaign against ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. (Recommended biography here.)
20. Muriel F. Siebert (1928-2013). Known as “the first woman of finance,” Siebert was the first woman to head a firm traded on the New York Stock Exchange. (Recommended biography here.)
21. Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995). A Republican politician, Smith served in the House of Representatives from 1940-1949 and the Senate from 1949-1973. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress. (Recommended biography here.)
22. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896). The abolitionist and author’s most well-known work is the novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which portrayed the impact of slavery on families and children. Its impact led to Stowe’s meeting with President Abraham Lincoln. (Recommended biography here.)
23. Sojourner Truth (1797-1883). An abolitionist and women’s rights activist, Truth was born into slavery and escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. She became best known for her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech on racial inequalities in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention. (Recommended biography here.)
24. Harriet Tubman (1820-1913). Tubman escaped from slavery in 1849 and became a famous “conductor” of the Underground Railroad. Tubman risked her life to lead hundreds of slaves to freedom using that secret network of safe houses. (Recommended biography here.)
25. Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814). Warren was a writer and propagandist of the American Revolution. She published poems and plays that attacked the British empire and urged colonists to resist Britain’s infringement on their rights. (Recommended biography here.)  

The list goes on and on. There have always been great men in history, but contributions from both sexes were needed in the world. If it were not so, God would have stopped when he created MAN. In Genesis 2:7 we read, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed life into his nostrils, the breath of life and man became a living soul. AND YET GOD CREATED WOMAN. Women have always been necessary.

In Genesis 12:1-3 we read, "The Lord had said to Abram, leave your country, your people, and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse and all people on earth will be blessed through you."

Abraham was given a promise of nation, land, and seed. AND YET GOD CREATED WOMAN. The promise was given to Abraham, but his wife Sarah had her part in the promise. She was the one who would carry and deliver the first generation to take part in the promise. She was the mother of the promise fulfilled.

We are all familiar with Samuel, who is known by Bible scholars as a king maker. In I Samuel 9, Samuel anoints Saul as the people’s king and in I Samuel 16 he anoints David, who is God’s king. YET GOD CREATED WOMAN.

Before Samuel was a kingmaker, he was a deep yearning within his mother, Hannah’s heart. God granted her petition in prayer for a son whom she named Samuel, because, as she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.” And this one thing, a child, she desired so much for such a long time, she gave back to the Lord with gladness as we read in I Samuel 1:27-28. Here, the role of mother goes a step farther to sacrifice. This is a sacrifice where a mother loves God enough to let go.

Now let’s look at a man’s man named Samson in the book of Judges. Samson was a man who tore a lion’s mouth apart with his bare hands, struck down a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey, and who can forget his dramatic exit from life when he prayed one last time for strength from God to destroy his captors, his taunters, in one last show of strength. God answered his prayers, and he was able to push two pillars and collapse the temple, killing many more when he died than while he lived. AND YET GOD CREATED WOMAN.

Deborah, the only female judge out of 16 men did not possess the strength of Samson, but she did possess obedience to a command to be fearless in battle. She was fearless in battle not because of her own strength, but because God was with her. You can read about Deborah and her God-given victory over an enemy of Israel’s in the book of Judges along with the story of Samson. In Judges 5, we are allowed to read the song of praise Deborah offered up to God for being with her and Israel during their time of trouble.

Let us forever remember and never forget our Savior Jesus Christ handpicked twelve men known as the twelve disciples. We read in the book of John 17:12, these men were selected by God. We know this because Jesus prayed for them, “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.” AND YET GOD CREATED WOMAN. There was not one female named among the disciples.

But look at Mark 14:3-9:“While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

This unnamed woman did a service. She did what she could with what she had. She gave her best to Jesus. Onlookers made comments and even protested. Jesus considered what the unnamed woman did to be so great, he said she would be remembered wherever the gospel was preached. She is connected to the gospel just as the disciples are connected to the gospel.

The last man of God I would like to look at happens to be joined at the hip to a woman in the Scriptures. Acts 28:18 introduces them as Priscilla and Aquilla who open their home to Paul and as a team they gave Apollos more instruction to help him minister to the populous. Notice I said they were a team.

Now let’s go back to the beginning to that perfectly formed man named Adam. God was pleased with His creation AND YET GOD CREATED WOMAN. Why? Genesis 2:18 says it best, “And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help meet for him.” Remember woman was made before the curse of labor, so she was created purely for companionship. We can read from Genesis 1:1-3:17 that the ground was not cursed. There were not any thorns or thistles, no herbs, nor any sweating by man’s brow. There was no work for the “help mate” to help with at the time of her creation.

I have said all of this to say AND YET GOD CREATED YOU, because he needed everything WOMAN has to offer. Women offer the ability to reproduce like Sarah, heirs to a promise. Women offers the ability to care and love others sacrificially like Hannah. Women offer the ability to obey, lead, and direct like Deborah. Women offer the ability to give their best gifts and service to God in example and deed like the unnamed woman of the gospel. Women offer the ability to be part of a team in kingdom work as Priscilla did with her husband.

My last point is woman has the ability to be what God originally created Eve to be, a much needed and desired counterpart and companion for man. Woman was also created to observe and to partake of the beauty of the world God created for mankind. Women are to realize “she” is a gift to man and to creation. Women are to always know, remember, and cherish the fact she is different from man. For every strong, heroic, faithful, chosen man God created, there is a woman of the same beauty, strength, heroism, faithfulness, and chosen status. God saw a need and a purpose for all things he created. The Old Testament and the New Testament echoes the importance and value of both men and women in the Bible. It is of the utmost importance for each woman to know, remember, and cherish, AND YET GOD CREATED WOMAN.