Day Twenty-Six

Today I am thankful for powerful women. Women, who have gone above and beyond their stereo typed roles and chose to make a difference in the world. These women have speckled history over the centuries, from Joan of Arc to Malala Yousafvai, and everyone in between. They are the women of the Temperance Movement, being spit on by men, as they prayed that God would close the bars down. They are the women of the Social Gospel, reforming prostitutes, drunks, and petitioning the end of child labor. They are the ones who risked their livelihoods and their lives as they protested for better working hours, better pay, and unionization. They are the women who fought for their rights to be educated, hold jobs, retain their property after the death of their husbands, and they are the ones who fought to have the age of sexual consent raised from age ten to age sixteen. The are the women who rallied to free the slaves. They are the women who shouted "sister suffragette!" and claimed women were just as smart as men and could vote. They are the women of the WACS and the WAVES. They are Rosie the Riveter. They are the women who fight cancer and win. They are the women who fight cancer and lose. They are the working mothers, the stay at home mothers, and the single mothers working multiple jobs to provide for her family. They are the married women, the career women. They are the women passing you by on the street and in the store. They are the little girls who sit in front of you in church. Today I am thankful for powerful women, every last one of you.