The woman risking her reputation, her career, and, in some cultures, even her life by striving to serve her country in public office. The woman, giving birth to her fifth child in as many years, terrified of what will happen if it is a girl, or lying awake in pain, wondering what will become of her and her children if she attempts to escape from an abusive marriage. Women carry on in spite of these burdens, and countless others. Without the involvement of women, the world itself that they bear on their shoulders would come crashing down. Families would go unfed, unclothed, uneducated, uncultured and unloved.
Women deserve more.
Quite simply, they deserve equal opportunity and choice. Women can run countries or companies, they can ignite movements to ban landmines or handguns, they can give birth to children and to global policy. We know because we ve seen them do it. Her leadership style emphasized food instead of fighting, negotiation instead of aggression, and education, especially for women. In later centuries we have pioneers for social justice such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who organized the first women s conference from which all others, like Beijing, descended, and Rosa Parks who sparked the civil rights movement.