Movie Tonight

Tonight at the Ames Public Library:

The American Association of University Women will sponsor "Iron Jawed Angels" in honor of the 90th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment at 7 p.m., Monday, Oct. 25, at the Ames Public Library. ISU student Jessica Bruning will also speak about the 50-50 in 2020 campaign to increase the number of female candidates for state and federal offices in Iowa,

I was thinking about the place of women in society the other day when I read a comment from a friend about going to a wedding where his friend "gave his daughter away." I was a little surprised when I read that because I had forgotten that "traditional" weddings were just that. The father 'gave' the daughter to the husband and she became his property. (I wonder if that is the traditional marriage the right wing keeps harping about) - I remember another wedding where the minister went on and on about what a great marriage it would be because the new wife was such a good servant....servant. Women weren't servants in the house I grew up in. They were partners. The way things should be.

Women have come a long way in our society. I maintain they still have further to go and sometimes the men are more like obstructionists than partners. That still needs to change.

I know that in Muslim countries the woman did not even attend the wedding - It was between her father and her husband (at least in 1976 and I don't know if it has changed or not) and that was in the relatively secular state of Egypt. Then they threw a big party.

90 years ago women got the right to vote. Remember Abigail Adams who lobbied her husband "not to forget the ladies?" Oh sure, there were powerful women. Eleanor of Aquitaine comes to mind but even she was locked up by her husband so he could pursue other interests (women) - He trotted her out for Christmas Court.

My mother would have been 9 or 10 years old when women got the right to vote..the age of the kids I taught. I can still remember urging my girl students to get involved in politics. I pointed out that to be truly representative the House should be a little over half female.

She wasn't in my class but she knows a lot of my former students and her sign is in my yard. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell is deserving of your vote and she says everybody should see the movie at least once. So lets go tonight and fill the auditorium,