On the women’s vote

This weekend I attended the Gendered Perspectives conference at Xavier University. I was one of the members of the planning committee and although exhausting it was a good conference overall. Obviously, issues of gender, race, social class, and sexuality dominated the topics of most papers and presentations. Mostly women attended the conference and I have to say that it was disappointing to see only a hand full of men in attendance, but not surprising. 

While the two presidential candidates vie for the women’s vote in this country, still women in this country and millions across the globe continue to be victimized by oppressive models of social constructs and systems of governance that deny them complete functionality and productivity in society.  I am reminded of the woman who met Jesus at the well. So ashamed she was of her own womanhood and the conditions of her survival because of the existing patriarchal society that demarcated and drastically defined the worth of her existence. But Jesus got her vote on his campaign trail, not because he courted her on the basis of false pretenses, but because he restored in her the dignity and worth of her womanhood and her humanity. Go Jesus!