She was an independent woman : Guest Post by author Sherrie Cronin

She was an independent twenty-year old woman, traveling for the first time for her new job. The bellhop carried her suitcase into her room, then roughly pushed her against the wall and put his hands over her breasts. She was so astounded that a man would behave this way, so disbelieving, the she simply stood in mortified silence. Luckily, he only laughed and left. For the next decade she would be too embarrassed to tell anyone of the incident.

The year was 1946, the woman was my mother. As a bright and adventurous female, she would learn over the years how horribly common this sort of behavior was, and she would become far better at deflecting it and at protecting herself. Then twenty years later she would face her most difficult decision of all. Two young daughters would look to her for guidance. What would she say?

It is a testament to my mother’s wisdom that my sister and I have traveled the world, and led lives as full and rich as any human could hope. We weren’t the innocent farm girls that my mother was, and by the time that we were teen-agers we had heard all about the bellhop incident. Be daring but cautious. That was her motto. And with it, we more or less safely navigated the murky waters a woman faces everyday. I accepted it as the way of the world. No problem. I was savvy. I could make this being female work. Then I had daughters of my own.

As my son was allowed to go places and be in situations that I would not want my daughters in, I was forced to face that fact that I was raising my children in two slightly different worlds. This was not because I wanted my daughters to be anything less; far from it. I wanted then to be courageous and adventuresome and strong. But I also didn’t want them to be hurt.

I strove for the daring but cautious message I was raised with and that had worked so well for me. However, as my own daughters grew older the message began to make me increasingly angry. Why was this necessary? Why was is given that girls should always have to be just slightly more afraid. I was no longer to willingly accept that the world had to be this way.

Today, thanks to my own daughters, I am far more of a feminist than I ever was as a young girl. I know that the single greatest way to raise any society out of poverty is to educate its women. I know that the more rights a culture grants to its females, the more freedom of thought and expression everyone enjoys. And I know that life without poverty and with individual expression is more enjoyable for men and women alike.

The informal relegation of over half of the humans on earth to a secondary status in which their bodies are too often viewed as toys for the taking is an unnecessary choice that hurts boys and girls, and women and men of all ages and cultures. Females live with a background level of fear because they know that over the course of a lifetime one in three women will be sexually attacked. We need not accept this as “just the way that things are.” Luckily we are so much more than our bodies. We have minds and hearts and spirits capable of learning, choosing and rising above our basest instincts. As a species, we have shown this already.

Except for the most bizarre of circumstances, humans have deemed cannibalism as unworthy behavior. Ditto for incest. We pretty much got rid of human sacrifice. Duels to the death are extremely rare. In is unacceptable to kill someone who annoys you and we’ve come a long way towards lessening sexual exploitation of children. We can collectively change our definition of what is normal human behavior. Brief periods of horrible actions have shown that large groups can and do go backwards, but in so many arenas we have moved forward together. Isn’t it time to finally move forward of this issue?

We need to lose the idea that men can’t help themselves and that women don’t really mind. Neither is true. Anyone who knows one decent man knows the former. And anyone who was been attacked sexually or knows someone who has been, is well aware of the later. Because those two groups include almost everybody on the planet, it is hard to understand why these myths are allowed to perpetuate and subtly shape the fabric of society.

My own daughters will someday have daughters. I hope that they will be high-spirited girls who can’t wait to enjoy this beautiful planet. As they run out the door with eager smiles on their faces, I hope that their mothers won’t face the constant worry of looking up and down the street first, wondering if they should call them back into the house.

NOTE: We at Readers' Muse thank the author for taking time to write such a eye opening guest post for us. We also wish to mention that this article has given us a notion of how this problem exists worldwide! Thank you, Sherrie!

Sherrie Cronin is the author of the Number 46. Ascending series, whose books include x0, y1, z2 and the upcoming c3. She lives in Texas, USA.