Editorial December 16, 2002 Issue

From dust to disenfranchisement—to equality

Editor

Women's rights, at its roots, is not a political issue. It isn't defined by liberal feminism or conservative traditionalism. At the core of women's rights are deeper questions of origin and identity.

To reach a more just, and calmer, world—a world in which the benefits of education and meaningful employment, the right to full participation in society, and the blessings of free choice in relationships, reach the whole human family—conventional thinking will have to change. Human existence in every dimension will be significantly bettered as consensus grows around a core truth: that the rights of women have a spiritual basis.

There's a corollary to this truth: Full expression of manhood will be achieved only as women gain full equality. In her address to the first Woman's Rights Convention in 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton said, "God, in His wisdom, has so linked the human family together that any violence done at one end of the chain is felt throughout its length. ..."

Send a comment to the editors

This is the end of the issue. Ready to explore further?

Online features Audio