The so called ‘natural order’ has been defined by only two things:
men have the advantage of physical strength, and women have wombs.
We are not in the minority. Women are everywhere.
And yet we have only ever taken what men have allowed us to.
Men hold all the cards, all the important places and spaces.
What is now includes what was then, and what was then was pretty much always written by a man.
Woman found herself cornered by mankind, trapped by convention, by biology until marriage and motherhood became her only option.
Woman is excluded from the role of warrior,
she gives life, she is not permitted to take it away.
She repeats herself in time while man moves forward into his bright future.
For a moment, man was at a loss to work out what role he served in the act of conception, and made woman sacred.
But quickly man caught on and she who was sacred became she who is unclean.
Every major religion made woman second, subordinate and synonymous with evil.
This status quo persisted, and it is into this reality we walk as women today.

We are always catching up, never having enough time for any of it.
We are always on the outside looking for a way in.
Searching for role models to give us hope, to show us a way forward.
Sure, they are not burning us at the stake anymore, but we are still not equal. Sure, now we can work AND have babies, but most domestic drudgery still falls on our overburdened shoulders and we are the lucky ones.

In Afghanistan women are denied education, freedom of movement and protest.
In Iran women are imprisoned for removing their hijab.
In Poland women are dying because they are denied the right to have free and safe abortions.
In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico women are raped, tortured, and slaughtered, not always in that order, just because they are women.
One hundred years is probably as far back as we remember – which isn’t far but it’s a start. Grandma, Mother, Me.
Still fighting for the one simple thing we have always wanted,
to be seen as a human being and not just tits and ass.
But things ARE changing. Paradigms are shifting, doors are being blown off the cathedrals we have walked in for so long.
The contributions you will find here are part of that change.

We need to remember, to gather, to share, to shout.
To shake this shit up.
So, pour yourself a cup of tea, sit back and walk in our shoes.

In memory of Dr, Marina Werling & Alma

Dedicated to and in solidarity with the tenacious bravery of women all over the world fighting to be equal. Women like Yasaman Aryani and her mother Monireh Arabshahi, both imprisoned in Iran in 2019 for 16 years for promoting ‘unveiling’ and Nasrin Sotoudeh, an Iranian human rights lawyer sentenced in 2019 to 38 years in jail and 148 lashes for her work defending women’s rights.