“Standing on the Shoulders for International Women’s Day” provides an opportunity to celebrate International Women’s Day here in Franklin County. The event takes place Saturday afternoon March 7 at Greenfield Community College from 1–3 pm. Combining stories, music, and conversation, an ensemble of women spanning ages 15 to 76 will illuminate the lives of important women who are less known — like Mashalisk, a local leader of the Pocumtuck people in the mid-1600s. We’ll also honor everyday bravery by describing events of courage today.
Twenty countries around the globe celebrate International Women’s Day, including Afghanistan, Germany, Russia and Ukraine. For example, the the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Cambodia calls for “a feminist future where no one is left behind.”
The initiating event goes back to March 8, 1908, when women workers marched through New York City’s Lower East Side to protest child labor and sweatshop working conditions. They also demanded women’s right to vote. This is the 116th year of celebrations in the United States.
My intention in organizing this event is to engender hope by highlighting the fact that courageous women in every phase of humankind’s development have kept communities strong. Care and conscience mark the value system that women have stood for throughout history. Current society has not only lost sight of achievements of women but lost sight of vast centuries of cooperative living when harming others was unthinkable.
We live within a long line of people who’ve made contributions that touch us today. Coming together, we touch the partnership that makes life possible. We remember we each have a basic flame that pushes us to respect life.
When I was growing up in the 1950s, pre-history was portrayed as a time of men doing the important things like developing fire and the wheel. Reading books such as Layne Redmond’s “When the Drummers Were Women” and librarian Elizabeth Gould Davis’s book “The First Sex,” I learned that the underpinnings of life originated from women — cooking, food processing and storage, pottery, plant medicine, language, weaving, astronomy. Having responsibility for cooking points to women discovering how to transport and maintain fire.
International Women’s Day can be a time of recognizing that cooperation is what has kept humankind strong, and that’s how we are wired. When we can picture gender partnership in history, we are reminded of our basic ability to work together in a honeycomb of cooperation.
An example comes from Turkey 7200-5500 BC in Catal Huyuk. James Mellarts’ excavations show cooperative leadership instead of one strong male leader. With 12 layers of excavation, no level showed weapons or warfare. The social and religious structure which was led by women maintained peace and cooperation among sometimes 6,000 people.
Scholarship reveals that collaborative peaceful life was centuries long into the Neolithic in Old Europe and Mesopotamia. That’s our inheritance. That’s who humans have been. This is a day for remembering that.
Each member of the ensemble at the GCC program will describe spiritual ancestors who have been a beacon for them. For instance, we’ll learn about Matilda Joslyn Gage, the youngest speaker at the National Women’s Rights Convention in 1852. Her friendship with Mohawk women showed her living examples of women as respected leaders.
In addition, we’ll invite the people who come to GCC on March 7 to think about a woman who inspires them from the past or present, from history or from their family. Imagine they are at your shoulder lending you their courage.
This event is free and open to the public, for ages 10 and up. RSVP recommended online at gccfor.me/womensday26. The GCC Department of Community Engagement and the Interfaith Council of Franklin County are co-sponsoring the event.
The Rev. Sarah Pirtle of Shelburne Falls — ensemble includes Carol Sartz, Eve and Ruby Bagdanove, Roberta Wilmore, Swansea Benham-Bleicher, Hannah French.