Guest post by Ronna Detrick of RENEGADEconversations. Ronna writes magnificent words about faith, feminism and telling the truth. I’m so honored to feature her post to launch Women’s History Month. You can also follow Ronna on Twitter.

Women will starve in silence until new stories are created which confer on them the power of naming themselves. – Sarah Gilbert and Susan Gubar

March is Women’s History Month. And though significant to mark, commemorate, and plan wild celebrations around, it’s not a once-a-year sort-of thing, at least for me. Women’s history permeates my consciousness every day. The stories are many and each one shapes my own – and yours, as well.

Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Zora Neale Hurston, Virginia Woolf, Adrienne Rich, and millions of unknown faces. For me, the list also includes names like Eve, Hagar, the Unnamed Concubine, Leah, Abigail, and many more in both sacred and secular texts. Whether historical figures or timeless narratives, women create a landscape of courage, perseverance, and grace that impacts me in profound ways; that invites each of us to the same.

The stories of women are not isolated, nor do they stand alone; each has a cumulative effect on every one that follows. Though earlier stories most definitely exist, I frequently start with Eve. In my own cultural tradition, her oft’ applied character traits have made a woman’s struggle far more pronounced, incredibly painful, and nearly impossible to overcome.

When her story is told as one that demonstrates the trouble with a woman’s curiosity, her “reality” temptress, and/or as the one responsible for the downfall of all humanity that, by its very nature cannot not impact how we have been (and are) perceived and treated. This iconic female – known by various names in diverse creation stories – and the way we speak of her, influences the way we understand all her descendants and most certainly the way women (and men) experience themselves today.

And hers is only one story.

Predominant interpretation prevails. Cumulative ramifications are made manifest. History repeats itself. Harm continues.

But I do know much hope, for this need not be the only telling of her story – or the many that follow. If instead, we experience Eve as one who invites honesty, integrity, wisdom, and the beauty inherent in following one’s heart, everything changes: my experience of myself, my daughters’ of themselves and their world, all women everywhere (and therefore, men) past, present, and future. History is re-told, re-written, re-created, restored, and redeemed.

History matters. (Her)story matters.

As we walk through the month of March, may we know profound hope as we remember the many women who have fought to enable something as simple, but hard-earned, as my ability to write and publish this post, to think freely, to hold outspoken opinions, to raise strong daughters. Even more, may we experience profound hope when we reinterpret, (as) well.

History invites us to re-tell, re-write, re-create, and restore the brilliant and stunning stories of all women – present day, historic, mythic and fictional. When their stories are told in passionate, strong, and honoring ways, we redeem our own and those yet waiting to be told…

…absolutely there are stories that women want to hear about themselves. They want those stories. Sometimes you don’t realize you’re starving for something until you’ve had a taste of it. A story where the women are not incidental, but they are the story. – Winnie Holzman

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Photo credit:

Thank you to Dorothea Lange for the incredible photo above: Migrant Mother. She herself was an admirable role model to many photojournalists and humanitarians.

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