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During the month of March, Suite101 will be celebrating Women's History Month with special articles and discussion about women in history. Don't miss out on this special event with Suite101.
A little bit over a year ago (January 31, 1997), I receieved an email from Julie Bradshaw asking me to be a Suite101 Contributing Editor. Julie had found one of the sites that I designed for a women's group (The ISCABBS Women's Room) which gave her the idea to ask me to be the contributing editor for the first women-centered topic of Suite101. After I got over the inital shock of being asked to take on such a position, I decided that Suite101 would be a great team to join and be part of. Not only that, but I would be doing something for the women's movement. I've always believed that the only way to get ahead is to work. For women to get to the point where they are treated as equals to men, we have to work a little bit harder and push a little bit more. Being part of Suite101 may seem like a small step in the women's movement - but it was a step. It was better than not doing anything, and I've never been happy with lazily watching things happen without being part of the action. So on February 12, 1997, Women's Issues became open to the public when I wrote my first article about women in the pro-choice movement. Since that time, I've used my position to sound off about many various women's issues. I've also learned that by doing this, I've opened myself to attacks - not only on my opinions (which I always welcome) but also to my personal character. That is something that I don't welcome. If you disagree with my opinion, then feel free to disagree with me all you want and have a nice healthy debate about the facts. When people decide to attack me as a person (by calling me things like "slut" and other words which I'd rather not repeat) then it really does nothing to help me understand your position on the topic. All it does is make me think that you have no facts to support your argument - which basically makes my side of the debate stronger. The tactic of attacking a women's character is one that I have been keeping an eye on over the past year. Not only because people have been using it against me, but also because of it seems to be very popular in US politics. The perfect example of this is everything that has happened with the Bill Clinton sex scandal. Every woman who has come out saying that Bill had a sexual relationship with her, has had her personal character attacked in one way or another. Normally its done by saying "Well, she's a slut and asked for it anyways." It seems like a woman's sexuality is often used as a weapon against her. Which makes me wonder how strong an argument is if it is only based on attacking someone's character.
The copyright of the article A Year of Women's Issues in Women's Issues is owned by . Permission to republish A Year of Women's Issues in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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