Legalizing Women

It's women's history month and that means we get to dive into the lives of women who were so good they were too bad to make it into our history books. Here to phenomenal women! (1/4)

I just binged Netflix's new period series The Law According to Lidia Poët and was aptly reminded that it was only eight months ago that the US Supreme Court overturned women's abortion rights in the Roe vs Wade case sending chills down the spines of women around the world – either maddened that you live in the US, or relief that you don't live there at all.

Lidia Poët was Italy's first female lawyer. Born in Traverse in 1855 she graduated from the University of Turin with her law degree in 1881 and passed the bar in 1883. However, the Attorney General and the law courts found it unacceptable and forbidden by public policy for a woman to enter the court system and subsequently disbarred her. Lidia appealed and lost. She then continued to investigate cases with the support of her brother (also a lawyer) by working as his "assistant". It wasn't until 1920 when Lidia was 65 – after a lifetime of advocating for international women's rights – that she was reinstated as a lawyer.

It was only in the 1960s that women in the US could open a bank account without the help of a man. And at the same time oral contraceptive wasn't readily accessible yet... nor legal abortions. This wasn't much different around the rest of the world. It really begs the question, why the obsession with controlling women's bodies, movement and progress?

Well, the construct of our shared societies means that value is placed on our bodies. Men are for production and women are for reproduction. And as women have crawled and climbed their way into court rooms and boardrooms there is a silent echo of "you can work towards equity but you will never be equal".

It should madden us, but maybe it's true. Maybe women aren't equal because in actuality a woman's value is immeasurable. Equality is often described as an equal distribution of tools and assistance, but I think more than that equality is an attitude. No amount of equal tools truly compensates for the wholeness we feel when someone truly sees us in our fullness and treats us in a manner that reminds us that we don't need to prove our worth.

Ever so often, a woman like Lidia comes along and occupies the space traditionally set out for men. She did that. And my understanding is she was fierce, feminine and a force to reckon with.

Lidia never married or had children. She dedicated her life to her intellectual prowess, helping people prove their innocence or get their justice and committed to the advancement of women's rights.

This week I want you to question your relationship to equality.

Questions to ask yourself...

(1) Where do you feel unworthy of what you desire?
(2) I wonder if you are achieving wholeness or being whole?
(3) When the spirit of competitiveness arises in you, is it motivated by self-improvement or fear of loss?

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'til next Sunday!
Z.