Brett Kavanaugh sworn in to the U.S. Supreme Court – October 6, 2018
Photo Credit: The Press Democrat

 

Despite sexual assault allegations, on October 6, 2018, Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in to the U.S. Supreme Court. His contentious nomination process before the male-dominated Senate Committee hammered home the gnawing reality: Women have yet to achieve equal footing with men under our legal system.

To achieve what may have been a lifelong ambition, Kavanaugh exposed his “two spirited daughters” to the public bashing of his integrity. Has he used the sexual allegations – which he has denied with tears and anger – as a teaching moment for his ten- and thirteen-year old daughters? Has he considered the possibility that his daughters could one day suffer the same trauma as his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford?

Ford did not tell her parents what had happened that summer day while she was out with trusted friends. Like so many of us born female, she kept the sexual assault a secret.

When the young man at the neighborhood corner shop put his hand in my panties, I did not tell my mother. I was afraid of getting licks (flogged). I was around seven years old, the eldest of five siblings. I don’t remember the day or time. I don’t remember what my mother had asked me to buy. I remember that the shop was closed for business and that I went around to the back entrance – in full view of the police station on the other side of the street. The owner was not around; only his assistant. I followed him into the dark interior where he lifted me onto the shop counter.

I also remember details of every incident of sexual harassment and attempted rape I have suffered over the years. The latest incident of sexual harassment occurred in April, around 2:00 p.m., while I was waiting at a bus stop.

“[M]ale and female He created them,” says the author of the first account of creation in the Bible (Genesis 1:27). Then, in the second account of creation, another author – asserting the subjugation of the female – added that God created the woman from a rib of the man: “to make a suitable partner for him” (Genesis 2:18).

Obtaining equal rights for girls and women, after centuries of male domination, demands persistent struggle. In 2011, the United Nations declared October 11 the International Day of the Girl Child, “to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights.” In her October 11th article, South African blogger, Kavita Ramlal, reminds us of the continued plight of our girl children worldwide and the action each one of us can take to make a difference.

In the United States, activists continue the struggle to have the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) – passed in the House and Senate since 1972 – added to the American Constitution. (Learn why we need the ERA.) Until then, the male sexual predator can be awarded the power to make and rewrite laws that determine the human rights of the female.

NOTE: Biblical quotations taken from The New American Bible.