Thankful for Advances in Women's Health

Warning (i.e., Loud Larry) this post may be TMI for some participants.

Early this morning I had a mammogram. My mother is a post-menopausal breast cancer survivor and I am very thankful for these advances in women's health. I am also keenly aware that these advances do not exist in many parts of the world, particularly in parts of the world where women, and thus their health, are not valued. It is not hard to find derision for feminism in the media or in every day conversation. I wonder if women have really thought long and hard about what the world was like prior to feminism. One really need look no further than the Middle East for a plethora of examples, but only a century ago things were not so different for women even here in this country. Yet, people seem to want to go back to that time...a time when women died in childbirth due to poor nutrition and health care, a time when women were not allowed to vote or own property, a time when women were not allowed to travel alone or file for divorce from an abusive husband, a time when a woman would lose custody of her children simply because she was a woman, a time when it was considered obsecene for a woman to work, these are but a few examples of the pre-feminist world. Call me crazy, but I am going to take today to be thankful for women's health and thankful for the technology that may one day save my life.