There's a sad story in Planet Jackson Hole today about the declining ranks of abortion providers in the West. This lack of access has driven some women to do some very scary things in order to terminate their pregnancies on their own.

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A history of tough, independent women

The NY Times had a fascinating article yesterday on the history of northern Wyoming. In the early 1900s, there was a movement to lop off the top half of the state and join forces with a part of Montana and South Dakota to form a separate state: Absaroka. While not specifically a women's history, the story does feature a few tough ladies:

“It was 90 miles of dirt road to the county seat,” said Helen Graham, who was a teenager in 1930s South Dakota, a daughter of struggling homesteaders.

And a modern-day ranch woman:

Jill Havert stirred 40 eggs for the guests and crew in a cast-iron pot as the gas burners hissed under the canvas and the creek rippled outside. Ms. Havert, a 21-year-old nursing student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, is being “initiated,” as she put it, into the Kerns family. Her boyfriend, Tyler Kerns, 20, is one of Ken Kerns’s grandchildren and a junior in architectural engineering at the university. He has been making cattle drives since childhood; she was on her first, and dark-before-dawn breakfast duty was part of the drill.

“This is a sink-or-swim family,” Ms. Havert said. “But I’m holding my own.”

In Honor of Olive

In my post-"Little Miss Sunshine" fantasy world, girls would not be evaluated for "prettiest eyes" or "most photogenic" -- the way girls as young as 18 months were judged last weekend at the Little Miss Wyoming Pageant -- but by "most imaginative dance moves," "funniest jokes told," "soccer prowess," "community leadership," "kindest to her friends," and other actual meaningful indicators of good character.

Thought experiment: If every year we asked boys to parade on stage, baring shoulders and knees, trying to out-smile, out-"personality," and out-rouge-application one another, there would be a national uproar. Because, you know, boys are supposed to be out there doing things like winning hockey tournaments, learning chemistry, riding BMX bikes, and learning that their value in the world has to do with their minds and actions.

Little Miss Wyomings deserve a pageant that allows them to show of their real human worth, not their dimples.

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Talking about Women in Wyoming

I had a mixed reaction to this recent Cody Enterprise article about the gender-based wage gap in Wyoming. The article features comments from Equality Initiatives (EI) director Sarah Mikesell Growney of Cody.

I whole-heartedly support the mission of Equality Initiatives: "What's good for Wyoming's women is good for Wyoming's communities." And I'm thrilled that the organization is putting gender inequality into the news. However, EI's mainstream approach may neglect issues of importance to some of Wyoming's women.

For instance, Mikesell Growney says, "Equality Initiatives is thankful for the oil and gas industry," because they pay women high wages. I'm not sure aligning the organization with a problematic industry is the appropriate approach. While the oil and gas industry is a backbone of Wyoming's economy, women still have a right to challenge the industry to improve its environmental stewardship. EI could acknowledge the energy sector for its good pay for women without needing to be "thankful," which to my ears sounds like "ingratiated," a stance that may not sit well with all women.

I think the issue may be one of language and talking points. When Mikesell Growney says, “When a woman suffers, the child suffers, and when the child suffers, the community suffers," I'm not following the logic. Not all women have children. Childless women who suffer should still be supported. Although children's poverty is an indicator of a community's health, adult suffering is a worthy indicator also.

My hope is that EI will work to refine its messaging as it furthers its work in our communities. Using langauge that strives to be inclusive of all women and all women's perspectives is a tall order, for sure, yet a vital one.

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