Testing women’s strength

Women are now allowed in military combat. Of course some don’t like it and the argument goes on. “ A woman in combat can’t be trusted to protect her fellow soldiers.” Apparently she is unfit to be a combat soldier because she is too small, or too something.

Somebody should have told our pioneer daughters and mothers that.

I read a story recently about immigrant women and their families who had joined the Mormon trek to Utah. Each family had to push a cart. No animals were available or allowed to pull the carts. Only the strength of men and women the entire 1,350 miles. They put their belongings on the cart which could carry 250 pounds or more, according to Wikipedia. Now you know that a young woman in those days was either pregnant or had a small baby to carry. Women with a baby in her womb and one in her arms had to push, too. Some men were doubly helped by the one or more wives and children who helped them push those badly constructed carts through mud, sleet and snow.

The Mormon website says this:  The Mormons went on to convert and recruit settlers from Europe who continued the flow westward along the trail. An amazing part of the story concerns the roughly 3,000 Handcart Pioneers who during the 1850s walked from Iowa City to Utah (1,350 miles) pulling handcarts because they were too poor to afford ox-drawn wagons. Read more.  

Husbands fell by the wayside. Women got sick and died. Whoever was left alive, or barely alive, had to push or be left behind. So women pushed the carts, helping their husbands because no matter how strong a man is, he cannot do the work all alone.

Did you know that women have been fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001 and only last year the military realized that their bodies were shaped differently?

Christianity Today reports that:

Yet, it was not until last fall that the Army finally developed specialized body armor for women, with curves to fit better around breasts and hips. The standard armor, designed for men, was uncomfortable and sometimes unsafe for women, leaving gaps between their body and the Kevlar plates. Read more.

I received a comment from a fellow regarding women preachers. He says women are damned if they pastor a church. I am afraid God will have to stand in line. We are doing a pretty good job of damming them ourselves.