No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor
“Exhaustion will not create liberation.” ~Tricia Hersey (Nap Bishop).
✨ Dear Friends,
Welcome, generous readers. I’m so glad you’re here to celebrate International Women’s Day. I appreciate you, all women, and your 💜. I enjoy your comments and shares. Thank you. 💫✨
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” —Audre Lorde
Today is a day to recognize our roots and celebrate the women who have gone before us to establish equality, opportunities, achievements, and the ongoing fight against discrimination, violence and the pressing need to include all women. As clearly outlined in one of the most important books for our current times, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That A Movement Forgot,
“The most useful thing any feminist can do is stop insisting that their feminism is the one true feminism.” —Mikki Kendall1
‘Hood Feminism’ Reaches Beyond the Middle-Class White Woman and performative activism to listen to those most affected. Feminism cannot only serve middle and upper-class white women.
Hunger is a feminist issue. From food deserts to child malnutrition, women and children suffer the most.
Sex workers’ rights & sex trafficking awareness. A feminist movement that ignores marginalized women—BIPOC, poor, disabled, and trans women—fails its mission. Feminism cannot only serve middle and upper-class white women.
"Solidarity is not transactional." —Mikki Kendall
“The fights against hunger, homelessness, poverty, health disparities, poor schools, homophobia, transphobia, and domestic violence are feminist fights. Kendall offers a feminism rooted in the livelihood of everyday women.” —Ibram X. Kendi
Is one day enough to give credence to women?
No. Not at all! Weirdly, we have just one day for women. Does this mean all the other days are—or have been—reserved for celebrating the male voice and experience? Hint: The answer is parading in plain view.
This passion fuels my essays and work: to center women’s experiences, voices, and stories.
I was born female into a working-class Irish Catholic household of ten in the 50s. We had one bathroom. Predators, segregation, and the KKK were real. People with differences or disabilities were hidden or institutionalized. Questions, complaints, and stepping out of line came with consequences.
I write through the limited perspective of a non-conforming white woman who survived better than most. I received a college education, marched with feminists in the 80s, fought for women’s ordination, left the house of the fathers, and learned how to tend to myself. I always had a car, a roof over my head, and a paycheck to afford food and resources to calm my nervous system.
I’ve worked as a guide for girls in detention homes, women in prison, women with wealth in health resorts, and depressed Silicon Valley housewives. They, like me, had one thing in common: self-betrayal. We did not know our worth or embody our value.
Today, I am the mother and sole provider of three beautiful young women. My twins have significant disabilities—one requires full-time assistance for everything. The other is higher functioning, non-binary, and very bright with developmental challenges. My oldest is brilliant, talented, lesbian, an amazing sister, daughter, and friend.
All three are happy and live with me and our service dog, Woody. My twins receive social security benefits and resources from DDS. Yesterday, I spent four hours at Human Resources, jumping through hoops to secure a benefit.
I understand what it means to live in the margins—yet not to the extent of so many other women across the globe.
Women have always held the world together. As mothers, caregivers, workers, warriors, and visionaries, they have shaped history—often in ways that go unseen or uncredited. But visibility comes at a cost. As women take up space, challenge old systems, and refuse silence, misogynistic pushback intensifies. Breaking free from patriarchy isn’t just personal—it’s necessary for a future that values all people. We are the backbone, the sweat and tears, the fabric that I wrote about in Weaving Our Story Forward:
Visibility comes with pushback—breaking free from patriarchy is essential.
What is Patriarchy & Who Does It Harm?
Patriarchy is not men—it is a system. It thrives on toxic masculinity, control, and dominance in politics, religion, work, and home life.
Who suffers? Women, non-binary people, LGBTQ+ communities, and the men who don’t conform to rigid old-school masculinity.
"Patriarchy has no gender. We are all hurt by it. Feminism is not about hating men—it is about challenging a system that privileges domination, violence, and control over love, connection, and mutual respect." —bell hooks
🔥 What does the primordial woman mean to you?
Primordial woman evokes a deep, ancient, archetypal essence of womanhood at its most original and untamed core. To me, she represents:
• The First Woman — The root of feminine existence, the mother of all, present in creation myths across cultures (Eve, Lilith, Gaia, Tiamat, Asherah, the Cailleach, Coatlicue).
• The Wild & Elemental Feminine — She is the raw, unconditioned, pre-patriarchal force—a being who existed before society imposed roles, restrictions, or expectations on women. She is earth, fire, water, air, animal, blood, and bone.
• The Womb of Creation — Not just in the biological sense but as the cosmic womb, the cauldron of life, death, and rebirth. She holds the mysteries of the menstrual cycle, the lunar rhythms, and the deep knowing in the body.
• A Living Memory of Women’s Power — The wisdom women carried before they were stripped of their voices, burned as witches, or relegated to the shadows. The primordial woman remembers, reclaims, and recovers.
• Beyond Time & Culture — She is pre-history, pre-religion, and pre-language. A force that has never needed external validation. She just is.
To reclaim her today means breaking the chains of patriarchal conditioning, reconnecting with intuition, circling, listening to, and singing the deep ancient voice inside.2
“What’s for you—won’t go past you.” —An Irish Saying
International Women's Day (IWD) has its roots in the early 20th-century labor and socialist movements.
Key Milestones:
📜 1908 – 15,000 women march through New York City, demanding shorter hours, better pay, and voting rights.
📜 1909 – The first National Women’s Day is observed in the U.S. on February 28, organized by the Socialist Party.
📜 1910 – Clara Zetkin, a German socialist feminist, proposes an international day for women’s rights at the Second International Socialist Women’s Congress in Copenhagen.
📜 1911 – International Women’s Day is officially celebrated for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland on March 19. More than a million women rallied for labor rights and suffrage.
📜 1913–1914 – IWD shifts to March 8, which becomes its permanent date. Women across Europe used it to protest World War I and demand peace.
📜 1917 – Women in Russia lead a mass strike for "Bread and Peace" on March 8, protesting war and food shortages. This sparks the Russian Revolution and leads to women gaining the right to vote.3
📜 1975 – The United Nations officially recognizes March 8 as International Women’s Day, during International Women's Year.
📜 1996 & Beyond – The UN begins assigning annual themes to IWD, shifting it from a socialist movement to a global day of activism, awareness, and celebration of women's rights.
Today, International Women’s Day is observed worldwide.
A Rough Timeline of Women’s Contributions and Their Empowering Words that Move Us Forward:
📜 1792 – Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
📖 “I do not wish them [women] to have power over men, but over themselves.”
📜 1851 – Sojourner Truth delivers “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech
📖 “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back.”
📜 1929 – Virginia Woolf publishes A Room of One’s Own
📖 “I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.” Woolf argued that women need financial independence and personal space to write and create freely, challenging gendered limitations in literature and society.
📜 1947 – Temple Grandin is diagnosed with autism; later revolutionizes animal welfare and neurodiversity advocacy
📖 “I am different, not less.”
📜 1949 – Simone de Beauvoir publishes The Second Sex
📖 “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
📜 1963 – Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique
📖 “No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor.” Her book ignited the second-wave feminist movement, exposing the widespread dissatisfaction of women confined to domestic roles.
📜 1966 – Dolores Huerta co-founds the United Farm Workers (UFW), coining “Sí, se puede”
📖 “Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.”
📜 1969 – Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera help lead the Stonewall Uprising
📖 Marsha P. Johnson: “No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.”
📖 Sylvia Rivera: “Before I die, I will see our community given the respect we deserve.”
📜 1971 – Gloria Steinem co-founds Ms. Magazine
📖 “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
📜 1972 – Helen Reddy releases I Am Woman, an anthem for the feminist movement
📖 “I am woman, hear me roar.” Read my essay: Born A Woman to I Am Woman.
📜 1976 – Laurel Thatcher Ulrich coins the phrase:
📖 “Well-behaved women seldom make history.”
📜 1977 – Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement
📖 “We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk!”
📜 1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court
📖 “The power I exert on the court depends on the power of my arguments, not on my gender.”
📜 1990s – Tricia Hersey (The Nap Bishop) begins studying rest as resistance
📖 “Exhaustion will not create liberation.”
📜 2004 – Wangari Maathai becomes the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize
📖 “We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process, heal our own.”
📜 2017 – Tarana Burke’s #MeToo movement goes global
📖 “This is the work. It’s not just about naming it. It’s about doing the work to heal.”
📜 2021 – Kamala Harris becomes the first female U.S. Vice President
📖 “I may be the first, but I will not be the last.”
📜 2023 – Spain passes the first paid menstrual leave law in Europe, recognizing menstruation as a legitimate health issue in the workplace.
📜 2024 & Beyond – Women continue pushing forward despite ongoing pushback, fighting for reproductive rights, pay equity, LGBTQ+ rights, environmental justice, and true intersectional feminism.
🔥 These timelines reflect a diverse, global, and intersectional feminist history! Please include what I missed, as well as your ideas and recommendations to celebrate, empower, and include all women. 💜
I leave you with an impactful quote that has a hold on me:
“When we begin the transition from an overly masculine psyche to a more integrated and balanced psyche, we can expect to pass through turmoil and fear before we attain the balance and peace on the other side.” —Marion Woodman
🌙✨
with love,
Prajna O’Hara, The Salty Crone
Leave a heart 💜 comment. Linger a while, for you are beautiful—it is the birthright of every woman.
P.S. Andy from
and I are collaborating on a ‘Sensitive Sisterhood’ offering.🌑✨ New Moon Online Circle is Wednesday, March 26 (free with optional donation).
Kendell, Mikki. Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot. February 23, 2021. New York Times Best Seller.
“What’s for you—won’t go past you.” —An Irish Saying from my essay:
The Unbroken Circle of Women: The Soul Lives in the Moon of Eternity
WSPU Holloway Banner Origin: The banner consists of 80 pieces of linen, each embroidered with the signatures of those women who had participated in hunger strikes in support of the cause of women's suffrage. The pieces are bordered by green and purple.[5] Along the top is embroidered "Women's Social and Political Union" in the Art Nouveau style. Also at the top are the names of some leaders of the women's suffrage movement: Annie Kenney, Christabel Pankhurst, and Emmeline Pankhurst.
A reader named Kat, who does not have the app. asked me to post this. I am humbled by her words:
Dear Prajna,
I must tell you that your emails are like a DEEP WELL of fresh water. You have a huge Spirit and give support to many.
I don’t always respond to your emails, but at times, I have to.
Thank you, Kat
Hi Amy, thank you so much for reading my labor of love to celebrate women and for sharing it. This means a ton to me, thank you.