Dear Sen. Mike Lee,
As a Republican woman, I would like to take a second to tell you about the impact of your vote to shoot down the proposal for a Smithsonian Women’s History Museum.
You may not realize this, but women haven’t always had it easy in this country. It has taken a long time for women to legally receive the same rights as men, and we are still fighting for those rights in many ways even today.
Nevertheless, women have been a crucial component to the building of this country since its founding. Even Utah — the state you supposedly represent — was one of the pioneers of women’s rights in this country, granting women the right to vote as early as 1870 — 50 years before the rest of the country. And yet, in the centennial year of women’s suffrage, you turned your back on that pioneer legacy because you thought it would further divide us.
If that is true, how do you propose to unite us? By patronizing us in a small corner of an already existing museum? Unity comes from better appreciation of diversity, not from hiding it away.
As a Republican woman, I remind you that your decision affects me personally. I have spent my life in fields dominated by men. I studied business in college and was one of a handful of girls who chose to pursue that major. I sat in boardrooms where, as the only female, I was asked to take notes. My colleagues frequently spoke over me and delegated “work chores” to me on the premise that I was better at doing those tasks than they were and I was a “valued member” of the team as a result.
I was told I was too intimidating to date and that I needed to be careful how much I let my ambition seep through to a potential romantic partner for fear of hurting his pride or scaring him away. It took years for me to develop my own confidence and to find the skill set I needed to succeed in life.
Once I started seeing women like me portrayed in the media and other stories, I started to realize I wasn’t alone, and if those women could find happy, successful careers and relationships, then I could, too. Ever since then, I have tried to pay that forward by being that example to other young women who are coming behind me.
Your decision to block this proposal, despite 20-plus years of work to get here and strong bipartisan support in favor of it, makes it that much harder for me and others like me to reach those young women who need to know they are not alone.
You say that “there is no us and them” and that you don’t want to “exacerbate cultural and identity Balkanization.” To me, your statements merely smack of ideological impracticalities, hiding behind a shield of “unity” with tone deaf ears to the people who elected you. Your reasoning indicates that you are not only out of touch with your constituents, but also that you simply don’t care to get to know them.
Then again, you probably haven’t ever had to worry about that, thanks to your own hyphenated identity and the ability to ride on the coattails of your family name.
Erin Rider
Erin Rider is an attorney and a resident of Millcreek.
