Celebrating Women’s History Month
As we celebrate Women’s History Month throughout March, we pay extra attention to the incredible accomplishments of women from all over the world, including our own True Mother — a devoted wife, mother, daughter, global leader, and inspirational example committed to uniting all people as one family under God.
True Mother has transformed the lives of millions of people worldwide through her vast scope of peacebuilding work and influence. She uplifts and empowers women through the global chapters of the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP), as well as a wide range of campaigns and initiatives all dedicated toward building a world of lasting peace. Her bestselling memoir, Mother of Peace (2020), also underscores the 2023 theme of Women’s History Month: “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories.”
As we honor and celebrate the impact of women this month, let’s remember the historical role they have in bringing about peace within our families, communities, and the world. Below is an excerpt from Mother of Peace.
Excerpt:
There is an old saying in the West, “Behind every great man is a great woman.” It is true. The wife is necessary for the completion and perfection of the husband. Without his wife, a husband cannot be whole. A society in which womanhood does not complete and perfect manhood cannot give rise to a peaceful and just world. Women need to fulfill the mission of the wife as well as the mission of the mother. Both are essential to create a peaceful and just world...
I have always been saddened by the reality of this world in which so often husbands fail to honor their wives, and children fail to honor their mothers. In every age, righteous women have carried out their missions as wives and mothers in the face of hardships. Following the path of women saints of all religious traditions, the women of our Unification movement, in response to the heart of True Parents, have attended God while shedding their sweat and tears throughout our global village. True Parents revealed the truth of the human Fall, and liberated women to fulfill their responsibilities as true daughters, true wives, and true mothers. In this age, by God's providence, what was previously impossible has been made possible.
Women are independent beings who represent God's feminine aspect and thus make men whole. It is time for women to rise above the popular trend of trying to improve their status by imitating men. This only casts the relationship between men and women as one of competition in a culture that ignores their God-given and God-incarnating uniqueness. God designed men and women for a relationship in which each gives their divine and unique gifts to the other, and each receives the other's divine and unique gifts with true awareness and love. Women are not just men's assistants any more than men are women's assistants. Women and men need each other's protection.
Through the true man-woman relationship, each perfects the other and becomes one with the other in the creation of a greater whole, embodied as a child, as a family, as a nation, and as the world. At this time, women need to follow Heaven's way, attend True Parents, and become central figures who together with men bring forth a new world based on the culture of heart. We need to rid ourselves of fallen traits and realize the original culture, bringing to fruition the nation and world of goodness and love long sought by humanity. This begins at the center of the world — the home — where each woman embraces her husband as the embodiment of true love, and raises their sons and daughters with the heart of a true parent.
Based upon God's providence, my husband and I have called women to take the lead in the creation of families that embody God's original plan — families in which the wife lives for her husband and the husband lives for his wife, the parents for the children and children for their parents. Such a family will overflow with love and God's blessing will come to stay. Women need to walk the path of a true mother and, at the same time, the path of a true wife and the path of a true daughter. Women have the magical power to create harmony and to soften hearts. Brides build bridges. The world of the future can be a world of reconciliation and peace, but only if it is based on the maternal love and affection of women. This is the true power of womanhood. The time has come for the power of true womanhood to save the world.
You can learn more about Women’s History Month here.