By Hannah Kim
Fire on ice, their riveting performances truly blew the rink away. Driven, and proven, nothing seemed to curb the determination of figure skaters Queen Yu-na of South Korea, Japanese princess Mao Asada, and Canada's ``daughter" Joannie Rochette to carve their names into history at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.
By now I know it is old news that despite carrying the weight of their countrymen, Kim Yu-na claimed an unrivaled victory with a record-breaking score, while Mao won silver with a record-setting two triple-axel routine, and Joannie prevailed with a bronze just four days after her mother suddenly died of a heart attack. But the spectacular courage of these fervent young women ― who displayed such amazing grace under immense (and instigated) stress ― remains worth repeating as it is fresh in my mind.
If anything, these champions deserve honorable mention in light of yesterday's 99th anniversary of the International Women's Day, which honors women's advancements and achievements to promote greater gender equality worldwide. Since 1910 when social activist Clara Zetkin proposed the idea at the Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, March 8th has been widely observed throughout the world and was officially recognized by the United Nations in 1975. In some countries like China, Armenia, Russia and Vietnam, it is even a national holiday.
In the United States, the whole of March is Women's History Month. What began with a group of a few audacious females ― who noticed ``women were absent from our texts"― resulted in the issuing of Carter's presidential proclamation that designated the week of March 8, 1980 as the first National Women's History Week. And thanks to tenacious lobbying efforts of these women, Congress in 1987 ultimately expanded the week into a month-long tradition. Currently instituted as the National Women's History Project, the advocacy of ``Writing Women Back into History" continues and constitutes the basis for this year's 30th anniversary celebration.
``For most of history," Virginia Woolf bemoaned, ``Anonymous was a woman." I agree. Far too often women have been written in invisible ink or as mere footnotes. Therefore the work of raising women's profile is aptly crucial because we draw strength and inspiration from the incredible pioneers who come before us. So when there are few examples of women trailblazers, our dreams become that much more limited.
Not to mention the marginal inclusion of minority women in history. During school, when I would research to write essays on the woman who inspired me most, I was often let down to find almost none who looked like me. My subject would thus change each year from Susan B. Anthony and Hellen Keller to Mother Theresa and Joan of Arc ― all of whom I deeply admired but saw a bit removed as viable role models.
So in the spirit of the occasion, I propose to write back into history a Korean woman who is no less of a heroine than Joan of Arc. Like the 19-year-old martyr of France who led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, Yu Gwan-sun is Korea's icon (and martyr) of the Independence Movement that made itself known March 1 of 1919 against colonial Japan. And Yu, too, was held captive while (peacefully) fighting for her country and died of torture in prison at the young age of 18. At the beginning of this month, the South Korean government appropriately held a ceremony at the Yu Gwan-sun Museum in South Chungcheong Province to mark the 91st year of the Movement.
Above all, Yu and the Koreans triumphed (despite their unsuccessful struggle) in demonstrating to the world their yearning for freedom through nonviolent protests ― which apparently became precursor to the Chinese May 4 Movement in 1919 at the Tiananmen Square, and inspired the likes of Mahatma Gandhi in India, who subsequently influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. in America. The woman appositely deserves a place in world history.
Tomorrow on March 10, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will present the fourth annual International Women of Courage Award to 10 invincible women who have ``overcome personal adversity, threats, arrest, and assault to dedicate themselves to activism for human rights." If Yu were alive today, and if I were Secretary of State, one of the awards would definitely go to her.
Remarkably among this year's honorees is Dr. Lee Ae-ran, who at age 11 suffered eight years living in a concentration camp in North Korea. A woman of great fortitude and indefatigable character, Lee is laudably the first female defector to earn a doctoral degree as well as the first to run for South Korea's National Assembly. She also works unremittingly to empower North Korean students and women through educational support and job training. This is wonderful news because it will motivate even more (ethnically) Korean women to also make history.
In the end, however, all of this is not just about celebrating feminism or advancing the causes of (underrepresented or suppressed) women. I believe it is actually about sharing the unsung courage and love of our mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters ― to bring humanity closer together and to realize history would not have existed without them.
Hannah Kim is a 2009 master's graduate at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management, specializing in legislative affairs. She spearheaded the passage of the ``Korean War Veterans Recognition Act, U.S. Public Law 111-41." which was signed by President Obama on July 27, 2009. She can be reached at hkim@remember727.org.