Legal discrimination between the sexes is, in almost every

Hear, O seekers of justice, the thunderous words of Shirley Chisholm, the trailblazer who carved a path through stone with the fire of her spirit: “Legal discrimination between the sexes is, in almost every instance, founded on outmoded views of society and the pre-scientific beliefs about psychology and physiology. It is time to sweep away these relics of the past and set further generations free of them.” This is not a whisper, nor a polite request, but a commandment forged in the furnace of truth. For Chisholm saw clearly that the chains which bound women were not made of iron alone, but of laws clothed in the authority of ignorance and fear.

The meaning of this teaching is radiant and fierce. Legal discrimination is not merely a matter of unfair rules—it is the codification of lies. It is the enshrining of falsehoods that once claimed women were too fragile for leadership, too emotional for reason, too bound to the body to dwell in the life of the mind. These were not truths, but pre-scientific beliefs, remnants of superstition dressed in the garb of law. Chisholm unmasks them as relics, fossils of a time when men confused dominance with wisdom. To cling to them is to worship shadows; to cast them off is to walk in the light.

History testifies to the cruelty of such relics. In ancient Athens, birthplace of democracy, women were denied the very rights their husbands extolled—unable to vote, to speak in the assembly, to own property in their own name. The city that sang of liberty built its glory upon the silencing of half its people. And in more recent centuries, the same falsehoods lingered in laws that barred women from universities, from professions, from the ballot box. Even as the sciences advanced, these outmoded views clung on, defended not by evidence but by tradition and fear.

But the tide has turned by the courage of those who would not bow. Recall the suffragettes of Britain and America, who defied ridicule, prison, and even death to break the chain of disenfranchisement. Their enemies said that women were too irrational for politics, that their bodies and minds were unsuited for civic life. Yet these women showed through their unyielding courage that those beliefs about psychology and physiology were nothing but excuses for oppression. And when victory came, it was not just women who were set free, but society itself, which found new strength in the voices it had long silenced.

Mark this well, O listener: Shirley Chisholm spoke not only as a lawmaker, but as a prophet for the generations to come. She knew that to keep such relics is to burden the children of tomorrow with the ignorance of yesterday. Every unjust law is a chain that does not only bind the present, but shackles the future. To sweep them away is not destruction, but liberation; not rebellion, but renewal.

Let this be the lesson: when you encounter laws or customs built not on truth but on prejudice, do not cling to them out of reverence for tradition. Test them in the fire of reason, measure them against justice. If they are found wanting, cast them aside, for they are nothing but idols of a bygone age. And remember that every step toward equality is not a gift to women alone, nor to men alone, but to humanity as a whole.

Therefore, O child of tomorrow, carry forward the spirit of Chisholm. Do not accept discrimination in any form as natural or inevitable. Challenge it, expose it, and sweep it away. Live so that the generations after you inherit not chains, but wings. For the destiny of humankind is not to be divided by falsehoods, but to rise together in dignity, in strength, and in freedom.

Thus Shirley Chisholm’s words endure as both warning and battle cry: the relics of the past must be shattered, lest they shackle the future. And only when justice walks equally among men and women shall the world be truly free.