Women are called upon to defend every bit of progress we have

Patricia Ireland, a leader in the struggle for equality, spoke as one who understood both the weight of battle and the light of vision: “Women are called upon to defend every bit of progress we have made against particularly virulent attack. But we must also hold out a vision, put forth a positive agenda of what women need and want and then move forward toward that dream.” In these words she summons not only courage, but also imagination. For defense alone is not enough; the fortress must not only stand, but its people must dream of gardens within its walls.

The heart of her teaching is balance: to defend what has been won, yet to advance toward what has not yet been reached. For progress without vigilance can be stolen, and vigilance without vision can wither into despair. Thus Ireland calls upon women not merely to resist, but to shape destiny itself. She speaks as the ancients did when they urged both shield and spear, both guard and march.

History bears her wisdom true. Recall the suffragists of the early twentieth century, who fought to win the right to vote. They defended their dignity against ridicule, imprisonment, and violence, but they did not stop there. They held out a vision of a world where women’s voices shaped nations. And because they dreamed beyond defense, the walls of silence fell, and generations afterward could walk freer upon the path they carved.

Ireland reminds us that attacks will always come, for every victory invites challenge. The enemies of progress rise like weeds after rain, but weeds cannot choke a tree that grows ever upward toward the sun. To hold only to the past is to become brittle; to reach ever forward is to remain alive. Women must therefore plant the seeds of tomorrow, even as they guard the harvest of today.

Let her words be a flame for future generations: do not merely hold the line, but carry the banner onward. The struggle is eternal, but so too is the dream. Defend each stone of progress, yet lift your eyes to the horizon of possibility. For a people who defend and dream together cannot be broken—they become a river, carving valleys through the hardest rock, unstoppable in their course toward freedom.