Feminism - Part 1

This week on Soul Sojourn we talk feminism with Donna Hoff-Grambau, a new friend who was involved with the 2nd wave of feminism in the 1960's who has amazing stories to tell about the passion she feels about elevating women's voices in our world.  We had so much to talk about this will be a 2 part episode.

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen today. The life of our soul is a journey with many twists and turns. This journey has times of discovery, growth, disruption, examination, perplexity, and harmony. Soul Sojourn is a podcast that plans to explore this journey of the soul; considering the different segments of the journey, the different stops we make along the way, and the divergent paths that we can take as unique people with distinctive life experiences. Soul Sojourn hopes to provide room for diverse expressions of faith and welcomes questions and doubts about the journey of the soul. It recognizes that so often there is mystery in life and faith, questions that have no answers, and deep levels of uncertainty and precarity that are present in our lives. I look forward to what is to come, what future stops we’ll take along the journey together. I’ll see you at the next stop.

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Transcript

Episode 10 - Feminism - Part 1

Intro - The life of our soul is a journey with many twists and turns.  This journey has times of discovery, growth, disruption, examination, perplexity, and harmony.  Soul Sojourn is a podcast that is exploring this journey of the soul;  considering the different segments of the journey, the different stops we make along the way, and the divergent paths that we can take as unique people with distinctive life experiences.  Soul Sojourn hopes to provide room for diverse expressions of faith and welcomes questions and doubts about the journey of the soul.  It recognizes that so often there is mystery in life and faith, questions that have no answers, and deep levels of uncertainty and precarity that are present in our lives.  

Welcome - Hi there!  This is Jenn Pedersen and I’m so glad that you’ve joined me today for another episode of Soul Sojourn, another stop on our journey together. Today I am so excited to welcome a new friend to the podcast.  Donna Hoff-Grambau is a new friend who showed up on my door one day to make swedish cardamom buns and during that time of bread making we became instant friends.  We are both a part of a community farm in our area and this winter the farm had a fundraising campaign called Winter Well-Being where farm volunteers offered services and skills for sale to other farm volunteers as a means of connecting over the winter months and raising funds for an important water project on the farm.  Donna has some swedish heritage, as do I, and she saw my offering to teach someone to make swedish cardamom buns, one of my favorite things in the world, and she bought that offering which is what brought her to my door, and I’m so thankful for that connection.  

As we talked and got to know one another that day Donna began sharing with me parts of her life story which include involvement with issues surrounding women’s health issues and women’s rights and I was blown away.  She was involved with the second wave of feminism movement in the 1960s and that day she shared she had lived in Boston and been a part of the Boston Women’s Health Collective which wrote the groundbreaking book “Our Bodies Our Selves”. This was the first book to talk comprehensively and openly about women’s health and sexuality.  The most amazing thing for me was that I had just learned about this book as I had been listening to a podcast that was laying out a series of important feminist texts, books I had not been exposed to in my life to this point because for most of my life, in most of the conservative Christian circles I’ve been involved in feminism was the f word, in their thinking feminism was a bad thing for our culture and world.  I had been doing a deep dive into understanding more about what feminism really is and all the amazing women who have worked throughout history to elevate women’s voices and roles in society and here in my humble Iowa kitchen, stood one of these women who had been involved in doing this amazing work.  Swedish cardamom rolls are a yeast bread, and yeast breads take a bit of time to make so we had time to talk and share about our lives and I was fascinated with Donna’s life story and knew she would be a new friend in this growing circle of amazing new friends the universe has been bringing into my life.  

From there I invited Donna to join my Dinner & Dialogue group and she has been a wonderful addition to that group, and we’ve enjoyed continuing to get to know one another, meeting for lunch or coffee since then as well and I look forward to many more times of amazing connection with Donna.

Donna, welcome to the podcast.  I’m so glad you are here and so glad that the swedish cardamom buns brought us together.  As we begin today, I’d like you to start by introducing yourself and telling us a bit about your background and why you were interested in coming on the podcast to talk about feminism.

Part 1 - Main Points

Women in the 1950s were not able to function at their full capacity after men came back into the balance after the 2nd world world.  They weren’t in flow with who they were anymore.

There is a misogynistic notion that if you are intelligent as a woman you are not attractive.

Part of the oppression that we all feel is from patriarchy and capitalism.

How can we be true to who we see ourselves developing as and work within the system to bring about change?  

Donna I think we’re going to stop there and make this a 2 parter if you’re willing to come back and share more on the next episode.  You have so much to share, so many great stories.  

Listeners - Thanks for joining us on this journey and listening in. I hope that you were encouraged to think about some things in a different way and expand your own perspective on this important topic just a bit. I hope you’ll come back again next week on Soul Sojourn as we continue to explore the journey of soul. I look forward to what is to come, what stops we’ll take along the journey together.  I’ll see you at the next stop.