Through a glass, darkly

A Surviving Facts Blog

I just finished watching the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale. Watching the show now, in 2025, is a chilling experience compared to 2017 when the series debuted. In 2017, Obama was in his last months as President, Roe v Wade was still the rule of the land, healthcare for all seemed probable and an attitude of acceptance for differences among people prevailed. Looking back, these were glory times, a time when I celebrated America and its progress toward equality and quality of life for all.

Eight years later, all of this has changed.

The Handmaid’s Tale, was published in 1985. I first entered the work world in the late eighties. We knew women had a long way to go to achieve equality and parity with white men, but we also saw the progress. Roe v. Wade had passed just over a decade before. In my first job, the company issued its first sexual harassment policy. This policy would protect me from inappropriate comments and touches from a company executive. When I reported this to the provided hotline, the company took action. They investigated and fired the offender. All of this sent a clear message: while we aren’t where we should be, women’s fight for rights is working. I remember thinking, “my children won’t have to go through what we’ve been through.”

I was wrong. My daughters- born many years later- are growing up in a time of retrenched sexism. The political agenda aims to unwind equality and equity rather than advance it. By turning Roe v. Wade to state by state decisions, fewer women have bodily autonomy. Even more, women are punished for natural body processes such as miscarriages- ignoring the fact that most non-viable fetuses come from damaged sperm. Women sit in jail for natural miscarriages or are maintained in a coma so that the baby within can be born.

Workplaces are canceling DEI policies, which the far right have misrepresented as harming white men. One in 5 white men say that DEI has hurt them, according to ResumeTemplates. Yet, statistics overall show a workforce that continues to employ, promote and reward more white men than white women or male and female people of color. Statistically no data supports white men’s claims of harm from DEI policies. The evidence is anecdotal at best; more often it’s rumor and assumption. The difference white men have experienced in America is competition. They have to work for achievement rather than have it given to them.

Already, studies show that DEI retrenchment has harmed women and people of color. I reported in a previous blog that women’s leadership progress has stalled, especially in management and C-suite roles. Women of color are harmed even more. While 19% of white working women hold C-suite positions, only 4% of Black women do, according to Mckinsey’s 2024 Women in the Workplace report.

McKinsey reports disturbing trends. While women have made progress since 2017, women at entry level-the beginning of the pipeline- are seeing the most damage, according to McKinsey. Simply put, women are now struggling to get the roles that lead to parity with white men. Sadly, across all levels, Black women’s progress has regressed the most. Black women experience unprecedented workforce barriers.

I share this data to represent the environment in which I watched The Handmaid’s Tale’s final season. THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING. In 2016, when Trump won, I told my husband Roe v. Wade would be overturned. I didn’t want to be right, but I was. I knew more women would die because of it. Indeed in states like Texas, Florida and Georgia with the most restrictive antiabortion laws, women AND babies are dying in record numbers.

Today, like in Gilead, women are seen as baby-carrying vessels. Poor 30-year-old Adrianna Smith was only 9 weeks pregnant when she was declared brain dead following a medical emergency. She is being kept alive until the baby can be sliced from her body. Because the baby was also harmed by the emergency, doctors do not know if he will be able to see or walk. In spite of medical guidance from numerous sources, the Georgia attorney general has refused to allow an abortion. Just as horrible, women have been imprisoned for natural miscarriages. Women thought to have been men (and I’m not talking trans here- though that would not be okay either) have been assaulted for using womens’ bathrooms. Women are being harassed for not being “ladylike” enough.

THIS IS GILEAD.

The religious language throughout The Handmaid’s Tale resonated with today’s white Christian Nationalist Movement. “Under his eye”? Oh, yes, women are. White men are watching, clutching their power and celebrating their ability to brutalize those unlike themselves.

The final episode of The Handmaid’s Tale- spoiler alert!- showed a beginning reconciliation between June and Serena. June accepts Serena’a apology, applying Christian-like forgiveness to the atrocities Serena committed. Bless her graciousness, for sure.

I hope white women in today’s world will come to Serena’s level of accountability. White women have been complicit in our current crumbling democracy. Sixty percent of them voted for this. I was not one of them. To these white women, I say, look carefully at what you have done to other women. Your decision has overwhelmingly harmed other women. Look at the facts. By cleaving to the power of mostly white men, you have wiped out over 100 years of progress. You will not gain from aligning with men. Your tenuous victory will turn against you just as it does in Gilead. What story do you think history will tell?

Watching the final season chilled, horrified and angered me. WE ARE HERE. THIS IS OCCURRING. All of the incidents in Atwood’s book were based on women’s actual experiences. We’re reliving them now.

“Through a glass, darkly” comes from Corinthians 13:12. The phrase describes how imperfectly humans understand God and his spiritual truths. Humans, in all their infallibility, are looking through the distorted pane of a dirty window. We are imperfect in our knowledge of God’s word and intention- that’s what Paul means by this phrase. Yet, most of the far right believe they actually do know and see. To these people, I plead: open the window. The glass reflects the dark heart of yourself rather than God’s infinite love. For the love of God, open the damn window.

I would love to hear from you, even if, especially if, you disagree. Perhaps we can bring back the American tradition of debate.

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