Happy Women’s Equality Day!
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On August 26th, we commemorate the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, granting women the right to vote. The observance of Women’s Equality Day not only celebrates the passage of the Amendment, but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality.
A good start. Having the right to vote that is.
Susan B. Anthony knew that. The woman who dedicated much of her life to advocating for women to have access to the voting booth wrote:
“We need a daily paper edited and composed according to woman’s own thoughts, and not as a woman thinks a man wants her to think and write. As it is now, the men who control the finances control the paper.”
–May 23, 1893
Well over 100 years later, her words still send a chill down my spine–and are part of the reason I founded Women’s eNews.
I recently met with a community organizer in Harlem who had initiated the meeting to tell me about a proposed change in New York law that would permit mothers on welfare to pursue a college education–and perhaps lighten work requirements for them while they are in school.
Sounded great to me. The problem? The state senator who promised her that he would introduce the bill changed his mind.
This is why she votes–and works on political campaigns too.
Over a skim milk latte and mint tea, we also talked about maternal mortality in her community (a rate that is significantly higher for women of color in New York City than that of white women) and the level of domestic violence (she said that the vast majority of Manhattan women murdered lived in Harlem or in nearby Latino communities).
This is why she goes to Albany to lobby the state legislature and the governor.
And this is why she was meeting with me–to help get the stories of women in her community out.
Like so many of our registered subscribers who are activists, advocates, educators and policy makers, she knows that Women’s eNews exists to provide news coverage of issues of vital concern to women and girls–from access to higher education to reproductive health to domestic violence.
There are still so many daily realities that reflect that women are far from equal. From New York City to New Delhi, from the Midwest to the Middle East, Women’s eNews covers our communities.
This U.S. Women’s Equality Day, for the price of a latte or a cup of tea,
donate to Women’s eNews and provide women around the world a platform to be heard.
http://womensenews.org/donation#.U_yqUsOZCCg
In partnership,
Rita Henley Jensen
Editor in Chief
