By Myki Angeline
Today the Women’s International Music Network celebrates Women’s Equality Day!
On this day in 1920 the 19th Amendment passed which granted American women the right to vote which was the catalyst for many great movements. Eliza Berman of Time Magazine wrote that women were, “also protesting the limits and expectations placed on American womanhood, demanding changes to childcare and abortion policies and education and employment opportunities. Many abandoned their usual domestic duties for the day, with spiritual sisters across the country staging sit-ins and takeovers of all-male bars”. You can read the entire article HERE.
We have come a long way since U.S. House of Representative Bella Abzug successfully campaigned for Women’s Rights in 1971. No longer were women expected to stay in the kitchen, “barefoot and pregnant”; we used our voice to speak up for equal rights in a man’s world. The 2016 Rio Olympics proved that as our U.S. Women brought home 61 gold medals (men brought home 55), with 27 of those in individual events shattering records and expectations. Women proved our place in music as well, topping song charts, and dominating musicianship proving women are just as good if not better than men. But despite our successes over the past 96 years, our struggle to be heard and seen as equals goes on.
Equal pay is still a sore spot in our economy; women earn significantly less than men in the same position despite experience or seniority with a company. Vanessa McGrady of Forbes Magazine writes, ” Women are paid 79 percent of what men were paid. When you remove factors such as time off for child care and “pink collar” jobs, there’s still an unexplained discrepancy of 5.4%. The numbers are even worse for most women of color compared with white men: Latina or Hispanic women make 54%; Native American women, 59%; African American women, 63%; white women, 78%; and Asian American women, 90%.” You can read the entire article HERE.
But despite these hurdles, women will prevail. We always do. We celebrate Women’s Equality Day today and every day.
“We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons … but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.” ― Gloria Steinem
“As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.” — Virginia Woolf
“A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.” — Melinda Gates
“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union… men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.” ― Susan B. Anthony
“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!” ― Maya Angelou
“Society as a whole benefits immeasurably from a climate in which all persons, regardless of race or gender, may have the opportunity to learn respect, responsibility, advancement and remuneration based on ability.” – Sandra Day O’Connor
“The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
