Women Helping Women Achieve Equality

March is Women’s History Month and recently International Women’s Day garnered lots of buzz on social media. Social injustice is rearing its ugly head across the globe daily. Here in America we are sadly reminded that racism is still a very real issue and sexism was never truly dealt with.

We see remarkable leaders like accomplished actor and humanitarian Emma Watson spearheading the movement for gender equality as the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. She has inspired countless people, young and old, male and female to take a stand with her #HeForShe campaign.

At the 2015 Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actress Winner Patricia Arquette used a few moments of her acceptance speech to shed light on the subject.  Arquette won her Oscar for the portrayal of a young, single mother in the movie Boyhood. Here is a follow up statement she made after her comments generated mixed reactions.

“I wasn’t talking about my own position. I know I’ve been really blessed in my life. What I was talking about is the other 52 percent, and how it doesn’t make sense why they’re being discriminated [against] because of their gender. They’re taking the same student loans but taking years to pay it back, making half a million to a million dollars less over a lifetime. That’s money they’re not putting into Social Security, or using to pay for college or childcare. I won an Academy Award because I played a single mom, moving and moving again and trying to provide for her kids. I thought long and hard about how her life would have been better with wage equality, and if she made those extra cents on the dollar; and how if she was Latina, she’d need to make those fifty cents more, or how if she was African-American, she’d need to make those 40 cents more.” Patricia Arquette, Time Magazine Interview

According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research women make $0.78 for every dollar a man makes and at the rate we are going the disparity won't equalize until 2058. Female CEOs make 20% less of their male counterparts and female lawyers make 43% less than males.

I think how we can help other women is the key question.  Women are now entering a stage of helping each other succeed rather than seeing each other as competition. Now is the right time to bond together and gain traction.

“The rung of the ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a foot long enough to enable them to put other foot somewhat higher”

Thomas H. Huxley