Women’s Equality Day 2021
This past Thursday (August 26th) marked Women’s Equality Day, a US-based holiday to commemorate the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920 that guaranteed American women the right to vote - although voter suppression and other discriminatory state-level laws meant that women of colour were largely prevented from doing so, until the 1965 Voting Rights Act - one of the crowning achievements of the civil rights movement.
For us at the Women’s Equality Party - Britain’s first and only feminist political party - the importance of equal participation and representation in politics, as well as in all aspects of modern life, goes right to the core of who we are and what we do. I’m sure this resonates for you at LeanIn too!
Whilst we have had equal voting rights in the UK for almost a century, our country, our culture, our communities, and our institutions are still disfigured by sexism, misogyny and other forms of rancid discrimination and injustice. The pandemic threatens to reverse some of the gains made by women in recent years - so it is more important than ever to carve out space and live our feminism loudly and proudly.
I freely admit that there are times when the enormity of our calling feels overwhelming, ‘fear pressure’ is the new peer pressure! But it’s in these moments that I draw inspiration and motivation from the sisterhood and solidarity of other women, women like yourselves, women who are determined to reject the status quo and write a new story for the generations of young women and girls coming after us.
At a time when there is global backlash to the progression of women’s rights, seeing, hearing and feeling sisterhood is like a beam of light at the end of a tunnel. The more of us who flock to that beam with our activism, our rebellion, and our fight for justice, the sooner we make women’s equality not just a day to commemorate each year but a reality that we all live every day. Together we are a movement, not a moment.
Onwards into the light!
