The Century of the Women
11th March 2019 · 0 Comments
International Women’s Month 2019 is arriving with a bang. Women in the U.S. Congress are speaking forcefully and telling it like it is.
In 2018, news commentators declared 2018 the Year of the Woman based on the electoral success of women who ran for office and won.
According to the Brookings Institute, “In the 2018 elections, women played a bigger role than they have in any other election in American history. Two hundred and fifty-five women ran for office in the two major parties. In 2019, 127 women hold seats in the United States Congress up from 110 in the previous Congress.
However, even a casual look at women in leadership roles suggests that the pundits missed the mark. Fueled by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, it appears that the 21st Century is more aptly, “The Century of the Woman.”
The population of the U.S. is a good indicator that women will continue to rise and takeover the levers of power, nationwide, for the foreseeable future. In 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau counted 157.0 million females (50.8 percent); while 151.8 million were males (49.2 percent).
In Louisiana, several women are mayors of their cities, including Lori Ann Bell, of Clinton; Marilyn Broadway, of Wilson; Sharon Weston Broome, of Baton Rouge; April Foulard, of Jeanerette; Irma Gordon, of Kentwood; Rose Humphrey, of Natchez; Shaterral Johnson, of Grand Coteau; Donna Lewis Lancelin, of Baldwin; Erana Mayes, of Melville; Wanda McCoy, of Roseland; Alma Moore, of Boyce; Trashica Keysha Robinson, of Tangipahoa; Dorothy Satcher, of Saline; Johnnie Taylor, of Powhatan; Ollie Tyler, of Shreveport; Jennifer Vidrine, of Ville Platte; Demi Vorise, of Maringouin; and Josephine Taylor-Washington, of Clayton.
The number of women in the Louisiana State Legislature lags behind their counterparts in other states but even those numbers are not comparable to the number of women in the U.S. “Out of 144 Louisiana legislators, only 15 percent are women. The national average is 25 percent,” according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University (CAWP).
“In 2017, 1,853, or 25.1 percent of the 7,383 state legislators in the United States are women. Women currently hold 448, or 22.7 percent, of the 1,972 state senate seats and 1,405, or 26.0 percent, of the 5,411 statehouse or assembly seats. Since 1971, the number of women serving in state legislatures has more than quintupled.”
Locally, New Orleans’ first woman mayor, Mayor Latoya Cantrell, is making waves and stirring the political pot; while going after needed tax dollars and demanding reciprocity from agencies that benefit from New Orleans taxpayers’ dollars.
Cantrell is asking state lawmakers to shift a portion of hotel tax revenue away from at least four non-city entities, like the one that oversees the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. That money would be used to replace and maintain decrepit equipment at the Sewerage & Water Board, an overhaul estimated to cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, reporter Jessica Williams wrote in the New Orleans Advocate.
New Orleans women are also controlling the free press. Renette Dejoie Hall, is president and publisher of her family’s newspaper, The Louisiana Weekly, the oldest Black-owned newspaper in the southeast, and Beverly McKenna is celebrating 35 years as founder and publisher of The New Orleans Tribune.
In the education realm, Southern University at New Orleans and Loyola University have women leaders: SUNO Chancellor Lisa Mims-Devezin and Loyola President Tania Tetlow, respectively. Women on the New Orleans City Council are making their mark on city law, including Cyndi Nguyen, Helen Moreno, and Kristin Gisleson Palmer.
Of equal significance are the women at the grassroots level who are advocating for living wages, human rights, housing fairness, and a host of other issues.
On Saturday, March 9, The Just March Women New Orleans event will see women in New Orleans’ streets. The group’s mission is “Empowering women through the unity of our differences, which improves the quality of life for our next generation of girls; as demonstrated thru action in activism and community works.” Just March is supported by Indivisible New Orleans.
On Wednesday, March 13, at 9 a.m., in federal U.S. District Court-C501, presided over by Judge Ivan Lemelle, the residents of Gordon Plaza are taking the city of New Orleans to court for refusing to move on funding the relocation of citizens, whose homes were built on a waste site. The residents are being supported by the New Orleans Peoples’ Assembly Organizing Committee.
On Saturday, March 16, The International Working Women’s Day Coalition will take over Congo Square to a support the Hospitality Workers Alliance protest against low wages and lack of benefits. The group is being supported by New Orleans Peoples’ Assembly Organizing Committee, Take Em Down NOLA, and other organizing bodies that center on the working class. Among the women assisting the group are community organizers Angela Kinlaw and Gavrielle Gemma.
Statistics indicate that American women have come a long way but there is still a long road ahead.
It just may take 100 years to reach equal pay, affordable child care, paid and extended maternity leave, and to retain a woman’s right to choose. But the horizon is bright and women are ready, willing, and able to meet the challenge for a better quality of life for all.
This article originally published in the March 11, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
