We are all Queens
7th March 2022 · 0 Comments
Women worldwide are celebrated annually on March 8, International Women’s Day (IWD). This year marks the 111th commemoration of women’s contributions to society, politics and economics. The event was first celebrated in 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. The United Nations officially recognized the celebration in 1975.
The IWD was inspired by a 1908 women-led march and protest through the streets of New York City for shorter working hours, better pay, and the right to vote in. The following year, the Socialist Party of America declared the first National Woman’s Day. The celebration ended with the dissolution of the socialist party in 1972.
In 1980, the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) was founded in Santa Rosa, California, by Molly Murphy MacGregor, Mary Ruthsdotter, Maria Cuevas, Paula Hammett and Bette Morgan to broadcast women’s historical achievements.
The month-long commemoration started with Women’s History Day in 1978, organized by the school district of Sonoma, California. Forty-two years later, Women’s History Month is a congressionally sanctioned month-long national event.
President Joseph R. Biden issued a proclamation on February 28, 2022, commemorating the contributions of America’s women to the nation. He spoke about the struggle women have endured, including hardships, exclusion, discrimination and inequality in communities across the country.
“Generations of Native American women were stewards of the land and continue to lead the fight for climate justice. Black women fought to end slavery, advocate for civil rights, and pass the Voting Rights Act. Suffragists helped pass the 19th Amendment to the Constitution so that no American could be denied a vote on the basis of sex,” President Biden proclaimed.
Speaking of women who are presently struggling in an unequal, often unfair American society, Biden noted: “Women of the labor movement are achieving monumental reforms to help all workers secure the better pay, benefits and safety they deserve. LGBTQI+ women and girls are leading the fight for justice, opportunity and equality – especially for the transgender community. Women and girls continue to lead groundbreaking civil rights movements for social justice and freedom, so that everyone can realize the full promise of America.”
Yet, Biden also recognized the endemic challenges facing “women and girls of color,” including systemic barriers to full participation, wider gaps in opportunity and equality, high infant and maternal mortality rates, low wages, excessive childcare expenses, transgender violence and a lack of equal rights.
President Biden is to be commended for appointing the most diverse Cabinet in the history of the United States. Biden tapped Kamala Harris as his vice president and appointed the first women both as treasury secretary and director of National Intelligence, the first Native American woman to serve as a Cabinet secretary.
Women are also leading the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Small Business Administration, and the Office of Management and Budget. Women of color represent America on the world stage as United States Ambassador to the United Nations and the United States Trade Representative and leading Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers in the White House.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Biden’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, will become the first Black woman to sit on the highest court in America.
President Biden is also committed to seeing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) added to the U.S. Constitution. The ERA was proposed 50 years ago.
On January 27, 2022, Biden issued a statement urging Congress to pass a resolution confirming that the ERA is fully ratified. “No one should be discriminated against based on their sex – and we, as a nation, must stand up for full women’s equality,” he said.
Although the ERA is fully ratified as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Trump’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) prevented national archivist David S. Ferriero from publishing a formal proclamation.
Over 200 constitutional law scholars agree, recently signing a statement that Barr’s OLC opinion is wrong and that the Biden Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel should withdraw the opinion, Ms. Magazine reported in January 2022.
It is fair to say that President Biden has made his Cabinet look like America, which he vowed to do. Biden also promised to have the backs of Black women who put him in the White House. And he is trying to keep that promise.
But let’s be clear. Unless democrats get more U.S. Senate seats, we will not see the passage of the Build Back Better plan, the John R. Lewis Voter Advancement Act, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, or any other laws that protect the rights of Black people.
Seventy million people voted to put Trump in the White House, thousands of avowed white nationalists (translation racists) tried to overthrow the U.S. government, and some Trumpsters are upfront with their racist beliefs. Last week, the organizer of the America First Political Action Committee (AFPAC) said the secret sauce for electoral success is young white males.
All the legislation and laws one can dream up and pass to achieve racial equality will be violated by those who fear the browning of America.
As for Black women, we’ll still rise, as our poetic justice laureate, Maya Angelou, wrote in “And Still I Rise.” Nothing and no one will deter us from reaching our goals.
Black women hail from Queens, from matriarchs who have beat the odds, kin to sisters who have reached the top of their professions…against all odds….And still, we’ll rise.
This article originally published in the March 7, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
