A Woman with Something to Fight for

My senior year I attended a poetry slam. I know, not the everyday activity of an eighteen year-old, but I was not an average eighteen year-old. I remember listening to this black woman (or African-American, whichever you prefer), and her words moved me to tears.

Capturing her sprouted, snake-like locks in a bun pulled high on her head, she told stories her mother told her whose grandmother told her. The story repeated on down the line about captivity, slavery and bravery. Her relatives had a cause to fight for, and their stories told of their struggles. Poetry is a piece of humanity told through imagery. The subjects colors, wills and desires all meant something different in that aspect of humanity.

As a young, white woman, who has yet to experience much of the world, I started wondering: what is my cause?

If I were standing in the street facing hoses, batons, dogs and tear gas, what would I be yelling? What would my sign say? What would I be fighting for?

I like to consider myself as a passionate person. I feel things, sometimes I think, more than other people do. Like the poet on stage, I wanted a unique story to tell, but I never considered myself unique in a land where the population is termed a "melting pot." I considered myself the pot that someone could look at and say, "Oh, yeah, that is definitely a pot." All the other ethnic backgrounds make up the stew- the meat. No one cares about what the pot has to say, everyone wants to get right to the stew, or the meat. Something to "sink their teeth into."

Having a cause to fight for, makes me unique. I am not longer a container holding the tantalizing stew. I am enriched by the stew and stand for myself. I may look like some other object in the pot, but in my own way, I am unique. A pot is always just a pot.

Now, I know. I am a woman. I have to fight for what I think it means to be a woman.

Since this is my soapbox, I thought you should know- I am woman, hear me roar.

The Gap: An Introduction

The gender gap, which so many men and women fought to lessen in the 1970s, still exists. Different studies and reports conclude a woman makes 77 to 80 cents for every dollar a man makes for doing the same work. What makes it okay to pay a woman less who is of equal qualification and ability?

This is a question many women should be asking.

Feminists fought for equality and advocacy for women's rights. Even with the passing of Title VII and Title IX, the disparity still exists. Equal treatment for women is being challenged, but no one is listening. Why? There is little voice of concern. Women are not fighting a battle for equal rights. Women are sitting on the sidelines, perhaps, unaware this phenomena still exists.

I do not claim to be an expert on this topic, but through my studies I feel I am more accustomed to looking for the signs of this inequality. What I have learned from many talented, experienced professors is that this still exists and many people do not recognize it does. Nor are they aware of the information readily available detailing and showcasing the need for knowledge and the need for action.

This blog is a project for me. I am finishing the last class in my sequence of study on gender, and I do not want the knowledge I learned to slip away with time. So I propose to exercise what I have learned, present articles I have read, and comments I have received to hit on major topics impacting women today.

With knowledge, you may not be able to sit idly on the sidelines. Get involved, know what is out there and act to make tomorrow better for your daughters and granddaughters like our mothers and grandmothers did for us.