21 cents

 America Needs Nasty Women - bumper sticker in Iowa


In 2017, women have marched, put on pink hats, worn white clothes, raised fists high in the air and let their views be known. And if anyone was still confused about the message, t shirts were worn to explain exactly what women are thinking. The shirts' slogans have been as simple as "Believe" or as poignant as "We the People." Other straightforward ideas - "She Persisted," "The Future is Female" or "A Woman's Place is in the Resistance." But the message on a shirt that has bothered me the most for the past weeks:

21 cents.

At the current rate, the American gender pay gap won't be closed until 2059, according to Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) writing in the Huffington Post. "Women today are paid just 79 cents for every dollar earned by a man," she said. "Women are often outearned by men with less education. Women with a graduate degree have median annual earnings that are $5000 less than those of men with a bachelor's degree." 

A warm thank you to the women who comfort us, feed us, tell us stories. Thank you to women who check our blood pressure, rotate our tires, and make us laugh. Thank you to our mothers, sisters and cousins. Thank you to our female journalists, teachers, writers, artists, social workers, accountants, engineers, athletes, pilots, doctors, nurses, singers, politicians and soldiers. Thank you to women working behind a counter, on roadways and in parks, and with heavy equipment. Thank you to women working two or three jobs, attending school, raising children.

21 cents.

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"She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted." --Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaking about Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

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Celebrate Women's History Month (every month!) and read a book by or about some very outspoken women. 

Personal History - Katharine Graham

To Space and Back - Sally Ride

Madame Curie - Eve Curie

Victoria: The Queen - Julia Baird

The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan

My Own Words - Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Shrill - Lindy West

Twenty Years at Hull House - Jane Addams

Lucretia Mott Speaks - Lucretia Mott

A Midwife's Tale - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Cleopatra - Stacy Schiff

Madam Secretary - Madeleine Albright

Majesty of the Law - Sandra Day O'Connor

On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker - A'Lelia Bundles

My Life on the Road - Gloria Steinem

Gender Gap - Bella Abzug

Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay

All in a Day's Work - Ida Tarbell

Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

Women's Slave Narratives - Annie L. Burton

The Long Loneliness - Dorothy Day

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson

Dust Tracks on a Road - Zora Neale Hurston

The Widow Cliquot - Tilar J. Mazzeo

My Life, My Love, My Legacy - Coretta Scott King

America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines 
When Everything Changed : The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to Present - both by Gail Collins


"And to all the little girls...never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your dreams." --Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2016

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