As president of Legal Momentum, the country’s oldest legal advocacy organization for women, I’ve been talking to
women around the country about the issues that matter to them. Hands down, they boil down to four areas: violence, health, work and families.
What I also hear, again and again, is our pride in all we’ve accomplished – tempered with the knowledge of how far we still have to go.
Legal Momentum’s new book, Women: A Celebration of Strength, vividly captures the sense of history and purpose of the women’s movement from the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848 to the election of the first woman Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007.
One of the great things about our book is that it makes women’s history literally jump off the page – with three-dimensional, hand-assembled pop-ups and replicas of key historical documents – it’s a fun and informative way to tell our story. It also has a serious, forward-looking agenda, taking a candid look at the issues that affect women and their families today – and laying the groundwork for a renewed national conversation.
We share Washington Area Women’s Foundation’s commitment to issues of economic security. Even as we celebrate the women who broke new ground in corporate boardrooms, government halls, sports fields, hospitals and courtrooms, we are keenly aware that millions of American women are struggling to build financial stability for themselves and their families.
That’s why one of Legal Momentum’s top priorities is helping women gain access to fields – such as the skilled trades and firefighting – that offer high wages and good benefits, training and career growth, even for women without a college degree.
Consider, for example, that fewer than three percent of all construction jobs are held by women. Working with all the stakeholders in the sector – government, developers, construction firms, unions, education and training programs and, most importantly, tradeswomen themselves – our Equality Works program – much like the female construction programs The Women’s Foundation supports – is promoting the trades as an attractive career to girls, removing barriers that prevent tradeswomen from finding work and, when necessary, filing lawsuits that challenge discrimination on the job.
During World War II, Rosie the Riveter was the icon used by the federal government to recruit more than two million women into the labor force to work in heavy industry jobs. Women responded to the call and their strength supported our nation’s victory.
Yet today – five decades later – women who want to support their families in similar kinds of work are blatantly being turned away or pushed out.
By showing how far women have come and how far we must still go, Women: A Celebration of Strength, is the perfect way to celebrate our history and agitate for our future.
For more information on this book, which includes essays by bestselling author Anna Quindlen and inspiring Oprah Book Club author Edwidge Danticat, please visit LegalMomentum.org.
