Alexis Dishman of Detroit is often confronted by the disparities facing women everyday— in her personal life as a Black woman and in her professional life as chief lending officer of Michigan Women Forward.
Dishman’s two daughters and the young women to come after her reminds her of why she works to combat these disparities and advocate for women.
“I think about those that came before me so that I can be where I am, and I feel it’s imperative for me to just continue to move that pathway forward,” Dishman said.
Aug. 26 is Women’s Equality Day, marking the 101st anniversary of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote in 1920.
Gaining voting rights was a huge accomplishment in the women’s rights movement at the time. In 2021, women’s advocates are still fighting for change, but the issues affecting women today look different than what they were over a century ago.
Bonsitu Kitaba, deputy legal director for the ACLU of Michigan, said she’s excited for the more recent movements of women’s rights, which has become more inclusive of women of color, transgender women and gender nonconforming individuals.
“The idea of women’s equality that might have been the vision of our grandmother’s is not necessarily the same vision for women’s equality that we have today,” Kitaba said.
Co-president of the League of Women Voter’s of Michigan (LMVMI), Paula Bowman, said there is still room for the women’s rights movement to improve voting rights, but among the groups of disenfranchised women and people.
“There is definitely a need for supportive voting rights,” Bowman said.
When the 19th Amendment passed, it only gave white women the right to vote— Black women didn’t get that right until 45 years later with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Minorities and those from low income areas still don’t have the same access and education that others may have to make informed voting decisions.
LMVI helps to reduce those disparities by providing nonpartisan political education to voter’s, a voter’s guide for local elections as well as voter registration.
Another area for the movement is the work that needs to be done surrounding reproductive rights of women in Michigan, Kitaba said.
Reproductive rights includes a range of health services for people with female reproductive organs including access to contraceptives and safe abortions, which Kitaba said is now under “unprecedented attack.”
She referenced the method ban, which was a bill sponsored by Right to Life of Michigan that would ban the use of the dilation and evacuation method, a common second-trimester form of abortion. In 2020, the group fell short of the signature requirements it would have needed for certification.
Roe v. Wade, passed in 1973, is a U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the court ruled the U.S. Constitution protects a pregnant woman’s right to choose to have an abortion without government restriction.
Locally, the Hillsdale City Council is considering an ordinance that would declare the city a “sanctuary for the unborn.”
The ordinance would immediately outlaw any person from doing abortions or providing abortion-inducing drugs at any stage of pregnancy in the city. Those who violate the ordinance would be fined $500 and serve 90 days in jail. Each violation would constitute for a separate offense.
“There’s a real potential that here in Michigan abortions can be illegal again,” Kitaba said.
Kitaba also highlighted how the eviction crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic, disproportionately impacts women, particularly Black women.
“Black women (the ACLU) have found are two times as likely to have an eviction filing or proceeding filed against them than a white woman in a similar position,” Kitaba said. “That’s a huge disparity.”
Legal Aid of Western Michigan in 2019 filed two lawsuits in U.S. District Court against Live Downtown Grand Rapids, alleging the apartment provider violated the U.S. Fair Housing Act by discriminating against two black women.
The lawsuits take aim at the company’s “excessively restrictive policies for reviewing applicants for tenancy,” as well as its eviction practices.
Those policies, the lawsuit claimed, left minority and disabled households underrepresented in the company’s properties compared with other Grand Rapids developments.
Kitaba said a woman having an eviction proceeding filed against her could potentially result in losing her home, employment opportunities or even her children.
“It really follows someone for the rest of their life,” Kitaba said.
One of the greatest challenges Dishman herself has seen through her work with Michigan Women Forward, an organization that focuses on bettering the personal and financial well-being of Michigan women, is among women business owners.
She said she notices a lack of financial education, a digital divide preventing adequate internet marketing and barriers preventing access to capital, which is the funding that helps small businesses get off the ground.
Dishman emphasized how investing in women’s businesses could have a larger impact on their loved ones.
“When we help women create sustainable businesses, we’re impacting families,” Dishman said. “We’re helping them to provide for their families, we’re helping them create legacy for their families.”
There’s still a lot of work to do around women’s rights, advocates say. Dishman recognizes how women’s equality has improved during her eight years involved with women’s rights, but that the coronavirus pandemic was hard on the movement.
“I think with COVID-19 and with the pandemic and what we saw in terms of women having to make decisions between family and career, that set women back from where we had gone and the opportunities that we had,” Dishman said.
Dishman said she’d like to see the movement take more of a grassroots approach to allow all women a seat at the decision-making table.
“It is about really trying to understand and trying to figure out how to fill those gaps, but walking arm in arm with the women in that community,” Dishman said.
"come" - Google News
August 26, 2021 at 07:02PM
https://ift.tt/3DouZgY
Women’s Equality Day a reminder of how far women’s rights has come and where the movement has to go - MLive.com
"come" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2S8UtrZ
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Women’s Equality Day a reminder of how far women’s rights has come and where the movement has to go - MLive.com"
Post a Comment