women belong everywhere decisions are being made

“The biggest problem that women have is being ambivalent about their own power… We should be comfortable with the idea of wielding power. “Sometimes a breakdown can be the beginning of a kind of breakthrough, a way of living in advance through a trauma that prepares you for a future of radical transformation.” - Cherrie Moraga And I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be.” - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists “I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femaleness and my femininity. “A gender-equal society would be one where the word ‘gender’ does not exist: where everyone can be themselves.” - Gloria Steinem They are afraid of women.” - Malala Yousafzai “The extremists are afraid of books and pens, the power of education frightens them. A queen offers her hand to be kissed, and can form it into a fist while smiling the whole damn time.” - Elizabeth Acevedo “Deadly and graceful, poised and ruthless. “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 own dreams.” - Hillary Clinton

It is time that ‘half the human race’ had something to say about the nature of its existence.” - Lorraine Hansberry “I think it is about time that equipped women began to take on some of the ethical questions which a male-dominated culture has produced and dissect and analyze them quite to pieces in a serious fashion. The important thing is not to retreat: You have to master yourself.” - Olga Korbut

“Don’t be afraid if things seem difficult in the beginning. “I raise up my voice - not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard… we cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.” - Malala Yousafzai On Facebook? You can keep up with Thomas Jefferson Street blog postings through Facebook's Networked Blogs.“When life hands you a difficult situation where you feel undervalued and disrespected, be bold and brave enough to know your worth.” - Yai Vargas It's time for the men-all the men, not just those on the Supreme Court-to listen to Justice Ginsburg.īecome a political insider: Subscribe to U.S. It shouldn't be that women are the exception.' 'It could be 60% men, 40% women, or the other way around. I don't say (the split) should be 50-50,' Ginsburg said. 'Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. She also pointed to the fact that the Supreme Court of Canada has four women justices, including the chief, and referred to the 20 state supreme courts here in the United States that are led by female justices. You can agree or disagree with her on the merits, but there's no arguing that Justice Ginsburg's decision to speak out took some guts.Īccording to the USA Today interview, 'Ginsburg said having just one woman on the Supreme Court sends a disheartening message to Americans about women's roles in society.' She's right. When the 5-4 decision written by Justice Alito in the Ledbetter case rejected the notion that pay discrimination against women 'is harder to detect than other job bias,' she was 'so incensed' that she read her dissent from the bench and called on Congress to reverse the court, which it did. Whether women agree or not with how the Ledbetter case turned out, almost every woman I know has felt that at some point in her career, she was paid less than her male colleagues for the same work. She also talks about the absence of Sandra Day O'Connor's influence on the court, and how she's convinced Justice O'Connor would have sided with her in the Lilly Ledbetter case (which focused on pay discrimination). 'I don't think that my colleagues, some of them, quite understood.' 'They have never been a 13-year-old girl,' she said. She points to the unbelievable decision by her fellow justices that discrimination against a pregnant woman is not sex discrimination, and that the trauma felt by the 13-year-old girl who was strip searched was not real. In this fascinating interview, Justice Ginsburg gives several very current examples of those consequences. Ginsburg said the court's gender imbalance has real, although not entirely obvious, consequences.

It was a revealing observation from a justice who generally praises her male colleagues, some of whom are close friends. When I will say something-and I don't think I'm a confused speaker-and it isn't until somebody else says it that everyone will focus on the point.' 'It can happen even in the conferences in the court.

Then people would become alert to it, respond to it.'Įven after 16 years as a justice, she said, that still sometimes occurs. Then somebody else would say exactly what I said. 'I don't know how many meetings I attended in the '60s and the '70s, where I would say something, and I thought it was a pretty good idea.

Women belong everywhere decisions are being made