As the United States considers the Equal Rights Amendment—in the first hearing of its kind in 36 years on the proposed amendment, which if passed would add the word “women” to the U.S. Constitution for the first time—we’ve been paying even more attention to stories about the fight for gender equality. From closing the gender gap and leading companies and initiatives, to fighting discrimination and gendered assumptions: Women lead the way in business, leadership roles, government, sports, and more—fighting for their own empowerment and for the voices and opportunities of girls and women for generations to come.
Why Women Definitely Need the Equal Rights Amendment, from Refinery29—“It turns out, explaining why we need the ERA is complicated. It’s not as though we don’t already have many laws against maltreatment of women, explains Wendy Murphy, director of the Women’s and Children’s Advocacy Project at New England Law School and Equal Means Equal’s legal adviser. Women are also already protected, in some sense, by the Equal Protection clause of the 14th amendment (“nor shall any State...deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”). But the rub is that equal enforcement of any of the existing laws against sex discrimination is not required. That is because sex, specifically, is not a protected category explicitly mentioned in the Constitution the way, for example, religion or race are.”
Equal Playing Field Initiative Is Empowering Women in Sports – One World Record at a Time, from Forbes—“Enter Equal Playing Field, a grassroots nonprofit, whose mission is to challenge gender inequality in sport and to promote sports development for girls and women globally, especially in marginalized country contexts. While it is estimated that 30 million women and girls play soccer around the world, significant financial and cultural barriers continue to inhibit participation.”
How Gender Bias Impacts What We Think of Products Made by Women, from Fast Company—“‘What we’re seeing here is that woman-made goods for sale in male-typed markets are being penalized for no reason other than the fact they are made by women,’ [Stanford researcher Sarah A.] Soule says. [...] The long-term solution, say Correll and Soule, doesn’t lie in women modifying their behavior. The answer is in changing people’s stereotypical thinking at a societal level and building awareness of inherent biases that we all bring to our purchasing and other behaviors.”
AWIP Launches Female Founders Program to Close the Gender Gap in Venture Financing, from VentureBeat—“‘One of the biggest barriers to success for female founders is obtaining access to funding resources,’ said Nancy Wang, CEO and founder of AWIP. ‘Through this initiative, AWIP strives to create a safe space where all founders can interact, garner feedback and secure funding mentorship from top-tier VCs.’”
How to Close the Female Leadership Gap in Business, from Yahoo Finance—“Part of that is how do you make sure that you're supporting getting women into the pipeline in the first place? It's important to be focused on how to specifically sponsor women and identify how we can bring them up in the organization.”
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