International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day.  Today it's important to remember that in many places in the world, women are not free, rather they are treated as property.
Here in the US, I celebrate those who came before me so that I can vote, own property, have a bank account, and be free to make my own choices for my life.

Susan B. Anthony worked tirelessly for women to obtain the right to vote.  Women marched, they protested, and they persisted.

Every time you go into the voting booth, it's because women marched, so that we could vote.

When we go to work, we are guaranteed equal pay under the law.  Lily Ledbetter fought for this for 19 years.  

"We sought justice because equal pay for equal work is an American value. That fight took me ten years. It took me all the way to the Supreme Court. And, in a 5-4 decision, they stood on the side of those who shortchanged my pay, my overtime, and my retirement just because I am a woman." Lilly Ledbetter

Opening a bank account, buying a home and living a free and independent life are all possible because women before us believed in the protections of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  They protested, and resisted. Today we all live in the shadows of the generations of women who fought for social justice, and equality.
We still have a long way to go but today I celebrate the women in my life, and the women who came before me.  We will persist.