Today is Women’s Equality Day

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on
August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment guarantees all American women the
right to vote.  The federal government proclaimed the amendment
incorporated into the Constitution on August 26, 1920.

Amendment
XIX to the US Constitution:
The right of
citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.

In 1971 at the behest of Bella Abzug, US
Congresswoman, August 26 was declared Women’s Equality Day. That’s today!

So, what will you do about it? Give voice to your support. Make it
known to your colleagues and family that this day is important to you.
Celebrate the progress made and renew your commitment to secure equal
rights for women.

On the one hand we live in an age of unprecedented opportunity for
women, and enjoy their leadership in almost every major sector. On the
other, on average women are paid 77 cents for every dollar paid to men,
have less access to the higher paid occupations upon graduation, and
suffer less opportunity for promotion. The vast majority of workplaces
do not provide adequate infrastructure to allow women to mother and
work simultaneously.  In this day and age it is unconscionable.

Every day history is made in small moments. Make today count. Resolve
to start a conversation, show your support for women, name the world
you want for yourself, your children, and their children – say it out
loud: women
deserve equal pay, equal freedom, and equal opportunity!

---

One of the best things we can do is raise our young men to understand
the value of girls and women. As many of you know, I journey with my
son every August on a father-son trip where we have the chance to
discuss the things that are closest to our hearts. For those who follow
my annual trips, here is some of what took place this year:

We just returned from an excursion in northern Vermont and New York
with our eight month old German Shepherd, Sita. We truly got away from
it all. Gabe asked me to shave at the beginning of the trip, as he has
never seen me beardless. I agreed on the condition that he do the
opposite: not shave at all!

We drove up to Burlington, using AirBnB to find places to sleep. It is a great
service, and provided us with three different locations on the fly –
one of which was a finished barn about 20 minutes outside of town.

Over the last twelve years, every August, he and I hit the road and
most of the time we don’t plan where we will spend the night. It’s
usually a motel or a campsite, but this time we also arranged to sleep
in three separate locations hosted by individuals: an apartment in New
Paltz, NY, a house in downtown Burlington, and a farm on the outskirts
of the city.  All of our hosts were hospitable, friendly, and
provided us with a great place to sleep for a night or two.

Then
there was Mt Belvedere. We drove out into the country, found a gravel
road on the side of the mountain, parked our car and hiked into the
wilderness.

It was the first time Sita slept outside her crate. She loved it. She
was off leash for the entire excursion. Being a shepherd, she never
strayed far. She kept close to us every moment, and of course
shouldered her own pack without complaint.

Gabe and I negotiate electronics at the beginning of every trip. Email
and texting was kept to bare minimum when we had access, but there was
none while we were in the woods so we were truly unplugged for a bit
and boy did it feel good.  Each night we lay around the fire,
talked, and looked up at the stars through the tree leaves.

On the way home we stopped in Woodstock and then drove through the
Catskills to Yasgur’s farm, site of the Woodstock concert in 1969.
Little did we know it was the actual 44th anniversary August 17. The
field was open to the public and it was easy to recognize it from the
film and pictures we’d seen. There was a reunion going on and a couple
of the original participants sitting around with photo albums telling
their stories to all who listened, which was all of us.

So, a bit of serendipity tossed in at the end of our time together made
for a magical ending to a splendid trip. I returned feeling renewed in
my depths, ready to dive into the fall season. It is as if my previous
life has reached some kind of completion and new beginnings are afoot.
I feel an air of excitement, a phoenix is stirring inside. I have high
hopes for the year ahead.