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A Ray of Light


 

I caught a glimpse yesterday of some local men (fellas? guys? bros?) casting aspersions on the League of Women Voters and International Women’s Day because…you guessed it: it wasn’t for them. They felt left out. And solely for that reason, they deemed both of these entities worthless and unfair.

Oh my.

It isn’t always about you, guys.

On the national scene announcements that hygiene products for those who menstruate will be provided without cost by local governments are often followed by remarks like, “What are we gonna get?”

Well…

That brings me to the ongoing discussion on Twitter about greater transparency around wages and what that would mean for women and other marginalized groups. As long as everyone is convinced that they must keep silent on salary issues, disparities persist in the attendant darkness. I highly recommend this thread from Erin Overbey. Ms. Overbey is the Archive Editor of the New Yorker Magazine, and the New Yorker Classics newsletter editor.



It begins like this:

I’ve been following the pay discourse on this site for a while & think it’s important for the movement toward salary transparency (particularly vis a vis gender & race) to continue to grow, so here’s my account. Most ppl like to describe my job as “glamorous” & there are many elements of my job at @NewYorker that I like. Equal pay is not one of them. 

What are you gonna get, guys? Apparently higher salaries. NBD.

And how was your International Women’s Day?

The antidote to all this dreariness was an evening spent (virtually) in the company of some amazing women, celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of the Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County. Their mission?

The Women’s Giving Circle is building a community of philanthropists and creating a permanent legacy to address the needs of women and girls in Howard County.​

In the twenty years since their founding they have given over one million dollars to their nonprofit partners and have established a 1.3 million dollar endowment from over 1,600 donors to make sure that there will be funds to support women and girls in our community in the future.

One of the statements made last night that I’ll carry with me for a long time is that, “When we lift up women and girls, we lift up entire communities.”

More about that tomorrow. 

To learn more about the Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County, visit their website. And, just for good measure, let’s link you up with the League of Women Voters and International Women’s Day, too.







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