The Importance of Feminist Mentors and Representation & BRAVE-ish

Today is Women’s Equality Day. The History of Women���s Equality Day

At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 and passed in 1973,  the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as ���Women���s Equality Day.��� The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world���s first women���s rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York. The observance of Women���s Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women���s continuing efforts toward full equality. Workplaces, libraries, organizations, and public facilities now participate with Women���s Equality Day programs, displays, video showings, or other activities.

Joint Resolution of Congress, 1971 Designating August 26 of each year as Women���s Equality Day

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have been treated as second-class citizens and have not been entitled the full rights and privileges, public or private, legal or institutional, which are available to male citizens of the United States;

and WHEREAS, the women of the United States have united to assure that these rights and privileges are available to all citizens equally regardless of sex;

and WHEREAS, the women of the United States have designated August 26, the anniversary date of the certification of the Nineteenth Amendment, as symbol of the continued fight for equal rights;

and WHEREAS, the women of United States are to be commended and supported in their organizations and activities,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that August 26th of each year is designated as Women���s Equality Day, and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote, and that day in 1970, on which a nationwide demonstration for women���s rights took place. 

Thank you Ms. Magazine for publishing my article, “���Brave-ish��� Shows the Importance of Feminist Mentors and Representation“

As a high school student in Los Angeles, I took a women���s studies elective with Joannie Parker. She was a teacher at Westlake School for Girls, and wrote a grant to start this program���the first of its kind in a California high school. She held major leadership positions at the California Abortion Rights Action League, the National Women���s Political Caucus and the National Organization for Women.

She also played a prominent role as the writer and facilitator of California���s state-level Title IX, and as a board member in the Council of Women in Independent Schools. She brought incredible speakers to our Women���s History Week���including Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and Maya Angelou. She read to us from Ms. magazine and made us believe that we could be the president���of a company, or even a country.

Some years later, Ms. Parker and I went to lunch, where I told her I had written my first article for Ms. magazine. She was so proud. 

I also called her in 2016 when I was invited to the United Nations for a project called Champions of Humanity. She always believed in each of us as her students and the future. Parker not only believed that I could be a writer, but that I was always a writer; I just needed to believe it myself.

In September 2019, it was my honor to attend the United Nations General Assembly 74 as media on behalf of Ms. As I sat in the meeting for ���Gender Equality: From the Biarritz Partnership to the Beijing+25 Generation Equality Forum��� with U.N. Women, I kept thinking about the impact that Joannie Parker had on my life.

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This year, she would have turned 90. Her teaching inspires me every day to do more and to do better. I wish I could call her to tell her that my memoir, Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty, will be published on Sept. 19, 2023.

Please enjoy this except from Brave-ish about my first visit to the United Nations.

The next time I was in New York, I stopped by the office of the Ogilvy PR team to thank them for sending me to Dublin. While I was there, I met the account director for the United Nations project called Champions for Humanity. They were looking for influencers to help them raise awareness for the first ever World Humanitarian Summit, which was designed to address how humanitarian assistance is given to refugees around the globe. They invited 20 of us to the U.N. to learn more about their project, and they wanted us to use our social media feeds to raise awareness and promote humanitarian action.

That was how, a few weeks later, I walked into the lobby of the New York Headquarters of the United Nations, and heard an overhead announcement say, ���The Security Council is now in session.��� 

After years of participating in Model United Nations in high school, I could not believe that I was at the actual U.N. I felt a bit like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, as though I had simply clicked my heels and magically wound up somewhere that I had always wanted to be. 

I entered a conference room that had been set aside for our group and was delighted to see my name in lights on a little screen in front of my microphone, just like the ones used by the diplomats. I felt honored to be included and recognized as an expert.

When you go to medical school, you get a diploma and a license, and you do a residency, and there are all sorts of steps to be credentialed as an expert along the way. But for a travel blogger, how do you know you���re doing well? How do people differentiate you from someone else? At the United Nations, countries come together to solve the problems of the world. It seemed like confirmation that I had reached a new level of visibility and expertise.

Excerpt from Post Hill Press

It was my honor to be part of the Ms. Magazine book event at Vroman’s Bookstore Ms. Magazine at the Skirball Cultural CenterMs. Magazine honored at Take The Lead Conference Ms. Magazine at the Global Women’s Rights Gala

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