Blog

In the cultural climate of #MeToo and #TimesUp, an event hosted by the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island titled Cocktails and Conversations: Feminism is a Male Issue might justifiably raise a few eyebrows. It’s a topic that’s become a favorite quip of late-night comedians -- that men don’t know what they’re even allowed to say to women nowadays, for fear of being accused of sexual harassment.Beneath the stale one-liners, however, lies a legitimate dilemma: How do we engage men as allies against
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We’ve been hearing a lot about sexual harassment in the news lately. Powerful people, mainly white men, have been forcibly removed from their positions. The community at large is engaged in a conversation about how often harassment actually takes place, whether the level of harassment should result in being fired or removed from power and what this says about women’s place in our community overall.We’ve been here before. The passage of Title VII in 1964 prohibited sex discrimination in the
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We’ve been hearing a lot about sexual harassment in the news lately. Powerful people, mainly white men, have been forcibly removed from their positions. The community at large is engaged in a conversation about how often harassment actually takes place, whether the level of harassment should result in being fired or removed from power and what this says about women’s place in our community overall.We’ve been here before. The passage of Title VII in 1964 prohibited sex discrimination in the
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Sometimes, the government gives us little freebies, like national parks, public art, and federal holidays off work. Today many of us will get to enjoy the luxury of a long weekend on behalf of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the holiday which bears his name. Tempting as it may be to spend this free time relaxing or taking care of projects around the house, we as Americans are given this time so that we can honor Dr. King’s legacy in a meaningful way. His life was spent fighting to bring justice
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At the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, we believe that greater racial and gender equality is good for our families, our community, and our economy. In fact, much of our work lately is focused on improving jobs, pay and working conditions for employees in the service sector, which has a huge impact on women’s economic security. Gender segregation in employment and wage discrimination are pronounced in these jobs; for example, U.S. Department of Labor statistics tell us that 88 percent of maids and
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Participating in direct service work was an integral part of my college experience and as I look back, my professional career has been a consequence of one event in particular. One of the many service opportunities offered at my school, Loyola University, was a program called Care-A-Van. The program encouraged students to visit a homeless encampment in downtown Baltimore once a week bringing much needed food assistance along with the often overlooked benefits of conversation and companionship.
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Election season is near—time to prepare to hit the polls and participate in the nationwide event the United States has been talking about for decades now. Suffrage in this country, as we are taught from young ages, is more than an individual endeavor solely undertaken by people interested in politics; suffrage is an integral element to democratic principles of government, giving civil society the power to choose who we want making political decisions that frame our lives. However, as we also are
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Women have been able to cast their vote and voice their opinion in elections for nearly a century; it took almost that long to make this right a reality. Activists and reformers fought for women’s suffrage for nearly 100 years, overcoming many pitfalls and disagreements that threatened to destroy the movement. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified on August 26, 1920, enfranchising all American women and recognizing that they, being created equal, should be given a fair say
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What feels like a long, but really quite short, 95 years ago, women in the United States acquired the right to vote. Following an immeasurable amount of effort put forth by women and men in favor of voting equality, women’s suffrage was scribed into our Constitution on August 26,1920. Critically speaking, voting access was not granted to every citizen simply because women’s suffrage made voting gender-inclusive. Initially the new ruling benefited only upper-class white women. It wasn’t until
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Structural and cultural barriers continue to hold women back today. Women have made great strides in the workforce, but inequality persists. A gender gap in access to opportunities and decision-making power between women and men still exists. . Specifically, in Rhode Island, 56% of minimum wage workers are women. 71% of families with children living in poverty are headed by women, 10% are headed by men, and 19% are headed by married couples. This wage gap has a significant impact on all women,
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