Commemorating Women Friendships for Women Equality Day
Women are more likely to be successful with a circle of women friends. (Graphic by Shanice Shade)
Women Equality Day was on August 26, 2020, which marked the 19th Amendment's anniversary granting women the right to vote. However, the Amendment didn't end the struggle for all women.
In history, women of different races fought for the right to vote, but could not vote until after the 19th amendment was established.
Black people couldn’t vote until the Voting Rights Act was signed in 1965. Asian-Americans fought to become US citizens and were granted the right to vote through the McCarran-Walter Act in 1952. Native Americans had to conform to literacy tests and poll taxes to stop them from voting. It wasn't until the subsequent laws passed in Congress that allowed Native Americans' voices to be heard. The Voting Rights Act strengthened the Mexican and Latino's right to vote. However, Representative José E. Serrano (D-NY) introduced the Voting Rights Language Assistance Act of 1992 that officially protected the voting rights of Mexicans and Latinos. Throughout each of these acts, women were at the forefront fighting for change.
Although women are the force behind the important movements in our history, women are still seen as less. Yet, a study published in the Harvard Business Review found that women who have a strong circle of women friends are more likely to get executive positions with higher pay. It also stated that some women’s success is dependent on their inner circle.
According to the study, "Women who were in the top quartile of centrality and had a female-dominated inner circle of 1-3 women landed leadership positions that were 2.5 times higher in authority and pay than those of their female peers lacking this combination."
True gender equality is about the value that women-centric spaces and relationships add to women’s lives. Media platform Fairygodboss stated their opinion on the matter, “After all, it’s often our female friend groups who, at the end of the day, leave us feeling the most nourished, inspired, and ready to take on the world. There’s more than a little truth to the saying that behind every successful woman is a group text of other successful women hyping her up.”
Journalist and author of Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendships, Kayleen Schaefer, said the answer to equality is female friendships.
"It's about safety, first of all. But more than that, it's about solidarity," Schaefer said.
She also stated that women's solidarity has been a closed-off secret among other women.
"We kept them to ourselves because society at large sort of dismissed these bonds and said, ‘You know, women, you can't trust each other. You'll always turn on each other.’ And we're saying, ‘No, that's not true.’ And, we're making it public in this way for the first time,” she added.
The study included that the best inner circles for women were those in which the women were closely connected but had minimal contacts in common.
There are several resources to learn more about gender inequality, as well as learn how to influence one’s community. These resources will help people strive towards making a difference in social, racial, and gender justice. Below are suggested readings:
All the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traister
We Should All be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Women, Race & Class by Angela Y. Davis
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
Lift As You Climb by Viv Groskop