Women’s Equality Day

0000019134-tmlwom129-004[1]Ninety three years ago, On August 24, 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified giving women the right to vote. Although the amendment had passed comfortably through Congress with the requisite two-thirds majority in 1919 (the vote was 304–89 in the House of Representatives on May 21, 1919, and 56–25 in the Senate on June 4, 1919), there was considerable doubt as to whether or not it would be able to garner the 36 states necessary to secure ratification. Legislators in many Southern states were opposed to the amendment (it was rejected in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Mississippi, and Louisiana), and its fate appeared to hinge on Tennessee. As Cheryl Hiers writes in “War of the Roses,” when suffragists counted its supporters in Nashville when the Tennessee legislature was to cast its votes on August 18, 1919, they

“knew they were in trouble. By the roses [suffragists wore yellow roses while anti-suffragists donned red ones], it appeared the amendment would be defeated 47 for and 49 against. In the first roll call, however, Rep. Banks Turner came over to the Suffragist’s side and the vote was deadlocked at 48 for and 48 against. The second roll was taken and the vote remained 48 to 48.

With wilted collars and frayed nerves, the legislators squared off for the third roll call. A blatant red rose on his breast, Harry Burn–the youngest member of the legislature–suddenly broke the deadlock. Despite his red rose, he voted in favor of the bill and the house erupted into pandemonium. With his “yea,” Burn had delivered universal suffrage to all American women. The outraged opponents to the bill began chasing Representative Burn around the room. In order to escape the angry mob, Burn climbed out one of the third-floor windows of the Capitol. Making his way along a ledge, he was able to save himself by hiding in the Capitol attic.

When tempers had cooled, Burn was asked to explain the red rose on his lapel and his “yellow-rose” vote. He responded that while it was true he was wearing a red rose, what people couldn’t see was that his breast pocket contained a telegram from his mother in East Tennessee. She urged him to do the right thing and vote in favor of the amendment.”

Thus, it was a mother’s urging that ultimately secured the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919. Other states would go on to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, though Virginia and Alabama wouldn’t do so until the 1950s, Florida would hold out until 1969, Georgia and Louisiana would go on to ratify it in 1970, and Mississippi would wait until 1984 to formally ratify the amendment.

On Monday, August 26, we’ll celebrate another Women’s Equality Day, the day that marks the anniversary of when the 19th Amendment was ratified. It’s a day to stand up with our sisters to recognize the hard work of the women and men who led the successful suffrage movement 93 years ago. Unfortunately, celebrating our right to vote isn’t enough. We still have a lot to do to keep the polls accessible to everyone and reach equality for women and girls, so this Women’s Equality Day, we ask you to educate others and join the fight!

 

Bear Valley School Welcomes AAUW’s Books

 

Ruthann Mlcoch, Barbara Purvis, Principal Dr. Walker, Jo Turner, Barb Ryon, Carlease Chandler

Ruthann Mlcoch, Barbara Purvis, Principal Dr. Walker, Jo Turner, Barb Ryon, Carlease Chandler

August 21st, 2013, Bear Valley Elementary School is honored to have the members of the AAUW donate to Bear Valley’s entire first grade over $1,200 worth of new student reading books, both in English and Spanish. Bear Valley thanks each one of the AAUW members for supporting Bear Valley Elementary in making Reading come to life and the importance of Reading with their generous donation to our first grade students.

To view more pictures, visit the Bear Valley Website:

http://www.mybearvalley.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=321713&id=0

 

Ubiquitous Life Lessons

pigeon_poop Posted in News on February 23, 2013 by annegautreau

Some days you’re the pigeon; some days you’re the statue!
Keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time; you won’t have a leg to stand on!
Your sole purpose in life may be to serve as a warning to others.
The second mouse gets the cheese.
Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.
A happy person enjoys the scenery on a detour.
The earth deserves respect. It’s the only planet with chocolate!
We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are perfect. Some are broken. Some are sharp. Some are dull. Some have unusual names. They come in all different colors, but they have to live, side-by-side, in the same box.

Human Trafficking: The Global and Local Connection

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By Luisa Tassan

On July 18 AAUW Riverside Branch members attended a presentation sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Inland Southern California in collaboration with the Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force (a collaborative partnership led by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and Operation SafeHouse to develop resources in the county to educate, prevent, intervene and treat victims of human trafficking and exploitation). http://www.riversidesheriff.org/bureaus/anti-human-traffic.asp.  A strong turnout of at least 100 attendees was treated to an engaging presentation

The event began with a showing of the film “Not My Life”, directed by Robert Bilheimer, previous Oscar nominee for Cry of Reason, and narrated by Glenn Close. http://notmylife.org/ The documentary, which was filmed on five continents over four years, effectively makes the audience aware of how wide spread human trafficking is throughout the world with footage in Romania, Italy, Cambodia, Guatemala, United States, Senegal, Europe, and India. The film is thorough in its interviews of all “ the players” in the process of human trafficking from the adult pimps/exploiters, the exploited/children victims, law enforcement, the churches and social service agencies trying to rescue the trafficked humans to the customers/clientele who pay for the “trafficked.”  The main focus of this film is to raise public awareness to the fact that the majority of trafficking and slavery victims today are CHILDREN. Bilheimer leaves the audience with the question: “What kind of society cannibalizes its own children and how can we do these kinds of things on such a large scale and still call ourselves human in any meaningful sense of the term?”

The showing of the film was followed by a ten-person panel discussion with the Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force and moderated by Dr. Yolanda Moses, Professor of Anthropology and Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Excellence and Equity at University of California, Riverside. The panel participants were made up of three representatives from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, John Sawyer, Aron Wolfe and Daniel Engels, Jennifer O’Farrell of Operation SafeHouse, Opal Singelton of MillionKids, FBI Agents-Kayla Hostmeyer and Jeff Stiff, US Attorney Ami Sheth and Riverside County District Attorney Jerry Fineman. With Dr. Moses leading the discussion each panelist was asked to discuss their part on the Task Force and the “state of human trafficking” in Riverside County.  Highlights of some of the key points made by each panelist were:

  • Human trafficking comes in two forms–labor trafficking and  sex trafficking;
  • The average age of entry into commercial sexual exploitation is 12-14 years;
  • The majority (60%) of the approximate 200,000 children at risk of commercial sexual   exploitation in America are runaways, throw-aways or homeless youth;
  • On average 500 children in Riverside County runaway each month often times from homes where they are experiencing physical, sexual, psychological abuse and/or neglect;
  • Of these 500 children many will sell themselves for food and shelter within the first 48 hours of running away if not found and returned to a safe shelter;
  • The legal definition of human trafficking is defined as the “exploitation of a person by force, fear or coercion; ” http://oag.ca.gov/human-trafficking/what-is
  • Proposition 35 passed in California in November, 2012 removed the requirement of showing force, violence or coercion in cases involving minors in recognition of the psychological force used to keep trafficking victims against their will.  Prop 35 changed the law so that the prosecutor need only show that the defendant made money off the traffickedperson; http://voterguide.sos.ca.gov/propositions/35/analysis.html
  • The panel listed a number of obstacles to successful prosecution of human traffickers to include, victim’s fear of their pimps and view they have no safe place to turn, traffickers threat of harm to the victim, victim’s family and friends, juror’s lack of understanding of the power of      psychological fear/coercion and its affect on victims’ free-will, deportation fears, victim’s ability to wait out the long road to trial of their traffickers, cultural barriers, getting victims comfortable enough to talk about their traffickers and overcoming the manipulation by traffickers of the victim’s need to be loved, rewarded and cared-for;
  • Victims of exploitation who are in the US illegally will not necessarily be deported nor do they need to have a criminal case pending in order to qualify for a “T” or “U” Visa.  Victims who are in the US illegally will not be punished for coming forward; www.uscis.gov/humantrafficking
  • Project Safehouse will work with international victims through immigration lawyers if the victim does not want to go through the criminal legal process; www.operationsafehouse.org
  • Warning signs that a young person might be a victim: runs away and then returns with new expensive items like cell phone, clothes, jewelry, supply of condoms, frequent truancy, leaving school campus at lunch, large wads of cash;
  • Traffickers use “bottoms” (other girls) to recruit vulnerable girls in middle and high      school to the sex trade;

The panel left us empowered with the knowledge that as a community there are things we can do to help fight human trafficking:

Lose 6% of Your Paycheck?

One year after college graduation, women are
already paid less than the men with whom they graduated.  According to AAUW’s report, Graduating to Pay Gap: The Earnings of Women and Men One Year after College Graduation, one-third of the gap between women’s and men’s paychecks is unexplained.  Women one year out of college are still paid 6.6 percent less than their male counterparts

Do you think 6.6 percent sounds small? Not much to worry about? If you do the math, you’ll find that 6.6 percent of an average man’s earnings one year out of college comes to just over $2,800.

That amount of money could buy you ——

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Nearly a year’s worth of groceries

Over 750 gallons of gas

1,400 tall Starbucks coffees