"Is Equality Important?"

Yesterday, we had Easter Brunch at the National Western Heritage Museum, previously called the “Cowboy Hall of Fame.” My daughters, 10 and 11 had been to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. When we walked around at the exhibits after brunch they said, “How come this place is so much bigger than the Cowgirl Hall of Fame?”
These questions have plagued me, “why 79 cents to a dollar?” (women’s earnings vs. men’s earnings); why are only 13% of elected officials women? Why has no U.S. president ever been female and most of the fortune 500 companies run by white men? It’s still United Way time and so I ask similar questions of their volunteers in regards to our allocation as Girl Scouts. Why?
When I was 12 I wanted to be a newspaper carrier. I had been reluctantly babysitting since 10, for my six brothers and sisters. I thought it would be more fun to earn money delivering papers. The rule then was that girls had to be 18. Boys could be twelve. I guess that started something for me.
In high school we didn’t have sports teams until Title IX passed my sophomore year. Our first year teams had no uniforms, we put our numbers on our shirts with tape every game. The boys’ locker room had a whirlpool and showers. The girls’ locker room didn’t have either. We could use the real gym on days that the boys weren’t using it, so we had an early Saturday morning practice (7:30am) so that we could at least have one day in the gym in which the games would be played, I guess so we could at least feel a little like we had a home court advantage.
Is equality important? I see the world through a woman’s eyes, which I believe gives me a different voice – a voice that is wanting more inclusion, eyes that see the people who are missing, the children not fed, the conversations about a problem that define the problem in a way that misses half of the world.