International Women’s Day
Image Credit: Donna Ferrato
Advance gender equality is the call to action of International Women’s Day 2022. I have been working on this effort since my graduate school days. The first paper I delivered at a national conference was titled, All's Fair in Love and War, But What About Work?. I was looking to frame a social work response to comparable worth, and called out equal parenting as the essential component to change. In the intervening decades since, wage discrepancy for women in the U.S. has increased by pennies per hour. Child care is still framed as a women’s issue and has yet to be systematically and consistently addressed and resourced.
Today I am listening and learning from women across the globe sharing experiences, resources, challenges and hope. I have gained an expansive awareness from sustainable gardening to Bedoin poetry, from non-conforming gender roles to climate change, from how to visualize feelings and heal from trauma. All this shared by women about women and for women.
In my world I highlight the work of women photographers illuminating our past and leading us towards a different future, eight of which have been my guest in conversation on their work:
Paris by Reneé Jacobs @reneejacobsphoto @vevais_editions
Dairy Character by Odette England @odetteengland @saint_lucy_books
On Abortion by Laia Abril @laia_abril @dewi_lewis_publishing
You Will Find it Where It Is : a Reader by Sonja Thomsen @sonja_rthomsen @conveyorstudio
Holy by Donna Ferrato @donnaferrato @powerhousebooks
Lobismuller by Laia Abril @laia_abril
Bushes & Succulents by Mona Kuhn @monakuhnstudio @stanleybarkerbooks
Blue Violet by Cig Harvey @cigharvey @monacellipress
Performance Review by Endia Beal @endiabeal @minormattersbooks
Sovereign by Jocelyn Lee @jocelynleephotography @minormattersbooks
I honor my ancestors who got us thus far, I celebrate the gains we have fought for and I understand how much work is before us to change the structures which disempower gender equality. I share the links to the myriad ways we collectively harnessed our power and talents today.
International Center of Photography
National Museum of Women in the Arts
#BreakTheBias
#IWD2022