Tomorrow Marks a New Chapter

by Tabby Biddle

I have really been taking in this historic moment over the last few days with lots of tears and emotion.

I've been tuning into all of the lives lost and risked for our right to vote; our right to own property; our right to have dominion over our own body; our right to bring perpetrators of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence to court; our right to an education; our right to have a job outside of the home and get paid; and our right to have a voice and be a legal entity unto ourselves.

With this said, there is still so much work to do: We still don’t have equal rights in our constitution.

We are paid significantly less than men for doing the same job. We are penalized and discriminated against in the workplace for being mothers, and for being women in general.

One out of five of us will be raped or sexually assaulted during our lifetime; and we are doubted or shamed when we speak out about it.

In many states, we don’t have reproductive rights or dominion over our own body. We are objectified, humiliated and sexually harassed without penalty to the perpetrators. Objectification of women is normalized in our culture.

Our voices and opinions and talents are undervalued, and in many cases, go unacknowledged.

While today women earn 60 percent of the undergraduate and graduate degrees, we still hold less than 20 percent of leadership positions across every industry.

We are still NOT EQUAL.

"I believe that the rights of women and girls is the unfinished business of the 21st century."

– Hillary Clinton

Tomorrow marks a new chapter. #ImWithHer

---

Tabby Biddle, M.S.Ed., is a leading voice and advocate for advancing women’s leadership and the human rights of women and girls. She is the author of the bestselling book, Find Your Voice: A Woman’s Call to Action, and a Leadership Ambassador with Take The Lead, a community of women leaders committed to creating gender parity in leadership across all sectors by 2025. Learn more at tabbybiddle.com.