A Photographic History Of How Long We've Been Fighting For This Sh*t
Happy International Women’s Day! Can you believe we’re still fighting for equality?
It’s 2017, can you believe we’re still fighting for this shit? That we still make 79 cents to every man’s dollar? That we’re still fighting for reproductive rights and control of our bodies?
Yes, it’s true that women still make 79 cents to every man’s dollar. Even though women now earn the majority of college degrees, the wage gap still persists, even growing over time. From American Progress.org: “For women ages 15 to 24 working full time and year round, the wage gap is $4,373 per year. By the time women reach age 45 to 64, they earn $15,404 less than men per year.”
Fantastic.
As Gloria Steinem once said, “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” Let’s look at a few decades of our truth, shall we? From women fighting for the vote, to standing up to the wage gap, to standing up for racial justice — we have a long history of badassery to be proud of. And pissed about.
Women hold up signs demanding equal rights during a demonstration for women’s liberation, New York City, circa 1968. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
1977: Women taking part in a demonstration in New York demanding safe legal abortions for all women. (Photo by Peter Keegan/Keystone/Getty Images)
Pauline Bercker has travelled from Leeds to join an equal pay for women demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, 18th May 1969. (Photo by Stan Meagher/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
An African-American woman stands in a crowd and yells, “Freedom!” when asked to yell so loud it will be heard all over the world at the March on Washington, Washinton, DC, August 29, 1963. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images)
Machinists working for Ford Motors attending a Women’s Conference on equal rights in industry at Friends House in Euston, 28th June 1968. (Photo by Bob Aylott/Keystone/Getty Images)
Members of the National Women’s Liberation Movement, on an equal rights march from Speaker’s Corner to No.10 Downing Street, to mark International Women’s Day, London, 6th March 1971. One woman is carrying a placard reading ‘Equal Pay Now’. On the right, a woman is holding a copy of the Trotskyist publication ‘Red Mole’. (Photo by Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Delegates from all over the world at a meeting to celebrate International Women’s Day; (L-R) Marie Campbell (Jamaica), Miss Hazeley (Sierra Leone), Miss Inyang (Nigeria) and Miss Ikpeme (Nigeria), London, March 8th 1947. (Photo by Reg Speller/Fox Photos/Getty Images)
1915: From left to right, Mrs James Leeds Laidlaw, Mrs Albert Plimpton, Mrs A Hughston, Mrs Frank Stratton and Helen Rich lead the Manhattan Delegation on a Woman Suffrage Party parade through New York. (Photo by Paul Thompson/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
1st June 1976: Women pickets protesting outside the Trico factory, Great West Road, London, during the equal pay for women dispute. (Photo by Angela Deane-Drummond/Evening Standard/Getty Images)
1907: Suffragettes Annie Kenney and Mary Gawthorne painting a pavement with a slogan, ‘Votes For Women’, during the Hexham by-election. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The spirit of the fight has always been in us, and it will be until we are getting paid equally for equal work, have full control of our bodies and choices, and feel safe in our communities. Solidarity to all the women fighting today and every day to make the world better for all of us.
Protesters walk during the WomenÕs March on Washington, with the U.S. Capitol in the background, on January 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
