Forum boosts Black women in careers
Aug. 13 — 226 days into 2020 — is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, marking the time it takes in the current year, plus the entire previous year, for Black women to make the same amount of money as white men made in 2019.
To mark that troubling milestone, Women for Economic and Leadership Development virtually hosted the Black Women’s Equal Pay Day Forum on Thursday to discuss the pursuit of equality for Black women.
The forum — presented by WELD, Career and Lifestyle Magazine for Women of Color, GAP Communications
Group, the Women of Color Foundation and NC100BW — consisted of three “Voices for Equity” webinars joined by presenters from across the country, including some from central Ohio.
The first program, “In Pursuit of Equity,” included a panel of speakers from Pittsburgh. Paula Brazil, president of Brazil Training and Consulting, explored what it means to pursue equity for Black women amid civil rights protests and the coronavirus pandemic.
“I find it quite interesting that so much is happening in the year 2020. Given that 2020 is the measurement used to express a person’s clarity or sharpness of vision, what is it that you may not have seen that you are now seeing more clearly?” Brazil said. “The greatest opportunities occur at moments of great change. We are now living in a moment of great change.”
The conversation explored educating people about the movement toward equality, how to advocate and how to create more dialogue.
Panelist Terrie Griffin, co-president of the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters, said that institutional racism is embedded in the consciousness of organizations.
“We have to be mindful how systemic racism and institutional racism impacts every phase of living —
government, education, everything — and if we don’t have our consciousness right, the progress will be slow, but I’m optimistic, and I believe that we’re not only going to move this thing in the right direction, we’re going to participate in it equally,” Griffin said.
Lisa Abel-palmieri, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania, said issues also arise when white people say they know others’ experiences.
“I think that in general, a major example of everyday racism is when we as white people claim to know and be experts on or devalue Black and brown people’s narratives of racism,” Abel-palmieri said.
To improve, Griffin said, Americans should realize that when people call the country a “melting pot,” they lose a sense of the distinction and value of different groups. Instead, people need to embrace differences.
“I tell my white colleagues, ‘Look, we’re salad. We’ve got hot peppers, we’ve got cool cucumbers, we’ve got diversity in lettuce, we’ve got dynamic carrots. And every single piece of that salad has its own zest,” Griffin said.
Columbus health coach Gina Smith hosted the webinar “Your Health is Your Wealth,” which was kicked off by Kitty Dooley, owner of Dooley Law Firm in Charleston, West Virginia. Dooley said that even as Black women obtain more degrees in higher education, their pay is stagnating.
Smith said that as women become more successful in their careers, selfcare can fall by the wayside. She provided six tips to maintain health: time for reflection, eating well, physical activity, love and connection, time management and habit change.
“The more you rise, the less you take care of yourself; the more isolated you become, the busier you become, the things you intend to do don’t happen,” Smith said.
An afternoon coffee chat titled “Where Do We Go from Here?” featured a national panel of women that included Linda Kanney, president of the central Ohio chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and WBNS-TV news anchor Tracy Townsend. sraudins@dispatch.com @sam_raudins