By Kimberly Simmons, Bangor Daily News
The need for amplified feminist activism is well documented; inequalities based on sex are significant and entrenched. The United States ranks 49th in the 2017 Global Gender Gap report, the World Economic Forum’s comparison of 144 countries. At the state level, Maine ranks 19th, with a grade of C+ for overall equity, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
Racism shapes women’s lives significantly. For example, the Department of Labor notes that while white women earn 75 cents to non-Hispanic white men’s dollar, black and Hispanic women earn just 60 and 54 cents respectively. According to the Status of Black Women In the United States report, girls and women of color face significantly higher rates of incarceration, violence, and poverty than their white counterparts. The #MeToo movement made visible the ubiquity of sexual harassment in the workplace, with the most recent TimesUp initiative amplifying the importance of remedies that address the needs of the most vulnerable women.