Women's History Month - 2025

Members of the Northlake UU walking group, at Waverly Park, Kirkland, WA

Women’s History Month – 2025

My walking group is primarily women, but occasionally includes men.  Seeing each other regularly, while getting needed exercise, keeps us grounded and reminds us to support one another in difficult times.

Given the current political climate, it sometimes seems there aren’t a lot of successes to celebrate.  However, our lives and social movements are filled with highs and lows, so it’s important to remember our accomplishments and how they were achieved in order to stay motivated in dealing with today’s challenges.  I’m sharing content from a several sources.

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has worked for equity for women and girls since 1881.  One important issue has been pay equity – how much do women earn compared to men in comparable jobs?  Equal Pay Day marks the number of extra days the average employed woman needs to work to have the same income a man earns in a year. Here’s the current status from the AAUW website:

March 25 is Equal Pay Day 2025

Each year, this symbolic day is used to raise awareness around and combat the impact of pay inequities. Equal Pay Day 2025 is on March 25 and marks the current state of the gender pay gap for women: 83% for full-time, year-round workers and 75% for all workers (including part-time and seasonal).

You can read about the history of Equal Pay Day following this link. 

When I was still a student working at a summer job I was reminded that women could not easily get credit.  I tried to apply for a student loan at a local bank and couldn’t even find anyone willing to talk with me about it.  I tried to cash my paycheck and was told I needed to have an account or credit card.  I applied for a credit card and was denied for unknown reasons.

Kiplinger Magazine published an article last year about women’s credit:

As recently as 1974, banks were legally allowed to deny women credit or charge them higher interest if they failed to get a male cosigner. But that year, on Oct. 28, President Gerald Ford signed into law the Fair Credit Opportunity Act, giving women the right to open a credit card in their own name.

The act came after women complained they were denied credit for reasons other than income or credit history, according to The New York Times account of the Senate passage. Married women were denied credit regardless of their income and single women were denied loans or were given smaller amounts than single men with identical financial backgrounds, the newspaper reported. 

Follow this link to read the remainder of Kiplinger article.

Do you remember how hard it once was to get a divorce?  Proof was required that the spouse had failed to perform in some important way, causing “dirt” to be reported which may or may not have been true.  Today, in most jurisdictions, no proof of “fault” is required and advice about the process is available online.

Same sex marriages became a reality in Washington State in 2012.  I was part of that movement in two ways.  My Unitarian Universalist church advocated for changes in the law and, as a retired judge, I was able to perform wedding ceremonies for same sex couples.  I advertised my availability as an officiant and modified my website to make sure my sample ceremonies would be worded appropriately.  See: Partner Wedding Ceremonies. I have wonderful memories of those couples.  They were fun to work with and extremely appreciative of the services I provided.  However, after 33 years of performing wedding ceremonies, I gave up that activity several years ago.

When I went off to college in 1966, I attended a private school which had a policy of admitting more men than women.  For reasons that were not explained, the school intentionally enrolled more male than female students.  At the time, that did not bother me.  I somehow thought it might make dating easier for the female students.  It didn’t really work that way.  The joke was that the male students went elsewhere to find dates who were both available and maybe less smart than the women at our school.  The school eventually realized that their discrimination against female students was unfair and possibly illegal.

Here’s a government website that highlights accomplishments of women.  You’d better look at it soon, since many informative sites have been taken down by the current administration. We don’t know which site will be next. This page is hosted by the Library of Congress and links to a variety of other government sites.

I hope you enjoy celebrating women’s history and accomplishments.  We’ve come a long way.  Let’s continue to be diligent about protecting equity and inclusion for all.

Carolyn Hayek

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