Alderperson Denise Fenton’s Invocation At 08/21/2024 Common Council Meeting – “Tonight, I invoke the spirit of those women to help us continue the struggle, because women have not achieved full equality more than a century after winning the right to vote.”

Mayor Jake Woodford: Tonight’s invocation will be delivered by Alder Fenton.

Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6): Thank you. As the proclamation that will be that will be presented on Monday notes, August 26 is observed as Women’s Equality Day in commemoration of the ratification of the 19th Amendment which gave some women the right to vote. The proclamation encourages us to join in the commemoration of this historic day and to honor all women who have fought for and won the right to vote in national elections.

Tonight, I invoke the spirit of those women to help us continue the struggle, because women have not achieved full equality more than a century after winning the right to vote. We are still paid 16% less than men. Almost 25% of women will suffer violence at the hands of a domestic partner. And our trans sisters are murdered for the crime of existing. Indigenous women and girls are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than members of any other demographic. We’ve lost the right to bodily autonomy and the freedom to make our own medical decisions. Women athletes are either sexualized or have their gender questioned by barstool endocrinologists. A woman running for office is judged not for her policy proposals, but for her laugh or her hairstyle.

I invoke the spirit of Sojourner Truth, of Susan B, Anthony, of the women of the Six Nations of the Hodesh—Haudenosaunee tribe—sorry—confederacy, of Ida B Wells, of Dolores Huerta, of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, of Marsha P Johnson, of Val Phillips, of my personal hero Governor, Ann Richards of Texas, and of every woman who has fought for the rights of all women to give us strength to continue the fight until we have true equality.