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Aleigh

Editor at Skirt!

I am: a doggie mom, a not-so-newlywed, a Scrabble enthusiast, a meticulous speller, a world traveler, and the editor of the Charlotte edition of skirt! (Not usually all at once.) When I'm not writing about Charlotte's coolest women, you can find me cheering on my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers, tryi...

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Reflections on the Charlotte Women's Summit

Last week, I attended the Charlotte Women’s Summit, hosted by UNCC, and I’ve been trying to digest everything I learned that day. 

In a nutshell, here are some of the facts I absorbed last Thursday:

• 1 in every 4 women worldwide is raped or assaulted during her lifetime.
• In 2007, 7 women were killed by their male partners in Mecklenburg County.
• There is a desperate need in the Charlotte area for emergency housing services – our need is far more than the 29 beds that United Family Services has to offer to women and children who are victims of domestic violence. Those women are also in desperate need of funding for legal representatives so that they do not have to return to their abusive situations at home.
• In Char-Meck, the gender wage gap between equal pay for men and women is still lagging behind. Women in Char-Meck earn 75.9% of what men here earn, for the same work. That’s about 76 cents for every dollar a man earns.
• There are fewer women represented in our local government than there were 20 years ago. (If you want to run for office, DO IT. We need you!)

Shocked? I was. The best part of the entire summit, for me, was hearing Ellen Goodman deliver the first speech of the morning. She was funny, and clever, and thought-provoking, and I have more notes to go through than I have time for!

One of her biggest points was that although the women’s movement has brought about some positive change, the change has been lop-sided. Getting accepted into the “male world” has been easier than changing it for the better. She conjured a picture for us with an image of how the Super Mom (read: June Cleaver, wearing high heels and an apron to bake biscuits, always having a healthy dinner made from scratch, and healthy meals for her children--that they would actually EAT) has morphed into the Super Woman (who embodies everything Super Mom does, but also has a high-powered career, a satisfied husband, healthy, happy children who do not attend day care, etc.)

Well, that’s not fair. We’re only human, after all – but Goodman’s point that the women’s movement has just ADDED pressure to most women without alleviating any of it is something I hadn’t stopped to consider. But then, I’m a newlywed with no children, and have yet to experience the “Mommy Wars.”

Consider this: there are also conflicting images of what it means to be a “good mother.” One one hand, we praise the CEO who leaves her corner office to care for her children. On the other, we praise the mother on welfare who leaves her children for work. Is one really better than the other? Is it wrong for women to want both a career and motherhood? How can we help ensure that women aren’t forced to choose?

Ellen brought up too many good points to mention in one blog post. I’ll be back soon with more. In the meantime, I want to hear from you!

EDITED TO ADD: Apparently the concept of what it means to be a good mother is a hot one. Check out this Newsweek article about the anger toward TLC’s new show, Secret Life of a Soccer Mom. I, for one, don’t think it’s wrong to want to go back to work after having children. But I also don’t think it’s wrong for a woman to want to be a stay-at-home mom. Why is it so hard for people to just live and let live?