As part of our ongoing "Community Voices" series, we are posting Board President Jennifer Williams' comments about about Women's History Month that she shared at the March 12, 2024 Board of Education Meeting.

 

Earlier this month, I attended the Girls Inc Women Who Dare event, celebrating smart, strong and bold women leaders in our community.  Our very own teacher and county of the year teacher, Ms. Jessica Kerber, was honored, and my daughter and I had the pleasure of talking with Jessica and her daughter at this event, surrounded by many AUSD young students participating in the evening’s festivities.  Also honored was AHS high school junior  Janelle Banaria for her teen leadership and work in STEM.  Congratulations again, Janelle!

The Girls Inc event came one day after we celebrated International Women’s Day – a day that reminds us that things like gender parity, economic parity, and social parity are values for which we must continue to fight. This day – and Women’s History Month, in general – also reminds us that women have made great progress in many ways. But the unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts; women still are not present in equal numbers in politics, or in the Legislature, or in our courtrooms, or in our boardrooms; and globally, women's education, health and the violence perpetrated against them is far worse than that of men.

At the forefront of this work is our ongoing fight for reproductive justice, to protect the reproductive rights of all of us, and most importantly, the young women behind us.  I want to give a shout out today to every woman who stands with me working in our communities to make them better places for everyone, raising children, and balancing all of it in often challenging circumstances. And I want all the young girls out there to know that we do this work for you, and we will continue to do this work for you.