Under the baobab: During Women’s History Month, celebrate progress and plan for what’s next

Happy Women’s History Month.

Mao Zedong wrote that “Women hold up half the sky.” These days that percentage might be considerably higher. It certainly is in our home. With full-time teaching, book writing, community activism, mothering and partnership support, my wife has been the primary pillar in our home during this pandemic. We are not alone.

Vice President Kamala Harris, supported by her AKA sorority sisters along with efforts by Stacey Abrams and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, carried Joe Biden to the presidency with the largest electoral vote total in history. Two months later, the same group delivered the Senate to the Democrats. And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, third in line for the presidency, has kept the House in order while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of the squad have firmly positioned a progressive agenda.

I believe it has always been this way. My mother was one of the community organizers and poll judges that helped Harold Washington get elected mayor of Chicago. My grandmothers found ways to feed their families through a depression. They picked cotton with their babies slung over their backs. They pounded steel in the foundries to build the ships and tanks that won World War II. Then they returned home to teach their children to sing about hope and beauty.

Women in the civil rights movement like Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Diane Nash, Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson, Shirley Sherrod, Daisy Bates, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King weren’t visibly part of the public leadership, but they were the backbone of the Struggle. Martin Luther King’s period of active service in the movement was 13 years, 1955 to 1968. His wife, Coretta, remained a political activist for 51. She supported progressive movements across the country including the campaign for a first-time state senate candidate in upstate New York named Dumas. She was not alone.

In the ‘60s and ‘70s Congresswomen Barbara Jorden and Shirley Chisholm were our inspirations. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun shattered the glass ceiling for Harris. Justices Ginsburg and Kagan transformed the Supreme Court. My Yale Law School classmate, Justice Sotomayor, continues to hold up “that blood stained freedom banner.”

Locally and at Penn State my friend, colleague and mentor Grace Hampton was the first African American woman to be appointed vice-provost. Professors Peg French and Helen Manfull opened the door and helped me and many others take a seat at the table. Former State College Mayor Elizabeth Goreham built bridges to build our multicultural community. WPSU’s Patty Satalia conducted over 6,000 interviews in 30 years at the station. The Centre Daily Times executive editor, Jessica McAllister, is keeping the paper afloat. Marie Hardin, dean of the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, helped garner a $30 million donation to the university from Donald P. Bellisario. Dr. Hari M. Osofsky is the dean of Penn State Law and Penn State School of International Affairs. Athletic Director Sandy Barbour was selected by Forbes Magazine as the 13th most powerful woman in sports.

Without these women and millions more like them, not half but the entire sky could very easily have fallen during recent multiple disasters. It looks like we might make it back ... better. Now what? It is time to put the Equal Rights Amendment back on the table. Pay equity is no longer an issue but a necessity. There is still electoral work to be done. There are only 143 women in Congress out of 535 members.

What goes around, must come around. The clock is pointed to now.