March is Women’s History Month. If you all recollect my thoughts from Black History Month -highlighting a group of people for a month makes me distressed, because I think we learn more from history as a whole then in its parts – kinda a segregation of history. And here is the hard truth – Racism and Sexism still exist, and having a month singling out a group is not a cure. We need equal rights, and I believe we have hit a plateau in our human rights it’s still short of actual equality. This is a complex but changeable situation. So I am just going to throw out some facts for you all to mull over.

Two of the great equalizers are money and power. But here is the rub. The Gender Pay Gap has stalled out around 75-79% for the past 10 years.   Women are still making 79% of what a man makes. And, if you are a black women it is 74% compared to a white male. And the crazy thing is, the more educated you get the wider the gap between men and women. So those student loans we all have – men can pay it off faster by like 7 years. Oh, and let’s talk about age and income. For women, ages of 35-44, have topped out on what they can earn. Males continue to get pay increases straight through to their 60’s. This of course is linked to the statistics that women are more likely to divert their career path to a more flexible job at lower pay because they are the primary caregiver in their house, that men don’t typical get paid maternity leave and if they do it’s short term, and that the disparity is hidden in sign on bonus, annual bonuses, stock plans, and other benefits.

This disparity continues around women in power positions with elected heads of state worldwide (see map above), women holding CEO positions (4.0% in S&P 500 companies), and in our government (20 female senators out of 100, 84 women out of 435 or 19.3% in The House of Representatives). “Yippers people, in America we move at a snail’s pace when it comes to equality. In 1971 Switzerland final legalized women’s voting rights and they elected a woman president 27 years later. We are closing on 100 years after the women’s right to vote and have had only one woman make it to Speaker of the House and never in the senate as a majority or minority leaders or the president.

Now I am not advocating for you all to vote for Hilary- do what you want with that. We need to be more grassroots about this. What I am saying is, if you are a woman, advocate for yourself at your work and your home. And if you are a man advocate for your wife, daughter, sister, or mother. So until we are at that point in our history where we can look forward in equality and backward at the whole picture, I will honor the ladies in March.

References: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/30/about-one-in-ten-of-todays-world-leaders-are-women/ ; http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/

P.S. I have tacked on some cool ladies to your sign. Remember signs that have * it’s a big week for you.

Aries – Two of Pentacles – Whew, you are done with Rods – good work! Now on to Two of Pentacles, this week it’s all about balance. That new idea you been brewing for the past six weeks, it’s time to work on making it happen. The challenge from the Two of Pentacles is to do it slowly and methodically – experimenting, balancing and weighing out how this will work in your new schema. http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_williams_mary_lou.htm Mary Lou Williams – Jazz Composer

Taurus – Ten of Pentacles – I hope you all took the time to relax and mend last week, because the Ten of Pentacles is here to get you back into the game. You will have a full plate this week and almost everything you do will come with ease. However, the challenge with the Ten of Pentacles, especially for Taurus, is when your plate is full on the pentacle(material) plain you all forget that the mind and spirit is what got you there. You all know but if you say “Oh I’m busy doing this cool thing so I’ll put off meditating/exercising/alone time just for today”. Please do it. The things you are putting off might be the things that are keeping you balanced.    http://www.amazingwomeninhistory.com/madam-c-j-walker-self-made-millionaire/ Madame CJ Walker – first woman millionaire
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