On the road to equality there is no better place for blacks to detour around American values than in forgoing its example in the treatment of its women and the organization of its family.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the need to recognize and improve the treatment of women in order to achieve true equality for all, especially for the black community.
Eleanor Holmes Norton points out that the pursuit of racial equality cannot ignore the systemic issues present in the treatment of women and family structures within American society. By highlighting these specific challenges, she suggests that the injustices faced by black individuals are intertwined with gender-related inequalities, indicating that true progress in equality requires addressing both fronts simultaneously.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of social justice, I might say, 'As Eleanor Holmes Norton once said, on the road to equality...' to highlight gender issues.
Affirmative action is the most important modern anti-discrimination technique ever instituted in the United States. It is the one tool that has had a demonstrable effect on discrimination. No one who knows anything about the subject would say it hasn't worked. It has certainly done something, or else it wouldn't have provoked so much opposition.
I agree that income disparity is the great issue of our time. It is even broader and more difficult than the civil rights issues of the 1960s. The '99 percent' is not just a slogan. The disparity in income has left the middle class with lowered, not rising, income, and the poor unable to reach the middle class.
Affirmative action is the most important antidiscrimination technique ever instituted in the United States. It is the one tool that has had a demonstrable effect on discrimination... Affirmative action, by all statistical measures, has been the central ingredient to the creation of the black middle class.
The media says that equality for women has arrived, but if you look around, you still don't see girls playing guitars and having success with it.
We would have every arbitrary barrier thrown down. We would have every path laid open to woman as freely as to man.
Countries with more gender equality have better economic growth. Companies with more women leaders perform better. Peace agreements that include women are more durable. Parliaments with more women enact more legislation on key social issues such as health, education, anti-discrimination and child support. The evidence is clear: equality for women means progress for all.
If a man can coach a female, why can't a female coach a male? When I was looking for a coach, the gender of the coach never occurred to me. It was about who I thought was good and who I could get along with and listen to.
I think the problem is, exceptional women will always succeed. But there are plenty of less-exceptional men who succeed. Until we get the less-exceptional women succeeding equally, we do not have full equality.
My feeling is, having lived in different classes, that people want equality of opportunity... that's the thing that makes me despair: the idea that people aren't given equality of opportunity.
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