On March 8, 2017, Highlander Institute is working in limited capacity due to our support and participation in the Day Without A Women/ International Women’s Strike.
This day is a recognition of the enormous value that women of all backgrounds add to our socio-economic system — and the pervasive and systemic gender-based inequalities that still exist within our society, from the wage gap, to discrimination, sexual harassment, and job insecurity.
In education, women face persistent wage differentials. Varied concentrations of women in leadership roles across schools and districts have resulted in earnings that are consistently 20% lower than that of men in the educational sector. In higher education especially, women accounted for just 26% of college presidencies, with people of color accounting for only 14%.
This differential plays out in many forms- what is valued, taught and measured within the educational system is directly tied to power and privilege.
We work each day to create equitable, just educational systems that meet the needs of all students in this complex world. To this end, educational systems must be representative of all genders, races, ethnicities, religions, and orientations at all roles of leadership. We believe that you can’t be what you can’t see.
We realize that as a nonprofit organization, we have tremendous privilege in terms of scheduling and supporting events like today. Women across many sectors (including education) and those in our most vulnerable communities will not have the ability to join the strike today.
We strike for them.
