Women's Equality Day 2012

"Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?" isn't your every day verbal outcry for justice heard in modern-day America. But over the seventy-two years between the first major women’s rights conference in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, women were demanding to be heard.
    Despite the milestone that occurred on Capitol Hill, a waning interest among female-centered activism overshadowed the atmosphere.

It wasn’t until fifty years later on August 26^th when Betty Friedan and the National Organization of Women organized a nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality that turned the fuel into fire.

More than ninety major cities and small towns organized demonstrations, lobbied and marched for equal opportunities in employment and education. Lady Liberty was taken over by forty-two feet of banners hanging from her crown stating “Women of the World Unite.” An organized group managed to stop the ticker at the American Stock Exchange and 50,000 women marched 5^th Avenue in Manhattan. In Chicago, an entirely women-run world’s fair highlighted the determination to alter public opinion about women’s roles in contrast to their exclusion to participate.

Drawing such national attention allowed Representative Bella Abzug (D-NY) to introduce a bill in 1971 that passed and designated August 26^th of each year as Women’s Equality Day. Every president since then is authorized to issue a proclamation recognizing the day.

Today, women hold political and educational leadership roles, are CEOs of billion dollar companies, entrepreneurs, control executive editorial positions and dare to give back as philanthropists. Although only nine years have passed for FORBES to rank the 100 most powerful women in the world, one must not forget those impacting their world without making headlines.

As we approach the date that marks women’s continued fight for equal rights, The M Report profiles those women in their designated field that corresponds with the theme for Women’s History Month 2013: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Read President Obama’s 2012 “Presidential Proclamation” here

"One thing I do love about the field of science, what matters more is proving your worth--being smart and being able to show for it"

Aleksandra Ablan

Chemist 1- Stability Department, Quality Control at West-Ward Pharmaceuticals

M: What are your responsibilities in a nutshell?
A: I perform numerous tests on different kinds of drugs on the market to ensure the active ingredient is what is actually in the product, its effectiveness, and the quality of each product.


M: Describe a typical day in the office
A: In the morning, I create the solutions and samples that are needed to perform the specified test for each drug has. Samples can take from as little as one hour to three.

 In the afternoon (usually after lunch) when the samples are prepared, I set up the system that the test is run on. I troubleshoot the machine and fix problems when needed, and test inject the samples to make sure that the samples are created properly. Late in the afternoon, the run is started and samples begin to be analyzed. 

M: What is your perspective on how far women have come since given the right to vote in the United States?
A: Women have definitely come a long way, but there is still so much more where we can go. To see how women used to be seen and how they were treated is just baffling to me sometimes. But the one thing I do love about the field of science, what matters more is proving your worth—being smart and being able to show for it. And I think that state of mind needs to be the way in all places of work. 

M: Do you feel women are closing the gap in the workplace?
A: I do feel that women have closed the gap in the workplace. I think that the company I work for is a great example of gender equality. There are plenty of women in upper management positions at West-Ward. The assistant director of the laboratory is a very intelligent and knowledgeable woman who works hard on solving problems we have with certain drugs and/or tests. More and more I read women are becoming CEOs and VPs of companies and running those companies with success. I think the general population is slowly starting to see that women are just as fierce as men when put in situations. Us women are proving our worth and it's starting to show in everyday life.