A few weeks ago, I stood in front of 48 undergraduates - mostly Cal student athletes - in my course on Equity Fluent Leadership and Personal Brand. My slides proudly proclaimed that June would mark the 50-year anniversary of the passage of Title IX. We discussed the NCAA women’s basketball championship finals and the University of South Carolina’s wildly thrilling win the night before. We celebrated that it was the first time the women were allowed to use the men’s brand of “March Madness” for their championship series. While the energy in the classroom was hopeful and positive, I recall feeling a decent amount of cognitive dissonance around framing this as “women’s progress” even though I know Title IX has indeed led to significant progress around gender equity in collegiate sports. 

The irony of the timespan of 50 years has also weighed heavily on my mind. It has been projected that women’s progress in the business arena has indeed been set back 50 years due to the devastating impact of COVID, particularly on working women with children and women of color. I thought back to the multitude of corporate keynotes and workshops I delivered in March as we were celebrating Women’s History Month. It was challenging to inspire and project hope about the overall progress of women, while being realistic in positioning that progress in the current context of significant backward momentum. It felt like whiplash.  In each workshop, I would repeat the phrase: Women are not alright. I watched as the women in the audience wearily nodded their heads with a slight look of relief in the validation of their current reality. 

And then this week, Alito’s draft opinion was leaked, threatening to overturn Roe v. Wade. We see that number once again: 50 years. This opinion, if passed, will bring a screeching halt to nearly 50 years of reproductive freedom, to having control over our choices and our bodies, and to being free from unreasonable government interference. Women are not alright. We will suffer education losses, see decreased labor force participation, and lose progress on earnings - not to mention the devastating effects on our health. The ensuing avalanche of effects will not only crush the gains that have been made, but will send “women’s progress” on a backwards-moving train at very high speed, all in the wake of COVID’s destruction.

Overturning Roe v. Wade stabs at the very heart of all that we do in EGAL. It severely threatens not only gender equity, but also equity of race, income level, sexual orientation and more. 

Team EGAL has put together this list of resources highlighting powerful and relevant human stories, actions for individuals, actions for and by business leaders, and additional readings. It’s more than just women who are not alright. It’s time for a full court press to stop this whiplash. We hope you are getting into position.