We chose for the month of August to highlight Woman’s Equity Day. This day is celebrated every August 26^th to commemorate the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to our Constitution in 1920. This amendment prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on gender. Four names to remember in the early fight for woman’s suffrage are Elizabeth Cady Staton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and Sojourner Truth.

Elizabeth Cady Staton in 1848 ran the first meeting whose only purpose was to discuss the rights of women, the Seneca Falls Conference.

Susan B. Anthony worked alongside Elizabeth Cady Staton fighting for women’s rights. She gave many speeches on the topic across the country and was also an outspoken abolitionist. Her Quaker upbringing shaped her beliefs that everyone is created equal.

Lucretia Mott was also a Quaker and an outspoken orator for gender and racial equality in the 1840’s.

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery. She dedicated her life as well to social injustice, especially in regards to gender and racial issues. She escaped slavery with her daughter and was the first Black woman to win back her son in the courts against a white man in 1828. There have been many more worthy activists for woman’s rights over the years.

Though Woman’s Equity Day memorializes a very important event, there is still a long way to go to realize equity of genders as evidence by yet another special day in August, August 13^th, Black Woman’s Equal Pay Day. In the US (Pew Research Center) women make 85% of what their male counter parts make and Black women make 63 cents for every dollar a white non-Hispanic male makes.

According to a 2021 World Bank study only 10 countries had a perfect score when it came to legislation on gender equity: Belgium, France, Denmark, Latvia, Luxembourg, Sweden, Canada, Iceland, Portugal, and Ireland. The US did not make it into the top 30 countries because of lack of legislation around parental leave, equal pay and equal pensions. On a good note, the US ranked right along Taiwan and Albania.

 From Your Pediatric Diversity Committee 

UPCOMING DIVERSITY TOWN HALL

Topic: “Cultural Intelligence” led by Zach Pettigrew, MD

Date: Thursday, August 5, 2021

Time: 12:00p-1:00p

Location: Join Here Via Zoom

As videos of horrific attacks targeting Asian American elders permeate the news and social media, it has brought much-needed attention to the rise in anti-Asian racism and hate crimes since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The hate, fed by the stigmatizing language like “China virus” and “kung flu” used repeatedly by U.S. government leaders since March 2020, has not subsided over time. Eighty-four-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee of San Francisco died of his injuries after being violently shoved to the ground on January 28. His attack is part of a disturbing pattern of crimes against Asian Americans, who have been assaulted, spat on, slashed, robbed, and more. Nearly 3,000 incidents were recorded in the United States between March and December 2020 by Stop AAPI Hate, a national reporting center that tracks these incidents of hate and discrimination. It’s clear that something more needs to be done…but what? Click here to read the full article…

Dr. Chi-Cheng Huang is a board certified hospitalist and pediatrician who went on a life-changing journey when he took a year off from Harvard Medical School. Originally on a “spiritual” mission with a church in Boston, Dr. Huang traveled to La Paz, Bolivia, to work at an orphanage. He soon realized the dire need for both emotional and physical support for thousands of “invisible children” living on the streets and even in the sewers of La Paz. Since many of the children suffered physical abuse from adults, they were not readily trusting of him. So, Dr. Huang went out from 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM, when most of the children were out, to offer them care. He soon became an important figure in their lives, even as he was becoming physically and mentally burned out by the late hours. The trajectory of his and hundreds of children’s lives changed when, one night, he was treating a child prostitute who asked for three things: a home where she and other children could be safe, Huang’s continued presence in their lives, and for Huang to tell their stories. This led him to found the Bolivian Street Children Project, a non-profit dedicated to sheltering the street children, and to write the book When Invisible Children Sing, detailing his experiences with the children he treated. For his humanitarian work, he has earned awards such as the Taiwanese American Foundation-Asian Pacific Public Affairs Division’s Civil Servant of the Year Award (2001), Harvard’s Gold Stethoscope Award for Teaching (2003), and Boston University School of Medicine’s Association of American Medical Colleges Humanism Award (2004). He currently works in Winston Salem, NC and 1 other location and specializes in Internal Medicine/Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Other Specialty and Pediatrics. Dr. Huang is also affiliated with Lahey Hospital & Medical Center.

The Person You Mean To Be

Summary: An inspiring guide from Dolly Chugh, an award-winning social psychologist at the New York University Stern School of Business, on how to confront difficult issues including sexism, racism, inequality, and injustice so that you can make the world (and yourself) better.

August is National Civility Month

August 9 – International Day of the World’s Indigenous People

August 9 – Hijri New Year (Muslim)

August 17 – Marcus Garvey Day

August 19 – World Humanitarian Day

August 26 – Women’s Equality Day

August 29 – Krishna Janmashtami (Hindu)

Stuart Gold, MD - Committee Chair

Alessandra Angelino, MD

Benny Joyner, MD

Christian Lawrence, MD

Denita Moore

Gretter Benitez, MD

Jennifer Gutierrez-Wu, MD

Jennifer McElroy

Kenya McNeal-Trice, MD

Martha Perry, MD

Nina Jain, MD

Robin Howard

Steven Weinberg, MD

Zachary Pettigrew, MD