New Voices is a program that broadens the representation of guests across Bloomberg’s media platforms. I was selected to participate in January 2022.
The speakers were David Hall and Rosalind “Roz” Brewer. Romaine Bostick moderated.
David said he is an optimist and believes entrepreneurship is the way forward. He believes AI can be the “tech” expert that levels the playing field for Black women entrepreneurs by allowing AI to handle the coding. Roz echoed his sentiments on entrepreneurship.
Romaine asked Roz about leaving Kimberly-Clark for Walmart. Wasn’t that a demotion?
She acknowledged that it was. But she also said you have to evaluate your skills gap (deficiencies) and look for opportunities to address them. Going to Walmart was an opportunity for Roz to learn retail. At Kimberly-Clark, Walmart had been her customer.
As we acknowledge the 106th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, all while organizing to stop the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act from becoming law, that idea—evaluating our skills gap/deficiencies and looking for ways to address them—has me thinking about voting.
The SAVE Act would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. For women and men whose names do not match the required documents—including those who have married, divorced, or otherwise changed their names—the requirement creates another barrier between eligible voters and the ballot box. The SAVE Act is in direct conflict with the Nineteenth Amendment.
The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, and certified on August 26, 1920. It prohibited the denial or abridgment of voting rights on the basis of sex. Yet it did not deliver voting access to all women.
Black women—particularly in the South—faced poll taxes, literacy tests, racial terror, white primaries, and intimidation until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made federal enforcement more meaningful. Indigenous women were not formally recognized as U.S. citizens until 1924, and many Asian immigrants were barred from naturalization until 1952. Language barriers affecting many Latina, Indigenous, and immigrant voters were not addressed in the Voting Rights Act until 1975.
A formal right without accessible enforcement, inclusive definitions of citizenship, and attention to racialized and gendered administrative barriers is not equal access.
Examining Our Deficiencies
I often reflect on how the political climate is an opportunity to examine our deficiencies as a society.
What are we lacking that would cause anyone to believe restricting voting rights moves us toward the ideals the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution espouses?
What are we lacking that would make women willing to accept barriers to their own political voice?
What are we lacking that would have so many willing to restrict the economic, political, and social participation of so many as we approach the country’s 250th anniversary?
I am convinced it is a lack of empathy for those whose labor keeps the economy running, but who remain impoverished because the economy was never built to serve them.
I am convinced it is a fear that the zero-sum game is real: the pie cannot grow, so your winning means I lose—now and forever.
I am convinced it is a weariness rooted in the belief that democracy, equality, and inclusion do not require continued work.
Evaluating our deficiencies requires confronting the policies designed to push Asian, Black, Hispanic, Indigenous American, and Multiracial women out of public and economic life. By identifying the nuances of administrative harm, we make it difficult for policymakers to claim ignorance.
This August, as part of our WISER Women campaign, we are asking you to give $60 in honor of a woman who has shaped your path. Give in her name. Honor what she built, defended, or made possible. Your gift directly funds the data disaggregation, policy analysis, and advocacy needed to protect all women’s political and economic power.
Stay sharp, rest if you are weary, but keep imagining the American you want.
Rhonda V. Sharpe is the president and founder of the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race. Her research focuses on gender and racial inequality, diversity in STEM, and the demographics of higher education.