“When?” – My Opinion on Roe vs. Wade Today

It is moments like these – when Roe v Wade gets overturned – that I realize my work uplifting women in business, sports, and equality issues as ruthlessly as I have for 30 years means almost nothing.

I remember in 1999, fighting an all-female volunteer board I led as president, that we would not allow men to be speakers. It was a “woman’s business organization” by name and purpose. They challenged me. My response was if we can’t find a woman speaker educated on the subject we want to present, we will move on to another subject before giving a man an opportunity to be in the spotlight and reap financial benefits from the speaking gig. “We already make less money than men because we don’t have a pay equality law, as President of this organization, I put my foot down when it comes to not giving women the chance to make money here!”

I’ve always been a feminist. I’ve always been a business feminist. On day’s like today when the Supreme Court reverses a woman’s right to choose what is best for her body, I’m re-engaged with my deep rooted voice in the matter and will use my vast marketing platform to remind women that women must support women first and foremost in ALL issues – personal choice, equality, business, sports, and fundamental rights.

If the Supreme Court had nine female justices, I doubt Roe v. Wade would have been overturned. Only when we have a majority of women leading in every aspect of life, courts, businesses, leadership roles, and every table where decisions are made will women get an equal shot at life. Men have never walked in our shoes, they never will. They may try to understand, but they can’t. They therefore cannot deeply get why decisions like today’s are excruciating for women. What rights have they lost over time? Name them please.

I only imagine if men – including every man on the Supreme Court who made the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade today – had to live by a law to get a vasectomy by the time they were 25 in order to limit unwanted pregnancies, today’s decision would have stood. When will men, especially conservative men, ever realize women SHOULD have every right that men do? When?