One of her top priorities. Last year was the w challenge in recognition of womens equality day. May i ask you to come up on the stage. Hello everybody. I am going to ask all of the folks on the edges to come closer. We want you in the photos. Our Congress Woman we want up here. Move closer. We have plenty of space up here. I think as vivian said, we want to make sure everyone stays for the big group photo afterwards. To kickoff i want to thank the team for pulling this together. Vivian, nicole, isabella, holly. Thank you for putting this event together. I am carmen. I want to welcome you to the Second Annual w challenge kickoff for womens equality day. I have been on Maternity Leave for just a bit, for two months now. It is something else. laughter . I think i have a newfound respect for mothers everywhere and fathers everywhere so a big round of applause to every mother and father who is out there, including the ones on the stage. We are here today not only to celebrate womens equality day. It is so more to bring people together to remember women fighting for the right to vote. It is important to make sure we ask for action. You know, in the United States we have gone a long ways to getting women the right to vote, fighting for the right to vote. We have gone a long ways in terms of better representation than before. We know we still have a very, very long ways to go. We have yet to see the first United States president be a woman. In california we have yet to see the first governor who is a woman, right . In many of our corporations and businesses and government, we have still yet to see women at the very top or in the corporate boardrooms, womens representation. I encourage you to take on the idea of womens equality to encourage women to vote and participate, to also spread your knowledge. The theme of this years challenge is about spreading knowledge and sharing the information that you have. That is why we are so, so thrilled to partner with the San Francisco public library, thank you, michael for our partnership this year. Our challenge should you accept it is not only to vote and to register others to vote, but also to pass on knowledge and take up a book this year. This year one of the books i am recommending for folks to read to share the knowledge is a book called what i told my daughter. Now, i have a young one, she doesnt understand a thing that i am saying at the moment, and i dont understand a thing she is saying to me. I hope one day i will be able to share stories from the leaders behind me and in front of me about all of the things we have struggled to make better in this world. I hope yo you will take on this challenge. I want to introduce our be loved congresswoman who is an author. Congresswoman. [cheers. ] i dont know about you. When i had my first child, i didnt look anything like that after two months. Anyway, welcome everyone to our equality day. 99 years ago today women got the right to vote. It did not come easy. It took 70 years for the right to vote in women. Susan b anthony didnt live to see that day come. Women wore white. They marched in the streets, they went on hunger fasts, they went to jail for the simple idea that women should have the right to vote. Why didnt women have the right to vote . Well, if you listen to George Bernard shaw at the time he said if we give women the right to vote there will be a crushing tax on bachelors. Really . Someone who wrote a column from the seneca falls review said if women got the right to vote. They would get thin lipped, flat handed and flat chested. Oh, my god. I dont think any of those things happened after we got the right to vote. I will tell you this. We are at a point in time where we have a 21st century suffe mo. We have a lot at stake. We passed era in california. Congress passed era47 years ago. We still dont have it in the constitution. Why should we care in even scalia said the constitution require discrimination based on sex . His answer was no, but if the question is does it prohibit discrimination based on sex, the as was also no. It is imperative we recognize the time has come for the era to pass in this country. I hope you join me to make virginia the 38th state and we will strike from the pream bell the deadline that our fathers thought we needed to have in that particular amendment and get it into the constitution. This is an issue of our time. Make no mistake, there is a Supreme Court poised now to overturn roe versus wade. What that means immediately is that one in three women in the United States will live in states that ban abortion. 25 million women will not have the right to seek that Health Procedure on their own. The president just by executive order as he is apartment to do, required if you are a title 10 organization that you could no longer refer Health Clients to a Abortion Clinic if they sought one. You know what that means . Low income women in this country arent able to access healthcare. Planned parent hood was responsible last year for detecting 70,000 cancers in low income women, saving their lives. There is really a lot at stake here. I want you to see this tee shirt and recognize that feminism is for everybody. It is as important to the young girls as young boys. The nation deserves a country in which all of us are created equal. Thank you. [applause. ] our Congress Woman did not mention the book she wrote. I hope you pick up her book undaunted. Read about that. The next speaker is someone i have known for a long time, one of my favorite folks that moved to sacramento. We welcome malia cohen. Thank you. Good evening, ladies. And good evening to the fellows that love the ladies and who standby us and uplift us. How are you this evening . I want you to take a look to your right and left because there are warriors that stand among us and sometimes they look like every day average people. They are doing amazing work in the spaces they acoccupy. Activists, mothers, grandmothers or just working. Every day we have an opportunity to make our mark. I am with a battery of talented women and men. I want to tell you why i am here and why i come to celebrate. First it is my pleasure to join the men and women with us today. I want to welcome back for the cameo appearance coming out of family leave, not retimer, family leave. This is an incredible time because we have women up here from the national level, people from the state level and the local level to celebrate the w challenge initiative. You must know what this is about. This is important to us. We together are gathering to make sure that history is being made every day, and this is one of the days we come together to celebrate to wave our flag and to shout and to proclaim i am woman and i am proud. I am delighted to see my little buddy up here. Who took a break off her first couple weeks of school to join us today. Thank you for being here. We are standing up here to fight as women, as feminist to believe in a better future. For the Young Children with us today and that are out there in the audience. That is why we are here. We are here to celebrate because we are smart and give our strength so women everywhere can achieve equality. We know from the remarks from our wonderful Congress Woman who gave a brief report what is happening. It is disheartening to see the rights we have won being rolled back. As a black woman standing proud before you i understand the full urgency and difficulty of the task before us. In that regard i would like to recommend a wonderful book for you. It is called the bluest eye by Tony Morrison. The reason why i selected this book is because Tony Morrison passed away and she is no longer with us. In regards to this book, it is something that i think is opposed upon us by our culture, and that doesnt make sense. That is the yearning to fit into what beauty is. This is how discrimination cultural stereo types can harm people. A beautiful black girl suffered sexual abuse and was harmed by the society racist views of what the standard of beauty can be. The book, the bluest eye, is by ms. Tony morrison. This is a tough book to read. It speaks to the truth about the cultural biases which keep people back and quite honestly which forces people to doubt themselves. When i read it, it hadmita a pause. Me to take a pause. As women it is to unburden ourselves from the cultural biases that exist and say that it is not okay to treat women with anything less than human dignity. We are proud to let you know we are making history every day by our actions, just by our living and breathing. It is our goal collectively and be right in front of me to continue to change history. We must be bold, unafraid and we must not be afraid to fail. We must stand united. To quote Tony Morrison if there is a book you want to read but it has not been written yet, you must be the one to write it. Lets lift up our voice and write our story, and lets own this. [applause. ] thank you. We are talking about owning our stories, we all have stories to tell. Our own struggles and experiences or living through the things our families have gone through. I want to introduce our next spicker, dis next speaker. She has a number of stories to tell about her history, background. That has made her richer in terms of representative for district five. [applause. ] thank you everyone. Thank you board of equalization president cohen. I love to follow her, not really. Thank you to asses assessor. Are you back but not . And to our amazing congresswoman. I read your book. I went and bought the book. It is an amazing story that you and all of us should read it. I am so proud to be standing with all of these women and men leaders up here that really know what the fight is about. You know, we are lucky to have such Fierce Female leaders locally, hillary, catherine, sandy is not here, but she is very fierce, as you all know. I love sandy. Also, our state leaders. We have an amazing women state leaders, and our mayor of San Francisco, a woman leader. Also, yes, at our federal level. This is really important. You know, it hasnt been, when we think it is 99 years since we got the vote, but it hasnt been that long. It is not equal for everyone. Our africanamerican and asianamerican sisters didnt get to vote until 1948. When we think about this, we have a long way to go. When i stand here, i get really upset and infuriated that our basic human rights as women are really being threatened today. We are going backwards, folks, backwards. We must fight to protect our rights. The city and county of San Francisco will continue to fight and be in that lead. I promise you as a legislator and activist i will work hard for gender justice and equal rights. We will not tolerate disrespect or discrimination. We will support policies that put women in power and leadership. We will fight to finally close the gender gap. That pay gap that we all know is out there. We will fight justice for our missing and murdered sisters. We will fight to control our own bodies and protect our right to choose. So i always feel this way because my grandma used to tell us whatever happens to one of us happens to us all. Whatever happens to one woman, it happens to us all. I need each and every one of you to help me in this work. Are you with me . Are you with me . Yes. So my book that i chose and it sums up my feelings as an activist and woman and legislator. It is girls can. I want to thank everyone for coming. This means a lot. This is a first step. We will see you at the next one. Thank you. [applause. ] thank you. Our next supervisor is not someone who is shy to the fight, someone who has strongly stood for the immigrant community and has one of the most adorable little girls herself. Supervisor hillary ronen. What a pleasure to be there. I remember being on Maternity Leave about six years ago, and i couldnt have organized this with the no sleep, the amount of hands it takes for one will being is extraordinary. Thank you. I was wondering what are we going to do on w day . Carmen, you are amazing. Thank you so much. I want to say for a minute that i am good and mad that planned parent hood has had to withdraw from title nine and therefore there are women who need reproductive healthcare, breast exams, pap smears and abortion and arent going to be able to get it all across this country. I am good and mad that mammas are being torn away from their children at the border and being jailed all across california, texas, arizona because of the policies of this administration around immigration. I am good and mad that our transgender sisters are losing their rights at the federal level and in towns and states across the country and are being murdered and victims to violence at rates like we havent seen before. I am good and mad about all of this. That is why i picked a book called good and mad. The subtitle is the revolutionary power of womens anger. That has been true and the case throughout the history of time. We are powerful, brilliant, we do not give up. We have resolve and we are going to fix all of these horrendous issues we are facing today because our power is revolutionary and we are unstoppable. Thank you. [applause. ] i want to recognize a few people who have joined us today. Our treasurer, jose. District 10 supervisor walton. School board member jenny lamb. Our bart board member, janice lee. Commissioner on the status of women, debbie mess io and julie. Our fire chief janine nicholson, Vice President of our Elections Commission charlotte hill, our Department Head on the department of status of women emilie and School Board Member previously. And of course the former Police Commissioner susie. Our district two member stephanie is making sure communities are safe and sound. She is a new supervisor. She has been here quite sometime but if you take a look at social media this woman is everywhere. I dont know how she gets from place to place. Every time i look at a feed i see her on mine. Here is catherine stephanie, district two supervisor. Hey everybody, how are you doing . I want be to thank everybody for joining us and for our assessor for bringing us altogether again. It is my privilege to join everyone up here. These powerful women who have been my mentors and my inspiration. Especially malia cohen and Council Member speer who has done so much for gun prevention. They say 99 years ago women were not given the right to vote. We had to fight for it as Congress Women speer said. Women were jailed, forcefed because theyder were on hunger strikes. We have had to fight and fight to win so many more victories since the 19th amendment was passed. In San Francisco we have incredible women serving as senators and nancy pelosi, our lieutenantgovernor and mayor. We are proving when women run, women win. We know we have so much work to do. Last year i stood here and my colleagues we celebrated the second ever women majority on the board of supervisors. There were seven women on the board of supervisors when i was here last year. Now there are only four out of 11 supervisors that are women. We can do better. We have women running for supervisor and District Attorney and president. It is so important now more than ever to support these amazing women candidates. Women get things done. Women continue to fight for equal pay, equal treatment and equal representation. I am proud to require that women be representedded in public art. I am thrilled and i hope they are in the final selection of the sculpture outside the main library. I cannot wait to see that. To see the changes in the city, california and across the United States is going to take all of us. My he roar says it is about hero says all or none of us. Women have to get out and vote. Our lives depend on it because we know they do. As supervisor ronen said when we see babies ripped from mothers at the border we have to get out and vote and tell everybody that is wrong. When republican legislators are trying to take away womens right to make our own healthcare decisions, we have to vote. We have to tell everybody else to voted as well. When we know if you are a woman in this country you are 16 times to die by gun violence by a partner than any other country. We have to vote. I want to recommend the life and times of rut ruth ginsburg. My 10yearold daughter is obsessed with rbg. We have bubble heads and purses and minutes. It is called judgment. She is absolutely obsessed. We also have to pray. Anyone who prays we need to pray for rbg. When she was asked how many women will be enough on the Supreme Court . She said when there are nine. There have been nine men before and no one ever raised an issue about that. Rbg people, thank you again, carmen. [applause. ] Debbie Rafael on the director of the department of environment and hello bautista is here as well. Our next speaker is a woman leaving Public Service to retire not before she become the first ever woman sheriff to serve. Vicky. applause . Thank you, carmen. Thank you, senator, and every other person up on the stage who spoke today. Malia was the first person who called to say will you run for sheriff . I said i dont know i will get back to you. You know what happens, i did. In 2016, i became the first female elected sheriff in the history of San Francisco. There were 134 sheriffs before me. All of them were men, obviously. How did this happen . The first 70 years in Sheriffs Department women werent allowed the right to vote. In 1975 they began accepting women as deputy that was like the rank of what the men were offered. I know. I was a member of that First Recruiting list. I think of Jeanine Nicholson who was probably one of the first women in the San FranciscoFire Department who is now the chief of the department. In 1978, San Francisco switched to district supervisors instead of electing at large. We had 11 supervisors elected women. Dianne feinstein was the supervisor prior to that. That was big news. Before this San Francisco voters elected women to the board of supervisor four times in 121 years. The political pipeline in San Francisco began to be built. There were many women supervisors. There are more than 30 so i didnt want to go through them and take up our time. How did this happen . Women voted. My mother and sisters voted. They liked Strong Female leaders who make things happen. I want to take a side and say we have a lot of strong women that are both appointed and working in departments from the clerks to the people working on muni. The sheriff department, Fire Department, city hall and elsewhere. Not just government. But we have strong women everywhere. We have to be proud of these women. San francisco supports women candidates. Look at the national stage. We have cam malaharris and nancy pelosi from San Francisco. We are proud of progress and we cannot be complacent. That is what you are hearing today. It didnt escape me i am the only one that was not a legislature at one time or current legislator. I had a career in the department and i chose to vote. What can you do . You can bring Voter Registration forms with you wherever you go. How many people have a Registration Form in their purse or pocket . Dont assume that your family members and friends are registered. Make sure they are registered. Talk to them about becoming registered and give them a form. Candidates, put a Voter Registration ling on your website. Make sure people can link to Voter Registration. Each of our experiences helps us to become the person we are. In my case the employment list in an nontraditional job was the first step i took to becoming the first elected woman sheriff. That is a hint. We are all becoming each day of our lives with the ability to make choices for the betterment of society. The book i chose on the New York Times bestseller list 40 weeks is becoming by Michelle Obama which i am sure all of you are familiar with. One of the coats quotes. Do we settle for the world as it is or work for the world as it should be. I choose to be inspired by her words and work for the world asker it should be. One step is to have a healthy democracy that includes women, men, people of every race, gender, every demographic to affect changes in the status and ensure we register more people to vote and encourage them to vote at every tint. Voting every opportunity. Voting is where we have an equal say. Thank you so much. [applause. ] thank you for your Public Service, sheriff. Join me in a big round of applause to her. [applause. ] thank you. Now we have two more speakers. The next is going to do something very special. It is the special part of our program. In honor of womens equality day we want to recognize a an uns ug hero. The unsung hero. She will introduce our new winner. How is it going . Okay. Well, it is time to bring it home. It is time to understand why we are here today and what we are going to do. First, thank you to assessor carmen and vivian pope for organizing this event. As we go to the Centennial Anniversary of the 19th amendment in 2020, it is important to remember this struggle began long before the 19th amendment passed. For native and black women it was not guaranteed in 1920. It is not guaranteed today. Talk about voter suppression. As we see it going on, we know that we all need to have a seat at the table. We know that we are underrepresented here. What do we need to do about it . I will ask one more time. Malia cohen is on it. What do we need to do about it . Vote. Thank you. When i vote i honor my ancestors. When i vote, it is my privilege. It is my right because i am the grandchild. I am the niece, the daughter of teachers, migrant workers, sharecroppers that denied the right to vote several times. So my book is based on that and the history of this movement. I chose women, race and class by angela davis. We know that representation matters. Without a seat at the table our voices are issues what matters to us is not considered. For this w challenge we also have to talk about young people and how important they are. They are the least likely of all age groups to vote. Young people who develop the habit early of voting become lifelong voters. Today it is my honor and my privilege to introduce someone who wasnt just up here talking saying i dont have the power but took it. How did she take it . When she was denied the ability to vote by her aids, she preregistered 130 people to vote. She worked at polls, she is involved every day. I would like to ask the assessor to join me as we present the certificate of appreciation and thanks to ms. Riley thompson for taking action every day and making sure that her generation can survive and thrive in this nation. [applause. ] hello everyone. I am riley thompson. For the past two years i worked with the department of elections to preregister my peers to vote. It allows 16 and 17year old to fill out the paperwork with the benefit of time and informed individual to help them making it simpler to vote when of age. Many older piers mentioned how difficult it was to figure out how to register when they turned 18 causing them to miss voting in the election. This is important to me because i believe in the power of voting to create change. It is away for every one to have a say in how the government functions on a local and national level. Preregistration is the way to break down the barriers that bar many in the country from exercising this right. I became involved with the department of elections at the end of 2017. I was having conversations and was understanding how many obstacles there were. Throughout the course of my work with the department of elections, i have been able to register over 130 students and havandenlisted over 15 poll wor. [applause. ] through working with the department and serving as a polworker myself i have seen how government in regards to voting affects regular people and their lives. I represent the youth perspective. I see the layout of voting booths that can make a impact. Interning with supervisor stephanies office i have seen the other side when government functions at best it improves the over all quality of life. This has taught me how much voting can make an impact especially on the local level where it is less discussed and considered and how important it is to stay engaged. I went to a high school where politics was part of the conversation whether it impacted the community or not. I saw this consistent Political Engagement as the norm before i began my work with the department of elections. Youth voter turnout is much lower than other age groupings. It is not easy to stay engaged especially in this icelating climate. This is when it is most important to do so. Regardless of the direction you want the country and world to go. This is a moment of great change. Involvement and engagement in the political system allows a brew h blueprint for the future path and create the world you want to see. Bad film innist by bad feminist by roxanne gay. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you so much for everything you have done to preregister voters. Before the last speaker i want to say thank you for coming. Remember the w challenge is not only about registering others to vote, voting yourself and making sure your voice is heard. Pass on the knowledge. Recommend a book and make sure someone that has something important to say you help them spread that love. I am going to introduce leah edwards from the league of women voters. We had 48 Partner Organizations who helped sponsor this event spreading the message about the w challenge. Leah. [applause. ] thank you so much for being here today and thank you so much to the amazing female leaders for being here and sharing their knowledge with us. I would appreciate if we could give them a round of applause for the great work they have done and commitment to Public Service and womens equality. We are celebrating the 99th anniversary of women getting the right to vote. This was a tough fight. Women were arrested and jailed, there were hunger strikes and it took the collective action of tens of thousands of women to secure this fundamental right. Iron jawed angels details the struggles and pain that women dured to have a say in the future. The league of women voters is recommending the film, not the book. We are giving you a break. It is important to reflect on this history and use it as a fight toward a better future. I know i am fortunate to enjoy rights. The league of women voters has been around for almost 100 years. I have met so many trailblazers fighting for womens equality for decades. I know they did not hav have its as see see as i did. We woman told me when she was my age she could not get a credit card in her name. This shows how much progress is possible in one lifetime. There is still a lot of work to be done. Recently i met a woman who is an advocat for equal rights since the 1970s when it was first introduced. She is waiting for women to have equal protections under the constitution. We all know women facing discrimination, working a fulltime job and fill doing the housework or question their ability to serve. It is so important for us to continue this fight for womens equality. One important step that we all need to be taking as citizens of this country is the right to vote. It gives you a role in shaping the future of the country. It is a critical first step. You can go a lot further. United states has such a rich history of change through active crim, self rights, men, rights we need to be actively participating in society and government to drive is change we want to see in the world. I encourage you to make your voice heard, participate in an upcoming march. Volunteer for a cause you care about, run for office. Take the next step. I hope you are ready to take action as we work towards a more equal future for women. We have a long way to equality. We are making progress. If anyone is an indication the future is bright. Thank you all so much for being here. We had incredible partners. I will read off names to thank them. Please as i read off the Organization Name please come up. We will get a big group people. Thank you to the asianamerican advancing justice, community center, fund, Asian Pacific island of public affairs, neighborhood center, black women organized for political action, Childrens Council of San Francisco, Chinatown Community childrens center, Community Youth center, core. Diamond heights yont. Dress for success San Francisco. Equal rights advocates. Family connection, immigrants foundation, stem resources, filipino network, gun moon residence hall, housing and economics rights. Jewish relations council. Lifeons club. Northeast Community Credit union. Richmond neighborhood center, San Francisco chamber of commerce, womens political community. South mission bay neighborhood, sunset youth services, holt council of San Francisco, womens building, United Nations association, San Francisco, womens environmental. Ymca, ywca and lets give all of these partners a round of applause. [applause. ] it is an impressive list. Come up and join us as we take this picture to commemorate the day. My name is alan schumer. I am a fourth generation san franciscan. In december, this building will be 103 years of age. It is an incredibly rich, rich history. [ ] my core responsibility as city hall historian is to keep the history of this building alive. I am also the tour program manager, and i chair the city advisory commission. I have two ways of looking at my life. I want it to be i wanted to be a Fashion Designer for the movies, and the other one, a political figure because i had some force from family members, so it was a constant battle between both. I ended up, for many years, doing the fashion, not for the movies, but for for san franciscan his and then in turn, big changes, and now i am here. The work that i do at city hall makes my life a broader, a richer, more fulfilling than if i was doing something in the Garment Industry. I had the opportunity to develop relationships with my docents. It is almost like an extended family. I have formed incredible relationships with them, and also some of the people that come to take a tour. She was a dressmaker of the first order. I would go visit her, and it was a special treat. I was a tiny little girl. I would go with my wool coat on and my special little dress because at that period in time, girls did not wear pants. The Garment Industry had the at the time that i was in it and i was a retailer, as well as the designer, was not particularly favourable to women. You will see the predominant designers, owners of huge complexes are huge stores were all male. Women were sort of relegated to a lesser position, so that, you reached a point where it was a difficult to survive and survive financially. There was a woman by the name of diana. She was editor of the bazaar, and evoke, and went on and she was a miraculous individual, but she had something that was a very unique. She classified it as a third i. Will lewis brown junior, who was mayor of San Francisco, and was the champion of reopening this building on january 5th of 1999. I believe he has not a third eye , but some kind of antenna attached to his head because he had the ability to go through this building almost on a daily basis during the restoration and corrects everything so that it would appear as it was when it opened in december of 1915. The board of supervisors approved that, i signed it into law. Jeffrey heller, the city and county of San Francisco oh, and and your band of architects a great thing, just a great thing. To impart to the history of this building is remarkable. To see a person who comes in with a gloomy look on their face , and all of a sudden you Start Talking about this building, the gloomy look disappears and a smile registers across their face. With children, and i do mainly all of the childrens tours, that is a totally different feeling because you are imparting knowledge that they have no idea where it came from, how it was developed, and you can Start Talking about how things were before we had computer screens, cell phones, lake in 1915, the mayor of San Francisco used to answer the telephone and he would say, good morning, this is the mayor. At times, my clothes make me feel powerful. Powerful in a different sense. I am not the biggest person in the world, so therefore, i have to have something that would draw your eye to me. Usually i do that through color, or just the simplicity of the look, or sometimes the complication of the look. I have had people say, do those shoes really match that outfit . Retirement to me is a very strange words. I dont really ever want to retire because i would like to be able to impart the knowledge that i have, the knowledge that i have learned and the ongoing honor of working in the peoples palace. You want a longterm career, and you truly want to give something to do whatever you do, so long as you know that you are giving to someone or something youre then yourself. Follow your passion and learn how to enrich the feelings along the way. Shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses, and challenges residents to do their shopping within the 49 square miles of San Francisco. By supporting local services in our neighborhood, we help San Francisco remain unique, successful, and vibrant. So where will you shop and dine in the 49 . I am the owner of this restaurant. We have been here in north beach over 100 years. [speaking foreign language] [ ] [speaking foreign language] [ ] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [ ] [ ]