Date: 2015-03-23
Speaker: WATSON COLEMAN (democrat)
Chamber: H

I want to thank the gentlewoman. my colleague from Illinois. for providing this opportunity for me to share with you this evening. I am also honored to join my Congressional Black Caucus colleagues on the floor as we celebrate Womens History Month. and I am particularly grateful to our chairman. Chairman Butterfield. This years commemoration of the women who have shaped this Nation is especially important here in this body because. for the first time. more than 100 women hold seats. speaking on behalf of Americans from Alaska to Florida. This year. the Congressional Black Caucus includes 20 women who are fighting for working families. for better wages. for more funding for better education. and for the many other policies that will make our Nation stronger and our families healthier. Mr. Speaker. I am honored to be the very first African American woman to represent the State of New Jersey in Congress and to be the only woman currently serving in this delegation. These are outstanding firsts. and I am thrilled to be one of them. but this is 2015. Mr. Speaker. and we shouldnt still be speaking about "firsts" and "onlys" when it comes to women. There may be 104 of us. but women still make up only 20 percent of Congress while we make up more than half of the population. Women across this country still earn just 78 cents for every $1 that is earned by men. and we have heard that women of color. particularly African American women. earn even less than this. Women still face a culture that questions our ability to excel in science and techfocused fields. a culture that rushes to blame victims of sexual assault instead of protecting them. a culture that doubts that women are capable of making choices about their own health without the interference from lawmakers. who in the majority are men. Womens History Month is about celebrating trailblazers. but it is also about honoring the strength of all women and recognizing that we are just as capable as men and are just as ready to bring something to the table. We just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the marches from Selma to Montgomery. and in the process. we paid tribute to many of the leaders who risked their lives on the Edmund Pettus Bridge that day. Most people connect these events with Dr. Martin Luther King or our esteemed colleague Congressman JOHN LEWIS. but Amelia Boynton Robinson was among the first to bring the organizers to Selma. Even fewer know Viola Liuzzo. who paid the ultimate price for joining the march as she saw men and women brutalized on that bridge purely because of the color of their skin. I mention those names. Mr. Speaker. because. when it comes down to it. women have been leading for generations. even if it has been behind the scenes and without recognition. I join my colleagues in paying homage to a long history of amazing women. but I also ask every Member of this body: What are we doing to make history? What are we doing to build an economy in which women are equals and a society in which women are respected? What are we doing to make the phrase the "first woman of history" an unnecessary question? When we look at the opportunities before us. we know. Mr. Speaker. it is now that we have the opportunity to make historyright now. We have the opportunity to make history with the first woman. an African American. as the U.S. Attorney General of this great country. and we have an opportunity in the near future to say that there has been a woman elected President of the United States.