Over 450 women Flashed their Red Shoes yesterday to celebrate Women’s Equality Day. This is the story behind FLASH YOUR RED SHOES.
A special thanks goes to the young women who are on the Sole Sisters Film Project Team- Lan, Alyx, Kristen, Nadia, Valen and Laura
This summer my SOLE SISTERS interns, Lan, Alyx and Nadia, wanted to do something special that was meaningful, fun and that they could call their own. This is a time when we Baby Boomers have to realize that today’s college age co-eds don’t recognize the names Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem or even Ann Richards. These bright young women know so little about the battles we fought. This is frightening for me – a woman who grew up surrounded by feminists who picked up protest signs and marched for women’s rights. I fear we are losing our herstory. So when my interns wanted to commemorate Women’s Equality Day, I was delighted. I told them to research what it meant.
In true generation gap style they thought it was a great idea if women around the world would wear Red Shoes on that day. I tried to explain that the suffragists wore all white. Then I remembered that Alice Paul had made banners in purple and gold because she wanted to present Equality messages in beautiful colors on huge banners. I actually held one of those banners when I was doing research for our film DREAMS OF EQUALITY, about women’s rights.
My interns began their campaign with emails to women and bloggers urging them to participate in FLASH YOUR RED SHOE Day on August 26th. Their FLASH YOUR RED SHOE Day is a call to create a global community while remembering there are women who live in oppression.
To find out more about this project, go to SOLESISTERSFILM.com . Over 200 people signed up the first week. This more than doubled by yesterday.
In the early 1900’s women sat at manual typewriters and tirelessly banged out letters to congressmen and wrote petitions to Congress and the President. They rode trains to small towns giving speeches. They marched and held town hall meetings around the country. I doubt if their shoes were white. I do suspect that their feet were bloody from walking so much trying to get support from the masses. Women in the United States were given the right to vote on August 26, 1920 when the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was signed. The amendment was first introduced many years earlier in 1878.
Can you imagine how much easier it would have been for our suffragists to reach hundreds, maybe thousands of women, with one email, one facebook event, on viral video? Winning the right to vote would have come so much sooner.
Over 450 women wore their Red Shoes on Friday, August 26th for Women’s Equality Day. In Dallas 83 year-old Ginny Whitehill wore red shoes to City Hall where the Mayor proclaimed Women’s Equality Day. Ginny is the daughter of a suffrgist and has worked tirelessly for women’s rights. Flash your shoes and your spirit to remember our Sisters around the world. And of course, visit us at www.solesistersfilm.com and send us your story and picture.
Our stories change, our heroines change, but as women we create lasting bonds and strong communities. That is
what SOLE SISTERS is all about.
Happy Women’s Equality Day!
Share this with your friends and don’t forget to wear your Red Shoes!
