Ayanna Pressley: “The great poet and pioneer of righteous rage, Audre Lorde, once said: ``I am not free while any woman is unfree, even…”

“The great poet and pioneer of righteous rage, Audre Lorde, once said: ``I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.'' The year is now 2020, and here we women are, still in so many ways not fully free, still shackled. Today, I rise to affirm the humanity and the dignity of all women. I rise in strong, unapologetic, righteous support of H.J. Res. 79, which will strike the arbitrary deadline for ratification of the equal rights amendment, an amendment that should already be the law of the land. Women are strong, hardworking, bright, and resilient. We are the backbones of our families, our communities, and our democracy. We do not live in checked boxes; we live in an intersectionality of lived experiences and identities. Our issues are everyone's issues, because our destinies are all tied. Tomorrow's vote on H.J. Res. 79 is a vote for the preservation of our collective humanity. Despite our commitment to hard work, both within our households and on the job, we are still paid less than our male counterparts. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, women are paid 83 cents for every dollar paid to a man; but nationally, women are paid only 80 cents for every dollar a man is paid.…”