(By: Austin Williams)
The Centralia Business and Professional Women organization hosted the Equal Pay Day Rally Saturday afternoon at the Centralia American Legion building. Carrie Perkins-Schnicker, president of the organization, led the event as she and several others spoke to those in attendance about the movement for equal pay for women. To conclude the rally, attendees marched to the front of the Centralia City Council building holding signs promoting the organization and its cause.
Photo Credit – Austin Williams.
The event started off with Centralia city councilman Robert Smith reading a proclamation acknowledging the event and recognizing the gap in pay between men and women as well as other inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic.
“Since the pandemic began, women, particularly women of color, are disproportionately working on the front lines, caring for our loved ones, and working in low-paying service jobs that put them at high risk. Still, they continue to earn less than their male counterparts,” Smith said during the proclamation. “I call
upon all business owners, employers and citizens of the City of Centralia to recognize the full value of women’s skills and their significant contributions to the labor force, acknowledge the injustice of wage inequality, and join the Centralia Business and Professional Women’s efforts to achieve equal pay for women in our community.”
Photo Credit – Austin Williams.
Amanda Burke, president of the Mount Vernon Business Women’s Club, was next to speak. She discussed the history of women’s rights movements and the importance of continuing to push for change.
“Our motto is ‘women helping women,’ and we strive to do that in every way possible,” Burke said. “When I think about all the women before me that have endured in their pursuit of change, I am in awe. They persevered through trials, heartache, challenges, and sometimes great personal sacrifice… I hope that as we continue… in all of the struggles that we are still facing today, that we think about not only them and where we have been, but we think about our daughters and our granddaughters, and all the women that will come after us, and ask ourselves what kind of world we want them to live in.”
Mackenzie Perez, 12, an honors student and softball player, won the grade school essay contest sponsored by Centralia BPW. She read her essay, a commentary on the extreme difference in pay between male and female athletes, and received a round of applause as well as a $100 reward for winning the contest. Perkins noted that there were no entries for the high school level essay contest this year, and asked attendees to encourage students to participate next year.
Perkins concluded the indoor activities with her own speech about the importance of movements for the rights of women, and reminding everyone how they can help.
“There’s three things: educate, advocate, and replicate,” she said. “We’ve got our BPW group that has a Facebook page, we put out things that you can do to help educate our community… you can advocate by contacting your legislatures… and replicate, which means we have to keep doing it over and over again, because when we stay silent, we are just as much to blame as those we fight against.”
As the march began there was some concern about whether rain would be an issue, but participants only had to endure a light sprinkle as they made their way to city hall, where they remained for a while before returning to the American Legion building.
When asked afterward how she felt the event went, Perkins expressed slight disappointment with the turnout relative to past years, citing COVID and less-than-ideal weather as possible reasons for lower attendance. However, she said that the event still accomplished its goal of sharing information with the community.
Asked how she thought community involvement in the movement for equal pay could be increased, Perkins said it was most important to educate people on the issue.
“I think educating the children is the best way to go,” she said. “If we can educate boys and girls to recognize what’s happening and what the problem is, then they can do something to help combat that. If you don’t know what’s going on, you can’t fix it.”
More information about the Centralia Business and Professional Women organization can be found at their website, centraliabpw.org.
