Kenisha Potter-Stevenson is an activist working with the Mississippi Women's Economic Security Initiative to level the playing field for poor women in that state. She shares her own story and the stories of others who are struggling to make ends meet, and the agenda that her group has developed to help these women and their families thrive in this inspiring post.
To many policymakers and too many other people, I was just another poor black child, born to another poor black child, bearing another poor black child. I was of absolutely no consequence.
As a student, I worked nights and weekends. And I struggled. A lot. I worried about my child care. I worried about my child. I worried about my bills. I worried about my own health care.
I wish I could tell women it's going to be easy, but we know it won't be. There are going to be times when someone may be the only woman in a room, standing up for this agenda, but we won't waiver.
I can tell them that there are literally thousands of women who are working to make sure that we all have access to health care—90,000 more women would be covered through Medicaid expansion alone. I can say that we are working for family-sustaining wages so that we don't need government assistance; paid sick and family leave; and funding and technical assistance so that women can pursue non-traditional occupations. I can let folks know that we're trying to close that wage gap so that we are paid the same money for the same jobs as our male counterparts, instead of 71 cents on the dollar. And I can tell people we're fighting to make sure that women are protected in the event of sexual assault or domestic violence — 50 percent of sexual assault victims lose their jobs or are forced to quit. We are doing all of this and more — fighting for the economic, physical and emotional security of women in Mississippi, because you can't separate any of those three things or substitute one for another.
Kenisha Potter-Stevenson is a W. K. Kellogg community leadership fellow, social worker and child wellness coordinator. She lives in Mississippi with her husband and her daughter.