Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said she’s been fighting for women’s rights since she was a teenager, long before she took office as the city’s first Black female mayor.
On Tuesday at City Hall, Franklin said as a young girl she thought most of the issues plaguing women — from stifled reproductive rights to equal pay — would be solved by now.
Franklin is among a number of high-profile female leaders that are part of the city’s recently announced Women of Atlanta Advisory Council, a new working group launched by the mayor’s office to help chart a clearer path to success for Atlanta women, young and old.
“I’m now 78 and we’re still working on it,” she told a crowd of women gathered before her. “I urge you to push forward as strongly and as boldly as you have the nerve to do.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Tuesday there’s an “urgency,” both in Atlanta and the country, to address gender-based discrimination at its root.
“Women make up half of this city, but your footprint is so much bigger than this, they are truly the backbone of our families and our communities,” he said. “While I wish there were no more barriers to break, or stereotypes to defy, that is just not the reality that we exist in.”
In Georgia, GOP lawmakers rolled back women’s reproductive rights even before Roe v. Wade was dissolved and the decision handed back to state leaders in June 2022.
And according to the Atlanta Regional Commission, in 2022 metro Atlanta women earned about 82 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts — placing the city 7th on the list for worst gender pay gaps in the largest metro areas across the United States.
Credit: Riley Bunch/riley.bunch@ajc.com
Credit: Riley Bunch/riley.bunch@ajc.com
Candace Stanciel, the city’s chief equity officer, said the council has four top priorities: to memorialize the city’s most impactful women; make policy gender-inclusive recommendations for city officials; help identify potential funding sources for changes; and to support annual International Day of the Girl celebrations in October.
“Women are an intersectional community and this advisory council is as well,” Stanciel said, noting the members vary in age, race, occupations, religious beliefs and sexual orientation.
“We are mothers and aunts, wives and sisters, daughters and granddaughters,” she said. “We live on the north, south, east and west side of the city. And that’s why we’ll be able to consider the diverse experiences that define womanhood in Atlanta.”
Among the dozens of members that will meet quarterly are leaders from companies like Coca Cola, UPS and AT&T; nonprofits like the Urban League and YWCA of Greater Atlanta; and some of Atlanta’s historic HBCU’s like Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University.
“It’s never made sense to me, why we look at half of our population and don’t say: ‘Be the very best that you can be, be all that you can be and give back in all the ways that you can give back,’” said Stephanie Blank, founder of the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students and co-chair of the new advisory council.
“I view this not just as a women’s challenge but this is also a challenge for us to engage our brothers in this fight with us so that they can also help us lift up all women,” she said.
Atlanta City Council also has it’s own Atlanta Commission on Women that was formed in 2000. The group’s first meeting of the year is this upcoming Wednesday, April 17 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
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