Women’s Equality Day Event Connects the Power of Voice to Affordability

BURLINGAME - The cost of living in San Mateo County can show up in any number of ways: teachers who can't afford to live near their schools, parents struggling to find child care or families working multiple jobs just to pay the rent.

A panel of community leaders gathered Tuesday to mark Women's Equality Day focused on what residents can do about it - from voting to making sure their voices are heard by the people and institutions making decisions that affect their lives.

Hosted by the San Mateo County Commission on the Status of Women, "From Voice to Vote: Affordability at the Ballot Box" connected the long struggle for women's voting rights with present-day challenges involving housing, child care and the high cost of living. The event was held at the Burlingame Community Center.

The Board of Supervisors earlier Tuesday proclaimed today, August 26, as Women's Equality Day, celebrating the adoption of the 19th Amendment in 1920. The proclamation also recognizes that many women of color continued fighting for equal access to the ballot long after ratification of the amendment, culminating in protections provided by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Supervisor Lisa Gauthier, who sponsored the County's Women's Equality Day proclamation, connected the history commemorated by the day with a look forward.

"Women's Equality Day isn't just about history; it's about responsibility," Gauthier said. "The right to vote is one of the most powerful tools we have to shape our communities, our policies and our future. Exercising that right to vote is how we honor those who came before us and protect the progress still being made."

For Laura Bent, CEO of Samaritan House, a nonprofit that provides food and other essential services to low-income residents of San Mateo County, the discussion about civic participation begins with the economic pressures facing families.

Samaritan House now serves about 32,000 households, Bent said, compared with 14,000 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Many families the organization serves have multiple people working two, three or even four jobs while sometimes sharing housing with other families.

"We're often underwriting the costs and the expenses of living here," Bent said. "So while we have great wealth, there is great need in the community."

The panel, moderated by KQED senior editor Erin Baldassari, offered examples of how residents have used their voices to address those pressures.

Kalimah Salahuddin, a founding member of the REACH Coalition and former Jefferson Union High School District board member, recalled a time when the district was losing about 30% of its staff annually. Teachers and other employees told the district that housing costs were making it impossible to live in the area.

A survey found that about a third of employees were considering leaving within five years because of inadequate housing, Salahuddin said. The district ultimately built 122 units of employee housing, financed in part through a bond approved by voters.

During Salahuddin's years on the board, she said, the district had never begun a school year fully staffed. The year the housing opened was the first.

But Salahuddin said meaningful civic participation involves more than casting a ballot. It also requires listening to the people most affected by government decisions.

"Being heard is part of being valued," Salahuddin said.

She recalled advocating during the pandemic for testing, vaccinations and other services that better reflected what communities of color needed.

"You can't help us without us," Salahuddin said. "We have to be a part of our own solution."

Karen Pace, founding executive director of Ravenswood Early Learning, pointed to another challenge faced by many families: the cost of child care.

Her organization supports about 50 early childhood education providers serving children from birth to age 5. Those providers face many of the same pressures as the families they serve.

"How do you balance facilities costs in an area that is so expensive and educator costs where we know we need to pay people more so they can afford to live here? Because we certainly can't educate children without professional, dedicated educators."

Later, when Baldassari asked panelists how they push back against cynicism and the feeling that an individual voice does not matter, Pace pointed to history.

"This country and society have been through some really terrible times, and goodness prevails," she said. "And it takes a lot of good people to make it different."

Salahuddin said the answer to cynicism can sometimes be found in personal experience.

As a single mother, Salahuddin experienced homelessness, and recalled the fear of seeking help at Haven House, a shelter operated by LifeMoves.

Nearly two decades later, Salahuddin now serves on the LifeMoves Board of Directors.

"When things are done right, when support is done right, when services are done right," Salahuddin said, lives can change.

"I don't want to be a unicorn," Salahuddin said. "I want to ensure that the Kalimahs of today" have those same opportunities.

Having a voice can also mean paying attention to decisions that may seem far removed from everyday life but have profound local consequences.

Bent pointed to San Mateo County's ongoing dispute with the state over vehicle license fee funding as an example of an issue that residents may not vote on directly but can still influence.

She encouraged residents to seek reliable information, ask elected representatives questions and understand how decisions made in Sacramento can affect services closer to home.

For Bent, that responsibility is personal.

Her grandmother was a Black woman who could not vote. Bent said she still hears the advice her grandmother gave her.

"You have an opportunity. Do not waste it," Bent recalled. "You have a voice. Do not waste it. There are women who came before you to make this happen for you, and you have a responsibility to use that voice."

Media Contact

Tanya Beat
Commission on the Status of Women
[email protected]
650.363.4467