On Sunday Feb. 12 the Darien League of Women Voters and the Darien Library will sponsor the film: Equal Means Equal directed by Kamala Lopez. The program begins at 2 p.m. at the Darien Library.
Equal Means Equal offers an unflinching look at how women are treated in the United States today. It’s a provocative documentary on the challenges faced by women, not only in the work place, but in every aspect of their daily lives.
Examining both real-life stories and precedent-setting legal cases, director Kamala Lopez uncovers how outdated and discriminatory attitudes inform and influence seemingly disparate issues, from workplace harassment to domestic violence, rape and sexual assault to the foster care system, and the healthcare conglomerate to the judicial system.
Along the way, she reveals the inadequacy of present laws that claim to protect women, ultimately presenting a compelling and persuasive argument for the urgency of ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.
While the Equal Rights Amendment passed both the House and the Senate decades ago, it fell three states short in ratification.
The film is well researched and includes clips from interviews with prominent women and ordinary citizens who have worked to eliminate discrimination. The program is free and open to the public.
— Above is a combination of announcements from the Darien League of Women Voters and Darien Library. Below is additional information gathered by Darienite.com:
Learn more about the movie on:
The official website | IMDb.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | Wikipedia article on Kamala Lopez [beware of relying on Wikipedia for anything controversial]
See also:
- New York Times review
- Hollywood Reporter review
- Los Angeles Times review
- Equal Means Equal Is a Chaotically Hard-Hitting Look at Gender Discrimination in America (Vogue magazine, Aug. 25, 2016)
On a controversial subject, you can’t consider yourself well informed if you aren’t aware of the counter-arguments. Here’s a sampling, focusing on the Equal Rights Amendment:
- Phyllis Schlafly, 2007: ‘Equal rights’ for women: wrong then, wrong now
- Ramesh Ponnuru, 2016: Phyllis Schlafly was correct about the Equal Rights Amendment
- Christian Science Monitor, 1980: The Equal Rights Amendment: The Case Against
- History News Network, 2016: It Wasn’t Just Phillys Schlafly Who Opposed the Equal Rights Amendment
- Christina Hoff Sommers, 2007: Equal Rights Time Warp