Today is the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, marking 100 years since the U.S. Constitution was changed in order to extend the right to vote to women! In this milestone year, 267 women of color are running for political office, a new record for the U.S.

As a woman who has run for political office as a Green, beginning in 1996 as Ralph Nader’s vice-presidential running mate in NJ, I celebrate and am inspired by this fact. I also know that women remain under-represented in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and that women in this country remain underserved by a military budget that takes $.57 out of every dollar, while using only $.06 for education.

There are more than 30 million people in this country without health insurance, with more than 5 million people losing their insurance along with their jobs during this pandemic. Without single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all, mothers and fathers have to worry about their own health care and that of their children. One in 6 children in the U.S. live in poverty, with many more just above the poverty line.

Without a cancellation of rents and mortgages and a true moratorium on evictions, families are stretched to the limit financially and fear that they will go without food or wind up in the streets with no place to go. The House and Senate left Washington, D.C. earlier this month without agreeing on a relief plan, one that would either extend the $600/week added benefit to unemployment payments or one that includes a Universal Basic Income of $2000 a month for the rest of the pandemic. There is no commitment in this country to a living wage and the minimum wage is barely enough to survive on.

And politically, women get short-changed as well. There are two women running in New Jersey’s race for U.S. Senate this year who deserve to be included in any debates and should be receiving more media coverage than we have received to date. That would represent a real celebration of women’s voices in this historic year!