Erie County Commission on the Status of Women

06/17/2026

LGBTQ+ Equal Pay Awareness Day is today! This day serves as a pivotal reminder that wage inequality affects individuals not only based on gender and race but also through the lenses of sexual orientation and gender identity.

For more information, visit Equal Pay Today, A Project of Equal Rights Advocates' website at https://www.equalpay2day.org/equal-pay-days/lgbtqia-equal-pay-day-awareness-day/

06/12/2026

The first domestic workers were enslaved people.

And yet, domestic workers have continued to fight and win, demanding that they be included in America’s promise of equality and forging a model of grassroots organizing that has lifted other groups of workers along the way.

Learn more about the history of organizing from the The 19th News, including the 1881 Atlanta Washerwoman strike, when a group of Black washerwomen decided to start pushing for a standard rate of $1 per dozen pounds of wash. They called for a strike, then the largest ever staged by Black Americans.

It's an American story you likely haven’t heard: Domestic workers have had to work to be included in America’s promise of equality, forging a model of grassroots organizing.

05/20/2026

This we highlight another missed figure in our history, Sarah Miriam Peale. According to artnet, she was one of the most pioneering of all the artists in the (Peale) family legacy and was arguably the first professional woman artist in the United States. Yet, she has been reduced to a footnote.

Learn more about this trailblazing woman at

Sarah Miriam Peale was arguably the first professional woman artist in America—yet almost no one knows her name. That's starting to change.

05/19/2026

Women and Work: Creating Sustainable Models to Support Women’s Advancement in the Workplace

Please join the ECCSW for a roundtable discussion series focusing on women in the workplace. The event will be held at the Buffalo History Museum on June 18, 2026 at 4:30 pm.

05/06/2026

Mother’s Day provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on and honor the role of mothers in our own families and in the rich and complicated history of our nation.

Explore more on The History of Mother’s Day: From Global Peace to Greeting Cards from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum at https://womenshistory.si.edu/blog/history-mothers-day-global-peace-greeting-cards

Mother’s Day in the United States has a history all its own—and it’s more complicated than greeting cards might lead you to believe. There were repeated efforts to establish a Mother’s Day holiday and conflicting ideas about what it should stand for and how it should be observed. From a call...

04/29/2026

It’s and over the next few weeks we will be highlighting a series of columns from The 19th News, which look to celebrate our country’s 250th anniversary and dive into the history of our democracy.

Starting with Elizabeth Freeman, who was among the first to show that the power of the Declaration was not that it frees anyone, but that its language gives us the power to demand equality and freedom for ourselves.

Access the full article at

Elizabeth Freeman demanded her rightful place among this country's founders and helped forge a tradition of forcing America to live up to its ideals.

04/22/2026

On May 15, Dr. Kemi Doll - a gynecologist, surgeon and leading advocate for transformative change in women’s health – will be the featured speaker at a free event focused on midlife and menopause. Dr. Doll’s work continues to reshape how we understand equity, access, and the future of care for women and birthing people. Buffalo Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope will moderate the event.

Attendees will receive Dr. Doll’s book, A Terrible Strength: The Hidden Crisis of the Black Womb and Your Survival Guide to Healing.

🗓 May 15, 2026
⏰5–7:15 PM
📍 Buffalo Museum of Science, 1020 Humboldt Parkway, Buffalo

In addition to the Erie County Department of Health, Erie County Office of Health Equity and the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women, this event was coordinated by Dr. J’Leise Sosa, Kaleida Health, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Second Chapter Books and UBMD Physicians'​ Group.

All are welcome. Come learn, connect, and help advance women’s health in our community. Registration requested. https://www.kaleidahealth.org/classes-events/?search=menopause

04/22/2026

Join us for Menopause and the Buffalo Woman, an evening of community, connection and empowerment focused on midlife, menopause and whole-person wellness.

Come learn, connect, and help advance women’s health in our community. Registration requested. https://www.kaleidahealth.org/classes-events/...

04/15/2026

For this week, we want to shine a light on women’s contributions and the impact they had on modern science. The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum finds that the history of women and human computing is just beginning to be fully explored. Researchers and historians know that the need for computing was widespread and that women did much of this work!

Learn more about women who worked as human computers like Sallie E. Pero, Anna Winlock, Gertrude Blanch, Kathleen McNulty, Dorothy Vaughan, Barbara Canright, and Helen Ling at https://womenshistory.si.edu/blog/computers-were-machines-they-were-women-here-are-six-places-where-human-computers-built-modern

04/09/2026

Today is AANHPI Women’s Equal Pay Day, the day we recognize the continued inequality in pay that Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) women face.

AANHPI women overall earn about 83 cents for every dollar that white, non-Hispanic men make, but many AANHPI women face even wider wage gaps.

Learn more from the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF) at https://napawf.org/equalpay/