The Great Reversal: Are We Witnessing the Death of Equality?
Reading Joanne Lipman’s brilliant and comprehensive New York Times Guest Essay on April 6, 2026 (“I’ve Covered Women in the Workplace for 15 Years. Something Alarming Is Happening”), my first reaction is that “Alarming” is an understatement.
The never-ending struggle for women to keep from being marginalized has now been escalated to the “Erasure” of women, not far afield from the equivalent of “Wiping out a Civilization!” Sound familiar?
What could be more devastating and disheartening than this unprecedented tsunami against the equal rights of women and the reversal of achievements we have tirelessly worked to achieve for decades ?
Imagine Mark Zuckerberg’s recent incendiary comment that “Companies need more masculine energy.” Mark, have you forgotten about Sheryl Sandberg’s bestselling book, Lean In? My recollection is that, at the time it was published, you fully supported and advocated for your then-business partner’s positions regarding the leadership and advancement of women. What happened?
And the active, even enthusiastic participation of leading US companies in hastening the demise of D.E.I is truly beyond the pale.
Joanne Lipman’s cogent analysis of gender equality and human rights and the status of women in the US reminds me of women in conservative societies across the world who have regularly been subject to the same forces now being leveraged against women in the US. As Joanne noted, these tactics have become traditional under the regimes of dictators in Turkey, Hungary, and Russia (though Victor Orban’s landslide defeat in Hungary only days ago can at least give us hope!).
To me, it is unfathomable that this could be happening in a country like the United States, in which so much progress has been made to overcome the forces of abuse and injustices aimed at women of all ages, ethnicities, races, and color.
The dedication and voices of past and current pioneers: Gloria Steinem, Hillary Clinton (“women’s rights are human rights”), Eleanor Roosevelt, Oprah Winfrey, Betty Frieden (Co-founder of NOW), Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Meryl Streep, Yoko Ono, Jane Fonda and Wangari Maathai, just to name a few, need to be broadcast louder than ever. If not now, when?
Perhaps it’s time to organize a coalition of women of all ages in all industries and walks of life to lead a brigade of resistance to these shocking and inhumane injustices. Count me in!
Lillian Gilden
Founder, LUCY®