“Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories” is this year’s Women’s History Month theme, chosen by the National Women’s History Alliance in Santa Rosa, California.
A local Women’s History Week celebration ignited a movement across the country in 1978. Decades before, International Women’s Day was first honored in 1911, before women won the right to vote in the United States. One year later, a woman named Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts during a time of cultural change. She imagined a movement where all girls could come together and embrace their unique strengths and passions.
On this week’s “In Focus SoCal,” host Tanya McRae celebrates Women’s History Month and meets with several young women from the Girl Scouts of Orange County on World Thinking Day in Santa Ana. Jessica Sanchez, a 17-year-old Girl Scout from Troop 1968, said she would not be where she is now without the lessons and experiences she’s had with the Girl Scouts since she was 5.
“It really was the development of who I am today. So all of the values that I hold today, in a sense, stemmed from Girl Scouts. The fact that I am confident in what I’m able to do, I know that there are things possible out there,” Sanchez said.
Girl Scouts of OC CEO, Vikki Shepp, is also a former Girl Scout, and said the comradery and sense of belonging that the group provides is empowering for young girls. She shared about the Girl Scouts’ All Girls Initiative that continues to expand through many communities in Orange County. “We want to know where girls are, where aren’t we? Where can we start? So opening doors is important,” Shepp said.
McRae also sits down with Santa Ana’s first female and Latina mayor, Valerie Amezcua. The mayor said homelessness and public safety are two issues she wants to concentrate on during her first year.
The 30-year veteran of the Orange County Probation Department shared that her two grandmothers had a great impact on her life.
“They helped mold who I am today,” Amezcua said.
Sgt. Maria Lopez from the Santa Ana Police Department also joins the conversation to talk about the 30x30 Initiative to advance the representation and experiences of women in all ranks of policing across the United States. Currently, women make up only 12% of sworn officers and 3% of police leadership in the country. The initiative aims to increase the representation of women in police recruit classes to 30% by 2030. The Santa Ana Police Department pledged to the initiative with only about 10% of their officers being made up of women.
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