Our CEO, Chip Bergh, recently said that it’s our responsibility, as a company, to leave the world in a better place. For me, that means protecting the diversity and inclusion that makes the United States, and my home city of San Francisco, so unique.
That’s how, and why, I got involved with the Women’s March Bay Area.
The Women’s March on Washington was the first event that started this whole movement: It’s a march for anyone, regardless of gender or gender identity, who believes that women’s rights are human rights. Since then, more than 250 sister marches across the U.S., as well as over 100 internationally, have cropped up — including the Women’s March on San Francisco, for which I’m serving proudly as the outreach lead and contingent manager.
From the beginning of this journey, I felt compelled to do more about the state of human rights, particularly for marginalized groups in the U.S. I’m American of Middle Eastern (Lebanese) descent, and though I’ve lived here all my life, I’ve experienced strangers making snap judgments based on what I look like or where my family comes from.
So when the opportunity arose to make our voices heard — women, immigrants, minorities, and more —I emailed the Washington, D.C. organizers, who got me in touch with the Bay Area organizers. Before I knew it, I had agreed to be the lead on outreach for San Francisco.
African-Americans, Asian-American, Latinas, Muslim-Americas, LGBTQI groups, undocumented workers, healthcare and environmental advocates, people of color, veterans: Women are represented in all of these groups. This is their march as much as it is mine, which is why I took on this role. We still have a lot of strong, tradition-oriented communities, and I wanted to make sure those communities were represented in this march.
A lot of the people who compose these communities are employees or customers of Levi Strauss & Co. As a Sr. Systems Analyst for more than four years here, I’ve gotten to know just how diverse and community-oriented this company really is. Day in and day out, I see Levi Strauss & Co. backing its words with actions. So when it came to reaching out to my colleagues for their support, it was the perfect fit, as these marches give people a voice and companies like ours the opportunity to do what’s right.
Visit Women’s March Bay Area to learn more about the January 21 events in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose.
