U.S. Rep. Ron Barber will celebrate Women's Equality Day on Monday by hosting the first meeting of his Women's Leadership Council and touring a woman-owned and managed Tucson technology company.
"On Monday, we celebrate the 93rd anniversary of passage of the 19th Amendment which gave women the long-overdue right to vote," Barber said. "Although women have had this essential right for almost a century, we still have far to go when it comes to equal pay for equal work and making sure that women-owned businesses can compete on equal footing."
On Monday morning, Barber will host the inaugural gathering of his Women's Leadership Council, which will advise and work with him on issues ranging from pay equity to workforce development and challenges facing women-owned businesses.
After the meeting, members of the leadership council will hold a press conference with the congressman to discuss the meeting and the importance of Women's Equality Day.
Among those speaking at the press conference will be Bisbee Mayor Adriana Badal; Laura Penny, director of the Women's Foundation of Southern Arizona; Lea Márquez-Peterson, president and CEO of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and Judy Rich, president and CEO of Tucson Medical Center.
Barber then will have lunch at a woman-operated restaurant before touring Nextrio LLC, a woman-owned and woman-managed technology company.
Nextrio supplies computer-related products and services to small and medium companies, educational and government institutions. Cristie Street co-founded Nextrio in 2002. As managing partner, she is responsible for daily operations, sales, marketing and strategic planning. In 2010, Street was named Small Business Leader of the Year by the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.
Barber will end the day by meeting with leadership from the local chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners.
Barber, a member of the House Committee on Small Business, is a cosponsor of the Women's Procurement Program Equalization Act which was introduced in June.
When the legislation was introduced, Barber noted that women-owned businesses receive only about 4 percent of federal-government contracts. To increase that figure, the Women's Procurement Program Equalization Act will set aside certain contracts to be awarded only to businesses owned by a woman.
The legislation was strongly endorsed and supported by the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce.
In June, Barber invited Shelly Little-Gibbons, vice president of the family-owned Quik Mart Stores Inc. of Tucson, to testify before the Committee on Small Business about the challenges faced by business owners.
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