I was in a meeting a few weeks ago when we talked about finding a new executive director for our nonprofit group.

It dawned on us as we talked that in Memphis, we are always talking about diversity and we’re always talking about making sure African-Americans are represented.

When do women get their turn?

It seems to always happen that it never matters than more than half of our city is female.  When it comes to running organizations or government departments or government programs, no one thinks about women, or if they do, they can always think of several men instead.

It happens time after time.  Whether it’s the Music Foundation, Riverfront Development Corporation, the new talent office, the tourism group, Beale Street and more, men have a leg up.

It happens over and over.  I don’t remember a woman on the list of people considered for Center City Commission.  If there hadn’t been an African-American, it would have been an outcry, but women just don’t matter.

Shelby Farms Park Conservancy is picking a new executive director to replace the man who left, and if it’s not Laura Adams who made it possible to even have the park that gets the job, every woman in Memphis should revolt.

We never seem to have done enough to get our chance.  We never seem to be plugged in enough to know the secret good old boy handshake.  A friend of mine calls it the “rule of testicularity,” which means you have to have testicles to be considered.

Whenever I hear a black leader complaining about the power structure in Memphis or questioning why a majority African-American city has no people that look like them heading up these semi-government agencies or the most powerful nonprofit organizations, I say it applies also to women, just twice as much, because you can count the women running prominent groups on one hand.

The next time African-American men are saying that they aren’t represented fairly, or they’re complaining rightly that no black men were considered for a job, take a closer look.  I bet you that there was not a single woman considered either.

I think we’ve been patient long enough.  We need to take inspiration from the civil rights movement.  It’s time for equal rights for women.