Today is Equal Pay Day — marking that on the whole women’s pay continues to lag behind men’s pay. 

And here’s how that connects to Maria Montessori. In 1896, just after her graduation as a physician from the University of Rome, she was asked to form part of the Italian delegation at the International Congress for Women’s Rights in Berlin, and she passionately spoke on equal pay. We quote an essential message from her speech:

However, I shall strive with all my might to see that the principle of the justice be generally supported: the same wage for the same work. Therefore, I ask the Congress to vote for our motion: ‘In all countries, delegates of societies promoting the interest of the population, should do everything, practically and effectively, to ensure that the wages of workers, male or female, be brought to the same level.

The motto “Equal pay for equal work” preludes Maria Montessori’s philosophy of equal respect for each child.