My antenna zoomed up in February when Loretta Ross, currently Activist-In-Residence, at Smith College, in her key-note address at the Take Root conference, spoke about how Reproductive Justice framing had been stimulated by women of color’s exposure to and interaction with the international women’s community. The human rights framing that international activists spoke from was [...]
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Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the NVRA, #NVRAat20 Twitter Party
Monday, May 20 is the 20th Anniversary of the signing on the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). Let’s celebrate! Join us Monday, May 20 at 1 PM ET for a Twitter chat on #NVRAat20. Join Project Vote, Demos, Fem2pt0, Asian American Justice Center, Fair Elections Legal Network, Advancement Project, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, League [...]
Angelina Jolie’s Decision
When I read about Angelina Jolie’s announcement this week, I cringed. I have greatly admired her willingness to speak out on important issues over the years. Her public announcement about her mastectomies will certainly reassure some women that losing a breast to breast cancer isn’t quite as frightening as it had once seemed. But Ms. [...]
Is Pepper Potts No Longer the “Damsel in Distress” in ‘Iron Man 3′?
Superhero films often exhibit assertive, outspoken female characters. Yet they often simultaneously objectify women’s bodies, reduce them to ancillary love interests or perpetuate gender stereotypes. So when I heard that Pepper Potts would have a more active role in Iron Man 3, I was excited yet remained cautiously skeptical.
Women Must Lean In to Political Leadership
If you had asked me when I was a first year in college, would I personally have worked in politics or run for office, I would have laughed, like hysterically. Well the joke was on me, three years later, I ran to be Vice President of the Student Council at my University. I was compelled [...]
A Specific Happy Mother Day Wish for Women Who’ve Had Abortions
On Friday, I got a wonderful Happy Mother’s Day wish from Fem2.0 in Twitter. Of course, that meant that some random man asked in a mean-spirited tweet whether the wish included “abortive pro-choice mothers of dead babies.” I didn’t respond, because, well, why would you respond to a person who rudely interrupts, willfully chooses to [...]
For Mother’s Day, Support Moms at Community College
This month many moms around the country are celebrating not only Mother’s Day, but also their college graduation. As in other sectors of higher education, women make up the majority of students at community college — accounting for 57 percent of the 7.3 million students enrolled in these schools. In fact, more women attend community [...]
‘How I Met Your Mother’ One of the Few TV Shows to Explore a Childfree Life for Women
I was ready. Poised to be pissed. For the first half of last season’s How I Met Your Mother(HIMYM) episode “Symphony of Illumination,” I sat on the couch, scowling perpetually.
In the previous episode “The Rebound Girl,” we learn journalist Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) and playboy Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris)’s adulterous one night stand (although is it really a one night stand if you’ve slept together and dated before?? But I digress…), resulted in Robin telling Barney she was pregnant.
Education for women and girls: the key to a better world.
My name is Rebecca Silverman but most people call me Reby. I am a junior at the University of Maryland, studying Global Women’s Health. Before beginning my studies at the University of Maryland, I had the opportunity to travel to 11 countries on a yearlong program called Kivunim: New Directions. During my travels, one theme [...]
In a Meritocracy, Sexism Is Shocking and Hard to Believe
It’s hard to accept that sexism is alive and well and that it undermines virtually everything we believe about equality, fairness, and justice. “Am I doing an injustice to the female members of this school?” This is the question 16-year old Junius Onome Williams, running in an election for his school’s student body president asked [...]