DemWomen Brewing Change

Anti-fracking rally

2012-01-10T05:12:00.000-08:00

There will be a rally to ban fracking Wednesday at 10 a.m.at DEC New Paltz
more info: rackAction.com

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2011-11-16T13:31:00.003-08:00

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2011-11-16T13:31:00.002-08:00

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2011-11-16T13:31:00.001-08:00

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2011-11-16T13:31:00.000-08:00

Women in local politics

2011-11-14T13:51:00.000-08:00

Read this article about women in local politics in the Rochester area:
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20111113/NEWS01/111130321/Monroe-County-election-women-politics-congress

Women & Society Conference

2011-10-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

The 20th annual Women & Society Conference is this weekend ( Friday Oct 21 & Saturday the 22nd) at Marist College, Poughkeepsie NY.
Women and Society is an academic conference covering all aspects of women and gender currently under study. Among the topics to be discussed this year are Sex, Violence, Counseling and Advocacy; Body and Sexuality; Media Portrayals; Reproductive Rights and Activism; Lesbians and Gays: Nature Versus Nurture; Empowering Women Through the Arts; New Ways of Thinking about Gender; and Warning Signs of Domestic Violence.

The keynote address is free and open to the public and will be given Dr. Gail Dines, a professor of sociology and women's studies at Wheelock College in Boston, on Friday, October 21 at 7 p.m. in the Nelly Goletti Theatre, located on the third floor of the college's Student Center. Dines is an internationally acclaimed speaker and author, and a feminist activist who focuses on the hypersexualization of the culture and the ways that porn images filter down into mainstream pop culture.

Dr. Dines' work on media and pornography has appeared in academic journals, magazines such as Time and Newsweek, and newspapers across the country. She is a frequent guest on radio and television and is a recipient of the Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights. Dr. Dines is a founding member of Stop Porn Culture, an educational and activist group made up of academics, anti-violence experts, community organizers and anyone who is concerned about the increasing "pornification" of culture.

Dr. Dines' new book "Pornland" has just been published by Beacon Press and has received coverage by the Boston Globe The Guardian, the American Spectator, Ms. Magazine, The Huffington Post, AlterNet, the New York Post, the Sacramento Book Review, and Pulse Media. She has been featured on CNN and Canadian Public Radio.

This conference aims to mentor undergraduate scholars, to do so, we allow them to attend for free. All others must pay the registration fee. Conference registration begins on site at noon Friday in the Henry Hudson Room, 3rd floor of Fontaine Hall.

For registration and further information, contact conference coordinator Dr. JoAnne Myers, associate professor of political science and co-director of Women's Studies at Marist, at joanne.myers@marist.edu or (845) 575-3000, ext. 2234. A conference schedule is available online at

http://www.marist.edu/liberalarts/womensstudies/program.html

On the backs of women

2011-10-12T06:18:00.000-07:00

Literally, on the backs of women, the Topeka, KS City Council voted to decriminalize domestic violence...did they vote to decriminalize a nonviolent, non public order threatening marijuana: no! This is literally a FU to women.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/topeka-moves-to-decriminalize-domestic-violence.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=topeka&st=cse

Petition to decriminalize marijuana not DV in Topeka:
http://www.change.org/petitions/topeka-city-council-member-decriminalize-marijuana-not-domestic-violence

Book group

2011-10-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

Just finished our book group--Next books are Gail Dines' Pornland (she is also talking at Marist OCt 21st as part of the Women & Society Conference, you're invited to the talk)for November, December is Joan Wallach Scott's The Politics of the Veil, and Jan/Feb is Orhan Pamuk's Snow, March is Taking on the Big Boys by Ellen Bravo...and on the list is Wendy & the Lost Boys, Going Rouge. . .

Kristof is in Sieera Leone, and just busted a pastor who was allegedly sexually abusing (raping) young girls according to his tweet.

Irene

2011-09-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

A colleague of mine forwarded this request, from one of her grad students who teaches in Roxbury (I have edited it a bit):

The bottom floor of my school was flooded and we lost a lot of sports and drama club equipment. However, the neighboring towns were devastated. Many people have lost homes, businesses were totaled and buildings continue to collapse. The electric company, as it continues to clean up, powers us down often.

If you would like to see what has happened to my area, go to http://www.watershedpost.com/, and you can see the photos. There are also links for the towns near me: Margaretville, Fleischmanns, Prattsville, Middleburgh to name a few.
Yesterday I rode my bike to Margaretville and Flesichmanns which are 11-15 miles away and the devastation is indescribable.
I have never seen anything like this. I am worried for the families and we are all just standing by to see whether or not our school year will begin on time.
My school has become a hub for the Red Cross and we are beginning to collect supplies for the towns where children have lost their homes, schools, transportation, and overall way of life.
I am proud of my community and what is happening here. The students have put in tremendous amounts of community service.
[Edited]On ourSuperintendent's Conference Day, students helped clean the building, playground, and athletic field.And will help sort donations that have come in so that they can get them to the families in need. While it is important that instruction take place (we all know the panic to have them ready for state tests and regents), I am pleased with my administrations' decision to allow our students (who are the more fortunate ones) to pitch in and give back.
We have been pretty fortunate in getting help. The National Guard is in Margareville and Fleischmanns as well as FEMA and other organizations who are helping these poor people. Margaretville is 11 miles away and where all of us went for groceries, prescriptions, etc. Sadly, today I found out that most of the stores on Main Street will be torn down because the flood damage was so severe.
My husband works for a non-profit organization that specializes in Main Street revitalization funding. His offices have now turned into Red Cross and DSS headquarters. He has come home every night emotionally and mentally drained from just seeing the devastated people coming into his office with the clothes on their backs and nothing else. They have no idea where to go, or what to do. To say this is awful is a sheer understatement.

Keep my neighbors in your thoughts, if you will, and thank you for being patient with my brief circumstance.

There is a tremendous need for school items: crayons, markers, notebooks, paper, pens, pencils, etc... Believe it or not, there is huge need for things like soap, deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, and feminine supplies as well. There are many children who lost all of their back-to-school things; both supplies and clothes.

You can send them to:

Roxbury Central School – Hurricane Victims
53729 State Hwy. 30
Roxbury, NY 12474

Just put a note in that the supplies are for hurricane victims.

Thank you SO much for asking about this.

-Tammy

Women's Equality Day

2011-08-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today (August 26) is Womens Equality Day...91 years ago women got the right to vote. And, for the most part, vote we do...Yet for some reason, we are not equal--Women still earn substantially less then men (even in the same jobs)and that translates into less social security/pensions/retirement incomes.
Women do not even make up 20% of the House (16.7%) or Senate (17%)--we are ranked 70th (see http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm); in state legislatures women make up 23.6%.
Women's voices are still not equally represented in op/eds in Newspapers and Magazines, on television, in films....
Yes, we have made some strides--but NOT ENOUGH.

NOH8

2011-08-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

If you go to http://www.montgomery-duban.com/noh8/ and like them, they will donate $10K to the NOH8 campaign.. Do it! Pass the word!

all a twitter

2011-07-29T18:13:00.000-07:00

So, I am now tweeting...follow me at www.twitter.com/@feminista54

Its been a great way to stay up with the political games being played over the debt ceiling...
The blank check that Boehner was talking about, another misnomer by the GOP--its just paying for what we have already spent...
btw, Reagan raised the ceiling 200%...

Gillibrand's Campaign: Off the Sidelines

2011-07-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

Senator Gillibrand is using her bully pulpit to get women into elective politics. She is calling her effort: Off the Sidelines.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/nyregion/gillibrand-wants-women-involved-in-politics.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=gillibrand&st=cse

Marriage Equality

2011-06-24T19:43:00.000-07:00

Marriage equality PASSED in NYS!!!!

Hot dogs and Political Scandals

2011-06-15T06:16:00.000-07:00

From the NYT this Sunday on "When it comes to scandal, girls won't be boys"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/weekinreview/12women.html?ref=weekinreview

Here is a meme (the second part) we have to change by growing feminist men:
"powerful men attract women, powerful women repel men"

Attacks on Women's healthcare

2011-06-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

Paul Farmer has essays in his reader (Partner to the Poor*), on health and human rights, the structural violence of poverty, and global inequality; but here in the US we think that we have adequate health care. Unfortunately we do not--even though we spend more per capita on health care than any other country (#1), we still ranked 37th overall. In 2006, the United States but ranked 39th for infant mortality, 43rd for adult female mortality, 42nd for adult male mortality, and 36th for life expectancy*. (Why do we spend so much to get so little?)
Yet, even with the health care reform, we are still behind in health care provision. And, the GOP seems to be paying more attention to attacking women's health care than they are fixing the deficit. A sample of the articles/editorials starting with the editorial from today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/opinion/03fri1.html?_r=1&hp

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20110603/VIEWPOINTS03/106030305/Funding-cuts-would-hurt-women-s-health?odyssey=nav%7Chead

http://www.adn.com/2011/04/13/1808850/gop-move-is-an-attack-on-womens.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/opinion/10tue2.html

http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/03/womens_progress_around_the_world_vetoed_by_congress.html

http://www.alternet.org/health/150118/why_the_right-wing's_insane_attacks_on_women's_health_may_be_backfiring

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/273-40/5884-new-attacks-on-womens-rights

* WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS). Geneva: World Health Organization, September 2009.

Dirty Tricks

2011-06-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

The answer to the question from last night's great book group meeting (We read Schiff's Cleopatra) about dirty political tricks today,it was Karl Rove's mentor Lee Atwater.

Yes, our conversations at the book group bring whatever we are reading to date, to apply to what we are experiencing political, socially and culturally.

Our next book is Janny Scott's A Singular Woman about Obama's mother. Our meeting is the first Thursday of July ,7 p.m.
The book for September is Partner to the Poor: A Paul Farmer Reader.

Attacks on Women's Autonomy

2011-05-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

All of these are recent legislative attacks on women's autonomy and our decision making:

Congress' attacks of women's right to autonomy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/opinion/10tue2.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Texas legislature passes law requiring sonogram before abortion:
www.lakewyliepilot.com/2011/05/06/1115554/texas-lawmakers-pass-sonogram.html

Michigan law would require viewing of fetal photo before abortion:
http://www.deseretnews.com/mobile/article/700130278/Proposed-Michigan-law-would-require-viewing-fetal-photo-before-an-abortion.html

Ohio law would limit abortions after 20 weeks:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/06/us-abortion-ohio-idUSTRE7356M220110406

Congress & Women

2011-05-10T18:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/opinion/10tue2.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Balancing the Budget? NOT

2011-04-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

Limiting healthcare for women: YES

See Gail Collins 4/14/11:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/opinion/14collins.html?_r=1&ref=gailcollins

Women's Health

2011-04-11T18:04:00.000-07:00

This article is very clear about the ideology of what was on the table during the recent "budget" debates: WOMEN'S HEALTH, not abortion, not the deficit, but WOMEN'S HEALTH.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/11-4

Sad News

2011-03-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run as vice presidential candidate on a major (Democrat) ticket died today.

Happy International Women's Day

2011-03-08T06:19:00.000-08:00

If you have the chance, join in the Walk Across the Hudson in celebration of International Womens Day on the Walkway Over the Hudson...

The Eleanor Roosevelt Center will celebrate International Women's Day with a walk across the Walkway over the Hudson bridge. Registration will go from 2:30-3:30 p.m. on the Poughkeepsie side of the bridge. The keynote speaker will be the inspiring, Kadiatou Di-dibe Sarassoro, who will discuss how she fled the Ivory Coast and settled in Dutchess County.She will provide information about the plight of women in other countries, serving to create awareness about women's equality elsewhere in the world, which is one of the goals on International Women's Day. The celebration is dedicated to making women of the past proud, women of the future inspired, and make women of the future envision. Women have made great strides to equality in the last century and this event will commemorate the impact that women have had. In addition to a key note speaker, local women's organizations will have information booths set up and the first 500 attendees will receive a free gift.
Start Date: Mar 08, 2011
End Date: Mar 08, 2011
Time: Starts at 02:30pm

Women in America

2011-03-03T06:29:00.000-08:00

The White House Report on Women in America
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/Women_in_America.pdf

GOP's True Colors

2011-02-26T12:56:00.000-08:00

The GOP is anti-women and anti-baby based on their proposed budget cuts.

Republicans are taking aim at women's health--not only their reproductive health, but also cancer screenings. And, not only here in the US but globally.

The GOP's hypocrisy is showing. For all the pro-life sentiments, it seems that they are only pro-life when the fetus is in utero, and not even fully then (monies are being drastically cut for WIC pre-natal and early childhood nutrition programs). The US is also number one in infant mortality among industralized nations accoring to the IMF.

Here are two pieces from today's NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/opinion/26sat1.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/opinion/26blow.html?src=me&ref=general

When is Rape Not Rape?

2011-02-01T06:45:00.001-08:00

When House Republicans try to re-define it so that only preganancies from forcible rapes are elibigle for federally funded abortion procedures.
HR 3 (!) aka No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act wasintroduced on Januray 20th and has 173 supporters--here is a list of those who are co-sponsoring it:

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. AKIN, Mr. ALEXANDER, Mr. AUSTRIA, Mrs. BACHMANN, Mr. BACHUS, Mr. BARLETTA, Mr. BARTLETT, Mr. BARTON of Texas, Mr. BENISHEK, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. BISHOP of Utah, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. BONNER, Mr. BOUSTANY, Mr. BRADY of Texas, Mr. BROOKS, Mr. BROUN of Georgia, Mr. BUCHANAN, Mr. BURGESS, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. CANSECO, Mr. CARTER, Mr. CASSIDY, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. CHAFFETZ, Mr. COFFMAN of Colorado, Mr. COLE, Mr. CONAWAY, Mr. COSTELLO, Mr. CRAVAACK, Mr. CRAWFORD, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mr. CRITZ, Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky, Mr. DESJARLAIS, Mr. DIAZ-BALART, Mr. DONNELLY of Indiana, Mr. DUFFY, Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina, Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee, Mrs. EMERSON, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. FLAKE, Mr. FLEMING, Mr. FORBES, Mr. FORTENBERRY, Ms. FOXX, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, Mr. GARDNER, Mr. GARRETT, Mr. GERLACH, Mr. GIBBS, Mr. GINGREY of Georgia, Mr. GOWDY, Ms. GRANGER, Mr. GRAVES of Missouri, Mr. GRIMM, Mr. GUTHRIE, Mr. HALL, Mr. HARPER, Mr. HARRIS, Mrs. HARTZLER, Mr. HENSARLING, Mr. HERGER, Mr. HUELSKAMP, Mr. HUNTER, Mr. HURT, Ms. JENKINS, Mr. JOHNSON of Illinois, Mr. JONES, Mr. JORDAN, Mr. KELLY, Mr. KING of New York, Mr. KING of Iowa, Mr. KINGSTON, Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois, Mr. KLINE, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. LANDRY, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr. LATOURETTE, Mr. LATTA, Mr. LEE of New York, Mr. LOBIONDO, Mr. LONG, Mr. LUETKEMEYER, Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California, Mr. MANZULLO, Mr. MARCHANT, Mr. MARINO, Mr. MCCARTHY of California, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. MCCLINTOCK, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr. MCHENRY, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. MCKINLEY, Mrs. MCMORRIS RODGERS, Mrs. MILLER of Michigan, Mr. GARY G. MILLER of California, Mr. MILLER of Florida, Mr. MULVANEY, Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania, Mr. NEUGEBAUER, Mrs. NOEM, Mr. NUNNELEE, Mr. OLSON, Mr. PAUL, Mr. PENCE, Mr. PETERSON, Mr. PITTS, Mr. POMPEO, Mr. POSEY, Mr. PRICE of Georgia, Mr. RAHALL, Mr. RIBBLE, Mr. RIGELL, Mr. ROE of Tennessee, Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky, Mr. ROKITA, Mr. ROSKAM, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. ROSS of Arkansas, Mr. ROYCE, Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin, Mr. SCALISE, Mr. SCHILLING, Mrs. SCHMIDT, Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina, Mr. SENSENBRENNER, Mr. SHIMKUS, Mr. SHULER, Mr. SHUSTER, Mr. SIMPSON, Mr. SMITH of Texas, Mr. STUTZMAN, Mr. SULLIVAN, Mr. TERRY, Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania, Mr. TURNER, Mr. WESTMORELAND, Mr. WHITFIELD, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. WOLF, Mr. WOODALL, Mr. YOUNG of Florida, Mr. GOHMERT, Mr. WITTMAN, Mr. CANTOR, Mr. BOREN, Mr. GOODLATTE, Mr. MCKEON, Mr. ROGERS of Michigan, Mr. CALVERT, Mrs. ELLMERS, Mr. ADERHOLT, Mr. TIBERI, and Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas

Oh, and BTW, there are 9 democrats among the sponsors. I think we should ask the www.dccc.org (the group that recruits democratic congressional candidates) what's democratic about this stance....and the DNC (www.democrat.org).

For the text of the bill see http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3/text

For analysis of this bill: see
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/republican-plan-redefine-rape-abortion

The Nun, The Catholic Hospital & the Bishop

2011-01-27T18:56:00.000-08:00

In the case of the Catholic Hospital, the Nun & the Bishop, Jesus would side with the nun, and so does the hospital. The church in its dogmatic way focuses on doctrinaire rules, sanctity and punishment, forgetting the teachings of Jesus for compassion, mercy and forgiveness.

Nicholas Kristof's column today was excellent:
www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/opinion/27kristof.html?_r=1&hp

2011

2010-12-31T11:23:00.000-08:00

Let us work so that in 2011 women have true equality.

-all women need access to total reproductive health care including female service members and family members, they should have access to all reproductive health care options on base;

-women's work should not be under- or de-valued...women's pay should be equal to men's pay for comparable jobs;

-we need men to step up to the plate at home--housework, child- and elder-care; if women were not doing 2nd and 3rd shifts of work, they might have more time to get involved politically because

- we need more women need to be in the pipeline for political candidacies;

-we need affordable, reliable and available more than just 9-6 child- and elder-care;

- we need affordable public transportation and housing; ALL issues are Women's issues!

Happy New Year! We have a lot of work ahead of us in 2011. . .

2011: Plan for Growing Women Leaders

2010-12-27T07:29:00.000-08:00

Part 1. Listen to Sheryl Sandberg's* talk at TED conference http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html

*COO of Facebook

FDR and ER, a modern marriage

2010-12-24T08:42:00.000-08:00

UCDW's book group is reading Hazel Rowley's Franklin & Eleanor: an Extraordinary Marriage for our January read.
A reader's guide is available at www.fsgbooks.com

The F word

2010-11-24T06:40:00.000-08:00

As we read CLICK! for our book group we should also think about how feminism is turned into an epitath and used to keep women in their place. We need to gather our power, and use it for good.

Gloria Steinem on eroticizing (!) equality:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/24806

Happy T-day

Post-Election Thoughts

2010-11-03T05:48:00.000-07:00

Congrats to the winners...but listen to the drumbeat, and learn.

Major lesson number one: We need more people being groomed for candidacy and office. If we do not have people sitting on the bench, we might experience what the republicans have--by running non-candidates (can you say: Lazio), it opens the door for others to jump in, such as the Tea Party candidates. [O'Donnell was correct in her assessment that if the GOP had backed her candidacy right away, things might have been a bit different--but she lost (as did most of the Republicans in Delaware by 20%)

On another note:
My prediction for the House, even though it has a republican majority, not all of the tea partiers are real republicans, and thus, the so-called R majority will split, or tend to be a lot more conservative...and produce gridlock, since the Senate is still democratic... This, btw, is what the founders had in mind when they talked about a limited government--they did not foresee the two houses agreeing on much legislation...thus, limiting government.

a new anthem

2010-10-28T06:48:00.001-07:00

A strong 9 year old (!) on identity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymKLymvwD2U

Willow Smith "whip my Hair"

Gloria Steinem on Feminism today

2010-10-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2010/10/19/is-pop-culture-dumbing-down-feminism/

Guyland

2010-09-30T06:11:00.001-07:00

I am reading Michael Kimmel's Guyland as news comes across that an 18 year old Rutgers student committed suicide by jumping of the George Washington Bridge the other day because of action that his roommate and another classmate took--using a webcam came to stream live over the internet the dead boy's private sexual encounter. An eighth grader in Houston took his life also this week because of anti-gay bullying. A 13 year old California boy who has been in a coma for the past 9 nine days since hanging himself to escape from the hell that is anti-gay bullying died this week, too.
Three deaths attributable to anti-gay bullying in half a week. "Homophobia is ubiquitous. . .And sometimes gay baiting takes an ugly turn and becomes gay-bashing" states Kimmel on page 9. Guyland is about masculinity, about how boys become men... and anything or anyone that challenges their concept of masculinity is fair game.

Our book group is reading this book to get some insight into how to grow feminist men. So far, I am getting insight into the misogyny that guys in guyland exude--they like girls, but seem to hate women. And, why young women buy into the the guyland world--females' social status is still determined by their relationship to men (p.245) (Simone de Beauvoir was so on the mark in her Second Sex as were-The Radicalesbians who penned the 1970 "Woman Identified Women" and defined heterosexism.

Our book group will meet at 7 p.m. on Thursday Oct 14th to discuss the book, and we will go hear Dr. Kimmel deliver the keynote address at Marist the evening of October 22.

Shortchanging Women

2010-09-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

The gender discount is alive and well and works for you if you are an employer. But if you are a woman as an individual this discount surpresses not only your current earning & spending power, but your future earnings (as in you will always be behind if your increases are based on your wages today) and the impact is relly felt when wome collect social security.
Since in this repression, many women are the sole source of income for their families. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/opinion/20mon3.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Celebrate August 26th

2010-08-26T06:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Women's Equality Day--today is the 90th anniversary of when women won the right to vote in the USA.
Celebrate by asking all the women you know if they are registered to vote!

For an archival history of Women's Equality Day (A little known holiday) see:
http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=women%27s+equality+day&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

For an history of Women's Right to Vote (here and around the world) see:
http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=women%27s+right+to+vote&btnG=Search+Archives&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&scoring=a

Mind the Gap!

2010-07-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a break down State by State of the gendered pay gap:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/the-gender-pay-gap-by-state/?src=busln

Look at the charts in this report:
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswom2009.pdf

Next book up

2010-07-15T08:01:00.000-07:00

The rbook group met last night and we discussed Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex> We had a very lively 2 hour discussion, and I am sure it could have gone on all night.
While if we were going chronologicaly to discuss women, we would move from where de Beauvoir left off in 1947 and precede to read Betty Freiden's The Feminine Mystique, we have instead decided to skip over the 1950s and proceed to Gail Collins' book about women from 1960 to now When Everything Changed.

We have not scheduled the next meeting of the women who read, but I will post some "study" questions here in the near future...

So, read on...

Right-wing Women

2010-07-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting article on why (and how) women are getting leadership roles in the Tea Party:

http://www.alternet.org/story/147436/why_women_dominate_the_right-wing_tea_party/?page=entire

Sexism and The Second Sex

2010-06-22T14:36:00.000-07:00

We are meeting on Bastille Day, July 14th to discuss the new translation of Simone de Beauvoir's ground shaking The Second Sex at 7pm at Inquiring Minds in Saugerties.

If we are to read this book as one of the GREAT BOOKS, as in actually reading this book as a primary source, and understanding it from our own perpsective, here are some questions to ponder:
If this is your first time reading this, how do yu find the book? Does it resonate with you? Is it dated, if so, how so?
If you read this book in its first translation--do you remember how that made you feel? How does the book strike you now?

If we are to read this book in context of modern life, academics, philosophy and feminism we might find that there have been 2 major reviews that have been negative. I might ask why...and I might answer my own question with--sexism is alive and well.

There have been a few negative reviews--The London Review of Books, for instance. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n03/toril-moi/the-adulteress-wife
Read the letters back and forth,and you will see that the contention is that this volume is not the scholarly annotated one, but just a translation of one of the foundational books of 20th century feminism.
The second negative review was in the NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/books/review/Gray-t.html
and a critique of Simone herself http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/being-and-frumpiness/

It is my hope that the reviews will not discourage women from reading this translation...

Birth Control Prevents Pregnancy

2010-06-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

Birth control prevents pregnancy, and some forms also prevent stds and HIV/Aids transmission. Thus, birth control in all forms is a form of preventative medicine/devices and is eligible to be covered by Health Care reform's preventative services policy that means no costs to the individual.
Unfortunately there is a battle going on over this, and Health Resources and Services Administration, HHS charged with determining the list of preventive services. There is some discussion that Sec. Sebelius will ask the national Institute of Medicine to "study" this question. SAY WHAT????

Write or call
Sec. Sebelius
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775

or on line: www.hhs.gov/ContactUs.html

gohealthinsurance.com/blog/coverage/entry/20100601

www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37980_Page2.html

Equal Pay Day

2010-06-11T05:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the 47th anniversary of the signing of the Equal Pay Act--the White House issued a press release (see below). In 1963 women on average earned 59 cents to the male dollar. Today, depending on where they live white women earn on average 77 cents to the male dollar, women of color 67 cents if they are black, to 58 cents for Latinas. Today women make up over 50% of the workforce.

While the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act was signed into being, it is still common practice to pay males more as the breadwinner, head of household even though in most families there are 2 incomes, or the women is the head of household. Even in the federal government, according to Carolyn Maloney, women earn 7% less than men.

I say, Mr. President, if you want to be the change do not just issue a press release, issue an executive order and model equal pay for equal work. You are the CEO of the federal system issue, you can do it.

www.aauw.org/learn/research/statedata/upload/table_data.pdf

www.womensenews.org/story/equal-payfair-wage/090428/wage-gap-study-arrives-in-time-equal-pay-day

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-anniversary-equal-pay-act

The Second Sex

2010-05-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

is reviewed in Sunday's NYT Book Review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/books/review/Gray-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3

Legal rape

2010-05-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

More and more states (22 according to the article cited below) are requiring ultrasounds before abortions may be performed. Oklahoma has the most draconian one--requiring a vaginal ultrasound (rather than one just using the wand on the belly)--I would call this mandatory procedure legal rape. [This law was passed over the governor's veto, and is currently being stayed by a court.]

Abortions are legal. Men and others (since there are women legislators) should NOT make laws on other people's --women's--bodies. That is the concept of bodily autonomy, which is the key to the liberal democratic concept of the (rational) individual.

The concept key to most anti-abortion laws and one that is included in Roe v Wade, is that when women are pregnant they are not wholly rational because of hormonal changes during pregnancy. Thus, in the case of requiring ultrasounds, they can be made to see what they are about to do.

We need to take control of our bodies, for good!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37393531

Pediatricians come to their senses

2010-05-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

Last month the American Association of Pediatrics endorses nicking young girls' clitorises (as opposed to fully cutting and/ or infilibrating the young girls) to protect them from full Female Genital Mutilation under non-sterile conditions.
Now, they are rethinking this--since any cutting is mutilation. And, just because we might believe in multiculturalism, not all cultural practices are the same nor deserve respect (including those in our own culture...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/health/27brfs-DOCTORSREVER_BRF.html?ref=us

Lies of Omission

2010-05-27T06:34:00.000-07:00

Crisis Pregnancy Centers in Maryland are required by local ordinances to post if they have medical personnel on premises and if they do not offer abortion services. They are suing to be able to mislead women who seek their help.
Is deception via omission covered by the first amendment?
What is the role of the government to ensure that women get all the reproductive health services that are available?

See the article in the Washington Times (the conservative paper) May 24, 2010:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/24/pro-life-group-fights-disclosure-law/

Women & Healthcare

2010-05-18T06:47:00.000-07:00

1. States are re-defining health care so that (elective) abortion is not part of it. Arizona and Tennessee have such a law--which limits the insurance sold on the state's Exchange. There are similar bills awaiting signing in Florida, Mississippi and Missouri. see
http://community.feministing.com/2010/05/health-care-bill-results-in-ab.html

2. The Catholic Church has excommunicated a nun who sat on an ethics committee which decided to save a mother's life over that of her 11 week fetus by aborting that fetus. (Note to Church: If the mother had died, so would that fetus. Allowing that woman to live, means she can have other babies in the future).
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/05/15/20100515phoenix-catholic-nun-abortion.html

Need I say more? Our reproductive health and life is under seige!

May 9th

2010-05-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day, and Happy 50th Anniversary to the birth control pill--which helped make motherhood a choice.

Finally!

2010-04-14T05:53:00.000-07:00

Finally, after 60 years we English speakers/readers have the complete unabridged version of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex.
de Beauvoir set out to anaylze the concept of woman--coming to the conclusion that women are "othered" by society. This study in the making and maintaining of women's inequality was eye opening when it was abridged, the unabridged version (What is a 2 volume paperback version in French is a 700 + page book in English) should only solidify more her argument.

Unfortunately, sixty years after she wrote this foundational book, women are still othered. Our rights are traded away as if they were baseball cards when legislation is written. Women are still earning roughly a quarter of what men earn--and those earnings matter from quality of life to political support to retirement.

Hopefully the republication of this book will spur on this generation of young women as it did their mothers and grandmothers before them.

Granny D

2010-03-11T06:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Granny D Haddock died at age 100. At age 90 she walked across America to educate us about Campaign Finance Reform.

She is inspirational--she gave a wonderful, funny (she said she had become the epitome of the little old lady in tennis shoes) insightful talk at Marist a few years ago. She said that her involvement in politics (she also ran unsuccessfully for Senate) was what any citizen could and should do--if they believed in our democracy.

Here is the website for a video about her: http://www.grannyd.com/

Here is the NH paper article on her death:
http://www.wmur.com/news/22792574/detail.html

A women's history event

2010-03-03T06:24:00.000-08:00

Wednesday March 3rd 7 p.m. in the Henry Hudson Room Fontaine Hall Marist College

Changing Society: [Black]Women, Race and the Law

Professor Gloria Browne-Marshall will speak about Black women catalysts for change who challenged the criminal justice system from the Colonial period to the Civil Rights era.

Professor Browne-Marshall is the author of Race, Law, and American Society: 1607-Present
(Routledge, 2007). She teaches at CUNY-John Jay in the Department of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration forcusing on Constitutional Law and Racial Justice/Civil Rights Law, International Human Rights Law (African and Minority Rights), Child Advocacy (in the area of Statutory Rape, Education, HIV/AIDS)
.

This talk is sponsored by Women's Studies, History, Political Science and the African Diaspora programs as part of Women's History and Black History months.

Light snack will be served.

Thank you.

There's a lot of DV going around

2010-03-02T04:58:00.001-08:00

Domestic violence (aka wife or woman battery)...now the mayor of White Plains, Adam Bradley, has been arrested charged with slamming his wife's fingers in the door, on purpose. [When Bradley served as Assemblyman in Albany he was sponsing the no fault divorce bill. No Comment necessary.] Domestic violence can happen in any home, in any relationship.

During times of stress and economic hardship, domestic abuse increases. We need to find an acceptable outlet for frustrations, and beating their women is NOT acceptable.
We need to teach our young men (and women) to relieve their frustrations by shooting hoops, or going out for a run. Our young (and old) need to learn to settle differences not with fists and weapons, but with (measured) words.

Governor Paterson: One Term Only?

2010-02-26T07:53:00.001-08:00

As of 14 minutes ago (its 10:55a.m.) various news media have been announcing that Governor Paterson is withdrawing his name from the gubernatorial race....

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1617202/WBFO.News/Governor.Paterson.expected.to.end.re-election.bid

Gov. Paterson, The State Police & Domestic Violence

2010-02-26T05:39:00.001-08:00

Governor Paterson has been an outspoken advocate of women, especially when it comes to domestic violence. Unfortunately, in the past few days there are allegations that he may have had to contact with the girlfriend of one of his aides who may be a victim of domestic abuse, and following that alleged contact, she did not show up at the hearing on the case. Regardless of his intent, the appearance of such contact is very questionable. The Governor has to be like Caesar's wife: above reproach, without even the appearance of an impropriety.
Patterson has asked AG Cuomo to investigate.
The fact that Denise O'Donnell, Patterson's cabinet official who oversaw the State Police resigned yesterday over the handling of this case also casts a dark shadow over Patterson O'Donnell resigned because she said the Superintendent of the State Police misled her to believe that the state police were not involved in the case.

From where I sit the underlying issue is one of the old boys' network potentially protecting one of their own.. .trying to intimidate a victim of domestic abuse to drop the charges.

It is an issue of trust and open communication for O'Donnell, thus, I understand her resignation. How can you oversee an agency without transparency? The State Police's office of Internal Affairs needs to be investigating the allegations that the State Police had been involved in the case with officers were intimidating a victim.

The issue for the Governor is a one of trust and appearances--as a lawyer, he should understand the appearance of intimidating a victim of domestic abuse; as the governor he needs to be aware that actions speak louder than words--he can talk all he wants about against domestic abuse but the appearance of him defending his aide against allegations of abuse lead to distrust.

Victim intimidation is a very real part of the domestic abuse (battering) cycle. It is nigh on to witness tampering, and disrupts our justice system, but more importantly, it allows batterers to not have to accept the consequences of their actions.

Voting Monolopy?

2010-02-26T05:13:00.000-08:00

yes, if the Justice Department allows Election Systems and Software (ESS)to acquire Diebold's election division. If this acquisition goes through 70% of all of American electronic voting machines will be made/ controlled/ serviced by one company.
The Help America Vote Act of 2002 [(HAVA) for more information go to www.fec.gov/hava/hava.htm ] which was supposed to help alleviate hanging chads and mismarked votes by upgrading voting machines.
Not only are electronic voting machine's technology (and programming) considered propreitary information, thus, the public (government) will not have access to the code to check reliability or verify votes and the machines are a computer hacker's dream. Here is a collection of NYT editorials on the problems with electronic voting from 2004-6:
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/making-votes-count.html?pagewanted=all

There is also a fear that with ESS holding 0-% of the market it will be harder for election jurisdictions to negotiate a fair and equal price. Thus, today's NYT's editorial is about the Justice Department using its antitrust powers to ensure that public interest is served.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/opinion/26fri3.html?ref=todayspaper

Here is the web page with contacts for AG Holder at the Justice Department:
http://www.justice.gov/contact-us.html
email: AskDOJ at usdoj.gov

Zero Tolerance

2010-02-10T05:45:00.000-08:00

The NYS Senate did the right thing last night: they sent the message that battering women is very NOT okay. At 9:30 last night they voted (53-8) to expel Senator Hiriam Monserrate (D-Queens) from the Senate because he battered his girlfriend.
This is the first time that a Senator was expelled for slashing his girl friend
s face last year; it underscores NYS's position of zero tolerance for domestic violence.

Corporate Citizens???

2010-01-25T08:56:00.000-08:00

Corporate Citizens?, More like a Corporate State
On Thursday the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Citizens United V FEC that in short states that corporations are people/citizens and thus, can not be censored; they have first amendment rights to free speech. Corporations (which include labor unions and not for profit corporations) can fund political speech/ads/films/events without any limit or censorship, save the FEC limits to directly giving to candidates.
I am making my way through the 183 page decision.. .[ http://media.npr.org/documents/2010/jan/scotus_campaign_finance.pdf for those of you who want to read it]

As I said this Fall at the Constitution Day event, if corporations are given the same rights as citizens, they also need to be given the same responsibilities. For instance, they need to be making decisions not just with their own self interest in mind (read: profit) but with the public good in mind. Perhaps using this mindset, we might not have had people mortgaged over their means with interest only mortgages because the mortgage brokers would have thought about the consequences and impact on the community five years out when the balloon payment hit, and could not be paid. Likewise the development and sale of derivatives might have been curtailed.
But, for a court which the majority are suppose to be strict constructionalists and not judicial activists, this decision is more than activist it remakes our Republic into a Corporate State.

Here is Chris Hedges view on this situation: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/25

The above is from: Blogging-for-America with some minor changes

Anniversary of Roe V Wade

2010-01-22T14:31:00.000-08:00

Today is the anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision, Roe V Wade in 1973. It is a very interesting opinion--it helps to articulate the concept of right to privacy that everyone uses, those who value this opinion and those who are working to reverse this opinion. Section VIII reads as follows (italics and bold, are mine):

The Constitution does not explicitly mention any right of privacy. In a line of decisions, however, going back perhaps as far as Union Pacific R. Co. v. Botsford, 141 U.S. 250, 251 (1891), the Court has recognized that a right of personal privacy, or a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy, does exist under the Constitution. In varying contexts, the Court or individual Justices have, indeed, found at least the roots of that right in the First Amendment, Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557, 564 (1969); in the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 8-9 (1968), Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 350 (1967), Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616 (1886), see Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 478 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting); in the penumbras of the Bill of Rights, Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. at 484-485; in the Ninth Amendment, id. at 486 (Goldberg, J., concurring); or in the concept of liberty guaranteed by the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment, see Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399 (1923). These decisions make it clear that only personal rights that can be deemed "fundamental" or "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty," Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 325 (1937), are included in this guarantee of personal privacy. They also make it clear that the right has some extension to activities relating to marriage, Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 12 (1967); procreation, Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535, 541-542 (1942); contraception, Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. at 453-454; id. at 460, 463-465 [p153] (WHITE, J., concurring in result); family relationships, Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 166 (1944); and childrearing and education, Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 535 (1925), Meyer v. Nebraska, supra.

This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.

While it gives women bodily autonomy in the right to decide whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, the right is a finite one. She may only make the decision on her own during the first trimester, during the second and third trimesters she needs to seek medical opinions,which can trump hers. Further along in the section, Justice Blackmun writes:
On the basis of elements such as these, appellant and some amici argue that the woman's right is absolute and that she is entitled to terminate her pregnancy at whatever time, in whatever way, and for whatever reason she alone chooses. With this we do not agree. Appellant's arguments that Texas either has no valid interest at all in regulating the abortion decision, or no interest strong enough to support any limitation upon the woman's sole determination, are unpersuasive. The [p154] Court's decisions recognizing a right of privacy also acknowledge that some state regulation in areas protected by that right is appropriate. As noted above, a State may properly assert important interests in safeguarding health, in maintaining medical standards, and in protecting potential life. At some point in pregnancy, these respective interests become sufficiently compelling to sustain regulation of the factors that govern the abortion decision. The privacy right involved, therefore, cannot be said to be absolute. In fact, it is not clear to us that the claim asserted by some amici that one has an unlimited right to do with one's body as one pleases bears a close relationship to the right of privacy previously articulated in the Court's decisions. The Court has refused to recognize an unlimited right of this kind in the past. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905) (vaccination); Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927) ( sterilization).

We, therefore, conclude that the right of personal privacy includes the abortion decision, but that this right is not unqualified, and must be considered against important state interests in regulation.

For those of you who have never read the decision you may find it, and the dissent here: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0410_0113_ZO.html

IMHO, We have a LOT of work to do to have women recognized as full individuals capable of making decisions throughout their lives, on their own, with full bodily autonomy. Without this ability, we are not seen as individuals.

2010-01-15T05:40:00.000-08:00

NYS Select Committee Directs NYS Senate to Expel or Censure Monserrate. We need to call our State Senators for their vote in this matter--IMHO, he should be expelled. Domestic Abuse should not be swept under the rug--Domnestic Abuse is a very serious crime.
Urge your Senator, as I did mine, Senator Larkin to vote for Monserrate's expulsion. The NYS Senate needs to send the message that domistic violence is not acceptableto the women and men of NYS.

To find your senator and e-mail him:http://www.nysenate.gov/senators
To See Senate committee's full report:
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/21574/monserrate-committee-releases-report/

To help Haiti

2010-01-14T07:18:00.000-08:00

Besides the regular Red Cross, Unicef, etc. groupos which aid in emergencies here are two women's groups that you may donate to to help Haitians:
•Madre – works with community based Haitian women’s organizations, will be helping women in crisis, needs: water tablets, antibiotics, medical supplies, also distributing food & clean water asking for: donate $$ or supplies, call for more info 212-627 0444 http://www.madre.org/index.php?s=4&news=263

•Quixote Center – long term grassroots organization working in US & Haiti, works w/ women’s groups & is sending earthquake aid https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/531/t/7451/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=3837

WTFrac

2009-12-31T07:28:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day to comment on the draft environmental imact statement that would allow for water fraccing of gas in the Marcellus Shale. Fracing would, imho, impact negatively (contaminate) the underground water resources, besides impacting air quality by the release of methane and particulate matter. I urge everyone to do some reading (Julie has given me some resources which I will paste below) and write an e-mail to the governor and to DEC. Their e-mail addresses are governor @chamber.state.ny.us and dmnsgeis@gw.dec.state.ny.us both need to have dSGEIS Comment in the subject line. A short but to the point note would work.

DEC's professional staff calls for moratorium: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=883182#email

A rally and press conference are planned for January 4th On the Steps of City Hall, NYC, calling on Gov. Paterson to withdraw DEC's draft SGEIS as fatally-flawed and incomplete. Environmental orgs, individuals and numerous NY politicians will attend. I'll send details shortly.

Here are a couple of helpful news stories:
Hinchey: http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2009/December09/24/natgas_Hinchey-24Dec09.html
Damning water, waste facts: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=882817
10,000 public comments submitted to DEC: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/almost_10000_people_submit_com.html
http://www.wktv.com/news/local/80298657.html
and from today's NYT

DEC's professional staff calls for moratorium: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=883182#email

A rally and press conference are planned for January 4th in Albany, calling on Gov. Paterson to withdraw DEC's draft SGEIS as fatally-flawed and incomplete. Environmental orgs, individuals and numerous NY politicians will attend. I'll send details shortly.

Here are a couple of helpful news stories:
Hinchey: http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2009/December09/24/natgas_Hinchey-24Dec09.html
Damning water, waste facts: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=882817
10,000 public comments submitted to DEC: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/almost_10000_people_submit_com.html
http://www.wktv.com/news/local/80298657.html

A New Year's wish

2009-12-25T06:31:00.000-08:00

May all promises--large and small--be kept in 2010.

Pop Culture

2009-12-16T06:02:00.000-08:00

Pop culture is not too feminist:

In the latest vampire loving film New Moon the "replacement boyfriend" Jacob is a member of the Quilete native Americans. Unfortunately, when he is angered he turns into a werewolf capable of (spoiler alert) mauling the one he loves, like his friend did. He blames it on genetics. Unfortunately in real life, Native American women are more likely to be victims of domestic abuse--64% of Native American women will be abused in their life (www.sacred-circle.com), not because of genetics, buit because of men's low self esteem and anger due to drugs, alcohol, poverty, discrimination. . . .

A Canadian poli sci professer analyzed Thomas the Train, the 1943 story that is still going strong. There is a very conservative story line within, replete with sexism, fearmongering, and conformity. (www.parentcentral.ca/parent/activities/article/737171--why-thomas-is-areally-useless-engine-for-girls ).

A tip of my hat to feministing.com and, if you do not link to www.feministing.com you should!

Trading Women's Rights

2009-11-12T05:38:00.000-08:00

From Today's NYT the politics of the passage of the House's health deform bill: on the back's of women.
www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12opinion/12michelman.html

VOTE

2009-11-03T15:21:00.000-08:00

I was only number 94 (out of about 350 possible voters) at my polling place an hour ago...

DV & Monserrate

2009-10-19T05:53:00.000-07:00

STATEMENT FROM SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER IN RESPONSE TO HIRAM MONSERRATE’S CONVICTION

NEWS FROM STATE SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER New York State Senate, 26th District STATEMENT FROM SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER IN RESPONSE TO HIRAM MONSERRATE’S CONVICTION "I believe Hiram Monserrate should not remain in the Senate, and for the sake of his constituents, the institution of the Senate and the Democratic party he should resign immediately based on the seriousness of his violent crime. Being an elected official is an honor and a privilege, not a right. As a state legislator , the voters give you the power to decide what laws all 19 million of us live under. And as such we are obligated to hold ourselves to the highest standards of our laws. The justice system has determined that Mr. Monserrate has violated our laws and is guilty of a very disturbing and violent crime against a woman. Domestic violence is a scourge on our society, and an issue which I believe requires us to speak out. Only through speaking out can we work to prevent more violence, support survivors, end the stigma and fear that victims deal with, and advocate for stronger penalties for those who believe they are above the law and violate another human being. The Senate is exploring our institutional legal options now that the Courts have ruled, but haven’t yet issued a sentence. For me, the length of the sentence does not matter – domestic violence is domestic violence, guilt is guilt. Therefore, I believe Hiram Monserrate should not remain in the Senate."

MIA: Real Health Care Reform

2009-10-13T04:48:00.000-07:00

Health care reform should be to help people not companies --real health care reform that would * help those who get denied insurance--such as victims of domestic abuse (see http://www.alternet.org/politics/143142/really_sick%3A_if_your_partner_beats_you%2C_insurance_companies_don%27t_have_to_give_you_coverage);
* the public option necessary for many with chronic health care issues such as HIV & AIDS (see http://www.thebody.com/index/govt/reform.html);
*health care reform would not include drive by major operations (its not take two breasts and call me in the morning);
* health care reform would cover all people--using the ER as a clinic is very expensive:
*health care should not cause foreclosures;
and
* health care insurance should be disconnected people's jobs--it keeps people hostage to jobs.

Rape

2009-10-05T16:05:00.000-07:00

Questions raised by Roman Polanski's (re-) arrest:
Is a rape a rape when committed years ago? Is a rape a rape when the rapist is reknowned? Is a rape a rape when the raped is a 13 year old seductress? Is a rape a rape when the victim says move on? Is the crime of rape a crime against the state? Is a rape a rape, and always a rape?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/weekinreview/04kimmelman.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=kimmelman&st=cse

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/anotherthing/479379/roman_polanski_has_a_lot_of_friends

And, Don't get me started on Letterman. . .

Women's Autonomy & the Healthcare proposal

2009-10-01T06:02:00.000-07:00

Once again, women's healthcare is being compromised--a woman's body is her body--regardless of class or income: decisions about it should be made by her, and when it comes to health/medical issues by her doctor. The current health care proposal being tauted by Republicans and anti-choice Democrats basically says that anyone one who might get federal subsidies that would allow them to buy their health care, can NOT purchase a health insurance plan that covers abortions.

Abortions are legal, there are many reasons why women seek/need to have this medical procedure done, Women need to be able to make ALL their own health care decisions.

I wonder if these health care proposals that disallow for elective abortions allow for Viagra and its ilk, breast implants or even all forms of birth control --want to limit the number of abortions, provide adequate, easily available birth control and sex education!

Today's NYT editorial on Abortion & Healthcare:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/opinion/01thu1.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=opinion&adxnnlx=1254402145-GNBOJ17r8OIKlnC/K29BvA

51% of the People Living in America

2009-09-16T06:19:00.000-07:00

Need health care reform and we need it NOW!

Based on an in depth report by The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) has found that:

NWLC found that the individual insurance market is a very difficult place
for women to buy health coverage. Insurance companies can refuse to sell women coverage altogether due to a history of any health problems, or charge women higher premiums based on factors such as their gender, age and health status. This coverage is often very costly and limited in scope—and it often fails to meet women’s needs.

Besides making it difficult and more expensive for women to find maternity coverage it seems that having been a victim of domestic violence in some states also precludes women from health care insurance:

Insurance companies can reject applicants for health coverage for a variety of
reasons that are particularly relevant to women. For example, it is still legal in nine states
and D.C. for insurers to reject applicants who are survivors of domestic violence. Insurers can
also reject women for coverage simply for having previously had a Cesarean section (C-section).

http://action.nwlc.org/site/PageNavigator/nowheretoturn_Report
For the Full Report PDF:http://nwlc.org/reformmatters/NWLCReport-NowhereToTurn-WEB.pdf

New UN Women's Agency

2009-09-15T19:06:00.001-07:00

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48439

Women's Equality Day

2009-08-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Today is Women's Equality Day designated by Congress in 1971 (thanks to Congresswoman Bella Abzug) to commerate the passing of the 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution --the Woman Suffrage Ammendment--which gave American women full voting rights in 1920.

And, there is still much more to do to achieve full equality for women. . .

http://www.nwhp.org/resourcecenter/equalityday.php

Women's Liberation 21st Century Style

2009-08-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

Nicholas Kristof writes:
"IN THE 19TH CENTURY, the paramount moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism. In this century, it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe: sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape. "
To continue reading...from the August 23rd NYT Magazine
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html?emc=eta1#

Raise your voices!

2009-08-14T06:39:00.000-07:00

". . .it is far from clear how much of the vocal opposition to reform represents wider popular feeling and how much is a mobile mob of gun nuts, birthers and teabaggers paid for and organized by lobbyists and Republican outfits like Americans for Prosperity, Conservatives for Patients' Rights and FreedomWorks. Several polls show a majority of Americans still want reform. But polls don't mean much politically if everyone stays quiet." (italics are mine)
Katha Pollitt on Healthcare: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/14

If healthcare is reformed:
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/141916/10_awesome_things_that_would_happen_if_health_reform_passes/?page=entire

Targeting Women, II

2009-08-08T07:14:00.001-07:00

Bob Herbert's Column today "Women at Risk" talks about "the deadly mix of misogyny and guns." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/opinion/08herbert.html?_r=1
"We have become so accustomed to living in a society saturated with misogyny that the barbaric treatment of women and girls has come to be more or less expected. . ." He writes". . .Life in the United States is mind-bogglingly violent. . .[women and girls] are attacked because they are female."
Herbert touches on not only the Pennsylvanian gym killings, the Amish school killings but also the Virginia Tech killings. He also mentions the pornography industry, battered wives and girlfriends, and attacks against women in our armed services. An expert he interviews says that most of the attacks are based on the attackers trying to regain or prove their manhood, and committing a violent act is one way.

Herbert concludes noting the we need to "acknowledge that misogyny is a serious and pervasive problem. . .combined with absurdly easy availability of guns, is a toxic mix of the most tragic proportions."

We need better gun control laws and gun safety laws.
We need to teach our children that violence is not the appropriate response to anger or frustration.
We need to see and treat women and girls as equals.

Targeting Women

2009-08-07T07:28:00.000-07:00

The recent shooting in Pennsylvania targetted women. Can we say misogyny? Yet, the main stream media is not focussing on this aspect, just on the shooter's sad life.
It seems Bob Herbert noted (Oct 16, 2006 after the shooting at the Amish School) that the media and society does not focus on misogyny because as he stated "The disrespectful, degrading, contemptuous treatment of women is so pervasive and so mainstream that it has just about lost its ability to shock."
The only article I have found that actually defines misogyny in connection with this shooting is in the Christian Science Monitor,
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0806/p02s05-ussc.html

Congrats on Associate Justice #111

2009-08-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Justice Sottomayer!

Euphemisms for Strong Woman

2009-07-15T06:22:00.000-07:00

First, Senator Graham predicted that Judge Sottomayor would be confirmed unless she had a "meltdown." Was that a euphemism for unless she acted like an emotional, hysterical woman?

And, yesterday Senator Graham said that anonymous lawyers who had appeared before her had said she was "temperamental" "a bully" "nasty" and "difficult and challenging." These I believe are euphemisms for being a professional and strong woman who is not maternal-acting on the job.

Many women, in many professions encounter the same euphemisms cum criticisms if they are strong, rational, fair.

Studies have shown that women are perceived as maternal, emotional while men are paternal and rational. Women are supposed to be accessible and accepting of all excuses, men are busy (not always accessible) and firm.

There is much work done on gender bias in evaluations. The bias may be subtle-- but it is significant, and leads to the entrenching of a double standard.

The most recent study was reported out in Newsweek (6/25/09): http://www.newsweek.com/id/203458?from=rss

A Place on the Bench

2009-07-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the place on the Bench for women:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12ginsburg-t.html?_r=1

Here is a website to follow for Sotomayer's confirmation hearings: The Thinking Women's Guide to the Supreme Court Hearings, published by the National Women's Law Center
http://www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=3624&section=JCWR

On Burqas and Liberty

2009-07-03T06:39:00.000-07:00

Hardly any women in France wear burqas, but like habjib (see Joan W. Scott's book The Politics of the Veil), these coverings are seen as symbols of women's oppression.

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=burqa_politics_in_france

This begs the questions: What is the relationship of religion and women? Religion and oppression?

In yesterday's NYT there was an article about the Vatican conducting two investigations of American Nuns who the Vatican thinks have become too modern and involved in the real world.
These nuns are no longer "“promot[ing]” the church’s teachings on three issues: the male-only priesthood, homosexuality and the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church as the means to salvation. " But these "American nuns stopped wearing religious habits, left convents to live independently and went into new lines of work: academia and other professions, social and political advocacy and grass-roots organizations that serve the poor or promote spirituality. A few nuns have also been active in organizations that advocate changes in the church like ordaining women and married men as priests. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/us/02nuns.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=church%20vatican%20nuns&st=cse

Government's Failure to Prevent Harm

2009-06-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

There is a very important yet little talked about Supreme Court case decided a few years back: Castle Rock v Gonzales [ 545 U.S. 748 (2005)]. Jessica Gonzales had a restraining order/an order of protection against her (ex) husband Simon. One evening he abducted their three daughters, and though she called the Castle Rock (Colorado) police repeatedly over the course of the evening to enforce the order, nothing was done. Simon committed death by police, and the police found the bodies of the 3 girls in his truck.
The Supreme Court's opinion written by Scalia basically said that enforcement of a restraining order was not mandatory under Colorado law. This is just one of a series of decisions that state that the government's role to prevent harm is not an entitlement, and its failure to act to prevent harm is within their exercise of (administrative) discretion.
You may also want to read Kristian Miccio's article cogent article on this case, and the future of domestic violence/battering movement .http://works.bepress.com/g_kristian_miccio/4/. Miccio teaches at Sturm School of Law (she taught at SUNY New Paltz prior).

The question now posed is: what now? Is the Domestic Violence Movement now toothless? How do we protect abused women? How do we hold our government responsible?

Jessica Gonzales brought her case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIM). The CIM heard her testimony in November 2008 and January of this year, and are suppose to rule by year's end.

Bias

2009-06-23T08:50:00.001-07:00

In today's NYT there is an article on
"Customer Bias in Favor of White Men."
www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/health/research/23perc.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=customer%20bias&st=cse

Say What????

2009-06-19T04:59:00.000-07:00

Somehow I don't believe we are post-feminist quite yet....there is still way too much to do to reach equality! Yet, feminism/feminists have a bad reputation (thanks to Rush, et al) so many people do not call themselves feminists, even though they believe in feminist ideals and goals.
What do you all think?

CNN has an article posted re: is Feminism Obsolete
http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/10/just-sayin-is-feminism-obsolete/#comments

Maloney v Gillibrand

2009-06-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

In today's NYT, Gail Collins takes a look at the potential senatorial primary race between Kirsten Gillibrand and Carolyn Maloney. www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/opinion/18collins.html?ref=opinion

Collins raises some interesting questions:
What do we want in our legislators: strong principles or our principles?
How do we (want to ) reward hardworking legislators--with re-election so that they may continue their good work, or with a promotion where basically they have to start over?

The third question she raises: should the president have a voice in this process, or do we care I believe is a red herring: can we say "coattails" or "endorsements" or "campaign politics as usual" ? Because Obama has already weighed in on this, and in doing so slighted Maloney because he had Biden ask her not to run, while he, himself called on Steve Israel to ask the same.

An excellent letter in support of Judge Sottomayor

2009-06-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

From today's NYT letter To the Editor:
Women and minorities have suffered a long history of legal and other decisions, made predominantly by white men, that disenfranchised them, kept them underpaid and denied them access to many educational and job opportunities. Those white men probably thought that their decisions were based on objective facts rather than their particular perspectives.
Not only do male justices need to hear the perspectives of women, particularly women of color, but they and those who confirm them also need to recognize that white men — like everyone — have perspectives informed by race and gender.
When Justice Stephen G. Breyer brings his youthful locker-room recollections into discussion of a case about strip-searching a young woman, who among his male colleagues (or those men who confirmed him) is disturbed that he is calling upon a gender-based experience?
We should be more concerned that a woman’s perspective may not be heard, even when a woman is present. When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says that her comments are sometimes ignored in the group of male justices until someone else makes the same point, she is reporting the experience of countless lone women in male groups. I detailed this experience in a study I co-wrote on “Critical Mass on Corporate Boards: Why Three or More Women Enhance Governance” (Wellesley Centers for Women, 2006).
I have no doubt that putting a second woman back on the court would have the same beneficial effect as adding a second woman to a corporate board, and that a third would be even better for the operation of justice.
Vicki W. Kramer Philadelphia, June 5, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/opinion/l08judges.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

•

Why we need more feminists on the bench

2009-05-22T12:42:00.000-07:00

The Supreme Court decided that women who have had maternity/family leave are not entitled to any accounting of that time towards their pension, if that leave pre-dated the Pregnancy and Disability Act. (At&T Corp V Hulteen (No. 07-543) 498 F. 3d 1001)

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-543.ZS.html

Once again, Justice Ginsberg dissents (joined by Justice Breyer).

Below is her dissenting opinion---

[May 18, 2009]
JUSTICE GINSBURG, with whom JUSTICE BREYER joins,
dissenting.
In General Elec. Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U. S. 125 (1976), this
Court held that a classification harmful to women based
on pregnancy did not qualify as discrimination “because of
. . . sex” prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964. 42 U. S. C. §2000e–2(a)(1). Exclusion of pregnancy
from an employer’s disability benefits plan, the Court
ruled, “is not a gender-based discrimination at all.” 429
U. S., at 136. See also id., at 138 (describing G. E.’s plan
as “facially nondiscriminatory” and without “any genderbased
discriminatory effect”).1 In dissent, JUSTICE
STEVENS wondered how the Court could come to that
conclusion, for “it is the capacity to become pregnant
which primarily differentiates the female from the male.”
Id., at 162.
Prior to Gilbert, all Federal Courts of Appeals presented
——————
1 The Court’s opinion in Gilbert extended to Title VII reasoning earlier
advanced in Geduldig v. Aiello, 417 U. S. 484 (1974). In that case,
the Court upheld against an equal protection challenge California’s
disability insurance system, which excluded coverage for disabilities
occasioned by normal pregnancy. California’s system, the Court noted,
did not divide workers according to their sex; instead, it “divide[d]
potential recipients into two groups—pregnant women and nonpregnant
persons.” Id., at 496–497, n. 20.
2 AT&T CORP. v. HULTEEN
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
with the question had determined that pregnancy discrimination
violated Title VII.2 Guidelines issued in 1972
by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC or Commission) declared that disadvantageous
classifications of employees based on pregnancy-related
conditions are “in prima facie violation of Title VII.” 37
Fed. Reg. 6837 (1972). In terms closely resembling the
EEOC’s current Guideline, see 29 CFR §1604.10 (2008),
the Commission counseled:
“Written and unwritten employment policies and
practices involving . . . the accrual of seniority and
other benefits and privileges . . . shall be applied to
disability due to pregnancy or childbirth on the same
terms and conditions as they are applied to other
temporary disabilities.” 37 Fed. Reg. 6837.
The history of women in the paid labor force underpinned
and corroborated the views of the lower courts and the
——————
2 See Communications Workers of America v. AT&T Co., Long Lines
Dept., 513 F. 2d 1024 (CA2 1975); Wetzel v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 511 F.
2d 199 (CA3 1975), vacated on other grounds and remanded, 424 U. S.
737 (1976); Gilbert v. General Elec. Co., 519 F. 2d 661 (CA4 1975), rev’d,
429 U. S. 125 (1976); Satty v. Nashville Gas Co., 522 F. 2d 850 (CA6
1975), aff’d in part, vacated in part, and remanded, 434 U. S. 136
(1977); Holthaus v. Compton & Sons, Inc. 514 F. 2d 651 (CA8 1975);
Berg v. Richmond Unified School Dist., 528 F. 2d 1208 (CA9 1975);
Hutchison v. Lake Oswego School Dist. No. 7, 519 F. 2d 961 (CA9 1975).
For decisions under state human rights laws to the same effect, see,
e.g., Brooklyn Union Gas Co. v. New York State Human Rights Appeal
Bd., 41 N. Y. 2d 84, 359 N. E. 2d 393 (1976); Anderson v. Upper Bucks
Cty. Area Vocational Technical School, 30 Pa. Commw. 103, 373 A. 2d
126 (1977); Quaker Oats Co. v. Cedar Rapids Human Rights Comm’n,
268 N. W. 2d 862 (Iowa 1978); Massachusetts Elec. Co. v. Massachusetts
Comm’n Against Discrimination, 375 Mass. 160, 375 N. E. 2d 1192
(1978); Minnesota Min. & Mfg. Co. v. State, 289 N. W. 2d 396 (Minn.
1979); Michigan Dept. of Civil Rights ex rel. Jones v. Michigan Dept. of
Civil Serv., 101 Mich. App. 295, 301 N. W. 2d 12 (1980); Badih v. Myers,
36 Cal. App. 4th 1289, 43 Cal. Rptr. 2d 229 (1995).
Cite as: 556 U. S. ____ (2009) 3
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
EEOC. In generations preceding—and lingering long
after—the passage of Title VII, that history demonstrates,
societal attitudes about pregnancy and motherhood severely
impeded women’s employment opportunities. See
Molnar, “Has the Millennium Yet Dawned?”: A History of
Attitudes Toward Pregnant Workers in America, 12 Mich.
J. Gender & L. 163, 170–176 (2005); S. Kamerman, A.
Kahn, & P. Kingston, Maternity Policies and Working
Women 32–38 (1983).
Congress swiftly reacted to the Gilbert decision. Less
than two years after the Court’s ruling, Congress passed
the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA) to overturn
Gilbert and make plain the legislators’ clear understanding
that discrimination based on pregnancy is discrimination
against women.3 The Act amended Title VII
to require that women affected by pregnancy “be treated
the same for all employment-related purposes, including
receipt of benefits under fringe benefit programs, as other
persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability
to work.” 42 U. S. C. §2000e(k).
The PDA does not require redress for past discrimination.
It does not oblige employers to make women whole
for the compensation denied them when, prior to the Act,
they were placed on pregnancy leave, often while still
ready, willing, and able to work, and with no secure right
to return to their jobs after childbirth.4 But the PDA does
——————
3 See, e.g., H. R. Rep. No. 95–948, p. 3 (1978) (“[T]he assumption that
women will become pregnant and leave the labor force . . . is at the root
of the discriminatory practices which keep women in low-paying and
dead-end jobs.”).
4 For examples of once prevalent restrictions, see Turner v. Utah
Dept. of Employment Security, 423 U. S. 44 (1975) (per curiam) (state
statute made pregnant women ineligible for unemployment benefits for
a period extending from 12 weeks before the expected date of childbirth
until six weeks after childbirth); Cleveland Bd. of Ed. v. LaFleur, 414
U. S. 632, 634–635 (1974) (school board rule forced pregnant public
4 AT&T CORP. v. HULTEEN
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
protect women, from and after April 1979, when the Act
became fully effective, against repetition or continuation of
pregnancy-based disadvantageous treatment.
Congress interred Gilbert more than 30 years ago, but
the Court today allows that wrong decision still to hold
sway. The plaintiffs (now respondents) in this action will
receive, for the rest of their lives, lower pension benefits
than colleagues who worked for AT&T no longer than they
did. They will experience this discrimination not simply
because of the adverse action to which they were subjected
pre-PDA. Rather, they are harmed today because AT&T
has refused fully to heed the PDA’s core command: Hereafter,
for “all employment-related purposes,” disadvantageous
treatment “on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or
related medical conditions” must cease. 42 U. S. C.
§2000e(k) (emphasis added). I would hold that AT&T
committed a current violation of Title VII when, post-PDA,
it did not totally discontinue reliance upon a pension
calculation premised on the notion that pregnancy-based
classifications display no gender bias.
I
Enacted as an addition to the section defining terms
used in Title VII, the PDA provides:
“The terms ‘because of sex’ or ‘on the basis of sex’
include, but are not limited to, because of or on the
basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions;
and women affected by pregnancy, childbirth,
or related medical conditions shall be treated the
same for all employment-related purposes, including
——————
school teachers to take unpaid maternity leave five months before the
expected date of childbirth, with no guarantee of re-employment). Cf.
Nevada Dept. of Human Resources v. Hibbs, 538 U. S. 721, 736–737
(2003) (sex discrimination, Congress recognized, is rooted, primarily, in
stereotypes about “women when they are mothers or mothers-to-be”
(internal quotation marks omitted)).
Cite as: 556 U. S. ____ (2009) 5
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
receipt of benefits under fringe benefit programs, as
other persons not so affected but similar in their ability
or inability to work . . . .” 42 U. S. C. §2000e(k).
The text of the Act, this Court has acknowledged, “unambiguously
expressed [Congress’] disapproval of both the
holding and the reasoning of the Court in the Gilbert
decision.” Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. v.
EEOC, 462 U. S. 669, 678 (1983). “Proponents of the
[PDA],” the Court observed, “repeatedly emphasized that
the Supreme Court had erroneously interpreted congressional
intent and that amending legislation was necessary
to reestablish the principles of Title VII law as they had
been understood prior to the Gilbert decision.” Id., at 679.
See also California Fed. Sav. & Loan Assn. v. Guerra, 479
U. S. 272, 284–285 (1987) (explaining that “the first clause
of the PDA reflects Congress’ disapproval of the reasoning
in Gilbert,” while “the second clause . . . illustrate[s] how
discrimination against pregnancy is to be remedied”). Cf.
Newport News, 462 U. S., at 694 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting)
(criticizing the Court for concluding that the PDA
“renders all of Gilbert obsolete”).
Today’s case presents a question of time. As the Court
comprehends the PDA, even after the effective date of the
Act, lower pension benefits perpetually can be paid to
women whose pregnancy leaves predated the PDA. As to
those women, the Court reasons, the disadvantageous
treatment remains as Gilbert declared it to be: “facially
nondiscriminatory,” and without “any gender-based discriminatory
effect,” 429 U. S., at 138. See ante, at 8.
There is another way to read the PDA, one better attuned
to Congress’ “unambiguou[s] . . . disapproval of both
the holding and the reasoning” in Gilbert. Newport News,
462 U. S., at 678. On this reading, the Act calls for an
immediate end to any pretense that classification on the
basis of pregnancy can be “facially nondiscriminatory.”
6 AT&T CORP. v. HULTEEN
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
While the PDA does not reach back to redress discrimination
women encountered before Congress overruled Gilbert,
the Act instructs employers forthwith to cease and
desist: From and after the PDA’s effective date, classifications
treating pregnancy disadvantageously must be
recognized, “for all employment-related purposes,” including
pension payments, as discriminatory both on their face
and in their impact. So comprehended, the PDA requires
AT&T to pay Noreen Hulteen and others similarly
situated pension benefits untainted by pregnancy-based
discrimination.
II
The Court’s rejection of plaintiffs’ claims to pension
benefits undiminished by discrimination “because of
[their] sex,” 42 U. S. C. §2000e–2(h), centers on §703(h) of
Title VII, as construed by this Court in Teamsters v.
United States, 431 U. S. 324 (1977). See ante, at 4–8.
Section 703(h) permits employers “to apply different standards
of compensation . . . pursuant to a bona fide seniority
. . . system.” 42 U. S. C. §2000e–2(h). Congress enacted
§703(h), Teamsters explained, to “exten[d] a measure
of immunity” to seniority systems even when they “operate
to ‘freeze’ the status quo of prior discriminatory employment
practices.” 431 U. S., at 350 (quoting Griggs v. Duke
Power Co., 401 U. S. 424, 430 (1971)).
Teamsters involved a seniority system attacked under
Title VII as perpetuating race-based discrimination.
Minority group members ranked low on the seniority list
because, pre-Title VII, they were locked out of the job
category in question. But the seniority system itself, the
Court reasoned, “did not have its genesis in . . . discrimination,”
contained no discriminatory terms, and applied
“equally to all races and ethnic groups,” 431 U. S., at 355–
356. Therefore, the Court concluded, §703(h) sheltered the
system despite its adverse impact on minority group
Cite as: 556 U. S. ____ (2009) 7
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
members only recently hired for, or allowed to transfer
into, more desirable jobs. See id., at 356.
This case differs from Teamsters because AT&T’s seniority
system itself was infected by an overt differential. Cf.
ante, at 8 (“[R]ule of differential treatment was an element
of the seniority system itself . . . .”). One could scarcely
maintain that AT&T’s scheme was “neutral on [its] face
and in intent,” discriminating against women only “in
effect.” Cf. Teamsters, 431 U. S., at 349. Surely not a
term fairly described as “equally [applicable] to all,” id., at
355, AT&T’s prescription regarding pregnancy leave
would gain no immunity under §703(h) but for this Court’s
astonishing declaration in Gilbert: “[E]xclusion of pregnancy
from a disability-benefits plan providing general
coverage,” the Court decreed, “[was] not a gender-based
discrimination at all.” 429 U. S., at 136. See ante, at 8
(because of Gilbert, AT&T’s disadvantageous treatment of
pregnancy leave “did not taint the system under the terms
of [§703(h)]”).
Were the PDA an ordinary instance of legislative revision
by Congress in response to this Court’s construction
of a statutory text, I would not dissent from today’s decision.
But Congress made plain its view that Gilbert was
not simply wrong about the character of a classification
that treats leave necessitated by pregnancy and childbirth
disadvantageously. In disregarding the opinions of other
courts, see supra, at 2, n. 2, of the agency that superintends
enforcement of Title VII, see supra, at 2,5 and, most
——————
5 The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) current
Compliance Manual counsels: “While the denial of service credit to
women on maternity leave was not unlawful when [the charging party]
took her leave . . . , the employer’s decision to incorporate that denial of
service credit in calculating seniority [post-PDA] is discriminatory.” 2
EEOC Compliance Manual §3, p. 627:0023 (effective Oct. 3, 2000).
EEOC compliance manuals, this Court has recognized, “reflect ‘a body
of experience and informed judgment to which courts and litigants may
8 AT&T CORP. v. HULTEEN
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
fundamentally, the root cause of discrimination against
women in the paid labor force, this Court erred egregiously.
Congress did not provide a remedy for pregnancybased
discrimination already experienced before the PDA
became effective. I am persuaded by the Act’s text and
legislative history, however, that Congress intended no
continuing reduction of women’s compensation, pension
benefits included, attributable to their placement on pregnancy
leave.
III
A few further considerations influence my dissenting
view. Seeking equal treatment only from and after the
PDA’s effective date, plaintiffs present modest claims. As
the Court observes, they seek service credit, for pension
benefit purposes, for the periods of their pregnancy leaves.
For the named plaintiffs, whose claims are typical, the
uncounted leave days are these: “seven months . . . for
Noreen Hulteen; about six months for Eleanora Collet;
and about two for Elizabeth Snyder and Linda Porter.”
Ante, at 3. See also 498 F. 3d 1001, 1004 (CA9 2007) (en
banc) (case below). Their demands can be met without
disturbing settled expectations of other workers, the core
concern underlying the shelter §703(h) provides for seniority
systems. See Franks v. Bowman Transp. Co., 424 U. S.
747, 766, 773, and n. 33 (1976) (“ ‘benefit’ seniority,” unlike
“ ‘competitive status’ seniority,” does not conflict with
economic interests of other employees).
Furthermore, as Judge Rymer explained in her opinion
dissenting from the Ninth Circuit’s initial panel opinion,
441 F. 3d 653, 665–666 (2006), the relief plaintiffs request
is not retroactive in character. Plaintiffs request no backpay
or other compensation for past injury. They seek
——————
properly resort for guidance.’ ” Federal Express Corp. v. Holowecki, 552
U. S. ___, ___ (2008) (slip op., at 8) (quoting Bragdon v. Abbott, 524
U. S. 624, 642 (1998)).
Cite as: 556 U. S. ____ (2009) 9
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
pension benefits, now and in the future, equal to the benefits
received by others employed for the same length of
time. The actionable conduct of which they complain is
AT&T’s denial of equal benefits to plaintiffs “in the post-
PDA world.” Id., at 667.
Nor does it appear that equal benefits for plaintiffs
during their retirement years would expose AT&T to an
excessive or unmanageable cost. The plaintiffs’ class is
not large; it comprises only women whose pregnancy
leaves predated April 29, 1979 and whose employment
continued long enough for their pensions to vest. The
periods of service involved are short—several weeks or
some months, not years. And the cost of equal treatment
would be spread out over many years, as eligible women
retire.
IV
Certain attitudes about pregnancy and childbirth,
throughout human history, have sustained pervasive,
often law-sanctioned, restrictions on a woman’s place
among paid workers and active citizens. This Court so
recognized in Nevada Dept. of Human Resources v. Hibbs,
538 U. S. 721 (2003). Hibbs rejected challenges, under the
Eleventh and Fourteenth Amendments, to the Family and
Medical Leave Act of 1993, 107 Stat. 6, 29 U. S. C. §2601
et seq., as applied to state employees. The Court’s opinion
featured Congress’ recognition that,
“[h]istorically, denial or curtailment of women’s employment
opportunities has been traceable directly to
the pervasive presumption that women are mothers
first, and workers second. This prevailing ideology
about women’s roles has in turn justified discrimination
against women when they are mothers or mothers-
to-be.” Joint Hearing before the Subcommittee on
Labor-Management Relations and the Subcommittee
on Labor Standards of the House Committee on Edu10
AT&T CORP. v. HULTEEN
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
cation and Labor, 99th Cong., 2d Sess., 100 (1986)
(quoted in Hibbs, 538 U. S., at 736).6
Several of our own decisions, the opinion in Hibbs acknowledged,
538 U. S., at 729, exemplified the once “prevailing
ideology.” As prime illustrations, the Court cited
Bradwell v. State, 16 Wall. 130 (1873);7 Muller v. Oregon,
208 U. S. 412 (1908);8 Goesaert v. Cleary, 335 U. S. 464
(1948);9 and Hoyt v. Florida, 368 U. S. 57 (1961).10 The
Hibbs opinion contrasted Muller, Goesaert, and Hoyt with
more recent opinions: Commencing in 1971, the Court had
shown increasing awareness that traditional sex-based
classifications confined or depressed women’s opportunities.
538 U. S., at 728–730. Representative of the
jurisprudential change, Hibbs cited Reed v. Reed, 404
U. S. 71 (1971);11 Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U. S. 677
——————
6 See also H. R. Rep. No. 95–948, pp. 6–7 (“Women are still subject to
the stereotype that all women are marginal workers. Until a woman
passes the child-bearing age, she is viewed by employers as potentially
pregnant.”).
7 Bradwell upheld a State’s exclusion of women from the practice of
law. In an exorbitant concurring opinion, Justice Bradley wrote that
“the female sex [is] evidently unfi[t] . . . for many of the occupations of
civil life.” 16 Wall., at 141. He elaborated: “The paramount destiny
and mission of woman are to fulfil the noble and benign offices of wife
and mother. This is the law of the Creator.” Ibid.
8 Muller upheld a State’s hours-of-work limitation applicable to
women only. “[T]o preserve the strength and vigor of the race,” the
Court observed, “the physical well-being of woman becomes an object of
public interest and care.” 208 U. S., at 421. Cf. Automobile Workers v.
Johnson Controls, Inc., 499 U. S. 187, 211 (1991) (“Concern for a
woman’s existing or potential offspring historically has been the excuse
for denying women equal employment opportunities.”).
9 Goesaert upheld a state law prohibiting women from working as
bartenders (unless the woman’s husband or father owned the tavern).
10 Hoyt sustained a state law exempting all women from the obligation
to serve on juries.
11 Reed invalidated a state law that preferred males to females for
appointment as estate administrators.
Cite as: 556 U. S. ____ (2009) 11
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
(1973);12 Craig v. Boren, 429 U. S. 190 (1976);13 and United
States v. Virginia, 518 U. S. 515 (1996).14
Gilbert is aberrational not simply because it placed
outside Title VII disadvantageous treatment of pregnancy
rooted in “stereotype-based beliefs about the allocation of
family duties,” Hibbs, 538 U. S., at 730; Gilbert also advanced
the strange notion that a benefits classification
excluding some women (“pregnant women”) is not sexbased
because other women are among the favored class
(“nonpregnant persons”).15 The very first Title VII sexdiscrimination
case heard by the Court, Phillips v. Martin
Marietta Corp., 400 U. S. 542 (1971) (per curiam), however,
rejected similar reasoning. At issue in Phillips was
an employer’s refusal to hire mothers of pre-school-age
children. Phillips yielded a per curiam opinion recognizing
that Title VII applies to classifications disadvantageous
to some, but not most, women. See, e.g., Phillips v.
Martin Marietta Corp., 416 F. 2d 1257, 1262 (CA5 1969)
(Brown, C. J., dissenting from denial of en banc review)
(“A mother is still a woman. And if she is denied work
outright because she is a mother, it is because she is a
woman. Congress said that could no longer be done.”);
Sprogis v. United Air Lines, Inc., 444 F. 2d 1194 (CA7)
——————
12 Frontiero extended to married female members of the uniformed
services spousal benefits granted by statute automatically only to male
members.
13 Craig held that young men were entitled to purchase 3.2% beer at
the same age as young women.
14 Virginia, the Court held, could not maintain the Virginia Military
Institute as an all-male college without offering women a genuinely
equal educational opportunity. For a fuller account of the Court’s
decisions on the constitutionality of gender-based classifications, see
Virginia, 518 U. S., at 531–534.
15 The terms “pregnant women” and “nonpregnant persons” first appeared
in Geduldig, 417 U. S., at 496–497, n. 20. See supra, at 1, n. 1.
Gilbert repeated the terms, quoting the footnote in Geduldig, 429 U. S.,
at 135.
12 AT&T CORP. v. HULTEEN
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
(refusal to employ married women violates Title VII), cert.
denied, 404 U. S. 991 (1971).16
Grasping the connection Gilbert failed to make, a District
Court opinion pre-Gilbert, Wetzel v. Liberty Mut. Ins.
Co., 372 F. Supp. 1146 (WD Pa. 1974), published this deft
observation. In response to an employer’s argument that
its disadvantageous maternity leave and pregnancy disability
income protection policies were not based on sex,
the court commented: “[I]t might appear to the lay mind
that we are treading on the brink of a precipice of absurdity.
Perhaps the admonition of Professor Thomas Reed
Powell to his law students is apt; ‘If you can think of something
which is inextricably related to some other thing and
not think of the other thing, you have a legal mind.’ ” Id.,
at 1157.
Congress put the Court back on track in 1978 when it
amended Title VII to repudiate Gilbert’s holding and
reasoning. See Newport News, 462 U. S., at 678; California
Fed., 479 U. S., at 284–285; supra, at 4–5.17 Congress’
——————
16 See also the EEOC’s Guideline, initially published in 1965, and now
codified in 29 CFR §1604.4:
“The Commission has determined that an employer’s rule which forbids
or restricts the employment of married women and which is not applicable
to married men is a discrimination based on sex prohibited by
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It does not seem to us relevant that
the rule is not directed against all females, but only against married
females, for so long as sex is a factor in the application of the rule, such
application involves a discrimination based on sex.” 30 Fed. Reg. 14928
(1965).
17 For critical commentary on Gilbert and its forerunner, Geduldig v.
Aiello, see, e.g., Bartlett, Pregnancy and the Constitution: The Uniqueness
Trap, 62 Calif. L. Rev. 1532, 1551–1566 (1974); Eskridge, America’s
Statutory “constitution,” 41 U. C. D. L. Rev. 1, 39–40, and n. 175
(2007); Karst, The Supreme Court 1976 Term Foreword: Equal Citizenship
Under the Fourteenth Amendment, 91 Harv. L. Rev. 1, 54, n. 304
(1977); Law, Rethinking Sex and the Constitution, 132 U. Pa. L. Rev.
955, 983–984, and nn. 107–109 (1984); Roelofs, Sex Discrimination and
Insurance Planning: The Rights of Pregnant Men and Women Under
Cite as: 556 U. S. ____ (2009) 13
GINSBURG, J., dissenting
swift and strong repudiation of Gilbert, the Court today
holds, does not warrant any redress for the plaintiffs in
this case. They must continue to experience the impact of
their employer’s discriminatory—but, for a short time,
Gilbert-blessed—plan. That outcome is far from inevitable.
It is at least reasonable to read the PDA to say, from
and after the effective date of the Act, no woman’s pension
payments are to be diminished by the pretense that pregnancy-
based discrimination displays no gender bias.
I would construe the Act to embrace plaintiffs’ complaint,
and would explicitly overrule Gilbert so that the
decision can generate no more mischief.
* * *
For the reasons stated, I would affirm the Ninth Circuit’s
judgment.
——————
General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 22 St. Louis U. L. J. 101, 120–123
(1978); Schwartz, Equalizing Pregnancy: The Birth of a Super-Statute
33–57 (2005), http://lsr.nellco.org/yale/ylsspps/papers/41 (as visited May
14, 2009, and in Clerk of Court’s case file); Siegel, Reasoning from the
Body: A Historical Perspective on Abortion Regulation and Questions of
Equal Protection, 44 Stan. L. Rev. 261, 268–272 (1992); Siegel, You’ve
Come a Long Way, Baby: Rehnquist’s New Approach to Pregnancy
Discrimination in Hibbs, 58 Stan. L. Rev. 1871, 1873, 1878, 1891–1893
(2006); Taub & Williams, Will Equality Require More Than Assimilation,
Accommodation or Separation from the Existing Social Structure?,
37 Rutgers L. Rev. 825, 832–836 (1985).

2009-05-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

Because of insurance payments mastectomies are drive thru operations. My double mastectomy was one, too. We actually decided NOT to have it done at Sloan because LK did not want to have to drive me home that day. Instead we had it done up here with Dr. El Eid (who is now in Las Vegas, lucky women there!). It too was scheduled as a drive by, but I had a reaction to the anesthesia so had to stay over night. (BTW, it took 4 days for the worst of the anesthesia side affects to wear off, and then except for the miles of tubing and canteen sized drains on each side, I was good to go).

My thoughts: If a male was losing a body part--be it a finger or a testicle, he would not be sent home within hours of the operation with drains to milk and measure...

Once again there is a bill in Congress to change this insurance rule...

http://www.mylifetime.com/community/my-lifetime-commitment/breast-cancer/petition/breast-cancer-petition
http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/mastectomy.asp

Discounting Rape

2009-04-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

Today's NYT column by Nicholas Kristof brings home the point that rape is NOT treated as a real or serious crime by most police departments. It is more than not trusting the victim--rape usually does not happen in public nor in front of witnesses--it is one of the police not following through on an investigation. It is a practice that discounts the victim--how credible is she? did she not do X, wear X*, and thus, the crime is discounted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/opinion/30kristof.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

*there was a case where the alleged rapist said the woman was wearing something red and provocative. The woman was wearing her boyfriend's red track suit. . .

Happy Equal Pay Day

2009-04-28T19:02:00.000-07:00

Today is the day that marks when women workers have earned the equivalent of what male workers earned in 2008.

Appearances

2009-04-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

We do judge books by their covers, and therefore, short change many people and things.

1. A few years back I had a student who for her community service/praxis project went to pick apples for one of the local soup kitchens. She was taken aback, when the director told the pickers to choose apples that they would want to eat. What, my student thought, they should be grateful for any apple. But she learned the lesson that just because someone is poor, does not translate into treating them with less respect and dignity.

On Barbie & Beautiful Veggies:http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/04/18-9

2. And then there is the age-ism and lookism that once ruled the reality tv programs (and the music business) and now has rocked reality TV and its veiwers to their very core. Susan Boyle who is the average older woman who gets dis-regarded, dis-respected in society, until she opens her mouth to sing.
Just in case you are one of the very few who have not seen/heard:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/14/susan-boyle-britains-sing_n_186787.html

Letty-Cottin Pogrebin's comment on Boyle, and age-ism:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/letty-cottin-pogrebin/why-susan-boyle-makes-us b_187790.html

Women & Health Insurance

2009-04-06T06:15:00.000-07:00

From NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102618109

Senator Gillibrand

2009-03-27T05:47:00.000-07:00

Today's NYT's has an in depth look at the Senator's work as an associate assigned to the defend Phillip Morris & its executives at Davis Polk & Wardwell.
One should be aware that as an associate one does not pick nor decline assignments, especially if one wants to work at that firm.
Everyone (including corporations, since they have the standing as individuals) deserves to have good counsel--even rapists, murderers and the tobacco companies. For if their rights are not protected, it is a slippery slope to leaving others' rights unprotected.

While Gillibrand has accepted campaign contributions from tobacco monies, it appears that she is not in their pocket, so to speak: she has voted against their interests and for the public's interests.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/nyregion/27gillibrand.html?_r=1&hp

White Paper

2009-03-09T18:55:00.001-07:00

As discussed at tonight's meeting, let us use this blog to draft a white paper on Violence Against Women.
If you post a comment, facts (please cite references) we can all read it, and follow the thread...
I will try to be the compiler.

International Women's Day

2009-03-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

March 8th is International Women's Day...

Animal Abuse, Domestic Abuse

2009-03-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

To be discussed at the 3/9 UCDW meeting are too very important and linked issues: Animal Abuse and Domestic Abuse (AKA Domestic Violence).

1st - Thanks to member Merle Borenstein who suggested we have a discussion of New York's animal cruelty laws and the need for increased penalties. On our behalf, Merle invited Patrick Kwan, NY Director of the Humane Society of the United States. He will tell us how NY compares with other states and answer YOUR questions at 7:30 PM. Kwan bio: http://www.hsus.org/about_us/offices_and_affiliates/regional_offices/meet-our-directors/meet_patrick_kwan.html?log-event=sp2f-view-item&nid=46927841
Magazine interview: http://gothamist.com/2009/02/26/patrick_kwan_humane_society_of_the_1.php

2. Then we will discuss ramifications of the horrific February 12 beheading murder of Aasiya Zubair Hassan , 37, by her husband in Buffalo. Mrs. Hassan had recently filed for a divorce and had an order of protection. Most early coverage was on the web or international. NY Times filed this story on 2/17:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/nyregion/18behead.html?bl&ex=1235106000&en=8b9eb32a5d94c23a&ei=5087%0A
Now, there is a great deal of coverage--just google. Here is NOW's release from 2/16 http://www.nownys.org/pr_2009/pr_021609.html

There are impediments to honest discussion of this crime as evidenced by the news coverage, which was tardy and timid. Laughter--yes, laughter--by pundits on TV about the details of the murder by curved sword that hung on the wall, and trivializing this murder by calling it domestic violence or an "honor killing" somehow bound up in religious freedom, only muddy the facts. This was a bloody murder of a woman by someone the police knew she was in fear of.

For discussion:
Do religious or cultural nuances play a role in discussing, understanding, condoning or trivializing violence? If so, is that legitimate? Do these considerations skew media coverage? Does calling violence within families "domestic violence" and "domestic abuse" reduce its importance to media, society, police and courts? If Mr. Hassan had beheaded a stranger on the street with the sword, would that have been reported differently?

What do YOU think?

http://lohud.com/article/20090301/NEWS05/903010344/-1/newsfrontAttacks spark call for use of hate-crimes law in violence against women
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2009/February09/28/rapelay-28Feb09.htmlGet rid of the ‘toxic media,” opponents of domestic violence say
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2009/01/02/news/doc495d8c6ea58bb323243862.txtEx-trooper threatened wife before slaying
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2008/02/19/top%20stories/19310519.txtWhite separatist, wife dead in apparent murder suicide
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2008/02/24/editorials/19321954.txtThe Leshkevich coverage, Editorial

Here are some sites with facts about domestic abuse:
The 1 in 3 stat inludes passive abuse (verbal, mental, financial) as well as physical abuse.

The Nat'l Coalition Against Domestic Violence ( http://www.ncadv.org/) does cite 1 in 4 women (DV rates have been going down in the past 10 years--though with the current economic situation, many are predicting an uptick...), it does note that many cases of DV are NOT reported...for many reasons: immigration status, cultural norms, financial dependency, welfare status. . .
PLUS in many states dating violence is not reported as domestic, because they are not co-habitating...

More facts/numbers (national) http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/intimate/ipv.htmThe DoJ number VAW 2005 stats non fatal per 1000 is 3.6 (intimate),6.7(date) 1.6 (relative)... female fatals in 2005 due to DV: 1181

3. And, to add some more to a full meeting Jo Ann Chamberlain will tell us about the Health Care for America NOW! campaign, and we'll discuss whether to join the HCAN coalition. http://www.healthcareforamericanow.org/

These above are US Stats...If you go to WHO, the stats range upwards to 61% (!) in a Peruvian Province http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/en/you can get global numbers

Krugman's Book

2009-02-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

Audrey suggested that we read Paul Krugman's latest book The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 (Norton). It is reviewed in depth in the Feb 23rd issue of The Nation. The link is http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090223/avishai/print?rel=nofollow

Any other suggestions?

Fetus Protection Acts: Women as Wombs Only?

2009-01-31T15:58:00.000-08:00

Below is the web address for an excerpt from Our Bodies, Or Crimes: The Policing of Women’s Reproduction in America by Jeanne Flavin. (c) 2009 NYU Press .

Laws that forefront crimes against fetuses, do so by ignoring the mother themselves. As NY Rep. Jerry Nadler has pointed out, violence against women's funding has been cut by those who claim fetus protection is really a form of protecting women from (domestic) violence...

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/123888/in_some_states%2C_fetuses_are_deemed_more_important_than_women/?page=entire

Women's Rights Are Human Rights

2009-01-28T06:07:00.000-08:00

Anna Quindlen reminds President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton of Clinton's own words spoken at the UN Conference on Women in Beijing, 1995:
"If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights for one and for all. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely—and the right to be heard. Women must enjoy the rights to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure."
Quindlen sums up the current state of the globe very succinctly: "A simple primer on the state of the world: women do most of the good stuff and get most of the bad. "
Its time for a change.

From Anna Quindlin's Newsweek Column

http://www.newsweek.com/id/181263

DemWomen Brewing Change

Anti-fracking rally

Follow

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Women in local politics

Women & Society Conference

On the backs of women

Book group

Irene

Women's Equality Day

NOH8

all a twitter

Gillibrand's Campaign: Off the Sidelines

Marriage Equality

Hot dogs and Political Scandals

Attacks on Women's healthcare

Dirty Tricks

Attacks on Women's Autonomy

Congress & Women

Balancing the Budget? NOT

Women's Health

Sad News

Happy International Women's Day

Women in America

GOP's True Colors

When is Rape Not Rape?

The Nun, The Catholic Hospital & the Bishop

2011

2011: Plan for Growing Women Leaders

FDR and ER, a modern marriage

The F word

Post-Election Thoughts

a new anthem

Gloria Steinem on Feminism today

Guyland

Shortchanging Women

Celebrate August 26th

Mind the Gap!

Next book up

Right-wing Women

Sexism and *The Second Sex*

Birth Control Prevents Pregnancy

Equal Pay Day

The Second Sex

Legal rape

Pediatricians come to their senses

Lies of Omission

Women & Healthcare

May 9th

Finally!

Granny D

A women's history event

There's a lot of DV going around

Governor Paterson: One Term Only?

Gov. Paterson, The State Police & Domestic Violence

Voting Monolopy?

Zero Tolerance

Corporate Citizens???

Anniversary of Roe V Wade

To help Haiti

WTFrac

A New Year's wish

Pop Culture

Trading Women's Rights

VOTE

DV & Monserrate

MIA: Real Health Care Reform

Rape

Women's Autonomy & the Healthcare proposal

51% of the People Living in America

New UN Women's Agency

Women's Equality Day

Women's Liberation 21st Century Style

Raise your voices!

Targeting Women, II

Targeting Women

Congrats on Associate Justice #111

Euphemisms for Strong Woman

Sexism and The Second Sex