If you haven’t seen a friend or loved one since June 11, it’s probably because they’ve been in bed binge-watching the new season of Orange Is the New Black (we were pretty excited that it was coming back, too.) Despite the sudden influx of 13 new episodes, it didn’t take fans long to pick a new show […]
Author: Emma Niles
Emma Niles is a recent graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz and an editorial intern at Ms. Follow Emma on Twitter @emmalorinda.
The Constitutionality of Anti-Abortion License Plates is Up for Debate
Update: On Thursday, June 19, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 majority decision that specialty license plates count as “government speech” and therefore are not protected by the First Amendment. In the case up for debate, Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Court ruled in favor of the state of Texas […]
Birth Control May Soon Be Way More Accessible in California
Slowly but surely, California is taking steps to improve women’s access to contraception. Back in 2013, the state passed a bill that greatly expanded the role of pharmacists, allowing them to provide women with birth control. The bill is now finally nearing implementation. Last week, according to NPR, the California Board of Pharmacy met to review the law, […]
A Harrowing Reminder of the Anti-Abortion Climate in Chile
Early in 2015, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced a goal for her presidency: to end the country’s total ban on abortion. Currently, women in Chile can face up to five years in prison for undergoing the procedure—with no exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother—unless the abortion is “accidental.” Given the legal climate, […]
McKinney and the History of Policing Black Women’s Bodies
Last Friday, a white police officer in McKinney, Texas, Cpl. Eric Casebolt, responded to a call about an incident at a teenage pool party. While there, he grabbed—by the hair—bikini-clad Dajerria Becton, a 15-year old African American girl who was a guest at the party, wrestled her to the ground and held her there with […]
The World’s Best Restaurants Are Missing a Crucial Ingredient
On June 1, all eyes in the foodie community looked to London, where chefs and restauranteurs gathered for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. Given annually (and sponsored by S. Pellegrino and Acqua Panna,) the awards are supposed to represent the “greatest places to eat in the world” and are decided by a panel of […]
Proof That Women Do—And Should!—Win Literary Awards
Last week, British novelist Nicola Griffith momentarily broke the internet when she blogged about a startling discovery: Through her own independent research, she found that books about women characters, written by women novelists, for the most part do not win awards. While Griffith is the first to admit that she’s “a novelist, not a statistician,” her […]
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Reintroduced in Congress
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was reintroduced in Congress this week, this time with bipartisan support. The bill was first introduced more than two years ago but never passed. Four U.S. Senators, Bob Casey (D-PA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Dean Heller (R-NV), and Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) brought the bill back to life. The legislators […]
Women Soccer Stars (Finally!) Get Virtual Turf
FIFA, or the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, has been making major headlines in the past week. Amid an international corruption scandal, Sepp Blatter was elected to (and then shortly resigned from) his fifth term as FIFA’s president. This Saturday, matches begin in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015. And last Thursday, EA Sports […]
NEWSFLASH: Supreme Court Rules in Workplace Anti-Discrimination Case
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided a case involving retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, which denied Muslim teenager Samantha Elauf a job in 2008 because she wore a headscarf (or hijab). The company claimed the hijab violated its dress code and that Elauf had never asked for a religious-based accommodation, but the court ruled, in […]