It was during the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, that I, a law student, came out as a feminist. The year was 1980. I had grown up in a Cape Town quarter of descendants of slaves from Asia and North Africa. We as a community had internalized our pain and suffering and our shared bitterness […]
Author: Penny Andrews
For Ann Jackson, Who Turns 95 This Week
When I think of Black History Month and women, I don’t just think of historical figures; I think of women who impacted my own life, and whose history also deserves celebration. I met Ann Jackson in the Fall of 1985, at the annual fundraising dinner for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She was at a […]
Why Do Women Judicial Candidates Get Questioned on Their Sex Lives?
Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions is not supportive of Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court. He believes she is too liberal and that her vast academic experience is not a substitute for experience “in the harness of the law.” But at least media speculation about her sexuality has not become an issue in her confirmation […]