How Feminists and Academics Are Fighting the Right’s ‘Anti-Woke’ Agenda

There are now 28 states that either limit how teachers can discuss issues about race and gender, or are considering passing legislation. Feminist teachers and academics have been viewing with increased alarm, anger and frustration these legislative efforts by Republicans to limit our academic freedom, censor the teaching of African American and gender studies, and place us in an untenable situation where we are forced to defend ourselves and our livelihood. The attack is personal. It is rooted in anti-Black racism, patriarchy, transphobia, whiteness and xenophobia—a propagandistic argument designed to whitewash our collective history. It is not simply a debate about curriculum; it is a fight about the direction of this country. It will not stop unless we stop it.

Join our teach-in at 12 p.m. ET on May 3.

The ‘Anti-Life’ Implications of State Abortion Bans

In rural northern Idaho, Bonner General Hospital announced it had made the “difficult decision to discontinue providing obstetrical services.” Although the press release does not use the word “abortion,” there is no doubt it’s calling out the state’s lawmakers for enacting laws that “criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care.”

Medical providers say they are facing impossible situations that pit their ethical obligation to patients who are dealing with traumatic and dangerous pregnancy complications against the fear of lawsuits, loss of their medical licenses and incarceration.

It’s Time for Black Women to #AskForMore

Black women lose billions of dollars every year in “involuntarily forfeited” compensation, due to sexism and racism in the U.S. workplace.

Policymakers and companies should take responsibility to rectify these inequities that have existed since the end of emancipation (and before) in the U.S., but Black women cannot afford to wait any longer another for this leadership. We’re still in a robust labor market, so Black women should use this leverage to #AskForMore—during salary negotiations, when starting a new job, and when demanding financial parity with their peers.

Standing Together for Freedom: A Commitment to 14 Democratic Principles

As people around the world stand up for democracy and human rights, dictators are learning from one another how to suppress challenges to their rule more effectively. That’s why this week’s second Summit for Democracy could not come at a more critical time. Led by the United States, the Netherlands, Zambia, South Korea and Costa Rica, this meeting of leaders from more than 100 governments provides a global policy stage to build stronger democratic alliances and double down on commitments to address the summit’s three themes: respect for human rights, combatting corruption, and countering authoritarianism.

Freedom House, along with the Bush Center and the McCain Institute, led a coalition of organizations from around the world in drafting a Declaration of Democratic Principles in the run-up to the summit.

Celebrating the Women of the Cherokee Nation

As a matrilineal tribe, Cherokee Nation reveres and prioritizes women in our homes and cultures. Throughout history, women have played a critical role in moving the Cherokee Nation forward.

There are countless stories of women who have, through the sheer force of their will, pushed Cherokee Nation onto a better and more prosperous path. This Women’s History Month, let us honor them and the example they have shown us. They are trailblazers who have earned our recognition, most especially for the impact they have had on opening new pathways to opportunity for young indigenous girls across the United States. 

Dr. Hannah Croasdale, Dartmouth’s First Tenured Woman Faculty Member: ‘Tell Them to Be Quiet and Wait’

In 1935, Dr. Hannah Croasdale started a new job at Dartmouth College—before the college accepted women. Despite her Ph.D., Croasdale started as a lab technician. To women of that generation, the whole world was a boys’ club. She finally received tenure—the first woman to do so at Dartmouth—almost three decades later.

I came to know Croasdale’s story my first summer at Dartmouth. I was never asked to be grateful for admission to a school like Dartmouth, even though I was in the first 50 classes of women.

Groundbreaking Exhibition on Minerva Parker Nichols, America’s First Independent Woman Architect

A new groundbreaking exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Architectural Archives recovers the story of a 19th-century architect named Minerva Parker Nichols (1862-1949). She was one of the country’s first woman architects, practicing in Philadelphia in the 1880s and 1890s. Over her lifetime, she designed over 80 buildings across the country, but Nichols has been largely forgotten.

The exhibit hopes to change that. It runs from March 21 to June 17 at University of Pennsylvania’s Architectural Archives and will then travel to University of Massachusetts, Amherst next year.

Nebraska Filibuster Over Trans Rights Echoes Wendy Davis’ 2013 Abortion Standoff

State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh ground Nebraska’s legislative body to a halt for three weeks, stonewalling every bill regardless of whether she personally opposed it. In eight-hour stretches, she fulfilled the promise she made to her colleagues last month: to “make it painful” for the statehouse to target trans youth—even if it meant sleeping on the hardwood floor of her office between committee hearings.

Her use of the filibuster to keep a bill from being quietly slipped through the legislature echoes another one-woman statehouse stand from 10 years ago. Both Wendy Davis and Cavanaugh took advantage of tools available to them as the minority party in their statehouses—and used it to amplify dry procedural politics into a powerful rallying cry.