More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: how new grants will help advance women’s representation in state legislatures; the 50-year fight for the ERA; the 2022 race for governor of New York state is heating up; outcomes for women in the recent elections in Canada; Egypt’s impressive number of women judges; the legacy of Angela Merkel’s leadership; and more.
This month marks the the 50th anniversary of the Equal Rights Amendment’s first passage in the House of Representatives. On Thursday, the House Oversight and Reform Committee held a historic hearing about the amendment to examine the final steps necessary to certify.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases challenging a Texas law banning abortion after six weeks, but refused to block the law while it considers the case—leaving Texans without access to safe, legal abortion health care. The Court set oral arguments for the cases on November 1.
“For the second time, the Court declines to act immediately to protect these women from grave and irreparable harm,” Justice Sotomayor wrote a searing dissent to the Court’s refusal to enjoin the law.
Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) were elected to represent their constituents. But they are ignoring the cries of working families and caregivers, mothers of color in particular, by sitting on a much-needed $3.5 trillion investment that could address the decades-long fiscal neglect of low- and moderate-income families and communities.
We not only mistreat people of different colors—but we also use those same techniques to keep women in ‘their place.’ One of the things we use most thoughtlessly is words. Whoever said, “Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind” was right.
So let’s look at a few words used by racists and see if their use can be compared to the words used in sexist literature.
If the critical race theory panic teaches us anything, it’s that Americans need more, not less education about how race and gender shape our lives, institutions and opportunities in the U.S. That’s why feminist scholars have teamed up to produce a new curriculum on critical race theory for use in grade schools.
After being sterilized in Nazi facilities, Dorothea Buck dedicated her life to being a psychiatric activist.
“As long as we talk to each other,” she said again and again until the end of her life, “we don’t kill each other.”
When she was a college freshman in 1994, Christy Brzonkala was gang-raped by two students at Virginia Tech. Brzonkala turned to a law newly passed called the Violence Against Women Act—and her case made it to the Supreme Court, where women’s right to equal protection from violence ultimately died.
When passed, the Equal Rights Amendment would spark Congress to enact new laws on gender violence, including redrafting the Violence Against Women Act civil rights remedy, and chart a path to overturn Brzonkala’s devastating decision.
In March, the House passed H.J. Res. 17, which would eliminate the arbitrary time limit for ERA ratification and remove any shadow of uncertainty about the ERA’s validity. A companion measure is pending in the Senate.
Gender equality is not a partisan issue. The ERA is the way to guarantee it, and the time for action is now.
I’m female. I’m Latina. I’m a tech CEO. It’s an understatement to say I’m a rare breed.
As we mark Latina Equal Pay Day this year, here’s what to do to make sure you’re getting paid equally.
