Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation; Rest in Power, Lani Guinier; NY Gov Kathy Hochul Is Shaking Things Up for Women; Black Women Are Just 6% of U.S. House

PUBLISHED 1/13/2022 by
Weekend Reading on Women's Representation; Rest in Power, Lani Guinier; NY Gov Kathy Hochul Is Shaking Things Up for Women; Black Women Are Just 6% of U.S. House

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.

This week: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s term limit legislation could provide more women the chance to run and win; Minneapolis’s Andrea Jenkins is the first openly trans city council president in the U.S., and Seattle’s Debora Juarez marks same milestone for Indigenous people; Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s election brings the percentage of Black women in the U.S. House to 6 percent; Xiomara Castro, the incoming woman president of Honduras; the legacy of voting rights champion Lani Guinier, who died on Jan. 7; and more.

Coretta Scott King, a Revolutionary Woman (January 2006)

PUBLISHED 1/13/2022 by
From the Vault: Coretta Scott King, a Revolutionary Woman

While Coretta Scott King has been celebrated as a civil rights icon, her vision of “the beloved community” was bolder and more revolutionary than her husband Martin’s. When we retell the story of radical African American activism in the 20th century, we can finally embrace Coretta Scott King as the truly revolutionary figure she was.

*This article was originally published in the Spring 2006 issue of Ms.—a few months after Coretta Scott King’s death on January 30, 2006.*

It’s 100 Seconds To Midnight! Can We Reverse The Doomsday Clock?

PUBLISHED 1/12/2022 by

“We are perilously close, closer than we’ve ever been, to a man-made point of no return,” said Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin. “But setting the Doomsday Clock each year is meant to carry a message of hope and remind us we have the ability to reduce these seemingly insurmountable threats and of our responsibility to future generations. It tells us we can beat the odds.”

Telemedicine Abortion Provider Dr. Deborah Oyer Supports Patient Autonomy and Control: “No Different Than When They’re in Clinic”

PUBLISHED 1/12/2022 by
Telemedicine Abortion Provider Dr. Deborah Oyer of Cedar River Clinics Supports Patient Autonomy and Control

A range of telemedicine abortion providers are springing up in the U.S. in response to the removal of FDA restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone. Meet one provider: Dr. Deborah Oyer, the medical director of Cedar River Clinics, who has seen a 79 percent increase of medication abortion since adding telemedicine abortion, versus in-clinic only before COVID.

“I cannot begin to put into words the honor and privilege of being an abortion provider. People let me into their lives in the most intimate way. In some ways, there is a little more intimacy doing a telemedicine abortion right now versus an in-person one, because I actually get to see their unmasked faces.”

Don’t Fence Me In: Reproductive Freedom and Women Workers

PUBLISHED 1/12/2022 by
Don't Fence Me In: Reproductive Freedom and Women Workers

For centuries under common law, a daughter or a wife was the property of the family father or husband or, upon his death, the closest relative with a penis. Whatever was theirs was his, but most importantly the family patriarch oversaw her most valuable asset: her womb. In earliest medical thought, a womb was fertile ground in need of guarding and fences to make property rights clearer, and she to be plowed and planted with seed, quite literally semen.

We thought such laws and cultural metaphors were behind us. But now the cowboys of Texas have put a bounty on women’s wombs. The stakes are women’s civil rights as citizens, surely, but also financial ones.

Keeping Score: NYC’s First Women-Majority Council Takes Office; Only 55% of Non-Parents Want Kids Someday; D.C. Students Get Free Period Products

PUBLISHED 1/11/2022 by

This week: Nebraskans face one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the nation; New York City’s first women-majority city council takes office; Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers sentenced to life in prison; D.C. Council approved free menstrual products in all schools; the gender gap in higher education widens; and more.

20 Years After the First Detainees Arrived at Guantanamo, “The Mauritanian” Depicts One Innocent Man’s Fight for Freedom

PUBLISHED 1/11/2022 by
20 Years After the First Detainees Arrived at Guantanamo, "The Mauritanian" Depicts One Innocent Man’s Fight for Freedom

It’s been 20 years since the first detainees arrived at Guantanamo Bay. Adapted from the bestselling memoir Guantanamo Diary, The Mauritanian reveals how America’s intense need for retribution in the aftermath of 9/11 resulted in the imprisonment and torture of hundreds of Muslim men at Guantanamo Bay. More importantly, though, it highlights why President Joe Biden must indefinitely close the notoriously violent prison. 

“We Know What We’re Doing”: How To Engage With Black Women Organizers Ahead of the 2022 Midterm Elections

PUBLISHED 1/11/2022 by
“We Know What We’re Doing”: How To Engage With Black Women Organizers Ahead of the 2022 Midterm Elections

To effectively engage communities of color ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, it’s time more groups include the expertise of Black women organizers in their strategies year-round. Yet the financial investments, resources, and above all, trust in Black women organizers’ work is nowhere to be seen as this year’s election cycle gears up.