More Than A Magazine, A Movement
In clinics in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Kentucky, anti-choice protesters have continued to show up, refusing to comply with the pressure for people to practice social distancing and shelter-in-place. Protesters are gathering in front of clinic doors, walking up to patients, and even shoving unwanted pamphlets and gift sacks into patients’ hands and through car windows.
As we navigate COVID-19, it is critical that leaders treat outpatient abortion providers as essential businesses, and that hospital systems ensure the continuation of abortion care as an essential service.
Although we cannot separate ourselves from our own culturally-limiting, physical embodiments of “female,” we can reveal, reject and resist every sexist misappropriation of ourselves. We can create a world for our daughters where female bodies no longer subject them to a gendered hell, but where all women reclaim their bodies for themselves.
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
In an attempt to soften the damage the coronavirus is inflicting on the economy, Rep. Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, released plans for a Phase Three coronavirus legislative package with comprehensive fiscal stimulus and public policy recommendations. But while Democrats prioritize assistance to people being hurt by job losses and layoffs, Republicans in the Senate seem more focused on corporate tax cuts.
On Wednesday, the Senate passed legislation that will provide paid sick and family leave for many Americans, as well as free coronavirus testing and strengthened unemployment insurance. In a rare showing of bipartisanship, the bill, known as the “Families First Act,” passed 90-8. It now heads to President Trump’s desk, who expressed support for the bill and is likely to sign.
In an attempt to alleviate massive pressure on the healthcare industry and inevitably brace for more, the U.S. is implementing several measures—from invoking emergency war-time acts to retrofitting factories to respond to unprecedented supply needs.
To mitigate the vast impact of this public health crisis and stabilize our economy writ large, it is critically important to make significant and comprehensive public investments that will address the cumulative and interconnected needs of women and families. In particular, NWLC has four major priorities for the next package of proposals responding to COVID-19.
This year was intended to be a celebratory time for women: the 25th anniversary of the momentous Beijing conference on women’s rights and how to advance them. It isn’t working out that way, however, as a global health crisis and disagreements among advocates for women rewrite the script.
Do we still need the ERA? Yes. Equality at work is a key component of freedom, and we deserve it. So, write your legislators, agitate, and—most importantly—vote. We cannot afford further erosion of our rights as women.