FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | December 1, 2020
On the Issues with Michele Goodwin is a new issues- and policy-focused podcast featuring feminist analysis, insightful conversations and exciting guests. This is the first podcast from Ms. magazine, a legacy feminist publication.
In each bi-weekly episode, host Dr. Michele Goodwin and special guests will tackle the most compelling issues of our times, centering feminist concerns about rebuilding our nation and advancing the promise of equality.
A new episode—Rebuilding America: A Woman’s Economy—is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and MsMagazine.com.
The coronavirus pandemic has had an undeniably negative impact on the economy—an impact felt most deeply by women, especially women of color. Women are being pushed out of their jobs and there are significant barriers to pursuing new ones—from an imbalance in the division of household responsibilities, to stagnancy and job loss in women-dominated industries like retail, dining and the government sector.
What should be at the top of the economic agenda for the incoming Biden-Harris administration? How can women fend for themselves in a COVID economy? And how can women negotiate for what they deserve?
To answer these questions this week on the podcast, Dr. Goodwin is joined by Sandra Finley,president and CEO of the League of Black Women; Dr. Patricia Jones-Blessman, a licensed clinical psychologist with more than three decades of experience as a clinician and administrator of mental health programs; Jennifer “JJ” Justice, an entertainment and live-experience executive, the former attorney for Jay-Z and founder of The Justice Dept; and Rachel Payne, managing director and head of innovation and technology at FullCycle and CEO of FEM Inc.
Their conversation covered a wide range of topics; you can find a full transcript here, as well as a few excerpts below:
“Let’s build anew. Let’s build from a woman’s perspective because it is more holistic and it is integrated and, if we do it right, it is intersectional.” —Rachel Payne
“It became abundantly clear every time I represented a woman: the deal was much smaller. The conversation was much different than when I represented a man… I got an offer for a man, an entry level at $130,000 and I got an offer for his boss at $90,000. Why is this okay with anybody?” —Jennifer Justice
“We are not all the same. We should not be required to be all the same in order to be able to be supportive of each other. These assumptions that we are and that there’s one fix for all of us is going to be the end of us… The Black Women’s Economic Agenda talks about a new house where all of us can find a way forward with our distinct needs. It is supported by a demand for economic security. It’s supported by a demand for economic equality and equity.” —Sandra Finley
“You see more women starting businesses—even in the midst of a pandemic, starting businesses. Women are problem-solvers, and so they’re starting businesses around the problems that they see, asking—how do we monetize that and make a go of that?”—Dr. Patricia Jones Blessman
Meet the Host of On the Issues: Dr. Michele Goodwin is a frequent contributor to Ms. magazine and on MsMagazine.com. She is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and also serves on the executive committee and national board of the ACLU. Dr. Goodwin is a prolific author and an elected member of the American Law Institute, as well as an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Hastings Center. Her most recent book, Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and The Criminalization of Motherhood, is described as a “must read.”
About Ms. Magazine: Co-founded by Gloria Steinem in 1972 and published by the Feminist Majority Foundation since 2001, Ms. magazine has been a trusted, popular source for feminist news and information in print and online for nearly 50 years. Ms.’s time-honored traditions of an emphasis on in-depth investigative reporting and feminist political analysis have never been more relevant, bringing a new generation of writers and readers together to create the feminism of the future.
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If you would like more information on the On the Issues with Michele Goodwin podcast, or to schedule an interview with Host Michele Goodwin or Executive Producer & Ms. Executive Editor Katherine Spillar, please email press@msmagazine.com.
Launched in 1971, Ms. is the most trusted, popular source for feminist news and information in print and online with a tradition of in-depth investigative reporting and feminist political analysis. Ms. is wholly owned and published by the Feminist Majority Foundation.
