Tag: Book Excerpt

From the Frontlines in Iran: Our Fight for Human Rights and Gender Equality

Nasrin Sotoudeh is an Iranian human rights lawyer who has spent her career fighting for the rights of women and minorities in the Middle East. For her important work, Sotoudeh has been honored with copious awards and designations, including the U.S. State Department’s Global Human Rights Defender title and Ms. magazine’s Top Feminist award. Just this month, she is the sole recipient of both The Civil Courage Prize, which honors individuals who show courage against evil and oppression, and the Brown Democracy Medal from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy, marking the award’s 10th year.

“The monster of oppression has nested in one corner of the world,” wrote Sotoudeh in her new book, Women, Life, Freedom: Our Fight for Human Rights and Equality in Iran. “It dreams of taking over the world. We must overcome our fears, stand up to the beast, and look it in the eyes.”

New Memoir ‘Brave-ish’ Shows the Importance of Feminist Mentors and Representation

In September 2019, it was my honor to attend the United Nations General Assembly 74 as media on behalf of Ms. As I sat in the meeting for “Gender Equality: from the Biarritz Partnership to the Beijing+25 Generation Equality Forum” with U.N. Women, I kept thinking about the impact that Joannie Parker had on my life. This year she would have turned 90 years old and her teaching inspires me every day to do more and to do better. I wish I could call her to tell her that my memoir, Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty, will be published on Sept. 19, 2023.

‘Who Cares?’: The Unequal Burden of Care Work on Women

The U.S. needs a future of care fit for 21st-century feminism. This excerpt from Emily Kenway’s newest book: Who Cares?, is a look into the lives of women who have been relegated to the home in order to provide care to others and the experiences of women of color and working class women, who need the freedom to care in the first place.

“We shared the sadness of watching a loved one in anguish, but our caregiving experience was completely different. … We need to witness both care worlds to create solutions that work for all women, not just some.”

Domestic Abuse and Its Potential to Impact Elections: ‘Home Isn’t a Safe Place to Vote for Everyone’

“If someone is willing to block their partner’s access to political information in front of volunteers at their door, what else could they be doing, behind that door?”

This excerpt from Survivor Injustice: State-Sanctioned Abuse, Domestic Violence, and the Fight for Bodily Autonomy by Kylie Cheung, out Aug. 15, details how domestic abuse can lead to coercion or denial of voting rights for women.

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.

Destroying Myths and Misogyny in Endometriosis Care: ‘Unless I Was Trying to Conceive, No One Cared About Bleeding and Pain’

In Tracey Lindeman’s new book BLEED: Destroying Myths and Misogyny in Endometriosis Care, Stephanie Lepage wonders how different her life could have been if only the doctors had bothered to look for endometriosis before her mid-30s. She had developed constant pain in her right lower abdomen that was so intense that rolling onto her side would shoot her out of a dead sleep on an almost nightly basis. When Lepage finally got in to see a gynecologist about it, that doctor said it was little more than a red herring. She remained in agony for two years without reprieve until it mysteriously subsided.

“The thing that stood out to me the most was like, unless I was trying to conceive, no one even cared about bleeding and pain.”

For Women in America, the Fight for ‘Real Self‑Care’ Never Ends

An excerpt of Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness (Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included) by Pooja Lakshmin, out March 14, 2023.

“The work of real self‑care is about changing our relationships with ourselves, and, in turn, what naturally follows such internal change is a reorganizing of larger systems. … The energy and collective power that was harnessed by individuals in 2021 has led to real and tangible changes at the state level and in the corporate sector.”

‘Listen, World!’: The Story of America’s Most-Read Woman, Elsie Robinson

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Elsie Robinson was a journalist known for her syndicated Hearst column “Listen, World!” Born into poverty in 1880s California, Robinson risked everything to chase her dream of becoming a writer and lead a life beyond what was prescribed to women at the time—even working in a gold mine as the sole female mucker as she tried to break into magazines. Ultimately, after a long and bumpy road, she succeeded and used her nationwide column to advocate for the rights of women, people of color and other underrepresented groups.

Emerald Garner on Trauma, Picking up the Pieces and Finding Her Voice

An excerpt from Finding My Voice: On Grieving My Father, Eric Garner, and Pushing for Justice by Emerald Garner, Monet Dunham and Etan Thomas:

“While you haven’t even fully grieved, you’re now linked to other cases, and you only have the bond that your loved one was also murdered by the police. … We didn’t choose for my father to be murdered, but we were left to pick up the pieces after, and that just wasn’t fair.”