Civil Rights

Civil rights mean equal protections and opportunities under the law, and are a vital part of human rights and for the functioning of a democracy. They include liberties such as the right to vote, the right to a trial, and the right to access government services and education.

From Berlin to Beijing to U.S. Congress, Women’s Courage to Convene Propels Us Forward

PUBLISHED 9/26/2025 by

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, sports and entertainment, judicial offices and the private sector—with a little gardening mixed in!

This week:
—We mark 60 years since former President Lyndon Johnson advanced equal opportunity in employment.
—When women come together, share our strength, and lift one another up, the impossible becomes possible. 
—In a landslide victory, Adelita Grigalva becomes Arizona’s first Latina to Congress.
—Of the four Republican House members signing the petition about the actions and allies of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, three are women.
—A record number of U.S. legislators won’t run for reelection next year.
—Hillary Clinton “sees a dangerous moment for women’s rights and democracy.”
—Akshi Chawla, who writes the #WomenLead Substack and is a valuable resource on international women’s representation, on the great question: “How do I get started?”
—The Marshall Islands, a rapidly vanishing Oceania nation, is led by the region’s first-ever woman president, Hilda Heine.
—Who was the first American woman to have an airport named in her honor?

… and more.

Five Best Books on Black Women’s Political Leadership

PUBLISHED 9/16/2025 by

While writing my new book about the contributions Black women have made in the global struggle for human rights, I was humbled to see, over and over, how many of these women did not come from rich families, or hold positions of great power, or even have all that much education. But they did the hard and dangerous work required, day in and day out, because they believed in equal rights for everyone, around the world.

Why Big Business Is Trying to Defeat the ERA: The Economic Implications of Equality (May 1976)

PUBLISHED 8/27/2025 by

On Nov. 7, 1975—more than half a year ago as you read this—the voters of New York and New Jersey defeated amendments to their state constitutions which said that men and women should be treated equally before the law. It was one of those old-fashioned political events that the rise of the pollster is supposed to have leeched from our body politic—namely, a surprise. It set off a period both of private introspection on the part of individual women who had previously taken ratification of the federal Equal Rights Amendment for granted, and public reconsideration on the part of the organizations and politicians to whom stewardship of the ratification movement had fallen.

Listen to the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, “The Feminist Fight For The Equal Rights Amendment Is Far From Over—and More Urgent Than Ever (with Pat Spearman, Ellie Smeal, Carol Moseley Braun, Kathy Spillar, and Ting Ting Cheng)” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Trump’s Pronatalist Agenda Weaponizes Motherhood to Push Women Out of Public Life

PUBLISHED 8/26/2025 by

The Trump administration is using one of the oldest tools of patriarchy—promising rewards for compliance—through a wave of proposed pronatalist policies designed to push women into motherhood and encourage them to give birth to more children.

A recent report by the National Women’s Law Center warns that these proposals are not random: They stem from an “obscure, dangerous, and increasingly influential movement of ‘pronatalists’” that are now dictating the Trump administration’s family policy. 

According to NWLC, there are two major groups of pronatalists: Silicon Valley tech elites, such as Elon Musk, who claim that “high-IQ” people like themselves should be having more children; and traditional conservatives, who advocate for pushing women back into stay-at-home motherhood.

The Purse Is More Than a Fashion Statement. It’s a Historical and Social Signifier.

PUBLISHED 8/4/2025 by

Americans have long used items of apparel such as hats and shoes to express aspirations, amplify differences and alleviate anxieties, but only the purse—with its cavernous, pocketed interior—has also provided marginalized people with much-needed space, privacy and power.

The Things She Carried: A Cultural History of the Purse—out Aug. 4—examines how a variety of bags and purses became meaningful for Americans often ignored in studies of fashion and whose possessions are largely left out of museum artifact collections. It asks how one seemingly ordinary object became so ubiquitous, unpacking how and why it became almost exclusively linked to women.

Investing in Inclusion: How DEI Initiatives Uplift Both Companies and Consumers

PUBLISHED 7/29/2025 by and

In mid-May, Verizon followed the course of over a dozen major U.S. companies in rolling back their diversity, equity and inclusion practices—eliminating DEI from key tenets of their operations, including erasing DEI references from training material, ending bonuses and goals related to increasing the percentage of women and minority workers, and downsizing their human resources department.

However, companies like Verizon are part of the private sector—executive orders do not directly apply to them, meaning, they have no obligation to roll back on DEI. 

How Dare We Not: On the Feminist Future of Care 

PUBLISHED 7/24/2025 by

On July 30, Medicare and Medicaid turn 60. The anniversary probably won’t receive much celebration, not even a decent sheet cake at Costco. But for those of us who’ve ever been sick, broke or chronically both—and let’s be real, that’s most of us—these two programs are more than government policies. They are lifelines. Feminist infrastructure. Miracles wrapped in red tape. 

Medicaid and Medicare are the government’s half-hearted whisper of “okay, fine, you can live,” buried under broken fax machines and six hours of hold music—and still, they are miraculous. 

So let’s get to work with petitions, protests, poetry and better policy. When we fight for these programs, we’re not begging for scraps. We’re demanding infrastructure for care. We’re saying, Our dignity is not a rounding error. We are not too complicated or too expensive or too much. We are exactly the point. 

Happy birthday Medicaid and Medicare, the baddest Leos in American policy—dramatic, protective, always carrying us all on their backs while being called “too much.” We see you. We need you. And we’ll fight for you. How dare we not?

(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund highlighting the work of Groundswell partners advancing inclusive democracy.)

Black Activists Say Trump Administration’s ICE Raids Revive Jim Crow Tactics

PUBLISHED 7/16/2025 by

“The ICE crisis is a Black issue, too,” said Myeisha Essex of Black Women for Wellness (BWW) at a recent press conference in Los Angeles. Essex was joined by leaders from other Black- and Latino-led grassroots organizations, including the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) and the California Black Power Network (CBPN). Together, they warned that Trump’s crackdown threatens the safety and civil rights of immigrants and citizens alike, underscoring the need for solidarity across communities of color—and with allies—amid deepening political and racial divides.

The uncertainty and fear of this political moment intensified last month when the Supreme Court upheld the federal government’s ability to deport immigrants to third-party countries—even when individuals have not had a fair chance to contest removal or raise credible fears of torture or harm. Advocates argue the ruling undercuts due process and erodes bedrock democratic principles, leaving both immigrants and U.S. citizens questioning what rights remain secure.

“We are the ones—Black people, regardless of citizenship—who must define what resilience and resistance look like in this moment,” said Nana Gyamfi, executive director of BAJI. “The first human beings who migrated, allowing people to exist all over this planet, were Black people.”

Independence Day, Ranked-Choice Wins and Jacinda Ardern: This Week in Women’s Representation

PUBLISHED 7/3/2025 by

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, sports and entertainment, judicial offices and the private sector—with a little gardening mixed in! 

This week:
—This Friday marks the 249th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The journey for women’s equal representation remains unfinished.
—Zohran Mamdani looks poised to join 36-year-old Boston mayor Michelle Wu as part of a new generation of leadership in the U.S. Northeast. It’s time for more aging men like Cuomo to step aside and let more women step up. And if New York City is any indication, the voters may take matters into their own hands.
—St. Paul in 2023 elected an all-women city council in its ranked-choice voting elections. There’s now a vacant seat, and three women are among the four candidates running in an Aug. 12 special election.
—Jacinda Ardern’s new book, A Different Kind of Power, highlights the shifting dynamics of power, how women are redefining what leadership can be, and the impact of fairer election systems for creating openings for new voices like her own.

… and more!