More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Books provide us not only with necessary information but also with the respite we need from the constant labor of securing our rights and humanity in all the ways they are under attack.
I hope of the 33 books here, you’ll find one that inspires, relaxes or distracts you for a little while.
While the unemployment rates for men declined in February, the jobless rates for women showed little or no change over the month. And while the statistic for the entire female population lumped together basically stayed even with the month before, Black women lost ground.
Maybe the real headline should have been: The higher job growth goes, the more behind women get.
The U.S., one of the world’s oldest democracies, is now seeing a rise of antidemocratic views. But never fear. We come bearing good news. There is hope. And that hope, we believe, is the shared power and potential of mobilized women to forge a new movement for a 21st century democracy.
We hope you are inspired and encouraged by what this slate of women experts—working at all levels to reform and revitalize our democracy—have to say. And to hear more about democracy solutions and how you can get involved, join us March 8–10 from 3–5 p.m. ET for RepresentWomen’s democracy Solutions Summit, which brings together experts and leaders in election administration, voting rights and democracy reform who are working on innovative solutions that upgrade and strengthen our democracy.
Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. The aims of these lists are threefold:
1. I want to do my part in the disruption of what has been the acceptable “norm” in the book world for far too long—white, cis, heterosexual, male;
2. I want to amplify amazing works by writers who are women, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, APIA/AAPI, international, LGBIA+, TGNC, queer, disabled, fat, immigrant, Muslim, neurodivergent, sex-positive or of other historically marginalized identities—you know, the rest of us; and
3. I want to challenge and encourage you all to buy, borrow and read them!
Most 19th-century writers focused on Tubman’s bravery and strength. Her supporters praised her for her successful solo journeys into the slave-holding South to free dozens of enslaved people.
Yet, as an enslaved woman who lived in a patriarchal and anti-Black America, Harriet Tubman’s freedom dream and fugitive activism demonstrated something else: She offered up a version of freedom where a disabled Black woman sat at the center of it, where Black women were liberators, and where liberation was communal and democratic.
A school with a history of racist harassment refused to protect a disabled Black girl from bullies. Now, her death shines a spotlight on how often the impact of bullying on Black girls is ignored.
A little-known provision in the Build Back Better Act being negotiated in Congress could help catalyze the full federal repeal of the subminimum wage for people with disabilities.
The release of the first-ever National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality Strategy is an ambitious plan. But ambitious priorities require a significant budget to match, in order for them to take root.
Two features of Petito’s case have been strikingly absent from media coverage: her disability, and the myriad signs that Petito’s boyfriend was subjecting her to a form of domestic violence known as coercive control.
Yet Petito’s disability was central to how the system failed her prior to her death. Her case also shows what happens when law and society oversimplify domestic violence and overlook coercive control.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Despite impressive wins at the Paralympic Games, very few disabled women serve in elected office; the absence of women in the safety testing of vehicles is a matter of life and death; women’s leadership in the nonprofit sector; the imperative of adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution; the desperate situation for women in Afghanistan now; how electoral rules in South Africa impact women’s representation; Boston women running for mayor deserve ranked-choice voting; and more.
