Tag: Disabled Women

February 2022 Reads for the Rest of Us

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! 

Harriet Tubman’s Disability and Why it Matters

Harriet Tubman’s Disability and Why it Matters

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.  

Race, Disability and Coercive Control: One More Look at the Gabby Petito Case

Race, Disability and Coercive Control: One More Look at the Gabby Petito Case

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.

Despite Impressive Wins at Paralympics, Few Disabled Women in Elected Office: Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation

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.

Feminist Mobility Solutions Can Drive a More Just Transportation System

Feminist Mobility Solutions Can Drive a More Just Transportation System

A new Women’s Environment and Development Organization report makes the case that by realizing the potential for intentional and equitable investment that prioritizes universal access and affordability for all, takes into account the differentiated needs of users it has historically marginalized and learns lessons from feminist transportation advocates, U.S. mobility infrastructure can actually serve as a critical pathway to achieving racial, economic and gender justice. 

Dismantling Old Boys Clubs, One Creepy Boss at a Time

Dismantling Old Boys Clubs, One Creepy Boss at a Time: Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.

This week: Kathy Hochul is a historic victory for women that comes from a male downfall; challenges women politicians face across the globe; Eunice Lee is the second Black woman to serve on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; how we can improve elected representation for the disabled community; and more.