More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Brazilians are taking representation into their own hands by power-sharing political seats; there are still too few groups to address the scale of the global gender gap; Nan Whaley wins Democratic nomination for governor, becoming the first woman nominated by a major party in Ohio; and more.
Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
Whether you read for knowledge or leisure, books are so important. May is a big month for new releases by women and writers of historically excluded communities; I’ve highlighted 60 of them here, but there are many more. I hope you’ll find some here that will help you reflect and act in whatever ways you can.
It is distressing to think that the United States, once a global leader in women’s rights, could erase 50 years of progress in a single moment. We’ve seen how anti-choice policies in the U.S. tend to embolden the opposition around the world.
We stand in solidarity with the millions of women in the U.S. who could see their reproductive rights cruelly stripped away, and with the many more across the globe who may see their national abortion laws tighten as a result.
In rural Guatemala, a group of survivors of sexual slavery won a remarkable legal victory—and have become respected activists for Indigenous women’s rights.
“I wish no women would live through what we have lived through.”
Argentina’s 1,000-Day Plan aims to reduce and prevent maternal and childhood mortality by providing state support in the form of direct payments and free food, milk, vaccines and medicine to pregnant people and infant children. If those championing U.S. anti-abortion laws are serious about reducing the absolute number of abortions, they should pressure Congress to pass national legislation that both makes pregnancy safer and provides support for early childhood development after birth. A law like this could provide some common ground for the two sides of the abortion debate in the U.S.
Traveling to Guatemala last month, the juxtaposition of situations was striking. The depth to which corruption has become entrenched in the government, driven by the perniciousness of wealth inequality, is despairing; the lack of viable solutions nearly hopeless. Yet, the strength of the advocacy and legal community, led by the heroism of scores of women who are in many cases putting their own lives and livelihoods on the line to relentlessly beat forward a path to justice is deeply motivating.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: The Senate confirms Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court; why so many countries in Latin America are achieving gender parity; major barriers for women in China and South Korea; ranked-choice voting takes center stage in Alaska special election; the 2018 law that more than doubled the number of women on boards in California has been struck down; it’s National Poetry Month; and more.
Latin American feminists are connecting abortion rights, femicide and care work into a large political and economic framework that helps activists fight for gender justice in many different countries.
As the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) kicks off this week, there may be a chance to address the failures of the U.N. climate change negotiations through the lens of women’s human rights.
Just 16 years ago, Colombia had a total ban on abortions. Last month, Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled to decriminalize abortion completely up to 24 weeks and unconditionally under three exceptions.
The case, brought by a collective of feminist movements known as Causa Justa, argued criminalizing abortion violates the human rights of women, girls and other pregnant people.
