More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Ranked-choice voting helps reassure voters they can vote for the candidate they want rather than who they think will win; the Supreme Court has two cases on its docket that will determine the future of affirmative action; Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) could become the third Black woman to ever serve in the U.S. Senate; and more.
And so it is summer! Are you enjoying it? Are you on a beach with a cocktail in one hand and a book in the other? I wish I was!
Check out any (or all!) of these 30 June releases which are sure to enthrall, enlighten, educate and excite you—wherever you happen to be.
My mother, Ethel Kennedy, is extraordinary. Seeing such resilience and strength has allowed me to better recognize and come to understand attributes in the many courageous mothers I’ve met in my own human rights work:
The mother of slain LGBTQ+ activist Vicky Hernandez, who refused to give up the fight for justice for her daughter until the Honduran government took accountability for her murder. The mother of slain Colombian activist Nelson Carvajal, who has heartbreaking strength and had to watch each of her grandchildren and children head into exile because their lives are threatened when they demanded accountability. The Polish mothers who have thoughtfully left their own strollers at train stations for Ukrainian refugees to take, and use, after they fled their homeland. And so many others.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Kelly Brough will face Mike Johnston in the Denver mayor’s runoff election on June 6; just 1 percent of Congress members are mothers with young kids; Mexican feminist groups see an increased demand for abortion help; and more.
In the case of abortion, which the supreme court decriminalized in September 2021, allowing women access to abortion up until 12 weeks gestation, women are still struggling to gain proper access to legal abortion for free at public hospitals because doctors are unaware of the law or find excuses to delay the procedure.
Human rights defender and lawyer Ariadne Song has defended women’s rights cases for 19 years, including the ‘aborto legal’ campaign first started by the Green Wave, or Marea Verde, in Argentina.
Despite differing political systems and climates, activists in the U.S. and Latin America share a vision of reproductive freedom and access to healthcare that cannot be stopped.
We are a united movement, a transnational movement, a movement without borders and together we are unstoppable. The Green Wave is here to stay.
Zoila is still fighting her asylum case, and at the same time finding the courage to advocate for others. Under Biden’s new rule, she likely would have been blocked from pursuing her case at all.
“I never wanted to leave Honduras. It’s the only home I’ve ever known. But two years ago I was forced to make the terrible decision to flee because home was no longer safe. After a long and difficult journey, my children and I were able to seek asylum in the United States. … Some things are a lot better here, though. Most importantly, we are finally free from my ex-partner’s violence. … As difficult as my journey has been, I know that it could have been even worse. President Biden recently proposed a new rule that would ban asylum for most people. … If that rule had existed when my family came to the border, I probably would have had no chance of getting asylum at all.”
In 2022, we witnessed a war, the uprising of women in a country, the arrest of women journalists, and the deprivation of a vast number of women’s rights, including education, and much more. Among all of these major events, an unprecedented number of female journalists were killed while doing their jobs.
As asylum claims mount and U.S. immigration enforcement struggle to process them, border communities will remain overcrowded and detention centers will quickly fill up. Without deliberate humanitarian intervention, displaced Venezuelans at the U.S.-Mexico border will continue to suffer in inhumane conditions.
What can’t be overstated is the degree to which women and girls bear the brunt of this suffering.
At the U.S. border with Mexico, under the notorious Title 42 policy, the pandemic is still routinely invoked to justify expelling immigrants seeking asylum without any semblance of review or due process.
Many criticize the Title 42 order as unnecessary, overreaching and cruel. Nonetheless, the policy has resulted in over 2.4 million expulsions to date—and counting.
