More Than A Magazine, A Movement
ERA advocates in the U.S. have waged a 100-year fight just to get gender equality enshrined in the Constitution.
“The women of this country are exhausted, so we are leveraging every tool available,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), co-chair of the ERA Caucus.
“We won’t stop until the ERA is officially part of the Constitution,” said fellow co-chair Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.). “We owe it to our daughters, to the next generation, to those who fought before us.”
The percentage of women in politics, and many other professions, has grown significantly in the past few decades. However, when one looks at public artwork, women are almost nonexistent.
Inspired by the centennial of the 19th Amendment, the Chicago Womxn’s Suffrage Tribute Committee formed in 2020 in order to create public artwork to honor those who fought to legalize the vote for women. What originally started out as a one-mural project featuring suffrage leaders grew into three murals, all within one block of each other in the South Loop of Chicago.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Despite Women’s Equality Day celebrations, the disparities in women’s representation—particularly in employment, wages and government—are still significantly low compared to our male counterparts; the numerous Black suffragists forgotten by history: Mary Church Terrell, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ida B. Wells, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Fannie Barrier Williams, Sojourner Truth, Lugenia Burns Hope, Mary McLeod Bethune and Nannie Helen Burroughs; Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is running for Senate, posing a challenge to incumbent Republican Senator Rick Scott; and more.
On July 22, 1923, the National Women’s Party unveiled the Equal Rights Amendment at the First Presbyterian Church of Seneca Falls in New York. Precisely 100 years later, contemporary ERA advocates gathered to mark this important historic milestone and plan for the final push for recognition of the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: This week marks the 175th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, when suffragists and abolitionists convened to ignite the movement for women’s political and social equality; House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi wrote of equality’s slow progress; The Campaign School at Yale, led by Patricia Russo, welcomed 76 students from across the U.S. and worldwide to Yale Law School; How Gretchen Whitmer made Michigan a Democratic stronghold; the impact of having women make up the majority of New York City’s council; and more.
Even now, 158 years after the first Juneteenth, our elected leaders remain overwhelmingly white and male. Even as white women saw marginal gains in political representation, progress for Black women has been infuriatingly slow. Black women candidates for elected office must fight bias on multiple fronts—not just at the ballot box, but all along the way to get there. And party leadership often wants to throw their money behind a less politically “risky” candidate, further entrenching the state of affairs.
We know how crucial representation is to building a new generation of leaders. As intersectional feminists, we have a responsibility to dismantle the barriers to a truly representative democracy.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, the iconic book about puberty and preteen firsts, debuts on the big screen later this month, along with the much anticipated documentary, Judy Blume Forever. Social media has been abuzz with fans spanning generations sharing their own #MargaretMoments.
Here’s mine: When I researched and wrote the book Periods Gone Public: Taking a Stand for Menstrual Equity in 2017, I delved into the national discourse about menstruation in the United States during the 20th century. Of course, Margaret plays a leading role—but so too, I learned, does the invention and commercialization of modern menstrual products.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: The leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are all women, as is the top White House budget official—the first-ever all-women team to lead the congressional committees that control government spending; new research about women of color involved in the suffrage movement; the power of knitting; and more.
Every time one woman is empowered, she empowers another. When a young girl learns of the accomplishments and contributions of the women that came before her, she learns that nothing is impossible.
On Thursday, existing laws in Texas, Tennessee and Idaho will take effect that either outlaw abortion entirely, or increase penalties for doctors who perform an abortion. The very next day, the U.S. will commemorate Women’s Equality Day. You’ll understand if we don’t feel much like celebrating.
Before this week, total bans were already in effect in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
