Tag: Women’s History

Welfare Is *Still* a Woman’s Issue

In the richest nation in the world, it shouldn’t be this difficult to make ends meet for yourself and your family.

As a society, we can choose to prioritize parents and their families. And that starts by implementing a guaranteed income program that will empower Black families and women everywhere. The fight for guaranteed income has deep roots in the civil rights movement—and it’s long overdue.

Only When the Government Truly Represents Women Will the U.S. Have a Real Democracy

Women make up a little over a quarter of Congress and around one-third of state legislators. Policy can remedy inequities and create a world that is more supportive of women. When our government truly represents women, we won’t have to defend our right to exist in the halls of power, or our right to vote for the policy we need and deserve.

(This essay is part of The Majority Rules project—an artful essay and op-ed series from Ms. and Supermajority Education Fund.)

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Virginia Sends its First Black Woman to Congress; Barbara Lee Enters California Senate Race

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

This week: Jennifer McClellan will be the first Black woman to represent Virginia in the House of Representatives; as an older generation steps back from political positions, more younger women step up to lead;

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Remembering the First Black Woman to Run for President; Teenage Girls Are in Crisis

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

This week: We honor Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to become a member of U.S. Congress and to run for president; teenage girls are increasingly “engulfed in a growing wave of violence and trauma”; Scotland’s leader Nicola Sturgeon will be stepping down; and more.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: The Legacies of Black Women Leaders in Law and Politics; Stacey Abrams ‘Will Likely Run Again’

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

This week: The state of representation in Congress; meet Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s State of the Union guest; the legacies of Black women leaders in law and politics; Stacey Abrams “will likely run again”; and more.

Why Marie Kondo Failed to Spark Permanent Joy

Domestic work in America has been a long-time battleground between the sexes. Further complicating the issue is that women and women of color make up a majority of domestic workers: 90.2 percent are women and 51.3 percent are Black, Hispanic, or Asian American and Pacific Islander. There is no honest and accurate way to talk about housework and childcare without also discussing the negative effects on women.

One day, perhaps the world will act as though domestic work is a collective responsibility and effort that requires no self-help books, a product line or a Netflix series.

Black Women Diarists Have Always Looked to Black Future Month

Black Americans have kept and published diaries for more than 150 years, chronicling their experience in the moment and using the powerful conventions associated with the diary form—privacy, honesty, confiding in a trusted audience—to create a stark picture of lived experience under racism. Diaries by African American women document personal experiences within social contexts of injustice—and show how their own actions make history. These stories offer evidence that apparently new developments like the Black Lives Matter movement, white fragility exposure, and intercultural dialogue practices have long roots in the past.