This month nearly 2,000 government delegates and representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) met in New York for the UN Fifteenth Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-15). After...
“Hip-hop is the CNN of the ghetto”—words spoken by legendary artist Chuck D of Public Enemy years before Puffy became a household name and bling a term used by actual CNN anchors. Serving as a mirro...
I’ve been thinking about Mother’s Day, and why I and others, who are not mothers, identify with this day just as much as if we were.
Of course, it’s partly because we owe our lives and love to our...
Jewish mothers have gotten a bad rap—for being overprotective, overfeeding, intrusive, manipulative, guilt inducing. The list is easily extended. It is almost impossible to remember that the Jewish ...
Fifteen years ago, in a book defending Clarence Thomas’s selection for the Supreme Court, author David Brock described me as “nutty” and “slutty.” After making millions in book sales, Brock recanted...
Mary Dent Crisp’s obituary appeared in the New York Times on April 15. Three days later the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision overturned core tenets of Roe v. Wade.
The juxtaposition of these two ev...
The summer movie season kicks off this weekend with Spiderman 3 descending onto thousands of screens at a multiplex near you. Hollywood prognosticators predict the biggest grossing summer EVER with ...
When speaking to Americans, Yanar Mohammed is confronted repeatedly with the belief that Iraqi women’s rights are protected under occupation by the United States. In reality, says Mohammed, director...
Older women writers are often at the height of their creative abilities, but for us to appreciate their work, we need to have access to it.
Our youth-oriented society fails to validate, much less ...
Robin Morgan and Anna Quindlen discuss the media, politics and change. Excerpted below, this conversation is the beginning of a series of conversations sponsored by the Women’s Media Center.
[The] partial birth abortion ban is a political scam but a public relations goldmine... The major benefit is the debate that surrounds it. —Randall Terry
Ruth Bader Ginzburg’s Dissent As Linda ...
Periodically, some new wound rips the scab off our national, livid scar where sex and race intersect: the young law professor, Anita Hill, shaming Congress by her dignity and inspiring women with he...
A friend of mine is turning 50 today.
Our friendship was brief but intense. I didn’t get invited to her glitzy celebrity and fashion-hype parties. We don’t run in the same circles any longer.
Al...
While he was still secretary-general designate, in his first address to the General Assembly, Ban Ki-Moon promised he would “lead by example” and announced that one of his goals was to appoint more ...
In recent weeks, if you scanned the Broadway theatre listings in New York you would see the names of some of the most prominent actresses of our time, such stars as Angela Lansbury, Vanessa Redgrave...
I’ve been asked, as one who has thrown her own hat in that particular ring, what advice I’d give to Hillary Clinton now that she’s announced her candidacy. But Hillary probably knows more about runn...
I want to share a story. I wonder how many know the name, Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi. How many know who she was?
Abeer was a 14-old-girl, living with her family about 50 miles south of Baghdad...
There is still a false idea out there that feminists back every woman, regardless of how she behaves. Let's leave that behind right along with 2006.
In fact, feminism is just the belief that all p...
As the future administration takes shape in Washington, D.C., women come to the table with impressive credentials and the backing of national women’s organizations.
With Republican control of Congress hanging in the balance, this is a critical election year—and young women voters (YWVs) could be the deciding factor. Midterm elections traditionally suffer from l...
Good journalists have long used personal stories, integrating quotes and anecdotes into factual reporting. But the birth of the second wave of feminism—and the recognition that the personal is polit...
If you want to connect with the 15 to 30 year old crowd, you’d better start inhabiting their world—the virtual one of MySpace, Facebook and Friendster, YouTube, and too many blogs to name. Each is ...
Tonight I join Kerry Washington, Kathy Bates, Marcia Gay Harden, Marian Seldes, and Shiva Rose at New York’s Studio 54 to open a festival that will bring the issue of violence against women front an...
Betty Friedan died Saturday, February 4, 2006. It was her 85th birthday. Now, after almost three decades of friendship, I find it surreal: writing this remembrance and not a birthday greeting. The s...