WMC News & Features
“My Lord What a Morning”
On the anniversary of the trial of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, the author recalls the significance in her own family of that day when tens of thousands read leaflets asking that they “stay off the buses” in protest—and the limits to freedom that still plague us today.
WMC News & Features
NBC Looks Backward with “Meet the Press” Pick
Another white male journalist is about to join the TV networks’ Sunday morning lineup—and it’s not as though there were no women, or men of color, to choose from. NBC demonstrates, at the very least, a surprising lack of imagination in this year of diversity.
WMC News & Features
A Quiet Revolution in the Developing World
The Gates Foundation has found an experienced adviser who knows as much as anyone about the importance of focusing on women to increase agricultural production in those countries where hungry people need it most. And her gender-sensitive policy does not end with the farmers.
WMC News & Features
November 25, 2008 | Michele Wucker |
Politics
Great Expectations: Challenges for the Next Secretary of State
As the presumptive new secretary of state, Hillary Clinton brings considerable strengths to the job. She will need all of them to help repair her country’s damaged reputation and move ahead strategically on a demanding series of problem areas.
WMC News & Features
November 24, 2008 | Hamedah Hasan, Melissa Mummert |
Arts and culture,
International,
Media,
Politics
Concrete Bed
As a result of Draconian federal sentencing laws imposed since the 1980s, the author, caught on the edges of her cousin’s cocaine-selling operation, remains locked up despite what her trial judge called her “extraordinary rehabilitation.” While we seek out family during this holiday season, she longs for her three daughters and hopes that a documentary about her case will influence judicial policy makers.
WMC News & Features
What Obama Really Means for Black America and Beyond
The soon-to-be first family presents a potent role model. Here, the author, a sociologist and African American Studies assistant professor at Northwestern, describes the other half of the political agenda that is essential if we are to embrace the “politics of personal responsibility.”
WMC News & Features
Voices Carry: The Fight for Women’s Rights in the Catholic Church
Roman Catholic supporters of Barack Obama undergo intimidation by church leaders because of their candidate’s pro-choice views. Father Roy Bourgeois faces excommunication for co-presiding over the ordination of a woman as priest. Author Angela Bonavoglia connects the dots within a deeply misogynistic tendency of the church hierarchy that members are resisting—from the pews and from the pulpit.
WMC News & Features
November 10, 2008 | Patricia Sullivan |
Politics
The Vote They Didn’t Want To End
Last week, waking up after a historic election, hundreds of thousands of Americans celebrated as they waited to have the event confirmed in black and white. Washington Post staff writer Patricia Sullivan tells what happened in her town.
WMC News & Features
Larry Summers Is Not the Change I Was Expecting
I am the president of the Larry Summers fan club. As the director of the Women in Science and Engineering program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, you might find that odd.
WMC News & Features
The Financial Debate—Moving the “Joannes” Front and Center
As Joe the Plumber plays out his moments in the sun, a group of feminist economists rate the two candidates according to women’s economic concerns.
WMC News & Features
The Other Nominees
Two women of color are running to be president and vice president of the United States. However, even a media junkie can be forgiven for missing this unique event.
WMC News & Features
Moose, Mousse, and Spalinism
Here, Robin Morgan takes aim at a few “feminists” who have taken to the blogways lately to support John McCain and Sarah Palin. Their reasoning is flawed, says Morgan, to say the least.
WMC News & Features
Voting—Without the Girdle
The journalist and author of a forthcoming play on suffragist Susan B. Anthony explains why not voting should never be an option. A large turnout is as important to the nation, says Lynn Sherr, as any policy choice of the winner.
WMC News & Features
October 30, 2008 | Joanne Bamberger |
Politics
Stepping Over the Line
Voters know when a candidate has broken the civility rules. More important, they care. A woman hoping to be reelected to her seat in the House of Representatives may well learn that lesson next Tuesday.
WMC News & Features
What Is the True Story of McCain’s Wartime Experience?
Journalists have had years to vet John McCain’s account of wartime heroism in Vietnam. But no real critique of its veracity has emerged from leading media outlets. Reporters and commentators remain remarkably disinclined to investigate a major underpinning of McCain’s argument that he is qualified to be commander-in-chief. Here, historian Mary Hershberger questions why.
WMC News & Features
October 24, 2008 | Peggy Simpson |
Politics
Net Gain Probable for Women in Congress
Some of the new women candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives are Democrats challenging in red districts. Their victory could swell the Democratic majority.
WMC News & Features
National Security: Women Must Define the Priorities Debate
The ‘guns versus butter’ debate is on the way out. Even the U.S. military has realized the importance of providing the latter. For this election and beyond, women leaders are learning how to recast ...
WMC News & Features
We All Deserve Time to Be with Loved Ones
The health needs of those we love can suddenly become a top priority for anyone—even a presidential candidate in the final days of a historic election. Only some political leaders and legislators, however, are willing to give all workers the flexibility they must have during a health emergency.
WMC News & Features
The New Media Message For Women
While the old boys’ network continues to dominate mainstream media, women are tending to look elsewhere for their news and information. This year, the blogosphere has emerged as a powerful venue for women’s political activity as well.
WMC News & Features
How Can 30+ Million Women Be Invisible?
At great consequence to our nation, appallingly high numbers of women of color have not felt compelled to go to the polls in the past. The author set out to find out why and what to do about it.
WMC News & Features
McCain Ridicules Health Exemptions for Abortion
The final presidential debate touched on three important issues for women, while women’s groups continue to press the campaigns for an elusive commitment to a Lifetime TV forum that would allow more extensive discussion and questioning.
WMC News & Features
Speaking of Change: Women Broadcasters Deliver
Two thirds of the way through the male-moderated presidential debates, history has turned in this election when women broadcasters played a role.
WMC News & Features
October 03, 2008 | Peggy Simpson |
Politics
Pundits and Viewers Give Palin a Pass
Governor Sarah Palin’s strategy of avoiding tough questions and talking into the camera will strengthen her connection with the GOP base. Independent voters are another matter.
WMC News & Features
October 03, 2008 | Avis A. Jones-DeWeever, Ph.D. |
Politics
Where Have Our Standards Gone?
What does it say about a nation, when the true take away message from a vice-presidential debate is that one of its participants actually does have the ability to string together a series of coherent sentences?
WMC News & Features
Robin Morgan: ‘When Sisterhood Is Suicide and Other Late Night Thoughts’
Robin Morgan-whose controversial essay for the Women's Media Center on sexism in the primary race, "Goodbye To All That #2," was reprinted on 3,000 sites around the world-expounds here on women's s...