WMC News & Features
What Would Ida Do?
At a time in many ways parallel, though more perilous, than our own, Ida B. Wells stood up and spoke out. For Women’s History Month, her biographer describes her complex understanding of how race, class and gender play out in the politics of change.
WMC News & Features
New U.S. Policy in AfPak: Looking for Mr. Moderate Taliban
To those who advocate making peace with certain elements of the Taliban, the author, who has worked to secure human rights with Pakistani legislators across the ideological spectrum, argues against any prospective deal that sacrifices women’s empowerment.
WMC News & Features
Why We Must Still Remember
Beginning in 2006, the Women’s Media Center began a series of articles to alert the public about violence against women involving U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Helen Zia, a WMC board member, explains why we must continue to demand justice.
WMC News & Features
Obama Comes Through, Reversing Bush Era Repro-rights Restrictions
Monies to expand family planning services for poor women that were cut from the stimulus package are restored in President Obama’s proposed budget, and the administration rescinds a last-minute Bush Administration rule that would have severely weakened women’s access to reproductive health services.
WMC News & Features
Life and Work: A Conversation for International Women’s Day
The authors are appearing in New York City this month (March 18 at the 92nd Street Y-Tribeca) as part of an ongoing national tour to explore feminist issues through a multigenerational panel. The panel’s appearances (which have also included author Kristal Brent Zook) provoke more conversations: in Kansas City, a local panel adopted the format to continue to explore different dimensions of women’s lives. Here, the authors share their perspectives on work and life choices.
WMC News & Features
Finding a Media Career that Suits Me—Not My Image of Myself
From an early age, the author had a particular kind of career in mind. And, rapidly, she was realizing her dreams working in network television—until she stepped back and took another look at what she wanted in life.
WMC News & Features
Can We Talk? Teens Need a Realistic Dialogue About Sex and Contraceptives
While her mother seemed to accept her pregnancy as a normal part of teen life, Bristol Palin, in her recent Fox News interview, acknowledged that abstinence just doesn’t work. Here, the author, a hi...
WMC News & Features
To Michelle Obama, and Her Sister “First Ladies”
Journalist and historian Janus Adams pays tribute to the First Lady in the White House, recognizing that she joins a tradition of firsts among our nation’s African American women.
WMC News & Features
February 23, 2009 | Nichola Gutgold |
Politics
Hillary Clinton Continues To Rewrite the Script
Lisa Burns, author of First Ladies and the Fourth Estate (Northern Illinois University Press, 2008), concluded her illuminating book with the statement: “the question of women’s ‘proper’ place in political culture is as relevant today as it has been during any historical period.” As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton continues to redefine our possibilities as she demonstrates that the tradition-bound role of first lady can lead to a political voice on the international stage.
WMC News & Features
A Challenge to New York’s New Senator—and to Her Supporters
Senator Gillibrand’s troublesome record on immigration policy was ignored by a number of social justice organizations quick to congratulate her. Now the senator and those who support her must embrace an agenda that protects the human rights of immigrants.
WMC News & Features
The Fox Disconnect
As part of a Women’s Media Center campaign demanding that Bill O’Reilly apologize for his personal, sexist attack on the legendary White House correspondent Helen Thomas, Courtney Martin, a member of the WMC Progressive Women’s Voices program, appeared on The O’Reilly Factor this week to drive the message home. Here is Martin's account of the experience and its aftermath. (The WMC also received hundreds of hateful, profanity-laced, sometimes threatening emails and calls after calling for O’Reilly’s apology)
WMC News & Features
Of Slumdog and Loveleen
The author, a filmmaker herself, considers what the woman with the title of “co-director” contributed to the remarkable success of a leading contender for both best director and best picture at this year’s Oscars—and what the controversy means for women filmmakers.
WMC News & Features
February 13, 2009 | Melissa Silverstein |
Arts and culture
Frozen River: Oscar's 2009 Cinderella Story
A small budget movie breaks every conventional rule for success, and its writer and director, Courtney Hunt, is riding high—whether or not her film wins awards next week.
WMC News & Features
February 11, 2009 | Peggy Simpson |
Feminism
Can Feminist Groups and Bloggers Bridge the Digital Divide?
In Washington, DC, members of feminist organizations of long standing and feminist members of the blogospere met face to face for the first time. Now comes the hard part: to see what each group might offer the other.
WMC News & Features
Turning the Tide against the Taliban: What Works
The Obama Administration must empower the Pakistani people, who have already shown that they’re ready and able to stand up against the forces oppressing women and girls in the valley of Swat and elsewhere. Here, the secretary-general of Parliamentarians for Global Action, tells us how.
WMC News & Features
February 02, 2009 | Marianne Schnall |
Arts and culture,
Feminism,
Health,
International,
Politics,
Violence against women
Turning Pain to Power
Women and girls in eastern Congo suffer sexual atrocities that are tactics of war in the region. Playwright Eve Ensler has joined with Dr. Denis Mukwege to ask us to imagine the unimaginable, to empathize and join together to end the terror.
WMC News & Features
President Obama and Women’s Rights Activists: Celebration and Bumps in the Road
The White House ceremony and reception marking the President’s signature on his first major law honored feminists and the bill’s inspiration, Lilly Ledbetter. But the week was also marked by setbacks for legislation important to women workers and to women who depend on Medicaid.
WMC News & Features
Changing the World, One Blog at a Time
The author, WMC’s media manager, understood the potential of networking. But the true power of the web for advocacy hit home when an injustice threatened her family. Here she describes how anyone can use the process.
WMC News & Features
A War on Pakistan's Schoolgirls
In a remarkably beautiful area of Pakistan, the Taliban is making a nightmare of girls’ lives. The author, a Pakistani lawyer and staff member of Equality Now, tells us how the Obama Administration can avoid the mistakes of its predecessor.
WMC News & Features
January 26, 2009 | Susan Brownmiller |
Feminism
The Woman Who Fought Freud—and Won
Feminist theorist and activist Florence Rush died on December 9, 2008. At a New York memorial last weekend, author Susan Brownmiller recalled how Rush’s insights about childhood sexual abuse inspire...
WMC News & Features
Remaking America
Women’s Media Center President Carol Jenkins witnessed a day that will change her family and our nation, as Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America.
WMC News & Features
January 20, 2009 | Peggy Simpson |
Politics
Word to Activists, Don’t Stop Now
Even in the midst of the inaugural celebration, activists gathered in the capital to plan out their roles in the coming months.
WMC News & Features
Masculine Mystique, Meet Feminine Mistake
Relationships are often tested during times of economic stress. In covering the phenomenon, the author wonders why some in the media seem to latch onto an outmoded model of marriage roles.
WMC News & Features
January 15, 2009 | Gloria Feldt |
Trading in “Barefoot and Pregnant” for Economic and Reproductive Justice
As Congress works through the economic stimulus package, representatives need to keep in mind the connection between a woman’s need to determine her reproductive life and her ability to contribute to economic recovery and growth.
WMC News & Features
Girls Need to See Women Rise to Political Power
In about a week, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States—entering the history books as the first African American to serve. Young girls know from Hillary Clinton’s near success at becoming the Democratic candidate that women can aspire to the highest office too, but studies show that their assurance could quickly fade.