Published Work:
5 Stories of Progress for SDG 5 on #WomensDay
Girl Up Blog
"Girl Up’s global movement has always been led by girls. So this #WomensDay, we’re highlighting the stories of amazing girl leaders from Nebraska to Rwanda who are making progress for SDG 5 to help achieve gender equality and empower girls and women across the globe."
Click here for a link to this blog post.
Girl Up Blog
"Girl Up’s global movement has always been led by girls. So this #WomensDay, we’re highlighting the stories of amazing girl leaders from Nebraska to Rwanda who are making progress for SDG 5 to help achieve gender equality and empower girls and women across the globe."
Click here for a link to this blog post.
Team Strong Reports on Their Year of Strength
Girl Up Blog "When girls are educated, strong and healthy they are an incredible force for changing the world!" Click here for a link to this blog. |
Helping the Voices of Girls be Heard
Global Moms Challenge "No one should be left behind in the development process and it is the time for the silenced to speak up." |
When Zero is the Magic Number: Saving Lives During Childbirth
Global Moms Challenge "When emergencies hit, women do not stop having babies and needing access to family planning. And UNFPA does not stop saving lives." Click here for a link to this blog. |
UN Conference for Climate Change Features Workshops on Gender and Climate
The annual United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change began yesterday in Bonn, Germany to discuss how to manage the scientific phenomenon of a changing climate and the effects it has on the Global South and women. The conference will feature a multitude of meetings and workshops ranging from early warning systems in relation to extreme weather to the effect of climate change on indigenous peoples.
The conference, which takes place until June 11, will also have series of workshops on gender-responsive climate policy and how climate change affects men and women differently... (Click here to see entire article)
The annual United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change began yesterday in Bonn, Germany to discuss how to manage the scientific phenomenon of a changing climate and the effects it has on the Global South and women. The conference will feature a multitude of meetings and workshops ranging from early warning systems in relation to extreme weather to the effect of climate change on indigenous peoples.
The conference, which takes place until June 11, will also have series of workshops on gender-responsive climate policy and how climate change affects men and women differently... (Click here to see entire article)
Trump Lawyer Gets Marital Rape So Wrong
Michael Cohen, special counsel for the Trump Organization, in denying a story by Daily Beast reporters Tim Mak and Brandy Zadrozny that claimed Donald Trump had raped his first wide, Ivana, said: “Of course, understand that by the very definition, you can’t rape your spouse.” Although Ivana denied this claim, Cohen’s gross misunderstanding of marital rape is cause for alarm. Cohen’s remarks have many feminists hoping to set the record straight; marital rape is illegal in all 50 states. (Click here to see entire article) |
New Poll Reaffirms That 1 in 5 College Women are Sexually Assaulted
A recently released Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll reaffirmed the commonly-cited statistic that one in five women, or twenty percent, who attended college in the past four years say they were sexually assaulted. The data also show that students are divided about the definition of consent, that victims of sexual assault suffer from trauma, and that a small minority of victims report the crime.
The Post-Kaiser poll defined sexual assault to include five types of unwanted contact: oral sex, vaginal sexual intercourse, anal sex, sexual penetration with a finger or object, and forced touching of a sexual nature. In all, 25 percent of women and 7 percent of men said they experienced one or more of the types of unwanted contact listed while in college... (Click here to see entire article)
A recently released Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll reaffirmed the commonly-cited statistic that one in five women, or twenty percent, who attended college in the past four years say they were sexually assaulted. The data also show that students are divided about the definition of consent, that victims of sexual assault suffer from trauma, and that a small minority of victims report the crime.
The Post-Kaiser poll defined sexual assault to include five types of unwanted contact: oral sex, vaginal sexual intercourse, anal sex, sexual penetration with a finger or object, and forced touching of a sexual nature. In all, 25 percent of women and 7 percent of men said they experienced one or more of the types of unwanted contact listed while in college... (Click here to see entire article)
#SayHerName Protests Take Place in California and Across the Nation
Dozens of topless protesters stopped traffic in San Francisco last week on the National Day of Action for Black Women and Girls to protest the lack of national attention for black women killed by police brutality. The protesters blocked a popular intersection in San Francisco, California, with signs and body paint with messages like this one: “For the murdered, missing, silenced, abused, exploited, unseen.” Similar protests have happened in other cities across the nation... (Click here to see entire article) |
Members of Congress Renew the Fight for the Equal Rights Amendment
Congresswomen Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) re-introduced the Equal Rights Amendment yesterday in a bipartisan effort to put women in the United States Constitution. A bipartisan coalition of 170 cosponsors have signed on to this bill, including representatives Maloney, Lummis, Congresswoman Speier (D-CA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and many more. This motion comes alongside a resolution also introduced this week by Speier in support of the ERA. “More than 90 percent of Americans believe the constitution should guarantee rights equally for men and women,” said Representative Maloney in a statement. “It’s time to secure that promise by passing the Equal Rights Amendment.”... (Click here to see entire article) |
Feminists Are Cheering on Hillary's Presidential Bid
Hillary Clinton’s unique social media entrance to the 2016 presidential race dominated news Sunday and was received well by many – especially feminists. Emily’s List, the National Organization for Women, and the Women’s Media Center were just a few of those who joined in the flurry of support for Clinton’s candidacy announcement yesterday through a video in which Clinton declared that “everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion.” “Gender matters in the United States today,” President of the National Organization for Women Terry O’Neill wrote yesterday... (Click here to see entire article) |
Report Released by Sen. Gillibrand Shows Underreporting of Military Sexual Assault
A new report released by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) this morning shows the Department of Defense (DOD) is grossly under-reporting the number of sexual assault crimes in the US military, particularly those occurring on military bases. Gillibrand says this new information deepens a lack of faith for an internal commander-led justice system for cases of military sexual assault, saying it “remains plagued with distrust.”... (Click here to see entire article) |
This Year's State of the Union Had a Historic Emphasis on Women
President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address placed an unprecedented emphasis on the central role women play in the economy, with more focus on social policy for women than in any State of the Union address in history. President Obama was also the first president to deliver a SOTU address that recognized lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. President Obama made it clear that women and families are a national priority last night, noting that “we’re the only advanced country on Earth that doesn't guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers.” The President had announced earlier that he would sign a memorandum granting federal workers six weeks paid parental leave. He urged Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act, or seven days paid sick leave for workers, which is desperately needed considering some 48 percent of women workers have not one day of paid sick leave... (Click here to see entire article) |
Washington, DC Breaks Barriers for Women
Our nation’s capital is making feminist history. As of January 2, Washington, DC is being led by a trio of trailblazing women, two of whom are women of color, making it the only city in the US where the mayor, chief of police, and school chancellor are all women. Muriel Bowser, the second woman to be elected as Mayor of Washington, DC, announced last week that she will be keeping top DC leaders Police Chief Cathy Lanier and Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson. After the announcement, the Washington Post referred to Bowser, Lanier, and Henderson as “DC’s Matriarchy.” “How fitting for the nation’s capital to have three women in charge, women who have gotten things done in this city for years,” said Bowser. “We want to the whole world to know we are a city on the move.”... (Click here to see entire article) |
March2Justice Protesters Embark on 250-Mile March to Protest Police Brutality
Marchers are ending an eight-day journey across 250 miles and five states to deliver anti-profiling and police-force-militarization legislation from New York City to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. More than 100 protesters gathered just outside New York City on Monday, beginning a march from New York to Washington, D.C., to deliver to legislators what is being called the “Justice Package,” including “three pieces of legislation calling for an end to racial profiling, stopping the militarization of our local police forces, and demanding the government invest in our youth and communities.”... (Click here to continue) |
Iranian Activist Wins International Human Rights Award for Hijab Campaign
Journalist Masih Alinejad was awarded the Women’s Rights Award at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy last week for her activism supporting Iranian women who choose not to cover their heads in a hijab. Alinejad’s Facebook page, “My Stealthy Freedom”, has gained international attention and more than 700,000 followers by posting pictures of Iranian women without the hijab. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the government made it mandatory for women to cover their heads when in public or in a governmental building. In the years since then, women have been protesting what one woman on the Facebook page called “our most basic right, our right to choose what to wear.”... (Click here to see entire article) |
Four Women Were Just Approved to Join the Cabinet of Afghanistan’s Unity Government
President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah of Afghanistan held their promise to appoint four women in the new cabinet, and the nation’s lower house of Parliament approved them along with the rest of the 16 cabinet nominees introduced by the Afghan government on Saturday. Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, speaker for the lower house of parliament, confirmed on Saturday that there are four women among that the 25 member Cabinet of President Ashraf Ghani... (Click here to see entire article) |
National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day is More Important Than Ever
Today is National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day, and with clinic violence on the rise as well as legislative attacks against clinics nation-wide, celebrating abortion clinics and care providers is more important than ever. Activists around the country are coming together to celebrate the 19th annual appreciation day, established after the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1996. Since 1996, clinic violence has been on the rise, endangering the lives of doctors, nurses, staff, volunteers, escorts, and patients at abortion care clinics across the country. Just last month, anti-choice extremists picketed outside the private residence of the director of the South Wind Women’s Center in Wichita, Kansas, with signs meant to intimidate and threated the director and her family... (Click here to see entire article) |
Houston is Finally Testing a Backlog of Thirty-Year-Old Rape Kits
The city of Houston, Texas has finally begun testing decades-old rape kits – and in just one week, those have led to hundreds of leads. Houston is one of the first of the major cities nation-wide to clear their backlog of over 6,000 untested rape kit s-some of which were more than thirty years old. So far, the evidence from these test kits has lead to 850 DNA matches, 29 filed cases, and 6 convictions. Police are continuing to review evidence from the kits to see if charges can be made in other cases. The city was able to process the untested kits with the help of a $4.4 million planapproved by the Houston City Council last year... (Click here to see entire article) |
Quoted Work:
Sexual Assault and the 2016 Campaign
I joined the Washington Post for a Facebook Live event discussing rhetoric surrounding women and sexual assault in the 2016 Presidential campaign election season, and the grass-roots level activism response. To watch the full video, click here. |
Reporting Rape, and Wishing She Hadn't
In July , 2014 I was quoted in an article on the front cover of the New York Times about the handling of a sexual assault case at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
At the time, I was a member of the Sexual Violence Task Force and founder of the HWS Sexism Project.
Click here to see the full article.
In July , 2014 I was quoted in an article on the front cover of the New York Times about the handling of a sexual assault case at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
At the time, I was a member of the Sexual Violence Task Force and founder of the HWS Sexism Project.
Click here to see the full article.