5 Things Politicians Need to Know About Millennial Women to Get Their Votes
Younger voters and women are often much-coveted demographics in political elections. This year, politicians and political analysts are taking a closer look at Millennial women. Their experiences are unique, as are their outlooks, struggles and issues that most concern them. Fortune.com covers a recent national survey illuminating five key points that anyone should keep in mind, if they want to respect and win over Millennial women. fortune.com - Young women have been central to discussions of the Democratic Party nomination contest between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT). Despite sweeping assumptions about young voters and this election, millennials have a relationship with feminism and these two candidates that plays out differently across ethnicities and lifestage in particular.
Specifically, a new national, proprietary, third-party validated survey of more than 1,600 women fielded by SheKnows Media found that there are nuances between those aged 25 to 29 versus those who are aged 30 to 34, and that women of color of all ages often feel excluded from the feminist movement.
1. Women in their late 20s most strongly identify as feminists: Millennial women between the ages of 25 and 29 most strongly identify as being feminist compared to their younger (18-15) and older (30-34) generational counterparts. Fifty-four percent of women in this age group responded to the question with an unequivocal “yes,” matching the passion of Boomer feminists who saw the gains of the second-wave feminist movement first-hand.
Read more here.
Yes, You Should Be Watching 'Supergirl'
From fighting for what they believe in, to discussing women's issues, to being (gasp!) imperfect examples of women; Kara (aka Supergirl) and the other characters in CBS's "Supergirl" provide a strong, progressive, nuanced look at the lives of strong women and men. From casting to directing and action sequences, the show is a powerhouse-in-the making in its own right. Read below for just a few reasons to check out the show as Kara, Catco, and co. fight for the country; the planet; and, yes, for women's rights. forbes.com - Lexi Alexander is directing tonight’s episode of Supergirl. That alone would be reason enough to tune in, as the acclaimed Green Street Hooligans/Punisher War Zone director is once again dipping her toes in the DC television universe pond after helming an episode of Arrow last year. The famously upfront and vocal director, who constantly hits back at the film industry’s deeply entrenched gender and racial inequalities, was recruited for the fourth episode of Arrow’s fourth season. That gig led to tonight’s Supergirl and will hopefully lead to more high-profile television directing jobs in the future (like a confirmed gig directing a comparatively action-free episode of Limitless).
If the movies don’t want her, then television should relish the opportunity. That an immigrant would find herself directing an episode titled “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” is perfectly fitting with the show’s openhearted optimism and a narrative where the two showiest heroes are aliens in both senses of the word. Point being, if you haven’t been watching Supergirl or you gave up after the not-great post-pilot episodes, it’s time to rectify that mistake.
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5 Proven Reasons Feminism Is Great For Your Health
We all know that caring about women's rights is important—for everyone. Fighting for equality through advocating for women's rights ends up improving the lives of women as well as entire societies, and everyone wins. But did you know the feminist lifestyle is good for your health? Bustle.com covers five ways feminist habits and outlooks are correlated with physical and mental health. bustle.com - Feminism is awesome. It fights long-entrenched gender inequalities based on the really fundamental belief that women deserve the same economic, social and educational privileges as men. (Not that hard, really.) There are a lot of undeniable plus-sides to being a feminist, from standing up for your fellow women to being on the right side of history, but science is also finding that feminism and the equality it creates can have some serious health benefits, too. Quoting Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie can make us healthier? Sweet, let's get campaigning!
There are several relationships between feminist thinking and better health outcomes. One is that of consequences: better equality, for instance, leads to more wealth for women, which tends to lead to more access to healthcare, more educated decisions about childbearing, and other health-positive stuff. Another is a bit more direct: it seems that thinking like a feminist seems to have genuine positive psychological benefits for our mental health. And then there's the health benefit of having a medical system that takes women's pain seriously, which is definitely a feminist issue.
Here are five different ways in which being a feminist will boost your mental and physical health, from the more abstract to the tangible. A dose of feminism may keep the doctor away more effectively than any old apple.
Read the list here.
NPR Interviews Young Visionary Behind #1000BlackGirlBooks
Marley Dias loves to read. But the New Jersey 11-year-old—who, among other things, has traveled to Ghana to help feed orphans and received a grant from Disney—has made it her latest passion to collect children's books featuring black female protagonists so she and other students can have role models in fiction that include people like themselves.The project, #1000BlackGirlBooks, saw its beginning when Dias commented to her mother that she was "sick of reading about white boys and dogs." Determined to show that there are wonderful black girl protagonists—and to introduce the books to schools and show that reading is enhanced by including diverse perspectives—Dias set out to collect 1,000 such books by the beginning of February. She's currently at 4,000 books and counting.
Dias spoke with NPR's Morning Edition about her effort and the importance of students being able to identify with protagonists.
"I think it's important in general for kids to be reading books with diversity. When you read about a character that you can connect with, you'll remember the things that they learned, so if I like hair bows, and the character I'm reading about likes hair bows; I'll remember what he or she learned in that book because I have something in common with them," Dias told Morning Edition's David Greene.
Read an excerpt and listen to the interview, and click through to check out the rest of the article, including book recommendations from Dias.
NPR Ed - (Excerpt) Black girls, like Marley, were almost never the main character.
What she was noticing is actually a much bigger issue: Fewer than 10 percent of children's books released in 2015 had a black person as the main character, according to a yearly analysis by the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. And while the number of children's books about minorities has increased in the past 20 years, many classroom libraries have older books.
Last fall, Marley decided to do something about it. She set a goal of collecting 1,000 books about black girls by the beginning of February, and #1000blackgirlbooks was born.
Arkansas Domestic Violence Shelter for Male Victims First of its Kind
When we hear "domestic violence," many of us imagine a female or child victim and a male perpetrator. And while this is often the case, violence can happen in many different ways or relationships. In a move that shows domestic violence can affect everyone, men in Batesville County in Arkansas now have a dedicated shelter to turn to if they are victims domestic violence, according to Arkansas Online. Men had been sheltered in a six-bedroom facility in the past, but the Taylor House Domestic Violence Shelter for Men appears to be the first registered shelter for males in the country. We think this is a wonderful idea. Men—and everyone—deserve safety and care without being blamed or stigmatized. The same sexist stereotypes that harm women cab also harm men, and we're so happy to see that men in one neighborhood have somewhere to turn.
Click through to read the whole story, visit the Arkansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence to learn more about resources in the area, or visit The National Domestic Violence Hotline or call 1 (800) 799-7233 if you need help or additional resources.
Arkansas Online - When most people hear the term “domestic violence,” their minds automatically turn to women or children in dangerous household situations. Men are often seen as the abusers in domestic-violence scenarios, but there are times when men are on the receiving end of abuse.
“Many people do not realize that domestic violence also affects men,” said Patty Duncan, executive director of Family Violence Prevention Inc. in Batesville. “It’s not just male/female relationships. Domestic violence includes intimate partners, family and household members.”
Family Violence Prevention has housed men in its private six-bedroom Safehaven Shelter in the past, but in October, the nonprofit opened The Taylor House Domestic Violence Shelter for Men. Duncan said that — as far as she can tell — it is the first registered shelter for males in the country.
Read the rest here.
How the Biggest Book Club on Goodreads Is Making a Real-World Impact
Actress and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson has spent much of the last year learning as much as she can about feminism and women's causes, and she wants to share the learning journey. Goodreads covers their largest group: the books Watson and her book club friends worldwide are reading, and how the club is inspiring movements and clubs to organize around the globe. goodreads.com - When Emma Watson starts a book club, readers pay attention. On January 6, the British actress and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador announced her intention to start a feminist book club. It took less than 24 hours for Watson to turn her intention into reality. By January 7, Our Shared Shelf was up and running—and less than a month later, it became the largest group on Goodreads with 100,000 members (and counting).
"As part of my work with UN Women, I have started reading as many books and essays about equality as I can get my hands on," Watson wrote on Our Shared Shelf's group page. "There is so much amazing stuff out there! Funny, inspiring, sad, thought-provoking, empowering!" Her plan is to select one book a month to read and discuss with her fellow book club members. Her first pick was My Life on the Road, journalist and feminist activist Gloria Steinem's 2015 memoir. This month, the club is reading The Color Purple by novelist and feminist activist Alice Walker.
But Our Shared Shelf is more than just a place to find reading recommendations.
Read the rest here.
Meet the 24-year-old who could change how the US handles sexual assaults
No one should ever suffer an assault—let alone have to suffer and struggle in the aftermath as they seek care and justice. But that's just what happened to Amanda Nguyen. Nguyen, 24, has already accomplished much: She's a State Department liaison to the White House and an aspiring astronaut, but one of her biggest struggles was after she was sexually assaulted and had to navigate a confusing, broken system to try to keep her rape kit from being destroyed. It led Nguyen to research rights guaranteed to victims of sexual assault across various states, and to work with legislators and legal experts to draft new bills ensuring rights like a trained sexual assault counselor for survivors of sexual assaults, as well as information about their legal rights and the status of their rape kit.
Nguyen founded the Rise organization, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights of survivors of sexual assault. Activists and volunteers came together under Rise to research laws and protections in various states and eventually gathered support for a bill, which is expected to have bipartisan support and inspire more similar actions at the state level.
Read much more about the efforts of Nguyen and Rise, Nguyen's personal story and tenacity, the legal difficulties faced by survivors of sexual assault and more in the full article.
theguardian.com - In what they hope will become a bipartisan bright spot, Democrats in the Senate on Tuesday introduced a sweeping new bill to guarantee and standardize certain rights for people who have experienced sexual assault.
The bill is the latest attempt to fix a system for prosecuting sex crimes that many public figures agree is broken. But where many bills focus on expanding resources for law enforcement, this is the first national proposal to focus so directly on improving legal protections for those who are sexually assaulted.
And the bill has a unique driving force behind it: Amanda Nguyen, a 24-year-old State Department liaison to the White House in training to be an astronaut who helped craft the bill. Nguyen became an activist because of her own enormous struggles with a difficult legal system that nearly destroyed her rape kit.
“Basically, I had to pen my own rights into existence,” she said in a recent interview.
The Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act draws from legal rights that already exist in patchwork form in different states across the county. It requires steps to ensure that people who have been sexually assaulted have access to a trained sexual assault counselor and comprehensive information about victims’ legal options. For individuals who submit to a rape kit, the bill would give them the right to know the location of the evidence, whether the kit has been tested, and the test results.
Read more here.
Soledad O'Brien Nails The Absurdity Of 'Work/Life Balance'
In the second episode of Pioneers, a new HuffPost Originals series talking with people at the top of their fields about what success and fulfillment mean to them, Soledad O'Brien discusses how she finds balance in life. The idea behind "work-life balance" is a "false dichotomy," she believes. She believes the important thing is to focus on finding a good balance of what moves you and you're able to be fully present in your home and work life. O'Brien also talks about her new media business, what moves her and more. Click through to watch the video.
huffingtonpost.com - Award-winning journalist Soledad O'Brien has all the traditional trappings of success: She's an award-winning journalist, founder of her own company and mother of four.
But for her, daily life is about something more simple.
"You have to be about the business of doing good work," she said. "That to me is success."
O'Brien's philosophy led her to the top of her field, and became a key factor in helping her reach new heights. She founded Starfish Media Group in 2013, a production and distribution company that creates documentaries about people who are often overlooked, and whose stories are interwoven with difficult, complex social issues.
"Telling stories through people, really trying to understand human beings... that makes me happy, I like to do that," she told HuffPost. "If we can continue to do that and grow that, I'll be really happy."
Because she focuses her time on things that bring her joy, O'Brien said that she doesn't experience conflicts between work and life -- to her, the idea of work-life balance is a "false dichotomy."
Roxane Gay and Rebecca Traister Talk Sex, Female Friendship, and What It Means to be Single Now
Roxane Gay; author of An Untamed State (2014), the essay collection Bad Feminist (2014), and Hunger (coming this year); spoke with journalist Rebecca Traister to mark the release of her book All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation. Traister interviewed dozens of women from all over the United States for her book, painting a diverse and nuanced picture about how marriage has changed in recent decades for women. Gay interviews Traister about her new book; changing trends, queer issues, gender dynamics, how the stigma of being single is changing and more. Traister and Gay discuss being married as it's shaped by choice, race, and class; women's identity as married or single people; and what marriage means to women today—and to Traister.
“Living singly in your twenties and thirties—and beyond—isn't a tryout for life: It is real life,” Traister says.
Read the introduction here, and click through to Elle.com to read the interview.
elle.com - In Beyoncé's ring finger-wagging 2008 anthem, "Single Ladies," she celebrates independent women who would rather be single than settle. In Rebecca Traister's new book, All the Single Ladies (Simon & Schuster), which borrows both the refrain and the feminist spirit of that song, she chronicles the rise of unmarried women in America and the different people we're becoming because of it. "For young women, for the first time, it is as normal to be unmarried as it is to be married, even if it doesn't always feel that way," Traister writes, noting that there were 3.9 million more single adult women in 2014 than there were in 2010. In 1960, 59 percent of American adults between 18 and and 29 were married; in 2011, it was just 20 percent. The book is wonderfully inclusive, examining single women from all walks of life—working-, middle-, and upper-class women; women of color and white women; queer and straight ones.
Traister has built a reputation as one of America's preeminent feminist voices through her work for Salon, the New Republic, ELLE (where she is a longtime contributing editor), and now New York magazine. Her first book, Big Girls Don't Cry, examined the 2008 presidential election and its cultural and political consequences via the cycle's cast of female power players, including women voters, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin. With All the Single Ladies, she brings her trademark intelligence and wit to bear, interspersing her own experiences and observations with dozens of interviews with women all over the country, plus historical context, from so-called Boston marriages (the nineteenth-century name for women who lived together) and the Brontë sisters to Murphy Brown and Sex and the City.
Visit Elle.com to read Roxane Gay's interview with Rebecca Traister.
The Word That's Hurting Female Leaders
It's often said that actions speak louder than words, but words are often a type of action: how we define and talk about ourselves and others. So we were pleased to see Fortune's MPW Insider network take on "bossy" women (also known as women demonstrating decisiveness, authority, and other leadership qualities). Women overcome the label every day, but it would be wonderful to see the double standard disappear altogether. Read more below, and click through for the full story.
fortune.com - There are many barriers to female leadership: gender inequality, lack of access to necessary education, issues with work-life balance, etc. Yet, throughout my career, I have seen women overcome these barriers. I know women who care for their large families while also leading successful businesses; women who have not had the chance to attend university but have still climbed to the top of the corporate ladder. I also know women who have had the courage to assert themselves and their ideas in male-dominated spaces. How did they do it? It was the strength of their opinions, courage, desire to achieve equality, ambitions, and so much more. So, what if at the end of the day the real barrier was… ourselves?
Recently, I’ve been teaching women that in order to become a leader, performance is critical. But there is more to it than that: in order to be a successful leader, you need to engage, provide direction, and show self-confidence. Unfortunately, research has shown that these leadership attributes are positively correlated with likability for men and negativity for women. In other words, a man will likely come across as “decisive,” while a woman will be seen as “bossy”.
Read the rest here.
Is Merriam-Webster adding “Intersectionality” to its dictionary?
We think intersectionality--recognition that different forms of oppression and discrimination overlap and intersect--is crucial to any modern movement for women's empowerment. In the decades since the word was coined, it's only become more important. That's why we were so happy to see Merriam-Webster may soon be adding the word to its dictionary. blavity.com - The term [intersectionality] coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw was used to culminate and understand the effects of all forms of oppression (racism, sexism, classism) on an individual, specifically black women.
INTERSECTIONALITY—THE COMPLEX, CUMULATIVE MANNER IN WHICH THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION COMBINE, OVERLAP, OR INTERSECT
Nearly 30 years after Crenshaw’s essay that pushed the envelope on feminist theory, the term has become prevalent in daily discourse and of course the Twitter debates that we’ve all had ringside seats to on various occasions. And now that Merriam-Webster says the term is on its “words we’re watching list” soon all you’ll have to say is, “Check the dictionary, beloved.”
The term 'intersectionality' was coined in a 1989 essay by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw: https://t.co/2fu3nhJE0i pic.twitter.com/1wTJuDMjnc
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) February 23, 2016
Read more from Blavity here.
5 Things A Confident Woman Does NOT Put Up With
Confidence is important in work and life. The courage, determination and clarity we gain from having confidence in who we are, what we offer and what we need is vital and empowering, but sometimes it's too easy to lose sight of that confidence, especially when faced with certain discouraging circumstances and unhelpful actions from others. Leena Roy from Women Working shared some words of wisdom for what to do when facing certain obstacles as a confident woman Read the first two tips in this excerpt, and be sure to check out the rest of the article and check out the Women Working website.
When people don’t give you a straight answer
This is one of my favorites (and closely interlinked with my article on passive-aggressive coworkers) because there is just so much of this in the office! Whether it’s your team member who won’t take ownership or your friends being non-committal about plans, you know when you have heard enough to say "oh no, hell no!" The next time around, the person you called out for their behavior is likely to think twice before trying to pull that again with you.
When people are condescending
This can make a woman with a lot of ego see red. We face condescension from people who think they know better, look better, do better – whether it’s true or not. But a successful woman knows just how to nip it in the bud. It might be by putting the person in their place, or drawing attention to the attitude that is not appreciated, or simply choosing to exit a situation. A confident woman knows she won’t put up with that, and it certainly doesn’t make her feel bad.
Read more here.
Smart Finds: The Power of Kindness
Kindness can be a challenge. Sure, having good feelings about one another is easy enough, but real kindness—the sort that makes an impact, the sort that makes an effort—that sort of kindness takes hard work. That's why we were inspired to read the latest post by Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls about girls and women who are doing the hard work of kindness and making a real difference in their communities and around the world. Click through to read the whole article, and keep looking for ways to use your abilities in kind ways to help and empower those around you.
amysmartgirls.com - In this series, the Smart Girls team scours the internet in search of thought-provoking trailblazing women and girls who are leading by example. Today’s subject: the power of kindness.
Oftentimes, people are judged and celebrated based on their individual achievements alone. Today, we celebrate three women who inspire us to think outside ourselves and do good for those around us, whether at home, at work, or abroad.
Emily Duffy: Engineering for the Homeless
16-year-old Emily Duffy from Limerick, Ireland invented a lightweight, smart sleeping bag to improve quality of life for homeless individuals. Emily replaced traditional cloth materials with metallic bubble wrap, waterproof velcro, and a fireproof coating for increased visibility and warmth. The idea came to her while organizing a fundraiser for a homeless shelter. A year later, the Duffily Bag is being used on the streets of Dublin. Better yet, homeless individuals are paid 22 euros to build their own bags, giving them a respite from the street and an opportunity to take steps back into the workforce. You can read more about Emily and the Duffily Bag here. (via The Huffington Post)
Read the rest of the article here. Founded by artist Amy Poehler and producer Meredith Walker, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls uses humor and education to celebrate intelligence and curiosity and to help young people "cultivate their authentic selves."
Life Advice for Young Women from Huffpost Women
We loved this list from Huffpost Women about advice we should pass on to young women as they enter adulthood. It's great advice for anyone at that tumultuous transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Still, it's heartening to see so many empowering messages addressed specifically to young women when they might most need inspiration, encouragement and words of wisdom.
It's also nice to see a focus on real-world advice to set young women up for success, as well as an embracing what truly makes each young woman wonderful and powerful. Check out an excerpt and the list of tips, and click through to read an explanation of each tip.
huffingtonpost.com - I'm no expert on teenage girls, aside from the fact that I was one once -- but I gained a 17-year-old daughter a few summers ago, and as the mother of two young boys I wasn't 100 percent sure what to expect. Most people told me it was going to end horribly (including a few members of her family), but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise, and that summer was as much a learning experience for me as it was for her.
I learned that if kids are given the opportunity to rise to the occasion, they most likely will. She was amazing and made me truly believe that our future is quite bright with lovely ladies like these on the verge of entering the adult world. I could make a list a mile long, but a lot of life is best learned along the way, so they'll get there. For now, here are 10 pieces of advice for her and others just like her to get adulthood started off right:
1. Get your college degree.
I'm serious. Live there, commute, or go back to school if you've quit, but just get your college degree. The wage gap is real. The differences will be subtle in the first few years, but once you're in your 30s, the wage gap is very, very real and will get exponentially larger over time. Also, education matters -- imagine what would happen to racism, sexism, and crime in this country if we had more educated citizens? Be one of them.
The tips:
1. Get your college degree. 2. When in college, pick a major that will get you a job. 3. If you have something nice to say, say it. 4. Keep your credit score impeccable. 5. Self-confidence is sexy as hell. 6. Get rid of the frenemies. 7. Don't assume that because someone has money, they have class. 8. Men are terrified of you. 9. Your parents love you, no matter what. 10. Be a beautiful person.
Read more about every tip here!
For the First Time, an African American Woman Will Run One of TV's "Big Four" Networks
Breaking barriers in more than one way, Channing Dungey this year became the first African American president of ABC Entertainment Group. Glamour has more on the MAKERS women's leadership platform. makers.com - An African American executive has never held the top spot at one of television's "big four" broadcast networks—CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox—until now. And the programming whiz busting through that barrier is a woman: Channing Dungey, who was named president of ABC Entertainment yesterday afternoon.
Dungey, who began her Hollywood career as an assistant at 20th Century Fox, has been with ABC and ABC Studios since 2004. She's developed such drama hits as Army Wives, Criminal Minds, Private Practice, Nashville, Once Upon a Time, American Crime, and 2/3 of our beloved TGIT block: Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder.
The appointment of Dungey—pictured above at the 2015 Emmys with ABC Studios senior vice president of drama development Nne Ebong—is a gratifying bit of HR news, and not just because it rewards her track record and marks a historic moment for the business. Dungey will preside over a network that has proven, over the past several years, that audiences both crave and relate to series about nonwhite people. It's not just Shonda Rhimes' addictive hits—Fresh off the Boat, Black-ish, and American Crime have all proved to have staying power and broad appeal.
Read the rest here.
Be a Part of the Smartest New Book Club, #WLClub
A movement that began on Twitter and has since expanded to Google groups, Instagram, and posts all over social media; writer Rachel Syme's book club promoting books about women, by women has taken off, spreading around the Internet and world. Read about the club and movement in this article by Amy Poehler's Smart Girls. Which biography of an extraordinary woman would you like to add to the list? amysmartgirls.com - Lately in my Twitter feed I keep seeing the hashtag #wlclub and after a few days of dismissing it, curiosity finally won out and I clicked. What does it stand for? Women’s Lives Club—a virtual book club with participants all from all over the world. February’s book is Janet Malcolm’s The Silent Woman, a biography of Sylvia Plath.
It’s the brainchild of prolific writer Rachel Syme, where anyone interested in participating can partake in reading a biography of a notable woman each month. I tracked Smart Girl Rachel Syme down via Twitter and asked her all about how this club came to be.
“The funny thing was, I was just on Twitter and I was wasting time as one tends to do. I was writing about paying attention to women’s lives in general, and really casually in a tweet storm, I asked if I were to start a monthly book club about women’s lives, would anyone do it.”
That tweet launched a thousand readers. Or at the very least just over four hundred (the group’s total at last count), but it’s still growing every day. Rachel started a Google group, asking for interested people to email her to be added. And how do the books get chosen? Everyone makes suggestions and Rachel puts the ones that are repeatedly named up to a vote. Next month’s pick, Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Thurston by Valerie Boyd, won by a landslide.
Read the rest here.
28 Queens Of Black History Who Deserve Much More Glory
You've probably heard the names Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman—all women greatly deserving of the recognition they receive. However, this Black History Month, we were excited to see this piece from The Huffington Post celebrating some names you might not have heard. There are countless ways, big and small, that women continue to fight both sexism and racism every day. Millions of women deserve recognition, but you're sure to find a few on this list that you should get to know better.
Black history lessons in classrooms shouldn't be limited to the names of men and only a few women. Especially when there are countless women who've made enormous strides for the black community, too.
The revolutionary words Angela Davis spoke, the record-breaking feats of Wilma Rudolph and the glass ceiling-shattering efforts of Shirley Chisolm paved the way for black women and girls across the country to dream big and act courageously.
Here are 28 phenomenal women everyone should acquaint themselves with this black history month.
Shirley Chisolm (1924–2005)
Chisolm broke major barriers when she became the first black congresswoman in 1968. She continued on her political track when she ran for president four years later, making her the first major-party black candidate to run.
Claudette Colvin (1939-)
Several months before Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a bus, Colvin was the FIRST person arrested for resisting bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, at the age of 15. She also served as one of four plaintiffs in the case of Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional.
Click through for the full list from The Huffington Post, and keep learning about ways to fight for equality for all women!
Emma Watson will take year-long break from acting to focus on feminism
Actress Emma Watson recently announced she is taking a break from acting to read, reach out to help others, and to learn more about herself and issues surrounding feminism and women's rights. One of our favorite things about Watson, after her obvious compassion and curiosity, is her willingness to keep learning and reevaluating her ideas. Getting to come along as someone honestly makes this intellectual journey and talks about it will allow so many others to make similar journeys--and learn more and help one another in the process.
Click through to learn more about Watson's interview for Paper magazine, ideas she's excited about, how she hopes to help others and more in this article from Daily Life.
dailylife.com.au - Emma Watson is taking a year-long hiatus from acting in order to focus on philanthropy and her "own personal development".
The 25 year old made her professional acting debut in the first Harry Potter film in 2001, but now she's ready to step out of the spotlight to focus on other endeavours that aren't related to the entertainment industry.
"I'm taking a year away from acting to focus on two things, really. My own personal development is one," she tells author bell hooks in an interview for Paper magazine.
"My own personal task is to read a book a week, and also to read a book a month as part of my book club. I'm doing a huge amount of reading and study just on my own.
"I almost thought about going and doing a year of gender studies, then I realised that I was learning so much by being on the ground and just speaking with people and doing my reading. That I was learning so much on my own. I actually wanted to keep on the path that I'm on. I'm reading a lot this year, and I want to do a lot of listening."
Read the rest here.
Women in the Armed Forces: Where Can We Go from Here?
Women have joined men in the Armed Forces in increasing numbers in recent years, and even most combat positions are now open to men and women. Military service, long thought of as a men-focused issue, is now bolstered by—and seeking to accommodate—women. Veteran Dustin DeMoss writes on Huffpost Women about issues including increasing numbers of women veterans, higher risk of suicide among women veterans than among women in general, and recent studies and efforts to help work toward a brighter future for women in the Armed Forces. Read an excerpt below, and click through for the full column. huffingtonpost.com - While women in the armed forces aren’t necessarily a new concept, there is no denying that the ranks of female soldiers are growing at a rapid pace. Their increased presence and demand is reflected in some of the more recent announcements coming out of the Department of Defense. Most notably, Ash Carter, Defense Secretary, announced on December 3, 2015, that all positions and occupations within the military are now open to women.
You might be a bit confused by that announcement - after all, women were already serving in the military, right? Defense Secretary Carter’s announcement is significant because it officially “opens” up the nearly 220,000 positions in the military that were previously closed to women. These include positions like reconnaissance, special operations units, and infantry. According to the announcement, women are no longer to be pushed back from the front lines - not to say that plenty of women haven’t served on them, of course, but rather that the knee-jerk reaction seemed to favor keeping them away persistent and close combat situations.
Today, women have the same shot at high-ranking and heavily specialized positions as their male counterparts.
Read the rest here.
16 Female Curators Shaking Things Up In 2016
Curators; who help build collections, organize events and exhibits, discover new art and more; help shape the art world--and many influential curators are women. Artnet News brings us 16 women curators to watch in 2016. Check out an excerpt and the list below, and read the full article at the link. There's no shortage of female curators making their mark on the art world.
Here's a small sample of just a few women to keep your eye on this year, as we look forward to exhibitions such as "Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible" at the new Met Breuer in New York, the Beatriz Santiago Muñoz show at the New Museum, "Women of Abstract Expressionism" at the Denver Art Museum, and more.
1. Kelly Baum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
When Baum joined the Metropolitan Musem of Art as curator of postwar and contemporary art in the museum's department of modern and contemporary art in June 2015, her timing couldn't have been better.
Baum has become a key player as the museum prepares to unveil the new Met Breuer space (aka, the old Whitney Museum), curating "Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible" with her predecessor, Nicholas Cullinan, and the Met's European painting curator, Andrea Bayer. Baum comes to New York from Princeton University Art Museum, where she was the curator of modern and contemporary art.
The 16 female curators profiled are:
1. Kelly Baum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
2. Johanna Burton, New Museum, New York
3. Kalia Brooks, independent curator, New York
4. Gwen Chanzit, Denver Art Museum, Denver
5. Federica Chiocchetti, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
6. Lauren Cornell, New Museum, New York
7. Astrid de Maismont, Gertrude and ArtList, New York
8. Amanda Hunt, Studio Museum in Harlem
9. Clara M. Kim, the Tate Modern, London
10. Koyo Kouoh, RAW Material Company, Dakar
11. Christine Macel, Centre Pompidou, Paris
12. Piper Marshall, Mary Boone Gallery, New York
13. Ceci Moss, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
14. Selene Preciado, the Getty Foundation, Los Angeles
15. Lauren Ross, Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Contemporary Art, Richmond, Virginia
16. Jennifer Scanlan, Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma City
Read about each curator in detail in the full article on Artnet.