Viva la Feminista

Today's Women's History Tidbit: 1972: A small group of young Jewish feminists under the name "Ezrat Nashim" presented a manifesto entitled "Jewish Women Call For Change" at the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly convention.* Sexism in America: Alive, Well and Ruining our Future is an excellent feminism 101 book. It might bore those...

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The past few day's in Women's History Tidbits: March 11, 1923: Agatha Barbara is born in Zabbar. She will serve as president of Malta from 1982 to 1987.* March 12, 1982: The first games of the first women's NCAA basketball tournament are held. Thirty-two teams will compete in the tournament; in 1994...

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Today's Women's History Tidbit: 1990: Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as both the first Hispanic and woman to be U.S. surgeon general.* When Nobel Savage tweeted that Disney was renaming and reframing the Rapunzel story in a way that "allows" more boys to enjoy it, I thought, BULLSHIT! But as I...

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Today's Women's History Tidbit: 1993: Dr. David Gunn is assassinated and is the first of four women's health care providers to be murdered for providing abortions. This is why we show our appreciation today to all the men and women who help make choice possible.*  Can you believe it's March 10th...

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Today's Women's History Tidbit: 1911: International Women's Day is first celebrated in Europe. It will receive official UN recognition in 1975.* This post originally appeared at the AWEARNESS blog. Happy International Women's Day! Over the past 18 months I've written for AWEARNESS, I've written a lot about women's rights. For...

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The weekend's Women's History Tidbits: March 5, 1974: Reporter Helen Thomas becomes UPI Whie House buraeu chief* March 6, 1937: Pearl Buck dies. ** March 7, 1938: Race driver Janet Guthrie, the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500 (1977), is born in Iowa City.* As noted last week, I was in Washington,...

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Today's Women's History Tidbit: 1933: President Franklin Roosevelt nominates Frances Perkins as US Sectretary of labor. The first woman in the cabinet, she will serve 12 years and will be the primary figure behind the Social Security Act of 1935. Today I'm in Washington, DC for a NSF grantee meeting. But...

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Today's Women's History Tidbit: 1962: Track and field champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee is born in East St. Louis, IL.* The Association for Research on Mothering is an organization which I've admired from afar. I failed to ante up the membership dues because I felt they were a bit steep for my pocketbook. The...

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Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls edited by Melinda Tankard Reist is a collection of essays/charges against the world-wide phenomena of the pornification of childhood thru advertising, marketing and pop culture. This was a great book to read as the authors are Australian and sometimes I wonder how much of...

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Today's Women's History Tidbit: 1989: Gloria Estefan & the Miami Sound Machine receive the first star on Miami's Calle Oche Walk of Fame.*  Over the weekend I launched my latest project on Facebook. It's called "I pledge to attend one women's sporting event in 2010." Yup, it's that simple. As regular...

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I really, really want to blog every single day this month! In honor of March 1, 2010, I will point you to all the Chicago area Women's History Month calendars I can get my grubby hands on. If you know one I missed, just let me know & I'll add it....

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Life's been pretty good the last few years in terms of accolades, but with each accolade, I get asked "How do you do it all?" or get called a Supermom. Answers? I don't. I'm not. If I did it all, I wouldn't miss important networking events. This is the area where I...

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This was originally posted at the AWEARNESS blog. It was just a matter of time until marketers got their hands on their real desired recruits -- kids. In some social media circles, there's no need to woo mom bloggers with free samples of the latest snack chip, instead kids are doing...

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Over two years ago, way before I started writing for Girl w/Pen, Alison Piepmeier wowed me with an essay about getting an abortion and how her decision made with her husband was a love story: ...the story I most want to tell—and one I have never heard—is of abortion as an...

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No matter our age, many women have questions about which birth control method to use. We might have started on the pill in our 20s, but considered switching to a non-hormonal method. We may have different needs now than we did when we first considered birth control, or we may...

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This was originally posted at the AWEARNESS blog.  The only Winter Olympics event in which women cannot compete is ski jumping. Why? Apparently it's because women are "too fragile," along with an outdated system of rules that allow the International Olympic Committee to keep "American Lindsey Van, who holds the world...

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Not old as in an old issue! The new issue's theme is "old."  On page 11 you'll find a short an interview I did with Rana Husseini, whose memoir, Murder in the Name of Honor [indie or Powells], about her leadership to bring awareness to so-called honor killings in her homeland...

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This was originally posted at the AWEARNESS blog.  A short note from a friend asked for my attention over the weekend. Her son's preschool teacher returned to his...

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Come on out and discuss feminism with us! This panel discussion will examine feminism through the lens of race, class, gender, and sexuality, discussing both their work and their personal experiences. Panelist will include: Siobhan Brooks, Postdoctoral Fellow of Gender Studies at Lawrence University. Courtney Martin, award-winning author of Perfect Girls, Starving...

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Courageous. That word was on the kid's spelling list last week. Even if the teacher called the entire list bonus words, she worked hard to learn all ten words including this one that stumps me once in awhile. I won't find out until Friday if she spelled them all correctly,...

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RH Reality Check asked me to write a short something for Valentine's Day about love and raising the kid. Here it is! I have loved my daughter all my life. It's corny but it's true. Growing up I knew I would be a mom, somehow. I knew one day I'd be responsible...

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I am totally unqualified to review this book as I totally missed the Riot Grrrl moment. On the other hand, I totally dove into the Lilith Fair moment, so I think that I could write the rebuttal or sequel to Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music by Marisa Meltzer,...

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This was originally posted at the AWEARNESS blog. There is a reported rise in people simply walking away from their mortgages. To me, that's pretty darn scary. And what's more, considering that the Obama-backed refinancing program isn't all it's chalked up to be, I can picture more people doing this. And...

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The Chicago Foundation for Women is marking their 25th anniversary by awarding 25 women and men of Chicago Impact Awards for working hard to make the area better for women and girls. OK, that's how I sum up the award. That's because that's one of my goals...To make Chicago a...

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This was originally posted on the AWEARNESS blog Erica Watson is fat and she isn't afraid to tell you either. In fact, her one-woman show is called "Fat Bitch" and if you attend you'll learn a lot more than just how big she is. You'll learn about her 21st birthday party...

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