Legendary activist, organizer, and Feminist Majority Foundation board member Dolores Huerta is turning 90! Join the Dolores Huerta Foundation and special guests to celebrate her life and legacy. From The Dolores Huerta Foundation via Facebook: ¡SI SE PUEDE AT 90! April 10th, 2020 marks Dolores Huerta’s 90th Birthday. As president, she has led Dolores Huerta […]
Global Feminist Organizations Release Policy Priorities for COVID-19 Response
More than 400 feminist organizations and 700 individuals across the globe released a joint statement today outlining how governments can bolster equality in their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The statement calls on governments to uphold human rights standards in its pandemic response and center marginalized communities that have been disproportionally affected by the disease. […]
Meatpacking Facilities Forced Open by Trump Executive Order, Endangering Workers
Late on Tuesday, April 28, President Trump issued an executive order forcing meat processing plants to stay open despite the severe public health risk involved in operating as usual under the coronavirus outbreak. In states across the country, meat plants have become hot spots for the virus, with at least 20 known deaths and more […]
Coronavirus Forces Activists to Innovate New Ways of Organizing
From Hong Kong to Chile, coronavirus has shut down public demonstrations for social and political change. With the threat of high fines, jail time, police brutality, and now illness looming, activists are adapting and innovating to continue building movements in an unprecedented era of social distancing. Activist networks, grown over months of organizing to plug […]
Instacart, Amazon Workers Strike for Coronavirus Protections
Workers at Instacart and Amazon struck yesterday and today, critiquing the companies for not prioritizing their safety in response to coronavirus. Instacart, an app-based delivery service, employs gig workers to go into grocery stores, pick up orders and deliver orders to homes. The company wrote in an official statement, “As the crisis unfolds, our teams […]
Report: Autocratization Surging Worldwide, Alongside Resistance
According to a new report by Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), autocratization is on the rise worldwide, alongside anti-autocratic resistance. V-Dem’s Democracy Report 2020, which compiled 123,118 datasets with the help of three thousand country experts, notes an unprecedented global decline in democratic traits. For the first time since 2001, democracies no longer constitute the majority […]
Young Transgender Activist Shot and Killed in North Carolina
Monika Diamond, a 34-year-old transgender LGBT+ activist and businesswoman, was shot and killed on Wednesday, March 18 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Multiple shots had been fired before police and ambulance were dispatched in response to a disturbance call. After attempting to revive her, Diamond was pronounced dead at the scene. According to Maya Oppenheim, Women’s […]
Women Face Food Insecurity in the Wake of Coronavirus Outbreak
Abby J. Liebman and Liza Lieberman are the President and CEO and Director of Public Policy at MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. Learn more about their important and vital work here. Many of us are stunned by the coronavirus outbreak, unsure exactly what to do or how to proceed. Should we stockpile food? Work […]
Menstrual Equity Movement Spotlights Period Inequality
The movement known as menstrual or period equity aims to eliminate taxes on menstrual products as well as provide supplies to people who need the products the most, such as in homeless shelters, schools, and prisons. Proponents of menstrual equity point to challenges facing people who are unable to access menstrual supplies, some of which […]
Mexican Women Stay Home in “A Day Without Women” to Protest Femicide
Countless women skipped school, work, and other social functions yesterday as part of a 24-hour strike to protest the unprecedented levels of violence against women. This left offices and classrooms half full, trains and buses empty and fewer cars on the streets. To the women participating, this strike was about “showing, socially … how valuable […]
LGBTQ Youth Fight For Equality In Sex Ed In South Carolina Classrooms
A group of LGBTQ students is suing South Carolina’s Superintendent of Education to repeal a 32-year-old state law making it illegal for teachers to address LGBTQ relationships unless they also discuss STI’s. Represented by Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the students argue that the law discriminates against LGBTQ students and violates […]
Argentinian Abortion Rights Activists Make Progress with New Bill
President Alberto Fernández is expected to put forward a bill to legalize abortion in Argentina when the legislative session opens on March 1. The bill would be a victory for the country’s abortion rights activists who began a grassroots movement in 2018 to push for a legalization bill. Fernández made abortion access a focus of […]
Women at the Forefront of Protests in India Over Citizenship Laws
Women are some of the most vehement opponents of two new laws in India that endanger the citizenship rights of groups such as Muslims, impoverished women, lower castes, and LGBTQ people. Enacted in December 2019, the Citizenship Amendment Act accelerates the process to obtain Indian citizenship for undocumented refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The […]
Seattle Women’s March Set to Align with International Women’s Day
The majority of the annual Women’s Marches took place in January, but the Seattle Women’s March will happen on Sunday, March 8 which is International Women’s Day. March coordinators wanted to shift the focus of the event away from presidential issues and back to women’s issues. Originally the postponing of the march was reportedly because […]
California Governor Pardons Gay Civil Rights Leader Bayard Rustin 67 Years After Arrest
Governor Gavin Newsom of California has posthumously pardoned Bayard Rustin, a civil rights leader convicted under anti-LGBTQ laws in 1953. Rustin worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and was the lead organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin was arrested for having consensual sex with a man in a parked car and convicted […]
Grassroots Activists Work to Find Solutions to End Female Genital Mutilation
Recent efforts in Gambia show the success of frontline activists fighting to end female genital mutilation (FGM). FGM is a global human rights’ issue that has affected nearly 200 million women and girls worldwide. Although frontline activists receive little to no funding, their efforts have seen promising results in countries from Kenya to Gambia. Kenya […]
Brooklyn State Park Honors Black Transgender Activist Marsha P. Johnson
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced plans to rename a Brooklyn state park after Marsha P. Johnson on Saturday in a speech at a Human Rights Campaign gala. Calling on New York’s progressive leadership, Cuomo made promises of support for LGBTQ issues. Marsha P. Johnson is a queer icon and pioneer. One of the leaders […]
Australian Feminist Fanny Finch Finally Being Recognized
Australian feminist trailblazer Fanny Finch received a new memorial at the Castlemaine General Cemetery in central Victoria just a few months before the 163rd anniversary of the day she became the first woman to cast a ballot in Australia. Finch was immortalized in the Melbourne-based newspaper The Argus two days after she cast her vote, […]
Actor David Schwimmer Says ‘There Was A Lot of Overreacting’ in #MeToo Movement
Actor David Schwimmer said in a recent interview that the #MeToo movement created an atmosphere of “terror” for all men. David Schwimmer credits his social activism with having grown up in a strong female household, citing both his mother-a feminist activist and lawyer-and sister as examples of women who have shaped his perspective. Schwimmer, in […]
Murder of Activist and Artist Sparks Protests Against Femicide in Ciudad Juárez
Isabel Cabanillas de la Torre, 26-year-old artist and active feminist, was slain on January 18 in the streets of Juárez, Mexico. A week later protesters gathered in the streets to demand justice for her death and bring new attention to Ciudad Juárez’s femicide epidemic that has been allowed to persist for nearly 30 years. Marching […]