Recently in Bad-Ass Women Category

I have been a huge fan of Valerie Solarna's for a few years now, she is as instrumental to my radical feminism and queer theory as Beauvoir or Lorde.  I  am curious, for most of the people on this website tend to be more of the liberal feminist types, what do you all make of this manifesto? You don't have to read "the whole thing", but it's not very long so I hope I persuade you to do so by simply saying it is WORTH reading.  I'd love to hear your thoughts of shock, disgust, dismay, love, laughter, joy, and how this manifesto compares to our awful contemporary postion, as womyn...in this world.

This is to freaking awesome! Go Brittney Go!!!

by Diane Vacca

Instantly noticeable among the dark suits at the House Judiciary Committee hearing two weeks ago, Gay Culverhouse stood out in her purple dress, but even more for what she said. She hammered the National Football League and its doctors relentlessly, charging that they treat individual football players as "a disposable commodity." I confess, I don't follow football. I don't even like it. But watching a woman defying a roomful of men, challenging the established wisdom and fighting for a cause she believes in, is a blood sport I can enjoy. The grandmother of six, who has several homes and raises thoroughbred horses, has clearly benefitted from her connection to the N.F.L. Culverhouse is the daughter of the former owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was president of the team in the early '90s. But now that she's learned how much and how many of her former players are suffering from the long-term effects of their football injuries, she is pressuring the N.F.L to take better of its players. In the room, right next to Culverhouse, were the head of the N.F.L. and numerous team doctors, only some of whom stuck to the party line.

Football, Culverhouse declared, "is a cutthroat business." The goals scored on the playing field enable the real goal, she added, which "is for the franchise to make money." The congressional hearing was convened in response to a series of articles in The New York Times that focused attention on the unusually high incidence of Alzheimer's, dementia and other cognitive disorders among retired football players, attributable to what experts call chronic traumatic encelopathy (CTE). Despite the mounting evidence in recent studies, the N.F.L. has consistently denied any link between cognitive impairment and playing football (which often means suffering repeated concussions, and even without concussions involves frequent jolts to the system).

Read more and share your thoughts at Women's Voices For Change.

I adore this woman, and I want to see more of her.

Long and the short: Larry King had Army Specialist Shoshanna Johnson (former POW, you may remember her fellow soldier Jessica Lynch), Dr. Phil, and JAG officer Tom Kenniff to discuss the massacre at Fort Hood. Kenniff immediately jumped on the "well of course he did this, he's Islamic and he's a terrorist!" express train to demagoguetown.

(Transcript here).

Watch in awe as Johnson and Dr. Phil tear this guy a new one. Apart from the obvious inflamatory anti-Islamic rhetoric that Shoshanna helped shut down, she also makes a point to defend people with mental illness and PTSD -- pointing out that Major or not, an Army psychiatrist is still a human being and if he had to sit around listening to stories like hers all day, he didn't necessarily have to be shot himself to be traumatized by his job.

She did an amazing job standing up to this guy (who, as a lawyer, is trained in how to talk over and shut down the opposition) and was a real credit to her cause. With veterans issues becoming more prominent as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drag on, I hope CNN brings her on more often to add a much-needed perspective to the debates. Frankly, I could hear her say "that's crap" to inflammatory bullshit any day of the week.

by Chris Lombardi

The Constitution Center in Philadelphia, perhaps best known in recent years as the site of President Obama's iconic speech on race, was packed this past Monday night.

The two women in stage, Lynn Yeakel and Gail Collins — Yeakel, a Drexel University professor and the woman who challenged Senator Arlen Specter in 1992, and Collins, the first female editor of the New York Times editorial page— , were familiar faces to the women and men of varying ages who filled the hall (including your editor filing this report).

 
Collins, at the end of a grueling book tour, was in Philadelphia to talk to Yeakel about her new book, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Story of American Woman from 1960 to the Present -- a book that “tells the story of my life," Yeakel said at the event.

Yeakel's not the only one, as she went on to point out. The changes that have occurred since 1960, when women could get thrown out of court or the workplace for wearing slacks and the sexual double standard reigned, to today were brought about by countles women, including Yeakel, Collins and much of the audience — many of whom started with the now long-lost struggle to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Despite the ERA's failure, Collins told Yeakal, all who fought for it ultimately succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, helping to create “that tiny sliver of history in which all the presuppositions about gender were completely smashed.”

Asked by Yeakal how this book differs from her earlier America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines, Collins said that the first book "informed the second one in so many ways," in how looking at women before 1960 she was "continually struck by how smart and how able they were. They were strong, they were independent, fulfilled their destinies." The new book bears a similar wonder, while telling of a revolution she and Yeakel and many others helped make happen.

As she traveled the country reporting for the book, Collins added, most feminists of a certain age got their start working for the ERA. "But by then, what we hoped the ERA would do was already happening – theories about what it would do were kind of theoretical" on both sides. And thus Phyllis Schlafly, a woman who broke all stereotypes by traveling to speak out against the ERA, was able to appeal to traditional housewives, women who "had done everything right by what they'd been brought up to believe. Then feminism comes along, and some of it was very harsh, with lines like marriage is slavery. "

Continue reading at Women's Voices For Change.

Here's some fun news to brighten up your Wednesday.

Yesterday the new website for Lilith Fair launched... along with the news that the tour will be starting back up in the Summer of 2010! I'm stoked. I was too young to go to the original concerts in 1997-1999, but I've spent the past decade getting into the music of awesome women like Sarah McLachlan, the Indigo Girls, Chris Pureka, Adele, Brandi Carlile, KT Tunstall, and so many others. I have no idea which musicians will be part of this summer's tour, but I'll definitely be going when they come to Boston.

For more information, check out the official website.

A couple of us from World Can’t Wait hooked up with others we met in Omaha to help escort women into the abortion clinic in Louisville, KY this past Saturday. This is one of only two clinics in the state, and one of the only clinics for the entire region. Women seeking abortions at this clinic have often traveled for a hundred-plus miles. We had met some of the regular volunteer escorts while defending Dr. Carhart’s clinic and learned from them that without national mobilizations or notoriously violent groups like Operation Rescue, Louisville is besieged on a weekly basis by pushing, shoving, yelling, screaming anti-abortion activists. The five days a week that the clinic is open, there is a presence of “sidewalk counselors,” who have unimpeded access to the clients. There is no real police presence; only an off-duty officer hired by the clinic, and the clinic’s clients (whether they are seeking abortions or just getting a pap smear) have to run a gauntlet from wherever they park their cars to the clinic entrance.

When we found out that the murder of Dr. Tiller this past spring has only resulted in more anti-abortion activists coming to the clinic and acting with greater boldness and violence, we knew we had to learn more. We followed the volunteer escorts’ blog  and watched videos of the Christian fundamentalists and Catholics (mostly though not entirely men) yelling and pushing people outside the clinic. They call out people’s names (the community is small enough people are often recognized), take pictures of the women, yell through the clinic doors, and at the windows. One man even followed a woman’s companion down the street and inside a nearby White Castle to yell at her while getting coffee and then through the bathroom door! We decided to come see this in person, and learn to how to escort through this sort of chaos. 

A few months ago we saw this girl set a record for a cross-country flight. Now an Australian teen wants to become the youngest person to sail alone unassisted around the world (no outside food/repairs help!). I love it how calm and confident she looks in this photo:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33366623/ns/world_news-asiapacific?GT1=43001

I hope she makes it!

Okay, so our world has slowed down in recent months and it seems we're all looking around hoping someone will get things moving again. We search the news and the net for any signs that it might be safe to get motivated and take new action, but remain unconvinced as our trusted indicators surge and then sag on a daily basis. So what to do?

Every challenge has its attendant lesson and the big take away from the current doldrums is that the energy needed to get things rolling isn't out there somewhere. It lives within each and every one of us.

Imagine for a moment that each woman who belongs to any women's group is a single cell in a body that has been lying on the couch watching the world slug along. Then imagine that just one cell in that body--one woman in that organization-- decides to turn her attention inward instead of outward. Suppose that one woman sees within herself, the heat of a desire cooling to just an ember from neglect, and that just because it is noticed once again, that desire receives enough energy to flare up into a genuine flame.

Imagine that the heat of that cellular flame is felt by the cells next door, signaling them to also look inside for what is waiting, wanting to manifest. It's easy to imagine from there, that before long, that whole body would be warming to action, stretching into new possibilities, rising from the couch and creating traction in a fresh and amazing dance.

Sisters, we are the traction we've been waiting for. The remedies for what ails us are our own courage, conviction and creativity. If we look inside and give ourselves a fraction of the belief we have so willingly given others, we'll get this world going again, against all odds.

I just noticed that five women - yep, read it, FIVE - won Nobel Prizes this year. According to Wikipedia, of all the Nobel Prizes ever awarded, 765 have been to men and 41 have been to women*.. dismal, I know, but 2009 easily holds the record for most Nobels awarded to women in one year. In 2004, there were three, and in all other years there were 2, 1, or 0. How's that for some progress?

Here are our winners:

Elizabeth Blackburn & Carol W. Greider (with Jack W. Szostak), Physiology/Medicine

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/science/06nobel.html?scp=3&sq=nobel%20prize%20medicine&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/science/13conv.html

Ada E. Yonath (with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz), Chemistry

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/science/08nobel.html?hpw

Herta Müller , Literature

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/books/09nobel.html

Elinor Ostrom (with Olver E. Williamson), Economics

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/business/economy/13nobel.html

And to pull it all together, an article from the Financial Times (the only one I've come across) pointing out our record-breaking year:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1de7d7f2-b752-11de-9812-00144feab49a.html

And a fun chart from Wikipedia (I like charts).

*I've seen variations on this statistic, but the basic proportion stays the same, depending on who's counting.

Congratulations, Ladies! I'm sure we'll be seeing much more progress on the Nobel front in the future.

E. Lockart is an author for young adults who recently won the Printz Award (the highest award in teen literature), and who is, in my humble opinion, one of the best, brightest, and most feminist authors around today.

Not only is the phrase "I'm a feminist," no more, no less, the eighth sentence in her autobiographical blurb, all of her books have a strong feminist or progressive bent to them.

Fly On The Wall is about what happens when an outcast teenaged girl magically turns into a fly on the wall of the boy's locker room at her school. It shows us that *gasp* girls sometimes feel a strong sexual desire towards boys and nothing else, and that there's nothing wrong with that. It also plays into breaking stereotypes-some of the boys in the locker room are extremely self-conscious about their bodies, something our heroine assumed only happened to girls. Plus, there is an interesting yet brief subplot about homophobic teasing going on in the locker room.

In Dramarama, a strong friendship between a gay black male teen-Demi-and a straight white female teen-Sarah-plays out over an eventful summer at musical theater camp. The discussions about race and sexual orientation are interesting-Sarah, who narrates the story, makes references to Demi's flamboyant attire as being his "gay boy clothes" and the like, which, to the best of the reader's knowledge, doesn't bother him, but he gets very angry at her reluctance to discuss his race. There are also discussions of the ugly, awkward, inexperienced girl at camp turning out to break everyone's expectations, by not only being one of the most talented people there, but by also being one of the very few people who's willing to talk with Demi about how she's never met a gay or black man before, and what it must be like to be him.

Lockharts most recent book, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, which won the Prinze award, is about the adventures of a very unique young woman during her sophomore year at a prestigious boarding school. Over the summer, she developes a very conventionally womenly and attractive figure. One of the first scenes is of her mother worrying that something will happen to her because of her new figure if she takes a walk on a beach boardwalk in her bikini. During the year, she becomes the girlfriend of a very popular senior boy, who is also a member of an exclusive, legendary, all-male club at the school that is famous for the pranks that they pull. I'll let you read it to find out what happens, but trust me, it is an awesome feminist statement.

E. Lockhart's most famous work is the Ruby Oliver series, which contains The Boyfriend List, The Boy Book, and The Treasure Map of Boys. It tells the story of what happens when a Seattle prep school's "famous slut" has a falling out with her boyfriend and most of her best friends and ends up in therapy. It isn't slut-shaming at all-just the opposite, which is revolutionary for YA literature. Ruby discusses the emotional pain she feels when people shame her for liking boys, and she shows teens everywhere that, yes, the "famous slut" at your school is a normal teen who's feeling get hurt.

Lockhart also write a blog.

I highly reccomend these books to all of you, whether or not you are a teen.

Putting into perspective the horrible treatment of Caster Semenya I thought this might hearten some folks a quick reminder of what some "girls" have done and been lauded for. Please see the following links.

It can be done.

Hey progressive people!!!

I have no idea if this is the appropriate place for this post, but I'm desperate.  So, I am planning to move out to LA shortly, and will be there for a visit during the first or second week of Oct.  I am dying to get involved in an active feminist group, and would love to hear what different people are up to.  Is there anyway we could plan a rendez-vous during my visit?

PLEEEEZ.  any help/advice/info on places to start is more than welcome.  Thank you.

Rachel

I know this is outright shameless self-promotion, but I want to take a moment to introduce myself to the Feministing community. My name is Jordan and I am the reigning Miss Illinois Beauties 2009. I am a feminist, a passionate supporter of women's rights, and a long-time fan of this blog and the issues discussed here. I am eager to begin working on networking myself and promoting my platform issues throughout my home state of Illinois and across the country. As a feminist who is also a pageant queen, I am well aware of the negative view many women have of beauty pageants and beauty queens. We are often portrayed as dumb, pretty girls who are just pawns in bikini parades created by men. However, the world of pageantry has come a long way in the last decade or so, and we are no longer just pretty faces & hot bodies. We are women on a mission, each with our own personal message to spread and our own voice to be heard. One of my missions as Miss Illinois is to fight for the equality and reproductive freedom of women everywhere.

I am also aware that very few pageant queens, if any, have ever pursued a platform on women's issues pertaining to reproductive freedom, abortion, and comprehensive sex-education for our youth. The few pageant queens who have touched on these subjects in the past, such as Miss America 2002, almost always talk about abstinence-until-marriage only, because the subjects of sex, abortion, and birth control are still viewed as "inappropriate". I disagree. These are important, everyday issues that are vital to women and girls' health, and someone needs to talk openly and frankly about them. And if no one else is going to, then I will gladly take up the cause! If we pageant queens are expected to make a difference in the world, then we need to become less conservative and begin opening up about uncomfortable issues such as sex-education, abortion, and reproductive rights. I'm not shy about donning my crown & sash and talking frankly about birth control, comprehensive sex-education, and abortion. Like millions of other women in this country, I was faced with an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy at age 21 and had an abortion. I am probably the only pageant queen to ever admit something like that. There is no longer room to be ashamed of this, the time has come when women like myself NEED to speak out about our experiences so that we can eventually dismantle the stigma and shame that still surrounds the subject of abortion. And as a pageant queen, I will gladly take up the torch and lead the way for other women to do the same. When I took on the job of being Miss Illinois, I didn't do so just to wear a pretty crown on my head. I chose to do this because I wanted to be a leader that other women could look up to. I feel strongly about these issues, and I knew that having the status and title of a pageant queen would give me a wide venue through with to meet important people and get the word out about this important cause.

I am currently working on contacting the National Organization for women at the state and national level, the Feminist Majority Foundation, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Ms. Magazine to offer my support in our tireless battle for equality and reproductive freedom. As a state pageant queen (and hopefully someday a NATIONAL pageant queen), I would be honored to be a public symbol for these causes.

Sincerely,

Jordan Barnstable
Miss Illinois Beauties 2009

I stumbled upon this story at CBC News today.

I love hearing about this stuff; I'm not an athlete and don't have any athletic aspirations but I still think it's important to grant women athletes the same esteem and prestige that is so readily granted male athletes. So to read this and find out the second person to ever--EVER--swim across all five Great Lakes is a fellow Eastern Ontario lass warmed my heart and reminded me that yes, us chicks are badass and fabulous and talented.

And wait; it gets better! After I saw the name "Vicki Keith" in the article, I brightened even more. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the FIRST person to ever swim across all five great lakes, Vicki Keith from (among a few other other cities as well) my own hometown (Ottawa).

So congratulations to both Paula Stephanson and Vicki Keith for being stellar athletes at your sport of choice. Ladies swimming across the Great Lakes: 2. Dudes doing the same thing: 0.

I was sitting in the car earlier this week with a friend of mine and somehow, over the course of a long and random conversation, we ended up on the topic of sex. Now my friend is recently out of a long relationship with the only guy she'd ever had sex with - we were taking about her dating life and whatnot when she made a comment that concerned me - she said she was relieved to be out of the relationship because sex hurts and now she doesn't "have to" do it anymore. When I tried to get to the bottom of why it hurt she shrugged it off telling me that it "didn't matter" and very quickly changed the topic.

The conversation was over in a few minutes, but it stayed with me much longer and, finally, prompted me to make this post because I feel that her attitudes towards sex are reflective of a much larger problem in our society - one that effects women and men.

This comment, made by an MRA in reference to the George Sodoni shootings, quite eerily represents a common attitude in our society: "a decent looking man who earns a good living and does not abuse women DESERVES to get laid. Period."  While I don't believe that most men and women in society believe that "getting laid" is an inalienable right, the idea that all men want to have sex and should have sex is one that is widely accepted. Compare this to the common feminine trope - women don't enjoy or want sex and, in fact, need to be charmed or even coerced into having sex.

One of the most courageous and talented political figures of the last quarter century, Corazon Aquino, died of cancer on Friday. She was a political aid to her husband a martyred opponent of Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship, and became president in 1986 when the Marcos kleptomaniac regime was overthrown. She helped steer the Philippines to democracy and civil unity, surviving many coup attempts and crises. Very few countries emerging from tyranny have been blessed with that quality of leadership.

Late night on Friday, August 14th and Friday, August 28th (technically Saturday mornings!), burlesque variety troupe The Candy Janes return to the Comix stage after a smoking debut.

Get ready for this saucy rock n’ roll dance revue with brassy belting singers and featuring live band The Spectacles jamming out to favorites from The Doors to Rolling Stones. Bring your sassy sweet tooth because these cabaret coquettes aren’t afraid to push the envelope. Just when audience members start to sweat from edgy choreography and a bit of burlesque, the show’s host and the comedic skits send them bursting into laughter. Wrapped in one delicious, sexy and funny little package of entertainment, you can have it all with the Candy Janes!

FRI, AUGUST 14th @ 12:30 AM

(technically Saturday morning)

FRI, AUGUST 28th @ 12:30 AM

(technically Saturday morning)

Comix

353 W. 14th Street

New York , NY 10014

Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 on the day of the show, p lus a two item minimum in the showroom. 

Tickets are available for purchase at the box office, by calling 212.524.2500 or online at www.comixny.com .   Full dinner menu available.

(cross-posted from my blog, at http://gudbuytjane.wordpress.com/ )

Despite growing up being the weird artsy kid who played in punk bands and dropped science classes after grade nine, I have in recent years become a tremendous fan of science. Since then writers such as Ann Druyan and Eugenie Scott have engaged in me an awe and wonder at the beauty and complexity of existence and the degree to which we understand the workings of our universe. One field I find particularly fascinating is astronomy and space exploration (I highly recommend Dr. Pamela Gay's Astronomy Cast podcast for an example of how poetic and beautiful the discussion of science can be), because, to put it in my laypersons' vernacular, holy crap the universe is so freaking awesome, big, and old.

Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova in 1963.

On Monday it will be the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing . I am fascinated that we went to the moon when we did, and the complexity and danger that entailed (essentially putting three people in a tiny tin can and exploding a nuclear bomb's worth of energy under them to get out of Earth's orbit). Really, you probably have more computer power at your disposal as you read this blog entry than the Apollo astronauts did trying to land on a moving rock 350,000 km away.

Watching archival footage, however, it is clear the moon landing was the endeavor of white men . So, when people remind you of the Apollo landing on Monday, remind them of the the many women astronauts and cosmonauts who have traveled in space.

Valentina Tereshkova , the first woman in space, in 1963. Sadly, after Valentina it took twenty years for another woman to return, but since then the list has been growing. Mae Jemison , the first woman of colour in space. Ellen Ochoa , the first Hispanic woman in space. Roberta Bondar , the first Canadian woman in space. Svetlana Savitskaya , the first woman to walk in space. Chiaki Mukai , the first Asian woman in space. Judith Resnik and Christa McAuliffe , who died in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark , who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Yi So-Yeon , not only the first Korean woman in space, but the first Korean, regardless of gender! That's boldly going where no (Korean) man has gone before.

Women aren't just involved as astronauts, they are engineers, designers, and scientists. As we prepare to return , I am excited for a new generation of girls to be inspired , and to look up at the night sky and wonder if they could set foot our distant satellite.

This woman is ten times more bad ass than I will ever be. She doesn't let anything, be it her age, her gender, or if she's with someone, keep her from doing what she wants. What a bamf lady.

Today my 17-year-old sister got on a plane to fly halfway around the world on an all-expenses-paid summer fellowship. I am a big fan of my younger sister--she is the most fantastic person I know and my main support system. She is quite literally the bees knees. It was very difficult to see her depart, mostly because I'm selfish and want to keep her awesome spunkiness to myself.

In a few days, it will be my birthday and I am dreading it... mostly because my dear sister will be far away. This past year was horrific--even though in the back of my mind I know that next year probably couldn't be worse and I should be relieved at the turning of a new leaf, I'm still scared. You see, I am a rising college junior whose second year made the term "sophomore slump" look like a pithy little epithet. Beyond all the insecurity, questioning, and experimentation that goes along with that charming point in a young person's life; beyond a crippling illness, surgery, and family trauma, I was raped.

Before I go on, let me say that this is not intended to be read as the tale of a "poor little rich girl." If all the junk in the world were put in a bag, I would still pick my own set of slightly crappy burdens. What my story is, though, is a tale of turning my experience from a chronicle of personal, private pain into a journey towards communal inspiration and motivation.

Despite the handy use of emotiocons, it's pretty hard to tell when someone is glowing on the other side of g*chat. Happy? Sure. Glowing? Not really. But this morning my friend Liz is beaming right through the computer. Liz, by the way, is not a glowey kind of person. She doesn't 'beam' on the regular. She's sort of dark and twisty on the inside, very sarcastic - part of why I love her. She is also an activist, writer and directs an afterschool program for at-risk kids in Oakland. 

But anyway, today Liz is glowey, and it's endearing. It's also easy to know why. Look out my window and you'll know what I'm talking about - lesbians as far as the eye can see. Tall lesbians, short, dark, light, femme, butch, somewhere in between - there are lots and lots of lesbians. Most, I imagine, are making their way from 24th Street or Bernal Heights to the other side of the Mission District to convene at Delores Park.  Today is Pride and more specifically Dyke March in San Francisco.

It's a big day in The Bay.

Come meet us in the park, Liz says. We're still on g*chat.

I'm not really up for it," I say. And I'm not. It's been a long week and I really need some Jessika-time. Happy Pink Saturday, though!

Yes it is! I love the Bay, she says. It's okay to be gay. It's still amazing to me.

See: glowey. And rightfully so.

For Liz, and many others for that matter, Pride is not only about the political; it's about personal liberation as well. She comes from a family of devout Roman Catholics. Liz was adopted as a baby by parents who go to church every day. When she finally came out to them in her teenage years, well ... I'm sure you can imagine. Mayhem. And to this day her parents tell her they love her, they just can't accept her. But wait the story gets better. When Liz was a college student she sought out her biological parents only to find that they too were Jesus-freaks.

And I ask you, what are the chances?

Yesterday I had the very cool experience of meeting and interviewing Michelle Goldberg, investigative journalist and author of the new book The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World. Naturally, I was star struck, as she’s the closest thing to a celebrity that my field really has (I work at an international women’s health and rights organization). She was great- one of those rare people who can seamlessly combine jargon from the field of repro rights, rattling off UN acronyms and such, as easily as she speaks about real women’s experiences in various communities around the world.

Over the course of our interview, she said many interesting things, but one really stuck out to me: when I asked about her process for researching and writing the book, she said that she had originally set out to READ a book on the global battle over reproductive health and women’s bodies- the book that she ended up writing.  She decided to write it only when, in her search, she realized… it didn’t exist.

That really struck me.  So many of the feminist issues I care about, from abortion, to female genital mutilation to equal pay, lack the attention they deserve or are under-researched because these issues are “politically  uncomfortable".  Oftentimes, the issues aren't even being purposefully ignored, but simply overlooked, because it's a relatively new field and our issues are not yet high priorities on the social radar. This lack of information is reflected in the lack of awareness of feminist issues in the greater social dialogue. That’s part of the reason we get so many random myths and misinformation about women’s bodies, women’s rights, and women’s experiences.

The silver lining is that there’s a lot of work for our generation to do in filling these gaps and spreading the knowledge that has thus far evaded our society. So I wanted to write and find out- has anyone experienced something similar to Michelle? Have you set out looking to find information, stories, facts, a book, a research study, or even a blog, about a feminist issue you were interested in, and just run into dead ends? What are the major “feminist information gaps” that you've encountered? We can’t start to fill them until we first identify them. And it seems there’s no better place to start that process than right here.

-just a little bit inspired by meeting a bad@$$ feminist author who took it upon herself to fill a gap and by doing so, raised the collective consciousness.

After the thread about Sarcozy's burqa ban, it bothered me to hear the assumptions made about what Muslim women would and wouldn't choose, or what those choices meant.  I wanted to post a link to this article from Muslimah Media Watch where a young musician talks about what the burqa means to her (and why she's the Burqa Rapper): 

There are those who are not convinced about the burqua, sure. Now that we wear it, we feel empty without it, naked.  There is a line in the Quran that says, "To you, your religion, to me mine."  And so they are letting me express myself the way I want to.

I felt like that quote really summed up my feelings about the discussion I'd seen post-Sarcozy ban.

Note: I don't mean to identify her only by her burqa, but I thought her comments on it were incredibly relevant and she incredibly awesome.

Crossposted at AMPLIFY .

Eva is an editorial intern for Ms. magazine in Los Angeles, California. Ms. magazine is an amazing feminist quarterly that I personally love because  of its compelling stories and investigative reporting. At once, the features may focus more on contemporary events and issues in feminism as well as profiling amazing feminists and their work. At the same time, the magazine focuses on international and domestic issues. It is no wonder that someone like Eva would be attracted to intern for this landmark feminist publication (Ms.  was founded in 1971 by Gloria Steinam and Letty Cottin Pogrebin).

Eva McKend is featured on this program because she is an awesome example of a young feminist. Although Eva is only a rising junior at Swarthmore College, she has managed to forge impressive leadership and I think she is a great example of how important it is that we all take action against issues that are important to us. Eva founded A Campaign for Me to address the representation of black women in the media.

This is an incredible story from an amazing group of young women. From an e-mail I received yesterday. CTA = Chicago Transit Authority.

Dear YWAT Supporter, In this morning's Chicago Sun Times, the YWAT is featured in a front page story for our work in trying to improve safety for young women and girls on the CTA. Our new report is being released today and we have already met with our Alderman Joe Moore and our Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin to share our findings and solicit their support for our campaign. Our next steps are to continue to collect more stories of sexual violence on the CTA and to set up a meeting with the CTA Board to share our recommendations for improving public transit safety.

In peace,
YWAT Leadership Core

I can't believe this is my first post! I've been reading Feministing since the beginning!

This past weekend at the Wakarusa Festival in Ozark, AR, I met Eve Cummins, a feminist who set up a bar at Wakarusa in total support for breast cancer research and called it "Booze for Boobs." There were bras hanging from the tarp and a Tips for Tits tip jar! she was nice enough to have a chat and let me take her photo to post here.

Later that night, a food vendor had a sign up that said; "SHOW YOUR TITS, get FREE cheese fries." The many beers I drank helped when I ran up in front of the line and yelled "If my husband shows his PENIS, can I get FREE fries?" and my husband lifted up his shirt! Hilarious! Of course, we were turned down and my husband dragged me off while I yelled obscenities to the owner. The sign was down the next day, I hope I helped.. Anyone have any similar festival stories?

I'm not a big fan of mainstream news sources, but I found this article and thought it had a lot of great compliments to some awesome women out there right now.

I'm still a budding feminist with a lot of issues I'm resolving, but I thought this was really cool to find on a mainstream news site.

I finally got my sign in working so I'm very excited about my first post.

Today is my 25th birthday!  I'm a lesbian and I've never been to a strip club before, and I want to go to celebrate.

My question for you all:  Has anyone had positive experiences going to a strip club in Philadelphia?  Do you have any recommendations on where to go (and not go)?  Out of anyone I can ask, I figure the Feministing community would give me the kind of recommendations that I'm looking for. 

Thank you very much for your help.

-vegankitty

PS I know that the subject of sex work is controversial.  I'm not trying to turn this into a "are strip clubs feminist" debate, but have at it if you want.  I just want to go somewhere where the management treats the women well, so I can have my cake and eat it too.

Mommy,

Thank you so much for raising me to be who I am and teaching me right.

Thank you for actually being open about sex in all its forms. Thank you for getting me birth control in high school, for putting condoms under the sink just in case. Thank you for telling me that it was okay to be sexually active before marriage, and that as long as you are safe and responsible, it's okay to have multiple partners. Thank you for never shying away from a question of mine, Thank you for understanding when I called the night I lost my virginity because I wasn't sure what was going on afterwards.

Thank you for telling me that going to college and getting an education was the most important thing I could ever do. Thank you for being proud of and encouraging my achievements in school. Thank you for helping me as I go through school.

Thank you for being a strong woman, who's overcome alot in life. Thank you for providing for me a good life. Thank you for always being there for me, for putting up with my crazy ass anxiety disorder, for cooking good food, for letting me drive your new car, for everything.

You don't come on this site but I want other people to know how bad ass you are, how awesome. Cause it's Mother's Day and though I say it every day of the year, this day is special. If anyone else wants to say thanks, go ahead.

I love you Mommy.

PS-I also want to give a shout out to my Daddy as well, who has done every single thing on here as well. Love you too Daddy.

Gina Myers, a teacher, a poet, and an all around amazing human being, has a piece up over at Delirious Hem, a blog for women poets. Myers' piece, entitled "This is what a [post] feminist [poet] looks like," explores her relationship with feminism in a so-called "post feminist" society. 

As she puts it: "My body is something I take with me everywhere I go. I have been called post-feminist, post-avant, post-punk, and post-modern. My heroes include Joe Strummer, Nina Simone, and James Baldwin. I identify as being human before I identify as being a woman, and that shapes everything I do."

Myers' poetry is an inspiration to all who read it, and in he piece, she reflects on her work co-directing the Vagina Monologues at a small town community college in the middle of a corn field and overflowing with sexist, homophobic ideologies that only a select few seem to want to fight against.

I did not see one cause as being more important than others, nor did I necessarily see them as being separate causes. The larger issue is social justice, and I have continued to live my life committed to this one cause.

Although I see these various struggles as being one cause, it does not mean I can address them all at once. Perhaps it is a commitment issue, but I devote my attention to whatever cause seems most urgent at the time. Recently, I have witnessed misogyny, sexism, and violence against women and the LGBT community of students at the school I teach at and in the surrounding communities. When working on a week worth of activities--teach-ins, films, panel discussions, and performances of The Vagina Monologues--benefiting three local shelters, I was shocked time and time again by the reactions of people and the various forms of resistance we met from administrators, faculty members, and students. I had never felt so baffled. It became clear that this fight is urgent here.

I urge you all to check it out, along with the rest of the feminist poetics forum that is going on there this month!

I met an inspiring woman today and i felt like I should share a little about her in feministing. Here is the introduction about Harvard Professor, Afsaneh Najmabadi in wikipedia:

Afs?neh Najm?b?di (Persian: ?????? ??? ????? ) (born 1946) is an Iranian historian and gender theorist . She is professor of History and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University.[ 1] At present she chairs the Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.[ 2] She is further Associate Editor of Encyclopaedia of Women and Islamic Cultures , in six volumes

Among her books are:

Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards : Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity ,

And you can read a little more about her in the Harvard Gazette.

She is currently doing research on transsexuals in iran and I heard her talk on this topic at UCLA.

And now for some good news, Carol Ann Duffy is the poet laureate. She's the first woman in this post. I don't particularly care for the post as royal instituted and she had similar reservations (not helped along by Tony Blair's homophobic comments I feel) but at least this is further evidence that men and women can be appointed to the same positions and also an indication of her talent as a writer.

So what do people think? Is it good that she's poet laureate, only good from the feminist side of things, do you wish it were somebody else or do you perhaps not like the post?

Ok, that was inexcusably lame, but this isn't. It's naked Margaret Cho!

http://punchlinemagazine.com/blog/2009/04/margaret-cho-does-nude-interview/

I love that she gives a shoutout to Liz Phair, too, one of my other all-time "would take barrage of bullets for" fabulous femmes.

Do this mean that Exile in Guyville and Notorious C.H.O. sync up, dark side of the rainbow-style? One can only hope.

I'd like to give a huge feminist fuck yeah to my girlfriend, Jenn. She has been the biggest inspiration for me and other people in the feminist community around her. She has done everything from blogging for SAFER to being one of the prime catalysts in reforming her university's sexual assault policy.

Recently, she was the main push to create open conversations in lecture halls about the schools sexual assault and rape policy, branching out to every student and faculty member to get them involved. Last night she brought life to the university's lame attempt for a Take Back the Night event. Not only did she get people from out of state to come, but she improvised an energetic and inspiring speech for the event. She also made a TBTN shirt for our dog who also walked over the bridge with us!

I can go on forever about how awesome she is, but I'll stop and conclude. Jenn is the best feminist I know, I am so happy that she is recognized for something she is so passionate about. I want everyone to know that she is an inspirational feminist and I love her.

In my personal efforts to ramp up the women's presence on Examiner.com, I'd like to invite you to apply to be a Women's Issues Examiner or spread the good word to some gals of your choice.

So what am I looking for and what does this all mean? Here goes:

If you're the go-to gal in your neighborhood with your finger on the pulse of all things women's issues and what's good for gals around town, then listen up. Brit Horvat, Content Program Manager at Examiner.com , is seeking in-the-know women in any U.S. city to be Women's Issues Examiners. What are Examiners? They're credible, passionate, local writers who are changing the way Web users get their information. Read more here .

If you're foreign to online publishing or social marketing, don't fret. Where there's a bad-ass women's writer there's a way, and the Examiner staffers will help you build a following. Examiner.com is one of the top 300 most-visited Web sites, so if you're looking for exposure, it's definitely the place to be. From the Real Cougar Lifestyle Examiner appearing on The Today Show to the Seattle Parenting Examiner getting picked up by The New York Times , these gals are getting heard.

On the feminism front, check out what National Women's Issues Examiner Juliette Frette (artist, writer, feminist and Playboy Playmate) is saying.

The One Million Signatures Campaign has been awarded the prestigious Global Women’s Rights Award from the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Each year the Feminist Majority Foundation honors distinguished individuals or groups active in promoting women’s rights internationally with the Global Women’s Rights Awards. This year (2009), the Iranian One Million Signatures Campaign is the recipient of this award, "in special recognition of their ground breaking work to demand an end to discriminatory laws against women in Iran."

The One Million Signatures Campaign launched by Iranian women’s rights activists on August 27, 2006, aims to collect one million signatures in support of a petition addressed to the Iranian Parliament asking for the revision of current laws which discriminate against women.

Some award recipients from previous years are: Shirin Ebadi of Iran, Dr. Sima Samar of Afghanistan, Yanar Mohammad of Iraq, and Rigoberta Menchu Tum of Guatemala. Last year’s recipients were Dr. Solomon Orero from Kenya, Ms. María Luisa Sánchez Fuentes from Mexico, and Dr. Nafis Sadik from Pakistan.

Four years ago, in second semester freshman year, I had to do a presentation on women's issues for a general studies class.  In prep for the class, I talked to the most active feminist of my year, and she introduced me to Ani DiFranco, who in turn introduced me to a plethora of feminist conversations.  And I was hooked.  Feminism and issues of gender, I discovered, were fundamental parts of my existence.  They related everything, they were at the foundation of every structure in my life.  It was like someone had opened a window blind, and I suddenly realized the sun existed.

Today, on my birthday, I wanted to share with you all a little inspiration using excerpts from Adrienne Rich's speech that was delivered at Douglass College in 1977:

(Note: All bold and other format editing is my emphasis)

You cannot afford to think of being here [at college] to receive an education: you will do much better to think of being here to claim one. One of the dictionary definitions of the verb "to claim" is: to take as the rightful owner; to assert in the face of possible contradiction. "To receive" is to come into possession of: to act as a receptacle or container for; to accept as authoritative or true. The difference is that between acting and being acted-upon, and for women it can literally mean the difference between life and death."

"Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hence, grappling with hard work. It means that you do not treat your body as a commodity with which to purchase superficial intimacy or economic security; for our bodies to be treated as objects, our minds are in mortal danger. It means insisting that those to whom you give your friendship and love are able to respect your mind."

"Responsibility to yourself means that you don't fall for shallow and easy solutions-- predigested books and ideas, weekend encounters guaranteed to change your life, taking 'gut' courses instead of ones you know will challenge you, bluffing at school and life instead of doing solid work, marrying early as an escape from real decisions, getting pregnant as an evasion of already existing problems. It means that you refuse to sell your talents and aspirations short, simply to avoid conflict and confrontation.”

Continue reading A Little Inspiration For Feminists.

Posted by RockItRachelMae - March 23, 2009, at 11:10AM | in Bad-Ass Women

While looking up old English ballads collected by a dude named Child, I stumbled across another author named Child: Lydia Maria Child . An author and journalist, Child wrote extensively in the mid-19th century in favor of women's rights, abolition and Indian rights. She opposed American expansionism and struggled to maintain her commitment to pacifism in the run-up to the Civil War. She also wrote novels and poetry.

I was surprised I'd never heard of her, especially since she grew up less than a mile from my home and belonged to my church. Maybe I'm the only who had not. I am familiar with one piece of her writing though, as are most of my readers. She penned "Over the River and Through the Woods" in 1844.

I see a field trip in our family's homeschooling future. The grandfather's house made famous in the song is within walking distance of my house, and was restored by Tufts in the 70s as a historic building.

By Laura Sillerman

Naturally one would weep at a birthday party for a icon who calls upon everyone there to be outrageous.

Weep people did last night, at one of many celebrations of Gloria Steinem's 75th birthday at the home of her dear friend Marlo Thomas.  Steinem was as funny as inspiring as when she told students at Smith College's commencement :

This post is an invitation to be a fly on the wall of last night's party. But first, it is also to alert you that you are also probably about to throw a party of your own.

Read about the celebration at Women's Voices For Change!

This is, to the best of my knowledge, a true story about my maternal Grandmother Alvina Schroeder.

During the depression era my mothers family lived on a farm in Minnesota. Times were hard for everyone and at the height of this economic crisis Alvina's husband died followed shortly after by her only son. Leaving only her and her three daughters to run the farm. All the business dealings and financial matters had been handled by Alvina's husband Herbert. This was the accepted family pattern of that time, because he was the man, the "provider" all financial decisions were made solely my him.

Upon his death Alvina discovered that the family farm was in serious trouble. It was in a state of disrepair and not making money off of the feed crops that they were producing. The taxes were due and no way to pay them. When She approached the tax assessor with her problem and asked for time to make the payment she was refused on the basis of her gender. It was believed that one woman and 3 girls could not run the farm let alone make a profit. It was common practice to barter with grain. Alvina managed to strike a deal with the assessor to pay the taxes with the grain crop that was already in the field and this would give her another year to get the money for next years taxes.

In the following year she replaced the grain crops with food crops, mainly potatoes, which she sold locally. She also had a small herd of dairy cows. All the girls worked together running all the equipment it took to keep the farm going, Tractors, Harvest equipment, horse drawn wagons to haul the potatoes out of the field. My mother who was 4' 9" stacked 90 lb sacks of potatoes on the wagon from sun up till sundown. And during harvest the girls went to other farms to help harvest. And at the end of the economic decline Alvina Schroeder was the only person in their county who managed not to lose her farm.

With Vagina Monologues underway in many places, one such performance was last month. Bellarmine University in Louisville had their performance in January. We had to move our performance to that month because the university would not give us time in Feb to use the stage. What they need the stage for during this month I don't know our own theatre department can't even use the main stage. That battle was not the first, before that we had to fight to even perform. The directors had to go through many higher ups to even get permission. We have had the show for around 7 years but this year our school decided to put up the hardest fight. I should probably tell you Bellarmine is a catholic school but probably one of the most liberal, very opposite of Notre Dame. The biggest opponent used to be our campus ministry leader a woman who has never as far as i know seen the show. Now the greatest opposition comes from the new arch bishop who wants the school to become his pet project to make us more catholic. He had a hand in removing federally funded condoms. A bad move since we had a student involved in a really bad incident that made national news. 

To perform we had to jump through many hoops, namely taking a really short rehearsal time about 3 weeks and only one week on stage. We also had to meet and discuss with a friar, who was quite supportive he actually read the book. If we promoted the show we could not say anything that seemed like the school promoted the show. I tell you all this just to let people know how hard a group of strong independent women had to fight to perform this great play, myself included. We raised several thousand dollars for Louisville's Women and Children Center, something the school does not let known as a reason for the show on campus. So to you all you fellow Vagina Warriors keep fighting and get the word for V-day out no matter who stands against you. 

Can I just say how much it rocked my world to see m.i.a. performing on the Grammys last night NINE MONTHS PREGNANT and due any minute? I don't know how other people felt about it, but I just effing loved seeing her bad-ass self on stage, in a sheer, tight mini-dress, shaking her big belly and holding her own with the likes of jay-z, t.i. and kanye. It was nice to see a very pregnant woman doing her thing in front of the world. She did lip-sync, but shit. If I was about to go into labor any day, I probably would have done exactly the same. awesome.

So I've been watching America's Best Dance Crew on MTV recently-- which often includes female dance groups shaking their asses and wearing teeny tiny clothing. But, this season, a female group caught my attention. LA based all-women group Beat Freaks are young women (18-20) who are trying (and definitely succeeding) to be as great of hip hop dancers as the guy groups. I've seen two performances from them so far- and I have to say I am impressed. They dance harder than the guys without the revealing clothing (they've been dressed in sweats, or pants and wide-strapped tank tops)-- not to mention I have not once seen a booty-shake or a shimmy.

Long story short- these girls pretty much kick ass- and I'll be rooting for them and voting for them all season long!

Here's their MTV Bio.

I am a huge science nerd, so naturally I was reading through the archives of Discover and I found this awesome, albeit old article about reproduction. It's a really great read about the language used by not only biologists but everyone concerning fertilization and the far reaching implications it has. As a student of biological psychology, I was fascinated by the fact that just the mere presence of male-oriented imagery can sway the questions asked or not asked by scientists.

I'm a little late on this one, the press release was late September, but is it ever too late to give some props to some really impressive young women ?  I was especially impressed with the range of projects the women engaged with: everything from environmental initiatives to feminist actions at high school to science and tech stuff and teenage suicide awareness. 

Hooray for Girl Scouts, whose

"alumnae represent 70 percent of women serving in congress and 66 percent of women of professional achievement..."

More love for Girl Scouts here.

The name Editta Sherman may not ring any immediate bells in the feminist popular consciousness -- like, say, Annie Liebovitz or Diane Arbus would -- but to a rock photographer like myself, Editta Sherman is the paragon, the model to aspire to, the woman who is all one could hope to be both professionally and personally.

At 96 years young, with children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren -- and all the fire she had when she first began her career in the 1950's -- Sherman shows no signs of slowing down.

Recently, Sherman made the news again when she refused to leave the Carnegie Hall studio apartment she's called home for half a century. AOL News has the scoop.

For me, Editta Sherman is the true definition of a feminist. She's someone who, at a time when it was commonplace for women to stay home and raise children, went out and simply did what she wanted. She was -- and is -- a pioneer in a photography genre (celebrity photography in general, and rock photography in particular) that is still dominated by men (all these years later), and whose mere presence flies in the face of the status quo. Most of all, she was someone who didn't rely on pomp and circumstance -- someone who didn't rest on her laurels, or call a press conference every time she made one small step for herself, or one giant leap for womankind -- to accomplish what she wanted to accomplish: she simply went out and did it

For these, and many other reasons, Editta Sherman is my hero.

In the Sunday edition of the Anchorage Daily News I glanced at one of the opinion columns produced by a local conservative media guy and was sucked in by its heading. I usually don't read his stuff since it is inflammatory and hateful. He is not overly ignorant, but his manner is way over the top for a Sunday morning.

Dan Fagan had interviewed Rae Fancher who is the first female Alaska Native to enter the Navy Academy.

The opinion column however does not discuss this historic event for Alaska, its Native people, or the Navy. It discusses Ms. Fancher's childhood of sexual assault and her speaking out about it that has left her shunned from her native community. Sexual assault is Alaska's leading domestic sport right after drinking, and when these to activities are pervasive in your community the community tends to turn a blind eye to it. It is their type of "normal" that causes a great deal of concern in those of us outside the community.

The Kenai Peninsula College has good brief on Ms. Fancher including some of her own words. In these words one can see the survivor coming out.

The irony for me in the opinion piece is that here is Dan Fagan, a serious basher of the liberal media and its agenda, writing about something that only the liberal media would care about in theory. It is a real head scratcher.

by Chris Lombardi

It's a voice I hardly remember not having heard: the writer in the edgy science-fiction anthologies, the voice cool as ice, the material borderline radical. Not a writer I much liked at first, but the stories stayed with me: "The Girl Who was Plugged In" (turned later into an episode of Paradox ), whose plaintive cyborg "Delphi" predated Blade Runner ; "The Women Men Don't See," one of whom asks the alien invaders to take her away when they come, rather than leave her on Earth.

When I read those stories the first time, I was young - and didn't at first hear the echoes not only of a woman but one who'd been around the block a few times. If I had, I would not have been as confused about James Tiptree, Jr . as famous male writers like Robert Silverberg were. Silverberg wrote in the 1970's that the mysterious writer couldn't be female, "for there is to me something ineluctably masculine about Tiptree’s writing."

I wanted to share with you all of you a wonderful organization that I volunteer with here in Phoenix, Girls For A Change.

GFC is a national organization that empowers thousands of teen girls to create and lead social change. It is truly an amazing orgazation, and as a GFC coach, I am truly inspired by these bright young women every day. I am so thankful to be able to work with such an amazing group of women as well.

Like most non-profit organizations, GFC is struggling under this economic downturn. I would like to encourage each of you to donate, if you can, to this incredible organization. You can find more information here.

GFC has also partnered with The Sephora Project to create a cute tote and change purse. Six dollars from every twelve dollar bag and three dollars from each five dollar change purse will be donated to GFC. They're super cute and would make great gifts! You can find them here.

Thank you Feministing reader for all that you do!

So I had to write an essay in my Feminism class about my mother and how her social ideals and beliefs have effected me and my ideals about society. Let me know what you guys think please.

Know Your Mom

My mother is my favorite person.  Yes, we fight constantly; like most mothers and daughters do.  But regardless of our arguments she is my favorite person in the entire world.  I’m truly thankful for the way my mother raised me.  I am who I am because of the beliefs and ideals that my mother passed on to me; some of which my grandmother passed onto her.  I believe in equality; and I always choose love before hate.  That is because of my mother and my father.  But my mother especially taught me that everyone is equal; she taught me that even though society sees things wrong with some people doesn’t mean there is anything wrong. 

As many of you know, the hip hop/rap scene is yet another arena dominated by men. Especially after Lauryn Hill disappeared from the scene, there have been only a handful of known female MCs. Brave & talented women have been doin' their things without as much coverage and props as their male counterparts. One of these lesser-known ladies is my personal favorite-- Jean Grae.

After an early career in groups like Natural Resource & collaborating with successful male artists like Immortal Technique & Talib Kweli, Jean launched her own career. Taking her name from the X-Men character, Jean has commented that growing up she didn't play with girls' toys like My Little Pony; she played X-Men. She has put out incredible albums and critics have called her possibly the greatest lyricist. Yet she isn't well known, and doesn't make much money.

Record companies have repeatedly fumbled, not knowing what to do with a female hip hop artist who isn't trying to be a sex kitten, who is just straight up doing her own thing and trying to be the greatest emcee. Her albums have leaked on the internet prior to being released, and she hasn't been marketed with the respect she deserves.

Maybe one a half weeks ago, I turned on the TV to watch one of the political talk shows that are always shown in Germany and Austria when most people are already busy sleeping. 'Beckmann' featured a lot of interesting guests that night: Monika Schumann (whose husband was one of the RAF's victims in the 70s), two German aristocrats, one author and Auma Obama, sister of Barack.

Once the discussion shifted from the RAF to AIDS, Auma was already deep in a battle of words Gloria Von Thurn and Taxis, who supports catholic morals and is therefore anti-condom and anti-pill. The question was whether or not the Catholic Church is preventing AIDS programms in Africa from being effective by enforcing their strict "abstinence is the only cure for the epidemic" morals (which in my opinion, they are).

And damn, I was impressed. Besides the fact that Auma Obama spoke perfect German (she lived there for 16 years), I was in awe because of how eloquently and perfectly reasonably she was able to explain what really matters in Africa's fight against AIDS, and why it was not a matter of blaming the failure on the Catholic Church. Instead of taking the position of damning the Church for their practices, she stated that while it would always be of help if they started to support the use of condoms, it was much more important to make sure that people are educated enough to make their own decisions without harming others in the process, and spreading the virus.

Auma Obama works for the charity Care in Africa and her work is mainly focused on AIDS prevention programs for teens and children. She was so smart and genuinely interested in learning about other people's opinions - she was the perfect discussion partner. All I wished for at that moment was: "I want to be there now, I want to talk with this woman".

By Elizabeth Hemmerdinger

I've always thrown myself into Thanksgiving. You can see in the photo below, from my turn as a Pilgrim in the 1956 sixth grade pageant at Hunter College Elementary School in New York City. Long, long ago. Might as well have been the first Thanksgiving ever. As a playwright I can tell you, I've got the lead in the scene – the others are just villagers. I don't think I'm accused of being a witch; I think I would have remembered that.

Back then, I knew nothing about Sarah Josepha Hale- who helped found Vassar College, and persuaded President Lincoln to establish Thanksgiving.  In her 1827 novel Northwood: A Tale of New England , she calls for the 40,000 American churches to take up collections for a observance to be called Thanksgiving, with the funds to be used to put an end to slavery in the U.S. She meant for it to be a day of sacrifice and generosity, not just feasting.

I don’t remember the script of my Thanksgiving play, but I remember my mother toiling over the costume design. I love the story of the Pilgrims and the Puritans who left their homes to surrender to the tempestuous seas and disinterested terra incognita in the name of freedom. ....

For the full story, click here .

Hey everyone, I just read a really great article about some young women who have started up a band in Jidda, Saudi Arabia called the Accolade. Even though they cant take pictures for album covers or play publicly due to how overwhelmingly conservative their country is, they still play secret shows and even have an underground hit "Pinocchio" which you can download on the bands MySpace page. You can check out this link to read the article which includes a bit of an interview with the bands founder.

In honor of Larry Summers' return to the media spotlight, I thought I'd take a moment to recognize the women in math and science whom I look up to.

One of the biggest names in my own field, quantum computation, is Julia Kempe.  At age 34, she has degrees in math (bachelors, masters, PhD), physics (bachelors, masters) and computer science (PhD).  Yeah, she has two PhDs.  She also has in impressive list of publications, including two hugely important results.  Along with co-authors, she showed that building a quantum computer requires being able to interact at most 3 "quantum bits" at a time.  She also showed that two types of quantum computers, circuit-based and adiabatic, were equally powerful.

In other fields, I have a lot of admiration for Nora Volkow and Alison Jolly.  Nora Volkow is the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.  She has pioneered the use of brain imaging techniques in understanding addiction, and has done a lot bring her results to the attention of the general public.  Alison Jolly is a primatologist, and author of Lucy's Legacy , one of the best popular science books I've ever read.

So who are your favorites?

Rolling Stone did a recent poll to determine the greatest rock singer of all time . Paul McCartney? No. Robert Plant? Def not. Elvis Presley? NOPE. Not a dude at all, but the revered Ms. Aretha Franklin. FUCK YEAH. I love her and it makes my day that she won this. Keep rockin' out Aretha!

The F Word has posted a video of Maya Angelou's reaction to Obama's victory. Her interview starts about 3 minutes in, after some outlining of African-American history. I've never seen this lady speak before, and what an inspiring woman! She even recites some of her poetry at the end. Check it out.

I also found a pre-election interview with Ani DiFranco on youtube, it seems to have been filmed a couple of days before November 4th.

In the first week after Election Day, we couldn't help zeroing in on the numerous midlife women included in the new inner circles. (Watch at WVFC for more interviews as things proceed.)

They come from a range of backgrounds, from corporate boardrooms (several on the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women) to California classrooms and governor's mansions.)  Here's an initial honor roll, with as much video as felt appropriate:

At the helm: One of the transition team's three co-chairs is Chicago attorney Valerie Jarrett , 51, CEO of The Habitat Company (seen above(.  A Newsweek profile in May noted: "Jarrett got her start working for Harold Washington, the city's first black mayor. Her grandfather ran the Chicago Housing Authority in the 1940s. Obama has long turned to her for advice. When he wanted to run for the U.S. Senate, he first had to convince Michelle and Jarrett that it was a good idea. He's been seeking her counsel ever since."

In the boardroom:

Granholm, who was mentioned as a dark-horse vice-presidential candidate, is also on the transition team's Advisory Board, which also includes Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano , 51,  who was profiled by Newsmix in July as a veep prospect; Susan Rice (above), 43, Brookings Institution fellow and former assistant secretary of state for African Affairs; and former EPA chair Carol Browner (below), the longest-serving administrator in the history of the agency, staying through both terms of the Clinton presidency.

The long arms of the law:  Women helping power the transition's legal team include  general counsel (and Harvard Law school classmate) Cassandra Butts , former senior vice president for domestic policy at the Center for American Progress and senior adviser to Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.);  Lisa Brown , the Executive Director of the American Constitution Society, and Melody Barnes, 43, of the Center for American Progress as co-directors of agency review; and Clinton adviser Christine A. Varney , 52, as counsel for personnel.

That different voice:  Get used to another face next to the familiar Obama spokespersons Robert Gibbs and David Axelrod:  Michelle Obama's chief of staff, 40-year-old Stephanie Cutter (seen above dueling with Chris Matthews during the campaign). During the Clinton Administration, Cutter worked as deputy communications director in both the White House and U.S. EPA.

We at WVFC now know we have to get busy deciding who on this list we should try to interview and profile. We'd welcome readers' comments — both about who we should talk to, and what questions you want to ask them when we do!

-- Chris L.

Feminists in the media are often portrayed as Birkenstock wearing, dread having, vegans, who hate all things religion and who will do anything, literally anything, for their cause.

A life-long abortion activist and founding member of the third-wave feminist movement, Jennifer Baumgardner should fit the stereotype, but walking into Joe's Coffee, a chic West Village java joint, she just doesn't.

Wearing a trendy black dress that fits loosely on her small frame, her strikingly blonde hair and fair skin pop. She types away furiously on her Blackberry, responding to e-mails and finding a table while answering a question, "I went to church my whole life and I still believe in God, I just believe that God wants me to have choices."

Besides running her own business, Soapbox, Inc., a booking agency for feminist speakers, Baumgardner is also a journalist, teacher, author and mother of a 4-year old son. She has written for Glamour, The Nation and Harpers. In total, she has penned 4 books.

Her just-released paperback, Abortion & Life, hit shelves this fall. It has three-parts, with sections being on the history of abortion, the true stories of women and their experiences with the process, and a call to action for young activists to protect the right to choose. The book is scorchingly hot in this election season with the media attention that has been focused on women's issues.

Congratulations to Amy Poehler and her husband, the also hilarious Will Arnett. They welcomed their baby boy Archie Arnett on Saturday. 

Amy Poehler is a great role model. Funny, smart, strong, and doing what she loves. I have been fortunate to meet Amy, and I can tell you this: She loves hip hop! I think that is what makes me smile most about the clip above. She is as pregnant as she is going to get and still here she is with so much energy, not hiding herself or taking a break, but doing what she loves the most and without asking for any kind of credit for being pregnant. 

Amy is really supportive of other women. Watching her and Tina Fey come into the spotlight during this campaign has been such a treat, because they have been friends for years, and I think its amazing they get to do so much of this together.

So big ups to Amy, and woot woot as well. That's what she would want.

Well this is my first post and for it I have a great story. My sister has always had guy problems, She has been with an abuser and she has plenty of "baby mama drama." Well the guy she is with now revealed his true colors tonight and my mom made me the proudest daughter ever!

Anyway he was blabbing about how my sister should quit her job or should work during the day, so she can be home to cook him dinner and she can spend quality time with the family. My mom went crazy, she is like you are a Male Chauvinist Pig! She basically went on saying how she sacrifice herself to be a mother and now she is raising my nieces and nephew, so basically being a mother all over again. My youngest sister is 18. She is now giving up manager job up for me. She wants to make sure I get a chance to spread my wings and fly. My mom is the most awesomeness person ever and she is truely my hero. I Love her with all my heart and she told me tonight not to take any bullshit from anybody.

I hope everyone else has a mom like mine, I know most don't but I would surely lend mine to you if you want.

So does anyone else have any stories about your influences or mommas. I would love to hear them.

Thanks!

The anonymous author of "What To Expect When You're Aborting" has pretty much told her story, and wants to continue her site.  Her latest post asks readers to contribute nice postcards, art projects, playlists and whatever youc an think of to comfort anyone who might visit the site in the future looking for information or support!

The blog does not support comments, but you can contribute to this idea or just write to the author at expectanabortion at gmail dot com.  I've written to her a few times and she is a total sweetheart, it might take her a while to get back to you, but she will!

I am definitely new to feministing posting, but I am a long time follower of feministing.com. I just want to say thank you to all the people who work so hard at putting together and maintaining this site. You are all able to maintain a diverse and alternative view on mass media and current events. This is espcially important in today's society as narrative pleasure so easily takes over the viewers eye.

Cheers!

I live in DC, where the buses and metro are often crowded during rush hour.  You know what?  It happens!  Deal with it!  People need to get home and thankfully they chose to take public transportation instead of driving a car and thankfully the public transportation exists for those of us who don't have cars.  And guess what? Different types of people ride busses!  Because differnt types of people choose to take public transportation and different types of people don't have cars. 

This afternoon, during rush hour, I took a bus I don't normally take - a bus that runs rarely and is often very crowded.  On this particular afternoon, as we pulled up to this particular bus stop, there were people standing on the bus, but we weren't yet at the in-each-other's-armpits stage yet.  So we pull up to the bus stop and there is a woman in a wheel chair waiting for the bus.  The driver opens the door...

Driver: Sorry, we're full. I can't let you on

Woman: WHAT?

Driver: There's no room. I can't let you on.

Woman: You have to!

Driver: I can't.

Woman: I have a RIGHT to ride this bus!  Let me on!

He closes the door. We're at a red light, so we can't pull away.  I am standing in the front of the bus, approximately where the woman would secure her chair. 

Me:  I'll get off.  Let me off.

Another Woman: Me too, I'll get off.

Driver: I can't ask you to get off, there's no room.

He won't open the door.

Me:  I WANT to get off.

Other woman: Me too. 

Driver: I can't ask you to get off.

Meanwhile, the woman outside the bus has wheeled her chair in front of the bus.  I can't hear her, but the driver begins to yell at her. 

Driver: Get out of the WAY!  I can't let you on the bus! 

As the woman inside the bus and I are beginning to make our way to the door, he pulls around the woman outside, never opening the door, constantly refusing to let us off.

I am sickened by the absolutely LACK of understanding on the part of the driver.  The woman at the stop needed a ride.  She might have been waiting there for more than half an hour, if other buses as crowded has also refused her.  And she now has to wait another half an hour for the next bus, which also might refuse her.  I understand that he didn't want to ask some passengers to leave to let another passenger on, but when some passengers are ASKING to get out, and are effectively refused, that goes beyond the pale. 

Does anyone know the legality of this issue?  I'm not up on my ADA or transportation regulations.

I met Meg this weekend at the Omega Institute and she was badass--doing all sorts of amazing activism in Dallas. For those of you who couldn't make it, I thought her summary was really beautiful. Next year's conference is on intergenerational dialogue and feminism and I'll be helping with the programming. Hope to see you ALL there.
-Courtney

(Originally posted yesterday at yp4.org)

I won a scholarship and spent the weekend in Rhinebeck, New York attending the Women and Courage conference at the Omega Institute. This was the single largest group of feminists that I've ever been exposed to. Women (and a few men) from all backgrounds of ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, religion, gender identity, age, and ability passed me by in those woods. Feminists from all three 'waves' and beyond sat together and discussed how we can rewrite the story of humanity.

The main theme was that the energy of Machismo and all its subsequent theories, governments, and societies have been the determinate factor in human evolution for far too long. This concept prioritizes everything having to do with our masculine qualities and ignores or downplays everything associated with our feminine ones. All of the speakers made sure to explain that the masculine and feminine reside in every human being, regardless of one's biological sex. We were invited there to usher in a new century of Mamisma, a phrase coined by Harriet Rueben, which can best be described as "the energy a mother bear has when she senses her cubs are in danger." To clarify, the mother bear must act not out of vengeance, but out of the urge to provide for and protect future generations. We were encouraged not to copy the same old tired power structures and institutions that men have dominated for centuries, but to radically alter the way in which this shared world of ours operates.

In honour of a lazy day spent watching the discovery channel:

I'm an archaeology student and one of my areas of interest is women, how they were represented in societies and how history has portrayed them. As an introduction to how women have been seen through time I'd recommend 'The Second Sex' by Simone De Beauvior. It explains the concept of 'otherness' very well. To truly study women in history you have to be aware of the 'otherness'. I suppose a brief introduction to how the concept of the other relates to women in history is thus:
Society and history is defined by those in power, this has without a doubt been men. Women did not have the means to represent themselves, the way we see women through historic documents, art etc is through the eyes of men.

I wanted to share my latest post from my blog, Sublimefemme Unbound, with everyone here. Post and pic at http://sublimefemme.wordpress.com/.

When I was a kid and The Wizard of Oz came on TV every year, my little sister and I would always watch it, knowing that the appearance of the Witch would scare my sister into leaping under a table or bed, while I soaked it all in, riveted: the flash of green and black, the awe-inspiring powers (I want to fly too!), the dutiful flying monkeys, the sheer drama of it all.

By Kathleen Hanna:

We live in a world that tells us we must choose an identity, a career, a relationship, and commit, to these situations..as if we know what's gonna happen tomorrow, as if we aren't ever gonna change, as if we don't live in a world of constant flux, which w e do.

Don't freak out cuz the jigsaw is laying on the floor and it's not all the way done and has been laying there for 4 whole hours now, resist the freak out. You will get to it..it's all part of the process.

I note that a dichotomy between "feminist" and "woman" has taken a form that is distinctly not to the feminist advantage.

This was made as clear by Palin for American feminism as it was done by Thatcher for British. In both cases women ascended to the highest eschalons of a reactionary party, with almost no celebration from the feminist movement that had longed to see exactly that.

This video was shown at the DNC yesterday to pay tribute to the fabulous Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.  I don't know if the ladies of Feministing have had the chance to watch it, but I thought it was very well done and wanted to share if with the rest of the community.  I hope everyone enjoys the tribute to this bad-ass woman as much as I did.

Hi Feministing Community,

This is my first post ever, and I thought that you guys might be interested in reading the interview I did with Margaret Cho.

http://punchlinemagazine.com/site/2008/08/margaret-cho-reality-strikes/

Enjoy!

Hey all out there in Feministing-land! I've been wanting to create a Community profile for awhile, but just hadn't gotten around to it. But I badly wanted to share this video with you all, so this finally got me to do it.

This is a video of a Georgian TV reporter being shot during live coverage of the war. After she is taken down by the bullet, she gets back up and keeps reporting. I can appreciate this both as a feminist, and also as a journalism student. This woman is my hero.

Click here to read the article in the Daily Mail .

And, of course, here's the video:

I will admit it:  I have a girl crush on Jennie Finch. 

When I was growing up, softball was not the phenom of a sport that it is now.  It was the best alternative when our mothers decided that we were too old and too "ladylike" to play Little League (which usually happened sometime between 7 and 12 years old).  When I was little, it wasn't an Olympic sport, but I loved it anyway.  Softball was a huge staple in my life and I am grateful for all the lessons I learned from it. 

Enter 1996 Summer Olympics:  Here comes softball!  Team USA dominates and softball explodes.  It's on ESPN.  The College World Series are televised.  Lisa Fernandez and Dottie Henson and Michelle Smith are recognizable names that the softball girls aspire to be.

Enter Jennie Finch.  A dominate pitcher from the University of Arizona and Olympic gold medalist, the most interesting thing about her becomes the fact that shes pretty.  She's voted the "Hottest Female Athlete", ousting Anna Kournakova (who, inarguably, has a lesser professional career).  Finch took the opposite route.  Instead of becoming a Model (with a capital "M"), she honed her skills and became a better player.

I found this article on the Olympic website.  One of my favorite parts was Finch's response when she got the offer to pose for PLAYBOY:

I am the Bad Girl Next Door.

My hair is not a color found in nature.  I have had more metal pierced through my skin than some battle cruisers.   My tattoos don’t feature flowers, pixies or iconography of Jesus Christ.  My wardrobe features very few trendy pieces; I have never owned a pair of leggings or hot pants.  My lingerie is not color-coordinated.  My make-up is not caked on to hide my natural complexion, alter my imperfect features or disguise my ethnicity.   I refuse to stand in the mirror calculating the how far from the Golden Ratio my facial features fall and ruminating on the types of plastic surgery that would correct their imbalance.  I danced barefoot at my prom.

I showed Feministing to my mom today, and linked her to "Oh, You're A Feminist?" post about rape and assault on female soldiers and she wanted me to share her story with the feministing community. Here is a bit of background about my mom:  she was the first in her family to go to college, but had to leave school after she had me at a young age. She was on her own at that point, so my grandmother advised her into going into the military, as she had done. My mom served for ten years as a medic and was in the Gulf war in the early 90's. She has always epitomized the female idea for me:  my mom is courageous, tenacious, strong willed, ambitious, and never allows anyone else to speak for her. It is at her requst that I share her story with you.

I live upstairs from a day care with three college age boys and it's always chaotic at best. But anyway, today I had the day off from work so I went downstairs to play with the kids and a little girl asked me to read to her. So I grabbed a book from the pile and sat down. Turns out I grabbed an outstanding feminist children's book!

It's called Ladybug Girl by Jacky Davis and illustrated by David Soman. The gist of it is that a little girl dresses up as a lady bug and is told by her parents that she can do anything she sets her mind to. (Awesome so far) So she decides she wants to play baseball with her older brother but he tells her that she's too little. Not to be stuck sitting around bored, she sets off with a true independent, feminist spirit to explore by herself! Granted she's just walking around the woods but I think this book is sending a pretty good message to little girls. That yeah, they can certainly play with the boys if they want to; but they can also play independently instead of playing dress up and barbies all day.

All in all, 500 million stars for Jacky Davis for writing this rockin' book. What a welcome break from children's books like this.

PS- Best part of the book? "I'm too little? You're too little!" Ladybug Gil talking to her brother and his jerk friends of course :)

Randi Rhodes is the #1 Progressive Talker in the country -- she was the first woman to have a nationally syndicated political talk show host. She's smart, she's funny, she's a badass.

Before getting into radio, Randi was an aircraft mechanic for the US Air Force, making her a patriot as well.

Randi often tells her listeners "don't listen to anything you hear on the radio, and that includes me", encouraging her listeners to think for themselves, read, and even goes so far as to assign homework.

You can hear Randi Rhodes live from 3-6pm Eastern time by going to Nova M Radio. I highly recommend her. (I also recommend Rachel Maddow who can be heard, occasionally on her own show on Air America Radio. And no discussion of the women of progressive radio can be complete without mentioning Stephanie Miller who is on in the mornings.)

I recently returned wide-eyed and bushy-tailed from a progressive social planning conference(Planner's Network) in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Here, I had the privelage of meeting artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan. They produce incredible feminist performace art pieces that are worth checking out. I hope you love them as much as I do!

I blogged last week about Debra , whose mother was going to the roof and not coming down until she raised the funds needed for Debra's sexual discrinination case.  I have a bit of an update -- Debra's mom has now been on their roof, in the heat, for 11 days .   You can read more about it here .  And don't forget to donate to her fund by routing money to Citizens Savings bank, in Mount Pocono, PA, in care of,Justice for 31, (Debra’s badge number)

In case you wanted to talk to Michelle Obama, she will be posting over at BlogHer.

Cool :)

When Kay Ryan was a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, the poetry club rejected her application; she was perhaps too much of a loner, she recalls. Now Ms. Ryan is being inducted into one of the most elite poetry clubs around. She is to be named the country’s poet laureate on Thursday.

That description "perhaps too much of a loner", is a bit euphemistic.  Although she surely transcends the label "gay poet" it is indeed noteworthy that being an out lesbian did not harm her chances to be considered for, much less, awarded this honor.

Her poems, she says, don't begin with a simple image or sound, but instead start "the way an oyster does, with an aggravation." An old saw may nudge her repeatedly, such as "It's always darkest before the dawn" or "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

"I think, 'What about those chickens?' " she says, "and I start an investigation of what that means. Poets rehabilitate clichés."

Some do, perhaps, but many wouldn't dare to enter such familiar territory. Ryan, however, adds depth and so many surprises that the silliest clichés become fertile ground. "The other shoe," from 2003, is a classic example:

Continue reading Kay Ryan, Outsider With Sly Style, Named Poet Laureate .

Posted by david_orchid - July 17, 2008, at 12:33PM | in Bad-Ass Women

This post is inpired by the Jezebel "Thinking and Drinking" fiasco.  Tracie and Moe are two blog writers whose writing is very personal.  They appeared on an interview talk show where the host, Liz, steered the conversation in the direction of RAPE and now, all anyone can discuss is the right attitude to have about rape.  In particular, most people are quite angry at the apparently flippant attitude Moe and Tracie showed about rape.

And of course; everyone is missing the forest for the trees.

Imagine you are an author, and you write about your adult sex life.  You're invited onto a talk show, and suddenly the host asks if you're afraid of RAPE, and implies that as a role model to young women, you're endangering the safety of young women who might try to copy you and then go out and get RAPED. 

You would get confused, flustered, and defensive; which is exactly what happened to Moe and Tracie.

These are not young women; they are around 30 years old, as am I, as is the core audience of the blogs they write.  We have to have the freedom to write about our sex lives if we choose, even if its not pretty, even if it offends people. 

Do we stop dating, going out at night, going to bars, trying to meet men, going to a man's home because we're afraid of being raped?  Of course not! Even those of us who have been raped (like myself) keep trying to live.  Does that mean we don't take rape seriously? Again, NO.  It means that we know the risk, but try anyways to meet a good man and have great, consensual sex.

I feel like the opposite of rape is awesome sex with someone you love, and its something i strive for. Because in the end, we have to honour our sexuality, our right to have sex, just as much as our right to NOT have sex if we don't choose to.

Liz Winstead bookended Tracie's personal journey, a woman going after what she wants, lots of great sex, with rape.  As if the two were somehow related; that a story of a lusty woman is a story of a woman betraying herself and womanity to rape.  Its an age old morality tale.

That  Tracie and Moe didn't conduct themselves that well is unfortunate; but the interview was moderated, directed, and manipulated by Winstead, a woman who belittled Moe's honest admission that she'd been raped by "Why didn't you report him?" a line I've heard over and over to discredit women who have been raped.

 (Original post by Peggy from Women in Science)

TRIUMF, Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics, recently appointed particle physicist Nikolitsa "Lia" Merminga as the new Head of it's Accelerator Division, "one of Canada's most senior scientific posts".

Merminga spoke to the Vancouver Courier about growing up in Greece. Her love for science was stimulated by a young female physics teacher:

"She impressed me so much and she became my role model at that very sensitive age. Somehow my vague interest in science was solidified during that year," Merminga said.

"I also had a love for math. I loved mathematics, and to me, the fact that I could use mathematical models to describe physical phenomena was very powerful," she added. "I had the framework to explain physical phenomena and predict more extreme conditions, if you like."

She feels that attending all-girl middle and high schools helped her build up confidence, so that her arrival at the University of Athens - where less than 10% of the physics students were women - wasn't as intimidating as it could have been. However, she doesn't believe that separate schools for boys and girls is necessarily the answer to stimulating girls' interest in science careers:

"The answer is more to share with boys and girls all together at a young age the excitement of doing science, of doing physics, and to show them the ties of science with everyday life," she said. "And also that it's a means of answering some very fundamental questions."

Merminga ultimately came the United States, where she earned masters degrees in physics and mathematics, and a PhD in physics from the University of Michigan. Her subsequent research has made her "widely recognized for expertise in identifying problems and solutions associated with the push for higher energy, higher quality accelerator beams, and developing concepts for new accelerators." She is currently the Director of the Center for Advanced Studies of Accelerators (CASA) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Virginia.