Newsday Tuesday: August 11 Edition

Hello fellow feminists! It's Tuesday again which means in it time for another round up of Newsday Tuesday. Our numbers are dwindling in the office as more and more of my fellow interns head back home. Soon I'll be the only one left if I don't melt from the heat and humidity we are currently experiencing. Talk about a heat wave!

Nonetheless, news still is happening! This week was filled with many sad and happy events. The most recent was unfortunately a sad one. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics and championed the rights of the mentally disabled, died early this morning.

Along with her passing, another sad news story from this past week was the hate crime against women Tuesday night in Pennsylvania. George Sodini shot and killed three women and injured 11 more before killing himself. Sodini entered an aerobics class at a gym in the Pittsburgh area intending to take revenge on women, who he saw as rejecting him as a whole.

Now on to happier news! Judge Sonia Sotomayor was officially sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court on Saturday. This is after her confirmation Thursday from the Senate by a 68-31 vote. She will be the 111th justice, the third woman, and first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court.

Also, a judge in Oakland, California ruled Wednesday that an ordinance prohibiting protesters from approaching women entering abortion clinics is constitutional. The bubble ordinance bars protesters from coming within eight feet of women seeking access to a reproductive health clinic. The plaintiff in the case was Walter Hoye, who claimed that the bubble ordinance was vague and unfairly applied to opponents of abortion.

There were also several important reports released last week. Chair of the Joint Economic Committee, Representative Carolyn Maloney, and her colleagues released a report Thursday stating that more than 1.4 million women are adversely affected by the recession because they are losing their health insurance through their own or their spouse's job loss. In addition, there is an increase in uninsured children due to an increase in unemployment among single mothers.

Along with that, the American Psychological Association (APA) announced Wednesday that psychologists should not advise gay clients that therapy can help them become straight. Of 83 studies of sexual orientation conducted since 1960, no evidence could be found that therapy can change an individual's sexual orientation.

Some other important news in the world of feminism includes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton trip to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, to denounce atrocities against women in the war-ravaged country. Clinton is visiting for two days to raise awareness of the prevalence of sexual assault and the use of rape as a weapon of war. Since the war in the Congo began in 1998, tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped.

Also, Fox News commentator Glenn Beck joked about poisoning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's wine on his show last week. Beck's statements came just three days after he decried violence and disrespect in political commentary.

Photo courtesy of keithpr on flikr.com

Friday Funday: Justice Sotomayor!

Congratulations to Sonia Sotomayor on her Senate confirmation as the newest US Supreme Court justice!

After a contentious hearing, it was smooth sailing through the floor vote. The Senate approved her nomination 68-31, and Sotomayor will be sworn in Saturday. She'll have her hands full right off the bat - in a few weeks, the court will begin selecting cases for the new term.

We are confident she will bring much-needed balance to the court, and wish her the best of luck for a long career on the SCOTUS bench.

Have a great weekend and catch you next week!

Photo credit: keithpr on Flickr.

Newsday Tuesday: August 4 Edition

Welcome, August! Which also means humidity here in DC. As we all are trying to survive the heat, let's go inside, cool down, and catch up with this week's happenings in the world of feminist news with this week's edition of Newsday Tuesday!

Global
The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) has approved mifepristone, also known as RU-486, for use through the seventh week of pregnancy. Last week's ruling stipulates that the drug can be administered by doctors in a hospital but can not be sold in pharmacies.

On Saturday, a gay youth center was attacked by a gunman in Tel Aviv, Israel. A masked man entered the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association building and opened fire on a group of young people gathered for a weekly support group meeting. The shooter fled on foot and remains at large. Two were killed and eleven wounded in the attack.

British Quakers, or the Religious Society of Friends, have decided to perform same-sex marriages. The Quakers will formally challenge the UK laws which prohibit same-sex marriage. Quakers have allowed same-sex couples to celebrate civil partnerships with a religious commitment ceremony for more than two decades.

Shirin Ebadi, one of Iran's leading human rights defenders, is in London on Amnesty International's invitation. Her trip to the UK is part of international efforts to educate the world about the human rights abuses in Iran and support Amnesty's defense of the Defenders of Human Rights Center.

The Women and Work Commission published a report Wednesday citing an increase in the wage gap in the UK. It was found that there was an increase in the wage gap from 21.9 to 22.6 percent since 2007 and is even larger when accounting for part-time wages; the gap in those cases nears 40 percent.

A Sudanese court began hearing Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein's case on Wednesday after she was one of 13 women arrested on July 3 for wearing trousers in public. Al-Hussein was sentenced earlier this month to 40 lashings, but as a public information officer for the United Nations, she has immunity from the flogging.

On Wednesday, security forces in Nigeria freed approximately 180 women and children who were held by the radical Boko Haram, an extremist Islamic group believed to be responsible for attacks on police stations and government sites this week that have left 150 people dead.

The Tanzania Women's Bank, a new bank created to empower women, opened last week in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Iranian women's rights activist, lawyer, and journalist Shadi Sadr was released from prison Tuesday, eleven days after she was beaten and arrested while walking to a prayer service in Tehran.

The Dutch organization Women on Waves cancelled all upcoming trips of its so-called floating abortion clinic. The "abortion boat" docked in international waters and provided abortion pills and information about reproductive health to women all over the world.

National
The White House announced last week that President Barack Obama will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to a number of pioneering feminists and civil rights leaders. The medal is the highest honor a civilian can receive and given to those who make significant contributions in world peace, culture, or other public pursuits. The recipients of the medal will include: Nancy Goodman Brinker, Edward Kennedy, Billie Jean King, Reverend Joseph Lowery, Harvey Milk, Sandra Day O'Connor, Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 Tuesday to approve Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the US Supreme Court. The committee's decision means that a full Senate vote on Sotomayor's confirmation is likely to occur next week.

An amendment to the Labor, Health, and Human Services bill that sought to ban all federal funding for Planned Parenthood was defeated last week in the House by a vote of 247 to 183.

Senator Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY) announced last Monday that a Senate hearing on the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on homosexuals in the military will be held in the fall.

States
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cut $489 million Thursday from the state budget passed last week by the state legislature. The cuts were directed primarily towards health and human services programs, and will eliminate all state funding for domestic violence shelters, forcing these centers close or seek new sources of funding.

Photo courtesy of Tim Pearce on Flikr.com

Sotomayor, Suits, Sexism

Cross-posted with Princeton University's Equal Writes blog.

I can't wait for the day when an accomplished, powerful woman appears is made completely irrelevant by the contents of her brain and of her résumé.

I thus find Robin Givhan's article in the Washington Post yesterday - in which she accused the SCOTUS nominee of exhibiting little obvious femininity and of dressing "in the manner of a 1980s lady power broker" - disturbing. Not only do I believe Sotomayor's fashion choices were completely unobjectionable, I'm left wondering why Givhan even cares.

The justice's ensembles reflect her awareness of the climate of her hearing. Racism and sexism - from implications that her Puerto Rican heritage would hinder her ability to make decisions to bogus controversy over her involvement in the Belizean Grove - were obvious players in the questioning and surrounding media speculation, but Sotomayor remained calm and unshaken. Aware of our nation's ever-present biases against Latinos and against women (and especially against Latina women), she was careful not to let her demeanor or statements give the committee any reason to doubt her level-headedness or her "fidelity to the law."

It makes sense, then, that she chose "simple and bold" colors and "virtually no visible jewelry." I'm not alarmed that she wore "sheer black pantyhose." I understand why her nails gave "no hint of the cherry-red manicure that she has, on occasion, worn." In Givhan's own words, she was trying to "leave [her] gender at the door" and let the hearing focus on her accomplishments, knowledge, and experience.

If she "embraced that period in fashion when femininity had no place in the executive suite," as Givhan asserted, she was being careful not to offend the Senators of the Judiciary Committee (of which 17 out of the 19 members are white males) who haven't yet come to terms with the possibility of an assertive, intelligent Latina woman.

But aside from this article's unwarranted criticism of her fashion choices, I'm concerned with why the criticism is being doled out in the first place. Women should wear whatever they want, period. Whether or not Sotomayor chose to abide by what Givhan calls the "new gospel of women's power dressing" that encourages wearing accessories, ditching the pantyhose, and favoring sheath dresses over shoulder-padded suits, her fashion sense has nothing to do with how she's going to perform on the bench.

Givhan's article thus elevates a superficial and should-be unimportant issue: the clothes that a strong and intelligent woman just happens to be wearing.

Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/talkradionews.

Sotomayor: Not a Meanie

The world is still afraid of powerful women.

SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor (ahem, Princeton '76!) is a "civil rights advocate...[with] nearly two decades on the federal bench," a judge with a "complete package of experience" in numerous levels of public service, and a "sharp and fearless jurist who does not let powerful interests bully her into departing from the rule of law." If confirmed, according to a press release from the White House, she'd have more federal judicial experience than any judge on the Court in the past century.

But her strong qualifications are met with accusations of a perhaps "too strong" personality. An article from NPR notes that her style has been called "blunt, even bullying," and unnamed attornies have described her as "'a terror on the bench,' 'nasty,' [and] 'overly aggressive.'"

This unflattering portrayal, however, may be symptomatic of America's lingering typecasting of women. A female, no matter how successful, is supposed to be more docile and passive than her male colleagues and counterparts; if she's opinionated and fearless, she's a bitch. The NPR article goes on to describe how Judge Guido Calabresi, former dean of Yale Law School, began keeping track of Sotomayor's questions (in court) and comparing them to male judges', only to state that he found "no difference at all" in style and content.

And when NPR listened to "two tape-recorded oral arguments in important cases" comparing her with her colleagues, they came to similar conclusions: "if Sotomayor sometimes dominates oral arguments at her court — if she is feisty, even pushy — then she would fit right in at the U.S. Supreme Court."

Feministing summarizes the issue well: she's "not meaner, just femaler."

Newsday Tuesday: June 9 Edition

Hey there, feminist folk, here's your Tuesday roundup of the hottest feminist news this week:

In the US, the death of Dr. George Tiller and related news has dominated the newswire. However, a few other domestic things have come across our radar:

• The Supreme Court will not hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, banning gays and lesbians from openly serving in the military.
  
  
• In New Hampshire, legislation legalizing same-sex marriage was signed into law by Governor John Lynch.
  
  
• The US House passed the Federal Paid Parental Leave Act, which would provide 4 weeks of paid parental leave to Federal Employees after the birth or adoption of a child.
  
  
• Recent polls are showing that Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor has public support - Sotomayor would be the third woman and the first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court, if confirmed.

On the Global Front:

• Meira Kumar, an Indian parliamentarian, is expected to become India's first female Speaker! In other India-related news, Pratibha Patil, the country's first woman president, announced an initiative to pass legislation to empower women in government by reserving a portion of seats for women.
  
  
• President Obama's speech in Cairo addressed global women's rights, including rights of women in Islam.
  
  
• The number of reported rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo is soaring, with incidences caused primarily by the Democratic Forces of the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan Hutu rebel group.

The Word for Today: Can We Say PRIVILEGE???

Ok, so I said to myself that I wouldn't give some of these conservative pundits and intolerable commentators sipping on their haterade the time of day. But dammit, I just can't resist. What's up with this week's media frenzy around, dare I say it, the supposedly vulnerable political and social power of white men (gasp)! PLEASE! Give me a break.

First, we have a roundup of conservative hoopla taking Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor's statements about her identity impacting her role as a judge out of context and slandering her as a "reverse racist":



Oh, let's not forget Gordon Liddy & Rush Limbaugh's attacks. Those are pretty classic:





Then we have a debut of yet another boys club, this time at University of Chicago, "Men in Power":



I mean, really, what is the deal with all this sappy "woe is me, I'm a white male minority" nonsense. If you ever needed a reason as to why feminist and racial dialogue is imperative to the overall change in our society, well now you've got ONE!

Because issues of race and gender have been so conveniently appropriated lately, individuals who continue to gain further strides due to historical political, economic and social privilege tend to challenge anyone or any ideology that conflicts with that history of privilege. More than ever before, we have women, lesbians and gays, and people of color taking on influential positions in our society and this power shift seems to be a threat to the status quo. I feel that it's very cowardice and absurd that many of these conservatives would make racial and sexual indictments against masses of people when the nation as a whole is seeing for the first time true diversity being exemplified.

If Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) can dismiss such arguments, then surely people, we must do better.

Newsday Tuesday: May 26 Edition

Another week of feminist news has gone by, so here's a quick week-in-review!

National:
The US Supreme Court ruled that maternity leave taken prior to the 1979 Pregnancy Discrimination Act does not have to be credited to pensions on a pregnancy discrimination case.

President Obama announced his nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court of the United States, replacing retiring Justice David Souter.

International:
The Nepalese Supreme Court ordered an expansion of access to abortion, particularly for poor women.

State by State:
A proposed anti-choice constitutional amendment in the state of Tennessee passed the state house of representatives, specifically stating that "nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion."

The State Assembly of California passed a broader state-level version of the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, expanding the statute of limitations on pay discrimination claims runs from the receipt of each discriminatory payment.

The Louisiana state House passed a health care "conscience" bill, allowing providers to withhold abortion, emergency contraception, and other services and medications on the basis of religious or moral objections.

In response to legislation earlier this month by the DC City Council enabling the District to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states, a bill was introduced to the US House of Representatives that would institute a Defense of Marriage Act for the District of Columbia defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

And the big news from California - the state's Supreme Court upheld the results of Proposition 8, an anti gay marriage ballot initiative which passed in November 2008.

Photo Credit: Official WhiteHouse Flickr Stream and Val protesting Prop 8 in DC last fall.

Judge Sotomayor Nominated for SCOTUS

Sonia Sotomayor has been nominated for the US Supreme Court. Sotomayor currently serves on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. She is the daughter of Puerto Rican parents, born and raised in the South Bronx, and a graduate of Princeton and Yale Law School.

If confirmed, Judge Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, the third woman, and the first woman of color! She has ton of diverse legal experience and a compelling life story. Check out her moving acceptance speech here and learn more about Sotomayor at the NYT. Read some of her appellate decisions at the SCOTUS blog.

Supreme Court Update

More news has emerged since we last discussed the looming Supreme Court nomination! A list of potential nominees has been leaked by a source at the White House to the Associated Press and (awesomely) 5 of the 6 names listed are women.

The list confirms the consideration of the four women I discussed last week: Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, and US Appeals Court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Pamela Wood. A surprise for me was Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Also listed was California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno.