National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month 2011

The prevalence of sexual assault in this nation is a tragedy that must be addressed.  Over one million women are raped each year.  Within their lifetimes, 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men will be sexually assaulted.  Our nation’s youth are at the greatest risk; young women age 16 to 24 experience the highest rates of rape and sexual assault.  One in five will be sexually assaulted while they’re in college.

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Yale Students File Title IX Suit Against The University

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced Thursday  it will open an investigation to review Yale’s policies for dealing with sexual harassment and sexual assault. The investigation comes in response to a Title IX complaint filed against the University on Tues., Mar. 15. 

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Gerry Never Yielded 

Twenty-seven years ago, in March 1984, I was hired as outside counsel to the Democratic Platform Committee by its new chair -- a third term Congresswoman widely viewed as a comer because of her huge talent and close relationship with speaker Tip O'Neill.

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The Legislature's Little Ladies

Louisiana has never been a hotbed of feminism. But it was a small band of women activists who organized to try to keep Louisiana from becoming the worst state for accessing reproductive services in 1989 (we lost that battle when a woman Governor signed the most regressive bill on reproductive rights in the U.S., that will become law if Roe v. Wade is overturned). And it was angry women who made sure a woman was registered in every state legislative election after 1989 so that we could try to increase the number of women serving. 

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House Republican Budget Hurts La. Women and Children

The Republicans are overreaching, using scare tactics to achieve their political goal of funding tax cuts for the rich with cutbacks in public investment.   They keep saying we are “broke,” but a nation with a deficit is no more “broke” than a family with a house note.

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Back to the back alley?

Dear MoveOn member,

Big news: Thanks in part to you and the 581,053 others who signed the

"Redefining Rape?" petition, the Republicans are back-pedaling from their

attempt to redefine rape.1 Your support made a real difference.

But this legislation is still terrible for women. Rep. Carolyn Maloney

called it "the deepest attack on a woman's right to choose in my

lifetime."2 Expert Jessica Arons said it would "accomplish the unstated

end of making abortion as difficult to obtain as possible without actually

criminalizing it."

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Climate Change Skeptics and the Gender Gap
by website

In his second week in Copenhagen covering the climate change talks, the BBC's Richard Black posed a question on his blog: Why are virtually all climate 'scpetics' men?" Click here to link on the website.

Spotlight on Elinor Ostrom
by White House Project

This holiday season you may be overwhelmed with thoughts of sugarplums, nutcrackers, candles and Times Square. Today we honor a woman whose thoughts led her to one of the most prestigious awards in the world--Nobel Prize winner Dr. Elinor Ostrom. In 2009 Ostrom became the first female to win a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences--a category that has existed for over 40 years. Click here for the entire story.

Spotlight on Lucille Ball
by White House Project

When all the shopping, caroling, gathering, and family-and-friend-ing is done there's nothing like curling up on the couch, sipping something hot, and watching something classic. This holiday season, The White House Project suggests honoring a true classic from Hollywood: Lucille Ball. Click here for the entire story.

Spotlight on Patsy Mink
by White House Project

Who can avoid notorious hazards of the holiday season--excessive eating, drinking, and lounging? By the end of the holidays, just thinking about anything but sitting by the fire and snacking on leftover pie seems incomprehensible. But what better way to honor today's inspiring woman leader than to conquer the holiday funk and get out there and play! Today we are highlighting Congresswoman Patsy Mink for her groundbreaking work on Title IX in 1972.  Click here for the entire story.

Hypocrites
by Ricki Lieberman

Maybe, just maybe, we are having an effect, pushing back against at least some of the hypocrisy in the health care legislation. Talk over the last few days has been about backing off the incredibly complicated, convoluted health reform legislation and relying instead on expaning Medicare to a younger population, extending Medicare to a broader income range, and opening up the Federal Employees Health Care plan. For the rest of the update, click here.

Our View: A Measure of the Men
by Baton Rouge Advocate Opinion

The story goes that years ago a young New Orleans congressman, a newly elected Reaganite and foe of the Democratic leadership, was seeking federal assistance to refurbish the sadly neglected streetcar line in New Orleans.
   As a member of the minority party, he was frustrated at not being able to get an important project for his city done, one justified financially and in terms of restoring the troubled city's fortunes. He explained the problem to his New Orleans colleague one day on the floor of the House.
   Lindy Boggs told the young Bob Livingston that she would see what she could do.  Click here for the rest of the story.

Senate Blocks Use of New Mammogram Guidelines
by David M. Herszenhorn

The Senate agreed to bar the federal government from relying on the findings of an independent panel of health experts that recently recommended women should begin having routine mammograms at age 50 rather than age 40.
      Without a vote, the Senate agreed to accept an amendment to the big health care legislation proposed by Senator David Vitter, a Republican from Louisiana, effectively requiring the federal government to ignore the new recommendations by the expert panel, the United States Preventative Services Task Force. Click here to read the entire article.

Welcome to the Women's Movement 2.0
by Barbara Enrenreich

No group with a major stake in health-care reform has seen as many peaks and valleys this year as women's health actviists. After pressuring lawmakers and rolling out initiatives like the "Being a Woman Is Not a Pre-Existing Condition" campaign, they scored three significant victories when the House of Representatives released its health bill in late October. Click here to read the rest of the story.

See Sarah Run
by Susan Estrich
I really hate defending Sarah Palin. I mean, I don't agree with her on anything. Seeing a woman at her level saying and doing some of the things she says and does is like nails screeching against a blackboard for me. And while she ultimately helps Democrats in any partisan contest, her brand of polarizing politics and efforts to annihilate the moderate wing of the Republican Party ultimately aren't very good for her own party (not my problem) or the country's (everyone's problem). Read the rest of the story here.

Lipstick on a Rogue
by Ellen Goodman

You have to hand it to Sarah Palin. I don't mean you have to hand her the 2012 nomination. Nor do you have to hand her the $24.64 I overpaid for "Going Rogue."

But let us give credit where credit card is due. Remember back in the 1990s when Hillary Clinton described herself as the Rorschach test for how people felt about the women's movement? Palin has become the latest test for shifting common ground and fault lines between sisterhood and sibling rivalry. Read the Rest of the Story.