Special thanks to Ramara and Tara the Antisocial Socialworker for links to great stories.
THE EMPTY CHAIR
While Bill Cosby and his defenders continue to proclaim his innocence even in the face of accusations by over 35 women, another case of a high-profile, highly successful man accused of being a serial rapist who drugged his victims got a lot less publicity. And this serial rapist was arrested and indicted.
Darren Sharper is a former NFL player who was on the New Orleans Saints team that won the 2010 Superbowl. That season, he set an NFL record for most runs from intercepted balls.
Before the story of his secret life as a serial rapist was exposed, his only interactions with police on record were for loud noise in his college dorm and a traffic ticket in Wisconsin.
The worst part of this story is how long it took for authorities to finally put the evidence together and make an arrest. If the police had taken the statements made by women who identified Darren Sharper as their assailant as seriously as they take statements from victims of other crimes; if their reports of sexual assault had not been reclassified as “miscellaneous investigations” by some investigators; if DNA evidence had not been destroyed; if information had been shared between police departments in multiple states; if, if, if…..then the list of his victims would have been shorter, and he would have been behind bars years ago.
The International Police Chiefs Association and women’s advocacy groups have long issued “best practice” recommendations for police investigating rape charges. Research indicates that there is at least a one-in-four chance that the rapist is a repeat offender. When the victim can identify the rapist, then best practice would be to investigate the past history of the suspect to see if he has been accused before.
But over and over, investigators decided the victims were not credible witnesses, without ever looking at the man they accused, because Darren Sharper was a football hero.
There are Empty Chairs all over the world. So many women are too afraid or too ashamed to speak out because they see what happens to the victims who do tell authorities they’ve been raped. It’s time to stop blaming rape victims, and start holding accountable the police, prosecutors, judges and college administrators who have failed us all so terribly over and over again.
http://www.npr.org/...
- - - - -
LATEST ON BILL COSBY DENIALS AND MEDIA COVERAGE:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
http://nymag.com/...
http://www.cnn.com/...
- - - - -
But it’s not just Celebrities who are getting away with sexual assault. Even among “Humanitarians,” relief workers who have gone into war zones and disaster areas to bring food and medical supplies to desperate people, there are sexual predators.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND DISCRIMINATION
http://www.theguardian.com/...
RAPE AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE
http://www.theguardian.com/...
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
BANGLADESH
BLOGGER Who Supported Women's Rights Hacked to Death
http://www.npr.org/...
- - - - -
CHINA
WOMAN Jailed for Using Her BREAST as a Weapon! No, This ISN’T a Joke.
http://www.bbc.com/...
Activists Wear Bras to Protest Breast-as-Weapon Sentencing
http://www.aljazeera.com/...
- - - - -
EGYPT
Harsh Conditions in Prison for Detainee Who Remains UNCHARGED
http://www.aljazeera.com/...
- - - - -
FRANCE
Women and Children in Calais Migrant Camps Need Better Protection
http://www.theguardian.com/...
- - - - -
INDIA
The “MISSING” Art Project Calls Attention to Girls Disappearing Into the Sex Trade
http://www.theguardian.com/...
- - - - -
MALAYSIA
SE Asian Women Gather to Address the Plight of ROHINGYA Women and Children
http://www.ht-bangladesh.info/...
- - - - -
MEXICO
MEXICAN WOMEN Rallying Against Domestic Violence
http://www.aljazeera.com/...
EVERY FOUR HOURS, a Woman in Mexico is Killed, But There Are Few Arrests or Convictions
http://www.aljazeera.com/...
- - - - -
NIGERIA
More Boko Haram CAPTIVES Freed
http://www.aljazeera.com/...
- - - - -
SWEDEN
Swedes Rename GIRLY Parts
http://www.theguardian.com/...
- - - - -
TURKEY
When You're So SEXIST, You Don't Even Know When You Insulted a Woman
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/...
The REAL COST of War: Air Strikes From Turkey Kill 450 Civilians in Iraq and Syria
http://www.theguardian.com/...
- - - - -
UNITED KINGDOM
Women and Minority JUDGES Not Moving Up the Judicial Hierarchy
http://www.theguardian.com/...
MACABRE and DECEITFUL – Women's Museum “Hi-Jacked” – Now a Jack-the-Ripper Exhibition
http://www.vice.com/...
“ FASHION” NEWS
Out of FASHION
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...
- - - - -
A Hairy POLITICAL Issue
http://www.theguardian.com/...
- - - - -
SEXIER Than What?
http://www.theguardian.com/...
- - - - -
Will the Mall Have a Store With Clothing for Women of ALL Sizes?
http://www.luckyshops.com/...
- - - - -
MAKEUP: Mask or Enhancement? Is Truth Beauty?
http://www.manrepeller.com/...
- - - - -
If Fashion Ads Showed MEN the Same Way as They Show Women
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
ECONOMICS: WHAT ARE WOMEN REALLY WORTH?
Women have tremendous spending power in America today — and it’s growing. Market estimates about their total purchasing power varies, ranging anywhere from $5 trillion to $15 trillion annually. Women account for 85% of all consumer purchases including everything from autos to health care.
http://she-conomy.com/...
“By the 1910s, advertisers and manufacturers had begun to see women as the "chief purchasing agents" for their families, buying most of the household’s food, clothing, appliances, and other goods.”
http://www.albany.edu/...
So it’s pretty old news that women are the primary purchasers. The article quoted above talks about the propaganda put out by advertisers to turn making purchases from a chore to a “leisure activity” – SHOPPING – and how it became trivialized because it was something for women to do.
Maybe we need to start telling Big Business we want a lot more for our consumer dollars than we’ve been getting. Like a Living Wage, Equal Pay, Corporate Diversity, Paid Leave, Sick Days…...
AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE
Court Rules BOMB THREAT Was Not Free Speech
http://rhrealitycheck.org/...
- - - - -
More Fallout from the Supreme Court HOBBY LOBBY Decision
http://college.usatoday.com/...
GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS!
- - - - -
KENYAN WOMEN Develop Successful New Method of Growing Small Crops
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
- - - - -
The AMAZING Betty Reid Soskin — 93 YEAR OLD Park Ranger!
http://www.doi.gov/...
- - - - -
Maria Mitchell, SUPER STAR
http://motherboard.vice.com/...
- - - - -
Determined Five-Year-Old Girl SAVES Her Mother and Baby Brother
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...
- - - - -
Article Shows Value of DIVERSITY
http://www.theguardian.com/...
- - - - -
One SYRIAN REFUGEE’S Impact in Turkey
http://www.unhcr.org/...
- - - - -
Australia's MALE Champions of Change and Liz Broderick
http://www.theguardian.com/...
- - - - -
If You Build a BETTER PRINCESS…..New Books For Little Girls
http://www.theguardian.com/...
FOOD FOR UNCOMFORTABLE THOUGHTS
U.S.A. – Is Mainstream Feminism Failing WOMEN OF COLOR?
http://america.aljazeera.com/...
- - - - -
U.K. – POPULATION CONTROL May Not Save the Environment
http://www.theguardian.com/...
- - - - -
What's in a NAME?
http://jezebel.com/...
- - - - -
Speaking from Experience – Sexism is a GLOBAL Issue
http://www.theguardian.com/...
- - - - -
No Surprise – Few Women in TECHNOLOGY and UPPER MANAGEMENT
http://www.theguardian.com/...
MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND CELEBRATE WOMEN’S EQUALITY DAY, AUGUST 26
https://www.nwhm.org/...
August 26th is the anniversary of national woman suffrage. During the seventy-two years between the first major women’s rights conference at Seneca Falls, NY, in 1848, and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, thousands of people participated in marches through cities like New York and Washington DC, wrote editorials and pamphlets, gave speeches across the nation, lobbied political organizations, and held demonstrations to achieve voting rights for women. Women also picketed the White House with questions like, “Mr. President, what are you going to do about woman’s suffrage?” “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” This was the first time that a group of people picketed the White House.
The woman suffrage amendment was first introduced to the U.S. Congress on January 10, 1878. It was re-submitted numerous times until finally in June 1919 the amendment received approval from both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Over the following year the suffragists spent their time lobbying states in order to have the amendment ratified by the required two-thirds of the states. On August 24th, the final state needed for ratification, Tennessee, signed the approval by one vote. The vote belonged to Harry Burn, who heeded his mother when she urged him to vote yes on suffrage. U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the amendment into law on August 26, 1920.
Fifty years later on August 26th, 1970, Betty Friedan and the National Organization For Women (NOW) organized a nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality. Women across the political spectrum joined together to demand equal opportunities in employment, education, and child-care centers. This was the largest protest for gender equality in U.S. history. In Demonstrations in more than 90 major cities and small towns over 100,000 women participated.
AUGUST - WOMEN TRAIL BLAZERS AND EVENTS IN OUR HISTORY
• August 1, 1923 – Beatrice Medicine born, Standing Rock Sioux anthropologist, wrote Learning to Be an Anthropologist and Remaining Native
• August 2, 1902 – Mina Rees born, mathematician, first woman president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1971)
• August 3, 1905 – Maggie Kuhn born, senior rights activist, founded the Gray Panthers
• August 4, 1890 – Barbara Armstrong born, lawyer, first female law professor at a major university, Boalt Hall, at the University of California at Berkeley, expert on social economics
• August 6, 1886 – Inez Milholland Boissevain born, lawyer, suffrage leader; in white gown on a white horse, led a suffrage parade in Washington, DC, during Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration
Inez Milholland Boissevain
• August 6, 1903 –Virginia Durr born, civil rights activist, author, founding member of the Southern Conference on Human Welfare
• August 6, 1911 – Lucille Ball born, comedian, actress, and television executive, TV series “I Love Lucy,” first woman owner of major television studio, Desilu Productions
• August 6, 1965 – The Voting Rights Act outlaws the discriminatory literacy tests that had been used to prevent African Americans from voting. Suffrage is finally fully extended to African American women
• August 8, 1969 - Executive order 11478 issued by Nixon requires all federal departments and agencies establish and maintain affirmative action programs of equal employment opportunity for civilian employees and applicants
• August 9, 1919 – Leona Woods Marshall Libby born, physicist, only woman on team building world’s first nuclear reactor,worked on the Manhattan Project, professor at NYU and UCLA
• August 9, 1995 - Roberta Cooper Ramo becomes first woman president of the American Bar Association
• August 10, 1993 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg sworn in as second woman/107th Justice on US Supreme Court
• August 11, 1941– Elizabeth Holtzman born, youngest woman elected to U.S. Congress, (D-NY), first woman District Attorney in NYC
• August 11, 1942– Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil got a patent for a weapons communication system which later became part of GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology.
• August 12, 1889 – Zerna Sharp born, author, “Dick and Jane,” helped create popular reading series
• August 12, 1972 - Wendy Rue founds National Association for Female Executives (NAFE)
• August 13, 1818 – Lucy Stone born, suffragist, supported rights for women and African Americans, boldly kept her own name when she married
• August 13, 1893 – Eva Dykes born, first African-American woman to earn a doctoral degree (in English from Radcliffe), professor at Howard University, and Chair of the English Dept. at Oakwood College
• August 14, 1986 – Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper retires from active duty in the US Navy. A pioneering computer scientist and inventor of the computer language COBOL, she was the oldest officer still on active duty at the time of her retirement
• August 14, 1899 – Caroline Ware born, history professor, pioneer in “cultural approach to History,” expert on consumer affairs, American Association of University Women Committee on Social Studies
Ethel Payne
• August 14, 1911 – Ethel Payne born, first African American female radio and television commentator at a national news organization (CBS)
• August 15, 1903 – Ellen Winston born, first U.S. Commissioner of Welfare in the Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare
• August 15, 1913 – Aurora Castillo born, community activist, co-founded Mothers of East Los Angeles, opposed proposed prison and hazardous waste dump in East L.A.
• August 15, 1918 – Fay Knopp born, pacifist, feminist, prison reformer, member of Women Strike for Peace, pioneered humane treatment of prisoners through compassion and belief that people can change
• August 17, 1891 – Marion Kenworthy born, psychiatrist, 1st woman president American Psychoanalytic Association, professor at NY School of Social Work (now Columbia University School of Social Work)
• August 17, 1893 – Mae West born, iconic actress, screenwriter, started in Vaudeville, starred in plays, movies, radio, and television
• August 17, 1906 – Hazel Bishop born, chemist, created first “kiss-proof” lipstick, founder Hazel Bishop, Inc. cosmetics company..
• August 17, 1927 – Elaine Hedges born, educator, writer, Women’s Studies pioneer, co-founder National Women’s Studies Association, founder Towson University’s Women’s Studies Program
• August 18, 1893 – Ragini Devi born, American classical and folk ethnographic dance specialist, author Dance Dialects of India, performed with her daughter and granddaughter
• August 18, 1902 – Leona Baumgartner born, physician, first woman commissioner of the NYC Dept. of Health head of the U.S. Agency for International Development
• August 18, 1927 – Rosalynn Carter born, U.S. First Lady, politically activist focused on mental health, senior citizens, and community voluntarism, co-founded the Carter Center with her husband
• August 19, 1895 – Vera Weisbord born, radical activist, labor organizer, feminist and painter, organized women textile worker strikes, Civil Rights Movement, wrote her autobiography, A Radical Life
• August 19, 1920 – Donna Allen born, founder of Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press, to publicize women’s issues which were ignored by the main stream media
• August 22, 1883 – Ruth Underhill born, anthropology professor, traveled with native women to learn their history, wrote of the Papago Native American culture, and taught in the Bureau of Indian Affairs schools
• August 22, 1912 – Cornelia “Coya” Knutson born, first woman elected to U.S. Congress from Minnesota, first woman on the Agriculture Committee
• August 23, 1899 – Grace Chu born, cookbook author, emigrated from Shanghai with a Wellesley College scholarship, taught Chinese cooking, wrote Madame Chu’s Cooking School Cookbook
• August 23, 1902 - Fanny Farmer opens the “School of Cookery” in Boston, MA
• August 26, 1898 – Peggy Guggenheim born, modern art collector, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, a major museum of modern art in Venice, Italy
• August 26, 1908 – Cynthia Wedel born, first woman President of National Council of Churches, president of World Council of Churches, advocate for women’s equality in churches
• August 26, 1920 – 19th Amendment of US Constitution ratified granting women the right to vote
• August 26, 1935 – Geraldine Ferraro born, first woman to run for Vice President of the U.S. on a major party ticket, attorney, U.S. Congresswoman (D-NY)
• August 26, 1970 – Betty Friedan leads a nationwide protest, the Women’s Strike for Equality, in NYC on the fiftieth anniversary of women’s suffrage
• August 26, 1971 – First “Women’s Equality Day,” initiated by Representative Bella Abzug, established by Presidential Proclamation and reaffirmed annually
• August 28, 1963 – More than 250,000 gather for a march on Washington, DC, and listen to Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech
• August 29, 1913 – Sylvia Kaye born, lyricist and composer, wrote over 100 songs for her husband, Danny Kaye, television producer, and teacher
• August 30, 1907 – Luisa Moreno born, labor leader, Mexican-American civil rights activist, emigrated from Guatemala, helped organize“El Congreso del Pueblo de Habla Espanola” (Spanish-Speaking Peoples Congress), United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA)
Luisa Moreno
• August 30, 1984 – Judith A. Resnick, second US woman in space, on 1st flight space shuttle Discovery
http://www.nwhp.org/...