Ketanji Brown Jackson IS HERE for us all because the path to Supreme Court nomination was paved by the tiny handful of notwhitemen on that bench before, and by Black women judges at state and federal level, few as they have been, indispensable!
Just five women and two African Americans, both men, are among the 115 people who have served on the United States’ highest court over more than two centuries…
[And KBJ actually has] more judicial experience than four of the current sitting members before their confirmations,,,combined..
[But reaching this moment in history is], in part, due to the work of the women and Black men – and to Black women judges dating back almost a century... early trailblazers [especially] noteworthy because even decades after their careers, [too] few Black women are judges at the state or federal level [now]…
I have spent nearly 30 years teaching and studying Black women’s politics, African American politics and constitutional law. I know, and Jackson herself knows, that she stands on the shoulders of the handful of Black women who wore the black robes of a judge before her….
Read more at the top link about ■ Jane Matilda Bolin — first Black female Yale Law School graduate, first Black female member of the New York Bar and of the NYC Law Department ■ Constance Baker Motley — first Black woman to argue cases before the highest court in the land, the very first a win ensuring attorney counsel to a defendant in a capital punishment case, and of her 10 total, won 9 outright, including the one that led to James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi, and the 10th eventually overturned in her favor after all. ■ Julia Cooper Mack — in 1975 becoming the first Black woman to sit on a federal appellate court, appointed by President Gerald R. Ford to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, participating in groundbreaking decisions across 14 years on that bench.
Representation matters: ... young girls of color [and all young women, and all minority youngsters, can learn to believe in aspiring] to reach their highest goals when they see others who have done so before them,
We don’t all have to be famous or newsworthy to be part of advancing society forward by how we live our lives. But we do need to first learn that it CAN be done by people of diversity, from seeing it happen. Please comment on non-mainstream women who’ve been inspirations in your life, well-known or invisible or anywhere in between.
Continuing with news, in no particular order:
TheConversation further describes how <big><big>Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court hearing is a flashback to how race and crime featured during Thurgood Marshall’s 1967 hearings</big></big>
The above article includes a huge photograph showing the nominee at a smallish table in middle of the hearing chambers literally surrounded by the hundreds of people involved...
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<big><big>EQUAL PAY DAY 2022 was March 15!</big></big>
This date usually changes annually, in symbolizing how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the year before.
This year, women are about 23% behind men. Still!!!!
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From CalMatters email, <big><big>signing into law a bill eliminating out-of-pocket costs for abortions and abortion-related services,</big></big> Gov. Newsom decried “continued attacks on reproductive freedom throughout the country”, calling California a counterweight to Texas and Florida in particular while Dem Cal lawmakers continue to advance reproductive health legislation, including a bill to combine state funding with philanthropy for helping low-income women here and from out-of-state access abortions.
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<big><big>Patricia Guerrero’s nomination to the California Supreme Court has been confirmed </big></big> and her swearing-in as the first Latina to serve on the state’s highest court is scheduled for March 28. In November, voters will decide whether to keep her in that office for the remaining four years of her predecessor’s term; former Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar stepped down last year to lead the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. [dk diary by Gabe Ortiz HERE]
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<big><big>HOW the future of the world’s largest group of religions is female and Black.</big></big>
...I research women in global Christianity and am frequently asked what percentage of the religion is female. The short answer is 52%. But the long answer is more complicated – women make up a much more substantial part of Christianity than that...
...At the start of 2019, Bill and Melinda Gates released a list of facts that had surprised them the previous year. Number four on their list: “Data can be sexist … There are huge gaps in the global data about women and girls...” My interest was piqued – not only as a demographer, but as a woman and mother of girls...
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<big><big>Colleges ROUTINELY fail</big></big> to ask about new hires’/interviewees’ sexual harassment histories.
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Research finds that <big><big>Abortion pills are just as safe to prescribe based on a patient’s medical history</big></big> as after an in-person exam,
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<big><big>New abortion law in Idaho lets relatives of the “preborn baby” sue a medical practitioner who aborts after 6 weeks.</big></big>Incest and rape are the exceptions providing the girl/woman files a police report & gives the practitioner a copy. Idaho’s governor signed it while admitting “I fear the novel civil enforcement mechanism will in short order be proven both unconstitutional and unwise,"
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<big><big>Does giving moms cash MAKE kids smarter?</big></big>
In his first State of the Union address, Pres. Biden broached a tax policy question of interest to public health experts, neuroscientists and pediatricians too — he urged lawmakers to extend the Child Tax Credit so no youngster has to grow up in poverty. (it’s worth noting the true moral outcome, that helping the individual tends to benefit society: healthier people cost society less and enjoy better lives.)
Apart from the usual political and budgetary calculus, science has turned to brain scans and rigorous studies to [learn] the effects of being raised in poverty and the difference [that could be better for] child development and long-term health...
Initial results from an ongoing study known as Baby's First Years suggest that providing extra money to mothers may influence brain activity in infants in ways that reflect improvements in cognitive ability….
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<big><big>“How prosthetic penises in shows like HBO’s ‘Minx’ reinforce existing stereotypes and taboos.”</big></big>
...As prosthetic penises have become more common in film and on TV [the media eagerly documents the trend with sly, coy, slang-laden headlines… But to me, [this costuming], and the way actors wielding them are deceptively [reported as] “full frontal nudity,” often reinforces existing taboos under a guise of progressivism and gender equality.
What’s wrong with just showing the real thing?...
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<big><big>Did you know June 23 is International Women in Engineering Day?</big> The Society of Women Engineers does!</big></big>
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<big><big>So. Dakota hotel & corporation accused of refusing service to at least 2 Native American women</big></big> and threatening to ban all Native Americans.
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<big><big>For Women's History Month Penn State Univ Libraries will host a virtual Wikipedia editathon focusing on Native American women activists</big></big> from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 29.
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<big><big>First Native American woman ever to serve as chair of the Kansas House of Representatives is asked by Republican house member whether her gavel is actually a tomahawk.</big></big> At the “mix of laughter and vocal disapproval” he “if-apologized” to Rep. Ponka-We Victors-Cozad, Wichita Democrat in the chair. She rejected the nonapology saying
she wouldn’t devalue Wheeler’s religion, place of worship or culture. She expected Wheeler to offer the same reverence and respect of other Kansans as he did his own religion and culture.
“I would like to think our elected public officials would know and understand this principle,” Victors-Cozad said.<big>“This is women’s history month and I am a proud Native American mother making history for the state of Kansas, </big>and Representative Wheeler did his best to tarnish these accomplishments. I firmly hold him accountable to his words and actions.”
Wheeler, 74, is a member of the Legislature’s joint committee on state-tribal relations [which] provides a bridge between the Legislature and the state’s four federally recognized tribes...
Before the House’s weekend adjournment, Topeka Dem Rep. John Alcala returned to Wheeler’s comment to requesting a genuine apology to Kansas’ three Native American women house members: Victors, Christina Haswood and Stephanie Byers. This incident follows Kansas Commissioner of Education Randy Watson saying in youth he tried to teach children safety (some reports say this was a metaphor for tornadoes) with the warning “You’ve got to worry about the Indians raiding the town at any time.” Gov. Laura Kelly called for Watson’s resignation, he submitted it to the Board of Education, they unanimously rejected it and instead suspended him for 30 days without pay.
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<big><big>MMIW </big>— Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women state task forces’ progress around the US</big>
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<big><big>HOW Melissa Lucio went from abuse survivor to death row</big></big>explains the ways interrogations traumatize their targets. And <big>Petition from the Innocence Project Stop the execution of Melissa Lucio.</big>
Melissa Lucio is facing execution on April 27, 2022, in Texas for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah — a crime that never occurred. Mariah died two days after accidentally falling down a steep flight of stairs and Melissa has maintained her innocence on death row for more than 14 years…..
…..Coerced false confessions are a leading cause of wrongful conviction and even more prevalent among women wrongly convicted of killing a child, like Melissa. As a survivor of lifelong sexual abuse and domestic violence, Melissa was especially vulnerable to police coercion, but at trial she was prevented from presenting any evidence that would have explained why she falsely confessed during the interrogation.
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<big><big>Why are Women Disappearing From Research Careers? And How to Get Them Back...</big></big>
Male MD+PhD article writer, a SCIENCE professional, describes the situation and suggests remedies. Interestingly, as supportive as he intends this article to be, its wording also illustrates how even well-intentioned & workplace experienced male feminists are suffused with misogynistic cultural assumptions (probably in the same way that antiracism and antipoverty advocates etc may be): ■ verbs and verb-forms that depict women as essentially passive ■ rights depicted as having been “given” rather than battled for to force out of the hands of men wanting to restrict rights ■ UN’s rights campaigns said first to “commemorate” women’s past achievements and contributions —as if saying we earned equal human status across history hence should be given our rights, rather than that we ARE equally human hence ENTITLED to equal rights— and that such campaigns “propose ways” to remedy inequities, not that they demand implementation of proven strategies for priotizing equal rights, which by golly are also proven to benefit the world and society as a whole. ■ implications that women create the obstacles and burdens of conventional motherhood & family through freely desiring and choosing it, rather than that psychological, financial, and legal factors FORCE women into that position, when the removal of force and an equal role for men would vastly decrease both the actual LACK of “choices” and bring the massive societal cost of remedies into manageable scale. ■ No acknowledgment that women might be choosing to work in applied science rather than research, far less what the factors in such choices might be…
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BESIDES WHICH <big><big>An emphasis on brilliance creates a toxic, dog-eat-dog workplace environment that discourages women who value cooperative routes to high achievement above</big></big>
“masculinity contest culture” – [an] atmosphere of ruthless competition that glorifies the more negative aspects of masculinity, like aggression. To thrive or even survive in these work cultures, employees must appear tough, conceal any weakness, put work above all else, be willing to step on others, and constantly watch their backs.
...And for both women and men in our study, the perception of a masculinity contest culture was associated with feeling like an impostor who does not belong….
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<big><big>Returning to Our Roots: How Nature Prescriptions Can Help Patients</big></big>
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors, and an additional 6% in enclosed vehicles...
Central Park was created largely as a solution to a health problem. In the mid-1800s, New York City saw a rapid rise in population that created "crowded, unhealthy conditions," and the park was devised as a way for city dwellers to experience a more rural environment without leaving town. In 1858, workers began constructing the park, planting half a million trees, shrubs, and vines. The end result cemented the city's status as a "world-class destination."
<big>Today, the link between nature and human health is as clear and as urgent as ever. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that simply spending time in natural environments can have significant positive effects on a wide range of mental and physical health issues, </big>from diabetes to anxiety. Over the last decade, a rising number of health professionals have begun to prescribe "doses" of time in nature to patients and to advocate for the rise of nature prescription programs throughout the world.
Like the construction of Central Park, the nature prescription phenomenon is, in part, a response to urbanization. Over the past few centuries, the rise of agriculture, the Industrial Revolution, and the development of increasingly complex technologies have led to westerners leading highly sedentary, screen-centric lifestyles in manmade surroundings….
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<big>from medscape: <big>Does The Us [even] Have Enough Abortion Providers?</big></big> (nope)
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<big>from KHN <big>As States Impose Abortion Bans, Young Clinicians Struggle to Travel Far To Learn the Procedures</big></big> because medication-abortion alone cannot meet the full range of needs, but the numbers of those practitioners is constantly dwindling.
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<big><big>WOMEN INVISIBLE IN STEM</big></big>
Television p.s.a.s tell girls “If you can see her, you can be here.”
Aside from farmers on behemoth tractors at one extreme and famous male chefs at the other, food is usually considered ‘women’s work’. Yet the Institute of Food Technologists’ promotion of their annual FIRST (= Food Improved by Research, Science, and Technology) conference offered THIS graphic, demonstrating yet another STEM awareness recognition gap.
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<big><big>Asian-American Mothers confront multiple crises of pandemic, anti-Asian hate and caregiving</big></big>
In memory of the Atlanta massage spas shootings on March 16, 2021, that killed eight people, including six Asian women, communities around the country gathered a year later to mourn and demand responses to violence against Asian Americans, especially women who work in service industries.
In addition to being exposed to risks at their workplaces, Asian American women who care for children and elders are especially vulnerable to anti-Asian violence. As sociologists and scholars of gender, race, immigration and Asian American studies, we focus on the particular challenges facing Asian American mothers.
Though they face challenges similar to those faced by other mothers confronting the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian American women have the added burden of being seen as the cause of the virus and being disproportionately targeted by hostility and violence that such misconceptions bring on.
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<big><big>Madeleine Albright May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022</big></big>
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright[1] (born Marie Jana Korbelová) was an American diplomat best known as the first female secretary of state in U.S. history, serving in Pres. Bill Clinton’s administration, among the 64th in that office overall by then.
Albright immigrated with her family to the United States in 1948 from Czechoslovakia. Her father, diplomat Josef Korbel, settled the family in Denver, Colorado, and she became a U.S. citizen in 1957... graduated from Wellesley in 1959 and earned a PhD from Columbia University in 1975, writing her thesis on the Prague Spring.[7] She worked as an aide to Senator Edmund Muskie before taking a position under Zbigniew Brzezinski on the National Security Council [and] served in that position until Pres. Jimmy Carter left office in 1981.
...Albright then joined the academic faculty of Georgetown University and advised Democratic candidates regarding foreign policy. After Clinton's 1992 election, Albright helped assemble his National Security Council. In 1993, he appointed her U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a position she held until becoming Secretary of State, 1997-2001, the end of the Clinton administration.
Albright served as chair of the Albright Stonebridge Group, a consulting firm, and was the Michael and Virginia Mortara Endowed Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.] In 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Pres. Obama. Albright served on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations.…. [full article at the top link]
“Abe Foxman, who often dealt with Albright when he headed the ADL and she was first UN Ambassador and then Secretary of State, put it: “She was tough on negotiating and debating issues but a warm caring human being in one-on-ones…. she could extract an encyclopedia from a passer-by, and make him grateful for it.”
Never fully trusting State Department bureaucrats, she was known to refer to them as “The White Boys.” Adept at outmaneuvering statesmen — always men — who thought they knew much better than she did, she also delighted in subsequent years in the fact that two close friends, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, later held the office of Secretary of State, too.
She hated macho posturing. If she had a credo, she stated it at the U.N. Security Council in 1996, after the Cuban air force shot down two small civilian craft attempting to flee the country, killing four people aboard. “... this is not cojones,” she said. “This is cowardice.”
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<big>Opinion: Hillary Clinton <big>“Madeleine Albright Warned Us, and She Was Right.</big> We can honor her memory by heeding her wisdom….”</big>
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<big>NYT <big>What Is Driving Vladimir Putin?</big></big> By Alexandra Alter— March 25, 2022
In an interview more than two decades ago, Vladimir V. Putin described his younger self, with a hint of self-congratulation, as “a hooligan.” When the interviewer asked if he was exaggerating about his tendency to get into brawls as a schoolboy, Putin took offense.
“You are trying to insult me,” he said. “I was a real thug.”
<big>Masha Gessen,</big> a Russian American journalist and Moscow native, recounts this exchange in a 2012 biography, “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin,” which was praised as “part psychological profile, part conspiracy study” in The New York Times Book Review. To Gessen, Putin’s unabashed description of himself as “a thug” was key to his self-image: someone who could not be bullied, who would lash out unpredictably if he felt slighted and who relished violence.
Understanding Putin and the forces that shaped him has become an urgent global concern, as leaders around the world try to determine his motivations in launching an unprovoked and disastrous invasion of Ukraine, how to best engage with him and how the conflict might evolve………..
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