Power of the Positive Woman

Hi all,

Hope everyone's final week has been going well, only a few more days left!

I just wanted to share a book that is on my reading list that we read a brief excerpt from in class.

The book's title is Power of the Positive Woman and it was written by Phyllis Schlafly, one of of the most infamous activists of the modern women's movement.

I wrote about her for my final essay and was intrigued by why she chose her ideologies and what she believed in. Although many of her arguments may have been controversial, I found out that she did strive to protect women who felt threatened by the liberation movement. She worked actively as well to help protect the choices of mothers, who truly wanted to be mothers. Perhaps these might be a few of her efforts as an activist that should not be completely disregarded.

She wrote a book called Power of the Positive Woman, where she embraces motherhood. Although her arguments depend on my faulty assumptions and gaping generalizations, I am sure that her book is an interesting read!

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Positive-Woman-Phyllis-Schlafly/dp/0515058408

13 Women Who Should Run for President in 2020

Just wanted to share this article I saw on the New Yorker about thirteen amazing women who should consider running for president in 2020. On the list are several awesome people, including almost all of the female senators and a few female representatives, as well as businesswomen (Sheryl Sandberg) and Republican politicians (Susan Collins and Nikki Haley)!

Definitely worth a read: http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/thirteen-women-who-should-think-about-running-for-president-in-2020?intcid=popular

Hidden Figures movie

I found this movie trailer a couple days ago and it looks like it should be really good. It tells the story of three African American women who worked for NASA when they were sending John Glenn into orbit. It seems like it should be pretty historically accurate too, as at least one of the actual women is helping with the plot line. Check it out, and good luck on finals this week!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK8xHq6dfAo

A New Face on the Canadian Dollar Bill

Hello all! I just came across this news that my friend posted on Facebook. Black rights activist Viola Desmond is the 1st Canadian woman on the $10 bill. Fun fact: she was known as "Canada's Rosa Parks" 9 years before the incident in Montgomery, Alabama with Parks herself! Instead of the bus, she occupied a seat in the Roseland Theatre (and very close to my name!) in the "whites-only" section.

Find out more about the story here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-banknote-woman-1.3885844

East Side Sushi

Over Thanksgiving break, I watched a part of this movie with my family that we happened to stumble upon on TV. As I was watching it, I realized how pertinent the themes of the movie fits with our class! It's called East Side Sushi and it's about a Latina woman, Juana, who wants to become a sushi chef while she is working in a Japanese restaurant as an underpaid kitchen assistant. However, the very traditional, male Japanese owner refused to promote her even though she demonstrated her passion and self-taught skill. As a woman of color, Juana faced double discrimination by her gender and racial discrimination from her boss.

I don't want to give away the whole plot, but I would say it's a movie that I highly recommend for you to watch with your friends and family over break! (It has a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes!) Click on the link to watch the trailer!

How Politics Killed Universal Child Care In The 1970s

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports on how in 1971, the United States came very close to having universal, federally subsidized child care. This piece examines how Congress came to pass the legislation, and why President Nixon vetoed it. It expands on the story that Gail Collins tells in When Everything Changed.

American Revolutionary: The life of Chinese-American civil rights activist Grace Lee Boggs

Check out this trailer for a new documentary about Grace Lee Boggs, a Chinese-American radical activist who devoted 70 years to the black freedom struggle and other social movements. Her story is extraordinary!

"Womenomics" in Japan

I'm taking a sociology class at Pomona this semester called Population & the Environment. For our final projects, one student presented on Japan's aging population, and brought up the idea of increasing the number of women in the Japanese workforce.

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe set a goal that 30% of the top executive positions in the country would be held by women by 2020—the program was called "Womenomics." Last year, however, his administration had to lower the percentage target to 7%, because it just wasn't working.

Many attribute this failure to the fact that women's and men's social roles are still resolutely held in Japan, and women are expected to stay at home with children. However, I looked into it a little more, and this doesn't seem to be entirely true—I found another article showing that women's (15-64) participation in the workforce in Japan is greater than that of the United States.

The corporate world in Japan is not just a boys' club - it's an old men's club. In my opinion, there might just be a prejudice that young people can't achieve positions of executive management—let alone women getting up at the top, which might be unheard of, given the existence of "salarymen" as such a defining job term.

I think it's interesting to see how a governmental action could affect decisions in the private sector. I'm not too sure yet what the consequences or incentives are for achieving Abe's goal, but I don't think anything like this would ever happen in the US. If it did, do you guys think it would work? 

The Forum: Women at CMC over the Years

Hi all,

I just wanted to share a brief article on the CMC newspaper-the Forum. The article is written by a senior ant its titled "Woman at CMC Over the Years"  .

In this article, she traces what its like being a women at CMC and how there is always so much pressure to be attractive, popular and successful on both men and women at our school.

One interesting thing she talks about how even in 1959, CMC was portrayed in media, such as Harper's Magazine that CMC's student body consists of"exuberantly extroverted, tireless cheerleaders of fun, and, in their own self-image, mad bad playboys".

Thus, after examining quotes, such as these, she begins discussing how at times, it has been difficult navigating CMC as a women and truly understanding her identity here at CMC. She also cites an interesting, discussion with an administrator at CMC, who mentioned that in order to succeed at CMC, a women has to be "tough and hot".

I think that a lot of the points discussed in the article, resonate with similar issues we discussed in class in When Everything Changed by Gail Collins. I hope this article is interesting as well for everyone, it was great food for thought for me. 

sexism, racism, and different health outcomes

Hello all,

In this week's reading, Sheryl Sandberg explains, "Men and women also differ when it comes to explaining failure. When a man fails, he points to factors like 'didn't study enough' or 'not interested in the subject matter.' When a woman fails, she is more likely to believe it is due to an inherent lack of ability." (30)

This quote reminded me of a speech I heard at a community health workshop in Jamaica Plain, Boston. It's a speech I try to repeat whenever possible. Essentially it goes as follows.

1) Women and racial minorities are more likely to take their failures personally--attributing them to inherent shortcomings or lack of effort. They also may perceive that they have experienced bias or discrimination.
2) These factors lead to chronic stress. Minority women are constantly wondering if a failure was due to their own personal failure or to an unfair system. They still cannot imagine that it was just the luck of the draw (as other non-minority men might feel) and had nothing to do with them. Especially in the face of discrimination, whether blatant or just suspected, stress levels spike.
3) Chronic stress over a lifetime leads to concrete health disparities--risk of heart disease, weight problems, risk of getting cancer, issues conceiving and bearing children, and life expectancy.

I may dramatize the point a bit when I stress, "if at all possible, let some of your failures just go. Lingering on them too long is literally killing you." Still, I think the idea holds. Here are some studies I've found on the topic.

Cortisol and Cardiac Reactivity in the Context of Sex Discrimination: The Moderating Effects of Mood and Perceived Control : http://www.bentham-open.com/contents/pdf/TOPSYJ/TOPSYJ-1-1.pdf

From “In the Air” to “Under the Skin”: Cortisol Responses to Social Identity Threat: http://wendyberrymendes.com/cms/uploads/Townsend,%20Gangi,%20Major%20and%20Mendes,%202011.pdf

Associations Between Self-Reported Discrimination and Diurnal Cortisol Rhythms Among Young Adults: The Moderating Role of Racial-Ethnic Minority Status: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4254319/#R34

Health Disparities and Stress: https://www.apa.org/topics/health-disparities/stress.pdf

Discrimination and racial disparities in health: evidence and needed research: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2821669/

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Diurnal Cortisol Rhythms in Preadolescents: The Role of Parental Psychosocial Risk and Monitoring: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3419379/

Stress-Induced Inflammatory Responses in Women: Effects of Race and Pregnancy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3788648/

NY Times Article Discusses What Hillary's Campaign and Concession Speech Mean for Women Everywhere

I actually came across this article right after the election and thought it was a really interesting discussion of the outcome. I particularly found it interesting that she discussed how Clinton played by the rules. That seems to be a big problem for women in positions of power, that they feel they have to play by the rules in order to maintain their status and look like they are not causing any trouble. I really liked that they took the quote from Clinton's childhood friend and unpacked it, because, at least for me, I was troubled by the quote at first, but with more discussion, she was right and in addition, the quote and discussion of it show how belittled women are even when they are in positions of power.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/opinion/girls-can-be-anything-just-not-president.html?_r=0

A new kind of tampon advertisement

http://www.upworthy.com/yes-theres-blood-in-this-tampon-commercial-and-yes-its-awesome?c=ufb2

This tampon ad is awesome! I think that putting ads like this on tv would seriously change the way we publicly talk about the female period!

Free Tampons New York

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-city-mayor-bill-de-blasio-signs-tampons-free-law_us_5787bc57e4b08608d3336b27

I came across this article while doing research for another class and it really surprised me that I had not considered this debate before: why are feminine hygiene products not something that we see in every bathroom just as we see toilet paper or hand soap?

Gail Collins on the recount

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share this new article by Gail Collins, explaining her thoughts on the Green Party/Jill Stein-led recount, filled with her trademark humor and insightful political commentary (a great mix of 70% humor, 30% political commentary).

Here's my favorite, the ending to the article:

I’m bringing that up just so I can note that John Quincy Adams is the only person besides Rutherford B. Hayes who won the presidency with a worse negative percentage of the popular vote than Donald Trump. Big loser! Sad!

O.K., done ranting. For today.

Her Loss - Collection of NYTimes Opinions

Some of you may have seen this already, but these are a series of extremely moving and well-written opinion articles from New York Times staff. This paragraph from the first really spoke to me (and I think it will resonate with a lot of you too) in describing the emotion that came after Hillary's loss:

"I cried because I want my daughters to feel that blazing pride, that affirmation of their boundless capacity — not from their husbands, but from their world, from the atmosphere, from inviolable wells of certainty inside themselves. I cried because it’s not fair, and I’m so tired, and every woman I know is so tired. I cried because I don’t even know what it feels like to be taken seriously — not fully, not in that whole, unequivocal, confident way that’s native to handshakes between men. I cried because it does things to you to always come second."

Check it out here: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/opinion/election-night-2016/her-loss

tough guise

hi friends!

following up from my comment on class.
here's a online video of the documentary i was talking about - 'tough guise 2':
https://vimeo.com/85972105

i highly encourage you all to share the video with the teenage boys you know in your life... i think that this as a resource would've helped me infinitely in terms of understanding myself, masculinity, and would've given me a lot of insight that i needed at the time.

if you've seen it before i'd love to discuss the documentary with you!!

Celebrities that don't Consider Themselves Feminists + some that do!

I was curious to see which celebrities and other famous figures did not identify as feminists. Some of these may shock you! This is especially tragic when you think about how much influence many of these women influence young women and girls who turn to media to shape their beliefs and identities. Clearly these women are very confused...someone has to teach them. 

https://www.bustle.com/articles/117519-9-female-celebrities-whove-bad-mouthed-feminism

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/feminist-celebrities_n_4460416.html

http://www.glamour.com/story/6-famous-women-who-say-theyre

Also...can we all talk about how the term "humanist" in response to feminist is a glorified version of "all lives matter" which seeks to undermine the women's movement? 

On a more positive note, here are male celebrities that identify as feminists! HOORAY! 

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/a32323/celebrity-male-feminists/

A Personal Anecdote on Stereotypes of Feminists

I have been recently thinking about the stereotypes for feminists. We are all familiar with many of them--bra burners, angry unhappy career-hungry women who reject having a family, man-haters, women who have a lot of sex, "pro-abortion" women encouraging all women to not having children.

I recently went up to Ellensburg Washington to visit my grandmother for her 81st birthday. I love my grandmother; however, I find it extremely difficult to express my identity with her and the rest of my father's family for that matter. They are white, extremely conservative (one step up from the alt-right), "farm folk" and Trump supporters. I have never fully felt comfortable with them because they are extremely vocal about their hate for immigrants, for people of color, for liberals--in short, they are extremely vocal about their hate for every aspect of my identity. I think many times that the only reason they love me is because I came out light skinned with blue eyes, like my father, rather than dark skinned with brown eyes, like my Latina mother. I have always had to endure snide comments about my ethnicity and my Latinidad from them which, like a good and polite little girl I had to nod and smile to, later coming back home, crying to my mother, asking her why they hated who I was at my very core. Since coming to college, meeting and interacting with like-minded individuals, I have become more vocal about my anger for their hatred of anyone different than them. Instead of  crying to my always comforting mother, I have begun to get into heated arguments with my "family" from any issues ranging from pro-choice, support of gay marriage, immigration reform, and most recently, feminism.

During my most recent visit to hicksville, my grandmother had her car towed to a service station, where she and I waited for about a half hour, while her tires were being replaced. We were both waiting inside the car as they replaced her tires. I noticed that there were about 10 men, working on her car, a small job needing only 1 person. I didn't think too much of it until after we left the service station. My grandmother remarked, "did you notice those darling men staring at you back there?" I replied that I felt extremely uncomfortable with that situation, that I felt objectified and couldn't stand that those men would make such an effort to do such a thing. My grandmother got angry with that comment and told me to stop being such a "goddamn femi-nazi." I looked at her in disbelief and anger and sat in silence, processing her comment. She went on saying that "boys will be boys Larissa, you should be flattered they looked at you. All women love attention from men and a lot of women are too ugly to get it! Feel proud." I didn't feel proud. I felt angry and sick to my stomach. Her argument, "boys will be boys" is the same logic that encourages rape culture in this country, its is the same logic that forces women to regulate what they wear and how they act, because boys can't help themselves! It is the same logic that sets women's liberation back centuries. I tried to explain to her that this was not sound logic. That she had offended me with that comment. But it was fruitless. She is elderly and I do not expect much change from her. Later on during my trip, my aunts and uncles asked me whether I had a boyfriend and when I responded that I did not, I received an array of comments on my relationship status: "Kalle [my brain-dead boy obsessed cousin] has had many boyfriends, you gotta catch up to her!" "You're not one of those lesbians are you?" "Oh Larissa, it's not your looks that keep them away." "Don't you want a boyfriend? Aren't you miserable without one?" "Don't become one of those ugly hairy-legged feminists that hates men." (These are all direct quotes--I made an effort to write them down as I heard them, assuming I would be able to use them at some point).

With these people, feminism is a dirty word. To them, even the younger generation, a woman's place is in the home. Women can work, but probably shouldn't in order not to emasculate her husband/boyfriend. They see feminists as evil and unhappy women who hate men. But the most unfortunate part of this, is realizing that their views are not isolated, that so many other across out country belief or think in the same ways that my family does. Feminism to many has become a negative word. Most assume the definition of feminism is "women over men" rather than it's real definition: "The social, economic, and political equality between the sexes."  

Divisions in My Dorm Room Op Ed series

When we were talking about creating a space for Trump supporters to have their voices heard on college campuses in the wake of the election, I stumbled across this pair of articles while reading other articles and I thought it was very thought provoking. I think the op ed published by the Trump supporter makes a very compelling argument, but I also think that it is very difficult to get to the world that she wants to see.

Obama Signed to Permanently Fund Planned Parenthood

Obama is still doing amazing things with the short amount of time he has left in office. Take a look!

http://www.nationofchange.org/2016/09/17/obama-just-protected-planned-parenthood-funding-permanently/

How Obama’s Female Staffers Made Sure Their Voices Were Heard

Here's a pretty cool article about the women in Obama's staff and how they worked together to make sure that their voices were heard in rooms full of men.

As a sneak peak: Female staffers adopted a meeting strategy they called “amplification”: When a woman made a key point, other women would repeat it, giving credit to its author. This forced the men in the room to recognize the contribution — and denied them the chance to claim the idea as their own.

http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/09/heres-how-obamas-female-staffers-made-their-voices-heard.html

Free To Be ... You and Me

Here are a few clips from Marlo Thomas's 1974 TV special, "Free to Be.. You and Me":

"William Wants a Doll"

"Princess Atalantis"

"Parents are People"

Opening sequence

Interview Miss Representation Director/Writer

Hello All!

If anyone is interested, here is an interview from huffpost with Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the writer and director of Miss Representation. It also features remarks on the subject by others, including Nancy Pelosi!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-schnall/miss-representation-a-gro_b_1017303.html

No Breakthrough at Top of Ticket, But Women of Color Gain in Congress

Here's a helpful summary of election results from the Center for American Women and Politics.

The Misrepresentation of Women in Media

Hi all,

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving break. Over the break, I watched Miss Representation and was fascinated/concerned by the points raised in the movie.

I did a little research and found an interesting/brief piece that gives a few statistics on the misrepresentation of women in media in the United States. The article can be found here.

Here are a few excerpts from the piece that stood out to me!

"For production of the 250 top-grossing domestically made films of 2013, women accounted for 16 percent of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers and editors, slightly lower than the 2012 and 1998 figures." 

"Two women—1.09 percent—were among the 183 sports talk radio hosts on Talkers magazine’s “Heavy Hundred” list. The Top Ten among Talker’s news talk show “Heavy Hundred” included no women."


This article was released by the Women's Media Center, an organization that seeks to achieve the "goal of making women visible and powerful in the media."

Please feel free to read more about their work here. 

Trump likes Gail Collins!

Just reading through the transcript of NYTimes's interview with Trump and found this excerpt:

Btw - I highly recommend reading it! Of course, it's Trump speaking as Trump, but I think it's really important to see what his concrete plans are for the future, and the New York Times obviously won't let him get off easily (although I do think they were a little too soft on him here). 

Obama, "This Is What a Feminist Looks Like"

Here's the piece in Glamour that Kyla mentioned in class.  According to President Obama,

"That’s what twenty-first-century feminism is about: the idea that when everybody is equal, we are all more free."

Obituary for Phyllis Schlafly

Hi friends,

Here is a fascinating article that is an obituary for Phyllis Schalfly from the Economist.

It covers major points in her life, her major views and covers how relentless she was fighting for what she believed in.

Although I recognize that many of her points today may not be considered "socially acceptable," I thought it was interesting to learn more about her life and her political work in this piece.

Have a great Thanksgiving break!

Photo: Phyllis Schlafly

Dress Codes for Women Under Mike Flynn's DIA

Just came across this article from The Daily Beast on General Mike Flynn, Trump's pick for national security advisor.

Reading it reminded me of the opening anecdote from When Everything Changed - in which Gail Collins describes a judge's reaction to a woman showing up to traffic court wearing slacks.

Here's the link: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/18/gen-mike-flynn-s-office-told-women-to-wear-makeup-heels-and-skirts.html

I highly encourage everyone to at least take a look at some of the screenshot of the slides that were shown in the Defense Intelligence Agency's "Dress for Success" briefing, advising women to "not advocate the 'Plain Jane' look," to "Consider their body type" and to never wear flats.

After the election of Donald Trump, we will not mourn. We will organize.

Comments on the election from Gloria Steinem.

Hillary, Donald, and Womanhood

The Atlantic visited a Clinton rally and a Trump rally, and asked the question, "What role should women have in society?"

An African American woman at a Trump rally said that she loves being a woman and wouldn't want to be a man - because "we have the benefit of 1) getting pregnant, having kids, and 2) we have the privilege of being able to be a wife to a husband." A Latina woman for Trump said, "We are the heart of the house, the heart of the family, and the heart of society."

When asked if she identified as a feminist, another woman for Trump said, "I wouldn't say that I'm a feminist...I support the traditional role of a woman."

"When I think of feminism, what I think of is the bra-burning!"

"Kind of a militant, almost angry, assertive female..."

"I don't know what feminism is, I don't pay attention to that!"

"If we just relax and be who we were created to be, I think it's a much better approach."

On Trump: "We see that he's a strong leader! Strong women love a strong man, and we don't care that he's a little rough around the edges."

I think many of these statements resonate with what we read from Phyllis Schlafly—women who reject "militant feminism" and are happy to have the privilege of being mothers and wives. We talk a lot about our country becoming increasingly polarized, and I think this is another great example of the sharp divide arising between women. Some expect all women to be immediately repelled by Trump's atrocious comments about sexual assault, but many women still support him. Does this go to show that women merely vote along party lines as they always have, and it's impossible to ever expect women to vote as a bloc, even for women's issues? Or does this show that women have wildly different perceptions of a woman's role in society, made even more polarized by candidates who couldn't encapsulate this difference more perfectly?

Trump Defeated Clinton, Not Women

From writer Naomi Klein.

For Women, Glass Ceilings, and Glass Walls, Too

An opinion piece by Kathleen McCartney, president of Smith College.

Why Women Voted for Trump

Here's an interview with Stephanie Coontz, author of A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s, Marriage, a History, and The Way We Never Were. In it, she offers her perspective on why women voted for trump.

http://www.vox.com/conversations/2016/10/25/13384528/donald-trump-women-stephanie-coontz

"The Glass Ceiling Holds"

Here's a piece by Gail Collins, author of When Everything Changed.  Collins writes,

"When we look back on the Clinton campaign as part of history, we’ll see something different from the abrupt, shocking defeat her backers experienced last week. It was a big step in a journey that’s been both inspiring and really, really long."

Collins concludes,

"In this whole long, long amazing story, we celebrate the steps. Susan B. Anthony didn’t live to vote, but this year on Election Day, women stood in line to put flowers on her grave.  Sometime soon, there’ll be another woman presidential nominee. Maybe she’ll be in the Clinton tradition, the grand and glorious American worker bees. Maybe she’ll just leap out, like Barack Obama did, a fresh face with a new message. All we can know now is that when we talk about how she got there, we’ll be telling Hillary Clinton’s story."

Hillary Clinton's Concession Speech + Video

Hi all,

I just wanted to share Hillary's touching concession speech, in case anyone would like to read it.
Reading her speech filled me with an tumultuous cascade of emotions, ranging from respect and sorrow. However, I feel that one of the most important messages that Hillary shared was the importance of not losing hope.

As she noted, "This is painful and it will be for a long time". However, this does not mean that we should lose in our country, the American people and in our ability as a society to work together for a brighter future. 

Over the next 4 years, it is crucial that our country comes together and works together to facilitate positive change. She reminds us that although it may be difficult when contemplating her loss and what it represented, she asks us all to "never stop believing that fighting for what's right is worth it."

Although the glass ceiling may not have shattered this week, it is now hanging in tatters. I am confident that the efforts of Hillary Clinton will inspire students/youth throughout our entire nation on the importance of bravery, determination and most importantly hope. 

 I just wanted to end with her finals words, which are recognizing how important it is for us "work together with respect for our differences, strength in our convictions and love for this nation, our best days are still ahead of us".

The Audacity of Hopelessness

This piece by Roxane Gay in the New York Times reflects the views and emotions that many of expressed yesterday.

Aaron Sorkin's Letter to his Daughter Following Trump's Official Win

This letter articulates everything I wish that my father had explicitly stated to me. I know he was upset, and it is true that everyone has been processing this differently, but my father's midwestern way of dealing with disappointment, fear, and anger really irked me. This letter is a powerful testament to this father's love for his daughter and wife and articulates what a lot of Americans have been feeling.

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/11/aaron-sorkin-donald-trump-president-letter-daughter

Petition to Abolish the Electoral College

If you would like to take a stand against the injustices that the electoral college has produced, sign the petition to abolish it!

https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/petition/sign-the-petition-abolish-the-electoral-college

Women Actually Do Govern Differently

From the New York Times:
Women’s representation in government is stalled, and in some cases moving backward. Does that make a difference to the work of governing? Yes, according to decades of data from around the world.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/america-hates-women?utm_term=.sa0o3x96q#.weP35oqZy

This article is written by a woman who I really like on Buzzfeed who has written a book about Classic Hollywood scandals and how Hollywood treats women. She has also been covering Donald Trump for Buzzfeed and this article I think is well worth reading about women who support him, like what we talked about in class today.

People Are Flocking To Susan B. Anthony’s Grave On Election Day

Men and women are honoring Susan B. Anthony, the famous suffragist who helped women get the right to vote, by standing in line at her grave on Election Day and placing their “I Voted” stickers on her tombstone. 

From the Huffington Post. 

Conservative's view of Hillary

Proving once again how so many people can see past Trump's horrible comments, and see nothing good in Hillary.

http://www.loneconservative.com/?p=365

Want to make calls for Hillary?

Hello class!

If anyone is interested in making a few calls for the Hillary campaign this Sunday afternoon, I will be calling a GOTV list from Ohio. Text me if you want to be a part of this historic campaign--it's your last chance (617-953-1828)! If not, feel free to ignore this.

Steph

Louis C.K., Michael Moore, Hillary Clinton, and the rise of benevolent sexism in liberal men

This is an interesting article that touches on themes of our class like women's alleged moral superiority and what that means for women in politics. The author says about comedian Louis C.K.'s recent comments on a Hillary Clinton presidency: "he’s trying to compliment mothers in general and Hillary in particular, and to reframe the political liability of her gender into an asset. But he’s playing into a very old and unpleasant narrative that’s become weirdly popular among liberal men this election cycle: the idea that we need women in government because they are intrinsically morally superior to men. Women should be represented in our government, this story goes, not because they are people, but because they are better than people: They are angelic; they are virtuous; they are pure."

The article also discusses the erasure of women in our political conscious in general.

http://www.vox.com/culture/2016/11/2/13497320/louis-ck-michael-moore-hillary-clinton-benevolent-sexism-liberal-men

Women Senators' Girl Club

This one's similar to Jo's Stronger Together video (and it's also from EMILY's List); I just had to share! I hope everyone loves this, it made me so proud and teary and happy

Stronger Together Democratic Women Senators Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guLWBvEmaLU

This video is great and super empowering to women. Currently trying to be best friends with all of these women it's not working out so well.

Margaret Chase Smith: This I Believe

Hi all,

I'm writing my paper on Margaret Chase Smith, and I've really loved researching and reading the documents she's written—speeches, articles, letters, etc.

I found this short piece that she wrote for Edward R. Murrow's (a renowned NBC broadcaster) series called This I Believe, basically asking people (famous and non-famous) to write statements on what motivates them to keep going with their work.

Hers is short and extremely eloquent, and touches very nicely on a subject she was passionate about: free speech, moral courage, and standing up to demagogues. Of course, when she was writing and working, the demagogue she was talking about was Joseph McCarthy (and I highly recommend reading/listening to her "Declaration of Conscience" too). But I think that we can find her message just as relevant now as ever.

Her voice is also beautifully lyrical too; she has a fascinating, almost Southern-sounding drawl, mixed with a higher-society New England accent.

I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did!

Link to Hillary Clinton's Concession Speech

Hi all!

I just wanted to share the link to the video of Hillary Clinton's Concession Speech in 2008.

Reading her speech in class was very compelling, touching and a reminder of how important the election will be this month.

I thought that after reading the speech for class, it was a nice complement to watch Clinton deliver her own, amazing speech.

I hope that you enjoy this as much as I did!

BuzzFeed Article Similar to the "96 Years" Post

There are just a few more women who were either born before suffrage or were alive during the Wilson administration and shared their excitement in voting for Hillary.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/grandmas-for-hillary?utm_term=.rpkXJVxJkB#.dhaX3BQ3Kr

Pictures of Suffragists

I found this while looking for another article, but this has some really great pictures of suffragists during the movement and of some other ads that were actually against suffrage. It's fun to look at these pictures and see what women looked like during the time, fashion, etc.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/gabrielsanchez/inspiring-pictures-of-womens-suffrage-in-america?utm_term=.se1jrWNrpw#.djeV6Db6qY

Single Women and the Gender Gap

Hello, all!

Our discussion today about the gender gap reminded me of a great article that I read last year about the increasing demographic shift from married women to single women, and how that will affect politics. For example: "Today, only around 20 percent of Americans ages 18–29 are wed, compared to nearly 60 percent in 1960."

The author of the article, Rebecca Traister, argues that the significance of this shift in our political climate is that our politics will be dominated by "adult women who are no longer economically, socially, sexually, or reproductively dependent on or defined by the men they marry."

Without giving the entire article away, because I do think it is a very interesting read, I also am quite fond of this quote: "[Women] are [not marrying] because they have internalized assumptions that just a half-century ago would have seemed radical: that it’s okay for them not to be married; that they are whole people able to live full professional, economic, social, sexual, and parental lives on their own if they don’t happen to meet a person to whom they want to legally bind themselves."

http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/02/political-power-single-women-c-v-r.html

As a bonus, there is also an entertaining (or disheartening) video going around social media showing a selection of clips displaying sexism on cable news: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/megyn-kelly-cable-news-sexism_us_58127d0de4b0990edc302ffe

I Waited 96 Years!

Check out these profiles of voters born before passage of the 19th amendment.

"The Hidden Sexism that Could Sway the Election" --PBS Newshour

Hey All, 

I found this article a while back regarding the not-so-hidden sexism in the election. The article, unlike others which offer similar claims, highlights the principles of Social Psychology. The first is the "theory of ambivalent sexism" which helps illustrate why men's (and women's) subconscious bias is geared against Clinton, or any woman, as Commander in Chief. A study conducted by social psychologist Peter Glick and his colleagues. They came up with two distinct categories: the first is "hostile sexism," overtly negative views about women; and “benevolent” sexism: "positive attitudes and actions which men take toward women that are based, deep-down, in feelings of superiority and dominance." Glick stated that: “Men have ambivalent attitudes toward women that are prejudiced and paternalistic, but that are also based on love and interdependence.”

Other theories of gender based sexism and discrimination, especially evident with Clinton's historic campaign has to do with violation of gender norms. Women who are viewed in traditionally masculine lights (eg. being "aggressive" or competitive, or self promotional) receive backlash from both men and women for violating gender-based and societal norms.  “The more female politicians are seen as striving for power, the less they’re trusted and the more moral outrage gets directed at them,” said Terri Vescio, a psychology professor at Penn State who studies gender bias. “You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” she continued. “If you’re perceived as competent, you’re not perceived as warm. But if you’re liked and trusted, you’re not seen as competent.”

Check out the full PBS article here!: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/hidden-sexism/

Comparing Representation of Women in National Assemblies

Shout out to Lauren for a great post on gender in the ongoing U.S. Senate races. It made me think about a website (hosted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union) that I came across a few years ago in the course of research. It compares most of the governments in the world, providing the percentage of women in each country's legislative body (usually an upper house like the Senate and a lower house like the House of Representatives). It's a little disheartening to see that the U.S. is relatively low on the list, but that is due in large part to the fact that many countries have quotas of women for any given ballot.

link here: http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm

***I'm not sure if this link is under maintenance right now. If it doesn't work, here is the link for regional comparisons: http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm

Gender Parity / Senate races!

As Professor Selig mentioned in class, there are lots of fascinating non-presidential races going on all around the country. This whole business of "flipping the Senate" to turn Democratic is a huge deal, and it's really going to boil down to Senate races in about seven states. I've been following quite a few of them, and it's absolutely fascinating to watch the polls vacillate between R and D on a nearly daily basis.

As we know, the Senate has 100 seats, two for each state, and each senator's term lasts 6 years. Whereas representatives are up for reelection every single two-year term, senators are ranked into three classes that put about one-third of them up for re-election every two years. The current Senate is made up of 46 Dems (technically 45 + Bernie Sanders, an Independent) and 54 Reps, so the GOP controls the Senate. Typically, the president's party loses seats in a midterm election, which happened to a fairly damaging extent in 2014, when the Democrats lost control of the Senate.

In the 2016 election, all 34 senators in "Class 3" are up for reelection. If the Democrats want to flip the Senate, they'll need to secure 51 seats, some way or another. Let's see the breakdown of what's likely to happen (here's a fun interactive map):

• 30 Republican senators are not up for reelection, and they're fairly likely to win 14 of the seats that are up for reelection, giving the GOP a safe total of 44.
  
• 34 Democratic and 2 D-leaning independent senators are not up for reelection, and they're fairly likely to win 9 of the seats that are up for reelection, giving the Dems a safe total of 45.
  
• This leaves us with 11 contested or toss-up races. Dems need to win 6/11 to flip the Senate, or Republicans need to win 7/11 to maintain control.
  
• Nevada: Senate minority leader Harry Reid is retiring, and hand-picked a successor, former AG of Nevada Catherine Cortez Masto. This one flips almost every week, Masto against Republican Joe Heck.
  
• Arizona: My home state and an election I am heavily invested in! Guess who's up—the one, the only, John McCain, against longtime U.S. Representative, Democratic Ann Kirkpatrick. Ann has represented Arizona's District 1, a huge area that encompasses many low-income, Native American, and minority areas, and she's done a great job at it. She's a rather center-left candidate, which makes her appeal to more than just hard Dems, but John McCain is a beloved Arizona institution. He's leading by a lot right now, but we'll just have to see!
  
• Wisconsin: Dems have a lot of hope to gain a seat here, with Russ Feingold (D) against Ron Johnson (R).
  
• Missouri: Democrat and current Missouri SecState Jason Kander is challenging incumbent Republican Roy Blunt. Dems probably won't have a lot of luck here, since MO is usually red in federal elections and is a fairly strong Trump state right now. Still, the fact that this is even a tossup election is pretty remarkable!
  
• Illinois: Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and current U.S. Representative (and the first disabled woman in Congress - she was injured while serving as a helicopter pilot in the Iraq War) is running against incumbent Mark Kirk (R).
  
• Indiana: Republican senator Dan Coats is retiring, so the former Democrat governor of Indiana, Evan Bayh, wants to step in to replace him. However, current U.S. Representative Todd Young (R) has received lots of money from outside groups to challenge Bayh. This one has been a tossup only since September, when Bayh was clearly leading before that.
  
• Ohio: Although it's fairly clear now that Rob Portman, the Republican incumbent, is going to win the Ohio seat by about 16 points, he and Democrat Ted Strickland were basically neck and neck in June and July.
  
• Pennsylvania: Incumbent Republican Pat Toomey against Democrat Katie McGinty. This one's really close, but an interesting facet that might give McGinty the lead is that Clinton has a five point lead in PA.
  
• North Carolina: Team Clinton is heavily funding former ACLU lawyer Democrat Deborah Ross, who is facing off against incumbent Republican Richard Burr.
  
• Florida: Guess who could potentially be losing in Senate seat this year? That's right, it's Marco Rubio! Current Democrat Representative Patrick Murphy is challenging him, but it's not likely that Rubio will be defeated.
  
• New Hampshire: This is a fascinating race because it's the only tossup contest between two women! Incumbent Republican Kelly Ayotte faces current Democratic Governor of NH, Maggie Hassan. When I was talking about races that keep flipping back and forth almost on a daily basis, I was basically talking about this one. 

One thing that I've noticed when researching and following these races is that there are several women up for election. It was even kind of historic when California's Senate race came down to two female Democrats, even though California has had women senators for a long time now. I did a little bit of searching on women in the Senate and found this thought-provoking yet ultimately disheartening article from Five Thirty Eight about gender parity in the Senate. There are currently 20 female senators, but even with current growth rates being exponential, 538 predicts that gender parity will probably occur around 2043. Sad! 

P.S. Does anyone know the name of the first female senator? 

(I didn't! "The first woman senator, Rebecca Felton, served in 1922 (for a single day), but the first woman elected to the Senate was Hattie Caraway in 1932." - from Wikipedia.) 

Does Donald Trump Talk Like a Woman?

Fascinating read from Politico about Donald's speech and linguistic patterns, and how his manner of talking often resembles a woman's. The article also mentions a political psychologist who has indexed 35 political candidates over the last 10 years by how "masculine" or "feminine" their speech is. (In case you were wondering, Trump is the most feminine-speaking candidate, and Jim Webb—remember him?—is the most masculine-speaking candidate.)

Here are the features that the author mentions give Trump more feminine speech. She also notes that this analysis is not what Trump talks about, it's how he says it.

• Heavier use of the pronoun "I" rather than "we."
• More frequent use of emotion-laden descriptive words, such as "phenomenal," "disgusting," "beautiful," "despise." 
• Less frequent use of long words in speech and writing.

Here's the Politico article: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/trump-feminine-speaking-style-214391

And here's a short but effective rebuttal from Vox: http://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/10/27/13437050/donald-trump-linguistics-politico-female

Women Activists in Poland- Feminism as a Political Movement

Here is a link to a news story about women activists and their protests in Poland. They are continuing their protest against the extremely strict abortion laws in very Catholic Poland that was successful on 'Black Monday' earlier this month (for more information on Black Monday: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37540139). 

For this protest, "women also stayed away from work and school and refused to do domestic chores, in a protest inspired by a women's strike in Iceland in 1975." I think that this is a significant news story on its own, as these women are undoubtedly making history, and the demonstration of solidarity in this strike is inspiring. 


However, it is also interesting in relation to Caitlyn's post about feminism as a political movement, and Steph's comment on that post as well. For these women in Poland, feminism is most obviously a political movement. And, it has to be political for a significant portion of these women for the protests and strikes to have an effect. I think Steph was right to say that perceiving feminism as more of a personal than political movement could be celebrated because it means that we have no need for protests like these to retain our freedoms in America. But personally, I believe feminism is also believing in the equality of all women, and this goes beyond our borders. And when you look beyond those, you see the struggles of the women in Poland, trans women everywhere, and so many other areas where political activism is still needed for progress. So, perhaps we are not yet ready for feminism to be just personal. As Steph said, "this assumption would lead us to stop pushing change and may forever hold true feminist society at bay."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37745693

10 Amazing Women That You Won't Find in History Books

I came across a post on Facebook titled 10 Amazing Women That You Won't Find in History Books and I think this is worth taking a browse through. The only women I recognized was Ida Wells and I learned a lot of interesting facts about female activists, innovators, and scientists around the world. Just as we read about Rosa Parks in Freedom's Daughters, there was a civil rights activist a century earlier named Elizabeth Jennings who refused to give up her seat on a New York City streetcar in 1854! Jennings set an important precedent in challenging segregation and by 1860 most of the streetcar lines in New York City were integrated. If you'd like to read more about her (or others), Jennings is the second women highlighted in this article:

http://www.livescience.com/55485-amazing-women-history-forgot.html

Reaction to Melania Trump's Anderson Cooper Interview

http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/melania-trump-conspiracy-theorist

Melania Trump has been a figure of much discussion throughout this presidential campaign. She unflinchingly believes in her husband, but is also not allowed to speak for herself for much of the campaign. The few times in which she has spoken for herself, like her speech at the Republican convention, she has come off as oblivious, unintelligent, a fraud, and blindly obedient to her husband and his policies. During this interview with Anderson Cooper that happened last night, she labels all of the mainstream media that has reported on her husband's allegations of sexual assault as dishonest and that the media outlets are in a conspiracy with Hillary Clinton to make Trump look bad. Her inclination to disparage and criticize women in a similar way to how her husband does is confusing to consumers of modern media and also unlike other female political figures in the limelight. I watched this whole interview but I thought that this reaction to it was something worth reading. 

Michelle Obama's speech in New Hampshire

If you haven't seen this video of Michelle Obama, you need to. Once again, she delivers a powerful speech on behalf of women everywhere. I know there have been a lot of posts about her, but this speech will take your breath away.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/14/michelle-obama-speech-transcript-donald-trump

"Feminism is not a political movement."

I stumbled upon this article from almost a year ago and was really intrigued by this quote from the article and thought it'd be fun to share with you all. What do you think about the ideas that this quote proposes and what does it mean for the so called movement going on right now?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/feminism/betty-friedan-to-beyonce-todays-generation-embraces-feminism-on-its-own-terms/2016/01/27/ab480e74-8e19-11e5-ae1f-af46b7df8483_story.html

Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, Founder of Computer Science

 

Although she was not directly involved in American Politics, I think Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper is an important figure that may have been disappeared from our historical memory like Jo Ann Robinson. Admiral Hopper is considered the founder of Computer Science and she was one of the many pioneers during the Age of Computing. If you're looking at the picture of her above, you can see that Admiral Hopper served in the US Naval Reserved during WW2. After the military and  during "her lifetime as a leader in the field of software development concepts, she contributed to the transition from primitive programming techniques to the use of sophisticated compilers" including the B-O compiler called FLOW-MATIC for Univac, the first commercial large-scale electronic computer. This English Language compiler is the first assembly language developed to use English words. Admiral Hopper was an inspiration to women and scientists and her work paved the way for modern data processing (and also what I'm learning in my CS class!). Below is a short biography and the second link is Admiral Hopper's The Education of a Computer (1988) that discusses the tools and techniques used to create Univac.

Shoutout to Professor Dodds from my CS 5 class for posting this for this weeks' reading response!

http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/Files/hopper-story.html

https://www.cs.hmc.edu/~cs5grad/cs5/educationOfAComputer.pdf

Thank You Notes to Michelle Obama

Hope everyone had a wonderful fall break! I just wanted to share an fascinating article from the NY times with 4 thank you letters to Michelle Obama. These reminded me in many ways, of the letters we read to Eleanor Roosevelt.

 From these brief letters, I could hear the immense admiration, respect and belief in Michelle Obama. One line that I loved in the article was how Michelle "sharpened her husband’s then-hazy form, made him solid, more than just a dream." This resonated with me because it reminded me of how Eleanor complemented FDR and helped both his and her dreams become a reality. 

Similarly, another line I loved about Michelle Obama is about her authenticity. One of the letters describes how when Michelle first entered the political arena with her husband, "Michelle seemed genuine. She was genuine. All over America, black women were still, their eyes watching a form of God, because she represented their image writ large in the world."

This is quite an enjoyable and relatively quick read that I hope you enjoy! 

Michelle Obama (photo from NY Times)

How young Republican women react to Trump

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-trump-women-comment-0f8ca588-9072-11e6-bc00-1a9756d4111b-20161012-story.html

I was really interested to find out how young women who support Trump reacted to his comments about sexual assault this past week. This article provides some candid responses that I did not expect, for example, "I think it's far worse for women to say these things about a woman than a man to say these things. As a woman, you know how important it is to be heard, and if something happens against you sexually, you would expect other women to speak up and protect you.".

If we repealed the 19th Amendment, we'd join a party of...One

This article gives a good commentary on the strange recent push to repeal the 19th Amendment. It's interesting to see how willing some people are to advocate for repealing an amendment when they are the same group the up holds the idea of the Constitution so tightly.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/stevens/ct-repeal-the-19th-amendment-balancing-1013-20161013-column.html

#Repealthe19th

I'm sure you guys have all seen this already—but I'm so curious to hear what everyone has to say about this considering the time we spent reading about the fight for women's suffrage.

So Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight Twitter has been posting some excellent maps and projections, especially after the most recent debates.

Here's the first map:

And here's the second:

So after Nate Silver posted these, this started trending on Facebook and Twitter: #Repealthe19th. Here's one hilarious tweet that particularly stood out to me...

But then, when I went on Twitter to look at more of these tweets just for kicks, I found way more tweets that were denouncing the use of #Repealthe19th. 

One tie-in to class (although I'm sure we can find many, many more!) is that we discussed the idea that women's suffrage seems so obvious for now and many people take it for granted, not understanding that it was uncertain in the decades before its passage, and required a difficult struggle. What other connections do you guys see?

Amazon Series - Good Girls Revolt

Hey all! I was just browsing for some fall break items to watch on Amazon, and I came upon this—a new series called "Good Girls Revolt."

Here's the description:
In 1969, while a cultural revolution swept through the free world, there was still one place that refused to change with the times: newsrooms. Good Girls Revolt follows a group of young female researchers at "News of the Week," who ask to be treated fairly. Their revolutionary request sparks convulsive changes and upends marriages, careers, sex lives, love lives, and friendships.

Although this is later than the materials we've looked at so far, the description reminded me of reading about Ida B. Wells and her revolutionary role as both an anti-lynching crusader (engaging in political activity) and a female journalist (engaging in this activity through an emerging medium in which women were underrepresented). This seems to also deal with demands for equality in the workplace, an issue that the Equal Rights Amendment also brings up. 

Let me know if anyone decides to watch the first episode! 

International Day of the Girl Child (Plus a bonus Michelle Obama film)

Today is the International Day of the Girl Child, a day declared by the United Nations to focus on girls' issues and bettering their lives. Appropriately, CNN has published an article listing the 5 toughest places to be a girl. It is important while looking at this to remember that it is easy to judge these countries from our point of view, but as a country we rank 28th for the best place to be a girl, and we can do much better than this, also.

Additionally, this article touches on Michelle Obama's activism surrounding her Let Girls Learn initiative. I think it's cool for us to read a little bit more about Michelle Obama's work as a first lady, as we were discussing in class yesterday that we don't know that much about her. A documentary about her travels learning about girls' education and other factors is also premiering today on CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/11/health/gender-inequality-worst-countries/

Letters from Eleanor Roosevelt

https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/10/11/eleanor-roosevelt-lorena-hickok-love-letters/

After discussing Eleanor Roosevelt in class today, I conducted some follow up research. Although the readings from class extensively examined Eleanor Roosevelt's political accomplishments, I was just as intrigued by her multi-faceted, fascinating and quite mysterious personal life. I found an interesting website that has a few excerpts from her letters with Lorena Hickok here.

These letters help provide a little more context into her relationship with Lorena Hickok. Although it will never be possible to fully understand Eleanor's relationship with Lorena, its important to recognize that the letters "offer a beautiful record of a tender, steadfast, deeply loving relationship between two women who meant the world to one another, even if the world never quite condoned or understood their profound connection". These letters are taken from a collection of 300 letters between Hickok and Roosevelt which are published in a book titled Empty Without You. 

Although a few of these letters suggest that Hickock and Roosevelt may have shared a relationship of "great romantic intensity", this subject has remained an issue "of lasting controversy" for many years. Nonetheless, I truly found these letters to show the personable/compassionate/romantic side of Eleanor Roosevelt that was touched upon briefly in class throughout our discussions. I hope these may be interesting to you all as well! 

Pew: In both parties, men and women differ over whether women still face obstacles to progress

 I came across this article during some thesis background work. It explains, as we might suspect, that Democratic women think that women still face particular obstacles in our society which make it harder to get ahead. Democratic men follow, then Republican women, and lastly Republican men. This is instructive from an electoral perspective-- which groups make up the support base of each major party determines the politics of their representatives. However, it also reveals that the perspective of key players can have serious consequences throughout our political system. If more liberal Republican men, who believe obstacles still inhibit women, start gaining elected office, we might expect a gradual change in the beliefs of all Republican men. The influence works both ways.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/16/in-both-parties-men-and-women-differ-over-whether-women-still-face-obstacles-to-progress/

Op-Ed: The right says Hillary Clinton is responsible for her husband. Why isn’t Melania Trump?

Here is a short op-ed from the Washington Post about the double standard that women, specifically Hillary Clinton, are held to in regards to responsibility over their husbands. As an op-ed, it is clearly very biased against Trump, but I think it makes some interesting points as to the different roles that women are expected to fulfill within politics, and how these expectations are often contradictory.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/10/07/the-right-says-hillary-clinton-is-responsible-for-her-husband-why-isnt-melania-trump/?utm_term=.edb017f6cb33

Jane Addams-Fun Facts

Jane Addams: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams_postcard.jpg

Dear History 175 friends,

Hope you all had a great weekend. I just found out this weekend that Jane Addams was the second women to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She was recognized with this tremendous honor for her work with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, which she founded in 1919,  "to get the great powers to disarm and conclude peace agreements". 


She fearlessly defended international efforts for piece and fought against war, even if her ideas were considered by many to be unpopular. For example, during " World War I, she chaired a women's conference for peace held in the Hague in the Netherlands, and tried in vain to get President Woodrow Wilson of the USA to mediate peace between the warring countries". Even after she was "stamped a dangerous radical and a danger to US security," she refused to stop fighting for what she believed in. 


Jane Addams was truly an amazing activist, not only at the national level, but also at the international level. Its important that we never forget about her work in history. Please feel free to read more about her accomplishments here. 


Have a great weekend.

Best,

Michael