Not All Women
What will we be, after all, if men don’t chase us and whistle at us and tell us we’re pretty? What will we be if they don’t need us to cook and clean and raise their children? What will we be if they don’t call us or ask us to dance?
equal rights
Women of Alabama, It’s Time to Make Your Move
No one is ever completely safe. Pregnant women are no exception. And, in fact, pregnancy is a dangerous condition, especially in America. We have the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world. But, of course, no one really cares if women die; they only care if women miscarry.
Women Will Not Be Equal Until Men Have Fewer Choices
For decades women have chased equality by asserting we deserve the same rights as men—the right to make our own medical decisions, for example. But perhaps we’re going about it all wrong. Instead, we should enforce equality by giving men more responsibility and offering them fewer choices.
Where Credit is Due
Anyone who believes women have attained equality should be aware that this sort of thing happens all the time in less dramatic ways in offices across America and throughout the world. Women do the work, but rarely get the credit. Every woman I know can cite at least a dozen times when one of her ideas was co-opted by some man. This is not a dig at men, in particular, but at the way we assume that any big accomplishment ought to be attributed to the nearest white male.
The Mansplainer in Chief is Throwing a Tantrum
Why aren’t these women doing anything about it? Poor Theresa May. Apparently Donald Trump told her how to do Brexit, but she didn’t listen. If only she’d taken his advice England would be peeling away from the European Union like a week-old sunburn. No fuss. No muss. And German Chancellor Angela Merkel keeps agitating Trump …
Season of Revival
Roseanne and Jesus Christ Superstar I was a college student in Cleveland, Mississippi when Roseanne premiered in 1988. My friends and I watched it most weeks. We thought it was funny and irreverent. I particularly loved Jackie, played by the talented Laurie Metcalf. Jackie was always searching for something better—a better job, a better boyfriend, …
Mouthy Women Unite
This week in Louisiana, a teacher was arrested for speaking at a school board meeting. Let that sink in. The teacher, Deyshia Hargrave, spoke out against a proposed raise for the school superintendent. The school board voted to give the superintendent the raise and Hargrave spoke up again, complaining that the superintendent was getting a …
Activism is the New Black
I’m not big on awards shows or red carpet frippery. I like a pretty dress as much as the next person, but I grow bored by long discussions of hemlines or necklines or jewelry. All of this is to say that I didn’t see much of the Golden Globes broadcast this weekend, though I later …
Are You With Us? We Can’t Hear You
In the year 2000 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission declared that employer-provided health insurance must cover contraception. It was clearly discriminatory to deny women coverage for a safe, widely used, highly effective preventive medication. This was a solid decade before the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) went into effect, eight years before Obama was elected. But …