Diane DeBella and I Am Subject: Women sharing their stories to become “subjects” in the 21st century
I often wonder how different my life would have been if the Equal Rights Amendment had been ratified instead of falling three states short in 1982. I bet I wouldn’t have had to quit jobs after being told that in order to be promoted I would have to sleep with the boss. In fact, I..
On election night 2016, despite the tiny hint of doubt gnawing away at my confident façade, I grabbed a bottle of Prosecco and headed over to my friend Nancy’s to track the returns and smash the bottle of bubbly against the most imposing glass ceiling that ever existed—I was ready to shatter the patriarchy as..
I haven’t written a blog post about women’s issues since February, because, well, Covid. During a worldwide health crisis, other issues tend to take a back seat. To date, millions have contracted Covid-19, and hundreds of thousands of people worldwide have died from it. Fighting the virus is at the forefront of our minds. Yet,..
Last night, while at a Super Bowl party, I found myself in the uncomfortable situation of being the perceived feminist authority in the room during the halftime show. Yet I was far from the only uncomfortable person gathered around the big screen. While many of the men responded in fairly stereotypical fashion, I got a..
My fondest memories of the winter solstice were when my kids were young, and the cartoon Little Bear was popular. There was a winter solstice episode, and it was filled with love, family, food, joy, community, warmth, and the uplifting refrain, “Happy Winter Solstice!” It still makes me smile to think of it today. Yet..
19-year-old Ruth George was killed in the early hours of November 23rd when she was attempting to get to her car in a parking garage on the University of Illinois campus. She is just one of the countless victims of violence in the US this week. She was murdered two days before the UN’s International..
I was baptized Catholic. I had no choice in the matter. In 1956, when my mother, who was Methodist, married my father, who was Catholic, she had to agree to raise her children Catholic. She actually had to sign a piece of paper. I left the church as a young woman when I could no..
~24 people per minute are victims of intimate violence—more than 12 million people per year~ The fact that the Violence Against Women Act expired when the government shut down isn’t widely known. While it also isn’t cause for immediate panic (unauthorized programs can receive appropriations), what is alarming is the fact that violence against..
Did you know that women couldn’t vote in Switzerland until 1971? And even then, not all women were included. It wasn’t until 1990 that the conservative region of Appenzell Innerrhoden gave women the right to vote at cantonal level, and it did so only because the federal supreme court forced the issue. While Switzerland wasn’t..
The events of last Thursday and Friday ripped open countless women’s wounds, revictimizing them and forcing them to relive their own trauma. I was one of those women. I found myself shaking, wrapping my arms around myself as I rocked back and forth, trying to control my breath as I watched both Dr. Blasey..