Viva la Feminista

Today's Women's History Tidbit: 1776: Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John, who is helping write the Declaration of Independence: "Remember the ladies...[we] will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice." * The end of my favorite and least favorite month. On Facebook, I started the month off by quipping that March is the month where so many of my friends spent half their time in airports traveling around the country spreading the gospel of women's history. And making most of their money. I know far too well the pressures that colleges and universities are under and that the market for speakers is super tight. My campus has leaned towards local speakers since the last Governor decided to balance the budget on our backs. If we do cobble together enough money it's just for one speaker, not the 2-3 from years ago. And why do so many awesome feminists make most of their money this month? Because they aren't thought of outsi...

Today's Women's History Tidbit: 1932: Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic* A few weeks ago I was honored to share time and space with two amazing feminists. There were a lot of things we said on that panel that still are churning in my head, but I want to ramble on about one of them. We were asked why some women of color don't embrace the label "feminist" and we talked about the historical racism in the feminist movement that is still not fully discussed. We see women of color call themselves feminist and for some white feminists, that means we're good. But we're not.  Then Courtney said that sometimes the most feminist thing a leader can do is realize that it's time for them to step aside. We were discussing leadership changes, yes in light of last year's NOW election, but leadership overall. She talked about the strategic move to "elect" Samhita as executive editor for Feministing. As she said, they a...

As I reported to you last week , Illinois Democratic Party bosses/leaders were set to pick a new candidate for Lt. Governor after the first one went down in flames. So who did they choose? Shelia Simon. I don't know Shelia Simon. The only thing I know about her is that her dad was one of our most beloved U.S. Senators and inspired me as a kid. She was also in one of Obama's campaign commercials. Charles Thomas does an excellent job wrapping up what this means to us ordinary folks. Yup, here in Illinois the Dems aren't scared of nepotism . First of all, I think that Gov. Quinn's naming Shelia before the Central Committee could even meet was crappy. We had 15 other candidates headed down to Springfield as the media was reporting that the vote would end up being Simon versus Turner . Newbie with a family name versus a man with experience. White woman versus Black man. Southern Illinois versus Chicago. I'm sure there were a million ways they were pitted against e...

Today's Women's History Tidbit: Amy Sedaris, Lucy Lawless and Jennifer Capriati were born.* This was originally posted on the AWEARNESS blog.  USA Today ran an excellent piece...called, "10 great places to honor our foremothers." It was a nice surprise as I took that short plane trip from Cleveland to Chicago. Despite the fact that I read about the ten places on a plane , I am actually quite the road trip gal. I like having time to stare out the window, read a good book or knit another scarf. I love checking off one more state visited, even if most of the time I spend is in a family restaurant eating pancakes. The Arizona Women's Heritage Trail fits my definition of a dream vacation. I'm lucky to have been in Jane Addams' Hull House many a time. No matter how often I go there for an event, I am still awed at the history of the place. And the one trip I want to make out of all of them is up to Seneca Falls, to where it all start...

Today's Women's History Tidbit: 1982: Louisiana Tech defeats Cheney State, 76-62, to win the first NCAA Women's Basketball championship.*  This was originally posted on the AWEARNESS blog. Hot on the heels of the American & Canadian women hockey teams thrashing their international competition is a renewed conversation about whether or not women's sports has matured quickly enough . Some even ponder whether or not it will ever be truly competitive. As I have written before, women athletes are in a constant damned if they do, damned if they don't position. We can be strong, but we need to be feminine . Those with families are pushed out in front in a way male athletes are rarely treated ... well, unless they are lesbian . Now the questions being raised surround the notion that women's sports have limited potential for success. That of all the girls playing basketball, only one dynasty has emerged, and for some reason that's bad...

Today's Women's History Tidbit: 1900: Effa Manley is born in Philadelphia. From 1935 to 1948 she will run the Newark Eagles, a Negro Leagues baseball team, which she co-owns with her husband.* She is the first woman to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.** This was originally posted on the AWEARNESS blog.  At least that's what Quansa Thompson is trying to claim. She's a smart cookie exotic dancer from Washington, DC who is suing her former "employer" for not paying her and her fellow dancers a wage. I put employer in quotes in this context because the owner of the club claims that "he treats dancers as if they were patrons, charging them $20 admission, then letting them keep whatever they earn without any additional fees." No matter what your stance is on strippers or exotic dancers, I hope that you agree that they are working. They are providing entertainment that draws people in to pay real money to enter an establishment and ...

Today's Women's History Tidbit: 1973: London Stock Exchange allows women members for the first time. * My heart's been aching the last few days. First came the news that the genius Mikhaela B. Reid was retiring from political cartoons. Why? She lists all her reasons and yes the market for political cartooning sucks, she's tired, she's expecting a baby (but she admits she's still be retiring even if lil M wasn't on the way) and she's burnt. I get that. TOTALLY. But I still cried when I read her good-bye on her blog. Part of it is the very real fact that we don't have a mechanism to fully support creative folks like her, thus they can either skimp together a meager living or work themselves to the bone 24/7 to get thru the "real job" and the "creative job." I cried because while the baby isn't the primary reason, there is the real fact that babies just slow you down. They just do. How fast you get pull out of the pit stop ...