Weekly Feminist Reader

woman with baby

A photographer examines the struggle to provide women with safe, respectful care during childbirth.

Rush Limbaugh says VAWA is just a mean plot by the Democrats to make the GOP look bad. Obviously.

There’s a profile of feminist bad-ass Ruth Bader Ginsburg in this week’s New Yorker.

A interesting discussion of women’s position within Sikhism.

“Women don’t just need to lean in. They need to carefully calibrate the angle of their approach to suit every possible scenario.” Amanda Hess on the contradictions in Sheryl Sandberg’s advice to working women. And alternative takes from Anna Holmes and Rebecca Traister.

How the War on Terror in England became a war on women and children.

“I’m tired of constantly establishing my value. I’d rather just assert it.”

Lies, Walgreen’s, lies. 

The push for abstinence-only education will apparently never die.

Neither will the push for a Personhood amendment in Mississippi.

A profile of Madeline La Framboise, a prominent early Native American businesswoman.

A Utah lawmaker say cockfighting can’t be a felony because abortion is legal.

Amadi asks, “What is your feminism?”

Ugh, gendered advertising. So old and boring.

Take a stand against misogyny in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Tunisia has opened its very first domestic violence shelter.

Could it really be? A nuanced look at “hook-up culture”??

The Crunk Feminist Collective turns three!

You should keep your name, says Jill. Kate agrees. Responses from Melissa and Grace.

The “terrible power” of the covered face, female or otherwise.

Joan Morgan talks black identity and the politics of pleasure.

Oz the Great and Powerful should have picked one of the series’ awesome heroines rather than a reluctant hero.

How do we ensure equal opportunities for female academics?

Gloria Steinem on the “concept of democracy in the home vs. in the street.”

A case of optimism.

Young students are the “frontline of feminism.”

The wage gap persists, even when male and female students studied the same subject.

On harassment on the Tube.

Is identifying as a feminist a privilege?

A reminder of what we have ahead in celebration of International Women’s Day.

College debt and graduation rates are feminist issues.

The Queen’s gone feminist and queer-friendly!

What have you been reading/writing/watching/learning this week?

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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