Posts Tagged latina

By Juliana Britto Schwartz • 10 years ago

This Week in Feminism South of the Border

Image translation: “While some breathe in, others expire.” Photo cred

For those of us who have family, friends and ties beyond borders, and those of us who care about global feminism, here’s a few tidbits on what our allies south of the border are up to.

Guyana’s Chief Justice rules that “cross-dressing in a public place is an offense only if it is done for an improper purpose.” The Guyana trans community and their allies argue that this is not enough. What is an “improper purpose?”

The Zapatistas haven’t made news in a while, but they are still making community away from mainstream norms. To read why many argue that the Zapatistas are feminist, click

Image translation: “While some breathe in, others expire.” Photo cred

For those of us who have family, friends and ties beyond borders, and those of us who care about global feminism, here’s a ...
By Juliana Britto Schwartz • 10 years ago

Mind the gap: Latinas and unequal pay

On June 10, 1963, the U.S. government passed an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act making it illegal to pay women less than men for the same work.

That was 50 years ago, and women are still paid less than men at all education levels, in almost every field. On average, women make 77 cents to every dollar a man makes per hour, translating to about $11,084 per year less than a man.

These are statistics that many of us know like the back of our hand. Since the implementation of this amendment, we have progressed 18 cents towards closing the wage gap, however that progress ended a decade ago. In the past ten years, women have earned a ...

On June 10, 1963, the U.S. government passed an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act making it illegal to pay women less than men for the same work.

That was 50 years ago, and women are still ...
By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

Quick Hit: Juanita Diaz-Cotto on women of color and the prison-industrial military complex

Check out this great interview with academic-activist Juanita Diaz-Cotto at Guernica.

Juanita Diaz-Cotto knows she’s seen as radical. The activist academic blurs the lines that often delineate two clear, if not antagonistic, camps: scholarship and social justice. An expert on Latina and Chicana women’s experiences in the U.S. prison system, she’s been one among just a precious few voices in academia calling attention to the devastation the criminal justice system wreaks on women of color.

Her work deals with a crisis hidden in plain sight. While Latinos made up just 16 percent of the total U.S. population in 2011, they were the majority of all those sentenced for federal offenses. Women of color, meanwhile, comprise the fastest-growing sector of the prison ...

Check out this great interview with academic-activist Juanita Diaz-Cotto at Guernica.

Juanita Diaz-Cotto knows she’s seen as radical. The activist academic blurs the lines that often delineate two clear, if not antagonistic, camps: scholarship and social justice. ...
By Juliana Britto Schwartz • 10 years ago

Latinas were targeted for involuntary sterilizations for decades

Today we are reminded that pro-choice politics are as much about the right to reproduce as they are about the right to abortion. We are also reminded of our country’s history of taking away the right to reproduce of so many women of color.

A new report put out by the University of Michigan has found that Latin@s* were disproportionately targeted for involuntary sterilization under the U.S. eugenics movement. Between 1909 and 1979, Latin@s made up 20-30% of the 60,000 people who were coercively sterilized in the U.S., mostly in mental institutions in California. The majority of these people were women who were labeled as “bad girls” or “sexually wayward”: in other words, women who didn’t follow the strict ...

Today we are reminded that pro-choice politics are as much about the right to reproduce as they are about the right to abortion. We are also reminded of our country’s history of taking away the right ...
By Juliana Britto Schwartz • 10 years ago

Hats Off to Immigrant Women

We here at Feministing know that women wear many hats. Women are caretakers, students, workers, bloggers or activists. They may also be immigrants.

These women all deserve to be included within our government’s social safety net, to benefit from the resources they are already investing in, and to be brought out of the shadows of undocumentation. They deserve fair wages and just working conditions. They deserve to be kept together with their families without fearing deportation every time they leave the house.

This is why We Belong Together has started the campaign Fedoras for Fairness, using the symbol of the fedora–a hat worn by early women’s rights activists–to symbolize the many hats women wear each day. ...

We here at Feministing know that women wear many hats. Women are caretakers, students, workers, bloggers or activists. They may also be immigrants.

These women all deserve to be included within our government’s social safety net, ...
By Juliana Britto Schwartz • 10 years ago

Immigrants pay more into Medicare than they use

In fact, they are kind of paying for citizens hospital care. The New York Times reports:

“The study, led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, measured immigrants’ contributions to the part of Medicare that pays for hospital care, a trust fund that accounts for nearly half of the federal program’s revenue. It found that immigrants generated surpluses totaling $115 billion from 2002 to 2009. In comparison, the American-born population incurred a deficit of $28 billion over the same period.”

Why is this? Most people are arguing that immigrants tend to be young and working age, and therefore contribute more to taxes than the older citizen population. I would also argue that it’s because immigrants use medical services much less. Recently arrived immigrants 

In fact, they are kind of paying for citizens hospital care. The New York Times reports:

“The study, led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, measured immigrants’ contributions to the part of Medicare that pays for hospital care, ...
By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Tell Congress that 15 years is way too long for immigrant women to wait for affordable health care

Ed. note: This is a guest post by Juliana Britto Schwartz. By day, Juliana is a student at University of California, Santa Cruz. By night, she is a Latina feminist blogger at Julianabritto.com, where she writes about reproductive health justice, immigration, and feminist movements in Latin America.

By now you’ve probably heard a bit about the immigration reform bill that the Senate has proposed. You’ve probably heard about the increased spending on border security it contains (regardless of the fact that our border is the most secure it’s ever been), as well as the proposed increase in employment-based visas, particularly for skilled workers. You may also know that the bill allows DREAMers (immigrants who were brought to the U.S. before the age of ...

Ed. note: This is a guest post by Juliana Britto Schwartz. By day, Juliana is a student at University of California, Santa Cruz. By night, she is a Latina feminist blogger at Julianabritto.com, where she writes about reproductive ...
By Samhita • 11 years ago

Immigration and Women This Week: Mixed Emotions

Ed. note: This is a guest post by Juliana Britto Schwartz. By day, Juliana is a student at University of California, Santa Cruz. By night, she is a Latina feminist blogger at Julianabritto.com, where she writes about reproductive health justice, immigration, and feminist movements in Latin America.

 

In case you missed it, the news on what it was like to be an immigrant woman this week:

Something to Inspire You

Yesterday the Rally for Citizenship marched on the Capitol in Washington D.C., drawing thousands of protesters and calling for comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship. The rally had a diverse array of participants: organizations for Arab immigrants, African immigrants, allies and undocumented as well.

Something To Make You Angry:

The new immigration reform bill might 

Ed. note: This is a guest post by Juliana Britto Schwartz. By day, Juliana is a student at University of California, Santa Cruz. By night, she is a Latina feminist blogger at Julianabritto.com, where she writes about reproductive health justice, ...

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