There is a scene early in the Downton Abbey series when one of the daughters of the Crawley family is talking about some issue of the time. The Dowager Countess, played by the inimitable Dame Maggie Smith, objects, and the daughter says she is entitled to her opinion. The Dowager answers, “Women like us don’t have opinions until they are married, and then their husbands will tell them what their opinions are.”
I thought of that scene when I read an article in New York Magazine about the emerging importance of the demographic group unmarried women and the role that they, and their opinions, may play in the coming election. It seems never-married women under 35 are a quickly rising — and liberal — demographic.
That article is by Rebecca Traister, who is the author of a book (reviewed here) called All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation.
Which is why the death of Justice Anthony Scalia, and the ageing of the Supreme Court in general should be a major issue in the presidential election. I’ve been phone-banking for one of the Democratic candidates for the presidential nomination, and I talk to other volunteers and to people on the phone who say they will not vote for the other candidate if that candidate gets the nomination, and this goes both ways. We cannot afford the luxury of such petty purity. Remember, this is one of the "moderate" Republicans seeking their party’s nomination. The next president will possibly appoint two or more Justices, and possibly also Scalia’s replacement if the Republican leadership gets its way. If we just look at the current Court, the four who are most reliably on the people’s side in social policy decisions were appointed by President Clinton (Ginsburg and Breyer) and President Obama (Sotomayor and Kagan). In between we have the Bush appointments of Roberts and Alito. So yes, let’s fight for our candidates in the primaries, but let’s not forget that the Democratic nominee will need us all if he or she is to win — and that it matters.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, let’s look at the news from the front.
Reproductive Health
It’s not just women speaking out about their abortions. Watch this video (it made me cry) and compare it to the fabricated “born again” stories told by men who wish their girlfriends had not had abortions, and decide which kind of man you’d like someone you care about to be with.
www.womenshealthmag.com/…
Google extension will automatically change “pro-life” to “anti-choice” for Chrome users:
thinkprogress.org/…
Texas health official loses job after 29 years when a report he co-wrote showed that closing Planned Parenthood clinics led to a higher birthrate among low-income women.
reverbpress.com/…
John Oliver took on the subject of abortion, and hit it out of the park.
Women affected by the denial of contraceptive coverage by religious-affiliated colleges and universities file brief describing the very substantive risks a negative decision will force them to take, especially given the negative actions such institutions take against students who get pregnant or have children.
rhrealitycheck.org/…
The article ends with this:
This truth—that reliable contraception makes women independent of our patriarchal institutions—is at the crux of conservatives’ fears and at the heart of their legal challenges to the ACA.
And the Fifth Circuit upheld a Louisiana law requiring all doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
www.motherjones.com/…
A bill has been proposed in Alabama that would not allow abortion clinics to be located within 2000 yards of a school, the same prohibition that applies to sexual offenders. This is aimed at one clinic in particular that was bought by an abortion provider at his personal expense when his previous clinic had to close because of a law that required it to meet the requirements for surgical clinics. And around and around and around we go…
rhrealitycheck.org/...
Illinois legislature is considering a bill that would deny birth certificates to children of unmarried women if the father or another relative does not sign the birth certificate, so they know who is going to support the child. So some children won’t be able to register for school or a Social Security number, or get a passport or a driver’s license because their mothers can’t or won’t name a responsible male. Single mothers, of course, never support their children.
bipartisanreport.com/…
Samantha Bee on John Kasich:
theslot.jezebel.com/...
In the wake of the Zika virus epidemic and the large number of children born with microcephaly, many Latin American countries are seeking to make abortions legal in at least some cases. Conservatives in Brazil, however, where having an abortion can lead to a woman spending three years in prison and where there is a push to allow abortion in cases of microcephaly, are seeking to increase that to five years if the aborted fetus had microcephaly.
thinkprogress.org/…
Violence Against Women
Tribal leaders advocate in Congress for expanded authority and resources to prosecute non-Natives who commit domestic violence on tribal lands.
rhrealitycheck.org/…
A woman’s right to choose should include the right to say no. Yet many women are attacked after refusing to go out and/or have sex with men. Here is an appalling list of instances:
whenwomenrefuse.tumblr.com/...
Senator Jean Shaheen has introduced the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act, which would guarantee certain basic rights to women who have been sexually assaulted:
It requires steps to ensure that people who have been sexually assaulted have access to a trained sexual assault counselor and comprehensive information about victims’ legal options. For individuals who submit to a rape kit, the bill would give them the right to know the location of the evidence, whether the kit has been tested, and the test results.
www.theguardian.com/...
Here’s a petition supporting that bill:
www.change.org/…
Norwegian Cruise Lines no longer gives its employees access to emergency contraception unless they have been raped. Does that mean their employees are routinely raped or sexually assaulted? Samantha Bee took a look.
www.upworthy.com/…
Ontario announces a $100-million dollar program to tackle violence against indigenous women.
indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/...
Cultural and Socio-economic Issues
Family caregivers are 50% more likely to be women than men, and provide a large percentage of care for ageing or disabled family members in the community. This affects not only their personal health and financial well-being, but that of the overall economy. This subject is personal for me, since I raised a disabled child alone. This article is about women caring for the elderly, but it applies equally to those caring for disabled spouses or children.
www.dailykos.com/…
March is Women’s History Month, and March 8th is International Women’s Day. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality” - See more at: www.unwomen.org/…
The theme for Women’s History Month is “Working to Form a More Perfect Union: Honoring Women in Public Service and Government.”
www.nwhp.org/…
How hard is it to stop being nice? To stop apologizing all the time? I remember a friend once telling me to stop apologizing. To which I replied, “I’m sorry.” Truly. Here’s a woman who tried it:
elitedaily.com/…
Some communities in Kenya are having elaborate coming-of-age ceremonies for girls as an alternative to genital mutilation.
www.npr.org/…
St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson has sent a letter to churches in the diocese urging them to cut their associations with the Girl Scouts. Isn’t it nice to know St. Louis has no other problems the Archbishop feels impelled to bring to his priests’ attention? Amanda Marcotte looks at what is behind the right-wing demonization of the Girl Scouts.
www.salon.com/…
Corporate America is not on a path to gender equality, which, even purely economically speaking, is a matter of considerable urgency. These findings are based on a recent Women in the Workplace survey McKinsey conducted in partnership with LeanIn.org — involving 30,000 employees surveyed and data from 118 companies of which 10 are from the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries — to better understand the context and the path to gender equality.
www.disruptivewomen.net/...
As India gets connected, there are villages that are forbidding girls to have phones, since phones allow them to have boyfriends at young ages, and to distract them from learning what they need to know to become good wives and mothers. Or something like that.
www.ibtimes.co.uk/…
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Thanks to Besame, Tara the Antisocial Social Worker, and officebss for their many contributions to this roundup. If I didn’t use everything, it’s because there was an embarrassment of riches.