Another week, another set of stories. Unfortunately, there is little positive given how our rights have been threatened by the GOP House and Trump Admin, but there is a LOT to take action on. Thanks as always to Ramara, Besame, Tara, EyesBright, ElenaCarlena, Mettle Fatigue, and everyone else!
Pay Equality? Who Needs That?
Despite what some say, women are paid less than men. Some say that it's because women choose jobs with more flexibility - but the pay disparity is there right out of college. Sometimes it’s due to career choices — which (shock) aren’t made in a vacuum. Yes, women are steered away from ‘high-power’ and ‘technical’ aspirations as early as grade school. It’s also that women are offered less, are given less desirable projects, are not offered promotion, and the whole nine yards. Since companies also base compensation on your last salary, these effects only spiral. And although it’s illegal to have sex-based pay discrimination...the fact a woman has been discriminated in the past means current employers aren’t legally at fault for pay discrimination, according to the 9th Circuit. So long as the company is just using past salary, it doesn’t matter that the salary was discriminatory. This is why making past pay questions illegal is so important in the fight for pay equality.
As an example: Texas just published its salaries — and they show exactly what we see EVERYWHERE.
As another — even most ‘industry payments’ for ‘consulting’ are given to men...as in, 70% of them.
Health and Reproductive Rights
Because Trump. A woman who has claimed contraception doesn’t work has been appointed spokesperson for family planning and contraception at HHS. Where can you go from here?
Well, here’s another member of the Trump family who doesn’t understand Planned Parenthood. Ivanka suggested splitting off the ‘abortion’ side of PP, so it doesn’t receive federal funding. Sure. Except it doesn’t. There’s already a law about that. It also shows again the fact that many on the Right don’t understand that ‘abortion’ IS part of reproductive and medical care.
Medicine still has issues with the fact women are different than men...and it means that medical literature, treatment etc is based on MALE responses, rather than both male and female responses in studies. And women die. Every few months, we see another article about how medical professionals are beginning to realize this is a problem.
HHS Secretary Price, in line with Pres Trump’s newest executive order, will no longer expect employers to cover birth control so long as they can claim a Christian reason as opposed to sharia. The difference? None as far as I can see. However, there are other abortion restrictions coming down, including criminalizing PROVIDING the abortion. Now that some states allow telemedicine, or a simple prescription? That criminalization includes the woman. Yes, Roe v. Wade is theoretically the law of the land. However, that law is getting remarkably threadbare.
Violence Against Women
‘Stealthing’ is rarely recognized as sexual violence. It is the act of nonconsensually removing or breaking a condom...which can not just risk pregnancy, but also STIs.
Similarly, a woman found herself pregnant from an escort service. German law protects the MAN, preventing the release of his personal information from her search for parental support. Privacy law in Germany reigns supreme.
The Royal Family is suing six connected with non-consensual photography of the then-topless Duchess of Cambridge. Their argument? It ‘painted them in a positive light’.
In terms of importance — we all remember the sexual harassment allegations against various supervisors at Uber. Well, in case you were wondering — the media considers Kalanick’s immature rant at a driver as a bigger threat to the company than visible and documented sexual harassment, hiring of harassers, and failure to handle harassment allegations.
Policing what women wear is part of violence against women, and part of rape culture. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about Angela Merkel supporting a burka ban while refusing to wear a headscarf in Saudi Arabia, or calling a knee-length dress on a 12-year old seductive...humiliating her at a chess tournament. If your response to bad male behavior is to pass laws about what women can wear in public, you’re missing the point.
What is abuse? It’s so much more than physical...and this woman is showing the control side of things, by releasing what her every day life was like in texts. How can you know? Watch this ad to show how markers for domestic abuse can be spotted, even by people the victim doesn’t know.
Let’s talk sexual assault. Stanford is holding a conference, and invited a successful white journalist who wrote about it 2 years ago — from the standpoint of ‘it’s something I really don’t know anything about.’
Another ‘rich man doing what he wants’...Conrad Hilton was arrested for breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s home. AFTER she filed a restraining order against him.
Politics
Hillary Clinton has come back into the public view — as someone who is still fighting for reproductive justice (and speaking at Planned Parenthood next week), and funding the Resistance.
On the other side, the Trump admin fired the first female black White House chief usher. This is the person in charge of all household staff...and they usually stick around. As in, she was the 9th. Ever.
The GOP cheered at their passing of the AHCA in the House. Part of it allows states to waive the requirement to cover regardless of pre-existing conditions (so long as there’s a high risk pool), and another to waive the required benefits, which includes maternity coverage. The House GOP? Remarkably white and male. What were pre-existing conditions? Cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure...as well as rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, pregnancy…
Have you ever heard of a woman who was glad to get pregnant, because she’d get a free flight to somewhere she could find an abortion? Yeah, neither have I. But apparently, this Alaska legislator has at least had the internet tell him some women have.
Media
Yes, the Fox bit is still ongoing. Not only Ailes and O’Reilly have fallen due to sexual harassment and sexual assault, Co-President (appointed at Ailes’ departure) Bill Shine has now left the company surrounding allegations that he knew and covered for harassers. Watters has gone on ‘unexpected vacation’. All of this just as Murdoch was hoping once again for a shot at a majority control of Sky News. And yes, this is putting that bid in jeopardy. The last time? The phone hacking scandal caused them to lose their shot. And this isn’t even counting that Fox hired people to stalk the accusers and discredit them. One of these men? Running for New York City mayor. And now there’s a woman who says she was fired for using the sexual assault hotline Fox advertised after Ailes.
Good News
America has contests for everything. Given our food addiction, of COURSE we have national awards for chefs...and despite the fact most people expect women to cook at home, all the chefs...well, that’s a different story. Out of 361 total awards, only 81 (22%) have been given to women. This year, women make up 27% of the semifinalists for the James Beard Award.
Girls and women rarely have good options when they need to escape. Many end up on the streets...and are then blamed for being there. Mariuma Ben Yoseph was one of those girls. Now back in Israel, she started opening her home and kitchen. It has only gotten better — her CAMPUS has helped 46,000 girls with temporary housing and long-term support.
ISIS is horrible. No questions asked. And the women fighting against ISIS are portraits in courage. By and large, the Kurdish Peshmurga doesn’t care about gender, just whether you’re willing to get the job done and disciplined enough to make it happen.
82 of the girls captured by Boko Harem 2 years ago have now been released. That means about 150 of the 270 have now found their ways home...but that roughly 120 are still in captivity.