Feminism

Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, created a Ministry of Equality and Feminisms focused on women's sexual and reproductive rights.

They could benefit from a diversity of hormones, empathy about their experience, and a frank approach to sexuality—all hallmarks of trans health care.

As the war on Gaza reached its six-month mark, it continues to be a war on women. According to UN Women estimates, more than 10,000 women have been killed to date, among them an estimated 6,000 mothers who left 19,000 orphan children behind. Women who have survived have been displaced, widowed, and are facing starvation. More than one million women and girls in Gaza have almost no food, no access to safe water, latrines, washrooms, or sanitary pads, with disease growing amidst inhumane living conditions.

Since the start of the war, UN Women has been documenting the experiences of women in Gaza in a series of gender alerts that look at various aspects of how the war is impacting the daily lives of women and girls, including food, water, shelter, health, and protection. This new alert is the latest in this series, and it focuses on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services, which are integral to women’s health, dignity, safety, and privacy.

Additional documents

• [Publication (PDF, 673KB)](https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/gender-alert-gender-analysis-of-the-impact-of-the-war-in-gaza-on-vital-services-essential-to-womens-and-girls-health-safety-en.pdf)
  
  

• [Arabic version (PDF, 660KB)](https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/gender-alert-gender-analysis-of-the-impact-of-the-war-in-gaza-on-vital-services-essential-to-womens-and-girls-health-safety-ar.pdf)
  
  

Yesterday at a special congress in Versailles, France’s parliament voted by an overwhelming majority to add the freedom to have an abortion to the country’s constitution. Though abortion has been legal in France since 1975, the historic move aims to establish a safeguard in the face of global attacks on abortion access and sexual and reproductive health rights: President Emmanuel Macron initiated it after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had constitutionalized the freedom to have an abortion as part of the right to privacy.

And while the newfound protection of abortion is a victory, it should not eclipse other areas of women’s rights in which France’s government does not set a shining example. (...)

To realize the constitutional amendment’s promise, and to be a true beacon on women’s rights, the French government should address obstacles to abortion care and take concrete steps to uphold women’s and girls’ rights across the board. Other governments should do the same.

Anger and uncertainty spread in wake of Friday's ruling by the state's Supreme Court.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) health system is halting in vitro fertilization treatment in the wake of a ruling by the state's Supreme Court on Friday that deemed frozen embryos to be "children," The ruling opens up anyone who destroys embryos to liability in a wrongful death lawsuit, according to multiple media reports.
(...)
Production of extra embryos is a normal part of IVF treatment for several reasons. Most notably, not all embryos will be viable, implant in a uterus, and lead to a live birth. So, creating as many embryos as possible is a common strategy to ensure that people who wish to conceive have the best chance of doing so. Embryos can also be screened for genetic conditions, allowing only the healthiest to be implanted, while those with debilitating or fatal abnormalities can be discarded.

In 2021, approximately 238,126 patients in the US had 413,776 rounds of IVF, resulting in 97,128 live-born infants, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The percentage of egg retrievals that lead to a live birth ranges from 54 percent to 9 percent, depending on a patient's age.
(...)
But the fear and confusion don't end there. Health advocates worry more states will follow Alabama's lead. And, if small clumps of cells gain personhood rights in more states, liability could spread to contraceptive use and people who suffer a miscarriage.

BFF DEFINES BLACK FEMINISMS AS:
An ideology or belief system that explains how power and systems of oppression are both interconnected and systemic, and provides us with a blueprint for our individual and collective liberation.

Black feminisms explain how systems of oppression and power like white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, etc are both interconnected and systemic.

As Black people, we live lives of multiple identities and experiences that inform how our world is ordered, and ultimately impact our daily interactions, thoughts, and lives. We experience power and oppression and our identities at the same time. (...)

Intersectionality Matters! is a podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.

12 Jan 2024
In this episode, host Kimberlé Crenshaw and African American Policy Forum present the Story of Us (Part 3) panel, recorded live from the Sundance Film Festival in 2023.

As we think about the future of democracy, this instalment of Sundance's "Big Conversation" series builds on the previous two iterations of Kimberlé W. Crenshaw’s The Story of Us, and explores how cinematic storytelling has long been, and continues to be, critical to shaping the contours of democratic inclusion. Who gets to be a hero or a villain in popular depictions of American life? Who gets written out of the story altogether? And how do Hollywood portrayals influence the amount political power that various demographics of Americans hold in real life?

Featuring W Kamau Bell, the 2023 Sundance Vanguard Award winner, comic, and television host
Holly Cook Macarro, Tribal Advocate & Political Strategist
Jason Stanley, author and Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University
Roger Ross Williams, Academy Award-winning Director, Writer, and Producer

Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks)
Produced by Sr Producer Nicole Edwards
Mixing by Sean Dunnam
Support provided by the African American Policy Forum
Music by Blue Dot Sessions

UTMB, spanning three international borders and encircling Europe’s highest peak, is globally acknowledged as one of the most demanding ultra-marathons, characterized by both a festive ambiance and a staggering elevation gain surpassing Mount Everest.

Her summer of 2023 not only marked a triple crown by conquering the Western States 100, Hardrock 100, and UTMB in a single season but also solidified her status as an unparalleled force in ultra-running.

A decade ago, at Run Rabbit Run in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Dauwalter faced the humbling experience of a did-not-finish (DNF). Alone and disheartened, she made a pivotal choice to transform into someone capable of completing 100 miles.

Dauwalter’s triumphs extend beyond UTMB; her victories in the Moab 240 and other major races challenge conventional assumptions about gender differences in ultra-endurance sports. The ongoing debate on whether longer race distances neutralize gender gaps has gained traction, prompting research and discussions within the running community.

The influential idea that in the past men were hunters and women were not isn’t supported by the available evidence

Early hunting was “gender neutral,” archaeologists suggest

The measure passed the national assembly late on Tuesday by a vote of 493 to 30, with almost all members of Macron’s centrist minority coalition as well as leftwing opposition parties approving.

Macron and other French lawmakers called for the right to an abortion – which has been legal in France since 1974 – to be inscribed in the constitution after the US supreme court in 2022 ended an almost half-century national constitutional right to abortion.

The government chose the term “guaranteed freedom” to thread a needle between the lower house, which earlier voted to enshrine the “right” to an abortion, and the Senate, which is dominated by centre-right parties and which so far has approved only “freedom” for abortion.

The Senate will start examining the text on 28 February.

https://archive.is/bcclP

In the US, Gallup data shows that after decades where the sexes were each spread roughly equally across liberal and conservative world views, women aged 18 to 30 are now 30 percentage points more liberal than their male contemporaries. That gap took just six years to open up.

Germany also now shows a 30-point gap between increasingly conservative young men and progressive female contemporaries, and in the UK the gap is 25 points. In Poland last year, almost half of men aged 18-21 backed the hard-right Confederation party, compared to just a sixth of young women of the same age.
Outside the west, there are even more stark divisions. (...)

https://archive.ph/MrnR1

The savage murder of a 41-year-old pregnant woman, the country's first femicide of 2024, has stirred fresh calls in Greece for femicide to be made a distinct criminal act

According to data BIRN received from the Greek police, in the first 11 months of 2023 police recorded 9,139 women victims of gender-based violence. In 2022 they recorded 10,131 cases.

Diotima and the Greek section of the European Observatory on Femicide have aimed to present a current picture of femicide in Greece through data recorded since 2019. According to Diotima, from 2010 to 2023, a total of 202 women were murdered in Greece. 10 in In 2010, 12 in 2011, 6 in 2012, 13 in 2013, 12 in 2014, 11 in 2015, 13 in 2016, 10 in 2017, 13 in 2018, 17 in 2019, 19 in 2020, 31 in 2021, 24 in 2022 and 10 in 2023, until December 5.

Those in the movement position themselves as women’s rights advocates with reasonable concerns about trans people. They’re anything but.

The country’s near-total abortion ban is forcing women and girls to turn to the black market for terminations

Hours before the ruling, a group representing the woman, whose fetus received a fatal diagnosis, said she was leaving Texas for an abortion.

As a series of repressive bills targets drag shows across the country, performers in Texas try out a novel defense.

Students were required to address ‘whiteness’ and describe what the term ‘white’ means, as well as explain how they ‘navigate race’ in their daily lives.

How can journalists use data without reducing the murder of women to crime statistics, and produce a narrative that humanizes without sensationalizing?

The Grace Hopper Celebration is meant to unite women in tech. This year droves of men came looking for jobs.

Three Muslim women share their stories of removing their hijabs, despite facing fierce opposition.

A Muslim cleric has been arrested on charges of blasphemy and hate speech in Indonesia after his decision to allow women to preach and pray beside men sparked a backlash in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.

A recent survey of women entrepreneurs in the UK provided critical insights on gender bias in funding, revealing the biggest barrier faced by women in the business world is the lack of female decision-makers in these venture capital firms.