[[link removed]]Ms. Memo: This Week in Women's Rights
February 9, 2022
Right now, we face critical challenges to women's equality, both in the U.S. and around the world—but it can be hard to keep up. In this weekly roundup, find the absolute need-to-know news for feminists.
Americans Are Entitled to Government That Truly Reflects Them. Let’s Start With the Supreme Court [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]]BY ELIZABETH HIRA | No one deserves special privileges—that’s the through-line of the brouhaha surrounding President Biden’s commitment to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. But here’s the quiet part out loud: The people making that argument seem to mean that no one deserves special privileges anymore. Because, statistically—as many of us know—it has been the special privilege of white men to run this country, purportedly representing the rest of us, since our founding.
Here’s the rub: It’s not just historical. Today’s conversation about who deserves to be considered for seats of power merits a substantive review of who currently wields power. Today’s data shows that white men are significantly overrepresented in every part of government. They are 62 percent of all officeholders, but 30 percent of the population. That won’t change unless the country collectively acknowledges the literal concentration of American power among white men, decides it is not ideal, and takes affirmative steps to remedy it. The Court is a great place to start.
Now, railing on about white male privilege feels obvious and trite, and much ink has been spilled on the cultural meaning of identity politics. But data is different, and it makes one thing clear: American government in no way reflects America. This should not sit well with any decent American. Every time we have the chance to put a person in a new position of power, we must ask: Does this addition help reflect America? This would not just be “nice.” Choosing not to do this, by default, perpetuates a system where male, white power makes decisions for the rest of us.
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[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]Let’s Make This Another Year of the Woman—This Time for Governors [[link removed]]
Even After Oslo Meeting, Taliban Continues to Arrest and Torture Afghan Women Protesters [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]Under Biden, Cruelty Towards Asylum Seekers Persists [[link removed]]
Women Have and Will Continue To Be a Driving Force in Protecting Voting Rights [[link removed]]
What we're reading:
We know it's hard to keep up with everything going on in the world right now. That's why going forward, we'll provide a weekly roundup of the stories we think are important that Ms. may not have covered. Here's what we're reading this week:
*
"Supreme
Court
Restores
Alabama
Voting
Map
That
a
Court
Said
Hurt
Black
Voters"
—
The
New
York
Times
[[link removed]]
*
"The
19th
Explains:
Everything
you
need
to
know
to
claim
the
child
tax
credit
this
tax
filing
season"
—
The
19th
[[link removed]]
*
"Pauli
Murray
applied
to
be
a
Supreme
Court
justice
in
1971.
50
years
later,
a
Black
woman
could
make
history."
—
The
Washington
Post
[[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]]Tune in for a new episode of Ms. magazine's podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin on Apple Podcasts [[link removed]] + Spotify [[link removed]] .
Even before COVID, Americans in all 50 states were facing severe economic struggles, making it difficult to afford rent, mortgage, childcare and basic needs. The pandemic has made economic disparities exponentially worse. So why is a livable minimum wage so important to feminists and labor organizers everywhere? And how can a living wage boost the U.S. economy?
We hope you'll listen, subscribe, rate and review today!
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