Category: Activism

So, you’re committed to the cause and fired up for feminist activism. What now? How do you get informed on issues and decide what direction to take?

We were in Boston at the National NOW Conference’s Political Roundtable, where women politicians and women who worked in politics were discussing how to advance women’s rights through electoral politics.

When Josie Ashton learned of the brutal murder of Gladys Ricart, a 39 year old Dominican woman killed by her ex-boyfriend on her wedding day, she became alarmingly concerned about the prevalence of domestic violence in the Latina community. News articles covering the murder depicted it as a “crime of passion,” and some members of Ricart’s family even said she may have had it coming.

Coming from humble beginnings on a Maui sugar plantation, Patsy Mink rose to become the first Asian American woman and first woman of color ever elected to Congress as a United States Representative for Hawaii. Winning her seat in 1965, Mink spent the four decades of her political career championing the rights of women, minorities, children, and the environment.