The Pentagon released chilling data this week that concludes there were an estimated 26,000 cases of sexual assault in the military last year, up from 19,000 in 2010. But only a small fraction of those assaults were reported — 3,374 in 2012 compared with 3,192 in 2011.
With President Obama’s appointment of Penny Pritzker to be Secretary of Commerce, his second-term roster of cabinet secretaries is nearly complete. NOW has done the math, and the numbers are good, but not great. The Obama cabinet is only about one-third women.
Adam Serwer and Jaeah Lee write at Mother Jones: “This week, New York City is defending itself against a lawsuit that claims its controversial ‘stop and frisk’ policy is used to illegally detain and search people on the basis of race. The subject of an o…
On Equal Pay Day, NOW has a message for Congress: Do not follow President Obama in cheating the women of this country. After facing years of wage discrimination, women cannot afford to be swindled yet again when it comes to their Social Security. Keep the chained CPI out of the federal budget!
In many cases immigrant women are more hesitant to report incidents of harassment because the perpetrator holds a position of power and may threaten to fire them or call immigration if they seek help. Undocumented women in abusive relationships often face similar barriers to reporting acts of violence. A partner may discourage the woman from leaving the relationship using the threat of deportation or separation from their children.
While the coverage is problematic, it is even more so in a culture that devalues women and regularly downplays the crime of rape, particularly sexual assaults committed by talented athletes. Our society laments the loss of the football careers these young men may have had, yet fails to seriously consider the affect this crime could have on the victim.
Adil Jawad and Rebecca Santana write for Salon: “Gunmen shot and killed a pioneering Pakistani activist in Karachi who helped bring services like sewer and water to the city’s poorest neighborhoods, a police official said Thursday.”
Of the 100 sculptures (two per state) in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall, only 10 are of women, seven of whom are white. A statue of Rosa Parks was unveiled on Feb. 27, introducing the first full-body statue of an African American woman. Two other statues, depicting Sacagawea and Sarah Winnemucca, are of Native American women.
Enough already about sequestration. The massive budget cuts that make up the looming sequester are self-imposed and, like last fall’s so-called “fiscal cliff,” present us with two bad alternatives for funding the United States government. This time the choices are: (a) across-the-board cuts in military and social spending with no tax increases; or (b) some Read more …
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is a powerful player on Capitol Hill who has pretty much flown under the radar with the general public. But I predict that won’t be true much longer. Now that Cantor is taking the lead on blocking reauthorization of an inclusive version of the Violence Against Women Act in the Read more …