Reproductive Rights Archives

Favianna Rodriguez on the Power of Art to Heal Polarization

Editor’s Note: This interview in our Feminist Giving IRL series features Favianna Rodriguez, President of The Center for Cultural Power, a national organization investing in artists and storytellers as agents of positive social change.

Favianna Rodriguez, courtesy of Favianna Rodriguez

What do you wish you had known when you started out in your profession?

I wish I’d known more about the racial and gender barriers that exist for women of color leaders in the non-profit sector, particularly the arts and culture space. I knew how to pitch my ideas and raise money, but I lacked information on how to navigate situations in which I was experiencing unequal treatment due to my gender and racial identity. I was in many spaces where the safety of women was not prioritized. Unfortunately, over the last 20 years of being an institutional leader, I’ve experienced numerous uncomfortable situations including sexual harassment, the theft of my ideas by male leaders, being bullied by men when I challenged sexist assumptions, and being trained to lead in a boy’s club type of approach. Before, I didn’t have the language or tools to navigate these situations. But that has since changed, and I’m incredibly thankful for that because it gives me the opportunity to create safe spaces for other female and gender non-confirming leaders to thrive.

Teneral Cellars’ New Wine Collection Funds Women’s Health

Teneral Cellars’ new “Healthy Women, Healthy World Collection” has launched to raise awareness of and money for women’s health.

Teneral Cellars, a purpose-driven all digital winery, announced the launch of its Healthy Women, Healthy World Collection featuring a trio of wines that bring attention to reproductive, heart and breast health issues that affect millions of women globally. With every three-pack sold, $10 will be donated to the Endometriosis Foundation of America (EndoFound).

Teneral Cellars Launches Healthy Women, Healthy World Wine Collection Supporting the Endometriosis Foundation of America (Image credit: Teneral Cellars) — Teneral Cellars Launches Healthy Women, Healthy World Wine Collection is supporting the Endometriosis Foundation of America (Image credit: Teneral Cellars)

Women’s health is the cornerstone of all healthy communities. The collection speaks to the brand’s core mission to elevate women and inspire change, encouraging women to focus on their own health and take care of each other so that no one is neglected. Unfortunately, due to gender and racial bias in medicine, women are less likely to have pain treated, symptoms taken seriously, or be given a diagnosis, all of which can have serious implications.

Pop Culture Collaborative Leaders Discuss Funding Narrative Change

Editor’s Note: This dual interview in our Feminist Giving IRL series features Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke, who are, respectively, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Strategy Officer of the Pop Culture Collaborative, a philanthropic resource and funder learning community.

Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke, courtesy of Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke

1. What do you wish you had known when you started out in your profession?

Bridgit Antoinette Evans: I wish that I’d been introduced to Octavia E. Butler much earlier in life. Octavia wrote about this concept of “positive obsession,” which she described as “not being able to stop just because you’re afraid and full of doubts.” My mother and her siblings were leaders in the Civil Rights movement in Savannah, and while she fiercely believed that her daughters could be anything we wanted to be in the world, she was very clear that we needed to be improving the world while doing it. I wanted to be an artist, and so, as a teen, I became obsessed with one question: “What is the relationship between a great story and widespread cultural change?”

Kamala Harris: “We’re Gonna Get It Done.”

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on August 18, 2020, before Kamala Harris became the first female Vice President of the United States.

“We’re gonna get it done.” These were some of the first words spoken by Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris in her phenomenal half-hour interview with Errin Haines, Editor-at-Large for the 19th, during the 19th Represents Summit on Friday. Harris’s plans to “get it done” refer to the upcoming Presidential election, and her goal to join Joe Biden in leading the U.S. out of one of its worst crisis periods in history.

Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris spoke with Errin Haines of The 19th on Friday, August 14th, giving details of her experience becoming the first woman of color nominated to the U.S. Presidential ticket. (Image Credit: The 19th video, Youtube)

Haines began the interview by asking what it was like for Kamala Harris to be in competition with women she respected and worked with, other candidates who were running for President and were in the lead to be asked to fill Biden’s ticket for the Vice President spot.

A Leader in Women’s Health Urges Donors to Lean Into Discomfort

Editor’s Note: This interview in our Feminist Giving IRL series features Dr. Anu Kumar, President and CEO of Ipas, an international reproductive health and rights organization.

1. What do you wish you had known when you started out in your profession?

That the issues that I have chosen to work on, reproductive health and rights including access to abortion, are ones that will take generations to resolve. I naively thought that since Roe v. Wade was decided well before I came of reproductive age and the public health data were so clear about the health benefits of contraception and abortion for women, families, communities, and countries that logic would prevail and I would simply be running programs to scale up these programs. Little did I know that I would become a warrior for abortion rights!

WDN Presents New Seminar Series on Uplifting Birth Justice

WDN has launched a three-part seminar series covering reproductive justice and its relationships to feminism and anti-racist movements.

WDN's three-part series will be spread across three separate dates: June 1st, June 16th, and July 14th. (Image credit: WDN) — WDN’s three-part series will be spread across three separate dates: June 1st, June 16th, and July 14th. (Image credit: WDN)

For the last ten years, birth justice service providers, advocates and funders have been pushing to improve US maternal health. Join WDN for a three-part series on birth justice and come away with an understanding of what the birth justice movement is, how it connects to the reproductive justice movement, and what it means to invest in it with an anti-racist, feminist lens.

Each session will cover a distinct topic with a panel of leaders from the birth justice movement. You can choose to go to as many or as few of the sessions as you’d like, in any order. Click “register” to select the sessions you’d like to attend.

How The American Jobs Act Strengthens Women in Society

The Biden Harris Administration recently released a statement analyzing how the American Jobs Plan will positively impact women’s employment.

President Biden and Vice President Harris (Image Credit: uisjournal.com)

Beginning with an acknowledgement of how the last year saw 3.7 million less women working, the Biden Harris administration recently released a statement discussing their efforts to fight against this trend. Since the onset of COVID, many women have taken on more difficult job conditions, while also being responsible for caregiving responsibilities. Discrimination and hardships plague women, especially women of color, as they try to participate in the workforce. Covid-19 has made this situation even worse, and solving this is key to economic recovery.

New Campaign Aims to End Period Stigma and Poverty

Plan International USA (Plan) and Always have joined forces to address the period poverty crisis faced by women and girls in a new campaign.

Plan International USA Campaign Image (Image Credit: Plan USA)

Fear and shame are often the emotions most closely associated with menstruation. This has, unfortunately, led to the development of related issues that have yet to be properly addressed. The campaign is devised to raise awareness of these and work towards their betterment

The campaign is spurred on by a report that delves into the multi-faceted issue of menstruation. The report, entitled Menstrual Health & Hygiene “It’s Time to Talk”, details the various insecurities that come along with periods.

Senators Call for Biden to Create Office of Reproductive Health

A letter addressed to President Biden and Vice President Harris implores the administration to form a new office for reproductive rights within the White House.

A group of democratic senators have called on the Biden Administration to create an office dedicated to reproductive rights. A letter, first reported to The 19th, was penned by senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkly of Oregon, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Richard Bluementhal of Connecticut.

The letter proposes an Office of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Wellbeing that would operate within the White House’s Domestic Policy Council. In their letter, the senators outline how such an office would function and argue in favor of it.

Register Now! Critical Discussion on Abortion and Reproductive Justice

On March 3rd, Ipas, ARROW, SAfAIDS, and ASAP will join forces to present a webinar on the importance of a gender lens in healthcare.

Ipas, ARROW, SAfAIDS, and ASAP will discuss important topics concerning women's healthcare and COVID-19 on March 3rd. (Image credit: Ipas) — Ipas, ARROW, SAfAIDS, and ASAP will discuss important topics concerning women’s healthcare and COVID-19 on March 3rd. (Image credit: Ipas)

Building resilient reproductive health access
Why we must use a gender lens during the pandemic and after

Wednesday, March 3, 9:00 – 10:30am EST

As International Women’s Day approaches, please join us to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on women is driving innovation and new approaches to expand reproductive health access—right now and for the long term.

Presenters in this webinar will discuss how COVID-19 is impacting all facets of reproductive health and why a gender lens is necessary to overcome challenges and sustain change. And they’ll share examples of promising strategies and programs that can help build a more equitable reality for women and girls after the pandemic.

Category: Reproductive Rights