Last week, Feminist Campus unveiled a new look for NYFLC 2018! The National Young Feminist Leadership Conference provides young people with a space to meet fellow like-minded feminists from across the country, network and connect, and hear from thought-provoking speakers and panelists within the feminist movement. If you are interested in attending the National Young Feminist Leadership Conference on March 17-19, you can learn more out about it here and register here. We’re super pumped up for NYFLC 2018, and we hope you are too! In the spirit of excitement, here are some feminist wins from last week:
Supreme Court ruling requires Pennsylvania to redraw district lines
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled this past week that Pennsylvania’s state legislature must redraw its legislative boundaries before the upcoming congressional primary elections, and the United States Supreme Court ruled that it would not block the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to do so. The current 18 congressional districts, which were drawn up and signed into law in 2011, were overtly partisan and violated the lines of Pennsylvania’s state Constitution. The current governor and legislature now have until February 15th to draw and enforce new congressional lines that are not blatantly gerrymandered.
New Yorker cover re-imagined as a Black woman
A Black woman appeared on The New Yorker‘s latest cover as the magazine’s mascot in lieu of the man (Eustace Tilley) watching a butterfly through a monocle, which has been the magazine’s iconic cover character since 1925. Editor Françoise Mouly told Bustle: “It felt right that in these times, Eustace Tilley should be depicted as a woman. It’s both a conversation and homage, bringing an icon to the present.”
This week’s cover, “The Butterfly Effect,” by @malikafavre: https://t.co/EmqxLkSwKN pic.twitter.com/bnrC0xqNMT
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) February 5, 2018
Afghan female coders break boundaries
A group of Afghan women broke gender barriers last week by becoming the country’s first female coders. In a field that is heavily male-dominated, the women designed a game called “Fight against Opium,” designed to combat the drug trade in Afghanistan. In the game, an Afghan soldier is on a mission to clear out drugs in Helmand and faces obstacles like drug traffickers, hidden heroin labs, and land mines in the process. Khatera Mohammadi, one of the coders, said the scenarios in “Fight against Opium” were based on her brother’s real-life experiences as a translator for U.S. troops in Helmand: “He would tell us about the poppy fields, the terrible mine blasts, battling opium traffickers and drugs,” says Mohammadi.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg calls for Equal Rights Amendment
This past Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called on Congress to add the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution. In 1972, the ERA was passed by both the House and Senate; however, it still has not been ratified by the necessary 38 out of 50 states. One of the main challenges the ERA has faced is that many Americans believe that women and men already have equal rights, making a Constitutional amendment such as the ERA unnecessary. In her statement on the ERA, Justice Ginsburg said, “Think about what it was in the beginning. I’d like to see in the Constitution a statement that men and women are people of equal citizenship stature. I’d like to see an equal rights amendment in our Constitution.” With campaigns such as #MeToo and figures like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg around, it may finally be time for the ERA to come back into the spotlight.
She Persisted Around the World children’s book
Chelsea Clinton has written a new feminist children’s book telling the stories of feminist icons and bringing children’s attention to important women in history. Clinton’s second children’s book includes stories about Marie Curie, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Viola Desmond, Sissi Lima do Amor, Leymah Gbowee, Caroline Herschel, Wangari Maathai, Aisha Rateb, J.K. Rowling, Kate Sheppard, Yuan Yuan Tan, Mary Verghese, and Malala Yousafzai. A first look inside the book was revealed on Bustle last Thursday, and the book will be released to the public in early March.