Feminists Arm Themselves With Art

article link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/08/arts/feminism-art-us-election.html

This article focuses on how feminism is being represented in the forefront at art institutions in light of the presidential election approaching. There is the Feminist Art Coalition, a nationwide collaboration among art institutions, that are planning to exhibit and promote feminism in the fall. One of the reasons for the coalition is due to the importance of having conversations about misogyny, equality, and oppression in response to the election. An art director said that there have many efforts to recognize the bias towards women in the art world, and how they are not as valued or seen in the same regard as men.

Art is great outlet for expression and self identification, and I think that the coalition is a great idea. Feminism has become divisive and lost its meaning in some regard, partially due to capitalism or white feminism, neither of which represent the true meaning of feminism. The goal of the coalition is to hear women’s voices in the form of art and express the various types of feminism. Feminism is intersectional, and I think it can be adequately be represented through the different types of art and the creativity of different artists. The organization is even having non-binary artists show their work and in turn tell their story in the form of art. The art world is elitist and exclusive, and the coalition aims to be inclusive and leave it open for various ideological interpretations and positions.

Democratic Frustration Mounts as Biden Remains Silent on Sexual Assault Allegation

During the 2016 election allegations of sexual abuse were mounted against President Donald Trump. And, while he vehemently spoke out against these claims and won the presidency his alleged victims were silenced and forgotten. Now in a turn of events the expected democratic nominee Joe Biden is facing his own slew of allegations. But, Biden has chosen to stay silent on the matter. Which has angered many democrats. Who are calling for him to speak on these allegations. The article touches on how progressive activists and women’s rights activists are angered with Biden’s lack of response. They view his silence as a disservice to all victims who have come before. And, for me I view this as a sort of hypocrisy. As a progressive myself I hold my own party members to the same standard as I would anyone. Biden must speak on these allegations because of how serious in nature they are.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Endorses Joe Biden’s Presidential Bid

article link: https://time.com/5827869/pelosi-joe-biden-endorse/

This article discusses Nancy Pelosi’s choice to endorse Biden’s presidential campaign. The article mentions some reasons that she chose to endorse him, and that she likes his values and how he has dealt with the current pandemic. It also mentions that her support for Biden, may be due because he is the “presumptive Democratic nominee” and their best chance to keep a Democratic House and have Democratic control in the Senate.

I think it is interesting but not surprising that Pelosi chose to endorse Biden’s presidential campaign. She has discussed that a Democratic president is the way to advance liberal policies, and thus Biden is the way to make that happen. His background as Obama’s vice president has given him an advantage with the democratic party, seeing as they know who he is and it is easier to find support. Biden has gain endorsements form many high- profile people like Pelosi, Warren, and even Bernie Sanders, it has all been to give him a better chance of winning the presidential election and an effort to get Trump out of office.

This article highlights the stridea women in the Americas have made in leadership and politics in the past decade. Most notably, Bolivia was found to have more than 50% of its leaders as female, almost double the world average for gender equality in government. Mexico, Costa Rica, and Argentina were also found to beat the world average, yet their scores were still less than perfectly equal/were dominated by men. The United States did not meet the numbers necessary for the world average, with only about 20% of its leaders as female vs the world average’s approximate 30%.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.economist.com/the-americas/2018/07/28/latin-america-has-embraced-quotas-for-female-political-candida

The gaps in equality are blatant in our region of the world. The data shows that despite our close radius, the United States has fallen behind when it comes to gender equality compared to South American countries and Mexico. Based on the information we have learned about political equality in this course, we can contribute this to Latin America’s popular quota laws that require a certain number of seats to be held for female leaders so as to promote gender equality. Would these laws work in the United States? How long do you think it would take to catch up to Mexico and South America without these laws?

Why Joe Biden could swing votes by campaigning to legalize marijuana

article link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/20/why-joe-biden-could-swing-votes-by-campaigning-legalize-marijuana/

In this article it talks about Joe Biden and his candidacy and how his campaign to legalize marijuana can help him get more votes. Marijuana has become a big political issue and has had more political support within the last two decades. Talk about legalization is popular in swing states along with the voters. So the campaigning of marijuana could set Biden apart and give him an advantage seeing as how its legalization has become and important political policy among Americans.

Marijuana legalization is important among swing voters as much as it is in swing states, this means that voters who do not have a particular political party leaning support based on policies. Since marijuana legalization is a hot and interesting topic, Joe Biden campaigning for it has the possibility of gaining him more supporters. If people are interesting in one of his issues that he is campaigning for, they may start to support him and look into more of his policies which can help him secure votes. Just because people like one of his issues does not mean that they will vote for him, but it could gain him the attention and help his overall campaign and voting efforts.

Abortion by Telemedicine: A Growing Option as Access to Clinics Wanes

Like all other sectors of life and specifically medicinal matters have gone online. Telemedicine is a must today for many people across the globe as many of us are under stay at home orders. One growing area of telemedicine is abortion through telemedicine. Part of this is of course due to the pandemic but another part is due to how difficult abortions are to access in many parts of the United States. Of course, you can not perform a surgical abortion via Zoom. There are women being prescribed abortion pills via video conferences and the medicine is mailed to their homes.

The serve highlighted in this article is called TelAbortion and has been around years before this pandemic. But it is now experiencing its highest demand. TelAbortion not only prescribes the women abortion pills but also does follow up care.

This article high lighted a whole lot of issues involved in abortion and safe abortion access in this country. At first, I was drawn to the article because I was just shocked that there could be any women’s health appointments, especially abortion serves done via telemedicine. I recently had a general checkup with my doctor and it was so short and superfluous feeling. I was just really shocked by the title. While I don’t enjoy that this service is being high lighted due to a pandemic, I think it brings attention to a service that women across this country need in the current political climate.

Women’s Groups Will Host Summit Meeting Before D.N.C.

article link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/us/politics/women-democratic-party-convention.html?searchResultPosition=3

This article discusses that the meeting in front of the Democratic Party is to pressure them to putting more effort and focus on women and their issues. This effort is intended to have an impact on women to vote and to run for office. The organizers want the D.N.C. to pay more attention to women’s issues like “equal pay, sexual harassment, paid family leave, access to abortion, birth control, and childcare”. This pressure towards the party is a result of the fact that a female candidate within the party has yet to make it far in the presidential running. None of the six women running for president won a single state, partly because they could not count on the backing of female voters.

I think this is an interesting party, that is talked about in our book, Gender and Politics. The fact of the matter is that women, all types of women, are not working as a cohesive group. It is important to have a candidate be backed up by a party that is interested in women’ issues, so women can see themselves represented. Women’s issues are often thought to be solely about birth control, or equal pay, which are important, but not all women live the same life. So pushing for a focus on women’s issues is important it is also important to acknowledge the different lives of women and if more women run or feel like they can win, maybe something can be done.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/06/05/the-world-is-a-long-way-from-meeting-its-gender-equality-target

This article compares the differences between countries with higher rates of gender equality than others. It focuses on GDP and income equality as its main factors for comparison, and decides that richer countries naturally have better rates of gender equality. Based on what we have learned about economics and gender in class, we can further explain this issue by remembering that women on average work harder and longer than men do all around the world, so richer countries with more people working are more likely to have more women and therefore more reason to support womens rights to bolster the economy and labor force. Also, richer countries are less traditional and conservative than poorer countries who do not have access to higher education, public resources, and technology to lessen the importance of someone at home to do housework. All of these factors affect women being able to detract themselves from the home and gain employment and equal rights to their male counterparts, and because these factors are found to be more prevalent in richer countries, the phenomenon of richer countries scoring better for gender equality makes sense.

This article discusses the strides women have made in leadership positions, and the future progression of women in leadership positions based on research studies. After interveiwing and comparing female leaders to male leaders all over the world, the researchers eventually found that women on average are just as competent, if not slightly more competent, than their male counterparts in leadership positions. Despite these findings, female leadership has actually been decreasing in recent years, just as we have learned in class.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/hbr.org/amp/2019/06/research-women-score-higher-than-men-in-most-leadership-skills

It is interesting to read about the criteria that is neccesary to be considered a good leader, but it also put bias into perspective for me. If we always took into account competency and expertise as the only reasons for hiring or promoting someone, so many people would be in places of power that otherwise would never be able to reach, while some people in power now would never be allowed to manage anyone. What are your preferences for gaging professional competency? Do you beleive that there are any other reasons- based on what we have learned in class- on why women do not get promoted as much as men do?

This article highlights the strides women have taken in government around the world, as well as their exemplary performance in handling the corona virus pandemic. The article attributes this to the early actions taken by these women to protect their citizens over concerns for economic issues, which most male-ran countries have chosen with disastrous results.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/avivahwittenbergcox/2020/04/13/what-do-countries-with-the-best-coronavirus-reponses-have-in-common-women-leaders/amp/

Although the article exemplifies the accomplishments of women around the world, it unfortunately still treats these women in a sexist way at times. For example, in the opening paragraph, it reads “women are stepping up to show the world how to manage a messy patch for our human family”. It places these women in the “mother” or “caretaker” role, while a male leader would be labeled as a leader without hesitation. We have learned about this phenomenon of writers letting their bias effect their writing style in class, and this is a perfect example. Have you noticed any other instances in the article where the author makes a mistake in this way? Do you think that this downplays the accomplishments these women have made?