New Sheriffs in Town

TIME hails three women gunning for better ways to do business.

At New Deal 2.0, we’re fortunate in having the voice of the man known as the Sheriff of Wall Street, Eliot Spitzer. But we’ve also got one of the three women Time Magazine has named to carry the mantle in the post-crisis era, Elizabeth Warren.

Michael Scherer confirms what ND20 contributors like Nomi Prins (Women Reformers Motivated by a No Tolerance Rule) and Joe Costello (Top Five Heroes of Financial Reform) have been saying for some time: Women are at the forefront of changing the way we do business in America. They’ve been…

Investing in Human Capital: Women, Work & Family

Investments in human capital, such as a college degree, are giving women greater freedom and stability in the home and workplace. ** DON’T MISS JUNE CARBONE SUNDAY AT 4PM EST ON NPR’S ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

It is big news that women who go to college, join the workforce, and delay having children don’t lose money when later on they do combine work and family. A recent study by researchers from the University of Maryland and UCLA looked at the economics of women who didn’t have children until they were over the age of 26, and found that their earnings were comparable to…

A Question of Values: The Real Abortion Debate

June Carbone and Naomi Cahn champion contraceptives and challenge the frame of the “abortion” debate.

Politicians do not like to talk about sex (especially when they are caught cheating with their wives). They most emphatically do not like talking about women’s reproductive needs. Indeed, they dislike talking about contraception so much that every time the issue arises, a determined group in Congress changes the subject to abortion. Abortion, as we know from the health care debate, is about having the right values. Contraception is about women’s real needs. It is time we change the subject back.

Over 90% of sexually active women…

Breaking the Glass Ceiling

To commemorate Women’s History Month, ND20 asked women thought leaders to reflect on past accomplishments and explore today’s key challenges. Barbara Arnwine argues that economic justice is still one of the most pressing legal issues for women — especially women of color.

Inspired by the achievements of countless African American women, we march forward, resolute in our mission to achieve equal rights. Sojourner Truth proclaimed, “Ain’t I a woman?” as she declared she could work as much as a man. Dr. Dorothy Height has fought for equal rights for African Americans and women for several decades and even encouraged President Lyndon B. Johnson…

Our Grandmothers, Ourselves: Social Security Under Fire

To commemorate Women’s History Month, ND20 asked women thought leaders to reflect on past accomplishments and explore today’s key challenges. Lynn Parramore considers the legacy of Social Security and the threat from deficit hawks.

The passage of the health care bill has caused many of us to wax poetic about the potential for progressive social reform. Some of the worst abuses of the insurance industry will be curbed. Health insurance companies won’t get away with charging more to cover women any longer, for example. That’s certainly something to celebrate.

But there’s danger on the horizon, particularly for women. Deficit hawks are poised…

I Do, Unfortunately, He Doesn’t: Name Changing and Egalitarian Marriage

To commemorate Women’s History Month, ND20 asked women thought leaders to reflect on past accomplishments and explore today’s key challenges. Anat Shenker-Osorio considers the tradition of martial name-changing and its implications for women.

Much has been made about this so-called woman-friendly recession. One woman in three now earns more than her husband; that’s one in two for women earning over $55,000. Unemployment may be stuck near 10% but cheer up ladies — this economic crisis is a feminist.

And there’s further evidence marriage is changing. It was once a woman’s best economic option to specialize in the domestic domain, allowing her husband…

Healthcare Victory Was an Historic Achievement for Women. Now Let’s Fix The Rest of Our Economy.

To commemorate Women’s History Month, ND20 asked women thought leaders to reflect on past accomplishments and explore today’s key challenges. Anna Burger argues that while health care reform is a victory for women, much remains to be done.

This week, we proved that “yes, we can.”

The vote we’d been working towards for years — ever since presidential candidate Barack Obama stood on a Las Vegas stage with the rest of the Democratic contenders and told SEIU members of his plans for national healthcare reform — was finally a reality, and I was beside myself.

We’d shown that working families struggling to make…

You’ve Come a Long Way Baby?

To commemorate Women’s History Month, ND20 asked women thought leaders to reflect on past accomplishments and explore today’s key challenges. Rev. Marcia Dyson warns that unequal pay threatens the nation’s economic recovery.

In the late ’60s, the Virginia Slim cigarette ads famously exploited the revival of the ’20s women movement by creating a false sense of rebellion and independence. We burned our bras but deceived ourselves in thinking that the strike of a match could light a path to true equality with men — not merely in the freedom to smoke, but in the workplace where inequality sent the hopes of millions…

The Power of the Pill

To commemorate Women’s History Month, ND20 asked women thought leaders to reflect on past accomplishments and explore the key challenges we face today. On the heels of a health care bill that raised the issue of reproductive freedom, June Carbone and Naomi Cahn look at the impact of the Pill on the economic destiny of women.

It was 50 years ago — 1960 — that the FDA first approved the birth control pill. While we’re not sure the Pill was THE most important invention of the 20th century (we’re not quite ready to rule out computers, stem cell research, or ATMs),…

Pro-Life Atlanta’s Big Lie to Poor and Minority Women

June Carbone calls out Georgia Right to Life and other pro-life organizations for championing abstinence-only education and restricted access to contraceptives–measures that rob poor and minority women of control of their futures.

The big lie continues. Taking a page out of Karl Rove’s playbook, Georgia Right to Life has taken something that should be celebrated - the long term decline in African-American teen pregnancies and improvident births — and turned into a canard, raising the specter of genocide in the voluntary reduction of childbearing. In doing so, Pro-life Atlanta joins the long list of charlatans that have preyed on the fears…