Hats off to Nicholas Kristof for an excellent op-ed in the New York Times today.  Kristof writes (emphasis added):
Stunningly often, the rape kit isn’t tested at all because it’s not deemed a priority. If it is tested, this happens at such a lackadaisical pace that it may be a year or more before there are results (if expedited, results are technically possible in a week).
So while we have breakthrough DNA technologies to find culprits and exculpate innocent suspects, we aren’t using them properly — and those who work in this …

Sculptor Artis Lane cited this quote of Sojourner Truth as one of her inspirations in creating a new bust of the women’s suffrage leader, according to the LA Times.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, those women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again.  And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
The bust will be on permanent display in …

Lots of good news to report today! Despite repeated set backs and set ups, women are making progress. Front and center in that effort is a program called Running Start, “a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring young women and girls to run for political office.” And a most amazing thing has happened as a result of the 2008 election, in which women ran on both sides for the first time ever. From Liz Wing of Nolimits.org:

Each year they [Running Start] bring 50 high school girls to D.C. to participate in …

The New Agenda welcomes blogger Afrocity. This post was cross-posted from her blog, Autograph Letter Signed.
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,-
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
William Shakespeare: Macbeth (IV, i, 14-15)
The above line from Shakespeare’s Macbeth is spoken by three witches. Three points about the witches are noteworthy: they wreaked havoc; conjured spirits; and manipulated Macbeth to his eternal demise. How many politicians have shared a similar fate as Macbeth? …

Editor’s Note: Peggy Klaus was a guest on the February 23rd and March 16th editions of Chewing the Fat with Ophelia. She’s an Ophelia favorite. TNA is happy to have her cross-post this article about bully-busting, which is chock full of helpful advice. You can read more from Peggy at her website. Enjoy!
“Did you fall down and smack your little head on the pavement?” snapped Miranda Priestly to her assistant in The Devil Wears Prada.  With that one line, played with abandon by Meryl Streep, the character instantly personified the worst kind of …

What Every Woman Should Know is a bi-weekly series on American Women’s History.
Hamer in Washington, D.C. 1964
Fannie Lou Hamer was born and lived in Mississippi, where she was given a scant education and worked from the age of six. Hamer was a leader in the Civil Rights movement. She was also the twentieth child born to her mother.
While still a sharecropper on a plantation in Mississippi, Hamer became politically active in 1962 at the age of 45 when she attended her first civil rights meeting. Her passions were enflamed and …

Here’s our old pal Larry Summers sleeping on the job. Maybe he was daydreaming about how to spend his $8 million in bonuses from last year?

Oh, no. He was sleeping because a woman was talking. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney who is championing credit card legislation. Certainly, if a woman is involved, must be nap time.

Ophelia finally recovered from the acute pork rind overdose, thanks largely to the advice 2 weeks ago from Nancy Weiser of Weiser Choices.
Now Ophelia is ready to spring back into action!
This week, Ophelia welcome NY State Senator Liz Krueger. For those of you from NY, you might now that Sen Krueger is a big time women’s advocate.
Liz and Ophelia will be discussing how the current economic climate is impacting women, as well as how we can work to get more women into politics.
So grab your coffee, tea, water, wine …

An article posted yesterday in The Huffington Post proclaiming Obama Gets Gender Right in First 100 Days has many women seeing red.
Here’s the author, C. Nicole Mason’s arguments:

Obama lifted the global gag rule
The first piece of legislation he signed into to law as President was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act
Obama’s Cabinet is also chock full of extremely accomplished stateswomen and issue advocates. With two cabinet positions still open, Obama has appointed or nominated a total of eight women to his cabinet or to high-level positions.
Less than a month …

Thanks to Judy Silver for putting together the video highlights from The New Agenda’s Violence Against Women Forum. The forum was held at the Benjamin Hotel in New York City on Saturday, April 18. Here’s Part One (the rest is coming soon):

Thanks to everyone who participated, especially our wonderful panelists who shared their time and expertise: Karen Cheeks-Lomax, Rosemonde Pierre-Louis, Leslie Crocker Snyder, and Irene Weiser.