Tonight, my thoughts are with Rihanna, who is scheduled to testify tomorrow morning at a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles against Chris Brown, charged with felony counts of assaulting her.  It must take immense bravery for Rihanna to testify in the face of not only the hurdles that any abused woman faces, but also intense scrutiny from tone-deaf media.  For example in the CNN Showbiz Tonight clip below, host AJ Hammer says:
I’d have to believe that she’d rather have this whole thing just kinda go away so she can get on with her life.
Really?  Are you …

For Immediate Release
June 21, 2009
The New Agenda Congratulates Terry O’Neill, incoming President of the National Organization for Women
The New Agenda, a national organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls, congratulates Terry O’Neill and her slate as they prepare to take office at the National Organization for Women.  Also on O’Neill’s slate are Bonnie Grabenhofer of IL, taking on the position of executive vice president; Erin Matson of MN, serving as action vice president; and Allendra Letsome of MD, incoming membership vice president.
The New Agenda’s President Amy …

Note: What Every Woman Should Know is a series on American Women’s History.
Fathers’ Day, like Mothers’ Day, was invented by a woman.  Ann Jarvis is responsible for Mother’s Day, an effort she began in 1912, which she later came to despise, as she thought that the holiday had become what she called a “Hallmark Holiday.” Sonora Smart Dodd is officially credited with starting Father’s Day in 1910, though her effort was not taken very seriously for many years. Woodrow Wilson signed Mothers’ Day into law, and Lyndon B. Johnson signed …

These are slightly edited exerpts from the site Alice’s Drive. The author’s opinions are her own, not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
On June 9th, 1909 twenty-two year old Alice Ramsey set out on the journey of lifetime. Accompanied by three female companions, they drove from 1930 Broadway in New York City on an epic transcontinental journey. Fifty-nine days later Alice would become the first woman to drive across America.
The drive was much more than a publicity stunt for Alice (though to the Maxwell-Briscoe [Auto] Company that is exactly what …

The author expresses her own opinions, not necessarily those of The New Agenda. If you’d like to submit your opinion for consideration as a blog post, send it to blog@thenewagenda.net
The use of labels is part of our everyday lives. As Shirley Chisholm once said, “The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females beings when the doctor says: ‘It’s a girl.’” Today, in this country, it is a rarity that a pregnant couple decides to wait and find out the sex of their unborn child. So, before we are even born, …

Soledad Pierre walks her cousins home from school. Housework and childcare responsibilities often prevent her from practicing with her basketball team. Yet, such responsibilites are not equally shared by her older cousin Karl, who lives in the same household and plays basketball nearly every day.Photo credit: Nicole Bengiveno/NYT.
Marj Snyder, the Chief Program Officer of the Women’s Sports Foundation, says:
Urban girls are the have nots of sports and physical activities participation… Where is a girl going to learn how to be on a team?  That’s what she’s going to experience when …

According to CNN, Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor has resigned from an all-women’s club, saying
I believe that the Belizean Grove does not practice invidious discrimination and my membership did not violate the Judicial Code of Ethics, but I do not want questions about this to distract anyone from my qualifications and record.
Here’s how Rush Limbaugh had expressed his concern over the issue earlier this week: 

What do you think, readers?  Are women’s clubs and gyms discriminatory?

Jon Stewart Skewers a double standard:

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Forbes magazine, “The Capitalist Tool,” is looking a little desperate in their attempt to lure new women readers.  The New York Times reports that Forbes “is struggling in an age of financial misery” with ad pages down 15% in the first quarter and the price per issue dropping steadily, prompting layoffs and benefit cuts. 
Often thought of as a wealthy family that happens to own a magazine, the family is actually wealthy precisely because it owns a magazine, and the business decline of the magazine comes right out of the family’s …

As we close the chapter on the Letterman episode, I think the people of our country can declare a victory. Did we get it just right, no; but did we move the ball forward, absolutely yes.
Perhaps the most important take away of this fiasco is that the American people are no longer willing to remain silent. We took collective action to say no more. Women and men from different political parties, religions, races and sexual orientations were able to join hands and unite.  We drew a line …