This post originally appeared on the blog Women & Hollywood.  The author’s opinions are her own, not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
I love it when a woman in Hollywood gets down and dirty about how Hollywood treats women. I love it even more when that woman is Nia Vardalos the keeper of one of the highest grossing romantic comedy of all time – My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  She is also in an elite club, her film was in the top 10 in 2002.
She has been everywhere pushing her …

Tchen (left) with Jarret at the announcement of the council's formation. Photo by L. Sweet
Since March, when President Obama held a press conference celebrating his creation of the White House Council on Women and Girls, I’ve been waiting for word of what this council would accomplish.  I’d love to be excited about it, if only I could understand what it’s doing.  The council has no budget, its staffers have other full time jobs, its members are predominantly male, and its mission seems fuzzy.  During speeches and interviews, the council’s head, Valerie Jarrett, has spoken only …

The following is an excerpt from the address Secretary Clinton gave in acceptance of the Alice Award, named for suffragette Alice Paul.  Sewall-Belmont House bestows the award annually to honor outstanding contributions in breaking barriers for women. 
Alice Paul was a visionary and a pioneer. She believed that gender equality was a moral imperative as well as a foundation for progress. And her struggle for women’s rights was built on the premise that no society or nation can reach its full potential if half of the population is left behind.
Now, we have seen …

(This morning, The New Agenda issued the following press release on NY State Senator Hiram Monserrate, who continues to serve despite being indicted of slashing his girlfriends face. For those of you new to our website, you can read the full story here.)
For Immediate Release
New York State Senators: When You Roll with Dogs, You Get Fleas!
The New Agenda, a national organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls, declared the New York Senate wholly deserving of the extraordinary mess they find themselves in after Senator Hiram …

A special thanks to The New Agenda’s supporter Gwilym McGrew from California.  Gwilym paid  to run Amy Siskind’s HuffPo article, “Sexism Against Conservative Women is Still Sexism” as a two-page ad in the Hollywood Reporter.  Gwilym figures the folks in Hollywood can stand to learn a thing or two about sexism.  Ironically, Variety turned down Gwilym’s request to run a similar ad.  Read Gwilym’s story below!

Here is the text of the ad below.

Amy, your article inspired me. I am Republican who had many discussions with my wife (a Bush loving …

This essay originally was published on the blog of the author, who expresses her own opinions, not necessarily those of The New Agenda. 
Margaret Carlson
An article posted on The Daily Beast, entitled “Palin Can’t Outsmart Letterman” and authored by Margaret Carlson, is rife with sexism and gender-coded language. The title of Ms. Carlson’s article sets the tone for the entire piece.Ms. Carlson starts off by belittling Palin’s intelligence, claiming that Letterman has the bigger brain of the two. This attack on Palin’s intelligence is obviously sexist. There are numerous examples of male …

Nomani outside of her hometown mosque
Former Wall Street Journal and Salon reporter Asra Nomani experienced a transformation when she made the pilgrimage to Mecca called the Hajj.  Born in India, Nomani moved with her family to Morgantown, West Virginia as a four-year old and grew up attending the mosque her father helped to found.  In that mosque, women entered through a separate door and sat in a balcony, facing the wall.  However, Nomani found radically different practices in the mosque in Mecca.  As she told New America Now Radio,
It’s amazing. I mean, men …

Word is spreading. We won’t back down!!!
Our press release has already been picked up by New York area Newsday.
Prominent liberal blog TalkingPointsMemo writes:
Good for Dave. Good for women. Amy Siskind over at Huffington Post noted recently that Letterman had invoked a new era of feminism, just as many of her co-bloggers were sadly finding new ways to excuse the sexist jokes (“hey, others have told sexist jokes – why is Letterman being punished?”, or “she announced it”, or “she put the kids on stage” or “they made rape/child molestation …

(This morning, The New Agenda issued its second press release on Letterman.)
For Immediate Release
CBS: Here’s Your Exit Plan
A Way to Get Letterman out of the Mess and Elevate Respect for Women and Girls
The New Agenda, a national organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls, acknowledges a much-improved second apology from David Letterman, but said the damage created will require more than words to adequately address.
As described in The Huffington Post, both CBS and David Letterman have underestimated the national wave that Letterman’s “joke” about sex with …

AP Photo: Iraq vets Staff Sgt. Ranie Ruthig and Maj. Anastasia Breslow with Sen. Patty Murray
Senators including Patty Murray, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Lisa Murkowski, and Blanche Lincoln have introduced S. 597, the Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act. Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and co-sponsors have introduced a similar bill, HR 1211, in the House. The following is an exerpt from remarks the author made to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs roundtable on this topic. You can read her full remarks on the blog to which she contributes, VetVoice. The views she presents …