According to their own survey responses, anti-abortion voters are hostile to gender equality in practically every aspect.
The Catholic church, an unabashedly misogynist institution that to this day refuses to allow women into positions of power, had long opposed abortion (but not for all that long – until about 150 years ago, the Catholic view was that abortion was permissible through the first few months of pregnancy).
The birth control pill brought with it an avalanche of opportunities and freedoms, and women, finally fully able to have sex for fun and prevent pregnancy, took full advantage. The ability to delay a pregnancy – and later, the ability to legally end one – meant that women didn’t have to choose between romance and ambition (and it meant women could be choosier about romance, making a more considered decision about who and whether to marry).
This undermined the whole rightwing Christian project, which was, and remains, thoroughly invested in a nuclear family with a father at the head. And indeed, rightwing arguments against abortion used to invoke conservative gender tropes much more often – that abortion undermined the traditional family, for example.
Category: Herstory
Only 18% of people profiled on Wikipedia are women
The gender bias on the web-based, free encyclopedia Wikipedia is real. Just 18% of people profiled on the platform are women.
“Our Foremothers and Forefathers Knew What Was Up – A Thread. Statement against Transvestism from Drag Magazine“
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
#HappyBirthday to Jocelyn Bell Burnell, credited with “one of the most significant scientific achievements of the 20th Century”, discovering the first radio pulsars in 1967 https://buff.ly/2uzKXlW
Source: https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1150725475460898818
Despatches From The Matriarchy is creating feminist studies and revolution
Become a patron of Despatches From The Matriarchy today: Read posts by Despatches From The Matriarchy and get access to exclusive content and experiences on the world’s largest membership platform for artists and creators.
Source: Despatches From The Matriarchy is creating feminist studies and revolution | Patreon
Female nurse who played crucial role in IVF ignored on plaque
Despite a senior colleague’s protests, Jean Purdy’s name was not included on memorial.
Source: Female nurse who played crucial role in IVF ignored on plaque | Society | The Guardian
What Happened to Women in France After D-Day in 1944
They called it the épuration sauvage, the wild purge, because it was spontaneous and unofficial. But, yes, it was savage, too. In the weeks and months following the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944, Allied troops and the resistance swept across France liberating towns and villages, and unleashing a flood of collective euphoria, relief and hope. And then the punishments began.
The victims were among the most vulnerable members of the community: Women. Accused of “horizontal collaboration” — sleeping with the enemy — they were targeted by vigilantes and publicly humiliated. Their heads were shaved, they were stripped half-naked, smeared with tar, paraded through towns and taunted, stoned, kicked, beaten, spat upon and sometimes even killed.
Source: What Happened to Women in France After D-Day in 1944 | Time
Isabel Flick, the tenacious campaigner who fought segregation in Australia
The story of Isabel Flick, the tenacious woman and campaigner who fought segregation in Australia and is a recipient of an Order of Australia medal.
Source: Isabel Flick, the tenacious campaigner who fought segregation in Australia
Let’s not forget that Māori women had the vote long before Europeans arrived
To mark the anniversary of women’s suffrage, we republish this essay from International Women’s Day 2018 by Ātea editor Leonie Hayden – how Māori women can find their way back to equity through the stories of the past.
1893 was the first time New Zealand women were given access to the Westminster vote, but traditionally Māori women and children already had a say on important issues in their own communities. As that right was slowly eroded by encroaching colonisation, Māori women joined the fight for suffrage.
Source: Let’s not forget that Māori women had the vote long before Europeans arrived | The Spinoff
Dr James Barry: A Woman Ahead of Her Time review – an exquisite story of scandalous subterfuge
A bright and spirited girl, 18-year-old Margaret chastised her spendthrift brother with the words: “Were I not a girl, I would be a soldier!” The following year she set out on the path towards that unlikely ambition when she exchanged her skirts for breeches and enrolled as a medical student at Edinburgh, shrewdly reducing her age to explain her hairless chin and petite frame.
Barry was the second child born to Jeremiah and Mary-Ann Bulkley, and was given the name Margaret Anne. . . . A third child appeared in the Bulkley family and was named Juliana. Although presented as being Barry’s sister, it is likely that she was Barry’s daughter as a result of childhood sexual assault, as the charwoman who discovered Barry’s sex when laying out the body stated that pregnancy stretch marks were present.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Barry_(surgeon)