The Bay Area is commemorating the 90th anniversary of women's suffrage this week with speakers, films, costumes, and concerns. Members of the national organization Radical Women put out a call on the occasion of Women's Equality Day this year saying, "It's time to reclaim and re-energize a fighting, militant feminist movement!" In San Mateo, US Congresswomen Jackie Speier and Anna Eshoo warned that women's reproductive rights continue to be threatened. They held a reception attended by guests in voting-theme costumes in the San Mateo County History Museum.

Pictured: Rep. Jackie Speier in 1920's costume

We knew this was coming. Ken Cuccinelli has launched his first attack on reproductive choice as attorney general! On a week when the rest of us are commemorating the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and women’s suffrage in the United States, Virginia’s Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is trying to take rights away from the women of the Commonwealth.

I have volunteered (on and off) over five years at the Shady Grove clinic. I read the requests in the WACDTF newsletter about helping at the Hagerstown clinic. I "heard" how difficult the situation is there and I wanted to check it out. I now really enjoy going to Hagerstown once per month. Here is the honest part: if you travel from DC or near Baltimore to the Hagerstown clinic, you will spend almost five hours total—travel and defending time combined. Some people may think—that is a huge part of my Saturday. I would agree with you but trust me that it's amazingly rewarding and you will experience first-hand why our group is needed and appreciated by the Hagerstown clinic staff and the patients. You will leave feeling like you helped a woman in need because you are helping to protect her rights. wacdtf.org

Basically this was the "big" protest against choice and birth control pills event for the American Life League, a right wing anti choice group. They got about 25 people from across the country, to D.C. Planned Parenthood Clinic June 5th. It was fail. Really they came they saw and they were lame as lame could be. However the pictures and their descriptions tell the story best.

by Bob Libal for Grassroots Leadership: Grassroots Leadership today expressed sadness and outrage at the alleged sexual abuse suffered by several immigrant women detained at the T. Don Hutto detention center in Taylor, Texas. A prison guard employed by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a private, for-profit corporation under federal contract to detain immigrant women at Hutto, allegedly assaulted the women. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) disclosed the abuse to advocates on Friday afternoon. The CCA guard allegedly groped several women and solicited sex from at least one woman while transporting them to the airport for deportation.

The T. Don Hutto detention center is a private prison formerly contracted to detain immigrant families, including small children. Last August, in a victory for Grassroots Leadership and our allies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that it would end family detention at Hutto as part of sweeping reforms to the detention system. The facility now detains women apprehended without children, many of whom are seeking asylum in the United States. ICE has held up Hutto as a model detention center. [read full article]

Article on end of Family Detention at Hutto | Houston IMC feature recaping struggle against family detention at Hutto

U.S. Army shuts down their weapons exhibit, closing it to public access while Code Pink women march and sing for peace on the Mall outside Congress.

This Mother’s Day weekend, the U.S. Armed Forces is hosting its annual weapons exhibit on the Washington Mall, encouraging parents to bring their children to play with the weapons. A group of over 40 women peace activists, and several dozen more children and male allies, arrived at the military weapons exhibit to find it already shut down and fenced off from public access, in anticipation of their protest. Read More by Ethan Genauer

"More than 46 years after passage of the Equal Pay Act woman continue to earn only 77 cents on the dollar compared to our counterparts. On Tuesday, April 20th, we are marking this symbolic day when women's wages actually catch up to what men made at the end of 2009!"--this was written on a paper we were handed by three charming greeters at the door on Tuesday upon entering Louie's...

The welcome came from American Society of University Women (AAUW) as the all-women crew (see photos) met us at the door with an invitation for some education and fun. We entered and found a packed house and an atmosphere that felt down-home friendly.

Here are a couple pictures (click to make them bigger) & keep readin' to hear more about Equity Pay Day...

Women at South Bay prison are being served bug-infested food, are forced to live in flooded cells, and daily face unsanitary and dangerous conditions. Women are refusing meals and demanding that the situation immediately be put to rights.

On Saturday, March 13, about 150 mothers, grandmothers, women who are not mothers, children, and men, came out for the Mothers March and Speak Out in Los Angeles. This was an International Women’s Day event called by the Global Women’s Strike and Women of Color/GWS.

Story/pictures: Mothers March & Speak Out by Ruth Todasco

The March issue of the Public i dedicated to Women's History Month is now out on stands!

This month's issue includes articles on early Urbana woman Kate Baker by local historian Ilona Matkovszki, women in the economy by Women's Studies professor Marianne Ferber, and domestic violence by Marya Burke.

Also notable are two articles on criminal justice: Barbara Kessel writes about a civil suit filed by parents of black children used as subjects for class displays of Taser use by Kankakee cops; and Tamms inmate Joesph Dole writes about the increase of commissary fees in Illinois prisons, an article reprinted from the Prison Legal News.

You can access the March issue by clicking here.

Or you can go to: http://publici.ucimc.org/mar10.pdf

BD

Pouring rain and high winds on Saturday March 13 forced Mothers March Globally inside, but spirits were not dampened. Fifty women and men gathered in Center City to protest the lack of recognition and support for mothering.

Interviews at the Int'l Women's Day event at DC Cuban Interest Section

On Saturday March 13, Philadelphia women joined with mothers around the world in "Mothers March Globally" to mark International Women’s Day and the 11th Global Women's Strike, focusing their protest here on the unjust removal of children by the Department of Human Services.

Mothers March Globally events took place around the world, including in Guyana, Haiti, Mexico, Peru, Turkey, the UK (see photo from demotix.com) and Venezuela, echoing the demands of the Global Women’s Strike that society “Invest in Caring, Not Killing,” beginning with payment for caring work, including for the first carers: mothers.

In Philadelphia, a 12 noon press conference featured mothers fighting to get their children back from DHS, former social workers, mothers working for justice for loved ones in prison, grand- and great-grandmothers, Katrina survivors, and men in support including fathers and other carers, plus greetings from other Mothers March events in other countries. A march to DHS and Family Court will followed. Full Press Release | Background

Related: International Women's Day in the Philippines | International Women's Day at the Cuban Interest Section | International Women's Day in Ashland | Support Immigrant Women, Support the Driver's License Campaign! (Where the Allies At?) | Mother Recounts Lead-Up to Murder of Her Son by OPD

Past Coverage of IWD: 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

This past Saturday the Third Annual Rogue Valley Celebration of International Women’s Day took place at Southern Oregon University. It began with a parade which started at Triangle Park and ended at the SOU Student Union. The parade was led by three large puppets as it made its way down Siskiyou Blvd with about 150 people participating.

from the open publishing newswire: Calling all allies and supporters!

Please come out to support the Mujeres en Liderazgo as they take their campaign for driver’s licenses to the capitol. 

After over two years of organizing, the Mujeres en Liderazgo are preparing for their bill to be voted on by the state representatives.  This is a crucial moment for the bill which would give drivers licenses to everyone.

With the support of the community, different organizations, religious groups, and legislators, “Mujeres en Liderazgo” has introduced a Bill in the State Legislature that would allow anyone living in Minnesota to get a driver’s license, regardless of their citizenship status.

Related at TC Daily Planet: Driver's License Bill for Undocumented Workers

Licencias_de_Conducir_para_Todos[1].pdf