Letter from the Editor

This month we celebrate mothers, families, childcare workers, nurses, mothers who are nurses, nurses who care for children, mothers who’ve supported their families, well...you get the point! This month we honor these women, but particularly give appreciation to the unbelievable load they have carried this past year. As VP Kamala Harris noted, we are experiencing a state of emergency; women are being forced to leave the workforce in unprecedented numbers due to the unpaid and unappreciated work of caretaking. The GWC celebrates and honors you!

We invite you to check out some of our resources for Mothers, and engage with our team on social media. Scroll down for important updates on our actions, insightful articles on our research including motherhood and labor, and make sure to take our April Newsletter quiz! Don’t forget to check out our Artist’s Corner by scrolling down to read a poem by award winning poet, Natalie Diaz. Lastly, we would love your participation in our #MyStoryGWC campaign, where you can connect with other members through shared stories, to highlight the issues most important to us.

We hope you enjoy this edition, and we look forward to seeing you at our events!

Stayce Camparo, Communications Co-Chair Global Women’s Caucus

Over 10,000 members and growing! Join us

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

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GWC ACTION UPDATES

• We’ve started a series of short clips for you to get to KNOW THE FACES BEHIND OUR ACTIONS. Meet our volunteers working tirelessly on the issues addressing women worldwide, and discover the intersectionality of all our actions and operations.

• Our Action Teams have resources for you! Check often for current updates on all the research our teams are doing to keep you aware and active in the fight for women’s rights.

• The Reproductive Justice team wants you to know that the Ohio anti-abortion law was just held to be legal by the Appellate court in Ohio. It had been stayed by a lower court. This law makes abortion a capital crime. We lost this battle but not the fight. This case will most likely end up before the Supreme Court. Take a look at how bad it really is at our resource page, and send an email for info on how to join our calls and help. Next meeting is May 12th to discuss how to get the Administration to get rid of the Hyde Amendment in the budget, and how to combat the anti-choice legislation flooding State legislatures.

• Books Abroad, Feminist Reading Group picks The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton! Thanks to all who voted! Set in the early 20th century, in a world and milieu that are far from us today, it displays the progress women have made, even though we have a long way to go! What’s instructive and worthy of discussion is the question of what makes a feminist.

• The Climate Action team is pleased to see the U.S. stepping back in to lead on international climate action. As the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the U.S. has both the obligation and the resources to reduce its emissions faster and more stringently than any other country! As the U.S. Envoy for Climate, John Kerry said after the Summit, the U.S. and other major emitters' commitments to reduce greenhouse gases are not currently enough to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. Read about how that is shaping up in the U.S. here.

Articles

Professor Linda Scott’s latest article, “Gender Inequality Causes Poverty”, makes the case that gender inequality is one of the major causes of poverty around the world. She contends that specific gender barriers form a complex, interlocking system of economic exclusion that keep women dependent and suffering additional constraints such as domestic violence, food insecurity and inadequate access to healthcare. Her April 13th talk with the GWC showed the strong relationship between rising gender equality and improved national prosperity.

Motherhood is Labor and Leadership
By Stayce Camparo

Contrary to economic models on Family Leave policy, motherhood is not an absence from the labor force, but rather a shift in demand and supply. read more

They have our backs. It’s our turn to have theirs
By Denise Roig, DA Canada

“You helped me gather my strength.” (Sexual assault victim to Protect Our Defenders.) read more

Illustration: Eleanore Shakespear
Dr. Scott: 'Willful traditional thinking’ cements disadvantaged conditions for women; Start the undoing  
By Nita Wiggins, Paris France

The throughline is the economic suffering of women globally, which translates into the pain of families in developed as well as developing countries. read more

There’s nothing in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ that didn’t happen somewhere.
By Cait Czarniecki

Reproductive bans, attacks on transgender children. What can learn from the dystopian world of The Handmaid’s Tale. read more

Illustration by Naomi Ages, Climate Action Team Leader

We want to hear from you at #MyStoryGWC!

Hey Mothers! What is your pandemic story? We’ve all seen the ups and downs of closed schools and daycares, home offices, unemployment, layoffs, furloughs, sicknesses, and well...anything and everything this year has dealt us. Send your stories here for either a much needed vent session, or a way to pass on your positive approach to what has felt like a never-ending nightmare. And, stay tuned to see what people have to say.

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ERA STORY

“For my mother, my wife, and my daughters, I want to see the ERA become the next amendment. I want it for all American women who are limited in ways that I can see, and especially for the ways that I don't, or can't.” -- California Voter

Did you read our April Newsletter?

Take the quiz

Artist Corner: 

“American Arithmetic”

By: Natalie Diaz, 2018 MacArthur Fellow

Native Americans make up less than

one percent of the population of America.

0.8 percent of 100 percent.

O, mine efficient country.

I do not remember the days before American --

I do not remember the days when we were all here.

Police kill Native Americans more

than any other race. Race is a funny word.

Race implies someone will win,

implies I have as good a chance of winning as --

we all know who wins a race that isn’t a race.

Native Americans make up 1.0 percent of all

police killings, higher than any race,

and we exist as .8 percent of all Americans.

Sometimes race means run.

I’m not good at math -- can you blame me?

I’ve had an American education.

We are Americans, and we are less than 1 percent

of Americans. We do a better job dying

by police than we do of existing.

When we are dying, who should we call?

The police? Or our Senators?

At the National Museum of the American Indian,

68 percent is from the U.S.

I am doing my best to not become a museum

of myself. I am doing my best to breathe in and out.

I am begging: Let me be lonely by not invisible.

In an American city of one hundred people,

I am Native American -- less than one, less than

whole -- I am less than myself. Only a fraction

of a body, Let’s say I am only a hand --

and when I slip it beneath the shirt of my lover,

I disappear completely.

In Closing

As the 2020 general election attested, Democrats Abroad are a force that can make real change. We need your help to influence the policy crucial for gender equality, rights, and justice. Consider joining the Global Women’s Caucus, and connecting with thousands of others on the same mission as we build our community strong. You can also receive newsletters and meet other members at our events. Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram,  Twitter, and Youtube. Our website is constantly being updated with news and actions to get you and your family involved in the righteous campaign for women. 

Thank you for reading this issue, and please share with your friends and family.

In solidarity,

The Global Women’s Caucus