I thought this was a wonderful exercise in dreaming out loud for civil rights and equality….this court would actually look  like our students!   See the full article here, with details about “the court” and those who nominated them.

Dale Minami, civil rights attorney;  Lani Guinier, Harvard law prof/activist; Goodwin Liu, Berkeley law prof; Patricia Williams, Columbia law prof; Harold Koh, lawyer/scholar; Marsha Berzon, 9th Circuit federal appeals judge; Jackie Berrien, EEOC chair; Gerald Lopez, UCLA law prof; and Jed Rakoff, federal district judge.

And be sure to check out the newly re-launched ColorLines webmagazine, now a fully digital publication.

From Ms. Magazine’s blog, June 25

The Akanksha Infertility Clinic is a small pastel building inside a walled compound. Located in Anand, India, the clinic is one of hundreds in the country offering the local women as commercial surrogates. For a fraction of what it can cost in the United States, infertile couples or single parents can hire a woman to stay in the hostel for nine months and bear their child.

Potential surrogates recruited by the Akanksha Clinic are healthy married Indian women who have children of their own.  Once a party to the agreement, they can no longer live at home, have sexual contact with their husband and must leave older children behind to live at the hostel. They sleep nine to a room, are administered daily iron shots and follow a closely monitored diet.

The increasing popularity of outsourcing pregnancy to countries like India, Thailand and Cambodia poses urgent questions about the connections between global inequality and the commodification of the female body. Currently, commercial surrogacy is legal in India because no law exists to prohibit the practice. This means that there are also few safeguards protecting the rights of surrogate mothers.

In its next legislative session, the Indian Parliament is set to debate a bill entitled “The Assisted Reproductive Technology Act,” which will regulate the growing industry. One problematic part of the bill says that a surrogate must waive all her rights during the pregnancy. Even the option of “fetal reduction,” abortion, is a decision that can only be made by her doctor or the genetic parents.

Story continues here

From Ms. Magazine blog, July 2, 2010:

On Thursday, the New York State Senate passed a landmark bill granting overtime pay, paid vacation days, a day off each week, and protections against sexual harassment to domestic workers. David Paterson has promised he will sign it into law, giving thanks to the many workers who lobbied for its passage:

They provide all of us with an example of how individuals can, through struggle and dedication, bring about positive change in the face of skepticism and doubt. This achievement belongs to them, and I will be pleased to sign it into law on their behalf.

The bill’s passage concludes a six-year battle in the state legislature, and is a significant step toward protecting domestic workers. But some of its benefits were qualified: Advocates agreed to compromise on the proposed requirement for six paid holidays and six days of paid vacation, and instead mandate three paid vacation days annually–but only after a worker has been with an employer for a year.

In the New York metro area, 93 percent of domestic workers are women. The passage of the bill was due in large part to Domestic Workers United, a thriving New York City union of Caribbean, Latina and African nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers.

More at “Newsflash: New York Passes Nation’s First Domestic Workers Bill of Rights”  Ms Magazine Blog.

This article from the Racewire blog draws attention both to First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to reform the American diet.  She does this both by modeling the importance of eating fresh fruits and vegetables and using organic gardening methods, but also advocates structural change by working with America’s food manufacturers to reduce fat and sodium content in their food.  Go Michelle!

As Michelle Obama turns up the heat on food manufacturers, PolicyLink and The Food Trust have released a report that maps America’s “food deserts” and looks at their lasting effects in rural areas and low-income communities of color.

The report culls research from more than 100 previous studies to bring together the best data available on food access. The findings won’t shock anyone living in one of America’s many food deserts, but they prove Obama’s childhood obesity campaign can’t stop with telling parents to feed their kids better:

• 23.5 million Americans lived over a mile away from the nearest supermarket in 2009;
• African Americans were nearly four times as likely to live a food desert as whites;
• 80 percent of nonwhite residents in Albany, N.Y., can’t find low-fat milk or high-fiber bread sold in their neighborhoods;
• More than 70 percent of families eligible for food stamps in Mississippi travel at least 30 miles to reach a supermarket.

Racewire blog article continues here

Report from PolicyLink & The Food Trust here

Womyn United:  International Womyns’ Day Marcha & Festival 2010

March begins 11am at Roosevelt Park, continues down Santa Clara and First Street to the Biblioteca Latinoamericana.  Festival from 1 to 4pm with vendors, food, and entertainment.

Participating Organizations: Cihuatl Tlatocan (MAIZ), FOCUS-SV, Silicon Valley
DEBUG, San Jose Peace and Justice Center, Women’s International League for Peace and  Freedom , San Jose CodePink, SJSU WoWi (Womyn on Womyn’s Issues), Santa Clara County’s Office on Women’s Policy,  LGBTQ Youth Spaces, SOMOS Mayfair, Cardea Center for Women, Bay Area Radical Women, SJSU Women’s Studies.

Cihuatl Tlatocan  is a women’s based mass organization whose vision seeks the liberation of Mexican womyn at an individual and community level, in a collective struggle towards social change and is a member organization of the MAIZ Alliance  (Movimiento de Accion, inspirando Servicio). Questions?  Cihuatl.Tlatocan@gmail.com

Download flyer here (click on image to see fullsize)

English	Spanish	Tagalog

Click on image to see fullsize

Statewide/National Day of Action
In Support of Public High Education

A series of events protesting cuts to education

Local march events:

Meet at City Hall Plaza by 11:45 am to participate in the March

March will arrive at 7^th St. Plaza by 12:15 pm

Rally in 7^th St. Plaza 12:15 to 1:00 pm

Free T-shirts, and drink at the end of the rally

We’re all connected! Keep the doors open!

Info: Contact Sue Pak: spak@calfac.org (510) 290 4308

Endorsers and more info:

• National Day of Action site
• Standup for Schools
• CA Student Walkout Facebook page
• CFA resource page [Read more →]

Please mark your calendars for Tuesday, March 2 for the Women’s Studies Program Open House.  Come share good conversation, games, music, food, and drink as we kick off Women’s History Month and a full roster of events.  In DMH238A from 3-6pm.  Also mark your calendars for these events throughout the month:

3/2 Women’s Studies Open House, 3-6pm  DMH238A
Please join us for conversation, games, music and refreshments with faculty and friends of the Women’s Studies program.

3/3 Chicanas in the Movimiento – 6-8pm  Mexican Heritage Center, 1700 Rock Ave, San Jose
Featuring local activists Elisa Marina Alvarado, Shirley Trevino, Martha Campos, Tamara Alvarado, moderated by Teresa Castellanos.  Part of the MAIZ series on 40 Years of the Chicano Movement in San Jose

3/3  Film Screening of Arusi: Persian Wedding, followed by Q&A with Director Marjan Tehrani, 7pm  Eng189
Marjan Tehrani’s second feature documentary explores the complex and troubled relationship between America, the country of Tehrani’s birth and Iran
Co-sponsored with the Student Association of Middle Eastern Studies

3/6 “Womyn Unite” – International Women’s Day Marcha, 11am
March begins from Roosevelt Park (Santa Clara & 19th) to Biblioteca Latinoamericana, Festival continues from 1-4pm.   Sponsored by South Bay International Women’s Day Network & Cihuatl Tlatocan

3/11 Women’s Studies Alumni Panel, 10:30-11:45  MLK 255/257
Come learn how SJSU Women’s Studies alumni are making change in local communities with Noemi Teppang, Lindsey Mansfield, and Margie Strubel.

3/17 Sex & Love in the Bay Area with Sexologist Carol Queen, 1:30 – 2:45  ENG189
Carol Queen is a writer, educator and cultural sexologist with a Ph.D. in human sexuality.  She is founder of The Center for Sex and Culture, a non-profit sexuality education center and directs Continuing Education at Good Vibrations, the women-owned, worker-owned sex toy shop in San Francisco.

3/17  7pm  Literary Reading with Laleh Khadivi, The Age of Orphans, 7pm MLK Schiro Room, Steinbeck Center, 5th floor
Khadivi’s first novel begins a trilogy that follows the lives of three generations of Kurdish men as they grapple with landlessness, migration and national identity.   Sponsored by the Student Association for Middle Eastern Studies

Great article in the New York Times on the changing American family…

Based on a study of Census data, Pew found that in nearly a third of marriages, the wife is better educated than her husband. And though men, over all, still earn more than women, wives are now the primary breadwinner in 22 percent of couples, up from 7 percent in 1970.

While the changing economic roles of husbands and wives may take some getting used to, the shift has had a surprising effect on marital stability. Over all, the evidence shows that the shifts within marriages — men taking on more housework and women earning more outside the home — have had a positive effect, contributing to lower divorce rates and happier unions.

Story continues here

The Education Trust nonprofit research institute has released a new analysis of federal data concluding that 50 public flagships, one in each state, “continue to enroll students who are far richer and far whiter” than most in their states, says Director Kati Haycock.

“The report also reveals a grievous imbalance in the way many of these institutions distribute financial aid to students. Public flagship and research universities spend millions of dollars every year subsidizing wealthy students who don’t need aid, while providing inadequate support to low-income and minority students who do.  Although low-income students receive higher grant awards than wealthy students on average, flagships spend almost exactly the same amount to aid students in the top two quintiles of family income as they do to aid students in the bottom two quintiles.

In fact, the typical low-income student at these institutions is left with an “unmet” financial need equivalent to about 70 percent of his or her family’s annual income. Meanwhile, students at our leading public universities are looking less and less like the state populations these institutions were founded to serve.”

See news release here (or download complete report)