In the U.S., participating in youth sports is expensive and time-consuming. As writer Jill Filipovic explains, kids from wealthier families can join costly club travel teams, but because of a lack of funding in poorer communities, there are fewer options for low-cost recreational leagues and school-sponsored sports. In this essay, she makes a case that …
Continue reading Let’s play ball: Jill Filipovic on access and opportunity in youth sport leagues
Who can artificial intelligence see, and whose faces and stories remain invisible? Joy Buolamwini, poet, computer scientist, and co-founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, asks this question in her research about how racial and gender biases influence the software and search algorithms that shape our everyday lives. In this provocative spoken-word video, Buolamwini demonstrates the …
In 2022, the UN’s International Labour Organization reported that women, on average, still earn 20% less than men. The global gender wage gap has been widely discussed and researched, but there is another gender gap that has received less attention: fewer and fewer men are taking jobs in fields that are traditionally seen as “women’s …
The economic impact of the pandemic, as shown in the unemployment rate, is staggering. Like previous pandemics, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected women. In this February 1, 2021 report, researchers Diana Boesch and Shilpa Phadke explain the complex reasons why more women than men have become unemployed since March 2020. Boesch and Phadke argue …
In this August 2020 essay, Barbara J. King, a biological anthropologist and professor emerita at the College of William and Mary, shares the story of her child Sarah, who is nonbinary and agender. King pulls from her perspective as both a biological anthropologist and a mother to explore the cultural and linguistic resistance to nonbinary …
Continue reading Disrupting the gender binary: Barbara J. King on gender fluidity and queer rights
Another way the rich keep getting richer? Marriage. This NPR podcast from February 24, 2020 explains the phenomenon of “assortative mating,” which occurs when people of similar education levels and socioeconomic status marry each other. Hosts Cardiff Garcia and Stacey Vanek Smith interview economist Branko Milanovic, who argues that this trend furthers income inequality in …
Who’s watching the kids? For many families, the answer falls along predictable gender lines, as women attempt to balance their jobs with unpaid caregiving. In her March 19, 2020 essay in The Atlantic, Helen Lewis contends that this gender divide matters, especially in pandemics. Lewis looks at the current crisis as well as past pandemics …
Continue reading Bearing the burden: Helen Lewis on how pandemics affect women
Quick! Which state leads the country in electing women of color to executive office? The answer? New Mexico. It’s not a “fluke,” Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Meredith Conroy contend in their FiveThirtyEight essay published on January 31, 2020. Rather, they argue, the work that has been done in New Mexico to put women in office can …
Too often, the most pressing debates about gender (i.e. sexual assault, equal pay) are simplified to women’s-only issues. That’s a problem. In this November 12, 2019 YES! piece, nine people discuss our collective responsibility in these conversations and debate how men should participate in the #MeToo movement. Alex Meyers, Earth-Feather Sovereign, Imara Jones, Kalimah Johnson, …
Continue reading A man’s place: A conversation about masculinity in the #MeToo era
Merriam-Webster chose “they” as its 2019 word of the year, a testament to the political and personal importance of pronouns. Benjamin Dreyer, vice president of Random House and self-described “word person by trade,” explains why this choice matters for everyone in his Washington Post op-ed, published on December 16, 2019. Benjamin Dreyer, "Language Is Here …
Continue reading Time for “they”: Benjamin Dreyer on the word of the year
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