There is a reason that presidents have been fighting for a better health care system for 100 years. In 2010, over 50 million Americans went about their daily lives with no health insurance. If they got sick, odds are they went bankrupt and you had to foot the bill. Insurance companies could look at an application of a newborn infant, born with a defect, and deny the child coverage. A man who had diligently paid for his own health insurance for his entire life, could get cancer, and the insurance company could drop him. Insurance companies would set annual or lifetime dollar limits on needed care, leaving patients who thought they had coverage with massive medical bills and no hope.

“There is no such thing as work-life balance,” Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, boasted earlier this year. But don’t believe her. This message that the only way to succeed is to live an unhealthy life focused on your work is a farce. By Debra Guckenheimer Sandberg doesn’t appear to live up to [...]

“Unwed mothers suffer long-term health woes,” read the headline in the Los Angeles Times on June 2. I felt myself cringe as I took it in, not just because of the significance of this statement, but also because of the use of the term “unwed mother.” After reading the full article, my initial cringe turned [...]

The widespread stereotyping and discrimination against people who are single has long gone unrecognized, unnamed, and unchallenged. I call it SINGLISM. I have done a lot of battling of singlism in my own writing, but now I have help from 28 other people who have contributed to my new book, “Singlism: What It Is, Why [...]

We can thank the British for many things: the colonization of much of the world, not passing on their dentistry or cooking skills, our accents, the postage stamp, Mr. Bean, the pay toilet and gravity, just to name a few. But one thing we have never given them credit for is creating the wedding industry. [...]

Each generation has their heated issue when it comes to marriage. Once upon a time, it was imperative to maintain the virtue and innocence of a young woman (i.e.: the presence of her hymen) on her wedding night. In present times, the average age of sexually active women is 17. Therefore, contrary to the repressive [...]

The world had been rocked over the past few months by the cataclysmic changes brought about by the Jasmine Revolution. Across the Middle East, seething, roiling masses of humanity are realizing their collective power, and as they spread their wings and test their strength, the earth trembles. Looking around and seeing corruption, oppression, and inequality, [...]

Today, March 3, is International Sex Worker’s Rights Day. Millions of women, men, and trans people around the world choose to sell sex, and the topic of sex work is one that sharply divides feminists and women’s rights activists. In this series of articles I will explore the links between globalization, migration, the ‘rescue industry’, [...]

Disney’s princess plots are more predictable than a woman’s period. Girl is oppressed (by magic, evil villain, or station in life), girl decides to challenge adversity, girl meets vagabond boy en route, cue adorable magical or animal sidekick, boy and girl conquer evil villain, boy and girl marry and the live happily ever after. The [...]

The Social Network, the film that tells the tale of the founding and rise of Facebook, has taken a lot of flack from feminist critics since its release on October 1. The film and its screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, have been accused of creating and promoting misogyny, of pigeon-holing women into hyper-stereotyped roles in which they [...]

Names like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Earl Hines come to mind when one reviews the list of great jazz musicians. The back streets of New Orleans French Quarter gave birth to jazz and seemingly bequeathed it to male musicians. From its inception, the jazz arena was a ‘man’s world’, but the tables are slowly [...]

Nearly HALF the women in NYC have difficulty affording food. Some blame this on the fact that women are paid less than men. Nationally, for every dollar a man makes, a woman still only makes 77 cents. At the opposite end of the spectrum are seniors, who are also largely impacted by hunger here, as one out of every three have a hard time buying food.

Navdanya, a network of seed producers and organic farmers located in 16 states across India, has helped to establish community seed banks across the country and train farmers in seed and food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture (the word “Navdanya” refers to the nine crops that form India’s source of food security).

Today marks the beginning of my second exploration of world hunger, as part of Conducive Chronicle’s 21 days for Hunger. For these two days I will be focusing on women in hunger, a topic I covered last May in my first souljourn for world hunger. As Kenda mentioned in the Intro to the series yesterday, [...]

Stay-at-home dads. When most of us hear the term, we’re likely to think of comical media portrayals of a bumbling, clueless man who happens to fall into full-time parenting by accident. Think of movies like “Mr. Mom,” or “Daddy Day Care.” Stay-at-home dads are the punchline of the joke. But that is starting to change, [...]

Sarah Palin’s “mama grizzlies” video fans the flames of fear that already fuel the over-parenting trend in this country. In an apparent effort to reach out to middle of-the-road women, Palin’s PAC video launches a vague attack on the “fundamental transformation of this country,” embedded with a challenge for moms to take action toward preserving [...]

August 26th was Women’s Equality Day, in commemoration of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which formally recognized women’s right to vote in the United States. This year is particularly special, as it marks 90 years of women casting their ballots. But did you know that women in many of the Western states were voting [...]

Celebrities, here’s a tip worthy of the Playboy Advisor: If you consent to a documentary biography, make sure you hire a pal to direct. After making Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, the only remaining to-do items for director Brigitte Berman is to nominate her subject for the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of [...]