NEWSBYJEN NEDEAU

Dear Change.org readers,

Over the past year and a half, I have had an amazing experience writing for the Women's Rights Blog at Change.org. Your commentary, feedback, stories, and passion have inspired me to take on a much bigger role in the feminist movement beyond just being a "blogger." Writing down the present history of the women's rights movement, illuminating areas of injustice, and demanding change has been more than a fulfilling experience for me.

I also feel that my time here demonstrates that young women's voices are necessary in the fight for gender equality here in the United States and abroad. We are the future and we can't sit down, shut up, or avoid the changes, good and bad, that are happening around us.

Therefore, it is with much sadness that I share with you all that I will no longer be blogging with Change.org. Due to added responsibilities at my full-time job, I feel the need to streamline my efforts and focus on my current career demands. This is not an easy choice to make, but it is one that needs to be done at this time. I leave the blog in the hands of future writers and current editor, Alex DiBranco.

As one of my modern heroines in the women's right movement, Zainab Salbi, once said, "As we make this world a better place, may we also dance and enjoy the process."

I plan to continue to be a voice for the women's rights movement and advocate for positive social change -- and most of all, I plan to keep dancing.

Love,

Jen

P.S. You can stay in touch with me by following my Twitter stream or emailing me.

An article in New York Times Magazine calls attention (once again) to the generational divide in the reproductive rights movement -- in this instance, the difficulty of finding millennials willing to fight for access to abortion.

The story spotlights the "the menopausal militia": women in Congress and lobbying organizations, such as NARAL, who are trying to ensure that abortion rights aren't lost in the midst of the battle for health care reform. While leaders such as Nancy Keenan, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Representative Louise M. Slaughter, among others, are fighting vigorously against pro-life advocates, they are finding that support from millennials is hard to find.

It's not that younger women are more likely to be pro-life.

It's not that younger women are having fewer abortions.

It's not that younger women are apathetic and not politically active.

However, engaged young women often see a "deeper threat in climate change or banning gay marriage or the Darfur genocide than in any rollback of reproductive rights." The problem, when it comes right down to it, is that women who are 37 or younger grew up in a post-Roe era.

Matthew Yglesias points out a new micro-trend when it comes to parenting: Girls May Be The New Boys.

In the world that I study, this comes as a surprise. After looking at countries like China, where boys are the preference, and continents like Africa, where women are often treated as second class citizens, I am a bit shocked to hear that parents in the United States are actually suffering from "gender disappointment" when they find out they have given birth to a boy, instead of a girl. Not only does this go against the norms of patriarchy, it also seems grossly superficial.

Why is giving birth to one sex "better" than the other?

Ruth Shalit Barrett covers the phenomenon in an Elle story, Girl Crazy: Women Who Suffer from Gender Disappointment.

She explains that "Gender disappointment is not an official psychiatric diagnosis. It's an Internet-era label, an appellation coined by women who are bitterly unhappy about their baby's gender and who can't get over it, even after their child is born."

Happy Thanksgiving! Hopefully you brushed up on your health care talking points with yesterday's post and you feel well equipped to debate the pros and cons of the Affordable Health Care Act.

Today, however, I am going to list ten things that every feminist can be thankful for based on what has happened so far in 2009. While every day there are setbacks and difficulties in achieving gender equality, reducing violence against women, and wiping out sexism from society -- there have been many positive changes in the past eleven months that have moved the needle forward for women in the United States and abroad.

Take a look at some of these victories, feel free to debate them, and then add your own items that you are thankful for in the comments section.

1. The Lily Ledbetter Act is passed in Congress and signed by President Obama.
2. Judge Sonia Sotomayor becomes the first Latina and third woman confirmed to Supreme Court.

As many of you may know, the Senate voted to start debate on their version of the health care reform bill last week. On the left, you can see a handy chart from CBS News that helps you track where  we have been and where we need to go in terms of getting reform implemented.

As you can see, we have a big debate about to happen in the Senate over the bill that has been proposed. Given that the holiday season is approaching, you may also find yourself in the middle of the health care debate with relatives and family members. Therefore, with help from Planned Parenthood and several other sources, I'm going to highlight a few of the outstanding questions about the bill, as well as issue a call to action for the lobby day on December 2nd, where it will be crucial to go to the Capitol and show support for health care reform that doesn't compromise a woman's access to abortion.

Violence against women includes sex trafficking, honor killings, domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, violence against migrant workers, rape, and torture. In recognition of the prevalence of these problems, in December 1999 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to create the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, now celebrated every year on November 25. This day demands that women not be treated as second or third class citizens, but as equals among the rest of the global population.

Today at the United Nations, in honor of this significant day, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is launching a Network of Men Leaders committed to ending violence against women. The goal of this new initiative is to get men more involved in combating violence against women, which is an important step in changing the gender power structure around the world. Men have to be our partners in ending violence -- we can't fight this fight alone.

Yikes. When did making a joke about your son being a product of rape at age 13 become acceptable commentary for daytime television?

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's still not acceptable. But apparently Modern Family's Sofia Vergara, who made this exact joke on The View recently, thinks it is:

You can tell how shocked the hosts and audience of The View were after this statement. Clearly, rape is no laughing matter. It makes me wonder how Vergara ever thought that this comment would be not only funny, but something you should say on national television.

Ok, I will admit it. I haven't seen any of the Twilight movies. Nor have I read any of the books. But what I do know about it is that it has attracted millions of young, female fans. Based on this fact alone, I feel the need to take a closer look.

I got my start in feminist organizing when I helped coordinate a voter registration drive during the Sex and the City Movie premieres in 2008, where with the help of Mobilize.org, we registered 10,000 women to vote. While Sex and the City certainly has its narrative flaws, I found that it helped many more women than it hurt by displaying the challenges of being a single mother, a career woman, being infertile, and many other difficult moments that millions of women experience. I also believe that it was the best sex education young women have had in the past decade; it made it okay for women to talk about sex, have sex and break out of the puritanical expectations of society. Sex and the City was the last big movie I can think of which drew in women from all over the world -- until Twilight came to the big screen.

Even without seeing the movies or reading the book, the Twilight narrative really disturbs me. From what I know about it, it is a story of a predatory vampire who essentially stalks a young woman named Bella. Their relationship turns into a reckless romantic escapade and Bella ends up losing every sense of herself, becoming solely concerned with giving herself to this 100-year-old vampire dressed up in a 17-year-old boy's body.

Debate on the Senate version of the Health Care bill opened today with a mixed bag for those concerned about reproductive health.

On the plus side, the Senate Bill avoids Stupak language, instead offering private insurance a separate means by which it can set aside monies that could be used in case of abortion that do not interfere with government spending.

RH Reality Check reports that this approach "closely mirrors the Capps language which was originally included in the House and Senate Finance Committee bills, with an additional provision stating that the HHS Secretary must ensure that no federal funds are used for abortion." Additionally, in each State Exchange, where the uninsured will go to buy their insurance, there must be one plan available that provides abortion coverage beyond Hyde permissions, and one that plan does not.

Compared with the energy and awareness surrounding the genocide in Darfur, the crisis in Congo is often known as the "forgotten conflict" -- despite the fact that over five million people have been killed since the war began 1998.

After a brief flurry of headlines last year, the crisis has received little media attention. Meanwhile, the situation in Congo has only grown worse, especially for women and girls, who are the victims of mass rapes and mutilation.

This December, an IRIN article reports that the United Nations will be renewing its mandate of the peacekeeping force with the aim of disarming the rebel militia. Unfortunately, efforts by the UN force are reportedly doing more harm than good. Not only are the rebels attacking civilians, the poorly disciplined Congolese army is looting villages and raping women.