After the Women's March: six mass US demonstrations to join this spring

theguardian.com - Hope your feet aren’t sore yet, because come spring, thereare major nationwide marches planned for nearly every weekend. After the success of the Women’s March on Washington, activists are preparing for mass mobilizations throughout the year.

Here are some major upcoming ones:

Since Donald Trump refused to release his tax returns during the campaign, thousands are marching on Tax Day to protest “the absolute unfairness of a man who is a billionaire president who might be not paying taxes while working folks are paying their fair share”, said Gwen Snyder, a community organizer and national organizer of Tax March.

At least 30 Tax Marches have been planned in solidarity around the country with several hundred thousand people expected. The Los Angeles event page shows 66,000 people who have expressed interest or attending. The New York march event page has nearly 40,000 interested or attending, and 37,000 people said they are interested in the DC march, with over 7,000 clicking attend.

Snyder, who has spent 10 years as an organizer around economic justice, declared: “I haven’t seen this kind of energy on the ground since Occupy.”

Proud Feminist Padma Lakshmi on Taking Her Daughter to the Women’s March

The examples we set for the next generation are so important—which is why we were heartened and inspired to read this story about actress, author and enthusiastic feminist Padma Lakshmi attending the Women's March on January 21 with her daughter, Krishna.  With examples like Lakshmi's, the next generation is even more likely to grow into the fierce, intelligent, compassionate, determined young women we already know them to be. 

yahoo.com - Padma Lakshmi doesn’t understand why so many women are loath to identify themselves as feminists.

“It’s a real problem. There was a trend among young women in the public eye to say: ‘Oh no, I believe in equal rights but I wouldn’t call myself a feminist,’” she says. “Feminism as a term got misaligned. Feminism just means: you believe in equal rights for everybody. It has nothing to do with body politics. I am a proud, flag-bearing feminist. You would have to be unhinged not to call yourself a feminist.”

As you might have noticed, Lakshmi has impressive knife skills, but she doesn’t mince words either. She’s the host of Bravo’s Top Chef and the author of the aromatic bible The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs. Lakshmi is also politically active, having campaigned for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. It’s what compelled her to take her daughter, Krishna, to the Women’s March in Washington.

“I’d never been to a protest. I thought it was important for us to go together. She was on the floor of the convention center with me when Hillary lost. It would give her some way to do something. We’d been discussing, ‘What does this mean?’” Lakshmi tells Yahoo Style of the election.

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To capitalize on the momentum of the Women's March, feminism must be much more inclusive

qz.com - America, as characterized by some of the first words Donald Trump spoke as president of the US, is a dark place of misery, ridden by poverty, crime, and lack of opportunity—a theater of “American carnage.” Yet Saturday (Jan. 21), in Washington, DC, and all around the country, America was quite the opposite: colorful, energetic, and determined. Women of all ages and ethnicities took to the streets to march, chant, and laugh. They came out by the thousands, hundreds of thousands, and millions, by bus, by train, and by plane; some even ran to the march. And they made it clear that they’re not going to quietly tolerate the new administration’s threats.

A large part of Saturday’s massive turnout was, surely, motivated by the election of Trump, a man who bragged about assaulting women, and ran a presidential campaign rife with sexism and general intolerance. But it also seemed to represent a new wave of feminism that’s been building for the past few years but has yet to find a suitable outlet.

The last large women’s protest in DC took place in 2004, when over a million people showed up to contest the curtailing of abortion rights. Despite the prominent role gender equality has claimed in the public discourse over the past few years, there has been little public celebration of it.

Rowan Blanchard Gets Real About Intersectional Activism After the Women’s March

teenvogue.com - The Women's March on Washington truly became a national, and international, movement, with hundreds of thousands of people marching across the United States and around the world in support of women's rights. In downtown Los Angeles alone, 750,000 people marched and one of those was actress and activist Rowan Blanchard, who took to the podium after marching to address the crowd. And though she regularly educates and informs her millions of followers on social media, there’s something about addressing almost a million faces IRL that would probably spook anyone just a little bit — but not Rowan. Although she began her speech by addressing the initial despair she felt after Donald Trump’s election win, she then eloquently explained why she won’t let fear impede her work as an activist in these next four years. “I believe in art,” Rowan told the crowd after reading a passage on hope from a Rebecca Solnit text, “but more than that, I believe in the ineffable power of community.” She went on to note that the strength of marginalized communities is what teaches us that organizing works: “If women, if queer people, if people of color have survived this long in a world that refuses to represent them, that must amount to a force much greater than one man with nothing more to invest in but his ego.” Make no mistake: Her speech is definitely a must-watch.

Three Lessons to Make the Women’s March Worthwhile

taketheleadwomen.com - I’ve marched in and organized many marches. So I supported but wasn’t planning on going to DC for the January 21 Women’s March, feeling good that younger women were rightly leading this time around. As the time grew nearer, Take The Lead’s Leadership Ambassadors created an Action Party event that grew just as the Women’s March itself was growing beyond all expectations. I had to be there—for our event and in solidarity with the millions of other marching women and men around the world. A delayed train back to New York after the march gave me a few moments for power shopping. I spotted a red raincoat I couldn’t’t resist. Nor could I resist asking the cheery salesperson, who by appearance and accent seemed to be from India, whether she had attended the march. “Oh yes,” she said. “It was very important. I got permission from my boss to close the shop for four hours, and I took the other two employees and my daughters.” Her words touched me profoundly as a microcosm of stories that brought so many people out onto the streets.

Kudos and a Curse: Meet the Savior of Girls in Samburu

This article originally appeared on the Women & Girls Hub of News Deeply, and you can find the original here. For important news about issues that affect women and girls in the developing world, you can sign up to the Women & Girls Hub email list. By Hannah McNeish

Josephine Kulea has saved over 1,000 girls in Kenya from forced marriage and the female genital mutilation that usually precedes it. Her work has earned praise from Barack Obama, but she says politicians back home won't support her work in case it loses them votes.

NAIROBI, Kenya – Her face has been plastered across billboards in New York and London and she was lauded by U.S. President Barack Obama on his visit to Kenya. But Josephine Kulea sees herself as still very much a grassroots activist. She works with communities in the area where she grew up, saving girls as young as seven from forced marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM) and either being pulled out of school or never getting the chance to go. Despite national laws banning child marriage and FGM, in Samburu culture, girls can be matched to men old enough to be their grandparents, and polygamy is common.

Once cursed to death by her family for breaking up a marriage between her uncle and a seven-year-old cousin, Kulea, 30, now runs the charity The Samburu Girls Foundation, which, to date, has stopped over 1,000 girls across four counties from marrying young and missing their education. Women & Girls Hub spoke to her about how it all started with her mother and why she became the target of a death curse.

Women & Girls Hub: How did you start helping girls?

Josephine Kulea: I was following in my mom’s footsteps. My mom also fights for girls to go to school within my community because she was taken out of high school to become my dad’s third wife.

Women & Girls Hub: What about your childhood?

Kulea: I finished school but every holiday when I came home there was a new [potential] husband who wanted to marry me. My uncles wanted to marry me off because my dad passed away when I was young. Everyone was over 45 or in their 50s. I was 12, 13, 14, 15. But my mom fought for me.

After I finished school I went to nursing college and came back to work in my village. The first two girls I rescued were my own cousins. The first was a 10-year-old who was supposed to be getting married. Then two days later I got a call to say the same man, my uncle, was going to marry the youngest girl in the family who was just seven years old. She had to go through FGM on the day of the wedding. She got married and two days later we went to get her and arrest my uncle, and that became history in my village. They even had a big meeting to curse me [to death] because it was considered a very bad thing to do.

Women & Girls Hub: How did you feel when you heard about the curse?

Kulea: I knew I was not in the wrong because I was just protecting child rights. I continued getting calls from women from the same village to rescue more girls. I paid their fees with my nursing salary. It was less than $200 a month. I spent almost everything [on the girls’ education] because you have to buy uniforms and books and pens.

Women & Girls Hub: How did the Samburu Girls Foundation come about?

Kulea: In 2012 we started the organization, registering it and making it official like an NGO, so now we can ask people for money. We are now reaching out to four counties – Samburu, Marsabit, Isiolo and Laikipia. The community has donated 15 acres of land. That’s where our girls stay, we have a dormitory and dining room. Safaricom [Kenya’s largest mobile phone company] is coming to build us classrooms soon and we hope to eventually have a fully fledged school because we’re spending a lot of money on taking these girls to schools across the country.

Women & Girls Hub: How many girls have you helped?

Kulea: We’ve rescued over 1,000 girls. We have 300 girls who are directly under our organizational support. When we rescue these girls, the families normally are bitter because they are missing out on the dowry. It is sometimes up to one year until the girls are accepted back [by their families]. We talk to the parents and counsel them and the girls. Eventually we reunite them. Some parents lie to us. They really want to marry them off again, so we tell the girls that they can always come back to us, they can call us and also they become our eyes in the village and they make sure their own sisters, cousins and neighbors are not going through the same thing.

Women & Girls Hub: Is there any sign parents are starting to value educating girls?

Kulea: The problem we have is the villages in these areas have been marginalized for so long. The illiteracy levels are so high: In Samburu county it’s 80 percent. Such communities have yet to understand the value of educating girls.

Women & Girls Hub: The culture of ‘beading’ – when men give young girls beads to “book” them for sex – is this changing?

Kulea: It is dying out around the cities because more people there have embraced education. But there are a few other areas where it is still very common and as much as we try to spread awareness that it’s wrong, people feel it’s still part of our culture. Some girls feel it makes them beautiful because someone has given them these beads.

Women & Girls Hub: What was it like getting mentioned by Obama?

Kulea: It was awesome! It felt nice because sometimes you work so hard, do a lot of work and you think you’re hidden in the bush and no one notices. We are yet to get those shout-outs from the local or county government.

This 15-year-old Syrian is creating a revolution in a refugee camp, the Malala way - HerStory

We were so moved by the story of 15-year-old activist and Syrian refugee Omaima Hoshan, who began looking into the issue of child marriage after 12- and 13-year-old classmates left school to marry, and was moved by the courage and work of Malala Yousafzai. Hoshan now leads workshops for teenage girls and their families, working to encourage education instead of child marriage.

It's an issue that desperately needs attention: According to a UNICEF report, more than 700 million women worldwide were married before turning 18

Read the rest of Hoshan's story at the link. You can also watch her speak about why the issue is so important to her in a video by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

her.yourstory.com - Syria born Omaima Hoshan was 11-years-old when the war in Syria forced her to flee to Jordan with her family. The Hoshans left Damascus in 2012 and sought refuge at the Zaatari refugee camp — one of the largest in the world. Her main concern when she arrived at Zaatari was to resume her education and make new friends in the camp.

In a report by The Huffington Post, in the classroom, she discovered a troubling trend. “When I got to sixth grade, I started hearing about girls as young as 12 or 13 getting married. They would come to the school to say goodbye,” the now 15- year-old, told visitors from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a United Nations refugee agency, in April. “I remember thinking that they were making a big mistake,” she added.

When one of her closest friends, Basma (whose real name has been changed), told her that she was to be married at the age of 14, Omaima’s outrage reached new heights, and propelled her into action. Osmaima vowed that she wouldn’t let herself suffer the same fate — and she would try everything in her power to stop more child marriages from taking place in the camp.

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Too much good stuff: A list of lists for International Women's Day

There is way too much information about women—the dangers we still face, economic inequality, the huge strides women have made over the years, inspirational stories about everyday women, how to help the women in your life—to cover in one day or even during Women's History Month. It can seem overwhelming. Sometimes, an overview is just the thing needed to find your cause and join the fight. So for a small taste, here are a few lists you might want to peruse by news sources, nonprofits and amazing organizations that join us in our fight for gender equality. Prepare to be stunned, educated and inspired.

5 Ways to Celebrate International Women’s Day 2016

From joining the worldwide conversation to a call for justice to making a Pledge for Parity, The Nobel Women’s Initiative has ways you can celebrate and join in advocating for women right now.

16 Courageous Women Standing Up to Violence

An amazing collection of courageous women addressing violence and its underlying causes, and helping people heal.

5 women you've never heard of who changed the world

OK, so you might have heard of some of these women, but this list of women featured at the World Economic Forum will teach everyone a few new facts, including stories of a politician, an actress, and activists and trailblazers way ahead of their time.

14 Feminist Quotes For Women's History Month 2016

Bustle rounded up some wise words from Malala Yousafzai, Gloria Steinem, Beyoncé and other ladies you may recognize (as well as some voices who might be new to you!), so head over for some inspiration, and share your own favorite women-empowering words with us!

40 New Books for Women’s History Month

The insightful folks at A Mighty Girl have an amazing collection of books about girls and women for young readers--boys as well as girls. Picture books, chapter books, young adult, biographies are all featured. (Adults can probably learn a thing or two as well!)

International Women's Day 2016: 10 best feminist books

Looking for books written primarily for adults? The Independent has you covered with this list of feminist books, from classics to new books. Get reading!

11 Must-Read Biographies About Incredible Women

One more list of books. Because we can't ever get enough of women's stories. This list from The Huffington Post is as diverse as it is intriguing.

Can you name 5 women artists?

In the United States, only 5 percent of work on museum walls is by women. Can you even name five female artists? To highlight this inequity and promote women artists, the National Museum of Women in the Arts launched the social media campaign #5womenartists. If you're falling a little short or even if you're not, check out this article from The Getty profiling five talented women artists.

This is just a beginning—we haven't even covered injustices and violence women face worldwide, women's role in easing global challenges like climate change and hunger, how women's success in the boardroom translates to more powerful companies, and much more—but it's a start. Let us know what inspires you this International Women's Day, come back as we continue the conversation on investing in women, and keep fighting for gender parity!

Meet the 24-year-old who could change how the US handles sexual assaults

No one should ever suffer an assault—let alone have to suffer and struggle in the aftermath as they seek care and justice. But that's just what happened to Amanda Nguyen. Nguyen, 24, has already accomplished much: She's a State Department liaison to the White House and an aspiring astronaut, but one of her biggest struggles was after she was sexually assaulted and had to navigate a confusing, broken system to try to keep her rape kit from being destroyed. It led Nguyen to research rights guaranteed to victims of sexual assault across various states, and to work with legislators and legal experts to draft new bills ensuring rights like a trained sexual assault counselor for survivors of sexual assaults, as well as information about their legal rights and the status of their rape kit.

Nguyen founded the Rise organization, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights of survivors of sexual assault. Activists and volunteers came together under Rise to research laws and protections in various states and eventually gathered support for a bill, which is expected to have bipartisan support and inspire more similar actions at the state level.

Read much more about the efforts of Nguyen and Rise, Nguyen's personal story and tenacity, the legal difficulties faced by survivors of sexual assault and more in the full article.

theguardian.com - In what they hope will become a bipartisan bright spot, Democrats in the Senate on Tuesday introduced a sweeping new bill to guarantee and standardize certain rights for people who have experienced sexual assault.

The bill is the latest attempt to fix a system for prosecuting sex crimes that many public figures agree is broken. But where many bills focus on expanding resources for law enforcement, this is the first national proposal to focus so directly on improving legal protections for those who are sexually assaulted.

And the bill has a unique driving force behind it: Amanda Nguyen, a 24-year-old State Department liaison to the White House in training to be an astronaut who helped craft the bill. Nguyen became an activist because of her own enormous struggles with a difficult legal system that nearly destroyed her rape kit.

“Basically, I had to pen my own rights into existence,” she said in a recent interview.

The Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act draws from legal rights that already exist in patchwork form in different states across the county. It requires steps to ensure that people who have been sexually assaulted have access to a trained sexual assault counselor and comprehensive information about victims’ legal options. For individuals who submit to a rape kit, the bill would give them the right to know the location of the evidence, whether the kit has been tested, and the test results.

Read more here.

28 Queens Of Black History Who Deserve Much More Glory

You've probably heard the names Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman—all women greatly deserving of the recognition they receive. However, this Black History Month, we were excited to see this piece from The Huffington Post celebrating some names you might not have heard. There are countless ways, big and small, that women continue to fight both sexism and racism every day. Millions of women deserve recognition, but you're sure to find a few on this list that you should get to know better. 

Black history lessons in classrooms shouldn't be limited to the names of men and only a few women. Especially when there are countless women who've made enormous strides for the black community, too.

The revolutionary words Angela Davis spoke, the record-breaking feats of Wilma Rudolph and the glass ceiling-shattering efforts of Shirley Chisolm paved the way for black women and girls across the country to dream big and act courageously.

Here are 28 phenomenal women everyone should acquaint themselves with this black history month.

Shirley Chisolm (1924–2005)

Chisolm broke major barriers when she became the first black congresswoman in 1968. She continued on her political track when she ran for president four years later, making her the first major-party black candidate to run.

Claudette Colvin (1939-)

Several months before Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a bus, Colvin was the FIRST person arrested for resisting bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, at the age of 15. She also served as one of four plaintiffs in the case of Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional.

Click through for the full list from The Huffington Post, and keep learning about ways to fight for equality for all women!

Emma Watson will take year-long break from acting to focus on feminism

Actress Emma Watson recently announced she is taking a break from acting to read, reach out to help others, and to learn more about herself and issues surrounding feminism and women's rights. One of our favorite things about Watson, after her obvious compassion and curiosity, is her willingness to keep learning and reevaluating her ideas. Getting to come along as someone honestly makes this intellectual journey and talks about it will allow so many others to make similar journeys--and learn more and help one another in the process.

Click through to learn more about Watson's interview for Paper magazine, ideas she's excited about, how she hopes to help others and more in this article from Daily Life.

dailylife.com.au - Emma Watson is taking a year-long hiatus from acting in order to focus on philanthropy and her "own personal development".

The 25 year old made her professional acting debut in the first Harry Potter film in 2001, but now she's ready to step out of the spotlight to focus on other endeavours that aren't related to the entertainment industry.

"I'm taking a year away from acting to focus on two things, really. My own personal development is one," she tells author bell hooks in an interview for Paper magazine.

"My own personal task is to read a book a week, and also to read a book a month as part of my book club. I'm doing a huge amount of reading and study just on my own.

"I almost thought about going and doing a year of gender studies, then I realised that I was learning so much by being on the ground and just speaking with people and doing my reading. That I was learning so much on my own. I actually wanted to keep on the path that I'm on. I'm reading a lot this year, and I want to do a lot of listening."

Read the rest here.