This Teen Is Giving Tampons to Homeless Women

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Periods can be a challenge for any woman--but for homeless woman, they can be devastating. Without access to feminine-hygiene products, nowhere reliable to keep items for later use and extremely limited resources; women often have nowhere to turn. One Portland teen is trying to change that by providing homeless girls and women with feminine-hygiene products. Read below to learn more about Camions of Care, and remember to do what you can to reach out to one another--because no one should suffer for stigma.

allure.com - When you get your period, you probably know where you're going to get tampons or pads. For homeless women, basic feminine-hygiene products are harder to come by. Camions of Care, a nonprofit organization founded by Nadya Okamoto, an 18-year-old from Portland, Oregon, is hoping to change that. (If you're curious, a camion is sturdy cart or wagon designed for bulky loads.) So far, Okamoto and her organization have helped deliver 27,243 period care packages to women and girls in need all over the world.

When Okamoto was 15, her family was declared legally homeless. During that time, she was living at a friend's house two hours from her school. During her commute, she tells Allure that she'd encounter underserved women who didn't have reliable access to feminine-hygiene products. Because shelters can't keep up with the demand for tampons and pads, the women would get industrious, using newspaper, socks, and brown paper grocery bags instead. "What scared me was that it made so much sense. You can find [brown paper grocery bags] anywhere around Portland," Okamoto says. "But it's so unsanitary because women were getting these bags from recycling bins or trash cans." Besides being stressful and ineffective, nonsterile alternatives could lead to dangerous infections and toxic shock syndrome .

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Variety’s Power of Women Honors Entertainers, Game-Changing Philanthropists

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At their Power of Women event October 14, Variety recognized a diverse group of influential women for transforming the world and communities, giving visibility and support to important causes, and using their platforms for good. Click through to check out the honorees! 

blog.womenandhollywood.com - Variety has announced this year’s female entertainers for their annual Power of Women event: Helen Mirren, Ava DuVernay, Scarlett Johansson, Laverne Cox, and Miley Cyrus have been chosen as the five 2016 honorees.

Each year, the women selected represent “some of the most philanthropic women in Hollywood and their work with their respective causes.”

“For the past eight years, Variety has had the honor and pleasure of identifying leading women in entertainment who are dedicated to improving the community through the worthy causes they support,” said Claudia Eller, Variety co-editor-in-chief. “We are so pleased that once again our amazing partner Lifetime will join us to celebrate the achievements of our outstanding honorees.”

“It is an honor to continue this deeply meaningful partnership with Variety as we together celebrate the power of women’s collective voices dedicated to impacting the world around us in such profound ways,” added Liz Gateley, EVP and head of programming, Lifetime. “We couldn’t be more proud to use Lifetime’s global platforms to amplify the efforts of this year’s honorees and inspire others to join them.”

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Why More Women Leadership In Media Would Change The Stories of The World

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taketheleadwomen.com - In the 1980s I worked for a newspaper in Texas as a feature writer and columnist where staff parties of arrivals, departures and birthdays were held at the bar across the street. Often they included serving a cake decorated with a naked woman, complete with pink and black icing. I was in my 20s and not well-versed in the newsroom culture, but as soon as I saw the anatomically correct lady cake, I took three cocktail napkins and covered her sugar-coated image.

“You ruined it, “ the editor-in-chief chastised me.

It is no surprise to women journalists or women working in media-related fields that leadership in media companies is lacking women at the top ranks. Consider the debacle for many women who have worked at Fox News. And that reality shapes workplace culture, coverage of women’s issues, gender bias in commentary and placement of stories. In short, it shapes how we as consumers of media view the world.

Following the recent departure of Arianna Huffington from her namesake media empire, observers are checking in on the lack of women leaders in the media.

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Wonder Woman is The New UN Ambassador For Empowerment Of Women And Girls

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What an icon for women and girls! Certainly young girls will look at Wonder Woman and say, "I want to be like her," and rightfully so, because Wonder Woman is strong. She is courageous. She is just as tough as the male superheroes. She is a leader. I see this notion as an opportunity for us to teach girls what kind of woman they should admire. In a world full of superficial, fake, and self(ie)-centered celebrity "idols," maybe another valuable approach is to appreciate the realness of make-believe heroes.

- Victoria Mendoza

indiatimes.com - Wonder Woman has been appointed as the new UN ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls. She will be officially titled on October 21, the character's 75th anniversary at the UN Headquarters in New York. The event will also launch the UN's global campaign supporting the fifth goal of Sustainable Development which is "to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls."

"Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world," said a UN spokesperson, adding that, "Providing women and girls with equal access to education, healthcare, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large."

Wonder Woman was coined during WWII, which was in itself path-breaking. Firstly. her character broke away from the damsel-in-distress characteristic attached to women in Superhero comics with male leads and saw her saving herself from bondage. And secondly the name itself Wonder Woman - not a girl - she was a woman at par with superhero men. DC is finally handing Wonder Woman her dues in 2017 by releasing their first movie on one of the first female superheroes. And she will also be making an appearance in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.

 

UN Women Spotlights Child Marriage on International Day of the Girl

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“Without progress for girls, there can be no real progress,” says UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

The International Day of the Girl is a day to celebrate girls -- their strength, their talents, their tenacity, their kindness, their accomplishments -- as well as to reaffirm that girls matter and how we need to do better protecting and lifting up girls everywhere. They're not property, they're not inferior to boys and men, and they have the right to determine and forge their own futures.

UN Women focuses on how an issue that often stands in the way of girls' futures: child, early and forced marriage. Presenting sobering facts and data on child marriage, the organization offers statistics, discussion, personal stories, videos and more detailing how to help, protect and empower girls around the globe. Click through to check out a thorough study into the subject, also including UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson visiting Malawi to highlight the need to end child marriage.

Learn the facts on child marriage, share your hopes for girls around the world -- and may we all lift up and celebrate all girls, all day, every day.

unwomen.org - There are 1.1 billion girls today, a powerful constituency for shaping a sustainable world that’s better for everyone. They are brimming with talent and creativity. But their dreams and potential are often thwarted by discrimination, violence and lack of equal opportunities. There are glaring gaps in data and knowledge about the specific needs and challenges that girls face.

What gets counted, gets done. The theme for this year’s International Day of the Girl Child, on 11 October, “Girls’ Progress = Goals’ Progress: A Global Girl Data Movement,” is a call for action for increased investment in collecting and analyzing girl-focused, girl-relevant and sex-disaggregated data. One year into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, improving data on girls and addressing the issues that are holding them back is critical for fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals

One such issue that is standing in the way of girls’ progress is child marriage. The data is daunting—one in three girls in developing countries (except China) get married before they turn 18. Girls who are child brides miss out on education, are more vulnerable to physical and sexual violence, and bear children before they are physically or emotionally prepared. The cycle of violence that begins in girlhood, carries over into womanhood and across generations. The 2030 Agenda must address their needs and unlock their potential.

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UN Women works around the world to empower women and girls and raise awareness on their rights, advocate for the adoption and implementation of laws and policies that prohibit and prevent child, early and forced marriage, and mobilize communities against the practice.

On the International Day of the Girl Child, we stand with the global community to support girls’ progress everywhere. Let girls be girls.

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Girl under 15 married every seven seconds, says Save the Children - BBC News

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A new study by Save the Children; an international nongovernmental organization promoting children's rights; paints a bleak picture for many girls, especially those in areas hit by conflict or other crises. 

The study also studies girls' situations around the world, explores ways to empower and give voices to girls, examines the importance of sexual and reproductive health services and more.

Read more below and at the link, or read the Save the Children study.

bbc.co.uk - One girl under the age of 15 is married every seven seconds, according to a new report by Save the Children.

The study says girls as young as 10 are forced to marry much older men in countries including Afghanistan, Yemen, India and Somalia.

Save the Children says early marriage can trigger a cycle of disadvantage across every part of a girl's life.

Conflict, poverty and humanitarian crises are seen as major factors that leave girls exposed to child marriage.

"Child marriage starts a cycle of disadvantage that denies girls the most basic rights to learn, develop and be children," said Save the Children International CEO Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

"Girls who marry too early often can't attend school, and are more likely to face domestic violence, abuse and rape. They fall pregnant and are exposed to STIs (sexually transmitted infections) including HIV."

The report, called Every Last Girl, ranks countries based on the hardest place to be a girl based on schooling, child marriage, teen pregnancy, maternal deaths and the number of women in parliament.

Chad, Niger, Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia were ranked at the bottom of the index.

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Women & Girls with Disabilities Need Empowerment, Not Pity, UN Experts Tell States

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Disability is a feminist issue, but we often fail to consider disability in feminist policies or gender in disability policies. Everything from the need for representation and dealing with expectations and stereotypes, to encouraging girls and women to love themselves and paving the way for others to tell their stories, is central to both feminist and disability work.

Now, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is helping to promote disability visibility and advocacy with a statement about the rights and needs of women with disabilities--and society's responsibilities toward them.

Click through to read an outline of the statement from the Women's UN Reporting Network, or read the full General Comment; which discusses the main areas of concern for girls and women with disabilities, recommendations for practical steps to better serve everyone in our communities, a call to repeal discriminatory legislation and more. And always remember--we're fighting for the rights and empowerment of all women.

wunrn.com - States too often fail to uphold their obligations with regard to women and girls with disabilities, treating them or allowing them to be treated as helpless objects of pity, subjected to hostility and exclusion, instead of empowering them to enjoy their fundamental human rights and freedoms, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has said.

“Policies for women have traditionally made disability invisible, and disabilities policies have overlooked gender. But if you are a woman or a girl with disabilities, you face discrimination and barriers because you are female, because you are disabled, and because you are female and disabled,” said Committee member Theresia Degener.

To help to address this, the Committee has issued guidance for the 166 States that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on how they can promote the empowerment of women with disabilities to enable them to participate in all spheres of life on an equal basis with others, as set out in the Convention and expressly in Article 6.

The guidance, termed a General Comment, stresses that refraining from discriminatory actions is not enough. States need to empower women by “ raising their self-confidence, guaranteeing their participation, and increasing their power and authority to take decisions in all areas affecting their lives.”

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The Women Behind The New Bustle On Reinventing "Women’s Media"

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It's always gratifying to see how fellow publications develop their visions, and we were happy to see that Bustle, a three-year-old website geared toward millennial women, turned to millennial women themselves to spearhead the site's overhaul to its current inspirational, friendly design. Read more at the link about how the site developed its own voice, and keep checking here for targeted content about entrepreneurship, investing, work-life balance and more.

fastcompany.com - At Bustle's Chelsea office in Manhattan, the two women at the heart of the website's overhaul—creative director Isla Murray and senior engineer Zahra Jabini—are sitting together in the design room. Around them, the walls are covered in inspiration boards filled with images from recent photo shoots for the online publication. Women wearing colorfully patterned dresses seem to float in a sea of bright pinks, teals, oranges, and yellows. Such scenes of warmth, optimism, and fun have been channeled into Bustle's brand-new look, which is being revealed today.

The site was first developed three and a half years ago and had a functional aesthetic much like Medium or Tumblr that allowed you to scroll through blocks of clickable images that would take you to an article. The background was white and minimalistic. "There wasn't that much personality," Murray says. "As we've grown, developing our editorial voice and our social voice, and really come into our own, we've been screaming for a way to visually express that."

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To improve gender equality at work, change the language of job postings

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qz.com - Women are ambitious, competitive, and dominant. Still, research shows that go-getting ladies don’t apply for jobs that advertise those requirements. Change the language of the ads and it will attract women, says Santander UK chairwoman Shriti Vadera.

It’s fashionable to put the onus on women to lean in and be more confident, the banking chief told a crowd at the FT Women at the Top conference in London on Sept. 30. But companies need to take some responsibility, too. They should, Vadera said, re-examine job posting vocabulary because certain words “can be off-putting, like using ‘ambitious,’ ‘dominant,’ and ‘competitive.'”

There is support for this claim. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2013 investigated ads for jobs in traditionally male fields, like plumbing, engineering, and programming to see if they used stereotypically male words—like “competitive,” “dominate,” and “leader”—and if those words dissuaded women from applying. Researchers compared over 4,000 job ads, then they asked women to respond to the postings. They found “that masculine wording in job advertisements leads to less anticipated belongingness and job interest among women.” The study proposed that this phenomenon perpetuates gender inequality in male-dominated fields, maintaining the status quo.

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Female CEOs are at record level in 2016, but it's still only 5 percent

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lasvegasnow.com - Beyonce's dream is coming true: More and more girls "run the world."

America hit a milestone in 2016: The most female CEOs ever. There are now 27 women at the helm of S&P; 500 companies.

The good news is it's a new record for women in business, according to S&P; Global Market Intelligence. It's also 22% more -- a big jump -- from last year, when only 22 women led S&P; 500 companies.

But women still have a long way to go.

Females lead only 27 out of 500 (or just 5.4%) of America's largest publicly traded companies (known as the S&P; 500). And that's after all the efforts to draw attention to the gender gap and promote female leaders by celebrities like Beyonce and Lena Dunham and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's "Lean In" movement.

"The overall numbers are up, but they're still quite small," says Pavle Sabic, a director at S&P; Global Market Intelligence and author of a new study on the CEO Gender Gap in the U.S. and Europe.

Women now lead companies in just about all sectors. American females have made big gains in recent months in energy and utilities, sectors typically dominated by men.

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After swimming at the Olympics, a Syrian refugee gains a new platform at the U.N.

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After swimming to escape Syria and saving the lives of other refugees -- then swimming as part of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team at the Olympics -- Yusra Mardini probably deserves a bit of a rest. Instead, the tenacious Syrian teen was honored earlier this month at the first Global Goals Awards and continues to raise awareness for refugees. Read on to learn about Mardini, as well as more about what refugees face -- and what they can achieve. 

washingtonpost.com - A Syrian teenager who saved fellow refugees from drowning and then swam for the refugee team at the Olympics was among those honored at the first Global Goals Awards in New York City.

Yusra Mardini, 18, who fled Syria with her sister in 2015 and now lives in Germany, received the Girl Award at the ceremony on Tuesday night.

The awards honor champions for women’s and girls’ rights and were organized by UNICEF, a children’s humanitarian program run by the United Nations.

Mardini, who had to swim for her life when her overloaded boat broke down in the Mediterranean Sea on the way to Europe, captured headlines when she competed at the Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

At a U.N. summit on migrants and refugees this week, she told world leaders that she wanted to change perceptions of those displaced from their homes.

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Meet Madison, a 9-year-old Champion for Change

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Madison Harrison, who launched her own photography business at 7, has loved photography since she was a  toddler. The young entrepreneur, now 9, posted a photo supporting the #62MillionGirls campaign and speaks out about the importance of girls receiving an education.  Read more here and follow the for the full interview with Harrison, where she talks about her passions in photography and her support of Girl Rising's mission to help girls everywhere achieve their dreams.

Visit Photos With Madison and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

girlrising.com - While most 9 year olds are busy making memories, Madison Harrison is also busy capturing them.

Her interest in photography was sparked at her third birthday party and at the age of seven, Madison started her own photography business.

“I love to photograph little girls and their dolls or boys and their toys,” Madison says on what she likes most about photography.

In two short years she’s gone from photographing her friends and flowers (still two of her favorite things to photograph) to organizing dress and canned food fundraisers and even photographing two weddings.

Girl Rising first met this young professional during the #62MillionGirls campaign where she posted a photograph to show her support.

“I am so happy that this campaign is letting the world know that there are so many girls who are not in school,” Madison says. “The more people know, the more it will make a difference. “

One thing that we love about Madison is that she’s working hard to make a difference in the world through her photography projects.

Read the whole story here.

 

Passing The Baton: 5 Ways Women Leaders Can Help Other Women - Take The Lead

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Success is not a finite resource. Contrary to what you may have heard or read, powerful women often help other women succeed -- through gestures big and small, formal and informal; ranging from lifting each other up and reaching out to mentoring and promoting up-and-comers.

We're happy to share this piece from Take the Lead Women on five ways women leaders can help other women, paving the way for even more women leadership and empowerment.

taketheleadwomen.com - I was in the audience at a conference listening to a professional panel last week, with each one of the three women leaders talking about her years of experience in media. A younger woman in the audience raised her hand to ask a question.

“I want to know more about passing the baton, and how I can grow into a career, following in your footsteps.”

One of the seasoned journalists responded, “I want to pass the baton to you smoothly, but I cannot stop and look for you behind me. You need to keep up the pace, so I can reach behind me and you can grab it quickly, move ahead and continue the race. I am happy to help, but if I stop to try to find you, we will both be disqualified. This way we both win.”

But the behaviors of women at work can be on the other end of the spectrum. In some work environments, women leaders not only don’t pass the baton, they make sure they are obstructionists to any other woman rising up. We don’t want to be her. So here are five quick strategies to being the kind of woman in the workplace who is not only amenable to other women, but also supportive to the cause of empowering all the women she encounters professionally.

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Girl Scouts Exec: Girls Shouldn't Pursue Perfection

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The Internet recently shook its collective head when a side-by-side comparison of Girls' Life and Boys' Life magazines illustrated the differences in the messages we send to girls and boys about goals, dreams, and what to strive for in life. (Some even "redesigned" the cover with a version highlighting girls' accomplishments and potential.) While the covers weren't designed by the same teams and fashion and beauty can be powerful tools, it's a stark reminder of the message girls often get from society: Boys can strive for careers and  are encouraged to "Explore your future," while girls are given advice about how to look pretty. 

Chief Girl and Parent Expert at Girl Scouts of the USA Andrea Bastiani Archibald used the magazines' differing approaches as an opportunity to address the larger issue of girls and perfection. Read below and click through to learn why teaching our girls to strive for the appearance of perfection actually holds them back--now and throughout their lives.

And whether it's with the latest fashions and full makeup or in a T-shirt and messy ponytail, may we encourage all girls to explore their futures.

To join Girl Scouts as a girl member or adult volunteer, visit www.girlscouts.org/join.

motto.time.com - The bombardment of image- and status-driven messages today’s girls and young women receive through media and our culture at large is destructive. Success is the currency for entry—or rather, the illusion of success. Finding just the right Instagram filter to ensure your latest selfie as enviable and drool-worthy as possible is a must for boosting your social capital. And girls are often the most impacted in this “nothing-less-than-success” theater.

Social media recently erupted over the controversy surrounding the cover of the September issue of Girls’ Life magazine (touting multiple beauty tips and how-tos on luring a potential boyfriend for its core audience) compared to the cover of Boys’ Life (splashed with the more substantive headline “Explore Your Future”). These dueling magazine covers highlight the stark difference between how society communicates life priorities and the trappings of success to girls versus boys, and serves to reaffirm an obsession with cultivating a perfect, unattainable façade.

If girls internalize the idea that everything undertaken in life must be image-centric, flawlessly executed and successful, that may cause fear of venturing beyond one’s comfort zone—or of even trying. Because if there’s a chance that you’re going to mess up, and not do something perfectly, why risk it? Just imagine all the rites of passage a girl might not pursue for fear of embarrassment or failure: not trying out for a sports team, not raising her hand in class to answer a question, not approaching a classmate to make a new friend, not volunteering for an exciting class project. Being too afraid to embrace these important growth milestones has serious implications, putting girls at a disadvantage as they grow into women and venture out into a deeply competitive and demanding world.

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Girl behind #1000BlackGirlBooks gets dream job

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We've shared before about Marley Dias, the New Jersey middle-school student who saw a dearth of books representing young black girls and decided to do something about it. She's collected thousands of books so far featuring black female protagonists—far exceeding even her own ambitious goal. And now, Dias has been named an editor-in-residence for Elle.com, complete with Marley Mag, a publication inspired and spearheaded by Dias. We're so excited to see where this new opportunity leads: for Dias as well as for black girls and others everywhere who will now discover the strength, diversity, complexity, intelligence, joy, depth and more that black girls bring to books—and the world.

nj.com - When Marley Dias started her #1000BlackGirlBooks social media campaign to collect books featuring black girls as main characters, she didn't expect to exceed her goal of a thousand books.

Dias, an Essex County middle-schooler, came up with the campaign last year after becoming frustrated with the lack of black, female main characters in books she had to read for school, the ones filled with "white boys and their dogs."

But the effort drew a surplus of books — more than 7,000 so far — and a significant amount of attention from national media. Marley wound up a guest on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and later got to meet Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama.

Now the 11-year-old from West Orange has been made an editor-in-residence for Elle.com, which on Monday launched Marley Mag, a zine of her very own.

"When you see a character you can connect with, if they learn a specific lesson, you're more likely to apply that to your life," Dias told NJ Advance Media in January when talking about the impetus behind her book campaign. Dias, then a sixth grader at Thomas A. Edison Middle School, said her ultimate goal was to edit her own pop culture and lifestyle magazine.

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Awe-Inspiring Images Pay Tribute to Canada's Radical Black Feminists

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Art has the power to inspire, illustrate, move us to action, and draw our attention to forgotten pieces of our own history—and one artist in Canada is bringing all of that together in a powerful series of images featuring black feminist heroes from Canada's history.

Black feminists often address—through their words or actions—intersections of racism, sexism, class oppression, gender identity and more in society. They argue that these issues are bound together in ways that compound the oppression that women—particularly women of color and others from multiple oppressed groups—experience.

What people may not always realize is that these pioneers fighting for human rights have been with us for centuries. Artist Naomi Moyer, a black woman living in Canada, wanted to draw more attention to Canada's black feminists. “I wanted to turn the few sentences that were written about these women from history books and online into a huge, colorful punch in the face,” she says in a feature by The Huffington Post. 

huffingtonpost.com - Mary Bibb was born in Rhode Island around 1820 as the daughter of free black Quakers. After becoming one of the first black woman teachers in North America, she involved herself in the anti-slavery movement.

However, following the 1850 passing of the Fugitive Slave Law, which demanded that all escaped slaves in America, including her husband, abolitionist Henry Bibb, be returned to their masters upon capture ― even if found in free states ― Bibb moved to Canada. Upon relocating, she and her husband began housing fugitive slaves in their home. Together they started publishing a newspaper, Voice of the Fugitive, the first major paper aimed at black Canadians.

Today, Bibb is considered the first black woman journalist in Canada. And yet, most Canadians do not even know her name. Self-taught artist Naomi Moyer, herself a black woman living in Canada, was disturbed by the lack of awareness surrounding figures like Bibb, women that Moyer could identify with and look up to.

“The school curriculum here is just as flawed and deficient as it is in the States,” Moyer told The Huffington Post. “Not one teacher, from kindergarten to college, gave me any book to read that was written by a black woman, let alone a black Canadian woman. The only kind of exposure most black people really got about ‘blackness’ or the black experience was through media and pop culture from the States.”

Moyer realized that it was extremely important for her to learn the names and stories of the women shaping Canadian black history. If no one else was going to teach her, she would do the research herself. The print series “Black Women in Canada” integrates Moyer’s research with graphic visuals that bring the under-acknowledged heroines to life.

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Suffrage Day a chance to reflect

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New Zealanders, like many around the world, take it for granted that women have the right to vote--especially because New Zealand was the first country to guarantee women the right. However, it's a right that wasn't won without a fight.

Since gaining the right to vote, women themselves have been elected to positions including Prime Minister, Governor General, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Attorney General and Chief Justice. On Suffrage Day, a day to reflect on the progress made so far and the work still to be done, it's encouraging to see this report from ONE News that women are actually more likely to vote in New Zealand than men are. While it's crucial that everyone show up to vote, a continuous chain of involvement of women—from the ballot to the boardroom to the highest offices—guarantees women's voices will be heard.

Read below and click through for the full report and video by ONE News.

ONE News - New Zealand's female voters outnumber their male counterparts and they are more likely to exercise their right to vote.

In 1893, New Zealand became the first nation in the world to grant women the vote and Suffrage Day, September 19, this year coincides with local government voting papers starting to go out.

Statistics NZ surveys show that women are more likely than men to cast their vote at both general and local elections.

In a survey after the 2011 general election, more than 80 per cent of women said they voted, compared with 77 percent of men.

The turnout is lower for local body elections, although women (less than 65 per cent) again top men (62 percent) for participation.

Statistics NZ says figures from the 2013 census showed that there were 1.66 million voting-age women in the country, outnumbering men by 137,000.

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How Amal Clooney Changed the Life of This 17-Year-Old Girl in Lebanon

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The importance of education, especially for girls, is well documented. Education helps girls and women help their communities, it promotes healthier lives, and it opens up both academic and economic opportunities for young women.

Renowned human rights lawyer Amal Clooney recognizes the power of high-quality education to change lives and the world, and she started the Amal Clooney Scholarship last year to send one girl from Lebanon each year to UWC Dilijan in Armenia.

Clooney, who was born in Lebanon, hopes the scholarship will unlock opportunities for young women—because, while boys and girls attend secondary school at similar rates, the number of women in the workforce is much lower than men following education. Opportunities like this scholarship, its creators hope, will not only encourage success in school but for a lifetime.

Read on and click through for insights from the second and latest recipient of the scholarship, Dalia Atallah, in an interview with Fortune. Congratulations to Atallah, and may we all keep lifting up girls and women through education!

fortune.com - The new recipient of the Amal Clooney Scholarship is an energetic 17-year-old Lebanese student who speaks three languages, is an accomplished debater and student representative, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, considers herself an unabashed fan of the famous human rights lawyer.

In an interview with Fortune, scholarship winner Dalia Atallah said she shares Clooney’s passion for human rights and hopes to make a career in the field by either becoming an attorney in private practice or working for the United Nations someday.

As the second winner of the scholarship, funded by the nonprofit Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, Atallah gained a coveted $70,000 grant that covers tuition and accommodation for a female student from Lebanon at the two-year international baccalaureate program at UWC Dilijan in Armenia. UWC Dilijan, an international boarding school, opened its doors two years ago to host students aged 13 to 18.

The Amal Clooney Scholarship aims to strengthen cross-cultural education and understanding for Lebanese women—and to provide them with a foundation to find new opportunities. Ruben Vardanyan, who co-founded the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, said in a statement that he was “excited by the possibilities this scholarship holds for the young women of Lebanon and the region.”

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How Do People Live and Cope In The Midst Of Violent Conflict?

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We're pleased to meet Zainab Salbi; an Iraqi American author, social entrepreneur and tireless advocate for women's rights; as she discusses how women's resilience and strength shine through even in the toughest of times. "When you keep the joy, you keep the laughter, you keep singing the song ... that is how women resist and show their resilience," she says.

Read about her here and click through for the interview featured on ideastream, as part of TED Radio Hour on NPR. 

wcpn.ideastream.org - Humanitarian Zainab Salbi explains how life continues in the midst of war — and how the ones who "keep life going" are women.

About Zainab Salbi

Zainab Salbi is an Iraqi-American humanitarian who advocates for women's rights throughout the world, particularly in conflict-ridden areas. In 1993, she founded Women For Women International, an organization whose aim is to help women who are survivors of war.

Since then, Salbi has gone on to write a memoir Between Two Worlds: Escaping From Tyranny where she describes her experiences of growing up in Saddam Hussein's inner-circle. Salbi is also the author of The Other Side Of War, in which she shares the stories of other women's experiences in conflict.

She is currently the host of "Nida'a," a talk show for Arab women broadcast throughout the Middle East and North Africa. She is also the Editor-at-Large at Women In The World Media, a digital news platform hosted by The New York Times.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

 

The Simple Trick Women in the White House Use to Stop Getting Interrupted

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Teamwork is one of the fundamental components in a functioning business. Especially in male-dominated workplaces, it is imperative that women work together to allow each other's voices to be heard. The method we explore in this article is useful across the board in women's lives—school, work, social environments, and more. Check it out below and click through to read the whole article, and let's start sticking together and sticking up for each other!

-Victoria Mendoza

themuse.com - Competition in the workplace is normal, if not necessary, in some cases for survival.

When discussing how her lack of competitiveness held her back in her career, Muse writer Kat Boogaard says, “I’m a firm believer that the world would be a much better place if we all focused on supporting and encouraging one another…However, I’ve also learned another important lesson: As nice as that all sounds, things don’t necessarily work this way when it comes to your own career. The working world can be frustratingly cutthroat at times.”

And she’s right—you’re not going to get that promotion unless you work harder and faster than other people, you’re not going to score that big project unless you prove it to your boss that you deserve it, and you’re not even going to snag the last piece of birthday cake unless you get to the office kitchen first.

But let’s play devil’s advocate for a second here. What if we put aside our own individual ladders and starting climbing up together? Would that get us anywhere?

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