In her syndicated column on September 7th, Kathleen Parker rightly noted that "Somewhere between hysterical claims that Americans will be forced to pay for abortions and assertions that no federal funds will go toward abortion is a more nuanced, if less interesting, truth." Yet Parker puts snarkiness before nuance in...

Hunger and poor health care in America, especially among children, troubled Ted Kennedy throughout his career. "Let us resolve that the state of a family's health shall never depend on the size of a family's wealth," he declared in 1980. If children were hungry or ill, Ted Kennedy wanted to...

August 26th of each year is designated in the United States as Women's Equality Day. Instituted by US Representative Bella Abzug of New York and first established in 1971, the date commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, the Women's Suffrage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave U.S. women...

Kentuckians gathered in Louisville to honor the courage, commitment and integrity of Dr. George Tiller. A native of Kansas, Dr. Tiller served in the United States Navy, before returning to Wichita to take over his father's medical practice after both his parents, his sister and brother-in-law were killed in an...

While "Joe the Plumber" became a person of great concern to both presidential candidates this week, what about his cousin Josephine? Josephine wants to be a plumber, but she is having a hard time breaking into this traditionally male field. While Joe is certainly deserving of concern, Josephine is having...

Many American voters are still recovering from whiplash. Hillary Clinton's hard-fought, down-to-the-wire campaign for President had barely ended, when, from out of the northern sky, appeared Sarah Palin's meteoric rise from Governor to Vice Presidential candidate. Two very different women, but with some things in common: historic national campaigns, strong...

The survival of democracy is not a question I had seriously considered until I attended the celebration of the 75th birthday of the Highlander Center in New Market, Tennessee. But when Mike Clark, a former Director of Highlander, posed the question, the light came flooding in. It is a real...

"What happens when the Global South meets the American South?"

Pancho Arguelles shouted out this question to 1,000 people from 35 states and 12 countries gathered recently in Newmarket, Tennessee, at the justly respected Highlander Center. Activists of all ages and backgrounds met in this beautiful location overlooking the Smokey...

They used to give us a day--it was called International Women's Day. In 1975 they gave us a year, the Year of the Woman. Then from 1975 to 1985 they gave us a decade, the Decade of the Woman. I said at the time, who knows, if we behave, they...

Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women. Homicide is the leading cause of death for women on the job. Someone is raped in the United States every 2 minutes. Nearly 1/3 of American women report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some...

On August 2nd, Women's eNews reported that breastfeeding advocates are battling for stronger rights across the US. In New York, for example, Rep. Carolyn Maloney introduced the Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2007 to encourage continued breastfeeding by working mothers.

In Kentucky, feminist artists are using their...

A New York Times travel writer recently discovered Appalachia as a vacation destination. Appalachia has been periodically "discovered" for over a hundred years now. John Fox Junior and the local color writers discovered it in the early 1900s. Anti-poverty warriors crusaded through it in the 1960s. And big energy companies...