The Insidious Reality of Rape Culture

I experienced my first conscious encounter with rape culture as an eleven-year-old. I was leaving class one day when I heard one of my classmates say to a couple of her friends, “Mr. Jones* is such a perv! He totally looks down my shirts!” Her friends agreed, and they continued angrily discussing similar studies as …

Remembering Where We Came from and Looking Ahead to Where We Want to Be

I remember as a child thinking my grandma, or Meme we called her, was invincible. I would watch in awe as she seemed to seamlessly switch into different roles at the snap of a finger, morphing from grandma into businesswoman, into head of the household, or into a Sunday School teacher. The woman wore a …

Paid Maternity and Paternity Leave: Why It’s Important

Paid maternity leave is a hot topic in the United States’ policy realm. In his efforts to appeal to female voters during his campaign, President Donald Trump promised to implement paid maternity leave as part of his Presidency [1]. And recently, in his first speech to Congress, the President also promised “paid family leave” [2]. …

Women’s Mobility

I spent over five months researching women’s mobility in practice to create the world’s first scale of women’s mobility. I considered myself a feminist and a researcher of women’s issues before this project, yet I was unaware of how much an inability to more freely in public damages the lives of some women. Women in …

Imprisoned by Fear: Street Harassment

Last year I studied abroad in Jerusalem, where street harassment and cat calls were  as much a part of the city life as delicious falafel or one-thousand-year-old churches. The catcalls mainly consisted of harmless proclamations of love or joking marriage proposals. But my female classmates and I never knew when one of those instances would …

A Series of Unfortunate Marriage Practices

In January, Netflix released its televised adaption of the hit children’s books A Series of Unfortunate Events. As an avid fan of the books, I eagerly watched the entire show in just a couple of days. The story begins with orphans Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire going to live with their evil guardian Count Olaf …

On Women and the Academy Awards Infographic

The last time a film won Best Picture with an actress nominated for Best Actress (not Best Supporting Actress) was 2005 with Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby. The majority of films nominated for Best Picture mostly tell stories about men and for men. This disproportionate representation is not new to anyone interested in feminism …