Hasta La Gadget!

This article was posted in Ms Magazine on June 14, 2016 by Denise Dunning, Founder and Executive Director of Rise Up (Let Girls Lead is an initiative of Rise Up, which advances health, education and equity for girls, youth and women everywhere).

“We’re creating a ‘To Do’ list.”

That’s how one of Michelle Obama’s policy advisors described the United State of Women Summit, reflecting on the Summit’s goal of developing a shared agenda for women and girls. Convened by the White House, the Summit is a chance to examine what we’ve achieved in advancing the rights and well-being of women and girls in the US and globally. It’s also a critical time to reflect on what remains to be done, and leverage that momentum to power forward what comes next. Because while much progress has been made, there’s still a whole lot more to do.

As Catherine Russell, US Ambassador-At-Large for Global Women’s Issues, succinctly put it:

I’ve seen first-hand that the issues on the agenda today–from gender-based violence to girls’ education to economic and leadership opportunities for women–aren’t just American issues. They’re global issues.

The United State of Women is the first Summit of its kind, bringing together thousands of leaders working to improve the lives of women and girls in the US and around the world. Leaders from Michelle Obama to Warren Buffet, Oprah and policymakers across the political spectrum are joining leaders from civil society, business, media and government to discuss our ongoing challenges and ensure that making concrete progress for girls and women is central to our joint agenda.

I attended the Summit in my capacity as founder of Rise Up, which advances health, education and equity for girls, youth and women everywhere. During the Summit, I had the chance to speak with some of the most visionary leaders in our field–and a few key themes emerged.

“It is often tempting to think about ‘women’s issues,’ but it is important to note that there is no such thing–what we should be pushing for in every instance is the right for 50 percent of the world to be included and heard on all issues,” Kavita N. Ramdas, Senior Advisor for Global Strategy at the Ford Foundation, shared with me. “Of course, women and girls care about their health, reproductive rights, education and violence, yes, but we also care about effective business, inclusive economies, fair wages, immigration, incarceration and criminalization of the poor, fossil fuels, climate change, nuclear weapons, militarization and gun control. This is our world too and we care about making it more livable, more just, and more equitable for everyone.”

Many of these issues are central to the new United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which reflect the importance of women and girls to building a safer and more sustainable planet. Building on this global conversation here in the US, the United State of Women gives us the chance to focus on core issues of domestic and global relevance, including economic empowerment, health, education, violence, entrepreneurship and civic engagement.

One of the Summit’s central themes is the economic empowerment of women and girls, with the recognition that we still have a long way to go. Though the wage gap has lessened slightly, women still earn 79 cents on the dollar compared to men. Paid sick leave, paid family leave, childcare, a livable minimum wage–basic standards in most wealthy countries–too often still feel like a pipe dream here in the US.

“It’s not complicated, “Sarita Gupta, Executive Director of Jobs with Justice and Co-Director of Caring Across Generations, told me. “What is going to help bring millions of women and their families out of poverty, plain and simple, is when women are able to negotiate with their bosses about their terms of work that let them put food on the table, pay the bills and spend time with their loved ones. Just imagine what’s possible if every woman demanded a fair return on the work they do. If every woman in this country had a say in how their work gets done. If we could negotiate for the hours to manage life and work and the pay that sustains our families. Because when we do right by women, everyone wins.”

The Summit’s focus on health and wellness includes themes of health care delivery and global health. In terms of progress, the Affordable Care Act has an important focus on improving the health of pregnant women and their newborns. “A right isn’t worth much if you can’t access it,” Cecile Richards, President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, noted. “Every person must have equal access to reproductive health care.”

Here in the US and on a global scale, ensuring the health of women and girls is still a major challenge. While maternal mortality rates have decreased globally, the US is one of only eight countries in the world–along with Afghanistan and South Sudan–where maternal mortality rates have actually increased, especially among women of color. And globally, 800 women still die every day due to pregnancy and childbirth complications. The majority of these maternal deaths are preventable, but we will only transform these devastating realities by prioritizing and investing in the health of girls and women, everywhere.

In the area of education, the Summit highlighted the critical role that girls’ education plays in advancing economic growth and global security. Discussions centered on the importance of early childhood education, STEM opportunities and the challenges facing millions of girls around the world who fight every day for the basic right to attend school. President Barack Obama spoke powerfully during the lunchtime plenary about the social, cultural and economic obstacles that prevent women and girls from achieving their full potential. He asserted that gender equality must be a foreign policy priority and that investing in girls’ education is key to ensuring our collective future. “We know that any country that oppresses half the population, that doesn’t let girls go to school, or give them control of their own bodies, is a society that will not work over the long term,” he said. “We’re encouraging more girls to pursue their love of science, technology, engineering and math. Everybody has a role to play to create more opportunity for women and girls. Even as we make progress at home, we look abroad…. We’re empowering the next generation by investing in adolescent girls and advancing Let Girls Learn to get 62 million girls into school.”

Many conversations throughout the Summit have integrated a focus on violence against women and girls, recognizing the ways in which violence is a global pandemic that affects health, education and equality for women and girls. One out of three women is a survivor of gender-based violence and girls remain uniquely vulnerable to abuse, especially within our criminal justice system. Vice President Joseph Biden summed it up during the Summit’s morning plenary: “Ultimately, we have to give women and girls a greater voice but that’s not enough… every single woman has a fundamental right to live her life free of violence.” Major themes during the Summit included domestic violence, campus sexual assault and trafficking of girls and women, with the widespread consensus that gender-based violence is intolerable and we clearly have to do better.

In the areas of civic engagement and entrepreneurship, the Summit highlights that women hold less than a quarter of elected offices in the US, and are only 4.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs. Enabling girls and women to raise their voices and step into their power in both business and politics is key to the future of our country and our world. “Just three percent of VC funding goes to companies with a female CEO–and that’s not because there’s a lack of women starting incredible businesses,” Elizabeth Gore, Dell’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence, told me. “We’re fighting to give women around the world better access to capital, technology, networks and markets to help them scale and grow. Women are starting more businesses than ever before, and end up investing 90 percent of their income back into their communities. We need to support the women entrepreneurs in the world who are the job creators, idea makers and game changers.”

Today’s Summit highlighted that advancing the health, education and equity of girls, youth and women is central to both achieving our potential as a country and advancing the sustainability of our planet. And while we have made some significant gains, addressing the remaining challenges requires us to rise up collectively with a shared agenda for action.

“There’s 5000 women and men in this room,” Oprah said in conversation with Michelle Obama today. “What is the one thing you want us to leave here with? What is the one charge or one offering?”

Obama responded:

The work always continues. We’re never done. We can never be complacent and think we’ve arrived because we’ve seen in recent times how quickly things can be taken away if we are complacent, if we don’t know our history.

The Summit is an important step to ensuring that our whole is greater than the sum of our individual parts. And now it’s time for us all to move forward with our collective To Do list.

________________________________________________________

Dr. Denise Raquel Dunning is the founder and Executive Director of Rise Up, which advances health, education and equity for girls, youth and women everywhere. She teaches courses at the University of California San Francisco, previously worked for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and served as a Fulbright Scholar in Honduras. She has a PhD in Sociology from the University of California Berkeley, a Master’s in Public Affairs from Princeton University and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Duke University.

Rise Up creates a better future for girls, youth, and women. We strengthen leadership, invest in innovation, build movements, and amplify voices to achieve large scale change.

Rise Up unifies the power of Let Girls Lead, Champions for Change and the Youth Champions Initiative, to benefit 115 million girls, youth, and women globally.

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Donald Trump’s campaign spokeswoman on Monday revised the presumptive Republican nominee’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the U.S. for the second time in three days, saying Trump is dropping the word “Muslim” from the policy and focusing on immigrants from “terrorist nations.”

“It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from, except for fact that the terrorist nations, which is something he is adding to this policy to make it more clear, that if you are coming from a hostile nation and you can not be vetted, absolutely you should not come into this country,” Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said on CNN. 

The change to Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims is the second since Saturday, when the campaign said Trump no longer supports a blanket ban on all Muslim immigrants, and wants to single out Muslims from “terror states.” Trump told reporters he “would be fine” with Muslims from Scotland, for example.

Pierson’s comments show a further shift in the policy, removing all mention of Muslims. Pierson, however, insisted that removing “Muslim” wasn’t a revision.

“There has been no change. Mr. Trump still wants to stop individuals from coming into the country who cannot be vetted,” Pierson said.

Trump in December proposed a “total and complete shutdown” on Muslim immigration, in response to a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California. He reiterated the proposal following this month’s gun massacre in Orlando, Florida, and advocated a complete immigration ban from countries with a history of terrorism against the United States.

As is typical with Trump’s policy proposals, it’s unclear what the revision means and whether he will stick by it. When pressed by CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Monday, Pierson did not elaborate on details of the policy, and didn’t specify which countries the ban would include.

“Mr. Trump is going to be refining his policy, putting out more specific details, which everyone has been asking for, but there has been no change,” Pierson said.

Keilar repeatedly asked Pierson if, by de-emphasizing Muslims, the revised immigration policy’s standards would apply equally to Christian immigrants, for example. Pierson dodged the question.

“If you are coming into this country and you cannot be vetted, then you should not be allowed in until you can be vetted,” Pierson said. “It’s not rocket science.”

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

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WASHINGTON — District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) signed legislation Monday that will gradually hike the city’s minimum wage to $15, the latest in a string of victories for the union-backed Fight for $15 campaign.

At a signing ceremony at a D.C. pizzeria, Bowser argued that cities should lead the way in raising the minimum wage, just as they have in recent years.

“City councils and mayors can get the job done when it’s not done in Congress,” Bowser told a crowd of supporters and union members.

D.C.’s minimum wage had already been slated to rise from its current $10.50 to $11.50 per hour later this week. Under the new law, it will continue to increase each year, until it hits $15 in 2020. After that, the rate will be adjusted annually according to an inflation index. The schedule of hikes will put the wage floor in D.C. — one of the country’s most expensive cities — far above the federal minimum wage, which remains $7.25.

It was only 2 1/2 years ago that the D.C. Council passed a different bill that would increase the minimum wage by more than $3 an hour, and tie it to inflation in perpetuity — one of the most liberal measures in the country at the time. But in a sign of just how far the minimum wage debate has moved since then, city lawmakers took up a new, more aggressive proposal this year that would boost the wage floor more rapidly. 

Not long ago, the thought of a $15 minimum wage was practically unimaginable. But labor unions and worker advocacy groups have had tremendous success pushing ambitious plans through city councils and state legislatures, despite strong opposition from business groups that say such an unprecedented wage floor will hurt employment. Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles all have passed $15 laws, as have the states of California and New York.

Like in Seattle, D.C.’s minimum wage plan succeeded in large part because of the threat of a ballot measure. The plan signed by Bowser on Monday will have only a modest minimum wage increase for tipped workers, rising from its current $2.77 to just $5 per hour before tips (employers are obligated to make up the difference if tips don’t put a worker over $15). Labor groups wanted $15 for all workers, and could have put such a measure before voters. In a win for the city’s restaurant industry, Bowser and members of the council precluded that with the legislation signed Monday. 

The minimum wage tends to poll very well, and voters in many liberal cities have not shied away from $15. Delvone Michael, director of D.C. Working Families, said a ballot measure likely would have succeeded, taking the fate of the minimum wage out of legislators’ hands.

“Without pressure from working families, the council would not have acted,” Michael, whose group campaigned for the ballot measure, told The Huffington Post. “Sometimes it takes people to show the council the way.”

Michael said the raise for restaurant workers was a “step in the right direction,” though not as significant as backers had wanted. The city’s bars and restaurants launched a campaign aimed at beating back a dramatic rise in the tipped minimum wage, which is lower than the normal minimum wage in the majority of states. The industry warned that a $15 minimum wage would effectively end gratuities for servers and bartenders. Labor activists have been campaigning to end the tipped minimum wage at the federal and local levels, arguing that it creates a two-tier system and exacerbates income inequality.

The effects of the D.C. minimum wage law will be vast. The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, says the law would boost the hourly pay of roughly a fifth of the city’s private-sector workers. The D.C. Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, has predicted that employers would cut benefits and reduce hiring to compensate the higher wages they must pay.  

One local business that wasn’t buying that argument was &pizza, the D.C.-based pizza chain that hosted the bill signing. Liam Patrick, the company’s CFO, told HuffPost that &pizza, which has 15 locations in the area, campaigned for $15 because it already paid above minimum wage, and managers felt they could stand to pay more. Asked if that was a lonely position to stake out as a business, Patrick laughed and said, “There’s not that many that want this to happen.”

“Your employees really fuel the growth of the brand and not everybody sees it that way,” Patrick said. “We think that over the long term, you will grow and you will build your restaurant through your employees. Paying them the bare minimum doesn’t cut it.”

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It’s a little known fact in modern day America that corporal punishment at school is still practiced in 19 states of the union. A recent study identified seven culprits, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Oklahoma who make up 80% of its application right now in the United States. No surprise, when it comes to “children of color,” they don’t spare the rod. According to the Office of Civil Rights, Department of Education, African-American children are twice as likely to be subject to “in-house corporal punishment” in schools. Oh dear. Is this yet another reminder of the racist past? Yes, of course it is. But along with mass incarceration, and the school-to-prison pipeline, it’s also another shocking indictment of our racist present.

Then there’s that pesky term. What do they mean by “in-house corporal punishment”? The Department of Education defines it as “paddling, spanking, or other forms of physical punishment imposed on a student.” “Paddling” is done with a “paddle” – a wooden instrument that looks like a child’s cricket bat. I’d seen them before, in old comedies like “Animal House” (Kevin Bacon gets six degrees of paddle from his satanic frat house buddies), and “Catholic Boys” (a sadistic monk torments his pupils with a customized model). But when it comes to the cane, the schoolmaster’s traditional rod of discipline and punishment, the paddle is a joke by comparison. Growing up in England, during the 1970s and 1980s, I have my own memories of its use. None of them, I hasten to add, are any good.

The first time I got caned was at Mosspits Lane Primary School in Liverpool — a seat of learning that famously expelled John Lennon of the Beatles when he was five years old. It was a hot summer’s day. The kids were having a grass fight on the school field at playtime. A teacher saw us and shouted out. It was the headmaster: a fish-eyed robot in a tin grey suit that was neither new nor in fashion. We were summoned to his office and beaten on the palm of the hand, ten times, by a slim bamboo cane that he whipped (abracadabra!) out of a steel filing cabinet. I felt the full force and effect of every blow and bit my tongue rather than cry out. It was a lesson in cruelty I shall never forget.

My second experience of “in-house corporal punishment” was at Douai, a Catholic prep school near to London. Almost immediately, aged 12, I noticed that beating children was so much the norm as to be part and parcel of the school’s curriculum. Boys were thrashed by monks and teachers for a variety of petty offences – stealing a block of Perspex from the science lab; swearing in the dorm before lights out; and, in one horrific instance, a gap-toothed kid with learning difficulties threatened with “three of the best” for “dumb insolence.” He spewed with fear and burst into tears. It didn’t save him from the humiliation and degradation of the teacher’s cane.

One punishment from boyhood stands out in particular. Three lads from my class got summoned for a caning after some high jinks on the rugby pitch. The penalty was “six of the best” from our Headmaster, Father Wilfred, a human wombat who wore striped pajamas under his cassock to keep out the cold. Forget the English stiff upper lip. They awaited the punishment with dread. Nothing hurt more than a beating from Father Wilfred. My younger brother once described the ritual. In the center of his office, there was a wooden chair with a bible on it. You bent over, eyes on the bible and took your beating like a gent. Afterwards, this being England, you shook hands with the Headmaster and said, “thank you” (however, there were instances of boys telling Father Wilfred to “fuck off,” my brother included).

Later, after gym class, I saw their tortured bodies in the locker room. Their rears were blistered black and blue. And they had been thrashed so hard you could even see the grooves of the cane on the butt cheeks. My mind was swimming with questions. How could a fully-grown, civilized, educated and seemingly benign old priest turn robot and thrash a child so hard? Where were the social workers? Nowhere. This was a fee-paying boarding school. Parents approved of the regime. It was character building and many of them had gone through it themselves. They weren’t going to call in the social workers, or send letters of complaint to Father Wilfred for beating on their kids.

Soon after, the cane was banned in England. Good riddance. The marks of a schoolboy beating heal, but the mental scars never really go away. But many years on, afar and asunder from youth, you don’t expect to wake up in the freest and most enlightened country in the world (that’s America, folks,) to discover that corporal punishment at school is alive and kicking. What’s amazing is that no one in the media has really addressed the issue. Thankfully, it’s a different story up on the hill. Deadlocked politicians jabber and filibuster about the pros and cons of a ban on physical discipline at school. It’s about time too.

Spare the rod and spoil the child? No. Spare the rod and educate the child. The United Nations and the American Academy of Paediatrics both say that corporal punishment should be avoided at school. In a statement, the American Federation of Schoolteachers said, “…it teaches students that violence is acceptable.” And research by the American Psychological Association identified the physical discipline of schoolchildren as a leading cause of future mental health problems and antisocial behavior. They are right. Beating children traumatizes children and it does more harm than good. And what gives a civilized, rational and highly educated adult the right to beat a child in 19 states of the union? The law. Fortunately, it’s a well-known fact that laws can be changed.

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(Reuters) – A federal judge on Monday ruled that clerks in Mississippi may not recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples based on religious beliefs, despite a bill passed by the state legislature intended to carve out that exception for them.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves said that the recusals on religious grounds granted by the state’s so-called “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act”, or House Bill 1523, violated the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 ruling legalizing gay marriage.

The Supreme Court’s decision is commonly referred to as the “Obergefell” case after lead plaintiff James Obergefell.

“Mississippi’s elected officials may disagree with Obergefell, of course, and may express that disagreement as they see fit – by advocating for a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision, for example,” Reeves wrote in his 16-page ruling, which came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Campaign for Southern Equality.

“But the marriage license issue will not be adjudicated anew after each legislative session,” Reeves wrote. Mississippi is among a handful of Southern U.S. states on the front lines of legal battles over equality, privacy and religious freedom.

Reeves has not yet ruled on other provisions of the state legislation, which is expected to become law on Friday and also contains a set of religious objections provisions that have been challenged in four separate lawsuits.

But Mississippi’s lieutenant governor, Tate Reeves, quickly slammed the ruling in a written statement.

“If this opinion by the federal court denies even one Mississippian of their fundamental right to practice their religion, then all Mississippians are denied their 1st Amendment rights,” Reeves said. “I hope the state’s attorneys will quickly appeal this decision to the 5th Circuit to protect the deeply held religious beliefs of all Mississippians.”

A spokesman for the Campaign for Southern Equality, meanwhile, said the group was “delighted” with the decision and expected the judge to rule in their favor on its challenges to the entirety of the HB 1523.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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