Minibabble: Shaped by Motherhood
How does becoming a mother—or choosing not to—shape women’s lives? Time and again, mothering is fundamental to how women do their work. Whether women choose to be mothers or not,….
Category: Sex and Gender
Minibabble: “I screamed at Gloria Steinem”
Gloria Steinem died this week. In death, she’s being memorialized, but in life, one woman remembers her grace and perseverance.
Minibabble: “We didn’t know how to listen”
Abortion, race, and the second wave History records that Black women felt excluded from Second Wave Feminism. In this short piece, historian Barbara Winslow reflects on the issue through her….
Turning the World Upside-Down with Barbara Winslow
When Barbara Winslow moved to Seattle with her husband in the late 60s, she was already a radical feminist. But when she joined up with other women in the struggle for their basic rights, she became an effective activist. In this conversation, we explore Barbara’s work, the importance of thinking local when fighting for civil rights, and her advice for the new generation fighting the same old battles we thought we’d won.
Minibabble: Merle Hoffman follows her own voice
In this short adaptation of the full episode, “Living within the questions,” women’s healthcare pioneer Merle Hoffman speaks about the importance of trusting women to know their own bodies and….
Living Within the Questions with Merle Hoffman
To call Merle Hoffman the owner of an abortion clinic is only to scratch the surface of her complexity. She’s a pianist, a philosopher, an activist, a mother, and an adventurer in the world of spirituality. This is a conversation about courage, conviction, and what happens when we decide to trust ourselves.
Minibabble: Cindy Cohn on protecting our online freedoms
Cindy Cohn, retiring executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, speaks about the controversies regarding restriction of online speech. Addressing everything from breastfeeding forums to human rights abuses in Sudan,….
Minibabble: 3 women. 3 lawyers. 3 ways to change the world.
LaDoris Cordell, Denise Miranda, and Cindy Cohn are three very different women who have had three very different careers. But all three have drawn their inspiration from using their legal training to make a difference in the world.
Fighting for a Better Online World with Cindy Cohn
Cindy Cohn’s new book, Privacy’s Defender, focuses on three legal cases that formed the basis for privacy and freedom of speech on the Internet. But it’s also a memoir, framing the issues raised by legal battles through personal choices and life events both mundane and momentous. In this unusual conversation, we leave the big legal questions behind and focus instead on our modern lives on the internet. What do women get from privacy and freedom of speech when men so often use their own privacy and freedom of speech to restrict women’s online behavior? How does the internet mirror the real world when it comes to harassment and bullying of women? How would proposed fixes to the internet’s free speech woes restrict women’s speech even further?
Rooted in Service with Human Rights Commissioner Denise Miranda
Denise Miranda is New York State’s top civil rights official, the head of an agency that is charged with monitoring and promoting civil rights in the state. She’s also a proud native of the Bronx, daughter of Puerto Rican-born parents, and a mother. On the Babblery, we discuss the passion for justice and rights for all that drives her work.