Women


California Protects Pay by Gender, Is Race Next?

Just as California businesses begin to implement a law requiring equal pay for workers regardless of their gender, already the toughest of its kind in the nation, a state lawmaker is seeking to expand it to protect employees from racial discrimination. The proposal by Sen. Isadore Hall would build on California’s existing fair pay law by adding “race or ethnicity” to …


New York Is Likely Dropping Its “tampon Tax”

The New York state senate is poised to eliminate New Yorkers’ so-called “tampon tax.” Feminine hygiene products are currently taxed as “luxury items” in New York, but a new bill could result in their reclassification as tax-exempt necessities, instead. The Republican-run senate passed the bill unanimously on Monday (April 11) after it had passed the state assembly in March, also with full …


10 Political Decisions Affecting Women’s Health in 2016

More than 40 years since the passage of Roe v. Wade, United States politics are still fraught with arguments over the sovereignty of women’s bodies and decisions that make the upkeep of women’s reproductive health all the more expensive and difficult. The year is 2016, and although it may be hard to face reality, there lies a lamentable truth: The accessibility of women’s healthcare is not a …


Women in New York Are Fighting the Tampon Tax With a Class Action Lawsuit

Among women, the tampon tax hasn’t been very popular, to say the least. So today, five women in New York filed a class action lawsuit to fight the much-maligned tax.

The complaint argues that sales tax for tampons and sanitary pads violates state law, which declares that medical items shouldn’t be taxed. According to the complaint, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance “imposes a double standard when defining medical items for women and men,” since medical items also used by men — like Rogaine, foot powder, dandruff shampoo, ChapStick, facial wash, adult diapers, and incontinence pads — are tax-free. Tampons and pads, on the other hand, are exclusively used by women.


Indigenous Women Feeling Harassed in Taxicabs

APTN InFocus with Cheryl McKenzie Indigenous women from different parts of the country are stepping forward with their experiences in taxicabs saying they’re being harassed, including unwanted sexual advances. In this edition, we hear why some feel the reason they’re being mistreated is because they’re Indigenous women. Now, in response to the stories going public on a national level, at least …


Women Sue to Block New York’s ‘Tampon Tax’

Is your job listing sexist? Five New York women are fighting to halt the state’s “Tampon Tax.” Margo Seibert, Jennifer Moore, Catherine O’Neil, Natalie Brasington, and Taja-Nia Henderson, filed a lawsuit Thursday against New York’s tax department and its commissioner, Jerry Boone.


Citing Gender Bias, State Lawmakers Move to Eliminate ‘Tampon Tax’

“It’s about equity and access. There’s no other tax that’s this gender bias[ed],” said California Assemblywoman Christina Garcia.Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Imageshide caption
“It’s about equity and access. There’s no other tax that’s this gender bias[ed],” said California Assemblywoman Christina Garcia.


Lawsuit Deplores Sex Abuse of Women in NY State Prisons

NEW YORK (AP) — Sexual abuse and harassment of women in New York State prisons persists and flourishes because the state’s “zero tolerance” policy is a sham, a lawsuit says. The lawsuit filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court asks a judge to force the state to prevent women from being sexually abused by male guards. The lawsuit seeking class action status represents six women on behalf of an …


White Feminism Downplayed California’s Coerced Sterilization of Latinas in the ’70s

In the early 1970s, as feminists advocated for abortion rights in the lead-up to Roe v. Wade, an L.A. county hospital was years into a federally funded population-control program that targeted poor Mexican American women for sterilization when they came to the hospital to give birth. Several only learned years later that they’d had tubal ligations without their consent; 10 testified against the …