Cherry Bombe, an indy magazine and radio show that celebrates women and food, hosted their first west coast jubilee conference in San Francisco last Saturday, October 14th.

The sold-out event was hosted within the gorgeous grounds of The Palace of Fine Arts. Highlights included conscious food and drink from local and sustainable purveyors, networking opportunities, and a plethora of female talent in the form of panels, speakers, and attendees. Although fun and engaging, the conference did not gloss over the looming political and environmental issues at large. The raging wildfires in California, appropriation, sustainability, and female activism were all addressed at length. Yes, the conference was inspiring. And yes, it was fun, dynamic, and pink. But most importantly, the Cherry Bombe Jubilee was unapologetically relevant.

The morning began with an hour of light-hearted networking and nibbling. Upon receiving their pink wristband and hot pink envelope upon check-in, attendees were free to graze the breakfast stations. Options included fresh fruit from Imperfect Produce, an array of bread options from La Brea Bakery with various accoutrements provided by local businesses, mini bread puddings from Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement, and a selection of Kite Hill non-dairy hors d’oeuvres, such as “cream cheese” cucumber canapes and “yogurt” parfaits. San Francisco favorite, Nightbird, also provided elaborate mini toasts topped with scrambled egg, lardo, green sauce, and caviar. An endless supply of La Croix, Health-Ade Kombucha, Smith Teamaker tea, and Counter Culture Coffee espresso drinks and drip coffee kept everyone energized and hydrated.

Fully satiated, the guests made their way to their seats. Cherry Bombe co-founder Kerry Diamond and Claudia Wu welcomed everyone and immediately brought the room’s attention to the devastating fires. “We’re sorry,” Diamond apologized for every attendee who was effected by this natural disaster. “It is a miracle this happened,” she continued. The point is, the conference happened. It was not canceled or delayed due to unpredictable circumstances. This was a running theme throughout the day. Although we may despair about our current challenges, many of which are out of our control, we must adapt and face the situation. Shakirah Simley’s opening remarks reinforced this can-do attitude. “We cannot be paralyzed,” she cautioned. “We need to turn our anger into action.”

Following these sobering words, Lisa Q. Fetterman, the founder and CEO of the first home sous vide machine (Namiku), lightened the mood by introducing the first panel, yelling “This panel is going to be off the chain!” Her bombastic energy provided some much-needed lightness to the serious panel discussion, based around assimilation, appropriation, and affirmation of cultural and ethnic cuisine. Panelists spoke to the controversy surrounding ownership and representation of their cultural dishes, as much of “ethnic cuisine” is still dominated and often bastardized by white male chefs. The conversation popped with various opinions from the panelists, but one thing is clear: they all take pride in their work and their heritage. You can bet that Dominica Rice-Cisneros of Oakland-based Cosecha will never serve you a hardshell crunchy taco.

Next up, a practical presentation by Mandy Aftel, a perfumist, on how to smell. “Eighty percent of taste is smell…nature is the original flavorist,” Mandy informed the audience. She advised everyone to shop with their nose by tearing leafs and digging their nails into their produce to assess the aroma of each food. “I want you to rip things apart!” Admittedly, she advised to use discretion when doing this at your local grocery store, but the flavor is worth the risk of being admonished by the produce stocker. 

The morning portion of the conference concluded with a diverse panel on “What We’re Hungry For,” introduced by the president of William Sonoma, Janet Hayes. Panelists ranged from prominent bloggers, to a second generation farmer, to an Instagram executive. The women discussed the influence of technology in their world, both its benefits and pitfalls. They also seriously considered the prominence of food. The consensus: it is not just food. Food can be healing, in the case with Danielle Walker, who used it to treat her autoimmune disease and later launch her blog, but it can also be destructive in the case of body dysmorphia. Food is identity. Food is culture. Food is social. It is a comfort, a passion, and way to earn a living. To lighten the mood and prepare everyone for lunch, the moderator asked the panelists’ about their go-to comfort foods. The answers were as unique as the discussion: winter squash, baked goods, steamed dumplings, red wine, milk chocolate, and white bread with mayo.

Lunch offered an hour and a half respite to mingle, refuel, and enjoy the seventy-six degree weather upon the lush grasses and cascading columns of The Palace grounds. Guests were treated to boxed lunches prepared by Tender Greens, with options for every diet. Smitten Ice Cream was also churning up fresh stracciatella ice cream in collaboration with Guittard chocolate, and William Sonoma offered a sweet ending with their famous chocolate cherry bark.

Karen Leibowitz kicked off the afternoon session with a talk on sustainability. Leibowitz is known for her many environmentally friendly Bay Area restaurants, such as The Perennial, as well as her work in regenerative agriculture. “Restaurants have a responsibility,” she said. She encouraged individuals to take action as well, even though the issue of climate change may seem too daunting to tackle. Through smart individual choices and business practices, Leibowitz believes there is hope to change our environment for the better.

The conference complimented Leibowitz’s initiatives, as Cherry Bombe made a massive effort to cut down on as much waste as possible. Attendees were encouraged to bring reusable water bottles and utilize the FloWater filling station, all the serving ware was recyclable or compostable, Food Runners picked up the excess food to distribute it to local shelters, and Madewell collected attendee’s old jeans for their Blue Jeans Go Green program, which transforms old denim into new housing insulation.

Amanda Klute, Editor in Chief of Eater, roused the audience with her State of the State address, in which she outlined the gender gap that still exists in the culinary world. Again, she stressed action. We cannot be complacent, waiting for someone to take notice. We must say no to “female only” categories, and we must fight to be included. Its not based on filling a “female quota,” its based on equal recognition for equal talent. Because women are rocking the culinary industry just as hard as the men.

The final two programs, a panel of Bay Area restauranteurs and the keynote by the legendary Alice Waters, focused on hospitality and conscious consumerism. Among the panel were Dominique Crenn of Atelier, Traci Des Jardins of Jardiniere, Emily Luchetti of Big Night Restaurant Group, Elisabeth Pruitt of Tartine, Gabriela Camara of Cala, and Joyce Goldstein (author, former chef and restauranteur). The panelists spoke to a restaurant’s role in providing for the community. They create a home away from home; they create traditions and memories. The concept of restaurant responsibility was another recurring topic. These women not only practice ethical sourcing of their ingredients, they also feel it is their responsibility to create opportunity for their employees by providing a livable wage and reasonable hours. In essence, we must be stewards of the environment and our fellow human beings.

Alice Waters, the renowned chef who embraced the “farm to table” concept in the 1970s with her landmark restaurant, Chez Panisse, echoed the major themes of the day. Waters’ accomplishments far exceed her talents in the kitchen; she is a true food activist. Despite her small stature and composed demeanor, the audience was raptured by her words and her presence. She inspired the audience with the idea of consumer power. We need to buy with intention. In doing so, we can support our local businesses and farmers while simultaneously rejecting the waste and shameful practices of the big-box supermarkets. She also spoke to the importance of food education in schools. When asked about her legacy, she said she wanted to create a system in which every child was provided a free, sustainably sourced, and nutritionally balanced school lunch. Somewhat in jest, she concluded in stating she would like nothing more than to gut all the Whole Foods and turn them into year-round farmers markets.

After the final remarks were made by Diamond and Wu, guests and speakers were free to enjoy happy hour. The social event was exquisitely curated to include thoughtful food and drink collaborations by the Bay Area’s best. Guests left contented with their signed copies of the pink “Cherry Bombe Cookbook” in hand. However, this conference was so much more than just tasty bites and pink-accented goody bags. Food was once a form of escape; for many it still is. But this is not the Cherry Bombe way. Food is a gateway to activism. Food touches every aspect of our lives, and in such, we can harness it to incite change. Through food, we can light a fire, and Cherry Bombe has ignited the fuse.

Find Tanya on Instagram and The Vegan Potluck Podcast. 

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Column Women farmers are a huge part of promoting a sustainable food system; let’s make sure we’re talking about them. 

Say the word “farmer” and who do you think of?

A man in Carhartts?

Well, it’s time to start rethinking the farmer image, because when it comes to sustainable agriculture, women are a big part of our future.

While globally agriculture is a male-dominated industry, there are a lot of women, and those women are the answer to questions of food justice and food security. In the developing world, women make up about 43 percent of the agricultural labor force – and they are responsible for 60-80 percent of food production in these areas – but a serious gender gap still exists because in many cultures, women are barred from land rights. Focusing on women’s rights and gender equality in these areas will not only benefit women, but the food system as well.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), if women had the same access to resources for production and marketing of crops as their male counterparts, they could increase agricultural yields by 20-30 percent. That’s enough to pull somewhere between 100 and 150 million people out of hunger.

In the U.S., while between 1982 and 2007, the USDA’s Economic Research Service found that the number of women-operated farms had more than doubled, there’s still a gender gap. According to the U.S. Census of Agriculture, 86 percent of the 2.1 million people responsible for day-to-day operations of farms are men. But there are more women coming to the farming world, and in a time when the total number of farms is declining, the number of women-owned farms and women farmers is on the rise. Today women make up about 30 percent of all U.S. farmers – and often, they take a more sustainable approach. Which means that when we think about a more sustainable world of food, not just at home, but globally, we have to be thinking about women.

And if we are going to think about women, then we have to start seeing them too. Audra Mulkern of the Female Farmer Project knows all about that. A talented, self-taught photographer, a couple of years ago, Mulkern decided to launch a projected devoted to documenting the world of women farmers. Inspired by the women farmers in her local Snoqualmie Valley, Mulkern has set out to tell the stories of female farmers. “I noticed over a couple of seasons of visiting farmers markets and farms that there was a marked increase in female interns. I started asking around and decided it was a story I needed to tell,” says Mulkern. Since launching the project, she has photographed women farmers in five different countries, becoming a big advocate for sustainable agriculture and food justice along the way.

As The Female Farmer Project’s About section states, Mulkern works to “share the stories of women farmers who are tasked with family, farm, and often an outside job, and are creating change in our food systems.” That’s an important factor to consider, especially when it comes to thinking about ways that we can better support the food system. These women, while playing an important role in bringing food to their communities, still face inequalities.”The women I meet talk about experiencing increased scrutiny over their operations as well as their inability to secure loans or grants because small women farms are considered ‘hobbies,'” says Mulkern.

Some of that may come down to our gendered thinking about farming. We’re back to the man in the Carhartt’s. For example, Beef Magazine (yes, that’s a thing) recently asked its community if it saw a problem with the term ‘farmer’s wife’. 79 percent of the people polled saw no problem at all.

What’s great about the work that Mulkern does, as well as other advocates for women farmers like the site Pink Tractor, is that it works to bring a face to farming, to show that it’s not just men. Because ultimately, farm work isn’t a man’s or a woman’s job. “Farming means a lot of things – but it always come down to stewardship. Farmers are stewards of the soil, seed and sea,” says Mulkern. “I’m always interested in finding the stories of those farmers. The ones who put more back in than they take. The provide sustenance to us, and to the earth.”

As Mulkern points out, for a sustainable future, we need to be seriously thinking about where our food comes from and whose growing it, and that means thinking of a diverse production system, she says. “One thing is for sure, we need more farmers and we need more gender and racial diversity.”

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This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Audra Mulkern, Audra Mulkern, Pink Tractor

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A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers. 

Manners are important—in life, in the bedroom, and in the boardroom. This week’s Sex By Numbers highlights some lapses in etiquette, including one we never thought we’d have to correct: answering the phone during sex.

A few weeks: Now that the much talked about pregnancy of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is over, everyone can commence criticizing the length of her relatively short maternity leave before she returns to work. We say: it may not work for everyone, but let mom make her own decision.

50 Years: Rachel Carson’s seminal environmental work Silent Spring was published 50 years ago. At the time, no one could quite believe a woman wrote the piece, leaving some readers to “assume from the author’s knowledge that he must be a man.” Decades later, the representation of women in science is still low.

1 million: One more reason to be jealous of the super cool and witty “it girl” Lena Dunham: an advice book based on anecdotes from her life is being shopped around to publishers with a price tag of $1,000,000.

33%: Percentage of 2000 polled Brits who think it’s socially acceptable to pick up a phone call during sex. Um, no.

50%: A study widely criticized for being an oversimplification (and a “slap in the face for gender equality”) found that the divorce rate for couples that shared housework was 50% higher than couples where the woman does the majority of the work.

Double take: It’s never a good thing for a celebrity when an old sex tape gets released. For Kanye West, it’s proved particularly bad, considering his on camera co-star is a dead ringer for his current real-life girlfriend, Kim Kardashian. One can only hope she won’t notice.

20 Weeks: UK Women’s Minister has said that it’s “common sense” for the legal abortion limit to be lowered to 20 weeks.

50: Think single ladies over 50 have lost their spark. Don’t be so rude. An Australian study found that these women “are more likely to have a one night stand than their Gen X or Gen Y daughters.”

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 Happy National Business Women’s Day!

There may still be a huge gender gap in the workforce, with even the women running Fortune 500 companies earning just 69 cents to every dollar earned by male CEOs. But women are proving to be major forces of change in virtually every industry, from international banking to non-profit organizations. These 10 women CEOs, including Eileen Fisher, Lauren Bush and Majora Carter, are promoting social and environmental responsibility within their companies and in the world at large.

On this National Business Women’s Day we salute them!

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Green for All

CEO of anti-poverty organization Green for All, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins is also a sustainability advocate who has been named among the 100 most powerful people in California’s Silicon Valley. Green for All provides green jobs training for low-income people and people of color, and helped push through a California provision that guarantees local workers access to energy-efficiency and renewable energy projects. Before she came to Green for All in 2009, Ellis-Lamkins was the Executive Officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and Executive Director of Working Partnerships USA, which works to address economic disparities in Silicon Valley.

Kim Jordan, New Belgium Brewing

Along with her husband Jeff Lebesch, Kim Jordan co-founded one of America’s most successful craft breweries, New Belgium. Now the company’s CEO, Jordan was instrumental not only in bringing the company from a tiny two-person operation to selling beer in 26 states, but also in making New Belgium truly sustainable. The brewing company is 100% wind-powered and employee-owned, with a sustainability team visiting each department on a regular basis to make sure operations are as green as possible.

Through smart cuts to waste, energy and water usage, New Belgium has become a leading example of how breweries can take a sustainable route to profitability. The company is about to open a new brewery in Asheville, North Carolina, where it will revitalize an industrial brownfield and create new parks and greenways.

Eileen Fisher, Eileen Fisher Sustainable Apparel

The name Eileen Fisher is associated with timeless elegance, high quality and eco-friendly fabrics like organic and Fair Trade cotton, hemp and bamboo. As CEO of her eponymous brand, Eileen Fisher has committed to environmentally and socially conscious fashion, creating sophisticated garments that can last a lifetime. Many of Fisher’s garments are hand-sewn at a family-owned facility in New York City with a seamless process that reduces waste and creates a more durable product. The company even takes back used garments to either repair and resell, or recycle into other items like rugs and blankets.

Irene Rosenfeld, Kraft

Kraft Foods isn’t exactly known for being sustainable, more closely associated with industrial ‘cheez food’ products that barely resemble actual food. But Irene Rosenfeld is trying to change that. The Kraft CEO has dedicated a vast amount of resources and time to overhaul the company’s strategies, setting aggressive sustainability goals that have resulted in massive reductions in packaging waste, water consumption, energy use and carbon dioxide emissions. Kraft is also the world’s largest buyer of coffee and cocoa from Rainforest Alliance-certified farms. While the changes may be slow, they’re certainly notable.

Lauren Bush, FEED

Ducking out of her family’s historical involvement in politics, Texan Lauren Bush (now Lauren Lauren, after marrying the son of fashion designer Ralph) has dedicated her life and career to feeding the hungry. She co-founded FEED after becoming the UN World Food Program’s 2004 Honorary Spokesperson and is now CEO and Creative Director. FEED seeks to create products that can help bring food to impoverished people across the globe. The purchase of one FEED reusable shopping bag can feed one child in school for one year.

Gail Kelly, Westpac Bank

Can big banks be sustainable, too? Gail Kelly, CEO of Australia’s Westpac Bank, believes so, and has pushed sustainability as a business strategy in this seemingly unlikely industry. Under her leadership, Westpac rose to #14 on the Corporate Knights Top 100 Most Sustainable Companies  in 2011. Kelly has advocated for unprecedented transparency in Westpac’s operations and its sustainability report reveals such small details as CO2 emissions per employee. Westpac Bank also has 37.5% women in positions of leadership, which is unusual for such big companies, let alone banking institutions.

Alexa Von Tobel, LearnVest

28-year-old Alexa Von Tobel started LearnVest in 2008 to teach women how to be financially independent. Since then, the company has been valued at $100 million and expanded to offer affordable financial advice to clients ranging from those extremely in debt to people with a net worth that reaches 8 figures. Von Tobel got the idea while at Harvard Business School, taking a leave of absence to follow her dream. According to LearnVest, the company has helped over one million women gain control of their finances to date.

Majora Carter, Majora Carter Group

The founder of Sustainable South Bronx (SSBX), a non-profit organization that works to address economic and environmental issues through green job training, Majora Carter is now CEO of her own economic planning and consulting group. Known as one of America’s top environmental justice advocates, Carter’s motto is “Green the Ghetto!” and her current work with the Majora Carter Group brings her SSBX approach outside the South Bronx. The Majora Carter Group “uses the green economy and green economic tools to unlock the potential of every place – urban, rural and everywhere in between.”

Denise Bode, American Wind Energy Association

Denise Bode is the CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, the national trade organization for the United States wind energy industry. A nationally recognized energy policy expert, Bode was once the president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, but now heads up lobbying efforts to get funding for wind energy projects. She has also served as CEO of the American Clean Skies Foundation, and was named among Washingtonian’s “100 Most Powerful Women of Washington” in 2011.

Maria Eitel, Nike Foundation

After sportswear giant Nike got caught violating worker rights in outsourced factories around the world in 1998, Maria Eitel came on board to help turn things around. The CEO of the Nike Foundation and vice president of Nike, Inc. works to bring economic opportunities to the world’s most impoverished girls, focusing on 250 million girls aged 10-19 in the developing world. Eitel turned the Nike Foundation from a passive group lacking any real budget or organization into a force for change committed to gender equality. Initiatives that have been created under her leadership include efforts to keep girls in school in Zambia, to avoid early marriage in Ethiopia, and to build rural learning centers in Bangladesh.

Images: wikimedia commons, new belgium brewing, eileenfisher.com, wikimedia commons, feedprojects.com, westpac, learnvest.com, majora carter group, awea.org, unicef.org

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No War on Women? Here are 13 bills and laws that say otherwise, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg.

In 1912, women all over the United States marched for their right to vote. In 2012, we’re marching against state and federal laws that restrict our freedom to make decisions about our own bodies, make it easy for abusers to get away with physically assaulting us and fail to grant us the equal pay that we deserve.

Why are we still fighting this hard 100 years later? Because efforts to keep us “in our place” haven’t stopped. The official Republican party line on the War on Women is that it isn’t happening. It’s all in our heads. But there are bills popping up all over the nation like the heads of a hydra that prove otherwise. Sometimes, the bills don’t pass. But when they don’t, those same legislators – or successors with the same ideals – are ready to try to ram them through again… and again… and again. Here are 13 of the most egregious examples.

1. GOP Attempts to Redefine Rape for the Purposes of Abortion Law

Was it “rape rape” or just “kinda rape” because House Republicans draw a distinction, claiming that “real rape” involves the use of force. All those other kinds of rape – as in date rape, statutory rape, rapes of women with limited mental capacity or any sexual assault in which a woman is not fully conscious – don’t count as reasons to get an abortion using federal funds in the GOP’s “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.” The House Republican Majority really, seriously tried to redefine rape to rule out federal assistance for abortions in many cases. Mother Jones provides an example of how this could play out: say a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old man. It wasn’t forcible, but at 13, she can’t legally consent to sex – it’s rape, plain and simple. She wouldn’t qualify for Medicaid to pay for an abortion. The bill would also forbid using tax benefits to pay for abortions, so that girl’s parents wouldn’t be able to use money from a tax-exempt health savings account (HSA) to pay for the procedure, either.

The House GOP ultimately stripped this controversial language from the bill, but then used a committee report to claim that the bill would not allow funding for abortions in cases of statutory rape. The bill passed the House in May 2011, but is not expected to pass in the Senate, if it even comes up for a vote.

2. United States Violence Against Women Act Fails LGBT, Native Women

Democrats and Republicans in the United States Congress have at least been able to agree that women should be protected from abuse. But which women? That’s the question that has held up the Violence Against Women Act for months. In April, the Senate passed the Democrat version of the bill, which extends protection to LGBT, Native American and illegal immigrant women, all of whose complaints about violence often get overlooked. But House Republicans stripped these protections from their own version of the bill, and now the two branches of government are at an impasse. Republicans are actually claiming that protecting all women from violence is an election year stunt, singling out specific groups for special treatment.

3. United States House of Representatives Votes to Let Women Die

They called it the Protect Life Act, but the bill that was passed in November 2011 bans the use of federal funds to cover the costs of any health plan that covers abortion – even in life-threatening situations. This simple fact led opponents of the bill to give it the far more appropriate nickname of the “Let Women Die” bill. The bilk obtains a provision that would allow hospitals receiving federal subsidies to refuse to treat women seeking abortions, no matter the circumstances. During the House of Representatives floor debate, Rep. Jackie Speier of California described in detail her own painful experience, demonstrating why abortions should be covered. “I was pregnant, I was miscarrying, I was bleeding… if I had to go from one hospital to the next trying to find one emergency room that would take me in, who knows if I would even be here today.”

What makes this even more frustrating is the fact that President Obama’s Affordable Care Act already keeps public federal funds separate from the private funds that cover abortion. What this bill is attempting to do is prevent women from buying private health insurance that includes abortion coverage through a state health care exchange. The bill is unlikely to pass in the Senate however, and President Obama has said that he’ll veto it if it ever reaches his desk.

4. Arizona Outlaws Abortion After 20 Weeks

Well, if the United States Government doesn’t succeed in letting women die, then by golly, Arizona will do it for them, at least on a state-wide scale. Arizona’s federal court upheld the most extreme abortion ban in the country in July 2012, criminalizing virtually all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, forcing physicians to wait until women are actually dying before they can offer life-saving care. It even bans abortions in cases where the fetus will not survive after birth, prolonging agony by forcing parents to carry pregnancies to full term and then literally watch their babies die.

The law flouts a Supreme Court ruling that states can’t ban abortion before viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, which is about 24 weeks gestation. And another problem is the fact that many severe fetal abnormalities and risks to a woman’s life don’t occur until beyond that point. Judge James Teilborg gave in to the totally non-scientific assertion that 20-week fetuses can feel pain, ignoring the obvious fact that women can feel pain, and plenty of it.

And here’s the bitter icing on the cake: the bill considers the starting point of pregnancy to begin on the first day of the mother’s last menstrual period, before life is even scientifically possible. That means women hitting the 20-week mark are actually only 18 weeks pregnant.

5. GOP Cuts Crucial Services for Low-Income Women and Children

House Republicans voted for a new budget that would drastically cut food, shelter and health care services for millions of struggling families, singling out low-income women in particular. $3.3 million would be cut from low-income programs over 10 years, which would lead to states dumping an estimated 14 million to 28 million people from Medicaid rosters. The bill, which Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney called “a bold and exciting effort,” would also either disqualify 8 million of the 47 million people in the food stamp program or cut the benefits for all of them, leading to a loss of about $90 worth of food per month for a family of four. Small victory for common sense: the bill was rejected by the Senate in May.

6. Repeated Attempts to Ban Federal Funding of Planned Parenthood

Whew. That didn’t pass, so everything is okay, right? Of course not. Congress is still battling against a women’s right to make decisions about her own health – including use of contraception, something that should be a complete non-issue in 21st century America. Republicans in Congress repeatedly attempt to defund or eliminate Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide low-cost health care to millions of low-income women around the world. Paternalistic religious imperatives to restrict abortion and birth control are having a very direct, real-life effect: women are being deprived of cancer screenings, AIDS/HIV testing, family planning information and other education services that could reduce health care problems and prevent unplanned pregnancies from occurring in the first place. 76% of Planned Parenthood’s clients have incomes at or below 150% of the federal poverty level. And when Congress doesn’t succeed, states are ready to take up the cause in their stead.

7. South Dakota Forces Doctors to Claim that Abortion Increases Suicide Rates

In July, an appeals court upheld a South Dakota law that requires doctors to recite anti-abortion propaganda to patients seeking to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Doctors are forced to tell women that abortions are linked to higher suicide rates – information that’s not based on reliable research. A 2008 John Hopkins review of the studies that claim the link between abortion and suicide concluded that even the highest quality studies on the subject showed no discernible differences in the mental health of women who’d had abortions and those who had not.

Women who want an abortion in South Dakota also face the longest waiting period in the nation (3 days), and are forced to undergo counseling at pregnancy centers that discourage abortions. But wait – it gets worse. South Dakota nearly made it legal to kill abortion doctors. State legislators sought to modify a “justifiable homicide” law to include killings that aimed to prevent harm to an unborn child, a provision that would have basically enabled people to murder abortion providers and get away with it. That bill was, thankfully, struck down.

8. Colorado Permits Private Businesses to Withhold Contraception

In Colorado, a small manufacturer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment decided that providing its employees with health insurance plans that cover contraception – as required by the Obama administration’s new healthcare laws – violated its religious liberty. As in, its “right” to discriminate against women in the name of the owners’ religion. Sounds like an outrageous request that goes against the United States Constitution, does it not? But a federal court in Colorado disagrees. An exception was made for this business, Hercules Industries, that could pave the way for employers all over the country to impose their religious views on their employees.

Hercules Industries, owned by Catholics, was granted a three-month temporary injunction allowing for further legal review of the case. Two similar lawsuits have been filed in Michigan and Missouri. The companies all claim that the law forces the owners to go against their religious beliefs forbidding the use of contraceptives. But as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) points out, this could pave the way for employers making decisions about health procedures like vaccinations and blood transfusions based on their own personal religious beliefs.

Mitt Romney, by the way, cheered for this ruling as well, in typically chilling privileged-conservative-male fashion. “Today’s injunction preventing the federal government from forcing one family business from having to choose between keeping its doors open and violating its faith is a step in the right direction. But it is only a step, not the end of the struggle. We must ensure that the same freedom to live according to one’s faith is available to all Americans.”

9. Wisconsin Equal Pay Enforcement Act Repealed

Think women don’t deserve to be paid less than men simply by virtue of being born female? Oh, you silly little lady (or radically feminized man, i.e. traitor). How wrong you are – according to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, who quietly repealed his state’s equal pay law in April 2012. The 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act gave women more avenues through which to press charges against employers for gender-based pay discrimination. In Wisconsin, women earn 75 cents for every dollar that men make (compared to the national average of 77 cents, which obviously isn’t much better.) A bill to roll back the provision passed Republican-controlled chambers of the state government before Walker put his signature on it, without informing the public of his actions.

10. Senate Republicans Block Paycheck Fairness Act

On the federal level, an effort by Senate Democrats to strengthen the 45-year-old Equal Pay Act failed in June 2012. The Paycheck Fairness Act would have required employers to show that wage differences between the sexes are job-related, not gender-based. It would also protect women from retaliation from their employers when seeking equal pay. The bill was previously defeated in 2010 by solid Republican opposition.

11. Virginia Requires Invasive Vaginal Ultrasounds Before Abortion

So you want an abortion, citizen of Virginia? Well, we’re going to have to violate you with an unwanted, medically unnecessary vaginal ultrasound just to make sure. That’s the message that Virginia Republicans sent to women when they attempted to pass a law requiring transvaginal ultrasounds prior to obtaining an abortion, an amazing invasion of women’s bodies (literally) that aimed to shame them out of their decision. The state’s Republican Governor, Bob McDonnell, originally supported the measure, an ironic position given his squeamishness over TSA pat-downs in airports. Ultimately, he backed down – sort of. While women are still required to have an ultrasound procedure before an abortion, they can choose an abdominal ultrasound over the dildo-like transvaginal apparatus.

12. House GOP Tries to Block Abortions ‘Motivated by Racism or Sexism’

But wait, there’s more! Alabama and Pennsylvania are both considering similar ultrasound requirements, and the U.S. House GOP tried to pass a bill that would have allowed a woman’s spouse to obtain a court-ordered block against having an abortion by accusing her of wanting to end her pregnancy due to racism or sexism. Because all of those smug white guys in Congress are so concerned about sexism.

13. Alabama Personhood Bill Declares Fertilized Eggs to be People

So let’s get this straight: fertilized eggs, according to Alabama legislators, are people with rights. But women – over half the population of actual people in the world – are being stripped of their own rights in favor of bits of biological matter that are not, scientifically people. Alabama is actually just one of many states including Nevada, Oklahoma, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Mississippi that have introduced bills attempting to define the start of human life. The Alabama bill defines life as beginning at the moment of conception, a concept that would not only make all abortion illegal even when the pregnancy threatens a woman’s life, but would also outlaw contraceptives like birth control pills and IUDs. This bill, along with another that would allow the state to opt out of providing health insurance for abortions under the new federal health care law, is currently stalled in committee. The personhood initiatives in most of the other states have failed, but classifying a fertilized egg as a person will be up for vote in Colorado in the November election.

Photo: ProgressOhio

The post 13 Women’s Bills That Every Woman Should be Aware Of appeared first on EcoSalon.

Sometimes, the solution is as simple as a bicycle.

Girls who stay in school for seven or more years marry four years later and have two fewer children. Countries where women’s share of seats in political bodies is greater than 30% are more inclusive, egalitarian and democratic. Two-thirds of the 130 million children worldwide who are not in school are girls.

There is an indisputable need for investing in and empowering women. Given the global scope of the issue, that task is daunting. Yet a solution as simple as a bicycle can make – and is making – a meaningful, measurable difference.

This year, 88bikes Foundation, a nonprofit organization that gives bikes to kids in developing countries, is launching its sixth and most ambitious project, Asha 2012. With the help of the Nell Newman Foundation, Asha 2012 will endow bicycles to thousands of girls around the world, from Eastern Europe to Southeast Asia.

The project was inspired by a bicycle endowment 2010 that took place at the Bihar Ashram in India, a shelter for girls who are survivors of sexual slavery. Sheltered by Free the Slaves for several months before reintegrating back into their communities this ashram provides a safe haven and a place to transition back into society after a gruesome reality. At Bihar, the 88bikes team met Asha. After six months at the ashram, Asha, which means “hope” in Sanskrit, reintegrated back into the same community from which she was sold. The story was so moving, she later became the namesake for the organization’s current project.

The goal for Asha 2012 is to provide bicycles to girls who have endured and transcended similar situations of slavery and abuse, in turn empowering them to take part in their communities, attend school and grow as strong women.

“We’ve found that girls tend to appreciate the bikes more and demonstrate greater maturity [owning the bicycles]. Women and girls deal endure and transcend tremendous abuse and unequal rights, especially in the developing world. We believe focusing on girls has the greatest overall impact on the community. We want to do everything we can to foster leadership and healing among heroic girls who’ve risen above challenging circumstances beyond their control,” says 88bikes co-founder Dan Austin.

Bicycles can be an excellent catalyst for empowering women, in all kinds of communities, as writer and cycling advocate Eleanor Blue points out. “Bicycling is a great economic equalizer especially for women. Women worldwide tend to have more domestic work than men, and bicycling when it can be an alternative to walking and transit is often safer, cheaper and makes things like school and working outside of the home possible where they might not otherwise be.”

Not only a tool for economic and social empowerment, having access to a bicycle often achieves a very simple, but powerful, goal: inducing a smile. “A bicycle is a tool of happiness and autonomy. With a bike, your world instantly expands,” says Austin.

At a first glance a bicycle might not appear to be the key tool for solving international development challenges, but consider all the elements that it brings together – transportation, education, health, etc. – and it becomes clear that at a grassroots level, two wheels could be one of our most effective ways forward when it comes to empowering women and making significant and long-lasting change.

“The 88bikes model is refreshing and effective,” says Nell Newman of the Nell Newman Foundation. “It empowers women though a grassroots and somewhat radical approach. Bikes are such a fantastic, low cost way to expand an individual’s freedom – freedom to move, freedom to do commerce – and receiving one will make a profound difference to these girls who have transcended so much already. We are happy to be supporting their efforts.”

If we are to bridge the gender and economic gap around the world, it will be imperative that individuals and organizations consider programs like these, as they deal with larger, more complex equality issues on a personal level. “Asha, our namesake for this project said that the bicycle ‘helps me feel equal to men,'” says Austin.

That isn’t just a feeling, it’s a reality. “Gender and equality starts with children. Often girls in many places are not always able to go to school, especially if they have to travel a long distance, and bicycling can bridge the gap, quite literally, between male and female education,” says Blue.

88bikes is currently accepting sponsorships of $88 per bike for Asha 2012. Donations can be made online at www.88bikes.org. Donors are asked to email a picture of themselves, to be presented with the bike. In return, 88bikes sends back a photo of the child with her new bike and her donor’s picture.

Images: 88bikes, Lynsey Dyer, 88bikes

The post 88bikes’ Asha 2012 Program: Empowering Girls with Bicycles appeared first on EcoSalon.

Swedish designer Josefin Strid accommodates a new type of gender dressing.

Josefin Strid is one of the most interesting new designers in Sweden today. Her creations exude the sophistication and playful sense of innovation of a far more seasoned designer (she’s only 24 years old), and watching her grow is a very exciting prospect. Strid is also conscious about the environment and chooses her materials with care. Her previous collection, which caused a stir on the international fashion scene, was crafted using waste materials from the auto industry (you would never know looking at the pieces).

This time, she has gathered inspiration from the sulphur springs in Yellowstone National Park and artists like Georgia O’Keefe. The fabrics are all dyed by hand, and the colors are stunning. But most interesting is her approach to unisex dressing. Her pieces are all designed to be worn by men and women alike, and Strid sees no reason why men shouldn’t wear skirts.

“A man wearing a skirt is pure beauty, at least if you ask me. We often talk about the kilt, as the skirt for men and Marc Jacobs made the garment popular a few years ago,” Strid writes on her blog. “I think a lot about genus, gender, values, our history, men today and future men. To be innovative doing womenswear is not easy. It’s hard to provoke or to start a debate — womenswear has had a revolution. I am more dedicated to develop the small things: techniques, fit, finish etc. Menswear is just about to start a revolution.”

Perhaps we are at a crossroads similar to when icons like Marlene Dietrich made it okay for women to wear pants, something that had previously been just as unthinkable as a man wearing a skirt to the office.

Designer Josefin Strid speaks to press after her show at Stockholm Fashion Week

“I am very interested in bringing feminine influences while doing menswear, that’s my challenge,” says Strid. “As soon as you work with feminine elements in menswear I consider the importance of details such as proportions, stitching, function and silhouette. We don’t want to erase the trace of a man. Just like the fit is of importance when dressing a woman in a man’s garment. We need to be aware of the obvious difference how to work with fit when it comes to the two genders.”

Josefin Strid SS12. Photo by Kristian Löveborg.

Somehow, it’s easier for women to get away with being adventurous when it comes to fashion. Is it time we give the guys a break and encourage the next man we see sporting a skirt on the street? Are we at the point where we can share a wardrobe with our boyfriends or husbands?

Josefin Strid concludes: “I have many male friends who’d like to wear silk, ‘feminine’ colours and maybe even skirt and a dress but they don’t dare since the society don’t accept this. As a designer with your own label it’s easy to be a bit egocentric, I always choose to treat the subjects that interest me. I will continue to discuss this, to work with the contrast and the balance. Today my biggest target is men of the future, the ones who dare and want to develop ‘the man.’ Sooner or later I do hope to reach to the man who wouldn’t die for fashion but still is aware of his choice. One step could be that this man chooses to buy a silk t-shirt with a beautiful print instead of a white jersey T-shirt.”

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Photos courtesy of ASFB, © Kristian Löveborg and Johanna Björk.

The post EcoSalon at Stockholm Fashion Week: Josefin Strid Breaks Gender Barriers appeared first on EcoSalon.