This Professor’s ‘Month Off’

Last updated on: January 11, 2013 at 11:24 am By Caryn Riswold

It happens with some regularity: Someone proclaims that college and university professors have easy jobs, are getting paid too much, and most recently, have the least stressful jobs. Then, college and university professors get wildly aggravated, defending their work lives, explaining once again that an hour in the classroom requires hours of preparation time, that each student requires hours of advising, that each advance in rank or salary requires hours/weeks/years of work on significant scholarly contributions, that each week on... Read more

Roe at 40: Barriers to Abortion Access

Last updated on: January 13, 2013 at 11:03 am By Caryn Riswold

On January 22, 2013, the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that nationally legalized abortion is 40 years old. Because there is a lot of misinformation and disinformation surrounding one of the most politicized women’s health issues, I am sharing some of the infographics from the Guttmacher Institute in the days leading up to this landmark. Here is the second one, focusing on barriers to accessing abortion that exist across the United States. In subsequent posts, I will highlight how... Read more

Marriage Equality in the Nation’s Cathedral

Last updated on: January 9, 2013 at 11:14 am By Caryn Riswold

As noted this week on the website for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, GLAAD: “The National Cathedral is one of the most recognizable places of worship in the United States, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors per year. It has also hosted many presidential inauguration services as well as the funerals for several presidents, including Ronald Regan and Gerald Ford.” This is why it’s kind of a big deal that gay and lesbian Americans will now be able... Read more

Roe at 40: U.S. Women

Last updated on: January 9, 2013 at 10:21 am By Caryn Riswold

On January 22, 2013, the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that nationally legalized abortion is 40 years old. Because there is a lot of misinformation and disinformation surrounding one of the most politicized women’s health issues, I am sharing some of the infographics from the Guttmacher Institute in the days leading up to this landmark. Here is the first one, focusing on basic data about women in the United States who have abortions. A few points worth emphasizing: One... Read more

If Not Less, More

Last updated on: January 4, 2013 at 2:47 pm By Caryn Riswold

I know there are a lot of good reasons to have less religion in the middle of our democratic processes, but until that happens, diversifying the religions and having more of them (and more varieties of each) present is a good thing. It helps disenthrone the stranglehold that (certain kinds of) Christian views have had on this American democratic project. Last week, Tulsi Gabbard became the first Hindu member of Congress, and the first member of Congress sworn in using... Read more

A Year of Wins: Faith & Reproductive Justice 2012

Last updated on: January 3, 2013 at 3:49 pm By Caryn Riswold

In so many ways, 2012 was a year of setbacks for women’s reproductive health. Katie over at Feministing puts it plainly: “The Guttmacher Institute is reporting that 2012 saw the second highest number of abortion restrictions (43 in 19 states) ever. The scary thing is that this is better than 2011, when a record-breaking 92 abortion restrictions were enacted.” She also includes Guttmacher’s “scary graph” depicting the leap up and in the wrong direction. So it’s good to have this list from Eleni... Read more

Honorable Mention: Ordain a Lady!

Last updated on: January 4, 2013 at 2:04 pm By Caryn Riswold

It does NOT get much better than this: From the Women’s Ordination Conference, working for the inclusion of women in the Catholic priesthood, this fantastic “Call Me Maybe” video … the best one yet? Just a few of the lyrics as I jotted ’em down: Hey, I was baptized / and this is crazy But God just called me / so ordain a lady! Justice doesn’t look right / with only male priests But God just called me / so... Read more

Her Story is History: Gerda Lerner

Last updated on: January 3, 2013 at 4:17 pm By Caryn Riswold

Reading about the death of Gerda Lerner this week, hailed by some as the “godmother” of women’s history, I am also about to embark on another semester teaching Introduction to Gender and Women’s Studies. Because of the latter, I am getting ready to encounter the basic questions that always come from those encountering feminism and women’s studies for the first time. Do we still need feminism? Why women’s studies? Which is why I take heart from Lerner’s comments in a... Read more

I Am Not A Hostage

Last updated on: January 4, 2013 at 1:37 pm By Caryn Riswold

Joumana Haddad wrote a provocative piece for NOW News last week titled “Islamic Feminism: Stockholm Syndrome” in which she claims that any woman who claims to be a feminist and religious (Muslim, Jewish, or Christian specifically) is identifying with her captor, her hijacker, her tyrannical overlord. To be clear, this is not a new claim. It is also a claim that radically simplifies the problem and dramatically underestimates women and men working for justice. I spent a good amount of... Read more

God Everywhere, God Nowhere?

Last updated on: January 1, 2013 at 6:12 pm By Caryn Riswold

I finally got around to watching the two-part segment about faith and the Newtown school massacre from The Melissa Harris-Perry Show on December 22. It featured several creative and smart scholars who I’ve followed for some time, including Rev. Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York, Dr. Anthea Butler, professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and Chris Stedman, assistant humanist chaplain at Harvard University, whose book, Faitheist, I have written about here previously. There... Read more