Influential Teens: Millie Bobby Brown

I have jus finished watching Stranger Things for the first time. Afterwards I decided to do more research on Millie Bobby Brown as I had heard that she was pretty active in voicing her opinions on politics. I have found a lot of information about how she is a powerful young female voice below!

Millie is best known for her role as "Eleven" in Stranger Things on Netflix. Millie was born on February 19, 2004, in Spain, but her family moved back to the United Kingdom in 2008. In April 2018 Millie Bobby Brown was the youngest person on Times 100 Most Influential List. Millie has said that, “At the end of the day, I just do my job, I love my art. But I genuinely want to change the world". She is known for being very vocal for the things that she believes in, and I think she is someone many young girls should look up to!

On November 20, 2018, Brown was named as a UNICEF Global Ambassador. UNICEF's website says that the Global Ambassadors are celebrities who "have a wide range of talents and achievements, but they all share a commitment to improving the lives of children worldwide". Millie has said that it was a dream to become an ambassador and "I am looking forward to meeting as many children and young people as I can, hearing their stories, and speaking out on their behalf”. 

I am very excited to continue to follow Millie and see what she is able to accomplish since she has such a large audience. I am very happy to see many hardworking women like her using their platforms to inform the younger generations!

Wikipedia Page Update

I uploaded my post about Wikipedia edits on July 6, 2019 and chose to update the USWNT Wikipedia page. But, since then, the USWNT has won the World Cup and the page has been updated by someone else. My edit has been replaced with the updates on their win and the section about their lawsuit that I wrote has been moved to an entirely new section of the Wiki Page.  The page now has a section titled "Collective Bargaining" and says this:

In recent years, the players of the USWNT have waged an escalating legal fight with the United States Soccer Federation over gender discrimination. Central to their demands is equal pay. The players point to their lower paychecks as compared to the U.S. men’s national team, despite their higher record of success in recent years.^[74]

In April 2016, five players filed a wage-discrimination action against the U.S. Soccer Federation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.^[75] The group consisted of Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Becky Sauerbrunn.

One year later, in April 2017, it was announced that a new collective bargaining agreement, or CBA, with U.S soccer had been made. The agreement stated that the players would have an increased base pay and improved match bonuses. These changes could increase their previous pay from $200,000 to $300,000. This 2017 CBA, however, does not guarantee the U.S national women's team equal pay with the men's national team. The CBA's five year term, through 2021, ensured that the next negotiation would not become an issue for the team in its next major competitions. On top of this CBA, U.S Soccer had agreed to pay the players for two years' worth of unequal per-diem payments.^[76]

On March 8, 2019, all 28 members of the U.S. team filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation.^[77] The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Los Angeles, accused the Federation of "institutional gender discrimination."^[78] The lawsuit claims that the discrimination affects not only the amount the players are paid but also their playing, training, and travel conditions.

I really like the changes that this individual or individuals has made to this page as it separates their current record and their current political actions. I think that this is great description of what the USWNT is fighting for and I enjoyed reading the changes and updates.

Feminism and Conservative Women

This past week I was reviewing what I had written about throughout these last couple of weeks, and I realized something. I noticed that my posts had leaned more to the left, which I want to apologize for. I would like to remind everyone that feminists are people who believe in and fight for the equality of both sexes. Feminists do not only have to be women, and they do not have to be liberal. So, I decided to write about how young Republican women who believe in feminism feel about their place in society today.

An article from Public Radio International said that younger women tend to be more moderate with their beliefs and feel as though they do not fit in with the extreme views of both parties. Conservative women feel as though due to their party affiliation, they are somehow not for woman. In this article, a girl named Jami speaks up about the assumptions made by her peers when she labeled herself as a Republican. She said that they believed she was anti-abortion and against gay marriage, which is actually not the case. She said that she had been called “anti-women and anti-humane."Similarly, during the Women's March, pro-life women felt neglected by pro-choice women because they simply did not agree with them on one topic. As the author of this piece explains, if feminism is the fight for equality women should be able to make their own decisions politically. I agree with this completely, and I understand how upset some women must feel as they are put down constantly for what party they are affiliated with and are called horrible things because of their party's stereotypes. A woman or a man can be pro-gender equality while not agreeing with everything the current feminist movement is known for supporting. Patrice Onwuko who is a political strategist at the Independent Women’s Forum said that there are a lot of young conservative women who support the ideals of women empowerment but ask “where are the conservative voices?" The left has taken over the feminist ideology in current society and made these Republican women feel like they do not belong in the fight for equality as they are not Democrats. I hope that more people on the right can vocalize their pro-feminist beliefs so that younger conservative women will not feel cast aside, but ready to stand alongside other people to support all women.

How to Advocate for Women's Equality

I think that this topic is always overlooked when we discuss feminism. It is important to have actual concrete steps or things that you can do in order to accomplish change in the world. Another reminder that these steps apply to BOTH men and women as we can all stand up and fight for gender equality!





Step 1)
Educate Yourself
This is single-handedly the most important way that you can advocate for women’s equality. 
To make a difference, you need to fully understand what your fighting for and what you want to change. By reading about common ways that women are oppressed and learning about what you can do as a normal civilian, you will be more educated to take action.

Step 2) 
Register To Vote
You have to be 18 years old to vote in all 50 states, but you can pre-register to vote in many states at 16 or 17! Check out your states specific rules for early registration here. Getting out to vote is also important and even if your away at school or registered in a state different than the one you are living in you can get an absentee ballot in the mail and still vote!

Step 3) 
Call Your Representatives
Being able to contact your representatives is crucial in making change happen. 
You can use this link to find out who your representatives are and what their local number is! Calling your representatives is a very personal way that you can express your advice, opinions, and help them hear your thoughts.

Step 4)
Donate
Even if it is a small amount of money, many organizations still need it! Try donating to women’s rights organizations such as Girls Incorporated, Planned Parenthood, and many more.


There are so many more ways to take action that are a little more work and you can check them out here and here. I hope that these steps can guide all people to fight for gender equality regardless of their gender, race, political party, religion, or sexual orientation!

Shakesville Blog

Before I began writing this blog, I wanted to try to find some other blogs on the topic of woman empowerment. I wanted to see how they would format their posts and what stuff they would write about. Surprisingly it was harder to find blogs, especially blogs kept up to date, than you would think. When I stumbled across the blog titled Shakesville, I knew that I would like it.

This blog has seven contributors listed and also gets guest bloggers to write for them. The blog is updated very frequently and is described as "a progressive feminist blog about politics, culture, social justice, cuttings, and all that is in between." Recently though a woman named Melissa McEwan seems to be the only contributor posting.

The writer, Melissa McEwan, posts articles titled "We Resist: Day ___." She updates pretty frequently with the first two pages of the blog containing 3 of these posts. For example, on July 10, 2019, she posted an article titled "We Resist: Day 902," where she shared a daily thread of updates concerning Trump and the USA. She began with praising the US Women's National Soccer Team on their huge win and then moved to write that California has become the first state to give health care to some undocumented immigrants. I enjoyed this beginning as she showed that not only can you resist but you can also be proud of achievements or happy events in this country as well. After that, she began to bring up some more negative things happening in the current political world such as Trump's Human Rights Commission and more on some people who will not show up to testify on the Mueller case.

I enjoy this blog because the writers bring up their thoughts on current-day politics but also make sure to have some more fun posts such as food or even pictures of dogs. I like this format because, as I brought up before, only writing about negative things happening in politics all the time can be very harmful, so I like that McEwan spreads that stuff out! I want to use those types of strategies in my blog for the rest of the summer. I also like the repetition of the same style of posts, and I hope to incorporate that as well!

Update: Democratic Primary Debates

It has been over a week since the first Democratic Debates. I previously wrote an article entitled "5 Things to Know About the Democratic Primary Debates". You may want to check that out before you read this article!

I wondered what would happen after the first round of debates. So, I had to do some research myself to figure out what exactly happens after these debates and what it means for the presidential race ahead. As I wrote about in my previous article, there are a total of 20 democratic candidates that participated in the first round of debates. However, only one can get the final democratic nomination.

The next debate will take place in Detroit at 8 pm on July 30 and 31. According to CNN on July 17, the nominees will learn whether or not they will make an appearance on the debate stage. On July 18, CNN will do a live draw to determine what democratic candidates are to speak which night.

I have watched clips from the first night of debates, but I was unable to watch it live due to work. When I watched the second night if debates on June 27, I felt like the candidates were all over the place. They were speaking over each other a lot so I am hoping these new rules will help in the second round of debates. Below I have listed these new rules released by CNN.

Rules:

• Candidates are given 60 seconds to respond to a moderator-directed question
• Colored lights will be used to help candidates manage their responses
• Yellow light: 15 Seconds
• Red Flashing light: 5 seconds
• Red Solid light: no time remaining 
• If a candidate is called out by another candidate they will have 30 seconds to respond
• There will be no show of hands or one word, down-the-line questions
• A candidate who constantly interrupts will have his/her time reduced
• Questions asked by the moderators will show up on the screen for TV viewers

I am excited tot see how the next two nights of debates go as I thoroughly enjoyed the previous ones. I hope that this helps you all in understanding how this debate process works!

Wiki Changes: U.S. Womens National Team

Since writing my last piece I have been trying to keep up with the Women World Cup as the USA team had been playing very well.  I have decided to update a section of their Wiki page.

Here is the original section I chose to edit:

On March 8, 2019, all 28 members of the U.S. team filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation.^[79] The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Los Angeles, accused the Federation of “institutional gender discrimination.”^[80] The lawsuit claims that the discrimination affects not only the amount the players are paid but also their playing, training, and travel conditions.

This section is very informative and easy to understand, but the last thing that it mentions is from March.  Since the team has been in season and doing well and making strides in their fight for equal pay, this section needs to be updated. 

Here is the section that I changed:

On March 8, 2019, all 28 members of the U.S. team filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation.^[79] The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Los Angeles, accused the Federation of “institutional gender discrimination.”^[80] The lawsuit claims that the discrimination affects not only the amount the players are paid but also their playing, training, and travel conditions.

The USWNT is the most winning American soccer team in history and because of that many people are supportive in their fight to get equal pay.^[81] Recently the U.S. Soccer Federation has fought back against the lawsuit. In court on May 7, 2019 the USSF argued that "'any alleged pay differential' is due to 'differences in the aggregate revenue generated by the different teams' and other factors".^[82] As of July 3, 2019 more than 50 lawmakers signed a letter written by Representative Jackie Speier to Carlos Cordiero who is the U.S. soccer president. The letter pressed Cordiero to pay the women team fairly. On top of all of this the USWNT has made it to the World Cup Finals and will play Netherland for the cup on July 7, 2019.

I am happy with the updates I have made and I hope that more updates are able to be made soon as they are gaining support for the equal pay. Also, as the team makes their debut tomorrow night in the World Cup Finals I hope that with more of the world watching them the team continues to fight for what they believe in.

  

Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris Debate Victories!

In the democratic primary debates held this past week 3 women took the main stage over the course of the two nights. Woman have been taking over in the political world recently and how they performed in the debates showed that. So many women owned their time during the debates but, two that produced a lot of support and social media buzz over those nights were Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren. I thought that I would do a quick profile on both Harris and Warren!


Who is Kamala Harris?

• Age: 54
• From: Oakland, CA
• Current Job: U.S. Senator from California
• Other Jobs: 
• 2004-2011 San Fransisco District Attorney
• 2011-2017 Attorney General Of California
• Read more about her individual Platform/Ideas here! 

Who is Elizabeth Warren?

• Age: 69
• From: Oklahoma City, OK
• Current Job: U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
• Other Jobs:
• 1993-2013 Law Professor at Harvard University
• 2010-2011 Advisor to President Obama on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 
• Read more about her individual Platform/Ideas here!

Elizabeth Warren debated on the first night of the scheduled debates and Harris the second. They both made great showings on their nights as social media was talking about them for days after. Not only did the news of how they competed hit social media but the polls as well. Both Warren and Harris rose significantly in their polling numbers post debate. Harris rose 9 percentage points after the debate and has risen to 17% support nationally. Similarly, Warren gained 8 points after the debate and now has 15% of the support nationally. I really enjoyed watching these women during the debates and I hope that their poll numbers stay high enough that I am able to see them battle it out again!