Feminist Events Calendar

March: Women's History Month
-1: International Women of Color Day
-8: International Women's Day
-10: National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers
-21/22: Back Up Your Birth Control Day

April: Sexual Assault Awareness Month
-13: National Crisis Pregnancy Centers Protest Day
-22: Earth Day

May: Women's Health Care Month
-4th: National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Day
-8th-14th: National Women's Health Week   

On Tuesday, March 14, Campus Organizer Jessica Bearden will be speaking at a Women's History Month event hosted by Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina .

She will address the global gag rule and its effects on women's reproductive health and rights worldwide.

On Saturday, March 18th, Campus Organizers Candice Lopez and Daquanna Harrison will be speaking at the Philadelphia NOW Women of Color and Allies Conference in Philadelphia, PA.

March 12-14, Campus Program Director Crystal Lander will be attending the Women as Global Leaders conference at Zayed University at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

If you are in any of these locations, please attend these events and support the FMF Campus Team!

Not in these areas?
Invite a Campus Organizer to speak on
your campus! We are available to speak on a variety of topics, including international women's rights, domestic threats to reproductive healthcare, women's voter participation, and much more! For more information, call your Campus Organzier at: 866-444-FMLA (3652)

Contact Us!

Call us toll free at either the East coast office (1-866-444-FMLA) or the West coast office (1-866-471-FMLA). You can also email us at campusteam@feminist.org. We are always happy to hear from you and answer any questions or concerns!

What do you think?

This is your E-zine, and we are always updating and changing to fit your needs, so please let us know what you think of our new format! Email campusteam@feminist.org with any suggestions, ideas, or comments.

Walk for Women's Lives
We are excited to announce the location for the Feminist Majority Foundation's National Walk for Women's Lives! This 5k fun walk to support resarch on the use of mifepristone to treat progesterone-dependent cancers is set to take place Sunday, April 23rd, 2006 at the Women's Memorial in Arlington, VA. The rally is set to begin at 9:00am with the walk to follow at 9:30am.

We are also helping campus groups from around the country to organize local Walk for Women's Lives events. Local walks offer three great benefits:

• Walks will help fund clinical trials for women with uterine and ovarian cancer
• Walks will support women's health education and advocacy programs on campus
• Walks offer you and other walkers the chance to educate your campus and community about ovarian and uterine cancers.

Participants can be of any age and should be recruited from both campus and community organizations.

We need you to help Walk for Women's Lives!

Celebrate Women's History Month and International Women's Day on YOUR Campus!

• Urge your fellow progressive campus organizations to adopt a pro-choice resolution in support of Women's History Month and International Women's Day! Reach out to other progressive student groups on campus – human rights groups, environmental groups, anti-sweatshop and worker's rights groups, peace, and civil rights groups, and ask them to endorse your Global Reproductive Rights Campaign.

  Attend other organizations meetings and speak about the global gag rule , female genital mutilation (fgm), CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) and other issues that impact women's global reproductive health.

  Ask them to formally adopt a resolution supporting reproductive rights as a human right and urging a reversal of harmful and deadly U.S. policies like the Global Gag Rule. You'll find that many other groups have not taken a position on reproductive rights – urge them to do so now.

  Encourage all progressive student organization to sign the FMF Resolution to Endorse Global Women's Rights! Send signed and completed resolutions back to FMF and continue the fight for women's reproductive rights!

Back Up Your Birth Control Day 2006 (March 21/22)
Emergency Contraception: Get It Before You Need It!
Emergency Contraception (EC) is extremely effective in preventing a pregnancy if taken within 120 hours of unprotected sexual intercourse. However, most women still don't know about EC or how they can get it. With Spring Break approaching on your campus, now is an important time to make sure that students are educated about and have access to condoms and EC prior to leaving campus!

Join the national Back Up Your Birth Control Day Campaign and educate your campus on March 21 and 22 about access to EC! Post flyers, host tabling events and speak outs about EC and how to access it on your campus and in your community. In addition to awareness about community politics and EC, remember to educate about the FDA holding EC's over-the-counter status hostage! Read the enclosed information sheets for more detail about the FDA and EC.

To find out more about Back Up Your Birth Control Day, EC and what activism you can do on your campus, visit www.overthecounterec.org. In addition, please send emails and pictures to campusteam@feminist.org from any activities, large or small, that promote awareness of emergency contraception on campus so we can share your work with our national network of feminist campus activists.

Arizona State University (ASU)
"Justice For All," a national anti-choice organization came to the Arizona State University campus displaying large signs (approximately 20 feet tall) depicting obviously fake "fetuses" which compared abortion to the holocaust and genocide.  The ASU Women's Coalition and ASU Feminist Org (FMF affiliates) learned about this week-long display about 5 days before they got to campus, and organized a weeklong protest in opposition to the false information they would be giving students. 

Each day they had new and interesting ways to protest, ranging from marching around the antis' signs, to a silent vigil, to raising awareness about birth control and emergency contraception.  Because globally about 77,000-200,000 women die every year from unsafe, illegal abortions, the last day of the protest they planned a "die-in". Students laid down in front of the anti's signs as a means of expressing the dire situation women would be in (and the deaths of women that would result) if abortion was made illegal in the states.  They promoted the die-in all week to women as a "farewell" event for the "Justice For All" gang.  The day of the die-in they had over 50 women protesting, on the ground and surrounding the “bodies”.  Two women used a bullhorn to debunk myths that the other organization was perpetuating (including the link between breast cancer and abortion). The die-in was a great success, and students at ASU have been talking about the consequences of outlawing abortion ever since!

Keene State College
The Feminist Collective at Keene State College, worked for hours making condom roses to distribute during V-Day festivities. The condom roses consisted of 2 condoms wrapped together and placed on a stem. Attached to the rose was an instruction guide which had information about condoms, dental dams and health services in the area. In addition to the roses they also handed out all-you need Safe Sex packets which included 4 condoms, 1 individual size packet of personal lubricant, 1dental dam, a guide to safer sex, and some Valentines Day candy. The best part was that they were FREE!

Marymount Manhattan College
During two productions of The Vagina Monolgues, the Marymount Manhattan FMLA raised over $1,100. All the proceeds are going to an organization called GEMS, Girls Education and Mentoring Services. They focus on girls ages 13-21 and on creating a safe space to talk about sex and sexual violence. In addition, for Valentine's Day Marymount Manhattan FMLA distributed condom grams and on Feb. 15th the group held a program called V-Voices which was an open-mic event celebrating v-issues.

Spelman College
The Spelman FMLA held a viewing and discussion of the documentary "The High Cost of Low Price" which turned out to be a very successful event.

Pace Law School
The WALS group at Pace Law held Choice Week which was a huge success. Monday: Screening of "Motherhood by Choice, Not Chance" and "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". Tuesday: "the global majority again ..." screening.  Student debate on "Is abortion a right guaranteed by the constitution?"  15 attendees with 2 debaters and 1 moderator. Wednesday: Screening of "If These Walls Could Talk". Thursday: Screening of "The Last Abortion Clinic." 38 attendees Panel discussion with an activist, lawyer and abortion provider. 45 attendees

New FMLAs!
We would like to welcome the University of Alabama- Tuscaloosa FMLA to the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance community

Women's Groups Criticize UN's Commitment to Gender Equality
March 9, 2006-- In an open letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the UN's member states, women from more than 50 countries and dozens of NGOs expressed their disappointment that the United Nations has not placed more of an emphasis on women's equality. In advance of International Women's Day and coinciding with the UN's 50th Session of the Commission of the Status of Women, the letter states, “We are disappointed and frankly outraged that gender equality and strengthening the women's machineries within the UN system are barely noted, and are not addressed as a central part of the reform agenda.” More

South Dakota Governor Signs Abortion Ban
March 7, 2006-- South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds (R) signed a statewide abortion ban into law. The ban, which provides an exception only to save the life of a pregnant woman, will go into effect in July, although it is expected to be challenged in court, or possibly face a referendum. Anti-choice activists intend to use the law and subsequent legal challenges to force the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade . More

Wal-Mart To Carry EC But Not Require All Pharmacists to Dispense It
March 6, 2006-- In a partial victory for women, Wal-Mart has announced that it will now carry emergency contraception (EC) in all of its pharmacies, complying with a February 14 ruling of the Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy that forced the company to do so in that state. However, Wal-Mart's policy will allow individual pharmacists to refuse to dispense the medication, leaving open the possibility that women will still not have access to a drug that has been prescribed for them. More

More Feminist News

Mexico: Rape Victims Denied Access to Abortion
March 8, 2006-- Rape victims in Mexico face hostile officials who actively prevent women from accessing legal abortion services, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW). The report, “ The Second Assault: Obstructing Access to Legal Abortion after Rape in Mexico ,” details the aggressive ways in which state agencies discourage and delay women's abortions. Abortion is criminalized in Mexico except in cases of rape, but many women are not aware of the laws and are lied to about what they must do to access an abortion, according to HRW. Some women are threatened, others are told they can only have an abortion if they arrange for a coffin and hearse for the fetus, and others face interminable delays. As a result of the heavy-handed intimidation tactics, many women risk their lives and health by turning to back-alley abortions. "Pregnant rape victims are essentially assaulted twice," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "First by the perpetrators who raped them, and then by officials who ignore them, insult them and deny them a legal abortion." More

Human Rights Group Blasts Unwarranted Detention of Libyan Women and Girls
March 3, 2006-- Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a report condemning Libya's practice of confining women and girls in prison-like facilities for suspected moral transgressions. The report, A Threat to Society? Arbitrary Detention of Women and Girls for 'Social Rehabilitation , details the use of so-called "protective" homes that are essentially prisons where women and girls are held indefinitely without criminal convictions or access to any legal redress. Some of the women interviewed by HRW were being held because they were accused of having extramarital sex, some having already served their sentences in prisons for this "crime" but lacking a male family member willing to take custody of them. Others were victims of rape that family members had driven out of their homes. Even women who have sought sanctuary from domestic violence are refused the right to leave. More

More Global Feminist News

Register Your School and Click to Fight Poverty!
Participate in the 2006 Oxfam America Collegiate Click Drive (February 13-March 31), a national online competition between colleges and universities to generate free donations for microcredit programs worldwide! Microcredit is a poverty fighting technique that provides small "micro-loans" to people in developing countries; on average, 4 out of 5 loans go to women worldwide. Microcredit programs touch on a broad range of social justice issues including the empowerment of women, the protection of the environment, the end of sweatshop labor, and the fight against the spread of global AIDS. Since its inception five years ago, the Click Drive has raised over $100,000 to help fight poverty around the world with hundreds of campuses participating. All donations are funded entirely by website sponsors -- participants click twice a day and pay nothing.

Visit www.povertyfighters.com for more information and to register your school for the drive. If you're interested in the campaign or have any questions, please email clickcontact@gmail.com!

Americans United is pleased to announce a FREE seminar for students about organizing effectively on campus to promote church-state separation!
Why should you care about church-state seperation?

• Laws are passing around the country that allow pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions for women because of their religious beliefs
• The Federal Marriage Amendment, an attempt to refuse recognition of one type of union because of a religious belief, is moving in the Senate
• The religious right and the current administration are successfully passing bills that for the first time in decades allow federal funding to go to organizations that discriminate in their hiring based on religion and religious tenets

When: 11:45am-5:00pm - March 25, 2006
Where: The Marvin Center, George Washington University, Washington, DC
Who: College youth from across the country!

RSVP by March 17, 2006 to: Campus@au.org

Find a feminist internship or post-graduate job!

Job Search Tips: What unique qualities can you bring to a position to which you are applying?

• Speak up about your special expertise.
• Tailor your resume to speak about your expertise in relation to a specific job.