Category: femicide

CAN THE DRAFT SAVE THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT? Forum planned for Saturday June 13th with Wendy Murphy!

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 FEMINIST FORUM: CAN THE DRAFT SAVE THE  EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT?

Saturday, June 13  •  11 AM – 1 PM

Get your tickets HERE:

On Saturday, June 13th at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time/2:00 p.m. Eastern, join us for a dive into the latest ERA court case and arguments for legal equality for our sex!

This Zoom forum features renowned feminist attorney WENDY MURPHY and should be a stimulating presentation and discussion!

 

WENDY MURPHY is adjunct professor of Sexual Violence and Law Reform at New England Law in Boston where she also co-directs the Women’s and Children’s Advocacy Project (WCAP) under the Center for Law and Social Responsibility. WCAP runs the Judicial Language Project, and the Hate Crimes Against Women project, WCAP also files amicus briefs and engages in public interest litigation to advance the rights of women and children. On January 7, 2020, WCAP filed a first-in-the-nation federal lawsuit to validate the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in Massachusetts federal court.

Wendy is an impact litigator who practices in state and federal courts and specializes in advancing the constitutional and civil rights of women and children. She has authored numerous scholarly articles including a landmark piece explaining the legal relationship between sexual assault on campus and Title IX. Her most recent law review article is a feminist critical re-examination of the history of women’s struggle for equality and is entitled, “Unequal Protection of the Laws for Women is Constitutional Terrorism, So How Come Nobody Knows about It?”

She has also appeared on television as a legal analyst for many years and has worked for NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox News and has provided legal analysis for print and television media. She is the author of two books, “And Justice For Some,” published by Penguin/Sentinel in 2007 and “Oh No He Didn’t: Brilliant Women and the Men Who Took Credit for Their Work,” published by Cynren Press in 2024.

Wendy’s recent article in the Boston Herald, “Unequal draft, unequal rights: Automatic registration for men means women will lose standing in fight for rights” addresses the issues of the Equal Means Equal v. Donald J. Trump case that she will cover in this seminar.

 

FIST forums are held remotely on Zoom, and are women only, interactive events, allowing for time for questions and discussion. Registrants will be provided with a zoom link closer to the event date. Please arrive ten minutes before the scheduled start time. Our forums are also recorded and uploaded to our You Tube channel,  for later viewing by women and men.

Get your tickets HERE:

FIST ISSUES STATEMENT ON THE WAR ON IRAN

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At the time of this posting, the world remains on edge as we wait to hear whether a final settlement of this war is reached, or whether the war will sooner or later flare up again with more violence, death and destruction.  Meanwhile, the killing of civilians in Lebanon and Gaza has continued unabated.  The time for feminists to speak out for peace and in solidarity with our sisters everywhere is now.

Members of Feminists In Struggle have approved by consensus a statement against the U.S./Israel War on Iran and in support of Iranian feminists. 

Here it is below:

FIST stands against the unjustified and reckless war being waged against Iran by the Trump Administration.  The Epstein Axis, led by Trump and Netanyahu is in part about distracting their populations from issues of systemic rape and pedophilia by the elites.  But is also about acquiring and protecting wealth, power, and empire, while being indifferent to the deaths of innocent civilians.

We  must oppose this war as it violates all of the Geneva Convention rules, including starting a war of choice not justified by self-defense, committing war crimes by targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure (hospitals, schools, energy facilities) and openly admitting genocidal intent (Trump’s recent threat to send Iran “back to the stone age” ).

Women suffer from war, often disproportionately, from the increased violence, displacement, poverty and fanaticism it engenders. Clearly, this war is not in our interests.

However, our opposition, as feminists, to this war does not mean we support the authoritarian theocratic government in Iran.

SUPPORT FOR FEMINISTS IN IRAN

While many on the left believe that the only two possible positions in this conflict are to side with the theocratic regime or the U.S. attack, FIST takes the position that we must support neither, but instead support Iranian ​Feminists and other progressives, now being murdered and jailed by their government by the thousands (current figures are 7,000 killed, 40,000 arrested) as a result of recent uprisings. The attack by the U.S. will only strengthen the hand of this cruel regime and worsen its crackdown against its citizens.

Women in Iran face systemic legal discrimination and operate under male guardianship that restricts their rights in marriage, divorce, travel, and employment; legally, a woman’s testimony has half the value of a man’s; inheritance by women is a pittance of what men receive; a woman needs her father’s or grandfather’s permission to marry and husbands have an almost absolute right to divorce, while initiating divorce for women is difficult; Iranian law mandates strict, state-enforced hijab with penalties that include flogging, fines and imprisonment (and in the case of the death of Jina Mahsa Amini murder–which is what sparked the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement of 2022-2023). Women in Iran have been resisting this sex apartheid system since 1979!

.EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON THE U.S.

The unprovoked attack by the U.S. on Iran is having and will continue to  have devastating effects on U.S. society.  The over one trillion dollars spent on weapons each year benefitting war profiteers, leaves little for education, childcare, healthcare, affordable housing, DV shelters, and public benefits that so many women need to survive.

The war will give the Trump administration an excuse to increase the military budget even further and defund human needs programs (many of which particularly impact women).  Working people will have an even harder time to survive, as prices across the board increase, possibly leading to a worldwide depression. There is also the possibility of a further spread of the conflict (many Gulf states have now been forced to become involved) and a World War III scenario cannot be discounted

While serving as distraction to the scandal over the Epstein files, this war is being waged mainly for reasons of imperialism: the controlling of resources—in this case, oil—of another country, and it reinforces a worldwide economy based on fossil fuels, which can only hasten the ongoing ecological planetary crisis. None of this is in the interest of women in the U.S., Iran, or elsewhere.

For the above reasons, we say NO to Islamic (or any) Theocracy. We say NO to U.S. imperialism. We say NO to government funds going into the pockets of war profiteers and advancing the aims of the warmongers while regular people in all nations suffer. We demand a U.S. government that honors international law, that prioritizes spending for peoples’ needs and centers the needs of women, and that promotes peace throughout the Middle East and the world.

Who are the Men Who Oppose Women’s Equality?

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Well, the list is quite long indeed. There are the unabashed women haters of the Manosphere, the Broligarchs, the corporate moguls, the tech billionaires, the pornography pushers, the pimps, the johns, the sex traffickers, the Evangelicals, the Catholic church, the Christian Nationalists, the Dominionists, the fundamentalists and male supremacists of every variety of patriarchal religion, the incels, rapists, pedophiles, and lest we forget, the trans-identified fetishists and autogynephiles, sex addicts, and sadists.

All across the political spectrum, women are commodified, vilified, debased, silenced, dehumanized, and sentenced to second-class citizenship and would be rendered handmaidens of the Right, transmaidens of the Left if these men had their way. Women’s agency, bodily sovereignty, freedom, and autonomy are restricted on the one hand, and exploited on the other, but denigrated and dismissed by both. From the bedroom to the boardroom, women are treated as nothing more than objects to be manipulated and used. The tyranny of the ruling sex class of men, however they ‘identify’, reveals itself not only in the handling of the Epstein files and case, but in the staggering statistics:

  • Over 4 women a week were murdered in California in 2020; now there are 4 women a day being murdered in the U.S.
  • Over 298.000 rapes of women were reported in the U.S. in 2020
  • Spousal abuse of women is estimated at 4.8 million every year
  • Approximately 1 million women are stalked annually in the U.S.
  • Over 78% of sexual harassment charges were filed by women between 2018-2021
  • 7 in 10 human trafficking victims are women and girls
  • Over 500,000 cases of female genital mutilation have occurred or are at risk of occurring in the U.S.
  • Abortion rights and birth control are increasingly under attack, risking women’s health and lives
  • “Women in every state report injustice in their family law cases, especially battered mothers trying to protect their children from abusive fathers who aggressively litigate against them, using family court to stalk, harass, punish, and impoverish their former partners and children” according to NOW
  • Child marriage is still prevalent in the U.S., 87% of victims of which are girls
  • Women still earn around 82 cents to every dollar men earn
  • Single women and mothers with children are the two fastest-growing groups of people experiencing homelessness in the United States
  • Sexual assault victims are overwhelmingly female and their assailants are male
  • Women and girls’ safe spaces are being invaded by trans-identified males, including prisons where female prisoners are being assaulted and raped
  • Women and girls’ achievements, opportunities, endorsements, scholarships, and trophies are being stolen by mediocre male athletes – over 600 individuals in 29 different sports have been affected
  • Girls are the fastest growing group to be medicalized, sterilized, and mutilated by sex-rejecting “gender affirming care”

See:

Women Count USA

Domestic Violence Abuse Rates

Violence Against Women Statistics

Human Trafficking in the USA

FGM Statistics

Crisis in Family Courts

Child Marriage

Gender Pay Gap

Women and Homelessness

UN Report on Effect of Trans-identified Males in Female Sports

How the Debate Over Men in Women’s Sports Both Obscured and Advanced Sport Science

The Female Category – WHAM (Women’s Hockey Assoc. of Minnesota)

California transgender convict pulled from female prison for alleged rape

DOC employee reports men are claiming to be women to transfer prisons

USA: Almost 50% of Trans Inmates in Federal Custody for Sex Offences

https://washingtonstand.com/news/pornhubs-year-in-review-sextrafficking-abuse-and-age-verification

No platforming and Silencing of Women in Academia

Special Report on Trans Youth

Irreversible Damage

If you’re wondering why the system enables this abuse and exploitation, and why there is little to no accountability, read this:

If We Win, This Changes Everything

And join us on March 24th, 2026 2:00 pm to listen to oral arguments on the Equal Means Equal vs. Donald J. Trump case scheduled to be heard before Judge William G Young in the Boston Division of the US District Court of Massachusetts.  At that time, the Court will hear arguments on the Trump Administration’s Motion to Dismiss in the matter of Equal Means Equal, et al v Trump, et al.

For those unable to attend in person, please register at this link, for that date. Registration will open two days prior to the hearing.

https://forms.mad.uscourts.gov/courtlist.html

The Equal Rights Amendment – Final Impact Plan!

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What is the ERA? The ERA is an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to correct the omission of women. Like all amendments, it required ¾ of the states (38) to ratify it for it to become part of the Constitution. This is the full text:

Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3: This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

The ERA was ratified by the 38th state (Virginia) on January 27, 2020. So why isn’t it in the Constitution?  Because first the Trump Administration and then the Biden Administration have unconstitutionally obstructed its being published by the National Archivist, as the Constitution requires.

There are so many reasons why women and girls need the ERA. Let’s review some statistics:

  • Over 4 women a week were murdered in California in 2020
  • Over 298.000 rapes of women were reported in the U.S. in the same year
  • Spousal abuse of women is estimated at 4.8 million every year
  • Approximately 1 million women are stalked annually in the U.S.
  • Over 78% of sexual harassment charges were filed by women between 2018-2021
  • 7 in 10 human trafficking victims are women and girls
  • Over 500,000 cases of female genital mutilation have occurred or are at risk of occurring in the U.S.
  • Abortion rights and birth control are increasingly under attack, risking women’s health and lives
  • Women in every state report injustice in their family law cases, especially battered mothers trying to protect their children from abusive fathers who aggressively litigate against them, using family court to stalk, harass, punish, and impoverish their former partners and children
  • Child marriage is still prevalent in the U.S., 87% of victims of which are girls
  • Women still earn 82 cents to every dollar men earn
  • Single women and mothers with children are the two fastest-growing groups of people experiencing homelessness in the United States

All of this is facilitated and amplified by the fact that women do not have equal standing in the U.S. Constitution.

Attorney Wendy Murphy explains more in this video:

Some History:

The ERA was first introduced into Congress in 1923 as the Lucretia Mott Amendment, shortly after women suffragists won the right to vote. It was always Alice Paul’s and the First Wave feminists’ intent to gain equal standing in the U.S. Constitution following gaining the vote. The ERA languished for decades, however, was rewritten in 1943, and finally passed in its present form in 1972. This was due to the efforts of Paul who seized the moment when the Civil Rights Movement for black people gained ground in order to press for the civil rights of women. It then went to the states for ratification and reached 35 states before the imposed deadline of first 7 years, extended to 10 years, expired in 1982. In 1992, when the 27th amendment was passed after over 202 years, efforts began anew to obtain the last 3 states to ratify in order to reach the ¾ requirement.

Because of the tireless efforts of individual women and especially the organization, Equal Means Equal, Nevada ratified in 2017; Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2020, reaching the required 38 states. Instead of being published onto the Constitution by the National Archivist as Article V of the Constitution mandates, however, the Trump Administration unconstitutionally interfered with its publication by writing a memo, known as the Bill Barr Memo, to the National Archivist telling him not to publish because the deadline had passed.  As Archivist, David Ferriero had recorded the ratifications of Nevada and Illinois, but pursuant to the memo from the Office of Legal Counsel in the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, he did not act to publish and certify the ERA after receiving Virginia’s ratification documents in January 2020.

Then after the 2020 election, the Biden Administration continued obstructing its publication and has fought it in court like the Trump Administration did, despite claiming support for the ERA and women’s rights when campaigning. This is especially outrageous considering the fact that the Dobbs decision overturning Roe would not have been possible had the ERA been in the Constitution.

David Ferriero retired in the spring of 2022, and Colleen Shogan was confirmed as his successor as Archivist; she has stated she would publish the ERA if she were told to do so by President Biden. So that is what we need to pressure him to do! We need as many people as possible participating every day in this campaign between now and the election, as that is when we have some leverage and can get some national attention.

Here is our battle plan to finally get the ERA published:

  • CALL: White House Comment Line 202-456-1111 open T-Th 11-3 EST 8-12 PDT
  • TEXT: 310-861-2977 – Harris    302-404-0800 – Biden
  • EMAIL: whitehouse.gov/contact – request a response!
  • HOUND ON SOCIAL MEDIA:    

Twitter accounts: @JoeBiden or @POTUS /@KamalaHarris or @VP  –  Use Hashtags #ERA #EqualRightsAmendment #ERANow!

Sample posts:

 The #EqualRightsAmendment was fully ratified on January 27, 2020 and has been unconstitutionally obstructed by Trump & now by @POTUS and @VP. It is now over 100 years since the #ERA was first introduced into Congress. How long must women wait for equality?!  Make the call, @JoeBiden!

Congress and the American Bar Association @ABAesq have both deemed the #EqualRightsAmendment to be fully ratified. Why are you standing in the way of women’s equality? What are you waiting for @POTUS and @VP?! Call the National Archivist and tell her to publish #ERA, @JoeBiden!

  • Write/call/tweet to senators and congressional representatives in support of HJ Res 82 and SJ Res 39, resolutions to urge the publication of the ERA.  Make it clear that you realize that Congress has already done its job in 1972, and it is Joe Biden’s turn to do his by calling the Archivist and instructing her to publish. Let them know they should be pressuring him directly as it is HIS responsibility, not theirs.  No bill extending the deadline is needed either (nor is it valid).

ADDITIONAL ACTIONS:

  • Take a photo of yourself with an ERA sign with the demand “Make the call Joe!” and upload it to https://finalimpact.org.

For more information see the following videos and articles:

https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1mrGmyQqmEVGy or https://t.co/hpWyArF6kn

https://x.com/i/spaces/1jMKgmqrXkyJL

https://www.equalrightsamendment.org/faq/

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/diversity/women/initiatives_awards/era

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 25 November

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On this the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we wish to remember and honor all of the natal women whose lives have been lost due to male violence.   Men murdering women is a pandemic of its own, and we must raise the alarm!  Women Count USA has been documenting this outrage and the numbers are overwhelming:  3, moving to 4, women A DAY are murdered by men, that’s 21-28 women A WEEK, 90-120 women A MONTH, and 1095-1460 A YEAR!  This outrage must end and the only way it will is if men are held accountable for their criminal conduct and if men begin to hold themselves and other men accountable for their acts of violence against women.