Archive
childcare
Reproductive Justice in Action
Rebecca Jordan-Young, Lucy Trainor, Janet Jakobsen
Reproductive justice is an inclusive framework for thinking about reproductive freedoms, holistic well-being and comprehensive justice. Organizing for reproductive justice encompasses a multiplicity of issues; the individuals and networks working in this model are just as diverse in their missions, constituencies, and methods of action. Reproductive Justice in Action is the result of a collaboration between the Barnard Center for Research on Women, Groundswell's Catalyst Fund, the New York Women's Foundation and seventeen of their grantee partners doing reproductive justice work in New York City. Seeking to explore the ways in which these seventeen organizations think about their mission and work, we jointly embarked on a participatory action research project in order to better understand how the organizations relate to (or feel limited by) the model and language of reproductive justice.
Read MoreDomestic Work, Migration and Gender
Recorded Mar 9, 2011
This forum, organized by DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association and co-sponsored by the Barnard Center for Research on Women, Barnard Women's Studies, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance, engages scholars, policy advocates, activists, and allies about the situation of immigrant women domestic workers with the Philippines as a case study. The forum is moderated by Leah Obias, and introduced by Catherine Sameh, and the list of speakers and topics includes: Neferti Tadiar, Professor and Chair of Women's Studies at Barnard College, discussing globalization, migration and domestic work; Alexa Kasdan, Director of Research and Policy at the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center, discussing community participatory research and organizing work; Cecille Venzon, Member of the Board of Directors of DAMAYAN, giving a worker's testimonial; Terri Nilliasca, Activist and Student at CUNY Law Center, discussing power dynamics at the domestic workplace and the intersections of race, class, gender and immigration; and Linda Oalican, Program Coordinator of DAMAYAN, offering concluding remarks on building a comprehensive migrant domestic workers movement.
ListenThe Labor of Care: Rethinking Gender, Work, and Rights in the American Welfare State
Jennifer Klein '89
Once considered economically marginal, jobs in nursing, home health care, and childcare have moved to the center of the economy. In this year’s Women’s History Month lecture, Jennifer Klein ’89 will reconsider the history of the American welfare state from the perspective of care work. What will define work, rights, security, and dignity amid the […]
Read MoreValuing Domestic Work
Premilla Nadasen and Tiffany Wiliams
Domestic work—the daily maintenance of households and the labor of caring for children and other dependents—is crucial work. It enables workers to go out into the world, reproduces a new generation of workers and citizens, and sustains relationships among parents, children and families. And yet, it is devalued, degraded and made invisible. Its degradation and invisibility are produced through processes of gendering that naturalize domestic and caring labors as women's work, and racialization that naturalize low-wage, "dirty" jobs as the work of people of color and immigrants. As laborers doing devalued work, domestic workers receive neither adequate wages nor any of the other legal protections many US workers have—sick leave, time off, and collective bargaining. In New York and nationally, workers have organized for better wages, humane treatment and the right to legal protections that cover other US workers.
Read MoreJustice at the Intersections: Action for Reproductive and Economic Justice in NYC
Documentary featuring interviews with 16 organizations doing reproductive justice work in New York City. Directed by Tiona McClodden.
Read MoreCritical Intersections: Reproductive and Economic Justice
This conference, co-sponsored with the New York Women’s Foundation, will explore how reproductive justice and women’s economic security are inextricably linked and will highlight the work being done in these areas by 17 organizations here in New York. With the leadership predominantly of women of color and young people, these organizations focus on diverse issues […]
Read MoreThe Work-Family Dilemma: A Better Balance
A Better Balance: The Work and Family Legal Center and BCRW
Recognizing the need for a forum to discuss work-family issues that focused on issues across the economic spectrum, A Better Balance: The Work and Family Legal Center and The Barnard Center for Research on Women, along with the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California at Hastings, and the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development, planned a summit bringing together leaders and experts (those who have studied these issues and those who advocate for better policies) and the actual stakeholders (labor, business and elected officials in New York City).
Read MoreChildren of Incarcerated Parents
Megan Sullivan, Tanya Krupat and Venezia Michalsen
Contributors include Ann Adalist-Estrin, asha bandele, Nell Bernstein, Stacey Bouchet, Creasie Finney Hairston, Denise Johnston, Tanya Krupat, Carrie Levy, Venezia Michalsen, Dee Ann Newell, Megan Sullivan, and Angie Vachio.
Read MoreValuing Domestic Work
Gisela Fosado and Janet R. Jakobsen
Contributors include Eileen Boris, Christine E. Bose, Arlie Russell Hochschild, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Jennifer Klein, Wendy Kozol, Pei-Chia Lan, Premilla Nadasen, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Leah Obias, Ai-jen Poo, Saskia Sassen, Third World Newsreel, and Basia Winograd.
Read MoreWomen and Work: Feminists in Solidarity with Domestic Workers
In this BCRW documentary, women leaders from across the country raise their voices to support the work being done on behalf of domestic workers in the US. Participants include Carol Jenkins, Maria Hinojosa, Liz Abzug, Nicole Mason, Amy Richards, Barbara Smith, Gloria Steinem, Yolanda Wu, Jennifer Baumgardner, and the Guerrilla Girls.
Read MoreWomen and Work: Building Solidarity with America’s Vulnerable Workers
National Domestic Workers Alliance
Last year, BCRW hosted the first National Domestic Workers Alliance conference, bringing together domestic workers from across the country to develop a national agenda, and to discuss how best to educate the public and strategize to achieve fair labor standards for domestic workers, including a living wage, basic benefits, and health care. This year, we […]
Read MoreOff-Ramps and On-Ramps
Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Elizabeth Vargas
Economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett (top image, left) and news anchor and correspondent Elizabeth Vargas (second image, left) will engage in a discussion on the specific challenges facing professional women as they juggle work and family commitments. In her recent book, Off-Ramps and On-Ramps, Sylvia Ann Hewlett takes a critical look at how companies can attract […]
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