Another day, another 93 Americans shot dead. I didn’t get the numbers wrong, I’m talking about today. Because 93 is just the average number of people who are killed by gun violence on an average day in the United States. Sunday will be marked as an above-average day when it comes to numbers and statistics, because 58 people in the same place were shot and killed in a matter of sickeningly smattering seconds while attending a concert in Las Vegas. They were all innocent, helpless victims...

  The other night, I was closing up at the coffee shop that I work at, and as we locked the doors and threw out the hardening croissants, a gentleman in a bowtie approached the counter. He had spent the better part of the evening penning a letter with full-blown amateur calligraphy from a table in the back and began conversing with my male coworker about what he’d been writing about. As I began to sweep up abandoned straw wrappers and half-used Splenda packets, they beckoned...

   On September 15, 2017, two off-duty Brooklyn South narcotics officers pulled over a car with three teens inside. The officers found Prozac and put one of the teens in handcuffs – and later that night, the young woman who was in that car went to a local hospital and submitted herself for a rape kit, according to the New York Times. The 18-year-old female passenger, unnamed to protect her identity, alleges that the two officers handcuffed her, drove her to a nearby Chipotle parking lot, and...

  A woman removes debris in the aftermath of the 1985 Mexican earthquake The number of women killed by the earthquake in Mexico City on September 19, 2017 is almost double that of men. Of the 198 deaths in the capital, only 71 are men, while 127 are women, according to the latest figures provided by the city government. Researchers hypothesize that this disparity is largely due to the fact that the quake occurred around 1pm in the afternoon and affected mostly private homes, with women inside....

 On September 23rd, former U.S. Ambassador Melanne Verveer and co-founder of global women’s organization Seneca Women Kim Azzarelli hosted the second annual Fast Forward: Women’s Innovation Forum at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The forum included a range of conversations between women leaders and innovators, from Chelsea Clinton and Ireland’s first female president Mary Robinson, to mega girl power Girl Scout troops, to honorary man of the day, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. But maybe the most inspiring part of the...

Senate Republicans are still trying their damndest to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act. The newest incarnation of Trumpcare is the Graham-Cassidy bill, created by Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. If passed, this legislation will eliminate the ACA and give block grants to the states so they can build their own health programs. And of course, to absolutely no one’s surprise, the bill takes particular aim at eliminating vital protections for women’s health coverage.With just five days left...

Breasts are most often seen as sexual objects, and it is believed that a woman’s femininity is rooted in her beauty. Then what happens when cancer forces her to break that standard? Furthermore, what happens to the people who do not fit the typical survivor model that society has created — does their experience, their story, not matter?  From a young age, girls receive the message that how they look matters most: that their beauty, their body, is what makes them feminine. There are many...

  Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has followed through on her threat to overhaul the system for dealing with sexual assault on university campuses. Specifically, she has issued a “Dear Colleague” letter withdrawing the 2011 Title IX Guidance (and the 2014 follow up) that discussed the obligations schools have to address campus sexual violence. The 2011 letter was hailed by survivors and advocates as a step towards improving campus culture, but DeVos has taken issue with the fact that it allows for a range of incidents to...

Our Lady Of Prime Time For her title role on the CW’s comedy hit Jane the Virgin, Gina Rodriguez became one of the first Latinas to win an acting Golden Globe. Here, the trailblazer reveals the real woman behind “the Virgin,” and opens up about masturbation, her man, and finally making it By Erika W. SmithPhotos by Kat Borchart // Styling by Ashley Avignone Hair by Kristin Heitkotter // Makeup by Carissa Ferreri // Props by Chelsea Maruskin It seems impossible, but Gina Rodriguez may be even sweeter...

  This past summer I had the honor of attending Soapbox Inc.’s Feminist Camp, hosted by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards in New York City. The camp accommodated about thirty people and was focused on how to take our interest in feminism and help translate it into our professional careers. We met with dozens of groups and covered a new theme every day ranging from philanthropy, to women in art, to reproductive justice. We met everyone: female slam poets, nonprofit workers, doulas and even a few...