Co-authored by FemmeInAction and ThisGirlLovesCollegeBasketball
Local
Since the pandemic, millions of dollars in American Can Rescue Plan funds have gone to help stabilize childcare centers across the country but those funds ran out on Saturday, September 30. Like many others, the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Child Day Care Center received COVID relief money, and with that no longer available things are much tighter financially.
The biggest concern after losing this funding for many childcare centers is keeping, retaining, and finding staff members. The subsidy money was helping programs keep rates affordable for families and allowed these programs to continue to operate and pay staff without increasing tuition. Now without the subsidies available, the childcare center will have to try to find the right balance between affordability for families and appropriate wages for staff. This means that they have to find people who are willing to work for lower wages so that childcare costs do not have to be increased, as they are already tremendously high.
In the Shenandoah Valley, the need for child care far outweighs what is available. The majority of the childcare available are completely full and have wait lists. Therefore, there are not currently enough childcare centers available to offer care to all of the families in the community that need it, so the loss of funding could be extremely damaging for these centers as well as families in the community.
Loss of subsidies affects women disproportionately, as women constitute a significant portion of the childcare workforce. Lower wages and financial instability resulting from funding cuts can further exacerbate gender-based economic disparities. The loss of funding impacts the affordability of childcare for families, who often bear the primary responsibility for childcare.
National
An upcoming event, The Women’s Convention, will be taking place on October 20-22 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The mission of this convention is to allow individuals to come together to grieve, rage, find joy, and comfort in community with one another, and strategize for the fight for a feminist future.
This upcoming convention is looking to provide a space for thousands of like-minded attendees to rejuvenate, heal, find connection, and support. The weekend will be filled with workshops, strategy sessions, inspiring forums, creative expression, and intersectional movement building. They are providing a space where people can meet, share common interests, and engage on issues of civic engagement, accelerated by pop culture.
As a way to provide inclusivity, the convention has scholarships available so that individuals of all socioeconomic classes have access to the convention. Additionally, they have made it clear that the convention will be accessible for all, The Baird Center where the event is hosted is ADA-compliant. Even with a limited programming budget, the convention shares that this year they are able to provide the following: all main stages have programming that will be live-streamed, including ASL and Spanish interpreters onsite. As a way to encourage individuals to attend with children, they will allow free admission for those under 12 and a reduced rate for those ages 13 to 18.
The convention will be taking place in Milwaukee as Wisconsin will be held as a vitally important state in the 2024 Presidential Election. With strong organizing, the hope is that events in Wisconsin such as the Women’s Convention can have the ability to make an impact on the outcome of the election.
We hope that someone feels encouraged to blog about the outcome of the event after it takes place, covering its success, and the ways that it promotes intersectionality and inclusivity for all people.
Global
On September 29th, the group Latinas Acting Up organized a strike outside of Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California in solidarity with the then-striking WGA as well as SAG-Aftra, who still have not reached a fair deal with the Hollywood studios.
Actors Lisa Vidal and Diana Maria Riva are the co-founders of the group Latinas Acting Up, an organization representing underpaid and exploited Latinas and workers across all industries. As the group marched around the studio gates, their mission was made loud and clear: “We want equal pay, we want a sustainable living. Although we all have different talents, we are all fighting for the same thing,” said Riva.
National Latina Equal Pay Day is set to ensure that the pay gap is observed, to discuss the solutions, and to push leaders to make changes to close the pay gap or implement the laws and workplace practices that actually level the playing field for the more than 12.8 million working Latinas. On average, Latinas are paid just 52 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men – a decrease from 54 cents in 2021. This number includes part-time workers, gig workers, migrant and seasonal workers, as well as Latinas working full-time, year-round.
The fact that Latinas are paid only 52 cents for every dollar earned by their white male counterparts shows the deeply entrenched structural discrimination they face. This wage gap is not only a result of gender disparities but is compounded by racial biases, marginalizing Latinas and devaluing their contributions to the workforce. The rally and strike symbolize a demand for equitable wages, sustainable livelihoods, and the right to exist unapologetically in spaces that historically perpetuated inequality.
Global
A major new poll has found that support for the right to have an abortion has grown to a record high in the UK. Researchers at the National Center for Social Research uncovered that the majority opinion of those residing in the UK are in favor of a more liberal position on abortion than how their laws currently appear.
A poll of 2,000 people taken by the National Center for Social Research revealed that 76% of those who were surveyed support a woman’s right to have an abortion. Over the years, the support for abortions has grown by 16% since 2005. UK laws currently allow abortions within restricted circumstances and are still deemed a criminal act in England, Scotland, and Wales under the 1967 Abortion Act.
The aged legislation holds that any woman who ends a pregnancy without getting legal permission from two doctors, who both must agree that continuing with it would be risky for the woman’s physical or mental health, can face up to life imprisonment. Additionally, any medical professional who delivers an abortion out of the terms of the act can face criminal punishment.
Abortion providers and charities have spent years demanding abortion be decriminalized in the UK. Citizens fighting for decriminalization of abortion ramped up in June after Carla Foster, a mother of three, was jailed for obtaining drugs to have an abortion after the legal cut-off. She was ultimately released from prison in July after winning an appeal against her sentence and having her sentence reduced to 14 months.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 