The Illusion of A Level Playing Field

The Land of Opportunity*

* only for some, not others

We all know what America promises. We all know why it is the dream for so many to move to this country. And deep down inside, we all also know why these notions are misleading.

I know, I know: nobody said going from rags to riches would be easy, but to say that anyone can do it if they just worked themselves to the bone hard enough is a fallacy. And here's why.

The American Dream envelopes an idea that someone (usually an immigrant) can create a better life for themselves and their family by having the opportunity to "move up" the social hierarchy. The two mechanisms by which this "movement" happens are by means of education and occupation. I use the term "moving" lightly because no matter how rich or successful -both of which are subjective in nature- one becomes, it is this etherial concept that drives the illusion of equity. The very reason that it is so impressive when a disadvantaged person becomes rich, famous, and extremely successful is because of all of the institutional obstacles that exist for the very reason of preventing these achievements. 

Racism in America has always been and will continue to be a problem hindering minorities from achieving their full potential. A study conducted by researchers at Harvard, Northwestern University, and the Norwegian Institute for Social Research has found that from 1989 through 2015, discrimination against African Americans in job hiring has not changed and discrimination against Latino people has only decreased a small amount. Moreover, the institution of education was not designed for people of lesser means, many of whom fall through the cracks of the system. The best high schools in the country cost upward of of $45,000 per year. I would know, I am one of the extremely fortunate first generation American children to be able to attend such a school (through scholarship of course) and let me tell you, there were not too many others like me at this institution.

Furthermore, these factors that contribute to the American opportunistic ideal are that much more far-fetched under the Trump administration. It is needless to say that life for immigrants, especially those that are undocumented, has become much more difficult within a short amount of time. In September of 2017, President Trump announced the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This program ensured the legal protection of DREAMers, who came to America illegally as children. An action that former President Obama referred to as "cruel", this act strips the rights of children who grew up in the United States, who are Americans. 

Not to mention the detainment and separation of parents and their children. That too may have a tiny impact on a person's opportunity in America.

The book Our Bodies, Ourselves (OBOS) has been one of the most influential on the topic of women's lives and bodies. A transnational phenomenon, OBOS has made its way through countless languages and cultures. This is an incredible feat that should not go unnoticed because it actually reached more than just privileged women. However, there was a strong importance placed on the fact that the women who initially wrote OBOS, despite the legacy that this book has left, were merely everyday women who formed a collective about the hardships of their lives as women. While this is true, the emphasis placed on the "normality" of these women is quite misleading. The woman who were a part of this collective were white, cisgendered, married, and college educated. Emphasizing the normality minimizes the immense privilege those involved had. As educated women a part of a two-parent household, they had the opportunity to find the time to write such a book and have their voices be heard and validated. 

An immigrant woman who perhaps could not speak English proficiently, who works two jobs to support her family, who is a single parent absolutely does not have the same resources as the women who wrote OBOS. Sure, she may be able to speak amongst her friends about her experiences as a woman, which vary drastically from the white, American-born authors, but to form a collective and write a book about it is about as far-fetched as they come. Whether we like it or not, her voice is somewhat silenced in America. And let's be honest, if her story were published and experiences vocalized, we all know the type of person that would retort "If you don't like this country, go back to your own!"

The argument here is not that disadvantaged people are helpless. Rather, it is that they do not have easy access to the same resources that those with privilege do. These resources are the rungs on the ladder to the top. To get there is no easy feat for someone who the ladder was not designed for. To say that just anyone can fight their way to the top with enough willpower is to ignore the obstacles that face only a select group of people. Ignoring this, creates the illusion of a level playing field. Immigrants are a disadvantaged population of people, without the same opportunities as those who have the privilege of race, class, time, and resources. The absence of these privileges is an omission in the promise that the American Dream makes.

This, however, means that in most cases immigrants must work much harder than the average person just to survive. How many times have you heard the story of Asian or Latino immigrants working 60 hours per week at a restaurant? Stereotypical? Yes, but there would be nothing to exemplify had these experiences not been lived by countless people who all did what they needed to in order to not only survive, but also give their children a better life than they have. 

So, with that being said, perhaps there is one advantage that immigrants have over those who were born with a head start in life. The tenacity with which this population fights is something to be reckoned with. Starting a life in a new country takes guts, especially a country like America that voted a xenophobic -not to mention misogynistic, racist, and homophobic- president. Their drive, dedication, and resilience are qualities that few have. And if anyone has the strength to push through every obstacle in the way of the American Dream, it's immigrants.

America, take a look in the mirror.

America, take a look in the mirror.

The United States is not unequivocally and indisputably the greatest nation on Earth. Sure, it has its many benefits, but it also has a huge number of flaws. This simple statement may spark anger and outrage from some. To others it is not shocking or surprising, it is their reality. But it certainly runs contrary to the recent reoccurrence in nationalist thought and rhetoric, mainstreamed most recently by the Trump administration and supporters. There is a clear message from many in power: “America is the greatest nation in the world”, and seemingly, those who would challenge that are our enemies.

The concept of “American exceptionalism”, this idea of the United States being somehow unique and immune from forces which other countries face, is not new. Throughout the history of the country there have been ebbs in flows in the terminology and manifestation of this thought, but the basic principle has held constant. An interesting history of American exceptionalism thought and the term can be found here. Throughout our history, the prevailing thought that America is above the rest has been consistent.

By no means is the United States a terrible nation, far from it, and one would be remiss to not acknowledge the many privileges and freedoms afforded to the people in the United States. When the United States is viewed relatively, in the context of all other countries, it is stable and secure and has relatively good access the basic needs and rights to food, clean water, healthcare, and education.

However, one would also be remiss to not acknowledge the many ways in which the United States is lacking and falling behind other industrialized, high-income nations. An ethnocentric promotion of American superiority and ideas demonstrates a clear lack of critical reflection and moreover, dangerously ignores the ways in which the United States fails in terms of healthcare and equality for women. There are, of course, a myriad of other issues that could be (and need to be) discussed in the U.S. context as well, including economic and social inequality, racism, xenophobia…the list goes on. However, for the purpose of this piece, the focus is an aspect women’s healthcare, maternal mortality rate. There is far more to a woman’s health, yet maternal mortality rate is an almost universally used and recognized metric for women’s health.

The U.S. currently has the highest rate of maternal mortality of any developed country in the world. Let that sink in for a moment. Women in the U.S. are more likely to die than women in any other developed nation. Other nations around the world are working hard to lower the rate in their country, and there has been significant improvements. For example, the maternal mortality rate in a number of sub-Saharan countries has been halved since 1990; in Asia and North Africa the improvements were even more significant (Full WHO report). And yet, shockingly, in the U.S. the rate of women dying of pregnancy-related complications is continuing to climb upwards.

These rates are absolutely inexcusable in a country that possesses the level of resources and medical advancements that exist in the U.S. How could it be that an increasing number of women are dying during pregnancy and childbirth, often from preventable causes, in the “greatest” country in the world?

This is infuriating enough. And yet, racism, which we cannot forget lies in the bedrock of this “great” nation, compounds and worsens maternal mortality rates even further.  Compared with white women, black women are 3to 4 times as likely to die due to pregnancy-related causes.

Until we can prevent more and more women from losing their lives in a process which is fundamental to all human life, we cannot purport superiority as a nation.

With the culture of American dominance, it may be that many citizens, including women, don’t even realize this shocking status indicator of health (or more appropriately, lack thereof). Women may not even realize that the dangers they face and the challenges the encounter in the health care system are not inevitable and unpreventable. Every other developed nation has found a way to manage these issues and risks far more successfully than the U.S.

A chart detailing the high spending of the U.S. on healthcare expenditures

The United States needs to reflect inwards and take an honest and critical look at the many ways in which disparities in health still plague our country. The ability to be pregnant and give birth safely, regardless of race or socioeconomic status, should be the bare minimum of our expectations for health care in the United States. Our society cannot function without healthy mothers and healthy babies-this truly is the basis of all life. Moreover, the inequality and issues do not end there. Full access to all types of healthcare are out of reach for many women in the U.S. This is due, in part, to exorbitantly high medical care costs and inequality in insurance coverage and ability to pay. 

It is with this knowledge that American citizens and organizations must be extremely cautious about promoting the United States and its policies as superior to all others. Not only does this ignore the very significant and real issues at play in the United States, it also pushes colonial thought which assumes that the United States and its culture are better than those found in “developing nations”.

The United States has a long history of sending delegations, money, and in-kind aid to nations we perceive to be still “developing”. In many instances this aid and support has been warranted and helpful, and yet there are also many examples of times when that help was at best, innocently but culturally misguided or at worst intentionally harmful or self-serving to American interests.

 

A cautionary tale of this practice can be found in the ubiquitous feminist book on women’s health, “Our Bodies, Ourselves”, specifically the Spanish language edition, "Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestros Vidas". This book was not written to consciously or intentionally promote the United States as superior and it many ways its spread was a wonderful example of a global movement of social change. However, when this book was simply directly translated into Spanish, it drew the ire of Latina women reading it who claimed that it was written from a white, Western, and middle class women’s experience, which did not recognize that others have very different lived experiences.

This example serves to show that when dealing with other nations in any regard, the United States needs to be quick to recognize the ways in which it is carrying and continuing ethnocentric assumptions that position the United States as the center, norm, and end goal for other nations. While this was not the intention of OBOS, it is understandable that Latina readers would have a knee-jerk, negative reaction to the directly translated book, given the history of American exceptionalism thought and practice.

The United States of America is not the greatest nation on Earth. How can it be when there is still such shocking disparity and failings in healthcare for women? As a nation, we have a lot of inequity, disparity, and issues that need to be discussed and resolved. We can start with halting the rise in maternal mortality rates, but it can’t end there for women’s health or for the health of all citizens. Before we proclaim our superiority or try to pass on our ideas and policies to the world without cultural adaptation, we need to take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Heck yeah I'd vote for you

Who should Lead?

rebelcircus

Brett Kavanaugh, Supreme Court justice nominee, is not the first man in politics to be accused of sexual misconduct in the past, nor is he the first man to deny the validity of these allegations. In fact, Brett Kavanaugh is not even the first man to do an interview addressing these allegations with his wife, Ashley, beside him.

Ashley Kavanaugh is not the first woman to do an interview next to her husband as he faces allegations about sexual misconduct. She is not the first woman to nod her head along with all he says. She is not the first woman to claim that her husband would never do acts even remotely similar to those he is accused of. She is not the first woman to defend her husband against sexual misconduct allegations by saying she loves him. see women like Ashley

Christine Blasey Ford is not the first woman to come forward about a political leader possibly having sexual misconduct in the past. 

Christine Blasey Ford is not the first woman to come forward about a political leader possibly having sexual misconduct in the past. 

Christine Blasey Ford is not the first woman to come forward about a political leader possibly having sexual misconduct in the past. 

Christine Blasey Ford is not the first woman to come forward about a political leader possibly having sexual misconduct in the past. 

Christine Blasey Ford is not going to be the first woman to be destroyed for coming forward with this information. see Anita Hill

PBS

Christine Blasey Ford knows she is going to get destroyed for coming forward. She is a college professor. Her claim is 30 years old and only has one other witness in it who denies he remembers anything related to Brett's alleged sexual misconduct. Her statement that Brett pinned her down on a bed, groped her, and attempted to force her out of her clothes is weakened even further by the consumption of alcohol at the high school party this occurred at. She knows she is going to get destroyed coming forward.

Yet, she came forward anyway possibly because she does not want an attempted rapist to be on the Supreme Court. That's patriotic. That's a feminist. 1,600 men signed an ad that was posted in The New York Times, declaring they support her. She's voicing her experiences to help other women, men, and children in this country be better informed, and even if she is lying or has false memories of an incident, she is encouraging them to choose their leaders wisely. In a time where the President of the United States calls you an evil democrat and insists you are attempting to ruin a mans reputation falsey after no investigation had even been started on the issue, I would say honestly, that's fair. We should choose our leaders wisely.

On the other hand, what Ashley Kavanaugh did, similar to good ol' Donny, was deny that her husband ever could have had sexual misconduct. Ashley Kavanaugh has been employed in politics since 1996. In an interview, Ashley Kavanaugh sat next to her husband, dutifully nodding along with his claims of innocence and virginity. When given the opportunity to speak, Ashley Kavanaugh claimed she loved her husband and could never believe that he would ever have sexual misconduct. She's known him for seventeen whole years.

Brett Kavanaugh is 53 years old.

His defense was that he was a virgin until much after high school.

It's not just the POTUS and Ashley claiming that they know Brett Kavanaugh is falsely accused either. Jim Jordan, another candidate, claims he is innocent as well. Congressional candidate Janet Garrett spoke up to remind everyone that there must be an investigation, and that no one can say for sure that they know Brett Kavanaugh is innocent or not until it is completed.

The book The Making of Our Bodies, Ourselves on page 181 states that the U.S. has been criticized by Latin America for approaching women's health issues with a focus on the self. They believe that there are seldom relationships involved with it, and the ones that exist focus on creating a product instead of instilling a sense of responsibility with health. Several issues of Our Bodies, Ourselves have been adapted in various countries and one of the reasons that this has been done is because of the differing political situations. I believe that it is reasonable to conclude that the success of the self-help approach to women's health in the U.S. is partially due to the political situation it was presented in. Now, the book has lost funding and will no longer be adapted or printed. Women will no longer even have access to the self-help books. Health cannot be achieved without resources, and the political situation or activism that is present in a country determines what can thrive for women's health. For women's health to thrive, we need to ask who is invited to the table to talk about issues concerning women's health. Is it Christine? Or is our political situation set up that before investigations are done, people assume the woman is wrong, call her evil, and trust the man. Perhaps we need more "firsts." If we want to see things we've never seen before, we have to be willing to do things we've never done before. People who do not believe in women's health activism should no longer be invited to the table if health is to be accessible for all. Christine Balsey Ford, heck yeah I'd vote for you. 

References:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/26/new-york-times-ad-1-600-men-say-they-believe-christine-blasey-ford/1439038002/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/09/24/who-is-christine-blasey-ford-professor-who-accused-brett-kavanaugh-sexual-misconduct.html

https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/408234-dem-congressional-candidate-kavanaugh-controversy-is-a-huge-step-backwards

Tailoring Healthcare: Understanding and Surpassing Hierarchies

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
[Photo: Flickr user The Official CTBTO Photostream]

United States health outcomes are lagging in comparison to the rest of the developed world: but why is this the case?

It has always been a problem, but is now center stage to the public and global eye: in a time of political supremacy and educational hierarchies, the evidence of poor foundations in healthcare is more evident than ever before. 

Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon allows an outside perspective on U.S. health care systems in an interview with the guardian,  discussing how poor people are lacking support largely due to the failures within the healthcare system and healthcare law. Kin-moon commented on the inability of U.S. officials to move toward universal healthcare, mainly due to inclusion of hierarchies, such as pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and doctors, in healthcare law and decision-making.

Source: Sara R. Collins et al., “First Look at Health Insurance Coverage in 2018 Finds ACA Gains Beginning to Reverse: Findings from the Commonwealth Fund Affordable Care Act Tracking Survey, Feb.–Mar. 2018,” To the Point (blog), Commonwealth Fund, May 1, 2018.

Since the Trump administration has taken office, healthcare law has weakened, and as a result, around 4 million people within the United States have lost coverage since 2016, increasing total unisured people from 12.7% to 15.5%. This is a problem, especially within the United States, given the fact that we have the highest healthcare costs in comparison to any other industrialized nation, despite education and literacy rates, and innovations in technology.  

If we look at specific health outcomes, the maternal mortality rate within the U.S. is also much higher than any other industrialized nation. Women and maternal death rates show similar patterns; numbers declined during the latter half of the 20th century, but are now seeing the reverse effect--a steady incline since 2000. Maternal deaths associated to chronic disease has increased by alarming numbers.

 Data: Centers for Disease Control

As a recent CDC study supports, this is largely due to systemic errors in the healthcare system. About 12% of U.S. women of child-bearing age (roughly 15 to 44) do not have healthcare. Often, many mothers on Medicaid or living without insurance choose to see a doctor only in the later stages of their pregnancy. By these end stages, it is too difficult to diagnosis and treat any severe medical conditions. Women of child bearing age are dying more frequently from chronic illness, likely due to the discounting of women throughout the healthcare system.

Even when a women is able to choose to see a doctor, there is a fear of the possibilities and the end results. Often, people not only fear the use of medical jargon, but also the degrading and condescending attitude of a doctor. The patient-provider relationship has always been viewed in a paternalistic manner. Ideally, the provider recognizes a health issue, and as a result, directs the patient towards the proper treatment path that they believe is best for the patient. This view stems from the belief that since the doctor has an education and experience that can better mitigate a medical decision. 50% to 70% of the general population voiced concerns in addressing mistakes, confusion, lack of quality of care, or did not want to appear to be a "troublemaker."  A survey done on women in Australia found that nearly 40% of women worried about being perceived as a "hypochondriac" or "drama queen" if they were to speak up if something did not feel right.

Though the U.S. leads in healthcare costs among other industrialized countries, the hierarchies in healthcare exists globally, and are a contributing factor to inferior health outcomes. Not only do these viewpoints foster an environment where patients are uncomfortable to speak, but also an environment where patient safety is not placed as a priority. Power hierarchies in patient-doctor relationships must be diminished and eliminated in order to promote healthcare models that encourages proper moral and value-based patient care. There needs to be a maintained focus on the overall healthcare system, and implemented plans to address individualistic issues in specific areas around the globe.

There is also vital importance in continuing to ask questions; we should be consistently challenging health care and working to break down these hierarchies to provide equal opportunity and outcome to all. Davis explains the ways that Our Body, Ourselves does this. By tailoring different versions of the book to include narratives and questions of women's health specific to areas around the globe, authors allow distinguished analysis. This allows populations to ask the correct questions to direct the attention of healthcare systems toward being more inclusive and diverse, yet specifically tailored to the needs of an individual population.

Equity is crucial to providing quality healthcare and treatments that result in positive health outcomes. By addressing the needs of healthcare systems on a individualistic basis, we will recognize improvements in outcomes and healthcare quality. Surely, these advancements will not happen overnight, but long-lasting change takes time and constant attention.  Despite some steps backwards from current administration, it is time to build awareness, and surpass the implemented hierarchies in healthcare.

Rewriting History: How women no longer can be silenced through cultural movements such as #MeToo and OBOS when cultivating community and creating a shared experience through the power of language in the media

Source: Bangor Daily News
http://bangordailynews.com/all/page/10/

In the year of 2007 Tarana Burke began sharing the phrase “Me too” as a catchphrase for those who have been sexually assaulted and/or abused as a form of reaching out to other women that can relate to this traumatic experience and stand in solidarity as survivors, while speaking out about their own personal yet collective experiences (Vagianos, A. (2017, October 17)). A decade later in October of 2017, Alyssa Milano posted this slogan on her own social media platform in hopes to spread resistance against the social and political systems of power that continuously leave women without protection and justice (Vagianos, A. (2017, October 17)). From the moment this slogan was spoken, power was embedded in each word. The power behind this language: #MeToo, created a space for a large global community of women to speak out on social media by just posting #MeToo on one’s own page, thus taking back the power that was taken from them the moment they were sexually assaulted and silenced. A collective of feminist-queer women in the 70’s created a book named Our Bodies, Ourselves (OBOS)  used a similar language with the same agenda but rather in response to the “capitalist healthcare system” (p.23). The cultural movements: OBOS and #MeToo created space in the media for women to cultivate community through shared experiences of sexual assault, thus allowing women to use the power of language in their shared history to no longer be silenced.

Source: “Our Bodies, Ourselves” (1973)
Published by Simon & Schuster
https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/our-story/

Within the United States, language is controlled by a white, educated, patriarchal, capitalist system thus controlling the language we hear, see, and ourselves use daily; but the collective of women who wrote Our Bodies, Ourselves  beginning in the 1970’s thus reclaiming the power from the medical discussion being had about women’s bodies. This reclaiming of power through language and shared histories started with a group of women that no longer wanted to be held “at the mercy of ‘these’ doctors they would just have to get information about their bodies themselves” (p.21). No longer did these women want the discourse of women’s personal experience such as sexual assault, abortion, masturbation, sexuality, etc. to be discussed solely by doctors. Later on, they found neither did other women across the country. After the first published edition of the book, letters flooded into the collective in response to this reclaiming of power surrounding women’s experience (Davis, K., 2007, p.24). Such excitement is a result that women finally were able to use their power to describe their experience, which was then found to be shared by many other women. As a result, women were able to control the conversation and no longer be silenced about their own experience(s), for they had the power to create a shared history as a community across domestic and international borders not only through a shared book but now through social media.

As OBOS gave women a safe space for those assaulted to share their story about sexual assault/abuse by opening a forum for women to reclaim their power. The #MeToo movement through social media offered a similar space where one can take back the power by naming the silence and fear experienced, all while knowing a community of women are listening.  Just by posting the phrase #MeToo fosters a community atmosphere on social media by listening and supporting women’s embodied experience. Thus allowing these politically and socially charged movements to gain a following because each time a woman reads one’s individual experience, one realizes they connect on a deeper level with this movement through the shared experience.  

Using the politics of knowledge and awareness from a shared experience, allows women to build upon a shared history as well. The politics of knowledge “invited individual women to use their own embodied experiences to engage critically with dominant practices of knowledge” (Davis, K.,2007,p. 199). Such political engagement through social media allows for women to call out the dominant patriarchal power that thrives within our culture. This stripping of power enables women to rewrite history in their own words, rather than being silenced. The statement that Estelle Freedman makes in the article: “How American women's growing power finally turned #metoo into a cultural moment” best explains this power of language that is stripped from men when women band together to share an individual yet shared an experience: “She’s lying. I didn’t do it’ or ‘We did it. She consented.’ Those men are losing a long legacy of privilege right now.”. This stripping of a historical privilege is all due in part to empowered women realizing their power individually and collectively as a feminist-queer community.

On the contrary, other’s may state that although both OBOS and the #MeToo movement were intended to be open to global women’s perspectives and embodied experiences, both movements were “power-laden” with colonialist privilege and thought (Davis, K.,2007, p.123). This is due to the fact that women of color domestically and internationally are faced with historically- rooted power structures that silence their experience and contributions. For example, when the #MeToo gained popularity, Tarana Burke, the founder, was not given recognition or a platform, instead, it was celebrity Alyssa Milano who took credit, until it was brought to her attention (Vagianos, A. (2017, October 17)). As for OBOS, institutionally they struggled with including women of color’s experiences and perspectives throughout the making and publishing multiple editions of the book OBOS (Davis, K., 2007, p 85-119). Although all this information is true, it gives yet another opportunity to call out and attempt to strip these power-laden structures, giving these movements “a location which feminists can recognize the inequalities that separate them yet can also join forces, forming alliances around common concerns.” (Davis, K., 2007, p.10) Thus giving these movements the opportunity to acknowledge their inter-institutional injustices and give women of color domestically and internationally the space to speak to the embodied experiences they are experiencing at a much higher rate.

The movement of #MeToo created a global community of women, that gained power through the shared experience of sexual assault. This cultivated community through social media motivated women who were no longer accepting being at the mercy of a man’s word through their own silence. Forced silence in part motivated the collective of women who wrote OBOS, to create a book that spoke about women’s experiences in their own words. Such a community that was fostered through shared experience in the cultural movements of OBOS and #MeToo stripped the power of language that has been used to the benefit of the patriarchy surrounding women’s health, specifically sexual assault, thus enabling women to rewrite their own history through shared embodied experiences.

References (citations and links):

Cottrell, C. (2018, April 09). How Social Media Has Empowered Women To Rewrite The Rules. Retrieved September 26, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/how-social-media-has-empowered-women-to-rewrite-the_uk_5acb3d2fe4b04ec4b549c1a9?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=eRFRzBkljxDiFzLqMegdBQ

Davis, K. (2007). The making of Our bodies, ourselves: How feminism travels across borders. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Me Too. (n.d.). You Are Not Alone. Retrieved September 26, 2018, from https://metoomvmt.org/

Rock, L. (2017, December 04). How American women's growing power finally turned #metoo into a cultural moment. Retrieved September 26, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/04/how-american-womens-growing-power-finally-turned-metoo-a-cultural-moment

Stanford, Department of History. (2018, August 27). Estelle B. Freedman. Retrieved September 26, 2018, from https://history.stanford.edu/people/estelle-b-freedman

Vagianos, A. (2017, October 17). The 'Me Too' Campaign Was Created By A Black Woman 10 Years Ago. Retrieved September 26, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-me-too-campaign-was-created-by-a-black-woman-10-years-ago_us_59e61a7fe4b02a215b336fee