AT THE POLLS -- "How 'strategic' bias holds back women and candidates of color," by Regina Bateson: "When Americans voted this fall, the candidates on their ballots did not reflect the diversity of the United States. Despite recent gains, women and people of color still do not run for office as frequently as white men. In part, this is because they face skepticism about their electability. "When Katie Hill launched her successful 2018 campaign for Congress, for example, fellow Democrats told her a woman couldn't win in her California district. When Adia Winfrey was exploring a run the same year, a senior party official told her there was 'no point' continuing her nascent campaign. The problem? As a Black candidate, she seemed unelectable. And in Michigan, congressional candidate Suneel Gupta, an Indian-American, heard similar concerns. As Gupta recounts, the rationale from some local Democrats was, 'I'm not racist, but my neighbor is racist ... so I don't think you'd be a strong candidate.' "These comments reflect a subtle yet pervasive form of discrimination in politics. Call it 'strategic discrimination.' This occurs when a party leader, donor or primary voter worries that others will object to a candidate's identity. As a result, these key actors may not endorse, fund or vote for candidates who fall outside the norm due to their race, gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. The problem is not direct bias or animosity. Rather, strategic discrimination is driven by concerns about other people's views." The Fulcrum -- "After a voter died, her own daughter had to challenge her ballot," via The 19th AROUND THE WORLD -- "Opinion: When I Step Outside, I Step Into a Country of Men Who Stare," by Fatima Bhojani: "I am angry. All the time. I've been angry for years. Ever since I began to grasp the staggering extent of violence — emotional, mental and physical — against women in Pakistan. Women here, all 100 million of us, exist in collective fury. "'Every day, I am reminded of a reason I shouldn't exist,' my 19-year-old friend recently told me in a cafe in Islamabad. When she gets into an Uber, she sits right behind the driver so that he can't reach back and grab her. We agreed that we would jump out of a moving car if that ever happened. We debated whether pepper spray was better than a knife. "When I step outside, I step into a country of men who stare. I could be making the short walk from my car to the bookstore or walking through the aisles at the supermarket. I could be wrapped in a shawl or behind two layers of face mask. But I will be followed by searing eyes, X-raying me. Because here, it is culturally acceptable for men to gape at women unblinkingly, as if we are all in a staring contest that nobody told half the population about, a contest hinged on a subtle form of psychological violence." NYT -- "Meet Gaza's first woman taxi driver," via France 24 ... "Rape, abuses in palm oil fields linked to top beauty brands," via AP ... "'A mass imprisonment crisis': why more women are doing time," via The Guardian PERSPECTIVE -- "Opinion: The U.S. social safety net has been ripped to shreds — and women are paying the price," by Jessica Calarco: "To be sure, the pandemic presents challenges for all adults, but the new reality has exposed the inequalities that place an outsized burden on women — in Covid-19 times and in normal times. When you really consider it, women do the work that a welfare state should do. They often become the fundraisers when school budgets don't meet kids' needs; the nurses when their elderly and ailing kin can't afford the high costs of health care; the mentors when employers fail to train or support new hires; the child care providers when center-based care is too expensive or can't cover the hours their friends and family need. "Why must women take on these responsibilities? Because the government has systematically underinvested in our well-being, and as a result, people in the U.S. — especially those with limited power and resources — are expected to self-care their way through hard times. Left without a safety net, women have engineered their own. The work of building and maintaining that safety net is taking a serious toll on women. And the only real way to reduce that burden is for state and federal policymakers to build a robust welfare state that does the work women currently do." CNN BEYOND THE PANDEMIC -- "Women and Leadership: Looking Beyond the Global Health Crisis" : "[As] Covid-19 has made inequities in the system all too apparent, it also has opened up opportunities — to rebuild workplaces, to reframe leadership, and to take new approaches to climate change, health care and other global issues. As we look to the end of 2020 and the health and social challenges it has wrought, we asked female leaders in crucial disciplines to talk about the role women can have in determining what the world looks like after the pandemic." NYT -- "Dolly Parton donated $1 million to help develop a coronavirus vaccine," via NYT WOMEN WHO SERVE -- "Fabletics apologized for saying its military discount only extended to men. The issue goes deeper, female veterans say," by Lena Felton: "'Fabletics men offers 15% military discount to active and former military personnel and veterans of the Armed Forces on our retail stores only,' the online agent said. 'Are you telling me that you only offer military discounts for men?' [Air Force veteran Lisa] Smith asked. 'I really do apologize, but the promo is only for men,' the representative replied. ... "[Before] receiving any reply from the company, Smith decided to post about the encounter on Twitter — and received a flood of responses from fellow female veterans. Others had inquired about the discount online, too, and got similar responses. At first, the women wanted to know what the store policy actually was. But by the time Fabletics publicly clarified and apologized for the error Friday, the conversation had morphed into something more: an airing of what it's like to be a woman in the military and have the world see you differently from your male counterparts." The Lily IN HEALTH -- "New research finds dramatic growth in suicidal thoughts and self-harm during and after pregnancy," via The 19th PHOTO ESSAY -- "There Is a Name for Women Like My Mother," by Naomieh Jovin and Magnum Foundation: "There is a name in the Haitian Creole language for women like my mother: 'Gwo Fanm.' Literally, 'Big Woman,' a Gwo Fanm is a woman who stands out in life and stands up for the ones they love. But a Gwo Fanm is also a woman who takes more than their fair share of the slings and arrows this world throws at them, absorbs hurt and pain that could crush less resilient or determined people. "A lot of the women in my family are Gwo Fanm, women who have shouldered burdens beyond most people's imaginings. In middle school, my aunt was a street vendor, and on my way home on the school bus, kids would point out the window and laugh at her for selling socks. My grandmother followed her daughter to the United States, went through the tortuous immigration process for 20 years, but died before she was able to sponsor the rest of her family to come here. These experiences left scars both physical and emotional that didn't fade over time." The Nation IN CULTURE -- "The Year of Thee Stallion," by Allison P. Davis: "We've arrived at this moment earlier than expected, the moment when [Megan Thee Stallion] addresses the more-than-well-publicized incident that she described as 'the worst experience of [her] life' — the shooting that she endured in July and the weeks that followed. A few hours before Megan and I meet, the man who allegedly shot her tweeted his intent to address the situation in some mysterious way later that night. And a few hours after our interview, he would release a whole album seemingly dedicated to defending himself, to seizing a narrative, to calling Megan a liar. "It may seem jarring to lay all this out at the beginning of the story, to start with a sudden cold plunge into a life-fracturing subject. In a year marked by undeniable success of Megan's own making — the viral moments and omnipresent bops and joyous social media antics — this lone and shitty incident (that she didn't create) has loomed persistently. Instead of sinking into the muck of a bad situation, Megan has chosen a way forward — not only by continuing to live her Hot Girl life, but also by transforming the ugliness of it all into an urgent message about how Black women in this country should be treated. ... "Megan had discussed all of it — the shooting itself, the social media shitstorm — with relative calm, but it's recalling her decision to tweet this that kicks up all the emotion she's struggling now to hold back. The simple feeling that she was out there alone, fighting for herself, and almost nobody took her pain seriously — as well as the realization that the same is endlessly true for other Black women, including the one who raised her." GQ -- "Normani Opens Up About Debut Solo Album and Building Her Confidence as an Artist," via Women's Health ... "The Many Lives of Adrienne Rich," via The Atlantic WE LAUGHED -- "8 intriguing facts about female animals, from octopuses eating their mates to lionesses ruling the pride," via The Lily ... "Invoices for Various Recent Acts of Emotional Labor," via The New Yorker VIDEO -- Co-Creator of "Woke" Keith Knight talks politics | 
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