women

On this week’s 51%, we speak with author Kate Schatz about her new novel Where the Girls Were. Loosely based on her mother’s experience, Where the Girls Were tells the story of a bright teenage girl in the late 1960s who finds herself pregnant and is sent away to have the baby in secret and put it up for adoption. Schatz says secret homes for "unwed mothers" were not uncommon in the U.S. before the decision of Roe v. Wade enshrined abortion rights for (almost) the next 50 years. During the “Baby Scoop Era,” millions of unwed young mothers faced societal pressure to relinquish their newborns for adoption.

On this week’s 51%, we speak with author Kate Schatz about her new novel Where the Girls Were. Loosely based on her mother’s experience, Where the Girls Were tells the story of a bright teenage girl in the late 1960s who finds herself pregnant and is sent away to have the baby in secret and put it up for adoption. Schatz says secret homes for "unwed mothers" were not uncommon in the U.S. before the decision of Roe v. Wade enshrined abortion rights for (almost) the next 50 years. During the “Baby Scoop Era,” millions of unwed young mothers faced societal pressure to relinquish their newborns for adoption.

In honor of Women’s History Month, the Eleanor Roosevelt Center will hold a book launch event with author Shannon McKenna Schmidt for her new book ‘You Can’t Catch Us: Lady Bird Johnson’s Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train and the Women Who Rode with Her.’This event is presented by the Eleanor Roosevelt Center and hosted by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Museum & Library in Hyde Park on Saturday at 1:30 PM ET.

On this week's 51%, we kick off Women's History Month and preview an exhibit about Ulster County’s first elections with women voters in 1918. Women in New York won the right to vote a few years before the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. The Ulster County exhibit, opening March 11 on the second floor of the county office building in Kingston, features archival voter rolls and artifacts from the county board of the elections as well as the League of Women Voters of the Mid-Hudson Region, giving a glimpse into the lives of the everyday women who jumped at the opportunity to vote.

On this week's 51%, we kick off Women's History Month and preview an exhibit about Ulster County’s first elections with women voters in 1918. Women in New York won the right to vote a few years before the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. The Ulster County exhibit, opening March 11 on the second floor of the county office building in Kingston, features archival voter rolls and artifacts from the county board of the elections as well as the League of Women Voters of the Mid-Hudson Region, giving a glimpse into the lives of the everyday women who jumped at the opportunity to vote.

On this week's 51%, we speak with Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, about her new book The Pain Brokers. Burch is a scholar of mass torts, the large civil lawsuits typically filed as a result of harmful products and recalls. Mass torts are meant to be an efficient way to provide relief to a large number of victims, but for thousands of women with pelvic mesh, Burch says that was not the case. The Pain Brokers investigates a complex scheme of call centers, doctors, and lawyers who Burch says preyed on pelvic mesh patients and used them to make millions off mass torts.

On this week's 51%, we speak with Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, about her new book The Pain Brokers. Burch is a scholar of mass torts, the large civil lawsuits typically filed as a result of harmful products and recalls. Mass torts are meant to be an efficient way to provide relief to a large number of victims, but for thousands of women with pelvic mesh, Burch says that was not the case. The Pain Brokers investigates a complex scheme of call centers, doctors, and lawyers who Burch says preyed on pelvic mesh patients and used them to make millions off mass torts.

Once again, the House has passed a version of a bill that would require voters to present proof of citizenship, like a passport or birth certificate, when registering to vote. On this week's 51%, we speak with Wren Orey of the Bipartisan Policy Center about what the "SAVE America Act" would entail, and whether it would impact married women and others who have changed their names. We also speak with the author of You Can't Catch Us about former First Lady Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson, and the trailblazing campaign tour she embarked on to sway southern voters ahead of the 1964 election.

Once again, the House has passed a version of a bill that would require voters to present proof of citizenship, like a passport or birth certificate, when registering to vote. On this week's 51%, we speak with Wren Orey of the Bipartisan Policy Center about what the "SAVE America Act" would entail, and whether it would impact married women and others who have changed their names. We also speak with the author of You Can't Catch Us about former First Lady Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson, and the trailblazing campaign tour she embarked on to sway southern voters ahead of the 1964 election.

On this week’s 51%, we speak with feminist icons Gloria Steinem and Leymah Gbowee about their new children's book, "Rise, Girl, Rise: Our Sister-Friend Journey. Together for All." Describing their unique paths as feminists fighting for gender equality and peace, "Rise, Girl, Rise," reminds readers young and old of the power of collective action and global sisterhood. We also meet a fashion designer in New York's Capital Region who crafted the inauguration suit for the city of Albany's first Black mayor.