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This article discussed national protests led by women against patriarchial policies showing the feminist principle of reisitance. It is important to have collection action in shaping social change especially when institutions fail.

https://www.facebook.com/32109457015. (2025, March 9). “Unite and Resist”: Women’s Day Rallies Against Trump Held From Coast to Coast | Common Dreams. Common Dreams. https://www.commondreams.org/news/women-s-march-2025

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State-level decisions impact reproductive success and reinforce class concepts about policy activism. Rejection of rights-centered bills in North Dakota shows how activism is needed not only nationally but also in rural more conservative regions.

Achterling, M. (2025, February 12). Abortion, reproductive rights bills rejected in North Dakota House • North Dakota Monitor. North Dakota Monitor. https://northdakotamonitor.com/2025/02/12/abortion-reproductive-rights-bills-rejected-in-north-dakota-house/

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Abortion, reproductive rights bills rejected in North Dakota House • North Dakota Monitor

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A so-called personhood bill would have allowed women who get abortions to be charged with murder. Two others sought to protect access to contraception and in vitro fertilization, while a fourth bill proposed what the sponsor called a “common-sense” approach to abortion access.

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The BLM movement is a powerful example of activism that challenges systematic racism and state violence. Activism can take many forms including public protests, advocacy, and community education. BLM encompasses all of these/

Greenwood, S. (2025, May 7). Views of Race, Policing and Black Lives Matter in the 5 Years Since George Floyd’s Killing. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2025/05/07/views-of-race-policing-and-black-lives-matter-in-the-5-years-since-george-floyds-killing/

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Views of Race, Policing and Black Lives Matter in the 5 Years Since George Floyd’s Killing

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Americans have expressed skepticism that attention to racial issues after Floyd’s killing led to changes that improved Black people’s lives.

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This page highlights how local student-led efforts can be forms of activism and support feminist education and action. NDSU has various clubs and organizations for a variety of topics and they are a great start for the community to gain awareness of the issues at hand.

Student Organizations | Women and Gender Studies | NDSU. (2025). Ndsu.edu. https://www.ndsu.edu/wgs/about/student_organizations/

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Student Organizations | Women and Gender Studies | NDSU

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WAO is a student organization focused on feminist activism that collaborates with the campus and community. For more information click here.

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This article outlines federal protections for family and medical leave, which often excluded low-wage and part-time worers, many who are women. The U.S. lags behind other countires in paid parental leace. This shows how public policy reinforces the gendered division of labor.

U.S. Department of Labor. (2025). Family and Medical Leave Act. Dol.gov. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fmla

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The FMLA entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave.

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Legal decisions reflect ongoing cultural battles over gender. As talked about in class, the loss of Roe disproportionately impacts poor women and women of color, showing the intersectionality of legal oppression.

Totenberg, N., & McCammon, S. (2022, June 24). Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade, Ending Right to Abortion Upheld for Decades. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1102305878/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-decision-overturn

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In a historic and far-reaching decision, the U.S. Supreme Court officially reversed Roe v. Wade on Friday, declaring that the constitutional right to abortion, upheld for nearly a half century, no longer exists.

Writing for the court majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that the 1973 Roe ruling and repeated subsequent high court decisions reaffirming Roe "must be overruled" because they were "egregiously wrong," the arguments "exceptionally weak" and so "damaging" that they amounted to "an abuse of judicial authority."

The decision, most of which was leaked in early May, means that abortion rights will be rolled back in nearly half of the states immediately, with more restrictions likely to follow. For all practical purposes, abortion will not be available in large swaths of the country. The decision may well mean too that the court itself, as well as the abortion question, will become a focal point in the upcoming fall elections and in the fall and thereafter.

Joining the Alito opinion were Justice Clarence Thomas, appointed by the first President Bush, and the three Trump appointees - Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by President George W. Bush, concurred in the judgment only, and would have limited the decision to upholding the Mississippi law at issue in the case, which banned abortions after 15 weeks. Calling the decision "a serious jolt to the legal system," he said that both the majority and dissent displayed "a relentless freedom from doubt on the legal issue that I cannot share."

Dissenting were Justices Stephen Breyer, appointed by President Clinton, and Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, appointed by President Obama. The said that the court decision means that "young women today will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers." Indeed, they said the court's opinion means that "from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of. A state can force her to bring a pregnancy to term even at the steepest personal and familial costs."

"With sorrow - for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection - we dissent," they wrote.

Alito's opinion is a tour de force of the various criticisms of Roe that have long existed in academia

Alito's 78-page opinion, which has a 30-page appendix, seemingly leaves no authority uncited as support for the proposition that there is no inherent right to privacy or personal autonomy in various provisions of the Constitution - and similarly, no evidence that peoples' reliance on the court's abortion precedents over the past half century should matter.

Alito pointed for instance, to Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that upheld the central holding of Roe and was written by Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy and David Souter, all Republican appointees to the court. Alito pointed to language in the Casey opinion that he said "conceded" reliance interests were not really implicated because contraception could prevent almost all unplanned pregnancies.

In fact, though, that 1992 opinion went on to dismiss that very argument as "unrealistic," because it "refuse[s] to face the fact" that for decades "people have organized intimate relationships and made choices ... in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail." Not exactly the concession that Alito described.

It is not unusual for justices to cherry pick quotes but not so out of context and not from former colleagues who are still alive and privately, not amused at all.

In the end, though, Alito's opinion has a larger objective, perhaps multiple objectives.

Writing for the majority, he said forthrightly that abortion is a matter to be decided by states and the voters in the states. "We hold," he wrote, that "the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion." As to what standard the courts should apply in the event that a state regulation is challenged, Alito said any state regulation of abortion is presumptively valid and "must be sustained if there is a rational basis on which the legislature could have thought" it was serving "legitimate state interests," including "respect for and preservation of prenatal life at all stages of development." In addition, he noted, states are entitled to regulate abortion to eliminate "gruesome and barbaric" medical procedures; to "preserve the integrity of the medical profession"; and to prevent discrimination on the basis of race, sex, or disability, including barring abortion in cases of fetal abnormality.

Ultimately, the translation of all that is that states appear to be completely free to ban abortions for any reason.

Near the end of Friday's decision, Alito sought to allay fears about the wide-ranging nature of his opinion. "To ensure that our decision is not misunderstood or mischaracterized, we emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion. "

But in his concurring opinion, Justice Thomas said the legal rationale for Friday's decision could be applied to overturn other major cases, including those that legalized gay marriage, barred the criminalization of consensual homosexual conduct, and protected the rights of married people to have access to contraception.

"For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all" of those precedents. because they are "demonstrably erroneous.'"

The court's liberals noted that Thomas's language cast doubt on Alito's assurances at the end of his opinion, that this opinion was really only about abortion.

"The first problem with the majority's account comes from Justice Thomas's concurrence-which makes clear he is not with the program," they wrote. "In saying that nothing in today's opinion casts doubt on non-abortion precedents, Justice Thomas explains, he means only that they are not at issue in this very case."

The next steps on abortion across the country will play out in a variety of ways, almost all of them resulting in abortion bans.

Several states - among them Mississippi, North Carolina, and Wisconsin - still have decades-old abortion bans on their books; with Roe overturned, those states could revert to a pre- Roe environment. Officials in such states could seek to enforce old laws, or ask the courts to reinstate them. For example, a Michigan law dating back to 1931 would make abortion a felony. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, has been working to try to block that law.

A cascade of newly active state laws

Another path to banning abortion involves "trigger bans," newer laws pushed through by anti-abortion rights legislators in many states in anticipation of the Supreme Court's action. Some 15 states - in the South, West and Midwest - have such laws in place, according to CRR and Guttmacher, but they fall into different categories.

Some states will act quickly to ban abortion. According to a new analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, South Dakota, Kentucky and Louisiana have laws in place that lawmakers designed explicitly to take effect immediately upon the fall of the Roe precedent. Idaho, Tennessee, and Texas - where most abortions are already illegal after about six weeks of pregnancy - have similar laws, which would take effect after 30 days. Guttmacher says seven other "trigger ban" states have laws that would require state officials such as governors or attorneys general to take action to implement them.

Sue Liebel, state policy director with the anti-abortion rights group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said she expects officials in many of those Republican-controlled states to take swift action to do so.

"We have been talking to all of those about acting immediately," Liebel told NPR. "So when that happens, let's be ready. How do you get that back into play?"

In recent years, many states also have passed gestational bans prohibiting abortion at various stages of pregnancy. Courts have blocked many of those laws in response to legal challenges, including laws in Georgia, Ohio, and Idaho that ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Now those laws may take effect immediately. So too, could a law recently enacted in Oklahoma, that makes performing abortion a felony punishable by time in prison.

"It will be a tremendous change in an incredibly short period of time," said Julie Rikelman, senior director of litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Rikelman argued the Center's challenge to Mississippi's abortion ban at Supreme Court this term.

A host of other restrictions could limit where, by whom, and under what conditions abortion can be provided. Some examples include laws requiring parental notification or consent for abortions involving patients who are minors; and other health regulations for doctors and clinics that many medical groups say are unnecessary, expensive, and difficult to comply with.

Finally, Liebel said some governors may consider calling special sessions to pass new legislation in response to Friday's ruling.

More legal uncertainty

Legal experts say the court's decision will pose new questions for other courts to deal with - questions about how to apply the specific language of the final ruling to individual state laws.

Rikelman, the Center for Reproductive rights attorney, predicts "legal chaos" in states across the country in the immediate aftermath of the decision.

"I think what we will see is far more litigation in the federal courts - not less litigation," Rikelman said.

Some states such as Texas and Oklahoma have multiple abortion restrictions on the books, raising potential questions about which ones would be valid. Those laws each include different provisions and carry different penalties, adding to the potential confusion and prompting additional litigation in state and federal courts.

Liebel, with SBA Pro-Life America, acknowledged that more legal battles are likely.

"That's gonna take us back, frankly, to where we always have been. Each side tries to put their big toe right on that line and push the envelope," Liebel said.

Battles in state courts are also likely. Some state constitutions may offer protections for abortion rights notwithstanding the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. In Florida, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union and other reproductive rights groups are challenging a 15-week abortion ban modeled on Mississippi's law, on the grounds that it violates privacy rights protections guaranteed in Florida's state constitution.

Even without overturning Roe, Rikelman points to the Texas law known as S.B. 8, which took effect in September. The law, which has spawned several copycat proposals in other states, including Oklahoma, relies on individuals filing civil lawsuits to enforce an abortion ban.

Interstate enforcement battles

Abortion bans in restrictive states will likely bleed over to states that protect abortion rights as well, Rikelman said. She notes that some state lawmakers are trying to prohibit people in other states from providing abortions to their residents.

"What we are seeing already are states and state legislators impacting even people's ability to access abortion in places where it would remain legal," she said.

For example, an omnibus abortion law passed by a Republican supermajority in Kentucky earlier this year includes a host of new requirements for dispensing medication abortion pills, and a provision for extraditing people from other states who illegally provide abortion pills to Kentuckians. It's unclear how enforceable those types of laws would be.

Meanwhile, some states are trying to expand access to abortion in preparation for more patients traveling from restrictive states for procedures. Connecticut lawmakers passed legislation this year designed to protect abortion providers from out-of-state lawsuits.

"This just raises a whole host of issues," Rikelman said. "All of those different disputes will have to be worked out in the courts" including, potentially, in the U.S. Supreme Court.

What's more, the anti-abortion movement will not be satisfied with this win, observes University of Michigan law professor Leah Litman. "The next time the Republicans win control of the Senate and White House and the House of Representatives a national abortion ban is going to be on the table," she said in an interview.

Even as abortions have now become far more restricted overall, the Guttmacher Institute reports that the long-term decline in abortions has reversed. In 2020, there were 930,160 abortions in the U.S., an increase of 8 percent more abortions than in 2017. The Institute also said that at the same time, fewer people were getting pregnant and among those who did, a larger proportion chose to have an abortion.

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Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending right to abortion upheld for decades

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The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, reversing Roe v. Wade, the court's five-decade-old decision that guaranteed a woman's right to obtain an abortion.

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VAWA protects survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Activism includes advocating for legal protections and raising awareness for survivor rights. This post talks about how state-based activism can empower marginalized groups when laws are enforced equitably.

Your Rights Under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) | HUD.gov / U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). (2021). Hud.gov. https://www.hud.gov/hud-partners/fair-housing-vawa

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Disclaimer: If you are in danger, please call 911 or a national hotline. HUD is not a direct service provider and does not provide individual counseling, crisis response, or legal services to individuals who have experienced domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and/or human trafficking. For more information and to connect to a local service provider in your area, please see Help for Survivors.

To find an overview of your rights under the Violence Against Women Act, and learn how to file a complaint alleging discrimination under VAWA with HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (HUD FHEO), continue on this site. You can also visit HUD's main VAWA site at https://www.hud.gov/vawa

Please be aware that web browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer) often track which websites you visit, which can be viewed in the search history. This information could put you at further risk if discovered by a perpetrator, so please be cautious and clear your browsing history. To find out how to clear your browsing history, click . If possible, you may want to use a computer that the perpetrator is unlikely to use, such as at a public library.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA, 34 U.S.C. § 12471 et seq.) provides housing protections for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and/or stalking (collectively referred to on this page as "VAWA violence/abuse").[1] ( See 34 U.S.C. § 12291). Despite the name of the law, VAWA's protections apply regardless of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity ( See 24 C.F.R. § 5.2001).

VAWA was reauthorized and amended in March 2022, and it became effective on October 1, 2022. As part of that reauthorization, Congress required HUD to implement and enforce the housing provisions of VAWA consistent with, and in a manner that provides, the same rights and remedies as those provided for in the Fair Housing Act. Therefore, if you believe your VAWA rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO).

This page provides general information about how you can file a complaint, your rights under VAWA and other civil rights laws enforced by HUD, and additional resources.

How to File a VAWA Complaint

If you believe your VAWA rights have been violated, you can visit this link to file a complaint with HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO). You can also find out more about the complaint process. These sites provide information in multiple languages and include instructions for filing a complaint online on HUD's website and by email, mail, or telephone.
Note: HUD is currently updating its complaint form to include VAWA protections. However, you may still use the current complaint form to file a VAWA complaint. On the complaint form, please explain in the narrative section why you believe your VAWA rights were violated.
VAWA's Protections and Coverage

If you are applying for, receiving assistance under, or living in public housing, any housing operated by a public housing authority, voucher programs, homeless assistance programs, federally assisted housing for persons with disabilities or for elderly persons, or any other housing receiving assistance from HUD, you may have housing protections under VAWA. If you are a tenant in a HUD-funded program, certain VAWA protections may also apply to other residents and persons associated with you, including residents and affiliated individuals.

VAWA applies to many different HUD grantees under what are called "covered housing programs." ( See 34 U.S.C. § 12491(a)(3)). HUD's covered housing programs include:

Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly, including the direct loan program under section 202;

Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities;

Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program;

Homeless programs under title IV of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, including the Emergency Solutions Grants program, the Continuum of Care program, and the Rural Housing Stability Assistance program;

HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) program;

Multifamily rental housing under section 221(d)(3)/(d)(5) of the National Housing Act with a below-market interest rate (BMIR);

Multifamily rental housing under section 236 of the National Housing Act;

HUD programs assisted under the United States Housing Act of 1937; specifically, public housing under section 6 of the 1937 Act, tenant-based and project-based rental assistance under section 8 of the 1937 Act, and the Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy;

Housing Trust Fund; and

Other Federal housing programs that provide affordable housing to low and moderate-income persons through restricted rents or rental assistance, or other affordable housing opportunities, which HUD identifies as covered by VAWA. This will ordinarily occur in a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).
(See 34 U.S.C. § 12491.)

VAWA also protects your right to report crime and emergencies from your home, regardless of whether your housing is assisted under a covered housing program. ( See 34 U.S.C. § 12495).
VAWA's protections include, for example:

1. Non-discrimination: It is illegal to deny you admission to or assistance under, or to evict you from or terminate your participation in, a covered housing program if you or a member of your household is or has been a survivor of VAWA violence/abuse. You or a member of your household must be otherwise eligible for the program. In addition, it is illegal to deny you tenancy or occupancy rights (for example, you cannot be evicted) in a covered housing program solely on the basis of criminal activity directly relating to the VAWA violence/abuse. HUD refers to these protections as VAWA's "core" housing protections. (See 24 C.F.R. § 5.2005(b)).

2. Notification of Occupancy Rights: If you are an applicant or tenant, a covered housing provider must provide to you two HUD-approved documents: (1) Notice of Occupancy Rights under VAWA, and (2) VAWA certification form. The covered housing provider must provide you these forms at certain specified times. (See 34 U.S.C. § 12491(d); 24 C.F.R. § 5.2005(a)).

3. Emergency Transfers: You can request an emergency transfer for you and your household in a covered housing program if you: (1) expressly request the transfer; and (2)(a) you reasonably believe there is a threat of imminent harm from further violence if you remain in the same unit; or (2)(b) in the case of sexual assault, the sexual assault occurred at your housing during the 90-calendar-day period preceding the date of the transfer request. Public housing agencies and other covered housing programs must adopt an emergency transfer plan based on a model plan from HUD. This emergency transfer plan must, among other requirements, allow you to make an internal emergency transfer (to a unit where you would not be categorized as a new applicant) when a safe unit is immediately available. A safe unit is a unit that you believe is safe. (See 24 C.F.R. § 5.2005(e)).

4. Confidentiality Requirements: Covered housing providers have specific obligations to maintain the confidentiality of the fact that a person is a survivor of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Any information you provide under VAWA's housing protections, including the fact that you are a VAWA survivor, must be kept confidential by the covered housing provider. These obligations include keeping any such information out of a shared database and not disclosing such information to others unless you consent in writing to such disclosure, it is required for use in an eviction proceeding, or the law otherwise requires it. If your information is used by a covered housing provider in violation of the confidentiality requirements, you may file a complaint with HUD. (See 34 U.S.C. § 12491(c)(4); 24 C.F.R. § 5.2007(c)).

5. Documentation: If you inform a public housing agency or owner or manager of housing assisted under a covered housing program that you are a survivor of VAWA violence/abuse entitled to VAWA protections, the covered housing provider may request, in writing, that you submit documentation of the occurrence of the domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. If your housing provider simply provides a VAWA reporting form to you, without a dated letter requesting documentation, the housing provider has not sufficiently made the request in writing. You have the discretion to choose which documentation to provide from the list identified in HUD's VAWA rule, unless there is conflicting information of VAWA violence/abuse.[2] For example, a housing provider may not require a police report to provide VAWA housing protections (but you may choose to provide one). (See 34 U.S.C. § 12491(c); 24 C.F.R. § 5.2007).

6. Lease Bifurcation: VAWA protects you and other members of your household when a covered housing provider removes a household member from a lease, in order to evict, remove, terminate occupancy rights, or terminate assistance to a household member who engages in criminal activity directly relating to VAWA violence/abuse (known as "bifurcating" a lease). Your housing provider may choose whether to bifurcate the lease, and if it is done, it must be done consistent with applicable federal, state, or local laws and the requirements of your covered housing program. In the event of a lease bifurcation, if the household member who was removed was the tenant who made your household eligible for assistance under your covered housing program, your housing provider must give those who remain a reasonable time to establish eligibility under the same program, under a different program, or to find other housing. While this is generally 90 days, it may be a different amount of time, depending on which covered housing program you are participating in. (See 24 C.F.R. § 5.2009).

7. Prohibition on Retaliation: It is illegal for a public housing agency or an owner or manager of housing assisted under a covered housing program to retaliate against you because you opposed any action they took or practice they have that is prohibited by VAWA. The housing provider also cannot subject you to retaliation, coercion, intimidation, or threats because you testified, assisted, or participated in an action to enforce your VAWA rights, including encouraging another or exercising your own rights under VAWA. This includes retaliating against you for filing a complaint with FHEO or another entity, or for participating in an investigation of your own complaint or another complaint by giving information as a witness. This right applies even if you did not file a complaint over what you believe was the initial violation of VAWA rights or if you filed such a complaint and received a determination that there is no reasonable cause to believe that a VAWA violation occurred or is about to occur. (See 34 U.S.C. § 12494)

8. The Right to Report Crime and Emergencies from One's Home: Landlords, homeowners, tenants, residents, occupants, guests of, or applicants for, any housing have the right to seek law enforcement or emergency assistance on their own behalf or on behalf of another person in need of assistance. They may not be penalized based on their requests for assistance, based on criminal activity for which they are a victim, or based on activity for which they are otherwise not at fault under a law, ordinance, regulation, or policy adopted by or enforced by a governmental entity that receives certain HUD funding. This means it is unlawful to threaten or subject individuals seeking assistance to any of the following: monetary or criminal penalties, fines, or fees; eviction; refusals to rent or renew tenancy; refusals to issue an occupancy or landlord permit; withdrawing certifications or permits for operation of the property; and designation of the property as a nuisance or a similar negative designation. (See 34 U.S.C. § 12495).

If you feel these or any other of your VAWA rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with HUD here.
Other Housing-Related Civil Rights Laws Enforced by HUD

You can visit HUD's main VAWA website at https://www.hud.gov/vawa

Violence Against Women Act, text of statute (housing protections): 34 U.S.C. § 12291 ; 34 U.S.C. §§ 12471-12496

FHEO Notice 2023-01: Notice to Public Regarding FHEO Enforcement Authority and Procedures: Violence Against Women Act 2022 (VAWA)

HUD's 2016 Final Rule: "Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013: Implementation in HUD Housing Programs"(81 FR 80724)

HUD's Office of Multifamily Housing Program Guidance (H 2017-05): "Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Reauthorization Act of 2013 - Additional Guidance for Multifamily Owners and Management Agents"

HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing Program Guidance (PIH-2017-08): "Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 Guidance"

HUD VAWA Forms

HUD-5380 Notice of Occupancy Rights Under the Violence Against Women Act

HUD-5381 Model Emergency Transfer Plan for Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, or Stalking

HUD-5382 Certification of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, or Stalking, and Alternate Documentation

HUD-5383 Emergency Transfer Request for Certain Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, or Stalking

HUD-91067 Section 8 VAWA Lease Addendum

You may file a complaint with FHEO if you believe your VAWA rights have been violated, even if you do not believe you have been discriminated against under other laws, such as the Fair Housing Act. You may also file a complaint alleging that your rights under multiple laws have been violated. Read more about the other fair housing laws enforced by FHEO here.

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Your Rights Under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)

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Your Rights Under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)How to File a Complaint, Coverage, and ProtectionsDisclaimer: If you are in danger, please call 911 or a national hotline. HUD is not a direct service provider and does no

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This federal law was a landmark victory in gender activism aiming to eliminate wage disparity. The gap still persists due to discrimination and enforcement issues.

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (1963). The Equal Pay Act of 1963. Www.eeoc.gov. https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/equal-pay-act-1963

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Intimate Partner Violence Among Young Adults

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Intimate Partner Violence Among Young Adults

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This article brings attention to the prevalence of intimate partner violence among youth and how normalized abuse can become in dating relationships. Male dominance and female submission can contribute to these dynamics. Media and institutions often downplay or ignore signs of abuse especially amongst youth.

Intimate Partner Violence Among Young Adults - Bing. (2017). Bing. https://www.bing.com/search?q=Intimate+Partner+Violence+Among+Young+Adults&cvid=87496132085f4e309c18ee59fb0e2afb&gs_lcrp=EgRlZGdlKgYIABBFGDkyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQABhAMgYIAhAAGEAyBggDEAAYQDIGCAQQABhAMgYIBRAAGEAyBggGEAAYQDIGCAcQABhAMgYICBAAGEDSAQcyNzZqMGo5qAIIsAIB&FORM=ANAB01&PC=LCTS

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Intimate Partner Violence Among Young Adults - Bing

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Intelligent search from Bing makes it easier to quickly find what you’re looking for and rewards you.

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This article highlights patterns of sexual violence within fraternity culture, linking to our class discussions of rape culture. Greek life often perpetuated harmful norms while reinforcing silence and power imbalances or survivors.

Emsley, K. (2022, December 18). Let’s Get Greek: Sexual Assault Trends Within College Greek Life ~ Making Waves. Our Wave. https://www.ourwave.org/post/lets-get-greek-sexual-assault-trends-within-college-greek-life

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The Greek Life and Sexual Assault Overlap
There's a difficult topic that isn't discussed when someone signs up to go through sorority or fraternity recruitment: Sexual Assault. Research has found that fraternity men are three times more likely to sexually assault a woman than non-affiliated classmates. Additionally, for women in sororities, it was reported that they are 74% are more likely to be raped than other college women. Most research attributes these high numbers to rape culture imbedded within Greek life, toxic masculinity, and the increased use of alcohol and other substances in Greek social spaces. There is no doubt that Sexual Assault and Greek Life culture are correlated. In the greater context of violence against women, cultural forms of gendered violence look and feel acceptable in some situations; perpetrators, victims, and bystanders of sexual violence can internalize these norms, impacting expectations, responses, and acceptance of violence against women (Lundgren et al., 2001; Pornari et al., 2013). Fraternity behavior can be attributed to men's sexual pressure, control, and coercion that is often labeled as 'natural,' which is not a new theme after minimizing phrases are frequently heard at a young age such as "boys will be boys" (Connell, 2013; Messerschmidt, 2012).

In Glitter Ball: Queering the Fraternities, Nidhi Jaltare explains, "Despite clear evidence that a fraternity brother was a rapist, that brother continued to live in his fraternity house until expelled; the leadership didn't think it was their job to punish people. Sexual assault absolutely occurs in non-Greek spaces. However, these dynamics seem exacerbated by Greek life. No amount of glitter can cover up rape and sexual assault perpetrated in fraternity houses." The statistics are high for a reason and yet the problem persists. This causes survivors to feel silenced and endure a feeling of isolation. Because of the complex social dynamics within Greek life, many struggle to heal after these experiences due to frequent exposure to re-traumatizing situations. Some may also experience a lack of support, especially if the person who harmed them has a good reputation within the organization.While it is true that it is individuals who commit the crimes itself, not the entire organization, we must hold people accountable. Not only the perpetrator, but the leadership team who lets the assault take place and anyone who witnessed the steps along the way (date rape drugs, binge drinking encouragement, etc).
Hazing
Hazing is defined as "humiliating and sometimes dangerous initiation rituals, especially as imposed on college students seeking membership to a fraternity or sorority." Hazing has occurred for decades, despite university attempts to ban the practice. Most people think of hazing as only being related to binge drinking but there are many other types. According to the University of Maryland, the first recorded incident of hazing involving sexual abuse occurred in 1983. Other hazing incidents involving sexual intimidation, nudity or stimulation, have been increasing in their frequency since 1952. The act of hazing itself often includes various forms of assault, examples include being forced to skinny dip in a public area, tying pledges to trees naked, performing sex acts on the opposite gender, etc. Many of these horrific acts are forced upon members seeking validation and approval by their peers, not participating can result in being kicked out of the fraternity/sorority.

Hazing alone causes debates about whether or not to ban the institution of Greek Life entirely. Some will say that it does not take place anymore, but it is important to note tha t hazing DOES still occur today, even if universities advertise that they do not allow it. This is a risk that potential new members must acknowledge and doing research into the different sororities/fraternities is important. Dr. Canan of the University of North Carolina in Wilmington leads the Sexuality Education & Attitudes Lab whose research focuses on sex education policy, sexual assault, and the LGBTQ+ community. Canan states, "Different fraternities can have different missions and serve distinct goals. We cannot automatically group them together with the same behavior." Some chapters do not haze, while others believe that it is a tradition they must uphold, and this often relates to the leadership team and overall culture within the house. Some people have their heart set on joining a sorority/fraternity from a young age, and this is not meant to scare you - the only goal is to inform you. Speak to current or old members who are willing to share information about their initiation and what that entails to help guide you.
Parties, Date Rape, and Hookup Culture
After going through the initial steps of joining Greek Life, there are many more hardships members might face. Traditional structure of Greek Life includes various parties/mixers or date functions that are hosted by fraternities and sorority members are then invited (or the general public with preference to women). The nature of these parties and hookup culture are a large contributor when it comes to sexual assault in fraternites. One of the most common problems at these parties is called "date rape" which is when someone is coerced or forced into sexual relations, often through substance abuse. Date rape drugs have no color, smell, or taste and are slipped into drinks without the victim's knowledge. This leaves them unable to defend themselves and often practically paralyzed.

It is common knowledge now to protect your drink, but even without these drugs, male or female members may pressure their victim into binge drinking to the point that they cannot protect themselves. Additionally, members of fraternities are three times more likely than non-members to commit violence while drinking. Many will consider the people that they go to these parties and drink with their friends which leads them to let their guard-down, but this sadly opens the door for their perpetrator to attack. A specific case at the University of Oregon demonstrated that 40% of sorority sisters on their campus had been subjected to rape or attempted rape during their college years. Members should not have to avoid parties entirely, but the best way to stay safe involves always bringing or opening your own drinks (do not drink from free punch bowls or share drinks), and go with people you trust.

In more recent years, there's an added complexity due to the mindset of "hookup culture" which has impacted the behavior of male students and contributed to many sexual assault cases on campus. Some Greek Life members may pressure the person they invite to a party/function to engage in sexual relations afterwards due to the exclusivity or importance of the invite or to impress their peers. Many fraternity brothers bond through "getting sex" which can create a higher risk of rape culture (Canan, 2018). Hookup culture occurs both inside and outside of Greek Life, however fraternity members will often turn a blind eye or engage in "rape-supportive attitudes" in a way that other peers may not. By allowing this behavior to continue, this culture will continue to thrive and sexual assault cases will increase in number.
Institutional Changes - How Fraternity and Sorority Leaders Can Help Prevent Sexual Violence
It is clear that the problem is deeply rooted and not something that can be solved overnight. Banning Greek Life is not the solution but putting the right people in charge of these organizations can allow for healthy cultures to exist within Greek Life. The general party scene that involves drinking will come with risks, and we cannot expect sexual violence to be entirely abolished, but holding those accountable for their actions with strict guidelines and banning them from the organization is an important step towards lowering those unfavorable Greek Life statistics. Students in power within their organization must be held accountable. Here are some changes that can be made to make institutional improvements:

When collaborating with fraternities/sororities for date functions, talk with the leadership teams about consent, sexual violence, and respect. Make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Use chapter meetings to bring up discussions about consent, alcohol use, and rape. Show support for victims; hold perpetrators accountable for their actions.

Do not attempt to cover up sexual violence. When a brother or sister that is close to leadership commits an act of sexual violence - it can be difficult for some to enforce strict rules due to their personal/emotional involvement. However, part of being loyal to your fraternity or sorority is upholding high standards for your members and there cannot be exceptions to the rules.

Observe the structure of parties and figure out if people truly feel safe at events. Create a safe space for those impacted by sexual violence to speak up so that changes can be made. Develop partnerships with agencies on campus such as the Victim Advocate Program and the Police Departments.

Greek Life is very important to many college students and alumni. Banning sororities and fraternities is not the solution, but having these important conversations ensures the safety of those within those communities. Creating a safe space is important and if you are unable to share with those around you, you can always share your story here.

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Let's Get Greek: Sexual Assault Trends Within College Greek Life ~ Making Waves

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There's a difficult topic that isn't discussed when someone signs up to go through sorority or fraternity recruitment: Sexual Assault.

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Expanding our understanding of how violence extends into digital paces is important when learning about sexual abuse. Gender-based violence has adapted to new technologies and women and LGBTQ+ individuals face disproportionate harassment. It is important to redefine violence to include digital threats and control.

What is online sexual abuse? (n.d.). National Sexual Violence Resource Center. https://www.nsvrc.org/saam/2022/learn/whatisonlinesexualabuse

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National Sexual Violence Resource Center

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Online sexual abuse can be any type of sexual harassment, exploitation, or abuse that takes place through screens.

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Title IX enforcement has shifted under recent political leadership, impacting how sexual assault is handed on campuses. Our class discussed how the state often reflects the dominant power structure and this post shows how legal protections for survivors can be rolled back.

Title IX’s Recent Impact on Campus Sexual Assault Policies and Procedures – Penn State Law Review. (2024, April 15). Pennstatelawreview.org. https://www.pennstatelawreview.org/the-forum/title-ixs-recent-impact-on-campus-sexual-assault-policies-and-procedures/

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Title IX’s Recent Impact on Campus Sexual Assault Policies and Procedures – Penn State Law Review

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Misinformation about Plan B affects access and public perception. We discussed how reproductive justice includes accurate healthcare information and autonomy in class. The spread of misinformation impacts marginalized women and their reproductive freedom.

arney, S. (2022, June 7). Misinformation Clouds America’s Most Popular Emergency Contraception. KFF Health News. https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/emergency-contraception-plan-b-private-equity-abortion-debate/

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Misinformation Clouds America’s Most Popular Emergency Contraception - KFF Health News

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At a moment when half of U.S. states stand poised to outlaw or sharply curtail abortion services, the nation’s most popular emergency contraception brand rests in the unlikely stewardship of two private equity firms.

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NDSU's initiative to offer menstrual products aids in period equity and the need for accessible reproductive health tools. The post shows how universities can promote gender equity through small but meaningful changes and offering resources.

Flow on the Go | Student Health Service | NDSU. (2025). Ndsu.edu. https://www.ndsu.edu/studenthealthservice/healthpromotion/flow_on_the_go/

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Flow on the Go | Student Health Service | NDSU

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NDSU Students are able to get free mentrual hygiene products!

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This article explores the psychological effect of the hormonal birth control pill and how medications like it affect mental health. Women's health is often under-researched or dismissed by medical institutions.

hill, sarah. (2020, March 26). Feel like a different person on the pill? Here’s how it affects your mood. Ideas.ted.com. https://ideas.ted.com/how-the-birth-control-pill-affects-your-mood/

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If you think your contraception is making you anxious or depressed, you're not imagining things. Evolutionary psychologist Sarah E. Hill explains what happens to your brain on birth control.

Most women know at least one or two other women who have had a bad reaction to the pill. In fact, the question that many of us have about the pill: "Why does the pill make me crazy?"

Before I get into what the research says about all this, let me just address the elephant in the room - the whole thing about women's sex hormones influencing mood. Which they do. This might be the world's oldest cliché about women, but that doesn't make it any less true. Women's sex hormones influence women's moods. Men's sex hormones affect men's moods. It would be impossible for them not to.

Back to the question. To start with, all of us feel a little crazy sometimes. Life is hard and can make anyone feel anxious and overwhelmed at times. For some women, being on the pill can magnify these feelings, leading to anxiety disorders and depression. But if these things happen to you, it doesn't mean you're crazy; it just means you're on the wrong pill.

Mood-related issues like anxiety and depression are super-common among women on the pill. Almost half of all women who go on the pill stop using it within the first year because of intolerable side effects, and the one most frequently cited is unpleasant changes in mood. Sometimes it's intolerable anxiety; other times, it's intolerable depression; or maybe both simultaneously. And even though some women's doctors may tell them that those mood changes aren't real or important, a growing body of research suggests otherwise.

The Scandinavian nation of Denmark is home to a number of nationwide registers, collections of data from its citizens on different health and social issues. Because all Danish citizens have a unique personal identification number, researchers have been able to link individual people's data across different registers, giving them access to tons of information about patterns of health and social behavior in a whole population.

From these registers, we've learned valuable lessons about the powerful effects that the birth control pill can have on mood. In the first of these studies, the researchers looked at the records of all the healthy, nondepressed women living in Denmark between the ages of 15 and 34. They then followed the prescription and mental health records of these women (more than a million of them) for 14 years to see whether going on hormonal contraceptives influenced the likelihood of later being diagnosed with depression or being prescribed antidepressants.

The researchers found that women on hormonal contraceptives were 50 percent more likely to be diagnosed with depression six months later, compared with women who were not prescribed hormonal contraceptives during this time. They also found the women on hormonal contraceptives were 40 percent more likely to be prescribed an antidepressant than were women who weren't prescribed hormonal contraceptives during this time. The results of this study, as well as others, suggest the pill can increase some women's risk of depression. This seemed particularly true for non-oral products (such as a patch, vaginal ring or hormonal IUD) and for young women (ages 15 to 19), whose brains are not yet done developing and may be more prone to the influence of hormonal signaling.

As a scientist, I'm obliged to point out we don't know for sure that the pills caused this increase. Correlation doesn't equal causation. It's possible the researchers found pill taking and depression to be related because they were each related to some other third variable. For instance, women who seek medical interventions to prevent pregnancy might be more likely to seek medical interventions for depression. Or, getting into a new sexual relationship (which can prompt a pill prescription) could be what's increasing women's depression risk.

However, the researchers statistically tested for the influence of a number of third variables, and each of these tests found that hormonal contraceptives predicted depression risk even after statistically controlling for these third variables. Even though this wasn't a double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment, the researchers took great care with their study design and data analysis and the results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the top medical journal in the US.

More recently, the same team looked at whether hormonal contraceptives might increase women's risk of suicide. Researchers tracked hormonal contraceptive usage and suicide attempts and deaths in all Danish women who'd turned 15 between 1996 and 2013. (As in their prior study, they did not include any women who had previously diagnosed psychological problems or who had used antidepressants. They also didn't include women already on hormonal contraceptives when they entered the study.) They followed the women for an average of eight years and then compared the likelihood of having attempted or successfully committed suicide among the women who were prescribed hormonal contraceptives and those who were not.

The women on hormonal contraceptives were twice as likely to have attempted suicide during this time than the women not on hormonal contraceptives. But the risk of successful suicide attempts was actually higher: It was triple that of women not on hormonal contraceptives. As with depression risk, the biggest negative impact of hormonal contraceptives on suicide risk was found for young women (ages 15 to 19) on non-oral products.

When it comes to why the pill can mess with your mood, the two systems that shoulder most of the blame are the HPA axis and some of our neurotransmitter systems. First, the HPA axis (or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis). It's made up of three systems working together - the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, the adrenal glands - and plays a central role in the body's stress response. The type of blunting of the HPA axis we tend to see in pill-taking women is a known contributor to mental health problems, including the types of mood disturbances characteristic of PTSD. Because lacking the biological tools necessary to deal with stress literally harms your ability to cope, having a broken stress response might be a key player in the development of anxiety and depression. It could also harm emotional well-being in indirect ways through its negative impact on our ability to absorb emotionally meaningful events from our environments.

The second piece is the role that neurotransmitter systems play in making women feel lousy on the pill. Before I explain, I need you to know three quick things.

Quick Thing 1: Neurotransmitters are chemicals that the brain uses to communicate with itself and the rest of the body.
Quick Thing 2: Excitatory neurotransmitters tell your brain cells to get ready for action, making them more likely to fire off messages to other brain cells.
Quick Thing 3: Inhibitory neurotransmitters tell your brain cells to slow their roll, making them less likely to fire off messages to other cells in the brain.

The most prevalent and frequently used inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain is GABA. It's often on the scene in a big way when your brain is trying to slow itself down. GABA gets released when you're relaxing in your PJ pants, and it's also released when doing things like meditation and yoga.

Interestingly, you can get a relaxed GABA-rific experience from other things that stimulate GABA receptors, such as alcohol and benzodiazepines like Xanax. And our bodies actually produce compounds that work much like alcohol and Xanax. One of the most powerful is allopregnanolone, a neurosteroid. It gets synthesized when progesterone is broken down in the body and has the effect of kick-starting action by your GABA receptors.

Unfortunately for women on the pill, the artificial progestins in the pill don't seem to offer this same benefit. In fact, research suggests that women on the pill may have lower levels of these natural sedatives relative to what's observed in its absence, regardless of the point in the cycle.

This can mean bad news for women's mental health. When GABA receptors aren't properly stimulated, it's known to make people feel anxious, overwhelmed and depressed. A number of mental-health-related issues, including panic disorder, depression, bipolar disorder and the mood-related symptoms of PMS, are characterized by lower-than-average levels of GABAergic activity. Lack of such activity can also increase a person's risk of alcohol dependence.

Research suggests that changes in dopamine and serotonin signaling may also play a role in mood-related changes seen on the pill. Dopamine and serotonin, like GABA, are neurotransmitters. These chemicals come on the scene when we're spending time with people we love, eating hot fudge sundaes, falling in love, having sex and having orgasms.

Not surprisingly, these neurotransmitter systems change what they do in response to women's cyclically changing sex hormones. In particular, the research finds that estrogen makes rewarding things feel even more rewarding than they do in its absence and that progesterone attenuates these effects. Estrogen makes sex feel sexier, chocolate taste yummier, and getting status boosts feel boost-ier.

Given that the pill keeps estrogen levels low across the cycle and stimulates progesterone receptors, it's possible the pill might have the effect of dampening reward processing in the brain. And if the world seems unrewarding, this makes us feel depressed. One hallmark symptom of depression is that people no longer find pleasure in things that they used to find pleasure in. So it's also possible that the pill might increase a person's risk of depression by making pleasure less pleasurable. Consistent with this idea, research finds that pill-taking women - when compared with their naturally cycling counterparts - have a blunted positive emotional response to happy things and don't experience activity in the reward centers of their brains when looking at pictures of their romantic partners.

It seems pretty clear from the research that the pill can cause some women some pretty serious problems with their mental health, but the science isn't yet at a point where we can make strong predictions about exactly what's going to happen to whom, and on what.
However, according to the research, you might have a greater risk of experiencing negative mood effects on the pill if:
These bullet points can give you a starting point to initiate a conversation with your doctor about any mental health concerns. They aren't your fate, though. Even if you're an 18-year-old with a family history of depression and you're on the birth control patch, if you aren't experiencing signs of troubled mental health, the chances are incredibly low that you're going to suddenly develop mood problems from birth control. This is especially true if you've been on it for a while and seem to be tolerating it well.

What's more, while some women experience negative mood changes on the pill, some women experience the opposite reaction. They feel a whole lot better and mentally healthier on the pill than off it. Research also finds that the pill can offer huge mood-stabilizing benefits to women who have severe PMS.

The most critical thing about the pill's effects will come from you: How do you feel on it?

Any time you start a new pill, please let someone close to you know about it. Ask them to make note and tell you if they notice any changes in your behavior that might suggest the onset of depression.

Because the hormones in the pill influence what the brain does, it's almost impossible to separate out what the hormones are doing from who we are. We feel like the version of reality that is created by our brain on the pill is real. This can make it difficult to notice depression creeping in. Rather than feeling like the pill is messing with our mood, it just feels like our life is getting crappier or our job has gotten more stressful. If you tell your person that you are trying a new pill, they may be able to help you recognize problems that start to develop so that you can look for a new pill or an alternative means of protecting yourself from pregnancy.

On top of this, consider keeping a journal. If possible, start it before going on the pill so you have a log of how you were feeling before and after. Having hard evidence of your mood prior to the pill can be a good way for you to think about your past more objectively, making it easier to recognize any changes. In each entry, make note of your mood, energy level and well-being using some sort of scale (1="I feel sad/anxious" and 10="I feel great"). This will help you keep tabs on how things change for you (or not) when trying out a new pill.

If you're already on the pill, it's not too late to keep track of how you're feeling. Make a note of your patterns. If you have more happy days than sad ones, that probably means everything's on the right track. None of us feel happy all the time, but we should feel happier more often than sad when things in our lives are going well. If you have fewer happy days than you think you should, talk to your doctor. It could be time to try a new pill or address an issue with your mental health that you've let go too long.
Excerpted with permission from the new book This Is Your Brain on Birth Control: The Surprising Science of Women, Hormones, and the Law of Unintended Consequences by Sarah E. Hill PhD. Published by Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC. © 2019 by Sarah E. Hill. Watch her TEDxVienna Talk now:

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Feel like a different person on the pill? Here's how it affects your mood

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Most women know at least one or two other women who have had a bad reaction to the pill. In fact, the question that many of us have about the pill: "Why does the pill make me crazy?"

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Denial of contraception on religious or policy grounds disproportionally affects women and queer students. Law and gender norms intersect and create social policy under the disguise of policy.

Santilli, M. (2024, October 9). A Deep Dive Into Birth Control Access on College Campuses. Popsugar; POPSUGAR. https://www.popsugar.com/health/college-students-birth-control-on-campus-49400001

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Why It’s Nearly Impossible to Get Birth Control on Some College Campuses

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College students are facing troubles obtaining birth control on some campuses amid contraceptive deserts and changes to reproductive rights.

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This article exposes how global crises often worsen gendered labor expectations. In war zones, women take on the dual burdens of caregiving and sustaining local economies. This aligns with the concept of double burden where women shoulder both paid and unpaid labor during instability.

Shuster, S. (2022, February 2). The Untold Story of the Ukraine Crisis. Time. https://time.com/6144109/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-viktor-medvedchuk/

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Great wars sometimes start over small offenses. A murdered duke. An angered pope. The belief of a lonely king that his rivals aren't playing fair. When historians study why armies began gathering in Europe during the plague of 2021, their interest might turn to a teenage girl, the goddaughter of Moscow's isolated sovereign.

Her name is Daria, a young Ukrainian with a shy smile and big brown eyes. When she was born in 2004, her parents asked their friend Vladimir Putin, then a few years into his reign in Russia, to christen her in the Orthodox tradition they all share. The girl's father, Viktor Medvedchuk, has been close to Putin for decades. They holiday together on the Black Sea. They conduct business. They obsess over the bonds between their countries and the Western forces they see pulling them apart.

"Our relationship has developed over 20 years," Medvedchuk told me in a rare interview last spring in Kyiv, near the start of the current standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine. "I don't want to say I exploit that relationship, but you could say it has been part of my political arsenal."

Putin could say the same about Medvedchuk. The leading voice for Russian interests in Ukraine, Medvedchuk's political party is the biggest opposition force in parliament, with millions of supporters. Over the past year, that party has come under attack. Medvedchuk was charged with treason in May and placed under house arrest in Kyiv. Just last month, the U.S. accused him and his allies of plotting to stage a coup with help from the Russian military.
Read more: What the West Will Never Understand About Putin's Ukraine Obsession
Throughout his 21 years in power, Putin has seen Ukraine as a fraternal nation, tied to Russia by bonds of faith, family, politics, and a millennium of common history. He has spent the past seven years using every tool at his disposal, including coercion and outright invasion, to preserve those ties, as the Ukrainian people increasingly turn toward the West. Short of war, one of the best ways that Putin has to influence Ukraine is through Medvedchuk and his political party. So it should not be surprising that Russia's military standoff with the West has escalated in step with the crackdown against his friend.

Last February, days after the Inauguration of President Joe Biden, America's allies in Kyiv decided to get tough on Medvedchuk. The Ukrainian government started by taking his TV channels off the air, depriving Russia of its propaganda outlets in the country. The U.S. embassy in Kyiv applauded the move. About two weeks later, on Feb. 19, 2021, Ukraine announced that it had seized the assets of Medvedchuk's family. Among the most important, it said, was a pipeline that brings Russian oil to Europe, enriching Medvedchuk and his family-including Putin's goddaughter, Daria-and helping to bankroll Medvedchuk's political party.

The first inkling of Putin's response came less than two days later, at 7 a.m. on Feb. 21. In a little-noticed statement, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the deployment of 3,000 paratroopers to the border with Ukraine for "large-scale exercises," training them to "seize enemy structures and hold them until the arrival of the main force." Those soldiers were the first in a military buildup that has since grown to more than 100,000 Russian troops. In their scramble to respond, the U.S. and its allies have sent planeloads of weapons to Ukraine and thousands of troops to secure the eastern flank of the NATO alliance.

The resulting standoff has revived the tensions of the Cold War and pushed Europe to the brink of a major military conflict. In trying to discern Putin's motives, observers have raised his strategic wish to humble the Americans, divide the Europeans, and restore Moscow's influence over the lands it controlled before its empire crumbled in 1991. But the roots of the crisis have been overlooked. To understand Putin's objectives, you have to understand both his personal and political ties to Ukraine, as well as his long-standing aim to bring the nation under his control. When Medvedchuk was placed under house arrest, the Russian leader called the attack on his proxies "an absolutely obvious purge of the political field," one that threatened to turn Ukraine "into Russia's antithesis, a kind of anti-Russia."
Read more: Alexei Navalny Urges Biden to Stand Up to Putin
Few people have a clearer vantage on Putin's response than the alleged coup plotter, Medvedchuk. In the year before the crisis escalated, he met with Putin several times at his residence near Moscow, despite the pandemic protocols that have kept the Russian leader isolated from all but his top aides. The question that now fills headlines around the world- What does Putin want? -is not a matter of conjecture for his closest friend in Kyiv.

It took me a while to find Medvedchuk's office amid the alleys of the city center. The address led to an old apartment block near the end of a steep slope, with no outward sign of its political significance. Behind the unmarked door, a handful of armed guards looked at me in silence. One proceeded to search my bag, demanding to know whether it contained a knife or "any kind of shiv." Medvedchuk was more cordial. Dressed in a fitted blue suit, he had the look of a Ken doll's father-stiff, tanned, and manicured, with an angular jaw. Upon entering the conference room, he strutted over to a thermostat and asked, "Are you warm enough?"

The story of his friendship with Putin, he said, goes back to the early years of Putin's presidency. Medvedchuk was chief of staff to Putin's counterpart in Kyiv, and they often met at official functions. At the time, Russia had all the influence it wanted in Ukraine. Its economy depended on Russia for cheap gas and cheaper loans, and its leaders had no intention of joining any Western alliances.

To strengthen their bond with the Russian leader, Medvedchuk and his wife, a famous news anchor in Ukraine, asked Putin to be the godfather of their newborn. They have stayed close ever since. In one interview on Russian state TV, Medvedchuk recalled how Putin doted on Daria, bringing her a bouquet of flowers and a teddy bear, when he visited the Medvedchuks at their villa in Crimea.

Their friendship only grew closer after 2014, when a revolution tore their countries apart. Protesters built an encampment on Kyiv's central square that winter, demanding Ukrainian leaders fight corruption and integrate with the West. More than two months of clashes with police ended on a frigid February morning, when security forces opened fire on the demonstrators, killing dozens of them in the streets.

The regime collapsed the following day. Its leaders fled across the border to Russia, and as their political party fell apart, so did the machinery of Russian influence over its neighbor. "There is no legitimate authority in Ukraine now," Putin fumed in a speech at the Kremlin that spring. "No one to talk to." The revolution, he claimed, was nothing more than a U.S.-backed coup, and he responded by ordering his troops to invade. After swiftly taking over Crimea, Russian forces moved into the coal-mining heartland of eastern Ukraine, installing separatist puppet regimes in two of its biggest cities.
Read more: The Man Putin Fears
As Ukraine fought back in the east, its capital became a political battleground. The remnants of the pro-Russian establishment set out to build new parties in Ukraine, each vying for the old regime's voters. "We knew Putin does not want chaos and war in Ukraine in the long term," says an adviser to one of the Ukrainian oligarchs who funded these parties. "He wants a protectorate, a loyal government, like he had before." Russia's allies in Kyiv wanted the right to run for office, to buy up industries, and to control TV networks. As the Russian lawmaker Konstantin Zatulin explained it to me at the time: "This would be our compromise. Russia would have its own soloists in the great Ukrainian choir, and they would sing for us." Under that arrangement, he added, "We would have no need to tear Ukraine apart."

The U.S. was not open to that kind of deal, and the Obama Administration took a hard line against Russia's operatives in Kyiv. Many of them were sanctioned right after Russia invaded in March 2014; Medvedchuk was at the top of the blacklist. Still, by the end of 2018, the pro-Russian parties achieved a breakthrough in Ukraine, forming an alliance called Opposition Platform-For Life. Backed by billionaires sympathetic to Moscow, they owned three television networks in Ukraine. And their party's chairman was Putin's old friend Medvedchuk.

During elections held the following year, Ukraine voted in a new President, an actor and comedian named Volodymyr Zelensky. His popularity derived from a hit sitcom called Servant of the People, in which he starred as a fictional President. Three months later, Zelensky's political party won a majority in parliament. But Medvedchuk's faction came in second place, making it the biggest opposition force in the country. "Millions of citizens voted for us," Medvedchuk told me. "Putin gave a promise to protect them."
Read more: Russia Has Been Warning About Ukraine for Decades. The West Should Have Listened
Medvedchuk's TV channels worked to weaken the new government. "They were eating into the electoral base, just destroying Zelensky," says the President's first national security adviser, Oleksandr Danyliuk. The networks were especially relentless in attacking the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its failure to secure vaccine supplies from Western allies. When Russia released its own vaccine in August 2020, Medvedchuk, his wife, and their daughter Daria were among the first to get it. They then flew to Moscow to talk to Putin. It was the first public meeting the Russian leader had with anyone-unmasked, on camera, and without social distancing-since the pandemic began. Their talks that day resulted in a deal for Russia to supply Ukraine with millions of doses of its vaccine, and to allow Ukrainian labs to produce it free of charge.

When Medvedchuk brought the offer to Kyiv, the government rejected it. So did the U.S. State Department, which accused Russia of using its vaccine as a tool of political influence. But as the death toll mounted in Ukraine-and no vaccine shipments arrived from the West-voters turned away from Zelensky in droves. By the fall of 2020, his approval ratings fell well below 40%, compared with over 70% a year earlier. In some polls taken that December, Medvedchuk's party was in the lead.

Zelensky grew especially concerned about the party's television channels, which he condemned as messengers of Russian propaganda. When he decided to take those channels off the air last February, it was not only a defensive move, says Danyliuk, his former security adviser. It was also conceived as a welcome gift to the Biden Administration, which had made the fight against international corruption a pillar of its foreign policy. As Danyliuk put it, the decision to go after Putin's friend "was calculated to fit in with the U.S. agenda."

Throughout the ensuing military crisis, the U.S. has had no ambassador in Kyiv. The last one, Marie Yovanovitch, was fired in April 2019 after she ran afoul of President Trump's campaign to extract political favors from Ukraine. Trump wanted the Ukrainians to investigate the Biden family, and he froze military aid to Kyiv as a means of pressure. The resulting scandal led to Trump's first impeachment in the House, and it left the U.S. embassy in Kyiv hollowed out and demoralized.

"My chain of command went to sh-t," says Suriya Jayanti, who was then a senior diplomat at the embassy. "We just disappeared." That did not change, she says, after Biden took office last year. His top foreign policy staff was focused on confronting China, she says, and they tended to see Russia as a nuisance to be managed or ignored. "His team didn't care about Russia," Jayanti told me in Kyiv last fall, shortly before she resigned from government. "And they didn't want to hear about Ukraine." Only in recent days, nearly a year into the crisis, did Biden pick a new ambassador to Kyiv, who has not yet been installed.

A senior U.S. official tells TIME that Ukraine has always been a top priority for the Administration: "There has been very extensive and almost constant focus on Ukraine from day one." When the Zelensky government decided to go after Medvedchuk, the U.S. welcomed it as part of Ukraine's struggle to "counter Russian malign influence," the official said.The methods used in this struggle have been novel and controversial. Rather than working through the justice system, Zelensky has imposed sanctions against Ukrainian tycoons and politicians, freezing their assets by decree.

This strategy, which the government calls "de-oligarchization," has targeted many of Zelensky's domestic opponents and, in particular, their television channels. The U.S. has avoided criticizing the crackdown, not wanting to "micromanage" what Ukraine was doing, said the senior U.S. official. But in the case of Medvedchuk, the U.S. embassy cheered Zelensky on. "We support Ukraine's efforts to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity through sanctions," the embassy said in a tweet last February, the day after the sanctions froze Medvedchuk's assets.

The party leader was furious. "This is political repression," Medvedchuk told me. "All my bank accounts are frozen. I can't manage my assets. I can't even pay my utility bills."

In April, as Russian forces assembled at the border, Zelensky traveled to the front lines to meet his troops, and invited me to come along. Military helicopters got us most of the way to the trenches, but the last few hundred paces required a hike through the mud with a handful of soldiers and bodyguards. One of them lugged a big machine gun, with boxes of shells latched to his belt.

The President spent the day talking to his troops, dining with them, and handing out medals. Considering the number of Russian tanks poised to invade from across the nearby border, he seemed remarkably upbeat. We spent the night near the garrison, and he arrived at the mess hall for breakfast in a track suit, fresh from a morning jog through the war zone.
Read more: Documents Reveal Erik Prince's $10 Billion Plan to Make Weapons and Create a Private Army in Ukraine
On the flight back that day, we talked about Medvedchuk and his TV networks, and whether it seemed wise in hindsight to shut them down. Zelensky made no apologies. "I consider them devils," the President told me. "Their narratives seek to disarm Ukraine of its statehood." As the Kyiv skyline appeared through the window and the plane began to descend, Zelensky grew upset. "Al Capone killed a lot of people, but he got locked up over his taxes," he told me. "I think these TV channels killed a lot of people through the information war."

Some of his advisers, especially in the intelligence community, were less enthusiastic about the move against Medvedchuk. "At least he's the devil we know," one retired spy chief told me in Kyiv, agreeing to discuss the issue on condition of anonymity. Since Russia first started the war in 2014, Medvedchuk has served as one of the lead negotiators in numerous rounds of peace talks, often winning the release of prisoners of war. "He has direct access to Putin," the spy chief told me. That kind of access is rare, he says, and it has made Medvedchuk an effective mediator.

Zelensky was not moved by such arguments. On May 12, about a month after our trip to the front lines, Ukrainian authorities issued an arrest warrant for Medvedchuk. Prosecutors alleged that he had profited from the Russian occupation of Crimea, and they charged him with treason. A court ordered him to remain under house arrest pending trial, cut off from his voters and prevented from attending sessions of parliament.

U.S. law enforcement went after his allies. Oleh Voloshyn, a prominent member of Medvedchuk's party, was greeted by the FBI when he arrived in Washington last July. Two agents approached him at Dulles International Airport and asked to have a word in private, away from his wife and infant son, who were traveling with him. Voloshyn, who serves as Medvedchuk's envoy in the West, spent the next three hours answering the agents' questions. "They took my cell phone," Voloshyn told me of the incident, which has not been previously reported. "And they took all the information from my cell phone."

In a statement on Jan. 20, the U.S. government leveled an astonishing series of allegations against Voloshyn and Medvedchuk. It claimed that they are part of an ongoing Kremlin plot to install a puppet government in Ukraine, propped up by a Russian military occupation. "Russia has directed its intelligence services to recruit current and former Ukrainian government officials to prepare to take over the government of Ukraine and to control Ukraine's critical infrastructure with an occupying Russian force," said the statement from the U.S. Treasury Department, which imposed sanctions on Voloshyn and other alleged plotters.

When we spoke by phone the following day, Voloshyn had already pulled his money out of the bank and was preparing to leave Kyiv with his family. "Maybe Serbia," he says of his destination. "Maybe Russia." He told me he has no intention of taking power in Ukraine with help from the Russian military, and said the aim of his party was always to win power peacefully-either through elections or, as Voloshyn put it, a diplomatic "compromise" between the Russia and the West. "There is no third option," he says. "Russia either gets the influence it wants by peaceful means, or it gets it by force."

With Medvedchuk sidelined and his party in retreat, the Kremlin has no clear path to influence over Ukraine through politics, and that raises the temptation to use hard power, Voloshyn told me. "You have to understand," he says. "There are hawks around Putin who want this crisis. They are ready to invade. They come to him and say, 'Look at your Medvedchuk. Where is he now? Where is your peaceful solution? Sitting under house arrest? Should we wait until all pro-Russian forces are arrested?'"

Nearly 12 months since it began, the crisis in Ukraine has become far bigger and more dangerous than any political grudge. In early December, as over 100,000 Russian troops stood at the border with Ukraine, Biden held a call with Putin to defuse the tensions. According to the White House, the President offered to hear out all of Russia's "strategic concerns," opening the door to a far more sweeping set of talks. It was a breakthrough for Putin to get a U.S. President to engage with him on the future of the NATO alliance, which Putin has long described as the main threat to Russian security.

The response from Russian diplomats smacked of an old negotiating tactic: start high. They demanded a written guarantee from the U.S. that Ukraine would never join NATO. They also told the U.S. to withdraw its military forces from Eastern Europe, retreating to positions they held before Putin took power. As the lead Russian envoy put it ahead of talks in January, "NATO needs to pack up its stuff and get back to where it was in 1997." Rather than defusing the standoff, Biden's overture allowed Russia to air a long list of grievances against the West, unleashing what one Kremlin insider in Moscow described to me as "an enormous pile of pent-up tensions."

As the talks progressed through January, Russians came to believe they had the upper hand as long as they could keep up the military pressure on Ukraine. "It's the perfect time to make some trades, to get sanctions removed, to talk about security concerns," says the Kremlin insider, who agreed to discuss the negotiations on condition of anonymity. "The logic is simple," the source adds. "If we don't put a lot of fear into them, we will not get to a clear solution, because that's just how the Western system works. It's very hard for them to reach a consensus on something. All those moving parts, all those checks and balances, each one pulling in different directions. So the aim is to present a threat of such massive consequences that it forces everyone on that side to agree."

The gambit appears to be failing. The U.S. has rejected Russia's core demands out of hand, and prepared a raft of sanctions that would cut much of the Russian economy off from the rest of the world. "The gradualism of the past is out, and this time we'll start at the top of the escalation ladder and stay there," says a senior Administration official.

Biden has begun to warn Ukraine and other allies that a Russian invasion looks imminent. Over 8,500 U.S. troops were put on high alert in January, prepared to deploy to Eastern Europe alongside naval ships and warplanes. The State Department ordered nonessential staff and family members to leave the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, it said, out of "an abundance of caution."

It is far from clear whether peace talks can bring Europe back from the brink of war, or what Putin might consider a face-saving compromise. Under the Kremlin's pandemic protocols, the Russian leader has been more isolated during this crisis than at any point in his career. In early January, when he would normally celebrate Orthodox Christmas among the crowds at a Russian cathedral, the Kremlin issued footage of the President alone with a priest, solemnly holding a candle in the chapel of his private residence. "Very few people can speak to him now," the Kremlin insider told me. "The world inside his head is only his own."

In Kyiv, Putin's friend is even more isolated. Stripped of its main TV channels and beset by criminal charges, Medvedchuk's party has been sinking in the polls. Medvedchuk remains under house arrest, with a tracking device affixed to his ankle and police officers stationed outside his home. His daughter's security was such a concern that he declined to say anything about her whereabouts. But one of his associates told me that Daria remains in Kyiv, surrounded by private security guards. The main concern, the associate said, is kidnapping. "But yes, she's still here."

- With reporting by Leslie Dickstein and Simmone Shah/New York; and Brian Bennett, W.J. Hennigan, and Nik Popli/Washington

Contact us at letters@time.com.

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Great wars sometimes start over small offenses. A murdered duke. An angered pope. The belief of a lonely king that his rivals aren't playing fair. When historians study why armies began gathering in Europe during the plague of 2021, their interest might turn to a teenage girl, the goddaughter of Moscow's isolated sovereign.

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Women are socialized to manage their emotions in the workplace, which goes uncompensated and unrecognized. Emotional labor reinforces gender norms and it is part of the undervaluing of feminized labor in a capitalist system.

David, S. (2016, September 8). Managing the Hidden Stress of Emotional Labor. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/09/managing-the-hidden-stress-of-emotional-labor

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The report outlines the gender wage gap and how even in 2025 inequality in pay based on gender is still present. Our lectures talked about how gender is socially constructed through practices like wage discrimination. The article supported the argument that gender inequality remains deeply embedded in our economic systems.

Holder, M. (2025, March 18). Gender Pay Gap Statistics: A Comprehensive Analysis - Equal Pay Today. Equal Pay Today. https://www.equalpaytoday.org/gender-pay-gap-statistics/

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Gender Pay Gap Statistics 2025: A Comprehensive Analysis - Equal Pay Today

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The gender pay gap—the disparity in earnings between men and women—remains a significant global issue, reflecting deep-seated inequalities in labor markets worldwide. This article delves into current statistics, historical trends, regional variations, and contributing factors to the gender pay gap for a better understanding. Key PointsGlobal Gender Pay Disparity: Women worldwide earn approximately 77 cents […]

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Certain jobs are gendered, leading to unequal economic opportunities between men and women. Gender hierarchies limit women within the workforce. These limits are represented within hiring and wage policies.

Zhavoronkova, M., Khattar, R., & Brady, M. (2022, March 29). Occupational Segregation in America. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/occupational-segregation-in-america/

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Occupational Segregation in America

A nurse, right, attends to a 9-day-old child as the child's mother looks on inside the pediatric ward of a medical treatment facility in Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, December 2021. (Getty/Barbara Davidson-Pool)

Occupational segregation occurs when one demographic group is overrepresented or underrepresented in a certain job category. As an enduring feature of the American labor market, it diminishes wages and working conditions for all workers in a job where marginalized groups are overrepresented; contributes to overall wage gaps based on immutable and often intersecting demographic characteristics; and limits economic growth. The causes of occupational segregation include societal biases about particular demographics of workers that are embedded in public and private systems, in policy choices, and in operations across education, training, and work.

This issue brief analyzes existing research on occupational segregation on the topics of race, ethnicity, and gender and presents two approaches that demonstrate its impact: occupational composition and demographic concentration.

1. The occupational composition approach, presented via an interactive visualization (jump to interactive), shows how certain demographic groups are overrepresented or underrepresented in different occupations. For example, Black women constitute 6 percent of employed workers but make up 32 percent of home health aides, where they earn on average $23,803 per year.¹

2. The demographic concentration approach (jump to tables) shows how employment for demographic groups is concentrated across a set of occupations. For example, 19 percent of Black women work in just five occupations with an average salary of $30,789.²

These two approaches offer a more complete picture of both how individual jobs are segregated and how clustering within those jobs limits occupational choice and affects groups' economic security. Policy solutions that address occupational segregation should seek to both improve wages and working conditions in low-quality employment and create greater, equitable access to high-quality jobs.

Occupational segregation at the intersection of race, gender, disability, and more

While occupational segregation has been more extensively studied on topics of gender, race, and ethnicity, it can also occur when any group is over- or underrepresented in an occupation. Just as segregation may be most harmful at the intersection of race and gender-for women of color-there is more potential for negative impacts when layering in additional historically marginalized demographics such as disability, immigration status, or LGBTQI+ status. Future CAP work on this subject will leverage the framework established in this brief and center the experiences of other marginalized workers, including workers with disabilities of various backgrounds.

Systematized historical exclusion

Occupational segregation is the direct result of societal biases and policy choices. At the turn of the 20th century, 20 percent of women-and only 5 percent of married women-worked outside the home, with Black women almost twice as likely to participate in the labor force as white women.³ By 1970, increases in high school education and graduation rates, rising demand for clerical labor, and changing social norms led to an increase in these rates, with 50 percent of single women and 40 percent of married women participating in the labor force. However, before 1963,⁴ employers could still legally pay women less than men, and before 1978,⁵ employers could legally terminate women on the grounds of pregnancy or marriage-meaning that for many women, their careers were often short-lived, intermittent, or viewed as secondary to that of their husbands. In 1969, about 25 percent of all working women were employed in just five occupations: secretary, household worker, bookkeeper, elementary school teacher, and waitress.⁶

Occupational segregation is the direct result of societal biases and policy choices.

Discrimination, harassment, and stereotypes

Systems and policy choices reflect stereotypes, bias, and perceptions of gender, racial, ethnic, and disability status, and they significantly influence and limit an individual's occupational choice. Florence Nightingale, credited with the professionalization of nursing in the late 19th century, created a new role for women in the workplace at a time when the concept was truly novel, proclaiming that nursing duties "could only satisfactorily be done by a woman."¹⁷ Today, characteristics seen as inherently "female" are associated with traditionally female-dominated occupations.¹⁸ For example, women are stereotyped as caring and domestic, and thus likely to be successful in teaching, nursing, or caregiving roles, or as physically weak and unauthoritative, and thus unsuccessful in construction and trades or management positions. Over time, these perceptions are strengthened and perpetuated by norms embedded in systems such as education and workplace recruitment.

Today, women are most likely to report sexual harassment to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in industries that are the most male dominated.

Today, women are most likely to report sexual harassment to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in industries that are the most male dominated, such as construction, utilities, mining, and transportation and warehousing.²⁴ This lessens the likelihood of integration, as women may opt out of joining or leave male-dominated jobs because of their experiences or concerns over harassment. Integration is most difficult for groups who face intersecting biases, such as women of color. For example, in corporate contexts, women of color-particularly Black women-are least likely to report having proactive or defensive support from managers, thus undermining promotability and leading to significant underrepresentation in C-suite roles.²⁵

Impacts of education on occupational segregation

Occupational segregation in the labor market is closely tied to the design of K-12 and postsecondary educational systems. Girls perform on par or better than boys in fourth to eighth grade math and science exams and equally enroll in advanced math and science courses as they move into high school, but a gap emerges and widens as they progress through high school and higher education.²⁶ This gap is particularly large for Black and Latino girls, who are underrepresented in science and math professions. Vocational education can also more directly track, or segregate, students into certain occupations. Policymakers initially conceived vocational training as a solution to a shortage of labor in newly industrialized settings and an approach to teaching a sudden influx of new students, often from poor, immigrant, rural, or other minority backgrounds.²⁷ However, it often directed lower-income students into occupational training programs, while traditional liberal arts education was reserved for wealthier, largely white students. Today, despite significant investments in improving the quality of vocational education and increased calls to ensure all students have access to career training in high schools, racial disparities remain: Black and Latino students are less likely to enroll in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classes with higher earning potential and more likely to enroll in hospitality and human services programs.²⁸

There are 17 Hispanic women and nine Black women for every 100 white men earning a bachelor's degree in engineering.

These differences also persist among students who pursue postsecondary education. Hispanic and Black students are significantly underrepresented in four-year STEM majors such as physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering. The gap widens for women of color. For example, there are 17 Hispanic women and nine Black women for every 100 white men earning a bachelor's degree in engineering.²⁹ Furthermore, the strong correlation between degree attainment and higher income masks the underlying reality that the cost of attendance, unpaid internships,³⁰ and time constraints on the ability to work for pay while in school can make the eventual payoff of degrees untenable for some students,³¹ particularly students of color, whose families have on average less wealth than white families.³² This leads to the overrepresentation of certain demographic groups in jobs that do not require longer educational pathways. And occupational segregation persists regardless of educational attainment: Even among those who have attained higher education, workers of color and women occupy different, often lower-paid roles compared with white men. (see interactive visualization)

Impacts of occupational segregation on wages and the economy

Occupational segregation contributes to existing gender and racial wage gaps

Segregation in jobs significantly contributes to persistent gender and racial wage gaps. Working women overall earn 73 cents for every dollar a white, non-Hispanic man earns, while women of color experience larger pay gaps, with Black women earning 58 cents and Latina women earning 49 cents for every dollar a white, non-Hispanic man earns.³⁸ While overall, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women earn around 75 cents³⁹ for every dollar a white, non-Hispanic man earns, further disaggregated data show that specific communities within these groups, such Burmese women, experience some of the largest racial and gender wage gaps.⁴⁰ Black and Hispanic men also consistently earn less than white men.⁴¹ Similarly, wage suppression in sectors experiencing occupational segregation is not limited only to the overrepresented group in question. In predominantly female roles, occupational earnings are lower across the board for all workers in those roles, across different genders, races, and ethnicities.⁴² Highly gender-segregated labor markets depress wages for all women in that market but particularly the earnings of Black women. Devaluation is especially evident as roles become more integrated: In some cases, as women make up a larger share of an occupation over time, the pay in that occupation decreases.⁴³

Low wages limit the capacity of individuals to weather financial shocks, spend, save, and accumulate wealth and retire with dignity. This is particularly important in households where marginalized workers are the family's breadwinner-common for mothers of color.⁴⁴ Occupational segregation negatively affects not only workers but also employers and the economy more broadly. Low wages are associated with high turnover within an occupation, a burden for employers who then must use resources for hiring and training, lowering productivity.⁴⁵ Moreover, as occupational segregation limits an individual's choice to work where their skills are best matched, it can further lower productivity.⁴⁶ Unsurprisingly, balanced, gender-integrated teams and management are more productive and profitable than segregated ones-and at a macro level, economies with labor markets with higher levels of gender segregation have experienced lower levels of economic growth since 1980.⁴⁷

Occupational segregation today: By the numbers

The two datasets below-on occupational composition and demographic concentration-demonstrate how occupational segregation presents in the labor market today.

1. Occupational composition

This interactive visualization explores what groups are over- or underrepresented in a specific job. Below are a few sample conclusions from this dataset:

Asian American or Pacific Islander women across all levels of education constitute 3 percent of total employment and are most overrepresented as manicurists, at 51 percent of workers in this occupation, earning $21,228 per year.

Black men with at least a bachelor's degree make up 1 percent of total employment and are most overrepresented as probation officers, at 8 percent of workers in this occupation, earning $56,013 per year.

White men with at least a bachelor's degree constitute 14 percent of total employment and are most overrepresented as aircraft pilots and flight engineers, at 65 percent of workers in this occupation, earning $161,888 per year.

2. Demographic concentration

Tables 1 and 2 present the top five jobs that selected demographic groups work in overall, thus demonstrating how occupation contributes to a group's overall economic security. For example, 18 percent of Hispanic or Latina women work in five occupations that pay an average wage of $23,196, while 14 percent of white men work in five occupations that pay an average wage of $59,670.
Table 1

A framework for policy solutions to end occupational segregation

Government at all levels must address occupational segregation by both raising the floor and making the ceiling more accessible. First, policy solutions must improve the quality of all jobs, particularly those where marginalized workers are overrepresented. This ensures that jobs are not devalued due to the composition of the sector's workers. Policymakers can increase the quality of low-wage work in a variety of ways, including raising the minimum wage;⁴⁸ ending the tipped minimum wage and subminimum wage;⁴⁹ enhancing collective bargaining access and protections; and ensuring all workers have access to paid medical and family leave.⁵⁰ Second, policymakers and government at all levels must diversify high-quality jobs to allow underrepresented workers to succeed in those roles. This can be done through ensuring equitable access to secondary and postsecondary education,⁵¹ workforce development,⁵² and apprenticeship programs;⁵³ strengthening anti-harassment⁵⁴ and anti-discrimination measures and enforcement; passing paycheck fairness laws; and setting incentives, goals, and requirements for employers to hire equitably.

Conclusion

Occupational segregation affects the personal and economic dignity of millions of Americans, particularly women and workers of color, and it depresses wages and limits economic growth. The product of intentional policy decisions, lawmakers and government at all levels can mitigate its impacts through policies that acknowledge this labor market condition and actively work to address it.
The authors would like to thank Beth Almeida, Mia Ives-Rublee, Lily Roberts, David Ballard, Nicole Lee Ndumele, Maggie Jo Buchanan, Marcella Bombardieri and Abby Quirk for their input and Anona Neal for her fact-checking.

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.

Associate Director, Economic Analysis

Senior Data Visualization Developer

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Occupational Segregation in America Occupational segregation occurs when one demographic group is overrepresented or underrepresented in a certain job category. As an enduring feature of the American labor market, it diminishes wages and working conditions for all workers in a job where marginalized groups are overrepresented; contributes to overall wage gaps based on immutable and often intersecting demographic characteristics; and limits economic growth.