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Women still at an alarming rate in the U.S. from giving birth

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Women still at an alarming rate in the U.S. from giving birth

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When Brittany Ferrell earned her pediatric nursing degree from the University of Missouri St. Louis in May of 2014, she'd already had lots of experience as a community activist.

During two years as president of the Black Students' Nursing Association, Ferrell helped develop community outreach programs and workshops about sexual, mental and nutritional health, and used social media to publicize them widely.

Ferrell's desire to link activism with neighborhoods came to an explosive head in August of 2014, after an unarmed 18-year-old black youth named Michael Brown was shot and killed by police in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri.

During nationally-televised protests, advocacy moved from the academic to the neighborhoods for Ferrell. She says she participated in the outcry about Brown's death for 100 straight nights. Her vocal, prominent presence led to her being one of the central subjects of the 2017 Netflix documentary about the Ferguson uprising entitled "Whose Streets?"

Ferrell is known throughout Missouri and the Midwest for her community organizing and activism. She's most passionate about the challenges for pregnant women of color in St. Louis and beyond.

"There's absolutely no reason why black women should be dying at the rate we're dying," Ferrell says. "Just like state violence is allowing black folks to be shot dead in the street, and no one's being held accountable or even having to atone for the death of black bodies, the same thing is happening in these medical institutions."

That Ferrell's reproductive health activism is unfolding in a town that made international headlines for social justice is no coincidence.

Missouri's status as the state with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the U.S. makes it a prime stage for America's burgeoning "birth equity movement," which suggest that factors like poverty, racism, social and economic policy impact African American mothers and babies from the moment they're born.

More than 700 women die each year in the U.S. from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth. Black women have a maternal mortality rate three times higher than that of white women. At least 60 percent of maternal deaths are preventable.

The House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill this week, the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act, to fund state committees to review and investigate deaths of expectant and new mothers, to train providers to improve the quality of care and to make a summary of each maternal death available to the public. The bipartisan legislation, which authorizes $12 million a year in new funds for five years, would pay for research that would yield more accurate data and identify the specific factors fueling the death of mothers, enabling states local and state governments to develop more effective strategies to address the issue. The bill still must be approved by the U.S. Senate.

In fact, the past few years have yielded an unprecedented focus on the issue of maternal health-and death-for black American women. At the forefront of this movement are organizations like the National Birth Equity Collaborative, and the group Black Mamas Matter, both comprised of academicians, medical professionals and community health activists who have collaborated to develop compelling personal stories, research and policy strategies to reinforce the message that black women face serious, quantifiable risk of death or major disability related to pregnancy. The crisis is so real that a coalition of black women mayors from across the nation have formed a coalition intended to direct policies and resources to address the problem, without waiting for federal intervention.

"We can't just talk about our reproductive health and rights from a single issue lens. Our lives are much more complex than that," says Monica Simpson, executive director of the Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective based in Atlanta, GA. "The way that the multiple layers of oppression show up in our world is not the same way that privileged communities get to experience these issues. This is why black women came up with the term 'reproductive justice,' which is looking at connection between the very real social justice issues that come into our lives every single day."

The irrefutable data around black women and maternal death is so negative, that black women are far from the only stakeholders who are alarmed by the issue.

"What we see in maternal mortality is what we see everywhere else," says Dr. William Callaghan, Chief of the Maternal and Infant Health Branch in the Division of Reproductive Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Black men are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer as white men. There's a litany of that type of disparity. It's certainly highlighted in maternal mortality, because you're talking in most instances about otherwise healthy people with families, and oftentimes orphaned babies. "

Callaghan agrees with reproductive health activists that the ways race and ethnicity are encountered and processed in the medical setting directly impacts the issue.

"There's all kinds of implicit bias, racial and unconscious bias about somebody who presents with a condition or symptoms that look a lot like something ordinary but isn't. These judgement calls can occur around race. What they say is judged in a way that is based on their racial background.

"The other layer of fragmentation is the experience of being a black woman in America, and the intergenerational effects of racism and segregation. It all plays out through biology."

Pamela Merritt wasn't raised to be a reproductive justice activist. Though her solid middle class upbringing in St. Louis, Missouri was fueled by parents who helped register neighbors to vote and espoused civil rights, they also worked hard to ensure that their children attended the best schools, wore the best clothes, spoke with clear, precise English.

The "payoff for respectability," as Merritt put it, came in the form of a six-figure job selling radio advertising in Dallas. While there, two things happened to spark her activism. The first occurred when a high-end retail client submitted a written request that their product not be advertised on "urban radio." Merritt knew what that meant-they had no interest in black customers.

The next epiphany occurred when, at age 28, Merritt developed a severe case of uterine fibroids, along with endometriosis. She sought recommendations for an OB/GYN from her white work colleagues.

"There I sat with my perfect English, wearing my expensive suits and my expensive handbag, and I walked into that office and got treated like shit.," Merritt says. "I was told that I needed to have a baby as soon as possible, because 'most of you have had kids by now.' I was spoken to like a piece of meat by specialists who never once asked me if I was in pain."

When Merritt shared her story with her African American female friends, she discovered she wasn't alone. "So many of them had experiences like mine and worse. And we were all what you would consider upper middle class. That's when I drew the line from where I stood to where a young, lower-income black woman would probably go through in that same setting. And that's when I couldn't just turn my back."

Today, Merritt is to co-founder and executive director of Reproaction, self-described as an advocacy group "upholding abortion rights and advancing reproductive justice as a matter of human dignity." The group also monitors reproductive health spending in the Missouri, organizes rallies and demonstrations against "fake clinics," and liaises with state legislators to make sure that reproductive health issues stay on the radar.

Reproaction seeks to amplify the work of activists like 31-year-old Brittany "Tru" Kellman, who's on track to become the one of the first fully-licensed African American professional midwives in Missouri's history in 2019. Kellman founded the Jamaa Birth Village, a support group in Ferguson.

Raised in Ferguson from the age of five, Kellman was pregnant by age 13 and in an abusive relationship. By age 17, Kellman was pregnant again, with no support and in yet another abusive relationship. So she saved up for an abortion.

Just days before the scheduled procedure, Kellman says she was contacted by the Ferguson police department about some past due traffic tickets. To avoid jail, she used her abortion money.

"I tried to kill myself multiple times after I had my second son," Kellman explains. "I spiraled so far down, I just didn't see any reason to keep going." Three books helped save her life: "Sacred Pampering Principles: An African American Woman's Guide to Self-Care and Inner Renewal," a book about yoga, and another about spiritual midwifery.

"I went on a path of self-discovery starting in 2007. I realized I deserved to be treated with respect. I needed to treat myself with respect. It really laid the foundation for my midwifery training." Kellman even traveled to Ghana to study traditional midwifery and birth support.

Kellman founded Jamaa in October of 2015, and began her formal midwifery apprenticeship in January of 2016, offering pregnancy support from her home at the same time.

That training also helped her realize how far too many women in North St. Louis are often completely isolated and lacking information, guidance and support as they consider getting pregnant, during those nine months and after birth.

Which is ironic, many birth equity advocates say, considering the role African American women have played in America's reproductive health history. Throughout the slavery era and into the early 20 th century, African American "granny midwives," were unofficially charged with overseeing the majority of births in many southern and rural settings, for black and white women alike. Only the advent of modern medical organizations and policies that outlawed non-hospital based deliveries fueled the demise of home deliveries-and with it the reverence for granny midwives.

But in the 21 st century, African American women are once again taking the lead in the effort to ensure equitable access to care and support for women of color. In September of 2018, Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser convened a Maternal and Infant Health summit featuring African American female mayors of Flint Michigan, Gary Indiana, Baltimore, Maryland and Hartford, Connecticut. An audience of nearly 1,500 gleaned information about the latest research, policies and community health initiatives aimed at supporting better maternal and reproductive health for black women.

And in August of 2018, Bowser signed an agreement with George Washington University Hospital that would create a state of the art hospital and trauma center--and a full-fledged maternity ward-in Ward 8, one of the poorest, mostly minority areas of Washington, DC. Construction is slated to begin in 2020, with a goal of opening in 2023.

"Big city mayors recognize this problem, and we are acting on what we know works to solve it," Bowser says. "Too often, any maternal death in our communities is outsized, in terms of the impact it has on families. Mayors are being forced to extend our reach to do things we used to rely on the federal government to provide. With this issue, we have to call on the knowledge, and the voices and the energy of our communities to save lives. We can't wait for the next study or report."

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Can the lives of mothers giving birth be saved?

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When Brittany Ferrell earned her pediatric nursing degree from the University of Missouri St. Louis in May of 2014, she'd already had lots of experience as a community activist. During two years as president of the Black Students' Nursing Association, Ferrell helped develop community outreach programs and workshops about sexual, mental and nutritional health, and used social media to publicize them widely.

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Red Table Talk: Issues with privilege and adoption

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Red Table Talk: Issues with privilege and adoption

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18M views · 106K likes | Should White People Adopt Black Kids? | RTT takes on the controversial topic of interracial adoption. Jada & Gammy are joined by “Sex and The City's” Kristin Davis, a mother of two adopted... | By Red Table Talk | Facebook

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RTT takes on the controversial topic of interracial adoption. Jada & Gammy are joined by “Sex and The City's” Kristin Davis, a mother of two adopted...

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Sex Trafficking in Central Minnesota: a Community Issue

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Sam Smith has come out as non-binary saying he feels "like a woman sometimes" and has considered having a sex change.

He was speaking to actress Jameela Jamil about fame, body image and confidence.

"I've always had a little bit of a war going within my body and my mind," Sam said in the interview.

"I do think like a woman sometimes, in my head. Sometimes I've questioned 'Do I want a sex change?'

"It's something I still think about, like, 'Do I want to?'"

Many non-binary people don't identify as either male or female and use the pronouns they or them instead of he or she.

Sam says listening to conversations about being non-binary made him realise that was how he identified.

"I'm not male or female, I think I flow somewhere in between. It's all on the spectrum," he says.

He added that he had always resented being "feminine in many ways" and describes being non-binary as being "your own special creation".

'Existing between genders'

"I knew I was different until the age of 21," China, who lives in Leeds and identifies as non-binary, tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.

China, like Sam, says that discovering other people who identified as non-binary helped them understand how they perceived their gender.

"When I started started studying gender as part of my English degree it hit me like a thunderbolt - I was non-binary.

"I've always existed between the two genders.

"When you find out that there are actual terms around it, it's real, it's political and scientific you get attached to it."

But non-binary people like China and writer Jamie Windust say that they face daily scrutiny from other people.

'Fetishised'

"I don't mind the questions but context is important," Jamie tells Newsbeat.

"With most people they don't have that context, we'll just be talking and having a normal conversation and it'll go from zero to 100 and they'll ask something really bizarre about myself - usually about my body.

"You only need to know that if we're having sex."

In his interview with Jameela Jamil, Sam Smith says he has dated men who identify as heterosexual and believes "you fall in love with people, not genitals".

But both China and Jamie say that dating as a non-binary person can be a complicated experience.

"It feels like I'm something for people to tick off the list or to experience. That can be quite damaging when it comes to building a relationship," says Jamie.

They say non-binary people can be "fetishised" by people who just want to broaden their sexual experiences.

Sam Smith has previously dated model Jonathon Ziezel and 13 Reason Why actor Brandon Flynn - although he has not spoken about how his non-binary identity has affected his love life.

Miley Cyrus: 'Modern relationships aren't about sexuality'

But he does say coming out as non-binary has helped him become happier with his own body image.

"I am feminine in many ways and I've always resented that," he says.

"I'll never look like that because there's a bit of a woman in me who won't let me look like that. I put on weight in places women put on weight.

"That spring-boarded everything actually. That's me looking at myself and thinking maybe I'm not a man, maybe I'm not a woman, maybe I'm just me."

Justice League actor Ezra Miller came out as non-binary in 2018 and Miley Cyrus has previously described herself as gender-neutral.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here.

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Sam Smith has come out as non-binary saying he feels "like a woman sometimes" and has considered having a sex change. He was speaking to actress Jameela Jamil about fame, body image and confidence. "I've always had a little bit of a war going within my body and my mind," Sam said in the interview.

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Women escapes from abusive boyfriend by giving a  note to the Veterinarian 

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Women escapes from abusive boyfriend by giving a  note to the Veterinarian 

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© Provided by The Guardian

A Chilean protest song about rape culture and victim shaming has become a viral anthem for feminists around the world.

Un Violador en Tu Camino - A Rapist in Your Path - was first performed in late November as Chile's nationwide uprising against social inequality pushed into its second month.

© catalyst Images

The song was written by Latesis, a feminist theatre group based in the city of Valparaíso, who credited Chile's women protesters for helping spread the work around the world.

"It was never intended to be a protest song - the women of the marches transformed it into something more" said Paula Cometa, speaking on behalf of the group, whose other members are Sibila Sotomayor, Daffne Valdés, and Lea Cáceres.

"Un violador en tu camino", convocatoria Red de Actrices Chilenas @RACH, frente al Museo Chileno de Arte Contemporáneo (Santiago, Chile)#LasTesis pic.twitter.com/b6zRtbHsZ4
- Adri (@fixasttyles) November 30, 2019

Another section repudiates the many ways that women are blamed for falling victim to sexual violence ("And it's not my fault / nor where I was / nor what I wore") before concluding: "The rapist is you."

"In the Chilean judicial system, stereotypes and biases harm women victims of sexual violence," said Bárbara Sepúlveda Hales, spokeswoman for the feminist lawyer group Abofem. "In many trials, the life and sexual behavior of the victim is exposed as if it were a justification for the aggression they suffered."

"It adapted to the moment that we are now living in Chile. The violence and the human rights violations that women have been exposed to recently,'' she said.

Chile's largest performance of the song took place on Thursday night outside Santiago's National Stadium - which became notorious as a prison camp and torture centre after the 1973 military coup which brought Augusto Pinochet to power. An official report on human rights during the dictatorship found that almost every one of the female victims interviewed had suffered some form of sexual violence.

Thursday's performance brought together thousands of women, including older chilenas who lived through the dictatorship and their younger counterparts protesting today.

"They held prisoners here, women who were harassed and sexually tortured," said Victoria Gallardo, 71, who was participating in the event. "I cried the first time I heard Un Violador en Tu Camino. I'm so proud of the young women of today - and this performance represents us all."
MORE IN DEPTH: Pelosi resisted Trump's impeachment - now she's the public face (The Washington Post) US confronts homelessness: Is sleeping on the street a right? (LA Times) When Pete Buttigieg was a 'whiz kid' (The New York Times) After Brexit, will Northern Ireland return to violence? (The Washington Post)

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Chilean anti-rape anthem becomes international feminist phenomenon

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© Provided by The Guardian A Chilean protest song about rape culture and victim shaming has become a viral anthem for feminists around the world. Un Violador en Tu Camino - A Rapist in Your Path - was first performed in late November as Chile's nationwide uprising against social inequality pushed into its second month.

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Pussy Riot's Activists Talk Protests, Poisonings and Putin

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TIME caught up with Pussy Riot activists Olga Kyrachyova and Veronika Nikulshina, who stormed the pitch at the World Cup final in Russia

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Building Movements through a Black, Queer, Feminist 

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Building Movements through a Black, Queer, Feminist 

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Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements is an important read for anyone wanting to know about the long history of the Black radical tradition and the Black feminists and LGBTQ people are often forgotten in its retelling. In this interview, author and organizer Charlene Carruthers discusses what it means to use a Black, queer, feminist lens to build movements, and how this lens is central to organizing effectively for collective liberation.
Samantha Borek: The concept of a "Black, queer, feminist lens" is introduced at the beginning of Unapologetic. What is a Black, queer, feminist lens and why is it such an important concept to understanding the book as well as movement building?
Charlene Carruthers: The Black, queer, feminist lens is an organizing praxis (theory and practice) rooted in radical Black feminist and LGBTQ traditions. In its simplest [form], it is a way to transform the way we do our work ... for the sake of collective liberation. Like wearing a pair of glasses, it frames how I live my life and do my work. My goal was to make sure it also framed the book, whether I was using the term in the sentence or not. It is an aspirational politic, made possible by imperfect people. Much like our movements, I believe we need to give more room for growth, given all that we are up against.
You're one of the founders of BYP100 The history in Unapologetic is rooted heavily in place. The reader sees movements - from the civil rights movement of the South, to Ferguson, Missouri, to Burkina Faso, and more - but we always come back to Chicago and the radical movement work there. Why is that sense of place important in talking about movement building? , an organization of Black youth activists. What are some of the goals of the group, and how does it situate itself in this history of Black radicalism? The book discusses how to address injustice when members or leaders of movements harm each other. Why is it important to focus on healing justice, and what can that look like?
BYP100 exists to develop young Black leaders who engage in various tactics toward the goal of collective Black liberation. It's a political home for anti-capitalists, radical Black feminists, abolitionists, artists, educators and many more types of freedom fighters. The organization works in the legacy of radical Black organizations, such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Combahee River Collective.

Place is where people connect experiences and meaning. For many of us, it isn't about just one place. Home can be anywhere, especially when forces of capitalism, anti-Black racism and patriarchy consistently uproot people from the homes they would otherwise choose to remain in. And at the same time, we have to recognize that there are people and institutions holding power over where home is and can be for many of us. Our work has to be to transform that reality. I think about the nearly 200,000 Black people who left Chicago in a 10-year period between 2000 and 2010. We have to really understand why and do the work to end mass displacement across the globe.

We are all living under entrenched systems of capitalism, anti-Black racism and patriarchy. As a result, many of us are trying to uproot and transform these systems - while [sometimes] experiencing and doing harm [ourselves]. Healing justice offers us a viable alternative to what we've known to be true (e.g. punishment, violence and harm) in so many instances. It recognizes that we are going through things, our ancestors have gone through things, and that repair and accountability are necessary. Healing justice can't be an add-on; it has to become central to our strategy.

Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Building Movements Through a Black, Queer, Feminist Lens

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Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements is an important read for anyone wanting to know about the long history of the Black radical tradition and the Black feminists and LGBTQ people are often forgotten in its retelling.

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Inspiring the next generation of female engineers | Debbie Sterling | TEDxPSU

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Annie Lennox Taking a stand on Global Feminism.

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Annie Lennox Taking a stand on Global Feminism.

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The iconic singer, songwriter, and activist is using social media to spread awareness of the extreme injustices faced by women and girls worldwide. In honor of International Women's Day today, she wants you to join her.
It all started with a graphic tee. "I was in a department store, and I saw a T-shirt that had Wonder Woman on it," Annie Lennox says of the moment that inspired her latest campaign. It was the summer of 2018, and the music icon was trying to figure out how to take the mission of The Circle, the international women's-rights nongovernmental organization she founded in 2008, to the next level. "I looked at the T-shirts and I was like, 'Oh, my goodness, what if Wonder Woman could connect everyday women and men to the facts about the gender inequality experienced by millions of girls and women every day around the globe?' So I bought the T-shirt, took it home, and put it on. Then I wrote a list of facts and statistics on sheets of drawing paper and had a series of pictures taken for Instagram of myself holding up the messaging." The result: #OneReasonWhyImAGlobalFeminist, a social-media hashtag campaign promoting Lennox's message.

"I've witnessed for myself how girls and women are extremely disempowered throughout the world."

Her mission in popularizing global feminism is a fairly lofty one. In this golden age of feminism in pop culture, the women's rights movement has become fractured by endless rifts in theory and praxis. "Feminism is a broad church containing varying beliefs and interpretations, but schisms exist that can prevent us from reaching our full potential," says Lennox. She wanted a term that could draw attention to universal issues of gender inequality, including the two thirds of illiterate adults worldwide who are women, or the one in three women and girls who are affected by physical or sexual violence. "I've witnessed for myself how girls and women are extremely disempowered throughout the world. Gender-based violence is played out everywhere-in New York, in Nairobi. It is endemic at a global level." Enter Lennox's online campaign, which encourages participants to take photos of themselves holding up a sign with the number-one reason they support the fight for gender parity.
Join the Movement
On March 8-International Women's Day-take a picture of yourself with your top reason for fighting global gender inequality, and post it on social media with the hashtag #OneReasonWhyImAGlobalFeminist.

But there's another reason she embraces the term "global feminism." While Western feminists disagree on whether male allies can rightfully use the word "feminist" to describe themselves, Lennox sees the participation of men and boys as vital. "I think men sometimes feel uncomfortable saying 'I'm a feminist,'" she says. "But when we say we're global feminists, we're giving them the key to be a part of the movement." For Lennox, including men in the movement amounts to deprogramming them of problematic views about women that they might have unconsciously internalized. "So much of it goes back to teaching men how to treat women as people just like them, as opposed to seeing them as the property of men in their lives," she explains.
"If we're always going to talk about being feminists, we need to talk about the whole world. We're not feminists just for us."
Lennox, who has fought inequality since long before she was a household name, can still remember the moment that inspired her to leverage her fame to support her advocacy work. "In the late '80s, Amnesty International staged an incredible tour that included Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, and the like. At that time I was like, 'Wow, this is the best way to use music-to build a platform to raise awareness and promote social and political change,'" she says. With the rise of social media, that goal is easier to achieve on an international scale-and more critical. "If we're always going to talk about being feminists, we need to talk about the whole world," Lennox adds. "We're not feminists just for us."
This article originally appears in the March 2019 issue of Harper's BAZAAR, available on newsstands now. GET THE LATEST ISSUE OF BAZAAR Credits: Boss turtleneck and pants; Lennox's own jewelry and shoes; Hair: Philip Carreon at Ramos Carreon Salon for Eufora Hair Care; Makeup: Patrick De Fontbrune; Manicure: Erin Moffett for Chanel Le Vernis.

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Annie Lennox Talks Her Global Feminist Movement

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The iconic singer, songwriter, and activist is using social media to spread awareness of the extreme injustices faced by women and girls worldwide. In honor of International Women's Day today, she wants you to join her. It all started with a graphic tee.

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Image courtesy of Kimberlé's Twitter
Intersectionality
The term intersectionality, coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and scholar, describes the overlap of social group categorizations (race, gender, social class, etc) and its relationships to systems of oppression and discrimination.

The term intersectionality as it relates to mental health is important as the term can help minority groups describe our experiences as we navigate our social and political worlds. As Kimberlé noted in her TedTalk, when we are unable to name an issue, we are unable to fix the issue.
Intersectionality and Mental Health
Minority groups already have a clear understanding of what it feels likes to not belong to a dominant culture. We know what it feels like to be unrepresented in certain circles. One of our most basic psychological need is belonging. When we feel like we do not belong to groups, we experience feelings of invisibility, unworthiness, loneliness, and low self-esteem and self-worth. Over prolonged periods, these negative emotions have lasting impacts on our mental health.

The importance of intersectionality is that it recognizes that people do not always only belong to a single minority group. For example, black women experience dual minority status (being black and being woman). Another example is a black lesbian woman; this person would experience a triple minority status (black, lesbian, and woman). Lastly, I'll use myself as an example. In college, I quickly learnt that I was a triple minority. After much discourse with my African American female friends, I quickly began to understand my social status. I am a triple minority [black, woman, and immigrant (Jamaican)].

Low self-esteem/self-worth and continuous trauma are some of the factors that can cause poor mental health. Minority groups suffer many traumas due to discrimination and prejudice, sometimes on a daily basis. The field of mental health, through its support of multiculturalism and social justice, is now cognizant of the fact that the experiences of minority groups can differ greatly from those of the dominant culture. People of minority groups (race, culture, sex, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender fluidity, nationality, and ability) are all treated as 'other' as they are outside of the dominant culture. As most of us are not just one thing, the idea that we belong to multiple groups attests to our complexities.
Black Women
As a black woman in counseling, I understand the issues of representation. Many people of color are distrustful of therapy for various reasons. However, this does not change the fact that black women trauma is unlike any other. We are not represented by white women as their very skin color affords them privileges that are not available to us. Additionally, as Kimberlé also highlighted, when we hear of racial trauma, the conversation usually revolves around black men. In some ways, even within our own communities, we are still invisible. Black women have always been the backbone of our race. If we research our histories, we will see how much we have been traumatized and brutalized. Those traumas live in our blood and are passed down through generations.

We are also invisible in society and culture as we are criticized about our attributes, whether it is our hair, lips, or hips, our natural beauty is criticized but appropriated by other cultures but credit is never given where it is due.

Through conversations, I find that black women and our experiences are always lumped in with our groups when our experiences are very different. Even within the black community, our experiences are different. Caribbean and African black women have different experiences based on our cultural backgrounds. In college, it was hard to understand some of the points about race made by my girl Krystal Jackson but as I explored my environment and realized that on first interaction, I was simply viewed as a double minority (black and woman) and was treated in similar ways as Krystal had previously described.

Intersectionality gives us a place to explore our various social groups and the struggles we face within those groups.

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What Does Intersectionality Mean in Mental Health?

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Image courtesy of Kimberlé's Twitter Intersectionality The term intersectionality, coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and scholar, describes the overlap of social group categorizations (race, gender, social class, etc) and its relationships to systems of oppression and discrimination.

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Why sliders?
We believe that people fit along a spectrum of identities. For example, you might be slightly bisexual, somewhat poor, Jewish but rarely wear a yarmulke, and native born but travel frequently abroad. By having the option to be 'somewhere in the middle', this gives a more accurate assessment of your intersectionality score.

How can I improve my score?
Unfortunately, you are born with most of your intersectional factors. However, you can make some improvement to your score by getting more involved with Islam or Judaism, donate all excess wealth to charity, or explore the wild side of your sexuality. The easiest way to improve your score, however, is to champion the intersectionality of your more-marginalized friends. You may award yourself up to 5 points depending on the level of your activism.

Why include religion?
Some have commented that the religious sliders are anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, atheistophobic or possibly even Christianophobic. They are included to show that a complete intersectionality score embraces the diversity of religious thought if they are of a minority groups.

What about peanut allergies?
We know that 100s of other factors such political affiliation, height, attractiveness, weight and even peanut allergies can impact your personal intersectionality score. Hopefully, we will be able to address these factors in the future.

What's the goal here?
We hope that this calculator will help fight racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, anti-Semitism, biphobia, cissexism, classism, homophobia, Islamophobia, transphobia, ethnocentrism, xenophobia and discrimination (even prejudice) of all forms regardless of your race, country of origin, sexual orientation (e.g., bisexual, nonbinary, intersex, lesbian, queer, transgender, or asexual). We are for social justice and equity!

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Why sliders? We believe that people fit along a spectrum of identities. For example, you might be slightly bisexual, somewhat poor, Jewish but rarely wear a yarmulke, and native born but travel frequently abroad. By having the option to be 'somewhere in the middle', this gives a more accurate assessment of your intersectionality score.

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How Intersectionality affects norms in sexual violence.

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How Intersectionality affects norms in sexual violence.

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At a Wednesday talk, clinical social worker and therapist April-Autumn Jenkins highlighted the factors that cause and perpetuate violence against women of the African diaspora.

Jenkins, gender violence intervention services coordinator at the Women's Center, addressed the intersections of race, victimhood and survivorship in sexual violence at a talk at the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies. She outlined key societal norms that perpetuate sexual violence.

One norm, she said, is "power over others." She cited to relationships between parents over children, men over women and of one race over another to demonstrate the many power dynamics many encounter daily.

The central focus of the talk was on the other two norms: the pervasiveness of violence in society, such as through movies and video games, and the power of "privacy and silence." Jenkins said that these two norms go hand in hand with the limited notions of masculinity and femininity.

While "boys will be boys," she said, women are thought to "belong to men as a whole," she said.

Jenkins then performed a thought exercise with the audience to illustrate the extent to which restricted ideas of femininity have permeated our consciousness, inviting them to describe what it means to act like a lady. Attendees proposed words like "constrained," "proper," "pure" and "put together."

Alternatively, when Jenkins asked the audience to describe a "superwoman," the crowd offered "powerful," "fearless" and "heroic."

While the qualities ascribed to the superwoman were different, Jenkins said that the mental image we conjure of both the lady and the superwoman is white, cis, female-presenting and heterosexual.

"We're thinking about a white woman. That's what we're thinking about," she said, adding that this is problematic because a superwoman in the African diaspora is represented differently.

It is for this reason, Jenkins said, that the idea of intersectionality is important.

In another activity, Jenkins read aloud different facts about violence against black women. Whenever a fact struck a chord, audience members were told to tear paper hearts that they had been given at the beginning of the exercise, the idea being that no heart would remain whole.

Jenkins listed the high rates of black women killed at the hands of an intimate partner and the increased risk black women face for domestic violence, rape, abuse and homicide, leaving not a single paper heart intact.

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She ended the talk with a conversation about the ways in which everyone can support people of color when they seek help as victims of violence.

"Even before they show up, what is the backpack of things that they are carrying with them that I must consider?" Jenkins asked.

She posed potential answers of culture, background, and previous experience contributing to how to approach a particular person's situation, a nod at her earlier conversation about intersectionality. For example, she stated that an international student from Africa has a very different cultural mindset compared to an African American student, from attitutes towards sex to cultural taboos.

Jenkins made one thing clear above all else. She repeatedly said that "this is an everybody work," in reference to the way in which we must cooperate as people to make headway in making things equal.

"It can't just be a woman thing," she said.

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Women's Center coordinator explains how intersectionality affects norms of sexual violence

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At a Wednesday talk, clinical social worker and therapist April-Autumn Jenkins highlighted the factors that cause and perpetuate violence against women of the African diaspora. Jenkins, gender violence intervention services coordinator at the Women's Center, addressed the intersections of race, victimhood and survivorship in sexual violence at a talk at the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies.

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How to boost Intersectionality in the Tech Industry

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How to boost Intersectionality in the Tech Industry

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It's no secret that women and men of color are underrepresented at all levels of the technology industry, and especially at the board and executive level. But these numbers highlight another reality when you dig into the complexity of intersectionality data. For those who identify with more than one underrepresented group, such as women who are also Latina, African American, Asian or LGBTQ, the numbers show the real and different challenges they face. For example, while 26% of people employed in professional computing occupations are women, only 9% are Asian, black or Hispanic women, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

As an executive sponsor for diversity and inclusion in technology within my company, I've spearheaded multiple initiatives to hire and retain more women, and I've partnered with amazing organizations that do the same. However, my full appreciation for the unique challenges faced by those with intersectional identities in the workplace did not come until later in my journey. I was certainly aware that Hispanic women face different challenges than white women, or that being an over-50 lesbian black woman in tech is a sort of marginalization "quadruple bind." But it wasn't until I did deep research into intersectionality - reading seminal works by UCLA and Columbia law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, who developed the theory in the 1980s - that our team began to explore the experiences of our associates on multiple dimensions.

Focusing on intersectionality in your organization can be a catalyst for building a more diverse, skilled technology workforce. When we focus on a single facet of underrepresentation, we can overlook the multidimensional obstacles associates may face at work that make them feel they don't belong or aren't valued. Launching internal groups where technologists can support and celebrate their intersectional identities as a part of their chosen fields of interest will help increase a cultural spirit of belonging and inclusion across your organization.

Hiring an intersectional workforce is not just a cultural imperative. It also makes good business sense. As technology leaders, we are faced with an increasing challenge to find the talent needed to meet the growing technology needs of our businesses. With the limited participation of women, and especially women of color, we are not benefiting from the best talent pool. That prevents us from realizing our full potential. have shown that cross-cultural teams are more creative and innovative, better at problem-solving, and they also make fewer mistakes. So what can you do as a business leader to actively boost intersectionality on your teams? Here are three steps to get started.
Increase Focus On Hiring An Intersectional Workforce
There's a lot of focus on hiring more women in the tech sector, with myriad organizations and corporate programs aimed at increasing female participation in the industry. These are great initiatives doing meaningful work. But there's more to do. Most companies have few African American, Latinx, LGBTQ and older technologists. Even in more highly represented groups, the intersection with generation can reveal very different experiences. Look at the specific programs you could put in place to ensure intersectional employees are being hired, and then them in ways that address their unique challenges and contributions.
View Intersectionality From All Angles
It's important to take an anecdotal read of your workforce, in partnership with a data analyst, to help quantify and qualify the level of intersectionality on your team. For example, you could host focus groups with individuals and run cross-sectional analytics to see not just how many women are on staff, but how many African American, Latina and Asian women work for you, and in which roles. When you look at high-level data, it may mask underlying challenges. For example, you may see market representation within your Asian population, but perhaps Asian women are not well represented, especially at more senior levels. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) data from five top tech companies showed of executives were Asian women. This sample size illustrates why it's important to analyze all aspects of intersectionality to get a clear picture of your company's gaps, learn what you are doing well and identify your opportunities.
Embrace The Cultural Identities Of Intersectional Technologists
Beyond initiatives to increase the pipeline and retention of underrepresented groups in your company - and these can be internally driven or in partnership with third-party organizations - you must ensure that all programs that support engagement, inclusion and psychological safety on teams are thoughtful in meeting the needs of all associates as opposed to normalizing to the majority. One of the biggest challenges for women of color is cultural. Even in our efforts to improve the culture of the technology field for women, for example, we may overlook the complexities faced by women with other historically marginalized identities. We need to appreciate the multifaceted aspects of people with intersectional identities. A black woman may identify as black first, and then as a woman; an Asian woman may have grown up in an environment that makes it more difficult to elevate her voice in the room. When we express our desire to improve the workplace culture for our associates, we cannot ignore the complexity of human identity.
Increased Representation Is A Long Game
As a woman in technology, I have overcome challenges associated with my gender, but I certainly appreciate that my challenges were not as great as those with added marginalized identities. That's why I am dedicated to raising awareness to the diversity opportunities in tech, especially the critical need to improve the representation and experience for those with intersectional identities. I am hopeful, especially because of partnerships with organizations like Year Up, Code 2040 and Black Girls Code, but we have so much more to do. Hopefully, many more companies will begin to investigate the challenges people from intersectional groups face in the workplace, as well as value their unique perspectives. The tech industry won't achieve true balance - and reach its fullest potential - until we see equal representation from every group.

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It's no secret that women and men of color are underrepresented at all levels of the technology industry, and especially at the board and executive level. But these numbers highlight another reality when you dig into the complexity of intersectionality data.

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The Role of All-Boys Schools and Gender Equality

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The Role of All-Boys Schools and Gender Equality

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When the all-boys Regis High School in Manhattan devoted a day this spring to discussing challenges facing women today - sexual harassment, discrimination in the military, the gender pay gap, for instance - it was a first for the school, an example of an all-male institution confronting the issues raised by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements

It also reinforced to Alice Foppiani, a senior at the all-girls Marymount School of New York, just how far they had to go. "It felt like they were learning very basic information that they should have learned a while ago," says Foppiani, 17, who participated in a panel at Regis that day with fellow Marymount students.

She and her classmates had been immersed in lessons on sexual harassment and assault prevention for years, taking required self-defense classes, heeding warnings to be vigilant about who might be following them on public transportation and considering rates of campus sexual assault as they embarked on college searches.

This wasn't the first time the girls of Marymount had been struck by the gap between their own worldviews and experiences and those of their male peers. Earlier that school year, a meeting between Marymount students and a fledgling feminist club at Regis, HeForShe, had crystalized some differences as students discussed the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused by Christine Blasey Ford of sexually assaulting her while he was a student at the elite all-boys Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Md. (Kavanaugh denies the allegation.)

"It was just such a big thing for us," says Matias Benitez, 18, a Regis senior who co-founded the school's HeForShe club. "We were saying, we can't let this happen again ... It's another all-boys school. It's another prep school. It's also Catholic, but we don't want this to be the same."

While Marymount students recalled the boys seeming genuinely supportive during the meeting, they also noticed the way their perspectives differed at times. According to Marymount senior Kristin O'Donoghue, 18, one boy said he believed someone's "job shouldn't be threatened because of something they did in high school." Benitez says he and most students did not share that view.

The dynamic illustrates a major challenge for all-boys schools as they're forced to consider their role in 2019. While they are hardly the only institutions confronting such issues, boys' schools are already entirely focused on educating boys and known for graduating students who often rise to positions of power, so their leaders see both an opportunity and a responsibility to do more.

A recent survey by the International Boys' Schools Coalition found that boys' school leaders think the most important challenge facing their schools today is "healthy concepts of masculinity and relationships." Asked about the challenges boys' schools will face over the next five years, a plurality of respondents said "gender issues."

"I would be less than honest to say it has not added a new complexity, a new challenge," says Regis High School principal Rev. Anthony Andreassi, referring to the discussions of toxic masculinity and gender equality playing out across the country. "It's important that we address this."

In a January speech to parents, Jason Robinson, the headmaster of St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., identified this as an "existential moment" for boys' schools.

I would be less than honest to say it has not added a new complexity, a new challenge.

"I'm very mindful of the fact, as a boys' school leader, that as we seek to convince families in the future to send their sons to us, they will rightfully ask me the question, 'Why should I send my son to a boys' school rather than a co-ed school? Please assure me that a boys' school will not be an incubator of male privilege and entitlement and misogyny,'" Robinson says. "And I think we've got to have really thoughtful, well-developed answers to those questions."

There were about 780 private all-boys schools in the U.S. during the 2017-18 school year, according to the most recent numbers available from the Department of Education, and about 650 private all-girls schools. Many boys' schools trace their roots to religious orders that sought to recruit and train young men, says Kirstin Pesola McEachern, a former boys' school teacher who wrote her 2014 dissertation on gender issues at an all-boys Catholic school in the Northeast. That raises a question, she wrote, about "why single-sex education makes sense in today's world."

Research has shown that all-boys schools can be more sexist environments than all-girls schools or co-ed schools, and that students at boys' schools display more traditional forms of masculinity and tend to show more respect to male than female teachers. "What we know in practice is that when you segregate people, they tend to develop stereotypical views of their own group and the excluded group," says Juliet Williams, a professor of gender studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of The Separation Solution?: Single-Sex Education and the New Politics of Gender Equality. But proponents of single-sex schools say they bring out the best in their students, encouraging boys to be vulnerable and to build deeper relationships, while empowering girls to speak up in class and step into leadership roles that might be dominated by boys in a co-ed school.

Benitez, the Regis senior, says some of his classmates seem more willing to start talking about feminism and gender issues in the comfort of an all-male space.

"There's a communal sense that we don't talk about this as much as a girls' school would, or a co-ed school even," he says, adding that boys and men, "as the people who benefit from [patriarchy], are the ones who really do need to hear about feminism and hear of an experience outside their own."

But too often, critics say, advice for boys still leans toward treating women as objects in need of protection rather than equals deserving of respect. On the day devoted to women's issues at Regis, a speaker who was lecturing about the legal definition of rape and consent, using examples of sexual assault at high school and college parties, encouraged the boys to remember, "That is somebody's sister, that's somebody's closest friend, that's somebody's cousin, that's somebody's cherished daughter." To the Marymount students, who thought the day's conversations were a good start, it was still an example of how not to teach gender equality.

"We felt that she should have just said, 'Think of her as a person that you wouldn't defile and treat like this,'" says O'Donoghue.

While some single-sex schools are public, scrutiny of boys' schools tends to focus on those that are private and cater largely to students from wealthy families, with common critiques being that they enable male privilege and a "boys will be boys" mentality. (Regis is a private school, but it is tuition-free thanks to an endowment and alumni donations.)

Adam Howard, an education professor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, who studies elite schooling and affluent youth, says even as boys' schools engage in more conversations about privilege, sexism and social justice - often in more progressive parts of the country where the demand for that kind of school culture is greater - they have not fundamentally changed. "The core function of elite schools is to make and remake elites," he says.

In August 2018, for the first time in history, the American Psychological Association (APA) put out a set of guidelines for treating men and boys, writing that "traditional masculinity ideology" - often characterized by "anti-femininity, achievement, eschewal of the appearance of weakness, and adventure, risk, and violence" - can be harmful to boys and men.

While the process of writing the guidelines began 14 years ago - similar guidelines have been introduced for girls and women, and LGBTQ people in the past - they were released into a world fraught with debate about changing gender roles, and the backlash was swift. Psychoanalyst Erica Komisar said the guidelines ignore biology and "demonize masculinity." On Fox News, American Enterprise Institute scholar Christina Hoff Sommers accused the APA of "treating masculinity as a pathology in need of a cure." And researchers who worked on the guidelines were inundated with hate mail.

"We can kind of argue about terms," says Matt Englar-Carlson, one of the authors of the guidelines and a co-director of the Center for Boys and Men at California State University, Fullerton. "But the reality is that men and boys in American society are not doing that well."

Though the suicide rate is on the rise for all Americans, it's higher for men than women. Boys are more likely than girls to drop out of high school, and women outpace men in earning advanced degrees. And while the percentage of men participating in the workforce has declined significantly since the 1960s, due in part to technological advancements and declining demand for middle-skill workers, the opposite has been true for women. The female labor force participation has also rebounded more strongly since the recession. In addition, research has shown that stereotypical expectations of masculinity, including that boys hide their emotions or exhibit dominance, can make them less likely to seek help.

Experts also say it's hard to combat bullying and toxic masculinity when the President of the United States boasts about grabbing women "by the pussy" or responds to a protester by saying he'd "like to punch him in the face." When the accusations against Kavanaugh surfaced last year, Trump warned that "it's a very scary time for young men in America."

An institution that may look, on the surface, to be rather traditional may be ideally positioned to meet the great progressive questions and the great sort of progressive vision for the future we want for both our sons and daughters.

"The way [Trump] speaks and bullies and denigrates people, like you'd expect 9- and 10-year-olds to do," says Thomas Keith, an adjunct professor of philosophy and gender studies at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, who directed the documentary The Bro Code: How Contemporary Culture Creates Sexist Men, "as long as there are people that think that's a positive trait, it's going to be difficult to really see a more widespread reversal of what we're calling bro culture."

These are challenges that exist in co-ed schools as well, but ideally, says Robinson, the headmaster of St. Albans, boys' schools provide an affirming environment for boys to "interrogate unhealthy notions of masculinity" and discuss anxieties and frustrations without feeling self-conscious. "Counterintuitively, an institution that may look, on the surface, to be rather traditional may be ideally positioned to meet the great progressive questions and the great sort of progressive vision for the future we want for both our sons and daughters," he says.

That's why Michael Reichert, a psychologist who leads the Center for the Study of Boys' and Girls' Lives at the University of Pennsylvania, developed a program 25 years ago at the all-boys Haverford School outside Philadelphia to help boys learn to express their emotions. Now for an hour and a half every other week, about 50 boys gather to share pizza and their feelings. They dissect their emotions on topics ranging from sex and porn to their relationships with parents, girls and each other. Reichert says it's not uncommon for boys to cry, and they often shake his hand and thank him when they leave.

Pearse Glavin, 18, is a regular. Each session, he says, leaves him with "a tangible feeling in my stomach that an emotional burden has been released."

"I think that it's important for schools to have this, boys' schools especially, because the problems that are going on in the world - especially in our country with consent and harassment -are really rooted in the stereotype that men should bottle up their feelings," Glavin says.

In one study, Reichert found that boys who spent more time in the program developed deeper friendships and greater self-awareness than those who did not. While boys said they were "constrained by the school's restrictive norms for masculinity," according to Reichert's study, they saw peer counseling as "an oasis of opportunity amidst a threatening and even punishing social world."

Since 2014, the school has also offered a human relationships seminar that covers race and implicit bias, sex and consent, healthy relationships, feminism and manhood. "Schools are becoming these spaces that are really thinking about emotional intelligence and giving kids not just a rulebook, but a play space to practice how to navigate this," says Brendon Jobs, the school's director of diversity and inclusion, who teaches the seminar. "We don't have the answers for exactly how to do it, but we can set up scenarios and offer a reflective space to do the work."

But many students and alumni of boys' schools, and their girls' school peers, are pushing for more lasting change.

In early 2018, Kelsey Caine posted an open letter on Facebook to a boy she said had assaulted her in 2010, when she was a senior at St. Agnes Academy in Houston, an all-girls school, and he was attending the all-boys Strake Jesuit College Preparatory next door. In the post, Caine said she had been drinking at a friend's house, fallen asleep and woken up to find the Strake Jesuit student kissing her and groping her breasts. When others in the house heard her yelling and rushed into the room, the boy denied Caine's allegations, and everyone believed him. "All boys schools have an opportunity and responsibility to educate hundreds of thousands of young men about sexual assault," Caine wrote in her Facebook post.

To Caine's surprise, her attacker contacted her and apologized, acknowledging what he had done years before. "When you appropriately called what I did to you sexual assault, it hit me like a sack of bricks," he told her. In April 2018, the two met with administrators at Strake Jesuit to advocate for incorporating sexual assault prevention into the curriculum. They delivered a petition signed by nearly 3,000 people, along with letters from recent alumni who supported it, and a 28-page outline Caine had written as a guide for a potential curriculum.

"Please give freshmen, sophomores and juniors and seniors this information. I'm telling you that that is something you have an obligation to do," her attacker told administrators, according to an audio recording of the meeting shared with TIME.

Administrators pointed to programs already in place at the school and said they were considering new measures. "I think we all are very aware that it is an issue, and it is something that we don't want to sweep under the rug," a Strake Jesuit counselor said during the meeting.

"I never said we couldn't do more," an assistant principal said. "That's what we talk about all the time - how we can do this better."

Caine, now 28, says she hasn't heard from Strake Jesuit leaders since then about the curriculum she proposed or about changes they are making to sexual assault education at the school.

But a school spokesperson told TIME that it launched "Coaching Boys Into Men" for athletes, "a mentorship program that helps students process their relationships with a healthy vision of their own masculinity" in the summer of 2018 and is incorporating a healthy-relationships program into its counseling curriculum for the first time this school year. It will cover "contemporary issues in gender relations, sexual violence, and relationship safety, including what the Church calls 'sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women.'"

Robinson took the job at St. Albans in July 2018, three years after the school had drawn criticism for a 2015 yearbook that contained sexist and misogynistic language, echoing problems with Georgetown Prep's yearbook from 1983. (Georgetown Prep declined to comment for this story, referring TIME to a letter from President Rev. James Van Dyke last September, in which he said it was "tough to see the caricature that we have been painted with by some" and that the school would "continue to evaluate our school culture.") In a separate incident, students at the all-girls National Cathedral School created a Google Doc in 2014 that turned into a catalogue "of unwanted sexual advances at parties, of inappropriate sexual comments" and drew "inappropriate" responses from St. Albans boys on social media, according to letters both schools sent to parents at the time.

Robinson called the yearbook and Google Doc controversies "really, really unfortunate episodes," and said they fueled his decision to speak to students, families and alumni about issues of privilege and sexism. "That means acknowledging - in a very open, transparent way - moments in our past where we have not lived up to our mission and our moral commitments," he says.

Last fall, during the Kavanaugh hearings, a few St. Albans seniors wrote a column calling on their peers to address the problematic ways they had treated girls in the past. "Our time at St. Albans will put us in positions of power, big and small, throughout our lives," they wrote. "And if in the future or in the present, we do not use that power for good, St. Albans will not have succeeded as an institution." Working with girls from the National Cathedral School, they started a group on consent and respectful relationships that met throughout the school year. Days before they graduated, they urged Robinson to create more co-ed programs so St. Albans students could develop better relationships with their female peers - something Robinson says he is now working on.

I want people who meet our students to say, 'That is not at all what I would have expected of a boys' school graduate.'

St. Albans is one of five schools - and the only all-boys school - that took part in a pilot program about consent and sexual relationships run by the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia this spring. The school also participated in a survey on "responsible sexual citizenship" at boys' schools, conducted by a researcher at McGill University in partnership with the International Boys' Schools Coalition, and plans to adapt its sex ed curriculum accordingly when the results are released next year.

"I've often said to our boys this year that I want St. Albans to be a stereotype-confounding school," Robinson says. "I want people who meet our students to say, 'That is not at all what I would have expected of a boys' school graduate.'"

In a debrief at Regis at the end of the day addressing women's issues this spring, a group of students gathered in a classroom to reflect on what they had learned. One boy commented on how it was a rare opportunity to hear from "the other side." ("The other side?" his teacher, a woman, joked. "Of the war?")

Another suggested that he and fellow upperclassmen try to set a better example for freshmen by calling out sexist language they overhear or trying to change bad behavior at school dances. One student suggested Regis go co-ed.

It was the beginning of a conversation that school leaders hope will continue throughout the year. Next spring, Regis will devote a day to the theme of examining masculinity, holding events and inviting speakers to talk about the topic leading up to that day.

The HeForShe student leaders say their discussions in the coming year will cover toxic masculinity and the effects of the #MeToo movement. They kicked off the club's meetings last month by discussing sexism in politics and the way female candidates are often dismissed as "shrill."

"There's still so much more to do," Benitez says. "It's going to be an effort that continues until - forever, really."

Write to Katie Reilly at Katie.Reilly@time.com.

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What Is the Role of an All-Boys School in 2019?

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All-boys schools are considering their role in 2019 amid conversations about the #MeToo movement, toxic masculinity and gender equality

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Chelsea Handler's Interview on White Privilege.

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Chelsea Handler's Interview on White Privilege.

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Chelsea Handler: Trump is a perfect example of white privilege

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After losing her wife, a woman learns the reality of straight privilege after getting remarried to a man.

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After losing her wife, a woman learns the reality of straight privilege after getting remarried to a man.

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Opinion | After I lost my wife of 14 years, I remarried — to a man. Here’s what I learned about straight privilege.

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Trying to avoid homophobia is exhausting. I want to do what I can to help other people avoid the same fear.

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Red Table Talk: Issues with privilege and adoption

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Red Table Talk: Issues with privilege and adoption

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18M views · 106K likes | Should White People Adopt Black Kids? | RTT takes on the controversial topic of interracial adoption. Jada & Gammy are joined by “Sex and The City's” Kristin Davis, a mother of two adopted... | By Red Table Talk | Facebook

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RTT takes on the controversial topic of interracial adoption. Jada & Gammy are joined by “Sex and The City's” Kristin Davis, a mother of two adopted...

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People are questioning Felicity Huffman's Sentencing based on Socio-economic and White Privilege.

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People are questioning Felicity Huffman's Sentencing based on Socio-economic and White Privilege.

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The Student News Site of Texas A&M University - College Station

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Ban Bossy — I'm Not Bossy. I'm the Boss.

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A 9-year-old's letter makes a change for Under Armor on International Women's Day

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A 9-year-old's letter makes a change for Under Armor on International Women's Day

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Steph Curry surprises 9-year-old who asked why his shoes weren't sold to girls

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Break the Man Box: #KillerStereotypes | Hannah Cotton | TEDxCoventry

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Ashley Wylde: Gender is a social construct

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Ashley Wylde: Gender is a social construct

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Sam Smith has come out as non-binary saying he feels "like a woman sometimes" and has considered having a sex change.

He was speaking to actress Jameela Jamil about fame, body image and confidence.

"I've always had a little bit of a war going within my body and my mind," Sam said in the interview.

"I do think like a woman sometimes, in my head. Sometimes I've questioned 'Do I want a sex change?'

"It's something I still think about, like, 'Do I want to?'"

Many non-binary people don't identify as either male or female and use the pronouns they or them instead of he or she.

Sam says listening to conversations about being non-binary made him realise that was how he identified.

"I'm not male or female, I think I flow somewhere in between. It's all on the spectrum," he says.

He added that he had always resented being "feminine in many ways" and describes being non-binary as being "your own special creation".

'Existing between genders'

"I knew I was different until the age of 21," China, who lives in Leeds and identifies as non-binary, tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.

China, like Sam, says that discovering other people who identified as non-binary helped them understand how they perceived their gender.

"When I started started studying gender as part of my English degree it hit me like a thunderbolt - I was non-binary.

"I've always existed between the two genders.

"When you find out that there are actual terms around it, it's real, it's political and scientific you get attached to it."

But non-binary people like China and writer Jamie Windust say that they face daily scrutiny from other people.

'Fetishised'

"I don't mind the questions but context is important," Jamie tells Newsbeat.

"With most people they don't have that context, we'll just be talking and having a normal conversation and it'll go from zero to 100 and they'll ask something really bizarre about myself - usually about my body.

"You only need to know that if we're having sex."

In his interview with Jameela Jamil, Sam Smith says he has dated men who identify as heterosexual and believes "you fall in love with people, not genitals".

But both China and Jamie say that dating as a non-binary person can be a complicated experience.

"It feels like I'm something for people to tick off the list or to experience. That can be quite damaging when it comes to building a relationship," says Jamie.

They say non-binary people can be "fetishised" by people who just want to broaden their sexual experiences.

Sam Smith has previously dated model Jonathon Ziezel and 13 Reason Why actor Brandon Flynn - although he has not spoken about how his non-binary identity has affected his love life.

Miley Cyrus: 'Modern relationships aren't about sexuality'

But he does say coming out as non-binary has helped him become happier with his own body image.

"I am feminine in many ways and I've always resented that," he says.

"I'll never look like that because there's a bit of a woman in me who won't let me look like that. I put on weight in places women put on weight.

"That spring-boarded everything actually. That's me looking at myself and thinking maybe I'm not a man, maybe I'm not a woman, maybe I'm just me."

Justice League actor Ezra Miller came out as non-binary in 2018 and Miley Cyrus has previously described herself as gender-neutral.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here.

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Sam Smith has come out as non-binary saying he feels "like a woman sometimes" and has considered having a sex change. He was speaking to actress Jameela Jamil about fame, body image and confidence. "I've always had a little bit of a war going within my body and my mind," Sam said in the interview.

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Just saw this article and my first thought was I wonder what the ratio of biological males to females winning this will be. (Sorry I don't know how to post links.)

https://www.irishmirror.ie/showbiz/celebrity-news/brit-awards-axing-best-gender-20153138.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Just to add, I'm a long time lurker and occasional poster (regular name-changer though as quite often inadvertently give away details about my real life 🤦‍♀️).

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BRIT Awards axing best gender awards after Sam Smith comes out as non-binary

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Just saw this article and my first thought was I wonder what the ratio of biological males to females winning this will be. (Sorry I don't know how to post links.) https://www.irishmirror.ie/showbiz/celebrity-news/brit-awards-axing-best-gender-20153138.amp?__twitter_impression=true Just to add, I'm a long time lurker and occasional poster (regular name-changer though as quite often inadvertently give away details about my real life 🤦‍♀️).