Tag Archives: women

Fighting to vote: A century of struggle for women’s suffrage

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On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, thus giving women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a suffrage movement that was launched in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York, which was also attended by leading abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass. An effort to secure women’s suffrage failed at the US Supreme Court, leading to the movement to win the vote by a constitutional amendment. Enactment of women’s suffrage in 1920 was historic, but it did not end discrimination against African American women, who continued to be denied the vote due to Jim Crow racial discrimination laws until passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Marlboro College Professor Emerita Meg Mott discusses the suffrage movement, the racial divisions within it, enduring discrimination faced by African American and LGBTQ women, and parallels to modern efforts at voter suppression. (August 19, 2020 broadcast)

Meg Mott, Professor of Politics Emerita, Marlboro College

Why are so many women poor? Breaking out of the gender poverty trap

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Why are women a disproportionate share of Vermonters in poverty? Why are 4 out of 10 women who work full time unable to meet their basic needs? Why do women earn 84 cents for every dollar earned by a man? What does it cost a young mom to take a few years off to raise kids? These questions and more are the focus of a report on Women, Work & Wages from Change the Story Vermont, an initiative to align policy, program, and philanthropy to fast-track women’s economic status in Vermont. The organization recently received national attention when it created sports jerseys emblazoned with #equalpay, which were worn by members of the Burlington High School girls soccer team during a game this fall. The players were penalized for wearing unauthorized uniforms but their advocacy of equal pay for women went viral. We spend the hour discussing the issues affecting women, work and poverty in Vermont. (December 18, 2019 broadcast)

Tiffany Bluemle, director, Change the Story Vermont

Cary Brown, executive director, Vermont Commission on Women

Part 1

Part 2

Is welfare reform killing women? Felicia Kornbluh on the female face of poverty

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Has welfare reform, passed in 1996 with bipartisan consensus between Pres. Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress, been an attack on women? That is the argument made by Dr. Felicia Kornbluh in her new book, with Gwendolyn Mink, Ensuring Poverty: Welfare Reform in Feminist Perspective (U of Pennsylvania Press, 2018). Kornbluh is Associate Professor of History and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Vermont.  She is a member of the board of directors of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and has served as a member of the Vermont Commission on Women. Kornbluh argues that welfare reform has actually shortened women’s lives, and that its new incarnation under Pres. Donald Trump will make matters worse. She discusses her role as a scholar-activist and the new book that she is writing about her mother’s efforts to win abortion rights in the 1970s. (November 28, 2018 broadcast) 

Dr. Felicia Kornbluh, professor, University of Vermont, author, Ensuring Poverty

Is our economy stacked against women?

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As part of marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we speak with Rickey Gard Diamond, author of Screwnomics: How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change. Diamond explains that she invented the term screwnomics to refer to “the economic theory that women should always work for less, or better, for free.” Diamond recounts her story of going from being a single mother on welfare to being the founding editor of Vermont Woman, and discusses why the #MeToo movement’s time has come.  (April 4, 2018 broadcast)

Rickey Gard Diamond, author, Screwnomics: How Our Economy Works Against Women and Real Ways to Make Lasting Change

Working more, getting less: Vermont’s working women struggle to get ahead

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A new report, “Where Women Work and Why It Matters,” developed by Change the Story VT paints a disturbing picture of the plight of working women in Vermont. 43% of VT women who work full-time do not make enough to cover basic living expenses. Women who work full-time are disproportionately employed in low-wage jobs – across every age group, at every level of education. And Vermont women are especially vulnerable in their senior years, when their median annual income from Social Security ($10,000) is half that of men ($20,000). The report was backed by the Vermont Women’s Fund, Vermont Commission on Women and Vermont Works for Women. We discuss the state of working women in Vermont and potential solutions. (May 4, 2016 broadcast)

Tiffany Bluemle, director, Change the Story VT

Marybeth Redmond, director of development & communications, Vermont Works for Women

Taking the lead: Women & families in the workplace in Vermont

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According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 70 percent of women with children under age 18 are in the U.S. workforce, and working mothers are the sole or primary breadwinners in 40 percent of households. Is Vermont a leader or laggard when it comes to providing opportunities for women and families in the workplace? We talk with people who have taken the lead in making workplaces women and family friendly.

Bram Kleppner, CEO, Danforth Pewter

Cary Brown, Executive Director, Vermont Commission on Women

Russ Elek, Communication and Membership Manager, VBSR

Sarah Lord, Seventh Generation

Sascha Mayer, CEO and Co-founder, Mamava,

Gwen Pokalo, Director of the Women’s Small Business Program at Mercy Connections

Donna Carpenter of Burton Snowboards on transforming workplaces for women, climate change, & life

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Donna Carpenter and her husband Jake Burton Carpenter founded Burton Snowboards in 1977. Donna has worn many hats in the business, including building snowboards, answering phones and expanding Burton’s market to Europe. She is now the company President. Donna also heads Burton’s non-profit Chill Foundation, bringing snowboarding to underprivileged youth, and is the mother of three sons. Donna Carpenter talks about transforming a male dominated business to be female-friendly, the importance of women in her business, surviving Jake’s cancer, the threat that climate change poses to her work, and her future.

Women and Sustainable Business: Allison Hooper and Sara Newmark

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We talk with two Vermont women who are leaders in sustainable businesses about the challenges faced by women in business and the unique voice that they bring: They join us from the VBSR Fall Conference at Mt. Snow:

Allison Hooper, co-founder, Vermont Creamery

Sara Newmark, Director of Sustainability, New Chapter, the Brattleboro-based national brand of organic vitamins and herbal supplements

Stopping cervical cancer; Vt Community Loan Fund, 12-4-13

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Investing in the future: August Burns and Jane Dale discuss how Grounds for Health, a small international nonprofit organization based in Waterbury, Vt., has pioneered a low-cost way to screen and treat cervical cancer, the #1 killer of women in developing countries. And … Continue reading →