Suzanne Reisman

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. If you do not know this already, you soon will, as marketers will inundate the shelves, airwaves, and pages with items you can buy to raise awareness for breast cancer. You will be made to feel like you are doing something very important by buying anything in a pink package. You are saving women by making them aware of breast cancer! Never mind that some of these very same products contain chemicals that are linked to causing cancer. Never mind that many of these companies give very little to breast cancer organizations.  Read more >

When I was a youth growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, I couldn't wait to get my driver's license. I turned 16, then impatiently waited another month to complete my driver's ed course. When I had my license in my hand, it was like holding a tiny piece of freedom. I could go to the movies or the bowling alley or to see my favorite musical (Co-Ed Prison Sluts, which incidentally is so good that it is Chicago's longest running musical), whenever I wanted to. Not that I had a car, but my parents generously let me use theirs.  Read more >

In 2008, Silsbee High School football and basketball star Rakheem Bolton allegedly raped a fellow student and cheerleader known as HS with the help of two friends at an after-game party. When her rapist came up for a free throw in a basketball game, the cheerleader, known as HS, refused to cheer for Rakheem by name. Yesterday the Supreme Court denied review of the cheerleader's appeal.  Read more >

On Friday, March 11, I saw an interesting panel at the Women in the World Summit on how clever technology accelerates women's economic opportunities in third world and developing nations. It opened with some bleak facts: Women perform 66% of the world's labor, but earn 10% of its income and own 1% of the production. Part of the reason women labor so hard is that they must perform back-breaking, but menial tasks like fetching water from miles away, before they can get anything done. Technology developed with women in mind changes that.  Read more >

I've written a lot about abortion and reproductive rights lately, but that's only because in their zeal to fix the economy, certain legislators have focused on curtailing abortion and reproductive rights since keeping women pregnant and in the home will open new jobs for men. I guess. Whatever the case is, the latest series of ludicrous bills seem to touch on the right to free speech. If you are a person who agrees that abortion should be illegal, you can say whatever you want, even if you are not a sentient being who can speak. However, those of us who feel that women should decide for themselves whether or not they will carry a pregnancy to term are increasingly being silenced.  Read more >