By Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn’t a reality yet. Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change.  → Read More

Recently, while listening to songs on shuffle on my iPhone, “Thank You” sung by Estelle, began to play. The lyrics describe a heterosexual relationship in which Estelle sings at the end of every hook, “I thank you for making me a woman,” in response to the sum of infidelity and heartbreak she experienced. Listening to the song for the first time in a long time reminded me of why I download it in the first place: Estelle is lamenting a relationship that resonates with me.  → Read More

When someone responds with sarcasm after I explain that I am not a Feminist, I believe it is more than an indication that I am being stereotyped, or judged, but that perhaps the person with whom I am speaking has limited exposure to different narratives of women’s livelihood. Like all things well-intended, therein are ugly truths, and American Feminism, is no exception. Knowing this, I made a choice about how I identify myself as an advocate for the rights of all women, and inclusion (or lack thereof) was foremost in my decision.  → Read More

Increasingly, over the past three decades, orange really has become the new black for a growing number of female inmates who are serving prison sentences for self defense in response to sexual, domestic, and intimate partner violence. These women are survivors of the predation and exploitation that is alarmingly overlooked by America’s criminal justice system, it’s legislators, and law enforcement officials.  → Read More

Audre Lorde, my favorite Black Feminist with Melissa Harris-Perry in second place, once said, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgent, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Self care is not only an act of survival, but a direct act of resistance that shifts oppressive patriarchal paradigms, and further, self love. The socially constructed gender roles assigned to a woman puts the needs of others over her own.  → Read More