Connecting the Dots: Feminism, Community Media, Spirituality and Eliminating Violence Against Women

16 Days of Action Against Violence Against Women and Girls

Nina Serrano speaks with MamaCoAtl, coordinator and founder of San Francisco's yearly observance of the United Nations Day to End Violence against Women and Girls.  MamaCoAtl sings an original song as part of this breathtaking interview. 11:03

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Events scheduled during 16 Days of Action to End Violence:

Tuesday 11/23 - noon - Rally at San Francisco City Hall

Thursday 11/25 - sunrise -  Earth Healing Ceremony on Alcatraz Island

Saturday 11/27 - 5 PM - Rompiendo Cadenas/Breaking the Chains, Healing Workshop and Concert, Dance Mission Theatre, 3316 24th Street, San Francisco

Friday 12/10 - 5:15-6:15 - Women in Black - Silent vigil at Market and Montgomery, San Francisco
                      - 7 PM - Closing Ceremony, Songs for a New Beginning, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, San Francisco



Mary Ratcliffe: Strengthening Our Communities Through Community Media

Mary and her husband, Willie Ratcliffe, took over the San Francisco Bay View in 1992 and have built it into the nation's largest circulation Black newspaper.  In this interview with Kate Raphael, Mary talks about her history as president of the unusual National Organization for Women chapter in Fairbanks, Alaska, a hilarious encounter with Betty Friedan, how women won the right to work on the pipeline, and what she and her husband have tried to do with the Bay View.  As a long-time racial and media justice activist, she also shares her views on the past and current crises at KPFA and Pacifica and how we can put the community back into community media. 35:13
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November 15 on Women's Magazine: Another View of the Crisis at KPFA and Pacifica

The KPFA community is reeling from last week's announcement that most of the staff of the popular Morning Show had been laid off.  Charges of union busting and heavy-handed national control of local stations have been a drumbeat on KPFA's airwaves since.  What is the truth?  Were the layoffs done by seniority or not?  What was the process of communicating and negotiating with the union?  What is the history of unionization and professionalization at Pacifica, and how can we value both paid and unpaid workers?

Kate and Preeti are joined in studio by Pacifica Executive Director Arlene Engelhardt, attorney and former board member Carol Spooner and Maria Gelardin, one of the founders of KPFA's Women's Department in the 1980s and producer of TUC Radio.  They discuss the history and roots of conflicts and power struggles at Pacifica, the process and reasons for the recent layoff, and the historical relationships between paid and unpaid staff.  We also discuss how this community radio station can best meet the needs of the many diverse communities it is intended to serve.

Then, Lisa Dettmer speaks with CUNY economist Stephanie Luce about how women's unpaid labor has historically been devalued in the U.S. economy.

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(Note:  Our conversation with Arlene, Carol and Maria was prerecorded and edited for time.  We will make the full discussion available here soon.)

For more information about the struggle for KPFA and Pacifica:
http://www.sfbayview.com/
http://www.supportkpfa.org/
http://www.kpfaworker.org/
CWA contract

Laid off Morning Show host Brian Edwards-Tiekert wrote an email (shown at left; click on the image to enlarge) to acting Program Director Sasha Lilley suggesting various syndicated shows to replace our locally produced Women's Magazine.

Now Brian is one of the leading spokespeople for the unionized staff, whose website proclaims that one of their demands is:

"PRESERVE LOCAL PROGRAMMING. Stop all attempts to replace community-driven programs with syndicated content."

The justification for taking Women's Magazine off air was that we were not "professional" enough and our programs were not high quality. In our show today, Maria Gelardin raises the question: shouldn't the role of paid staff be to help unpaid programmers get our quality up to standards?

Peace March in Richmond Responds to Homecoming Rape

A Peace March will be held in Richmond this Saturday
November 7, 11:00 a.m.
Richmond High School, 1250 23rd St, Richmond, CA (get directions)
For more info malupresents@gmail.com

Richmond girl raped outside homecoming dance
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
Richmond

Richmond girl raped: A 15-year-old Richmond girl who had left the homecoming dance was hospitalized in stable condition after being assaulted and allegedly raped by several men on the Richmond High School grounds, police said.

Police received several reports shortly before midnight Saturday and when officers arrived at the high school several men ran away. One was caught.

The 19-year-old Richmond man was in the county jail in Richmond on rape charges, said Richmond Police Sgt. Bisa French. She would not release his name, saying they were trying to get more information from him and police were concerned that if his name were known he might be more reluctant to talk.

The girl was unconscious and flown by helicopter to a hospital.

French said police believe the girl was raped by several men an they are looking for "at least" four males.

"She left the dance at some point and that's when this occurred," French said.

She said the girl apparently knew at least one of her assailants.

Mike Taugher

Expanded mainstream media coverage
News and Commentary from savvy sista
Rape seen as almost inevitable
Friend of survivor speaks out on CNN

August 24: Women's Magazine Presents Black August Commemoration

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According to Mumia Abu Jamal, August--in both historic and contemporary African American history--is a month of meaning, a month of repression. So today you will hear a commentary on the significance of Black August. You will also hear stories of resistance, both individually as well as collectively, from people like Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver and Asata Shakur. Additionally, you will hear stories of repression and rebellion as we present part two of the Black August Commemoration, originally produced by Black Panther veteran and revolutionary journalist, Kiilu Nyasha. This Black August Commemoration focuses on the life of freedom fighters and revolutionaries, including Soledad Brothers like George Jackson. We have music from Nina Simone, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Billy Taylor and Steel Pulse, as well as Jovelyn’s World and the weekly calendar of events. Hear it this Monday on Women's Magazine at 1pm on KPFA, 94.1FM and online at www.kpfa.org. Hosted by Jovelyn Richards and produced by Safi wa Nairobi.

August 3, 2009 Show: The Impact of Race in Arts and Politics

Long before Beyonce, before Mariah Carey, before Halle Berry, singer, actor and author Eartha Kitt was struggling with racial identity. We've got that story, plus a discussion between La Raza Centro Legal Executive Director Anamaria Loya and Kate Raphael about the racial impact of Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings. Plus Jovelyn's World and the Women's Community Calendar.

Download or Play entire show:

Women's Magazine - The Impact of Race in Arts and Politics - August 3, 2009 at 1:00pm
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Learn more about Eartha Kitt.

Raised amidst the farm workers’ struggles in Indio, California, Anamaria Loya forged an early commitment to social justice. Her parents, both civil rights activists and retired educators, dedicate their lives towards addressing the inequities in the fields and in the educational system – a struggle that Anamaria and her two sisters, Patricia and Katherine, continue. Anamaria worked with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights before becoming the first woman Executive Director of La Raza Centro Legal, a community-based legal organization dedicated to empowering Latino, immigrant and low-income communities of San Francisco.

Download or Listen to this interview with Anamaria Loya on the appointment and confirmation process of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.


Coming Up Next Week: Women In Sports

This Week: Continuing Coverage of Women in Iran

This week on Women's Magazine, we continue our coverage of the struggle of women in Iran. We will talk with York University Sociologist, Haideh Moghissi about the Iranian women’s struggle for Equality in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution, the challenges they have faced and the strategies they have devised to reform the discriminatory laws against women. And we will talk to Malihe Razazan of KPFA’s voices of the Middle East and North Africa about women’s roles in the ongoing mass protests challenging the outcome of June 12th presidential election that handed president Ahmadinejad a second term.

Plus Jovelyn's World, the Women's Community Calendar and information about the upcoming LSB election.

Women's Magazine - June 29, 2009 at 1:00pm

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Also, remember that July 15 is the last day to become a member of KPFA in order to vote in the upcoming board elections, which is important to keep Women's Magazine and other diverse voices on the air. If you made a pledge in the last fund drive, be sure to pay at least $25 of it before July 15.

Segments:

Interview with Malihe Razazan on the situation and the women's movement in Iran:

Why isn't there a market for feminism?

Now that the death sentence of our show has been temporarily reprieved, we have been thinking and talking a lot about what we want to do with it. Especially, we're talking about what we can do and want to do to boost our listenership, since management's main objection to the show is that, as they put it, "no one listens to it."

Of course, one question that springs to mind is how do they know who is listening and who isn't? The answer seems to be primarily from hits on the website, and that in itself might skew the results. According to a 2005 study by the Pew Research Center, men are faster to adopt new internet technologies, though women in most age groups spend more time online. In the 2005 study, women made up only 22% of those who downloaded podcasts, which was a very new technology at that time. Women seem to have made up a lot of ground over the last few years, and at least one study has women making up a majority of online listeners to public radio, but if the people I know are any indication – and they are at least a reasonable indicator of who might be interested in the issues that I cover – women are less likely to be in jobs that enable them to listen to the radio all day online. Geeks (otherwise known as IT professionals), for instance, are certainly listening to more internet radio during the day than schoolteachers or social workers. At my job eight of nine staff in IT are men, and the woman is the trainer. I decided that making a generalization based on nine people in one office might be considered a little unscientific, even for me, so I went online to see if my impressions were accurate. The National Center for Women in Information Technology reported that as of March 2008, women accounted for only 27 percent of the U.S. IT workforce, while making up over half of all professionals. In fact, according to the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) Taskforce on Workforce and Education's 2003 study, the gender gap in computer professions is widening, while other gaps are shrinking. "In 1984, 35.8% of all computer science degrees were awarded to women, but only 28.4% in 1996. Looking earlier in the pipeline, the College Board reports that only 17% of those taking the Advanced Placement test for Computer Science were female." (http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/career/article.php/1564501)

By contrast, 98% of kindergarden and preschool teachers, 79% of elementary and middle school teachers, and 83% of social workers are women.

Okay, so those are some interesting facts to mull over, and in fact maybe do some programming about, assuming we have a program. But in the long run, they are neither here nor there, because if people aren't going to listen to us, even I have to admit that maybe we shouldn't be on the air. After all, we're not doing all this work just to amuse ourselves. If no one wants to hear what we have to say, no matter how brilliant it is, we might as well save ourselves the trouble and do something else.

So I go back to the question, why aren't people listening to us? And more importantly, read the rest on my blog.

Women's Magazine Back on Air!

Thanks to all your emails, calls and pledges, Women's Magazine producers have been told that we will be going back on air on Monday, June 1. We are very excited and are planning a live show for that date, so please tune in between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. on June 1, or anytime after that on this website or at www.kpfa.org/womensmagazine!

We are continuing to work with other unpaid staff and LSB members to pressure for an open, democratic and accountable decision-making process.

We still need your support, so please keep checking this blog or sign up for our RSS feed.

Preempted Again! Act Now to Save WM!

Well, we thought we were going back on the air today, but that didn't happen. At 12:30, half an hour before air time, Safi and Jovelyn and the guest who was waiting in studio to do a live broadcast found out that we were being preempted again!

The next two weeks are fund drive, and we are always preempted during fund drives, and the last week of the month we are preempted for the LSB report. So the earliest we would go back on the air would be the first Monday in June. But, when we went to ask why we had been preempted this week, we were told that we are being evaluated to determine whether we are going to get the slot back or not. No other show is being subjected to this evaluation process. We believe that there's a good chance Women's Magazine will not return to KPFA's airwaves.

We need your support.

PLEASE call or email KPFA management and let them know that you care about women's programming and want to see Women's Magazine back on the air.

Email: ipd@kpfa.org, gm@kpfa.org.

Call: 510-848-6767 ask for Program Manager Sasha Lilly or General Manager Lemlem Riijo.

Coming Soon to a Radio Near You!

Dear listeners,

After a nearly 4 month hiatus (not by our choice), Women's Magazine will be back on the air on May 4 - we hope! Safi and Jovelyn will do a live show on women in business.

For Mother's Day, Lisa will bring you a collage of voices. Preeti is working on a show about the women's development conference in South Africa. Raquel and Kate are gearing up for a piece on the women's music group, Las Bomberas de la Bahia.

Please comment here to let us know what else you would like to hear about.