The Persistent

The U.S. presidential election is a mere 26 days away—but heck who’s counting?—and despite every pollster imaginable offering up predictions, we still don’t know how November’s election will pan out. But there’s one thing we can be sure of: Come November, millions of American women will head to the polls to support Donald J. Trump. For The Persistent, Holly Baxter talked to a handful of women supporting Trump to get a sense of what they like about him, what they don’t, and the key issues that are driving their decision. (Hint: JD Vance might have a lot to do with it.) In an election when Team Harris seems to be swooping up large numbers of women, it’s an interesting counterpoint.  #Election2024 #women https://lnkd.in/eCByJRGU

Last week Josie Cox went against advice—and sat down to read reviews of her book. A prodigious number came from armchair critics, spewing bile. Apart from one: “That shit was actually fire,” they said. Josie messaged Francesca Donner, our editor: “Can I brag for a second about one tiny thing?” “And thus began my journey into the fascinating and infuriating world of self-promotion,” she writes. As women, we are told to “lean in”, to “girlboss”, to “speak out”. But none of it is that easy. Why is that? https://lnkd.in/eyVGyex9 🎨 by Susanna Harrison. #SelfPromotion #WomenInLeadership #ConfidenceGap #GenderEquity 💛 The Persistent is dedicated to amplifying women’s voices, stories, perspectives, and ideas. Sign up for free today: https://lnkd.in/ed9kADiF

This week Claudia Sheinbaum was inaugurated as Mexico’s first woman president. But will Sheinbaum support women? As Friné Salguero says: "Being a woman does not necessarily embody progressiveness in the women's rights' agenda." Today, in a conversation with Pamela Cerdeira of Opinión 51, we explore the complexities of Sheinbaum’s presidency and what it means for women's rights in Mexico: https://lnkd.in/e7Z9ED3e ✏️ Written by Francesca Donner and edited by Josie Cox. #WomenInPolitics #GenderEquality #Feminism #MexicoPolitics #ClaudiaSheinbaum 💛 The Persistent is dedicated to amplifying women’s voices, stories, perspectives, and ideas. Sign up for free today: https://lnkd.in/ed9kADiF

Kate Winslet’s new movie, Lee, chronicles the life of Lee Miller, the noted war photographer who spent much of her career fighting prejudice. It’s a feeling the writer and former war photographer Deborah Copaken is familiar with: when her memoir was released, its name was changed at the last minute from “Shuttergirl” to “Shutterbabe”—“emphasis on babe”. Here, she writes searingly about how the experience, and similar experiences with movie producers, reviewers and even curators, left her cold. “It’s been our fate as women forever to have our work trivialized, to be pitted against one another, to be judged by and for our sexuality, to be narrowly-defined, and to be maligned for our life choices, whatever they may be.” https://lnkd.in/enRBUqNr ✏️ Written by Deborah Copaken and edited by Francesca Donner #Photography #Film #WomenInMedia #FemaleEmpowerment #WarPhotography 💛 The Persistent is dedicated to amplifying women’s voices, stories, perspectives, and ideas. Sign up for free today: https://lnkd.in/ed9kADiF

ICYMI – Josie Cox’s essay in The Persistent explores a topic we examine in the 2024 #WomenIntheWorkplace report: the concept of being “the only.” The piece underscores the isolation and heightened scrutiny faced by women, particularly women of color, who are often the sole representatives of their gender or race in male-dominated environments. Worth the read: https://lnkd.in/gaDn8qpy

In an interview with journalist Anne Quito in The Persistent, Daniella Zalcman, founder of the brilliant network of women photographers Women Photograph, discusses the importance of diversity in photojournalism. She emphasizes that the person who tells a story impacts the narrative and highlights the importance for accurate and nuanced storytelling of gender and racial diversity. Zalcman advocates for empowering local photographers to tell their own communities' stories, as they bring unique cultural insights too often unseen or overlooked by outsiders. We know, from our work with our 19 local women-led partner organizations at WomenStrong International, that Zalcman is correct: the real expertise is local -- not only on where and what the stories are, but also regarding the most vital needs of local communities as well as proven and promising solutions. The real question, then, is about representation and ladership: whether in photojournalism, women's rights work, or in community organizing, what will it take to achieve true racial and gender parity, behind the camera, at the editing room, and at the table where resources are allocated and decisions are made? #womensknowledge #womenlead #womensrights https://lnkd.in/eB_gQwDb

The Persistent is proud to support World News Day. We do this work because storytelling matters. And storytelling matters, because people matter. That is why we launched The Persistent. And that’s why we put women at the center of the story. For as long as it takes, we’re going to keep amplifying women’s voices, perspectives and ideas. Without that, we’re only seeing half the picture. #JournalismMatters #ChooseTruth #WorldNewsDay worldnewsday.org

Who could forget Janice from Friends? Well, everyone? 30 years on from the launch of classic TV show, Emma Haslett explores whether it was as a feminist a show as we once thought (quick answer: sorry, no) and how Janice (at one time a girlfriend to both Chandler and Ross) was set up as a character simply to be knocked down. It says a lot about the comedy of the ‘90s. Read more about The Janice Problem and how comedy has evolved: https://lnkd.in/gFyvkziz ✏️ Written by Emma Haslett and edited by Francesca Donner. #Comedy #WomensVoices #Media #CulturalCritique #FriendsTVShow 💛 The Persistent is dedicated to amplifying women’s stories and perspectives. Sign up for free today: https://lnkd.in/ed9kADiF

Last Wednesday, Newsweek reported that authorities in Pakistan had apprehended a key suspect in the gang rape of a female polio worker. On Thursday, The New York Times reported that a former CIA officer who drugged, sexually assaulted and photographed more than two dozen women had been sentenced to 30 years in prison. On the same day, in southern France, a man on trial for repeatedly drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of men to rape her, admitted to a court that he was, indeed, a rapist. Also on Thursday, the BBC reported that it had spoken to more than 20 women who say that Mohamed Al Fayed, the late billionaire owner of the British department store, Harrods, had raped or sexually assaulted them, and that Harrods had not only failed to intervene, but had also covered up the abuse allegations. (As of this writing, some news outlets had put the number of women as high as 37.) Just as that news was spreading, Sean "Diddy" Combs was arrested following raids on two of his properties in March as part of an "ongoing investigation" into sex trafficking. And Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood producer, who in 2020 was found guilty of rape and sexual assault (a conviction that was overturned in April of this year), pleaded not guilty to a new sex-crime indictment. Finally, on Friday, statistics from the Metropolitan Police in London showed that 8,800 rape incidents were reported in the city last year: That’s 24 each day. One every hour. In other words, in the space of a single week, the world was served up enough evidence to quash any doubt that a pervasive culture of sexual violence and domestic abuse is thriving almost everywhere. It's hard to find the words to respond—it's so painful to connect the dots—and yet, we must. My latest for The Persistent on an epidemic of violence against women and why we can't afford to be silent. Beautifully edited by the indomitable Francesca Donner and illustrated by Helena Pallarés. https://lnkd.in/ekjSU35D

The Persistent is proud to support World News Day. worldnewsday.org #JournalismMatters #ChooseTruth #WorldNewsDay