Marcia G. Yerman

Chances are, if the average American woman were stopped on the street and asked, “Do you have equal rights in America under the law?” she would reply, “Yes.” But does she?

It was surrealistic to read Trump’s presidential statement pronouncing April as Sexual Assault Awareness

The conventions are over. Both parties’ tickets are chosen. Pollsters will now be working furiously to parse the numbers on how the electorate is shaping up. Specifically under the microscope will be women.

It looked a lot like the photo in 2012. The one of the panel of white men testifying on the Affordable Care Act regulations calling for health coverage of contraception. It prompted New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney to ask indignantly, “Where are the women?”

November 25 is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls. Using the color orange to symbolize “a brighter future without violence,” 16 days of activism has been planned to bring recognition to the continued dangers facing women and girls around the world.

Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee. Moving forward, whatever happens during the ensuing general election, the fact that she is a woman will be an inextricable part of the narrative.

OK. Full disclosure. I don’t watch Fox News. I’m an MSNBC kind of girl. Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Melissa Harris-Perry are my peeps. But I do know who Megyn Kelly is, albeit from clips of Jon Stewart (what are we going to do without him?) where he highlighted some of her more puzzling statements like “Jesus was white.”

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but for those whose lives dramatically changed when they entered the realm of rape survivor, there is no 30-day expiration date.
This is made abundantly clear by Annie E. Clark and Andrea Pino, the co-founders of End Rape on Campus (EROC). They also have edited the book, “We Believe You: Survivors of Campus Sexual Assault Speak Out.”

So what does it all mean for women candidates past and future? (I won’t even include Sarah Palin in this discourse because she has become more of a performance artist, as evidenced in her slam poetry endorsement of Trump). I do wonder why Fiorina was able to get away with delivering her points of view in ways that often struck me as spiteful, condescending, or harsh to the ears. I didn’t attribute it to her gender. Rather, I don’t find her terribly sympathetic.

Thanks to social media, consumers are able to reach out to brands and directly express their pleasure — or displeasure — with a company’s product. I frequently react to advertisements that annoy my sensibilities via Twitter (I give shout outs, too!), using the hashtag #fem2. This summer’s Schick ad, with three bikini-clad young women standing behind bush-type trees in front of their pubic area, irritated me to no end.