23andMe (4.7 stars) CEO Anne Wojcicki is speaking out after a private golf club demanded she breastfeed elsewhere when she stopped to feed her infant daughter in an empty booth after attending a conference there. But she’s not just tweeting and talking about it—at 23andMe offices, Wojcicki has sought to normalize breastfeeding by providing ample breastfeeding rooms equipped with desks, pumps, lockers, phones, and snacks, playrooms for children of employees, and paid parental leave for all employees, a fertility benefit plan, adoption assistance plan and surrogacy reimbursement program. The Washington Post
VICE Media Inc. (2.2 stars) , the edgy news site that began as a hipster lifestyle magazine, has agreed to acquire Refinery29 (3.0 stars) in an attempt to capture a larger female audience. If approved by regulatory entities, the deal would combine two of the largest digital media startups in the world. Bloomberg
TikTok is the trendy social media platform that’s emerged as Gen Z’s answer to the ghost of Vine (RIP, you will be forever missed!), but the company’s new content moderation policy has resulted in the banning of any content that could be interpreted as approving of LGBTQ people, even in countries where it has never been illegal to openly identify as such. The Guardian
Quick Hits
The Supreme Court returns for its new term this week, hearing arguments on three cases. The workplace-focused one raises this question: Is it legal to fire someone for being gay or transgender? Read more about how that case came to be. The Washington Post
Allyson Felix, the Olympic sprinter who spoke out against her former sponsor Nike (3.3 stars) for pregnancy dsicrimination, has just achieved another milestone for working moms. Just 10 months after suffering from severe preeclampsia and giving birth via C-section, Felix won her 12th gold medal at a track-and-field world championship, breaking Usain Bolt’s gold medal record. Glamour
Remember earlier this year when the all-female spacewalk was canceled because the mission didn’t have enough suits that were the correct size? NASA announced last week that the spacewalk is back on (whew!). Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will complete the walk in a few weeks. The Washington Post
Actor James Franco, along with two other men, has been named in a lawsuit alleging that his acting school Studio 4 sexually exploited its female students. The two named plaintiffs, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, are former students of the school and report an allegedly abusive culture that took advantage of women students in a sex scenes masterclass and pay violations, among other complaints. NPR
But when a person comes out with such an allegation in the #MeToo era, what actually happens? Sure, the person they accuse will face scrutiny in the media, and there’s a chance they might actually reap some consequences, but what later? After the internet trolls stop threatening the lives of accusers (or at least, when the threats go down slightly) and their names are forgotten in the headlines, what are the costs they are left to contend with? New York magazine spoke to 25 survivors, including Chanel Miller, Linda Vester, and Anthony Rapp, to find out. The Cut
Around the World
Sudan: Twitter’s role in facilitating the Arab Spring uprisings is well-documented, but did you know of a smaller social media that helped spark a revolution? In Sudan, the women-run Minbar-Shat, originally a forum for women to perform background checks of sorts on potential suitors, did just that. Started by then-24-year-old Rania Omer, Minbar Shat’s ranks soon grew to over 300,000 members, who mobilized to expose soldiers and officials working for Sudan’s corrupt former dictator Omar Al-Bashir. Elle
Iran: For the first time, Iran will grant citizenship to children born to Iranian mothers and foreign fathers, giving tens of thousands of children access to social and health care services. The development is being regarded as a victory for women’s rights in the region, where many countries don’t allow mothers to pass on citizenship to their children with foreign fathers. Bloomberg
Estonia: Here’s a new destination for your bucket list—Kihnu, better known as Estonia’s “Isle of Women.” Of the Baltic island’s 300 year-round residents, about 5 of them are men. Instead, it’s the women who run things on the non-commercialized Kihnu, dressed in the bright colors of their traditional dress. This piece from The New York Times about Kihnu will leave you utterly charmed: “While sitting across from Ms. Koster, Ms. Matas pondered the concept of feminism, often met with bewilderment here. The reasoning: Of course, women are capable. Of course, women are competent. But no, men and women aren’t equal—women have proven they can do everything men can, but men can’t do everything women can.” NY Times
