The Persistent

"I have two children whom I love, who came from that batch of embryos, and I have no desire for another. Why did I feel so upset?" A beautiful, moving essay by @emmahaslett.bsky.social in @thepersistent.bsky.social today about what to do with unused IVF embryos. www.thepersistent.com/p/it-s-time-...

"I can’t explain how being noticed beside a pool is materially different to being noticed in the snacks aisle at the supermarket," @lucywebster.bsky.social writes. "But it is."

The idea that urban design can be discriminatory has become more established in recent years. Some city planners are making changes accordingly.

Women are set to be the primary inheritors of around $80 trillion—an enormous wealth transfer which has the potential to change our economic and social landscape.

When it comes to medical diagnoses and health markers, period blood is something of a superpower. We should leverage it, @emmahaslett.bsky.social writes.

“All We Imagine as Light” is a movie about love and longing, identity and patriarchy, and the power of female friendship.

Does volunteering lead to a larger network and better connections? @lubakas.bsky.social says her year of working for free didn't pay off.

In the U.S., October 20 marks Disabled Women’s Equal Pay Day, which recognizes an especially stark disparity: For every dollar earned by nondisabled men, disabled women earn just 56 cents.

As more pregnant women are detained by U.S. immigration authorities, the @wrcommission.bsky.social is asking what’s happening to them behind closed doors.

In a world in which wealth and opulence seem to beget political power, @josiecox.bsky.social longs for a leader with un-showy discipline — And can’t help thinking of Angela Merkel.

In Afghanistan, women's blocked opportunities to have a career, contribute to society and earn a living are creating a mental health crisis.

"So when the person — or, let’s just be real and say the woman — presiding over all this labor is unable to do it because her mind is slowly being eroded by dementia, what happens next?"

In 1951, a young woman named Henrietta Lacks visited The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The rest is an example of a breakdown of moral and ethical codes in healthcare.

Enthusiastic readers of romance novels would very much like to see themselves reflected on the page. When will the industry fully catch on?

Bangladesh's textile industry has a long history of deadly workplace accidents, but the Green Field Factory in Rangpur is so popular with its workers, they spend their spare time there.

“We live in a patriarchal, very binary world... I have a huge need to explain to the people in power—mostly white, cis, heterosexual men with money who determine the fate of the world — that there are so many stories from different types of backgrounds that are not taken into account.”

Improved social support, more role models, and reduced bias in medical schools have fueled the change. When it comes to patient outcomes, it makes a difference.

In a deeply divided world, can anything unite us? Perhaps a comma or two.

On a basic level, DEI promotes the fair treatment of all individuals, but it’s more than that. Sure, it can include hiring and promotion policies, or workplace training, but it might also encompass mentorship programmes or audits to ensure pay equity.

We keep raising imposter syndrome with women, and worse, telling them they ought to have it.

For years, Syrian women have fought to be heard in international negotiations. They aren’t about to give up ground now.

"We have a mental health crisis. This story makes it really tangible: this is what it looks like for one person; here’s how the ripples go out to affect family, friends and community. We'd like it to de-stigmatize mental illness."

Birth control entered the national conversation in 1919, when an activist and single mother named Mary Ware Dennett brought the idea to Congress. Suddenly, elected leaders found themselves weighing reproductive rights for the first time.

A Saturday Night Live monologue shows how easily sexist tropes still pass for comedy. But I’m not laughing. Are you?

Smuggled out of Russia and brought to the U.S., @katyasuvorova.bsky.social grew up in fear as an undocumented immigrant. As she began to tell her story, she realized she was far from alone.

An encounter with the world's most powerful CEOs gave @josiecox.bsky.social a shocking reality check.

Studies show that even when women do sleep, they sleep differently.

GLP-1 medications have changed food, culture — and our bodies. A new book by Aimee Donnellan chronicles their history. Read @emmahaslett.bsky.social's interview with the author.

Infertility, so long hidden from view, is finally finding a spotlight in various contemporary art forms.

Sometimes, you need to turn off your push alerts and "touch grass," as the kids say. @josiecox.bsky.social makes the case.

The "Cornell Seven" is the wrong number. My latest, for @thepersistent.bsky.social

Frozen out of their accounts by online payment providers, some telemedicine providers are struggling to keep going.

Without proper financial planning, grief can turn very quickly into poverty.

With over 3.2 billion photographs published online each day, knowing how to read visual images has become an essential skill. To the documentary photographer and educator Daniella Zalcman, this literacy begins with questioning who is behind the camera.

It’s a question experts have wrangled with for years.

Margaret Sanger, the abortion campaigner and Planned Parenthood founder, undoubtedly advanced women's rights. But she also had links with eugenics groups.

At the current rate of hiring, it will take two generations for women to stop being the odd one out.

The "Cornell Seven" is the wrong number My latest, for @thepersistent.bsky.social, on the culture of complicity that spills well beyond the courtroom and into all the rooms — the chatrooms, the frat houses, the boardrooms. www.thepersistent.com/p/cornell-7-...

Democratic women are running in record numbers, underscoring a stark partisan divide in political representation.

A culture of complicity spills into all the spaces — the chatrooms, the frat houses, the boardrooms, the private island retreats — even if everyone present isn’t actually getting in on the act.

It was Ronald Reagan who, in the 1980s, claimed “freedom” and “family values” for the Republican party, though his administration offered neither.

A rewatch of Friends reveals it isn't the post-feminist masterpiece we thought it was.

Christa Pike would have been the 19th woman executed in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. After Tennessee’s botched execution, a look at the other 18 women who were put to death before her.

"I was about to turn 55 when I met the man who would become my second husband. I thought I would never marry again, then I crossed paths with Daniel."

Even if a company follows the letter of the law, there’s no guarantee it will follow the spirit of the law, @josiecox.bsky.social says on the gender pay gap.

The @womensprize.bsky.social never was about leaving out men — it was about making sure that women’s work was celebrated, founder @katemossewriter.bsky.social says.

The cases of Cynthia Sommer, Amanda Knox and Sally Clark show that for wrongly convicted women, exoneration is hard-won.

The journalist Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff was an intern when she learned how newsrooms decide which missing person cases they cover. Now she wants to find a way to change it.

The idea of “going high” doesn’t only have to mean taking giant steps to moral superiority. It can also be seeing past differences and recognizing common values.

We're not talking about an unexpected c-section or a deferral from a birth plan: This is long-term damage—physical or mental—to a woman or her baby. And yet it affects thousands of women each year, in particular, women of color.