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Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies

Seeing life through their eyes
African American person sitting in a wooden chair, feet up on a wooden table that holds a ball jar filled with sweet tea.

E. Patrick Johnson (above) stars in “Making Sweet Tea,” a 90-minute film about life as an African American gay man in the southern United States. The film, which was co-produced and co-directed by Annenberg Dean John L. Jackson Jr. and Penn doctoral student Nora Gross, is based on a book Johnson wrote, which then became a play.

Seeing life through their eyes

Through the voices and stories of seven men, a feature-length documentary co-produced and directed by Annenberg Dean John L. Jackson Jr. and graduate student Nora Gross illustrates what it means to be black and gay in the south.

Michele W. Berger

Women scientists were written out of history. It’s Margaret Rossiter’s lifelong mission to fix that

Women scientists were written out of history. It’s Margaret Rossiter’s lifelong mission to fix that

M. Susan Lindee of the School of Arts and Sciences praised academic Margaret Rossiter’s research on women’s contributions to science. “We have to look at her past work carefully,” said Lindee, “and re-examine all those brilliant strategies that women used to contest institutional power, which was oriented around preventing them from succeeding.”

Why are so many women still dying from childbirth?
newborn baby in bassinet beside hospital bed with birth mother in background

The U.S. now has the worst maternal mortality rate among all developed countries, and is rising. 

Why are so many women still dying from childbirth?

Experts from Penn discuss the role that social determinants, socioeconomics, and racism play, and how the University is addressing the maternal mortality crisis head on.
Paid family leave: What’s the right model?
infant sleeping on parent's chest

Paid family leave: What’s the right model?

With companies exploring gender biases in the workplace, the issue of parental leave highlights gender inequality and brings all parents into the fold when analyzing family leave policies.

Penn Today Staff

How gender and racial biases are hurting economics
A non-binary person using a laptop at work.

(Photo: The Gender Spectrum Collection)

How gender and racial biases are hurting economics

Following a survey released this month by the American Economic Association that reveals a disturbingly high level of gender bias in the field, Wharton’s Olivia S. Mitchell discusses the effects of gender and racial biases in the field of economics.

Penn Today Staff

Making a movement from #MeToo
Panelists at the "Grassroots Organizing in the MeToo Era" at Perry World House

Joanne N. Smith, Veronica Avila, Nadeen Spence, Veronica Gago, and Penn professor Deborah A. Thomas spoke to a packed room at Perry World House. 

Making a movement from #MeToo

At Perry World House Monday, activists from around the world talked about how they’re working to make sure the stories of women and girls are told—and heard.

Gwyneth K. Shaw