Women's News: The women of color transforming labor unions

Hello and welcome to your mid-week women’s news update. If you’re enjoying The Rise, please share it with friends, family, and co-workers. Let’s get more people reading women’s stories!

Here’s what’s on the rise this week:

Spotlight

Black and Latina women are breaking the glass ceiling in labor union leadership, bringing greater workplace protections and reshaping the way unions operate.

• Despite representing about half of union membership and driving growth at greater rates than men, women (particularly women of color) have historically been underrepresented in leadership positions. 

• Now, a new wave of women leaders is taking the helm and driving much-needed change like increased parental leave, wage parity, sexual harassment protections, and safety gear made for women’s bodies.

• Leading the charge are women like Gwen Mills, the first female president of hospitality union UNITE HERE, Becky Pringle, a Black woman who heads the National Education Association, the largest in the country, and Bonnie Castillo, the first Latina to become executive director of National Nurses United.

Business and Tech

• Maven Clinic, a telehealth platform for women’s and family health, raised $125 million in new funding to help grow the company’s fertility benefit platform and expand other programming, bringing its valuation to $1.7 billion.

• Women made up over half of this year’s MacArthur Fellowship recipients. Known as the “genius grant,” the award provides $800,000 in no-strings-attached funding to exceptional individuals in fields ranging from history to evolutionary biology.

• A new report found that the economic output of U.S. Latinas has grown by 51% since 2010, making it bigger than the entire economy of Florida.

• Gina Drosos will retire as CEO of Signet Jewelers, the parent company of brands like Kay and Zales, after a six-year tenure that quadrupled the value of the company.

Election Watch

Healthcare

• Breast cancer is becoming more common among women under 50. A new study found that occurrences of early-onset breast cancer are rising at a sharper rate than those in older patients.

• A new blood test to predict premature births is now available for women to self-administer. The test, which reveals preterm risk by measuring proteins in the mother’s blood, aims to reduce the one in ten U.S. babies born prematurely.

• The Supreme Court declined to require Texas doctors to perform emergency abortions, leaving in place a lower court decision that could limit the procedure in the state. 

• Melinda French Gates invited nonprofits around the world to apply for a portion of the $250 million she plans to donate to women’s health initiatives.

Sports

• The New York Liberty will face the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA finals after defeating the Las Vegas Aces in the semis, leaving two-time MVP A’ja Wilson and her teammates to try again next year. The first of the five-game series is tomorrow night.

  • Players say increased viewership for the WNBA playoffs has come with a downside—they report a rise in harassment, especially racist, misogynistic, and homophobic abuse.

• Coco Gauff won her eighth career tennis title at the China Open, becoming the first American woman to take home the trophy since Serena Williams in 2013.

Culture

• Following criticism about lack of diversity in award recipients, the Grammys have been on a five-year effort to diversify their voting body. Now, the Recording Academy has passed its goal of adding 2,500 women members—a year ahead of schedule.

• Two Black women conducted an experiment to test for racial bias in the dating app Hinge—and it worked. By creating two profiles, one identifying as Black and the other as White, they noticed that the White profile received higher-quality potential matches.

Further Reading