Womenstake, NWLC's Blog

by Jessica Lauredan, Outreach Intern
National Women’s Law Center

This post is part of a weekly series profiling our blog authors.

Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Counsel at NWLC, works on ensuring gender equality in education through litigation, legislative policy, and public education.

Q: Your mother, Carol Goss, is President and CEO of the Skillman Foundation, a private organization working to improve schools and neighborhoods for children in southeast Michigan. How has her work influenced your career and goals?
Fatima: Both of my parents emphasized a commitment to public service from a young age. I have two sisters, and they always instilled in all of us the importance of being involved in issues that we’re passionate about — and about giving both our time and talents to those issues. In addition to my work here at the Center, one sister directs philanthropic affairs and urban renewal for the City of Detroit, and, while still in school, my other sister has always been heavily involved in community activities.

Also, I come from a long legacy of civil rights activists. My father and aunt were the named plaintiffs in a significant post-Brown Supreme Court ruling that desegregated schools in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the height of the civil rights movement.

Q: Over the years, the civil rights movement and the women’s rights movement have coincided and sometimes clashed. As a woman of color, do you ever feel torn between your loyalties as an African-American and as a feminist?
Fatima: I’m not sure I’d put it exactly that way — these are movements that have benefited from and fostered each other. And these movements continue to work in strong coalitions together; I work with many civil rights organizations on a regular basis and our work often overlaps.

That said, I strongly believe that feminists have a duty to be committed to racial and broader social justice, and there is a similar duty for civil rights activists to advocate on behalf of women and girls. And in so doing, feminists have to ensure that their advocacy takes the needs of all women into account, not just white women. Similarly, civil rights activists must ensure that their advocacy does not focus on progress for only men of color.

by National Women’s Law Center

People are losing their jobs, homes, and health care. So on Monday the Bush administration released a new budget that proposes to cut taxes for millionaires — and services for everyone else.

Many vital supports to vulnerable women and children were cut by the President’s budget, including:

by Rachel Rebouche, Fellow
National Women’s Law Center

This morning, President Bush hosted an event at the White House with pending nominees, including judicial nominees. His message was that the Senate has failed in its job to confirm these nominees.