Feminism NOW at the DNC

Feminism NOW is getting ready to launch our third season. Our theme is “Women Uplifting Women,” and what better way to start than with a visit to the DNC, where Kamala Harris was nominated to run for President. NOW’s National President Christian F. Nunes was on the ground at the DNC, getting the thoughts and impressions of attendees. 

Featuring the voices of (in order of appearance):

Donna Miller, Cook County Board Commissioner, 6th District, Chicago, Ill.  

Anjali Mehrotra, NOW Board of Directors and founder of Equality, Period. NJ. 

Abby Dobson, Artist-in-Residence, African American Policy Forum, NOW NYC affiliate and member of the NOW PAC.

Frank J. Aguilar, Cook County Commissioner, 16th District, Chicago, Ill. 

Jane George, Congressional Candidate, 2nd District of Tennessee. 

Susie Shannon, Los Angeles City Health Commissioner, 14th District, Chair of the DNC Poverty Council. 

Helene Rearden-Bond, O.B.E., Deputy Chief of Staff, U.K. Labour Party. 

Zakiya Thomas, President and CEO of the ERA Coalition.

Maya, Chicago Resident. 

Bear Atwood, Vice President of the National Organization for Women. 

Take Action NOW: https://www.nowpac.org/ 

Listen to new episodes of Feminism NOW released every other Wednesday. To find out more about the National Organization for Women, visit our website.

Creators & Guests

Host

Christian Nunes

Guest

Abby Dobson

Guest

Anjali Mehrotra

Guest

Bear Atwood

Producer

Bethany Brookshire

Guest

Donna Miller

Guest

Frank J. Aguilar

Guest

Helene Rearden-Bond

Editor

Ismael Balderas-Wong

Guest

Jane George

Producer

Jeanette Harris-Courts

Guest

Susie Shannon

Guest

Zakiya Thomas

What is Feminism NOW?

Passionate about modern feminist issues? Want to learn more about how today's political, academic, and cultural leaders strive for a future of universal equality and justice?

Join NOW President Christian F. Nunes in a new podcast dedicated to intersectional feminist discussions in American society with leaders in entertainment, sports, politics, and science. From conversations on constitutional equality, to economic justice and reproductive rights, listeners will find new ways to learn, engage, and get empowered.

Listen for new episodes released every other Wednesday.

Jeanette Harris Courts (00:06):
Welcome everyone. This is Feminism NOW, the podcast from the National Organization for Women. We feature leaders and activists fighting for the rights of women and give tools to join the movement. I'm producer Jeanette Harris Courts. We are getting ready to launch season three of Feminism NOW our theme this season is Women Uplifting Women. And what better way to start our season than at the Democratic National Convention. The NOW national president and host of this very podcast, Christian F. Nunes, is on the ground at the DNC.

(00:40):
And we are so excited to offer you this very special episode of all the things Christian gathered while there. We also want to hear from you. What are the biggest issues for you this election season, and how are you uplifting women in the world? Contact us at feminism@N-O-W.O-R-G. That's [e-mail]. And now here's Christian live from the DNC.

Christian F. Nunes (01:11):
Hello everyone. We are live from DNC. This is your host, Christian F. Nunes. And I'm here at our Feminist for Kamala meet and greet. I have here our first feminist who would like to tell us about why she is a feminist for Kamala. Can you tell us name?

Donna Miller (01:30):
So I am Donna Miller, Cook County Commissioner. And my pronouns are she and her, hers. And I am from Chicago, I always say I'm an original Chicago girl. And I am one of 17 commissioners on the county board.

Christian F. Nunes (01:45):
Donna's being a little bit humble y'all. I need Donna to tell us about her recent award that she just received.

Donna Miller (01:53):
Well, yes, I was so honored to receive a lifetime achievement award for service for medical equity from the Biden administration and President Joe Biden.

Christian F. Nunes (02:02):
Yes. So congratulations again. And this touches my heart because I'm all about health equity and mental health equity. So she is out here doing the work y'all. So we want to know personally, what does this mean to you? I mean, having Madam Vice President Kamala Harris, and also your soror in office.

Donna Miller (02:23):
Fellow Bison, HU. Yeah.

Christian F. Nunes (02:27):
Okay. Oh yes. HU. All of that. Right? Okay. What feels different with her as the presidential nominee for this election?

Donna Miller (02:39):
Well, it is just the culmination of so many things. When we look at the Obama administration and Obama's historic election two times, I was there in the beginning of Obama when people were like, who? So no one knew who he was. But then that became a household name. Then I was there in 2016 for Hillary where we thought this is going to be a slam dunk, and that didn't happen. So I think it's a culmination of all of those pieces of the puzzle coming together now once this nomination became official that it was easy for people to galvanize, but that's why everything happened so fast.

(03:14):
All of those experts from Obama, from Hillary, they knew what to do. They knew how to organize. They knew how to get boots on the ground. They knew how to raise money. They knew how to use technology. COVID taught us that. Now we put all those things together. That's why we're raising historic amounts of money for this campaign, and we're going to have historic number of people out door knocking, going to these swing states. We're going to be pulling people out to vote who maybe didn't feel it was important.

(03:41):
They felt disenfranchised, they had apathy, but now they have hope. That's what Obama said at the convention. Hope is back in our hearts, and that makes a huge difference in where we are as a country. And we also see that diversity matters. Diversity of what our country looks like matters to everyone, not just a certain ethnic group or a certain population or a certain geographic area, or even a certain age group. We saw it all across the board. We keep seeing it all across the board. I saw Heather Booth today from The Janes.

Christian F. Nunes (04:12):
I love Heather.

Donna Miller (04:18):
I love her. I was just like, oh my God, I'm fangirling. She's 83. I mean, they did this work fighting for women's reproductive rights, that's why I say all the different pieces are coming together. It's because of people like that that know how to get out there and get this done. They might be tired, but they have the experience. We need to leverage that institutional knowledge. And because we have it from all these different generations, I probably think that this is probably one of the best conventions to have multi-generational as the majority.

(04:44):
There probably wasn't just one generation represented at the Woman's Caucus yesterday. There was a DJ there, she's 10-years-old. She got up in there and spoke on the microphone, a 10-year-old spoke to the entire Woman's Caucus and she told us why she's here. So we have a 10-year-old 83-year-old, a 50-year-old. I mean, we have every age group, every decade. So that's what this election is all about, making sure that everyone feels unified, making sure that everyone feels like they have their feet in the fire, and then we're going to get out there and do the work.

(05:16):
We're going to go knock on doors. I already have buses organized from the south suburbs where I am. We're going every Saturday to Michigan, Wisconsin. So every Saturday is booked. I'm not doing anything else. We want to make sure that we get that message out and why we should vote for this particular candidate at this particular time.

Christian F. Nunes (05:35):
And this is why she won the presidential award. Okay.

Angelina Medrota (05:43):
Name is Angelina Medrota. My pronouns are she, her, hers. I'm from New Jersey. I was a former president of NOW New Jersey, and I just got off the national board.

Christian F. Nunes (05:52):
And you do a little bit more than that. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you're doing in New Jersey?

Angelina Medrota (05:57):
I work on the intersection of politics and policy. I co-founded a menstrual equity coalition, which I'm very proud to say we passed a bill last year that will now require free menstrual products in school bathrooms starting this fall. So I tend to work on the women's rights, but I'm also an immigrant. I am a South Asian, I am Indian American, so I do work on immigration policies too. We passed a bill last year that will require data disaggregation, which means that all data collected in New Jersey will now be individual subcategories by country so that we can have more accurate representation.

(06:30):
So I do a lot of policy work.

Christian F. Nunes (06:32):
Tell me a little bit more about why you are a feminist for Kamala.

Angelina Medrota (06:36):
So as I mentioned, I am an Indian American. I'm an immigrant. I came to this country actually 37 years ago today.

Christian F. Nunes (06:43):
Oh, congratulations.

Angelina Medrota (06:45):
Thank you. And when she was first picked as Biden's vice president nominee, there was women all across this country that were happy, right? But it was the Black women and the Indian American women that were actually shedding tears. Honestly, I never imagined I would see this in my lifetime, where we have somebody who looks like us, frankly, so close to being in that position of being president, and it is absolutely amazing. One of the other things that I always say is that I was a Democrat before I became a citizen because to me, the Democratic Party really represents inclusion.

(07:18):
And to me that's so important to be in a place where your voice is valued. We've all been in circles where we are just faces to roll out for photographs. With the Democratic Party in New Jersey, I feel valued as an Indian American, as a woman, my opinions, my lived experiences make for something. We know that South Asian voters in general across the country are not engaged. They're not very political, and we're really trying to seize this moment to get them engaged, to understand the power of their voice and their vote.

(07:52):
And I think the fact that Kamala brings that to the White House is absolutely amazing. And there is a lot of power in that. Women just govern differently. We know that. The policies that she's going to fight for, the policies that I care about, whether it's reproductive rights, whether it's child care, whether it's education, all of those things are things that women fight for. And I think it's going to be amazing to have a female president.

Abby Dobson (08:18):
My name is Abby Dobson. She, her pronouns. I live in Freeport, New York, and I am an artist, an activist, a feminist. I'm on the NOW PAC. I'm also affiliated with NOW NYC and the African-American Policy Forum.

Christian F. Nunes (08:34):
So what do you think when you think about this time with Kamala Harris as our presidential nominee and this election? What feels different to you?

Abby Dobson (08:43):
Part of what feels different for me is that for the first time, I'm seeing a candidate claiming the right to be who she is, all of who she is in how she's running her campaign and how she's presenting herself to the American public. Somebody who embraces grit and joy at the same time, somebody who's not afraid to be tough, somebody who's not afraid to laugh the way she laughs and to celebrate where she's from, her Indian roots, her Jamaican roots, her African-American roots, and is just a joy to a Black woman fully embody her power and her strength as an intellect, as a politician in this moment.

(09:20):
It represents to me this idea that yes, we can get at something that is, it speaks to the possibility of America that this woman, the daughter of two immigrants could possibly be the next President of the United States and be a Black woman, a Black South Asian woman at the same time. I think that's different.

Christian F. Nunes (09:39):
Yeah. I think, Abby, you bring up some great points because she represents so much. She represents the American dream, right? She represents breaking glass ceilings. She's proving that women are capable and she's also showing, I think, America that representation matters and when you have representation that we still can be unified.

Abby Dobson (10:00):
Yeah. Absolutely. Representation matters. Your identity and who you are matters, but what also matters is how qualified you are.

Christian F. Nunes (10:08):
Absolutely.

Abby Dobson (10:10):
And she represents that. And so she brings that to the table in a way that we haven't seen. I mean, I loved what Michelle Obama said in her speech, her amazing speech, that she probably represents one of the most qualified candidates-

Christian F. Nunes (10:22):
Ever.

Abby Dobson (10:23):
... That we've ever had in this country. And so I'm just so excited by this brilliant, beautiful, concerned, graceful Black woman who's out there fighting for all people who live in America. Not just Americans, but people who live here who are not US citizens either.

Christian F. Nunes (10:44):
We have another special guest with us for Feminism NOW, DNC 24 special edition. Can you tell us your name, your pronouns, where you're from and what you do?

Frank J. Aguilar (10:57):
I'm Frank J. Aguilar, Cook County Commissioner Illinois. I live in [inaudible 00:11:03] Illinois.

Christian F. Nunes (11:04):
Are you happy that they're having this in your city?

Frank J. Aguilar (11:06):
Absolutely. Chicago's a great town, so I'm glad they picked Chicago for the national convention here.

Christian F. Nunes (11:11):
So can you tell us why you are a feminist for Kamala Harris?

Frank J. Aguilar (11:16):
For women's health. And obviously if she does not win, there's an extreme danger for women. And I can tell you this from experience, there was an incident here in Cook County and she was from a state that made it illegal. So she came to Illinois and she was immediately taken to emergency and they aborted the fetus and the doctors told her, if you would've waited one more day, because she had a temperature of 102 degrees. If she would've waited one more day, she would've not made it. So that's the reason why. Literally I'm scared if she doesn't win for that avenue.

(11:52):
So vote for Kamala Harris and I think we have a brighter future that's critical for our survival.

Jane George (11:59):
Hi, I'm Jane George, and I am from Knoxville, Tennessee, sixth generation East Tennessean, and I am running for US Congress in Tennessee's second district.

Christian F. Nunes (12:09):
So tell me a little bit more about what you feel like is going to be the most important issue that you're going to see this election.

Jane George (12:17):
Well, I think women's rights, and I know that's a general statement because we're looking at things like the ratification of the ERA. We're looking at making sure to ensure that all women across this nation have equal rights and access to healthcare. Right now, women do not have that. Across state lines, women do not have equal rights, and that is not a democracy. It's over half of the population. How does that get to be arbitrarily determined by the state? So that's another thing that needs to be put into play.

(12:46):
Of course, we've got to have access to reproductive freedom in healthcare for women to be able to make those choices. Those are her choices between her and her doctor. There's so many issues that affect women like equal pay for equal work. We talk about it as a sustainable and equal minimum wage. We don't just say minimum wage. We want to make sure that it's sustainable and that it's equal. Now of course, minimum wage is already assumed equal, but the reality is as women work their ways up higher and higher the corporate ladder, the more likely they are to see discrepancy between what they and their fellow colleagues that are male make with the same resume.

(13:23):
So we want to work on that. That's a big issue for women, has been a big issue for women since women have started to go into the workforce. So that's something that needs to be addressed and changed. We need to make sure we have affordable child care, access to healthcare, elder care is a big one for us. So we really want to elevate those issues as real issues and focus on those as issues for Americans, not just women. And I'm going to tell you right now, and this is true across the South, it may not be true in some of the other states, but there's a lot going on.

(13:54):
Moving, misappropriating where people go to actually vote has changed for a lot of folks. Some people have been taken off of registers, so we can't wait until the last minute. Encouraging everybody to reach out to their local election councils to find out and make sure how they can verify where they vote and that they are still registered. That's number one. If you're in college, you don't have to be registered. You don't lose your citizenship of your state if you're going to school out of state. Get yourself registered.

(14:24):
We want to encourage young women to make sure that they're registered, check in with their friends to make sure that they're registered. That's the next step. Once you know that, make a plan to vote. We want to make sure that you plan ahead, and that means doing early voting if you can. If you can't, then make sure that you get there early in the day. Make sure that you plan ahead, make sure you have plenty of water because the lines could be long. And when you get in that booth, of course you got to vote for her, but you also have to vote down ballot.

Christian F. Nunes (14:48):
Say that one more time for everyone.

Jane George (14:50):
Of course, you have to vote down ballot, so know who your representatives are. Look it up. It's on your local election commission's website. You can find out who they are. It's easy to access. Everybody's got social media, know who they are. And again, it's going to be your State Senate. It's going to be your House rep races. Some people may have other races that are local races, that varies from state to state. So you matter. Your vote matters. People, I tell people all the time, a drop of water doesn't know it's the ocean.

Christian F. Nunes (15:22):
We heard it live here. Every vote matters. Vote down ballot and do everything you can to make sure we are doing everything we can to put the people we want in office.

Suzy Shannon (15:34):
Hi, I'm Suzy Shannon. My pronouns are she, her. And I'm from Los Angeles, although originally from Chicago and once a Chicagoan, always a Chicagoan. And I work with homeless and low income communities and I'm also the Democratic National Committee Poverty Council Chair.

Christian F. Nunes (15:52):
Yeah. So I'm so excited I get to be vice chair with Ms. Suzy in the Poverty Council and also just work with her in coalition all the time. You're working in California, so you know a lot about some of the things that Kamala Harris had to deal with when she was out there as Attorney General, right?

Suzy Shannon (16:09):
Yes. Absolutely. She has been fantastic. She's done a lot of work obviously on children and domestic violence issues and on abuse towards children, and she was absolutely fantastic. And then we were very excited when she became our US Senator, then obviously vice president and now running for president. I think that she brings a lot of energy to what she's doing because she's very authentic in terms of how she feels about helping people and I think that that's important. She's not just out for herself, which is usually a criticism of a lot of politicians.

(16:46):
She brings a feminist perspective, which I think is also very, very important. She's a leader unapologetically, which is really great. I'm very excited too because she's coming up with a plan for renters in underserved communities. In California, we have over 181,000 people who are homeless and in the country over 500,000. And so it's very important that we're focused on that issue. Incredibly important as women, because women are obviously overrepresented in terms of living in poverty.

(17:19):
And so it's really important to have someone who's at the top of this ticket that's raising these issues, that's going after corporate landlords and making sure that people get a fair shake. Obviously, choice is at the very top of our agenda because of our Supreme Court and how awful it was that Trump got in and moved that Supreme Court so far to the right that we were fighting to save Roe v. Wade. Even when people told us don't ever worry about it, we're never going back, here we are.

Christian F. Nunes (17:57):
Okay. So we have a treat in the house right now. We have a special guest going to be joining us. We're presenting a group of special guests. Can you tell us your name, your pronouns, and where you're from?

Helen Reardon Bond (18:09):
Hi, I'm Helen Reardon Bond. My pronoun is her, and I'm from the UK Labour Party and I'm based in London. I'm here with my colleagues, Sheila Murphy, Carol Linforth and Gail McDade, who actually did all the hard work to help us win recently, the election for the Labour Party. So we're here looking at the great progress that you've made and we have our fingers crossed, hoping that Kamala wins.

Christian F. Nunes (18:36):
Well, thank you so much. So tell me, what do you think is going to be the most important issue that we are going to face in this election?

Helen Reardon Bond (18:45):
I think it's the misinformation. I think that Kamala will be attacked on every front. I think she's doing brilliantly so far. We've all been saying actually how wonderful all the women have been and have absolutely stolen the show that that will be, we think, the biggest challenge for her.

Christian F. Nunes (19:02):
So tell me a little bit more. We know that in 2016, I don't know if you were aware, but we had Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is amazing and brilliant, run for office, but misinformation was a big part of why she didn't win.

Helen Reardon Bond (19:16):
So we were saying that because of the great work that Hillary did, she broke down a lot of barriers and made it really acceptable that a woman could run and be really successful. So that's, I think, going to really aid Kamala in her aspirations in hopefully becoming president in November.

Zakiya Thomas (19:36):
I'm Zakiya Thomas. I use she, her pronouns and I'm the president and CEO of the ERA Coalition.

Christian F. Nunes (19:43):
And where are you located, Zakiya?

Zakiya Thomas (19:44):
I'm in Fairfax, Virginia, right outside DC.

Christian F. Nunes (19:47):
Wonderful. So this, we are here in the DNC 24 Convention for a historic moment, wouldn't you agree?

Zakiya Thomas (19:56):
Oh, very historic. That's why we're here. We actually had an event celebrating the historic nature of this convention and having Kamala Harris as the nominee.

Christian F. Nunes (20:03):
Absolutely. How does this election feel different for you?

Zakiya Thomas (20:06):
Oh, this election is so different. Since Kamala has become the nominee, the energy and the excitement around it, here in the convention, it's tangible. You can feel it and it just pervades every event I've been to. You go to the convention, you just see people are here united to move the country forward, and she's doing that. She's inspiring us to be there and the people she's bringing together to coalesce around her are really making it happen. You see young people, you see old people, you see the diversity of our country represented.

(20:32):
And if you contrast that with the other party, it's stark difference, night and day. So I'm so excited about the historic nature because for me as a Black woman, having myself reflected in the White House has never happened before. And so I'm looking forward to having that.

Christian F. Nunes (20:45):
So can you tell us what this means to have Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee? What this means, how historic it is?

Zakiya Thomas (20:54):
So for someone like me, I actually worked on her previous presidential campaign. So this is a long time coming and I'm so excited to be here to celebrate the fact that we have a woman who represents the country and at this moment where our democracy is under attack, to have someone who actually has conviction for people instead of for business interest. And she supports the Equal Rights Amendment and that's why we support her. Because whether you're partisan or not, you have to realize that if you don't have the Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution, there are going to be issues.

Maya (21:21):
My name is Maya. My pronouns are she, they. I'm originally from Chicago.

Christian F. Nunes (21:26):
Okay. So we have a Chicago native in the house. Maya, can you tell us what do you think is the most important issue for this election?

Maya (21:36):
I would say probably abortion rights. It's scary that women are not able to get access to care now and that it's an arrestable offense in a lot of states. And I think that's pretty terrifying, in my opinion, especially because for people who can't afford to go to the doctor and can't get birth control or have an accident, what are they supposed to do? So I think it's definitely an issue that is hurting women of color mainly and women who are in poverty. So I think it's important that we use our own privilege as women who have access to these things to stand up for the women who don't.

Christian F. Nunes (22:16):
Maya, I really appreciate you saying that about using your own privilege to stand up for the women that don't. Because a lot of times we feel like if we're not affected by things, that we don't have to speak up and stand up for people. And it's really important that we start recognizing when we have privilege in places that we use that privilege to help those who don't. Because if I'm struggling, eventually you're going to struggle too. Right? So I'm so glad that you recognized that, and thank you for naming that for us in the podcast.

Maya (22:41):
Yeah, of course. I feel like everyone is important and everyone should be taken care of by our government, and clearly that's not the case right now.

Bear Atwood (22:51):
Hi, my name is Bear Atwood. My pronouns are she, her, and I'm from Mississippi. I'm the Vice President of the National Organization for Women. Election Day is my birthday, so you know what I want for my birthday.

Christian F. Nunes (23:03):
Kamala Harris for President.

Bear Atwood (23:05):
That's what I want. I'm going to make phone calls. I'm going to organize our chapter members and our chapter leaders to get out there and work in the Harris campaign. I'm going to talk to my family and my friends and everyone I know and tell them how important it is to vote. I'm going to work tirelessly between now and election day.

Christian F. Nunes (23:27):
So everybody, we got to make sure Bear gets her birthday gift. Thank you, Bear.

Jeanette Harris Courts (23:34):
We hope that this taste of the DNC has made you excited as we are for this new season. The first official episode of Feminism NOW season three will be dropping into your feed soon. Stay tuned. This podcast, Feminism NOW is a production of the National Organization for Women. If you like what you hear, please like, subscribe, and send it to your friends. You can also contact us at feminismnow@N-O-W.O-R-G, that's [e-mail] or head to now.org to read up on NOW's core issues and our approach to advancing women's equality. Together we can make a difference.

(24:19):
And thanks for listening. We'll talk to you guys soon. Bye.