“We have 48 women on the list this year, up from 45 last year,” Time Magazine’s editor-in-chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal said. When the magazine first began publishing the list back in 2004, only 24 women were included. He added that the magazine’s list of 100 most influential people “is in some ways a reflection of our society, but an amazing year for the women on the list.”
“We like to think of so-called marital rape exceptions as an artifact of history, as a relic of a time when a woman was considered the property of her husband,” Stephenson continued. “But the sad truth is that we still have a limited marital rape exception on the books today, here in Minnesota.”
As part of the new Domestic Violence Act 2018, “coercive control” - defined as coercive control as “psychological abuse in an intimate relationship that causes fear of violence, or serious alarm or distress that has a substantial adverse impact on a person’s day-to-day activities” - is now recognized as domestic violence and is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Johns Hopkins University and the family of Henrietta Lacks have announced that a new building on the school's campus in East Baltimore will be named after the woman whose cells were taken without her consent and widely used in revolutionary research. “Through her life and her immortal cells, Henrietta Lacks made an immeasurable impact on science and medicine that has touched countless lives around the world,” said Johns Hopkins President Ronald Daniels.
At just 16 years old, Hernandez became the third Latina in history to make the women’s Olympic gymnastics team, and the first U.S.-born Latina to make the team since 1984. Aside from ensuring that the doll looked like her, Hernandez said the most important detail of the design process was her Barbie’s curly hair. “I remember always wanting to straighten my hair as a kid, but now that I’m older I’m embracing these curls. I love how crazy and messy they are,” she said. “Now that there’s a doll that has my curls, little girls out there with curls are going to look at her too and be able to say ‘Wow she looks like me’ and find comfort in that.”