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Paid Family Leave and Child Care Could Erase Motherhood Wage Penalty

Gaby Galvin U.S. New & World Report
The wage gap between men and women in the U.S. shrunk drastically in the 1980s and early 1990s, as women joined the workforce in increasing numbers and earned degrees at higher rates, but the gap has remained relatively stagnant since the mid- to late 1990s. There's one major detriment to financial equality that women can't seem to shake: motherhood.

In the Age of Donald Trump, Vaccine Policy is Becoming Politicized, with Potentially Deadly Consequences

Orac Respectful Insolence
Traditionally state vaccination policy and school vaccine mandates have been as close to a nonpartisan issue as we have in this country. There has usually been broad bipartisan support for such mandates and the idea that children should be vaccinated in order to attend school. It’s a consensus that has served the country well for many decades now. What I fear is that this consensus is breaking down, and—even worse—school vaccine policies are becoming a partisan issue.

How Do I Tell My Daughter that America Elected a Racist, Sexist Bully?

Jessica Valenti The Guardian (UK)
My six-year-old fell asleep thinking Hillary Clinton would be the first female president. Now I have to explain to her why Donald Trump was chosen instead. The truth is that this shameful election result was backlash, pure and simple - a reaction to women's growing rights, racial progress and a cultural shift that no longer centers straight white men.

Young Adolescents as Likely to Die From Suicide as From Traffic Accidents

Sabrina Tavernise New York Times
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2014, the most recent year for which data is available, the suicide rate for children ages 10 to 14 had caught up to their death rate for traffic accidents. The number is an extreme data point in an accumulating body of evidence that young adolescents are suffering from a range of health problems associated with the country’s rapidly changing culture.

Child Care Often Pricier Than Rent, Food, and College Tuition

Teddy Wilson Rewire
"Improving our nation's child-care system will have a compound effect," said Aleyamma Mathew, director of the Women's Economic Justice Program of the Ms. Foundation for Women. "Not only on the millions of women in the workforce but on communities and the economy as a whole."

The Next Big Voting-Rights Fight

Emily Bazelon and Jim Rutenberg New York Times
If you’re no longer drawing lines on population but you’re selectively using criteria like age, that hits [the Hispanic] community very hard. Put aside the whole citizenship issue. The largest group of people who would be subtracted from the apportionment base would be children, and because [Hispanics] have disproportionately so many more children than the Anglo population has, that starts shifting seats all by itself, before you start to even consider citizenship.

A Short History of Cops Terrorizing Students

Alex S. Vitale The Nation
The assault at Spring Valley runs deeper than one bad cop - it's the latest product of the school-to-prison pipeline. Over the last 20 years there has been an explosion in the number of police officers stationed in schools. This has been one of the most dramatic and clearly counterproductive expansions of police scope and power in postwar America.

High School Football Inc.

Jere Longman New York Times
What happens when corporate America appropriates high school football . . .
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