It’s easy to take the fresh, cold water that gurgles out of your tap each morning for granted. Unfortunately, not everyone has that luxury.
Today is World Water Day, and this year, the theme is “Leaving no one behind.” With the goal of ensuring acces…
Category: Social Good
A beginner’s guide to sexting as enthusiastic consent
Sexting gets a bad rep. But we shouldn’t confuse the sins of an unsolicited dick pic with the gift of an enthusiastically consensual dick pic.
Getting horny with your partner over text isn’t just great foreplay. For many it can also act as an ideal s…
March Mindfulness 2019: Meditators go head to head
March Mindfulness is our new series that examines the explosive growth in mindfulness and meditation technology — culminating in Mashable’s groundbreaking competitive meditation bracket contest. Because March shouldn’t be all madness.
For the past week, I’ve asked people who spend their lives focused on the practice of mindfulness to do the one thing they’re not supposed to do: meditate like they’re in competition with each other.
That’s the idea behind March Mindfulness, Mashable’s annual meditation tournament — the world’s first-ever, word to the latecomers at Meditation Battle League — now in its second year. Using brain-sensing headbands called Muses, we’re able to place the world’s chillest people in head-to-head combat, comparing scores that literally measure the calmness of their brains. Read more…
More about March Mindfulness, Social Good, Gaming, and Health
How dirt biking gives black youth a shot at STEM opportunities
This post is part of Mashable’s ongoing series The Women Fixing STEM, which highlights trailblazing women in science, tech, engineering, and math, as well as initiatives and organizations working to close the industries’ gender gaps.
Kamiya Jordan is a soft-spoken 12-year-old who looks fierce when gripping the handlebars of a dirt bike. You might actually one day glimpse Kamiya’s likeness in the form of a statue, her defiant gaze staring back at onlookers who’ve come to see the work of art that’s replaced one of four Confederate monuments Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh had removed in 2017.
Kamiya became the model for the planned 3D-printed, 15-foot statue thanks to Brittany Young, a 29-year-old engineer and social entrepreneur who founded B-360, a social enterprise that gives children an opportunity to develop STEM skills by tapping into a shared obsession: urban dirt bike riding. Read more…
More about Baltimore, Stem, Women Stem, Dirt Bikes, and Social Good
View More How dirt biking gives black youth a shot at STEM opportunitiesMoms have the power to transform child care in America. This is what stands in their way.
A new mom never knows when she’ll feel utterly alone and desperate. Maybe it’ll be when she’s laid out her pumping equipment in a closet-sized room at work only to realize she’s forgotten the power cord. Or when her bus stalls on its way home, and she knows her infant son will need to go directly to sleep after she picks him up late from daycare. Or when she’s finally crawled into bed and it’s at that precise moment her baby wakes up screaming.
Sometimes parenthood is downright grueling. But the frustration inherent in moments like these is compounded by the reality that American politics has made a sport of using families, particularly mothers, as heartwarming props but abandons them when it comes to policy. Read more…
More about Politics, Women, Elizabeth Warren, Child Care, and Social Good
View More Moms have the power to transform child care in America. This is what stands in their way.13 inspirational quotes from women making history right now
If you’re in need of inspiration on how to make a difference, there are plenty of female role models to turn to. No matter what you’re interested in, whether that’s gun control, girls’ education, or racial justice, it’s important to acknowledge and c…
View More 13 inspirational quotes from women making history right nowUse this new Slack plug-in to combat unconscious bias in the workplace
Aggressive, bossy, dramatic. Chances are, if you’re a women, you’ve heard these word used to describe — and demean — you or a coworker.
That needs to change. To alter the way people think and talk about ambitious women, the global nonprofit Catalyst, with the help of New York-based agency Burns Group and technology company Eskalera, launched the #BiasCorrect plug-in and campaign, which aims to combat unconscious bias in the workplace by flagging problematic words employees write in Slack and other chat platforms. Similar to spell-check, the tool highlights words like “cold” and “aggressive” and then recommends alternatives, such as “focused” and “persuasive.” Read more…
More about Slack, Bias, Workplace Messaging Apps, Workplace Culture, and Social Good
View More Use this new Slack plug-in to combat unconscious bias in the workplaceGayborhoods aren’t dead. In fact, there are more of them than you think.
Open up a travel guide and you’re likely to see multiple passages about where to find the local “gayborhood,” a neighborhood disproportionately populated by LGBTQ people. In San Francisco, there’s the Castro. In Chicago, you have Boystown. And in Mex…
View More Gayborhoods aren’t dead. In fact, there are more of them than you think.10 children’s books to inspire young people for Women’s History Month
When it comes to female empowerment, sometimes you just need a role model to inspire your own — or your children’s — path forward.
March is Women’s History Month and National Reading Month, which means it’s the perfect time to curl up with your little one and read books about women’s achievements and contributions in music, politics, science, and more. By learning about these success, they’ll have an easier time envisioning their own.
Yes, more work needs to be done. There’s still a gender gap in STEM, the Equal Rights Amendment has not been ratified, and Congress is overwhelmingly unbalanced (just 24 percent is women). However, there are still a lot of successes to celebrate — and read about. We’ve come a long way, and from a young age, it’s good to recognize the women who broke boundaries and made history, like NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who calculated how to send the first American into space, and Emily Roebling, who helped build the Brooklyn Bridge. Read more…
More about Books, Womens History Month, Women S Rights, Social Good, and Activism
‘Grown-ish’ actress Yara Shahidi gets her own Barbie
When Barbie told 19-year-old Yara Shahidi that the company wanted to gift her a one-of-a-kind “shero” doll made in her likeness, the Grown-ish actress was stunned.
“It’s really surreal just because this was never within my realm of possibility….
U.S. women’s soccer team marks International Women’s Day by suing for equal treatment
The U.S. women’s soccer team has a reputation for never giving up. If they happen to concede a goal or two, you can expect them to maximize every chance until they’ve closed the gap or taken the lead.
On International Women’s Day, they showed that fighting mentality off the field when the team’s 28 players sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for “years of ongoing institutionalized gender discrimination,” according to a press release.
The suit is the latest phase in a battle for equality that launched in 2016 when the team’s highest-profile players filed a wage discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The players, including Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Carli Lloyd, argued that despite working as hard as — and even outperforming — the U.S. soccer men’s team, they received less compensation. Read more…
More about Soccer, Gender Equality, Social Good, Sports, and Activism
View More U.S. women’s soccer team marks International Women’s Day by suing for equal treatment10 International Women’s Day tweets that will inspire and empower you
International Women’s Day, held every year on March 8, is a global event that honors women and pushes for equality and women’s rights. To celebrate, you’ll want to spread the word on social media about its message of justice. Whether you craft someth…
View More 10 International Women’s Day tweets that will inspire and empower you