Happy Friday! Welcome to our Media Round Up. Each week, we’re collecting and sharing gender + politics stories. Here’s what caught our eye this week: 

 

Cecile Richards Is Working Through It 

Irin Carmon, The Cut 

Former President of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, has been living with brain cancer for the past six months. While president of the organization for 12 years, Richards grew Planned Parenthood, cementing it as an integral part of the Democratic Party. After stepping down in 2018, Richards co-founded Supermajority, a political action group to educate and train woman to further women’s political agenda for the 2020 elections. Since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, Richards has been working on Charley, “a bot she co-created that helps abortion seekers get good information on how to safely end their pregnancies.” As Richards navigates her cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment, she’s embracing the changes to her life, continuing to the legacy of advocacy started for her by her mother, Ann Richards, former (and the last) Democratic Governor of Texas.  

Read the full story here. 

 

 

Anti-Trump Donors Keep Nikki Haley Afloat 

John McCormick, Wall Street Journal 

Despite upsets in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, presidential hopeful Nikki Haley is still raising significant funds to finance her long-shot big against former president Donald Trump. For now, Haley’s fundraising has established her place in the Republican presidential primary at least through the February 24th South Carolina primary, a race Haley hopes she will do well in considering it is her home state. Since her loss in the New Hampshire primary and framing herself as Trump’s nemesis, Haley has seen a burst in online fundraising – almost $4 million. Signs also show that her large-dollar donors, many of whom are anti-Trump, are remaining positive in their support for the last major candidate opposing him. 

Read the full story here. 

 

 

The Campus Wars Aren’t About Gender … Are They? 

Kate Zernike, New York Times 

In the weeks following the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, a number of American college presidents from some of the country’s most elite institutions came under fire. While Dr. Nancy Andrews, the first female dean of Duke Medical School, read this she wondered why it seems like most of these presidents were women. When looking up the list of federal discrimination complaints filed against colleges and universities since the start of 2022, 80% were against universities led by women, even though only 30% of colleges and universities in the country are female presidents. Seven complaints were filed in the weeks after the war began and all were seeking investigations of school led by women. After this, four presidents were summoned by Congress to answer what Republicans called “the rampant antisemitism engulfing their campuses.” All of the presidents summoned were women: “ … Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, Claudine Gay of Harvard, Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Minouche Shafik of Columbia, who escaped to a prior commitment outside the country.” Since then, Ms. Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Claudine Gay of Harvard University have resigned from their respective positions.  

Read the full story here. 

 

Taylor Swift draws ire of conservatives after Chiefs win AFC championship 

Angela Yang, NBC News 

Taylor Swift’s likely appearance at the Super Bowl has caused a high amount of chatter among conservative pundits. After Swift was shown on the field following Sunday night’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens, it sparked a fresh wave of social media vitriol and resurgence of conspiracy theories that, “her near-dominant place in U.S. pop culture must be the result of some sort of psychological manipulation effort — known more colloquially in fringe circles as a ‘psy-op.’” Other right-wing pundits have suggested that the excitement around Swift’s appearance could be part of an orchestrated plot to drive hype for the Democratic Party in a presidential election year. Former Republican presidential primary candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, tweeted this theory that the Super Bowl will be rigged to favor “an artificially culturally propped-up couple” that will release a “major presidential endorsement” this fall.  

Read the full story here. 

 

Former Sen. Jean Carnahan, the first woman to represent Missouri in the US Senate, has died at 90 

Scott McFetridge, AP News 

Former U.S. Senator Jean Carnahan, the first woman senator to represent Missouri after being appointed to replace her husband following his death, has died at the age of 90. Carnahan was appointed to the Senate in 2001 following the posthumous election of her husband, Governor Mel Carnahan. Carnahan served in the U.S. Senate until November 2002. During her two year tenure in the Senate, Carnahan lost her house in a fire and was recovering from the loss of her husband and son. In addition, she served during the September 11, 2001 attacks and the Hart Senate Office Building anthrax scare.  

Read the full story here.