Welcome back to Woman Crush Wednesday! As usual, there are a lot of badass women in the news this week — like one woman who’s willing to go to the far corners of the world to harvest rare coral sperm under a full moon, and another who lives with armed policemen every day so she can continue fighting for environmental justice. Read on.
Here’s who we’ve been crushing on this week:
- Marine scientist Mary Hagedorn, who’s building the world’s largest coral sperm bank — yes, you read that right. We’ve already lost almost half of all our coral reefs, so Hagedorn is collecting and freezing their sperm to help replenish reefs, a tricky task, given that some species of coral that only spawn once a year. (Co.Exist)
- Jintana Kaewkao, who regularly risks her life as a well-known environmental activist in Thailand. Campaigning against toxic dumping, Kaewkao’s dedicated cause, is dangerous work: Between 2002 and 2013, 16 environmentalists were murdered in Thailand — mostly by hit men with ties to local businesses that would be threatened by dumping restrictions, authorities believe. (Al Jazeera America)
- Diksha Arora, a former investment banker whose research on gender and poverty could shed light on the importance of household work, which is still shouldered almost entirely by women in developing countries. As Grist’s own Eve Andrews reported in August, many women around the world are tasked with every part of food provision for their households — including foraging, farming, and cooking — and climate change is forcing women to do more physical labor as our warming planet changes how our food is produced. (Pacific Standard)
- Betti Wiggins, executive director of the Detroit Public Schools Office of School Nutrition, who pushed the Detroit Public Schools to source more than 22 percent of its produce from local farms. DPS also became the first school district in the nation to provide free breakfasts to all students, no matter their household incomes. (Civil Eats)
- Sorry if you weren’t able to take advantage of this information, but yesterday was National Beer Day. Personally, I wish I had spent it crushing (get it?) a few of these Cerveja Feministas, a new beer from the Brazilian activist group 65|10. If you’ve ever watched a football game, you’re likely aware that many beer ad campaigns are shamelessly sexist — and with Cerveja Feminista, the team behind 65|10 hopes to change that. I’ll take an ice-cold brew with a side of empowerment, please. (The Telegraph)
Stay tuned for next week’s roundup!
