The Black Lives Matter movement arose on 2012, shortly after, 17 year old Treyvon Martin, was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch member. The incidents after Martin's murder were in fault of police brutality. Click below for more background information.
Feminism is a movement towards an equal society for all people, without discrimination. Yet, most people believe Feminism is supporting the belief of gender superiority. Click below for more information.
Students of Mexican descent born in the United States have fought for years in order for Chicano studies to be provided in their schools. It teaches students values, experiences, and cultural representations of the hardships in everyday life of a Chicano student. Click below for more information.
Feel free to start a discussion on social issue you think should be touched on! Use your voice because it's powerful and should be heard!
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Black Lives Matter
Feminism & LGBTQ+
Chicano Studies
About
How MPWR came to be.
2012
What is Girls Who Code?
Girls Who Code is an organization that offers a free 7-week program that let's girls explore coding. 20 girls in the Bay Area got accepted to the Girls Who Code's Summer Immersion Program. Out of all Bay Area locations, we all have been accepted at Pixar in Emeryville, California.
June 2016
Gaining knowledge & friendships
As the program progressed, we all befriended each other. All the girls created bonds with each other. We learned how to code in 4 languages: Python, Javascript, HTML, and CSS.
July 29, 2016
The Start
Today, there are hundreds of social issues that have not been addressed to this day and we believe they should. We've chosen three that are currently popular in the US. MPWR's goal is to offer a platform for people to educate themselves in form of expression.
Present Day
Still more to come
This is only the beginning of our work and we hope to be the change in the world. The main purpose of this website is to educate eachother from youth to youth, and to get others to be a part of our movement as well. We are very proud of our accomplishments and can't wait to see what the future holds for all of us.
Be Part
of our
Change!
About us: Who we are
Here are the creators of MPWR!
Ally Ringgold
Founder
Liz Toledo
Founder
Natalia Torres
Founder
Mayra Galvan
Founder
We believe everyone should have a trustworthy resource to learn and eMPoWeR eachother.
Would you like to stay updated with today's news? Check out another Girls Who Code's website!
Contact Us
Let us know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions by completing the form below!
Black Lives Matter
"Yes, ALL lives MATTER but we're focused on the BLACK ones right now, ok? Because it is very APPARENT that our judicial system DOESN'T KNOW THAT. Plus, if you can't see why we're exclaiming #BLACKLIVESMATTER you are part of the problem"
The Black Lives Matter Movement is a campaign against violence towards black people, it also creates protests against police brutality and the many deaths of black people. The Black Lives Matter movement, which started in 2012 after the murder of Trayvon Martin, is very similar to the Civil Rights Movement. “Black Lives Matter is a chapter based National Organization working for the validity of Black Lives.” Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an activist movement, originating in the African-American community, that campaigns against violence and what it regards as systemic racism towards black people.
BLM regularly organizes protests around the deaths of black people in killings by law enforcement officers, and broader issues of racial profiling, police brutality, and racial inequality in the United States criminal justice system. “Young black men are 21 times more likely than their white counterparts to be shot by police, public schools are more segregated now than ever, and black unemployment is two times that of whites.” In 2015 there were 102 deaths reported due to police brutality. This says so much from our community as a whole and we need to change that. The Black Lives Matter movement is trying to change the minds of the people who say they don’t see any problem, which in fact makes them part of the problem. This is why we are creating this website, to keep everyone informed and keep them from being ignorant and acknowledge that there is a problem and they can help create a solution.
For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women.
— Elizabeth Blackwell
Feminism For Starters:
What Is Feminism?
Our society has cultured us to have preconceived notions that women have a designated status,
that has been undermined and dominated by the male populace.
Women are taught to bear children, and are confined within the walls of the home, to take care
of the children, and the kitchen; Feminism defies this unrealistic ultimatum. Feminism is a
movement not just for the equality of women, but “for the equality of male, female and transgender
people, without discrimination.”
At a tender age, young children are being “indoctrinated with old concepts of gender roles”, meaning toys
manufactured for girls are focussed around “child rearing and kitchen duties”, while “toys manufactured for boys
are focused more around “masculine” tasks such as building and fighting.” By instituting these ideals, we as a society
only limit our opportunity for growth and culture, by supporting the idea that one gender is more superior than the other,
simply because we’ve been taught to believe that women are inferior to men.
A writer from Huffington Post, named Hannah McAtamney so adequately described the reason why our population is so afraid
to adapt [to] change, by stating, “They [We] are scared of shedding the holds of patriarchy in society and accepting
everyone as an individual human being, not categorizing them as male or female.” Once we can accept that women, men and
transgender people are created equal, we can begin to see change in our world.
How Does This Relate To The LGBTQ+ Community?
In an issue from the New Yorker; delving into what a true 'woman' is in society, Michelle Goldberg diffrentiated radical feminists, and "simple" feminists towards their stance on transgender women. She wrote:
... Some self-described radical feminists, who have found themselves in an acrimonious battle with trans people and their allies. Trans women say that they are women because they feel female—that, as some put it, they have women’s brains in men’s bodies. Radical feminists reject the notion of a “female brain.” They believe that if women think and act differently from men it’s because society forces them to, requiring them to be sexually attractive, nurturing, and deferential. In the words of Lierre Keith, a speaker at Radfems Respond, femininity is “ritualized submission.
Although many feminists and people have differing views on the validity of a transgender women identifying as a 'women', we must focue on the bigger scheme of things, that including the acceptance, and equality for all despite gender identification.
Did You Know?
>> In most states, it’s legal to fire someone for being transgender,
and transgender people can’t serve in the military.
>> 41 percent of respondents from a survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said they attempted suicide.
>> 80% of gay and lesbian youth report severe social isolation.
>> 42% of people who are LGBT report living in an unwelcoming environment.
"We're afraid the others will think we're
agringadas because we don't speak Chicano Spanish. We oppress each other trying to out-Chicano each other, vying to be "real" Chicanas, to speak like Chicanos. There is no one Chicano language just as there is no one Chicano experience." - Gloria E. Anzaldúa
Chicanos are people who were born in the United States but come from Mexican descent. A Chicana (also spelled Xicana) is a female who is proud of her culture and embraces it but she also knows that she is American and is accustomed to the way things are in the United States. “Chicana” is a term that was created during the Chicano movement. The Chicano movement started in the 1960s and was created to establish social, cultural, political identities and to achieve Mexican American empowerment. “ La Chicana has minority status in her own land even though she is, in part, indigenous to the Americas and a member of one of the largest (majority) ethnic groups in the United States. She is a woman whose life is too often characterized by poverty racism, and sexism, not only in the dominant culture, but also within her own culture”
Chicana Feminism
The word ‘woman’ refers to ‘of man’ implying that a woman’s identity is inherently reliant on man. We believe that women deserve an identity of their own which is why the Womyn’s Centre embraces and celebrates a women-centred culture. In many countries, such as India and China, there are cultures that do not approve of females. It is instilled many societies that a male heir has a better chance for success than that of the female, therefore, female infanticide is very oftenly performed, both through abortion and after birth. The preference for a male child is so prominent in many cultures that almost everyone would aim for a male child. In focus on India and China, especially when they are a third of the world's population, females are considered a disgrace to the family because they cannot bring down the family line. Hence, males are preferred over females.
