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:

Southern LGBTQ+ organizer says change ‘needs to happen no matter where you live’

Rebekah Barber, The 19^th*

Thirty years ago, Mandy Carter, a Black lesbian activist, along with Suzanne Pharr, Joan Garner, Pat Hussain, Mab Segrest, and Pam McMichael formed Southernors on New Ground (SONG), “…  Queer liberation organization that uses community organizing to fight for economic and racial justice in the South.” The formation of SONG happened after Carter organized a statewide campaign called N.C. Senate Vote ‘90 funded by lesbian and gay people in North Carolina to defeat U.S. Senator Jesse Helms. While Helms ultimately won the race, Carter and others began to think deeper about the meaning of being an LGBTQ+ person living in the South and the importance of collectively fighting for liberation.

Read the full story here.

Women Are On The Rise As Leaders Of Top Research Universities

Marybeth Gasman, Forbes

Despite women being the majority on college campuses since the 1980s, the presidencies at the nation’s elite universities tends to remain predominantly male and white. The Women’s Power Gap (WPG) reports that women make up 39% if provosts but drop to 30% of presidents and almost 40% of the nation’s universities have never had a woman president. Although more progress could be made according to experts, women’s representation is slightly ticking forward with women making up 30% of R1 university presidents, an increase of 7% since 2021. In that time period, 53% of new presidents were women.

Read the full story here.

Thousands of women participate in sit-in at Colorado Capitol against gun violence

Brittany Gaddy, ABC News

June marks Gun Violence Awareness Month. In Colorado, thousands of women participated in a sit-in at the state Capitol on Monday. The demonstration called for Governor Jared Polis to sign an executive order banning guns and creating a system to buy them back. Cofounder of the Here 4 the Kids movement, the advocacy organization behind the event, said, ““We have lost our imagination to dream bigger and envision a life where our kids are safe wherever they go. This is not a way to live. It is not a way to live. Bulletproof backpacks [are] not normal, and we’ve gotten used to this as if it’s normal.”

Read the full story here.

Pregnant and over 40? You aren’t alone. More women are becoming later-in-life moms.

Adrianna Rodriguez, USA Today

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control ad Prevention released findings that more women are having children in their 40s in part due to increased access to artificial reproductive technology. The birth rate for women 40 to 44 has risen by 4% and the number of births by 6% since 2021. The birth rates among women 45 and older increased as well as the number of births increased by 12% since 2015. The CDC also found that women are starting and ending their childbearing years later than previous generations. The reason for this can be linked to economic stability – as more women enter into higher education, it can lead to increased student loan debt, and takes longer to achieve economic stability.

Read the full story here.

Increases in Black unemployment are especially dire for Black women, experts say

Claretta Bellamy, NBC News

From April to May, the unemployment rate increased for Black people from 4.7% to 5.6% according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The overall rate of job losses in the Black workforce has affected Black women the most, especially those who work in the public sector. Loss of income can create economic challenges, especially for Black families who are already less likely to have savings or multiple earning incomes.

Read the full story here.