From Policy to Action:
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The Whately Civic Association was founded by local residents to address federal policies that are having deleterious impacts on various segments of our population. We are producing a series of presentations by prominent area experts on major policy initiatives including the threat to the Constitution, reproductive and women’s rights, climate change, media, health, housing, seniors, monetary/fiscal policy, inequality—to name a few. Presenters currently include Bill Newman, Carrie Baker, James Boyce, Nancy Folbre, and Sam Bowles. The list is growing; the series is expected to go into next year. The emphasis will be on critical and constructive approaches to the civic, economic, political and personal crises we find ourselves facing and which are becoming increasing acute with every passing day.

Who We Are

Carrie N. Baker teaches courses on gender, law and public policy; feminist social movements; and feminist public writing. Baker is affiliated with the American Studies Program, the public policy minor, the archives concentration and the journalism concentration. She also serves on the steering committee of the Five College Certificate in Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice, of which she was a co-founder and former co-director.

Baker has a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from Yale University, a juris doctor degree from Emory University School of Law, and master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees from Emory's Institute of Women's Studies. She was editor-in-chief of the Emory Law Journal while in law school and later served as a law clerk to United States District Court Judge Marvin H. Shoob in Atlanta.

FEATURED EVENT:
Erosion of Women’s Rights Under Trump
Featuring Guest Speaker Carrie Baker

Baker’s primary areas of research are women’s legal history, gender and public policy, and feminist activism. Baker has published five books focusing on sexual harassment, violence against women, reproductive rights, and related topics

Baker writes extensively for the public. She is a contributing editor for Ms. magazine and has a monthly column in the Daily Hampshire Gazette. She is co-chair of the Ms. Committee of Scholars, which encourages and trains scholars to write for the public, and she is a member of the Scholars Strategy Network and Women’s Media Center SheSource. Baker hosts a monthly radio program, Feminist Futures, on WHMP 101.5 FM in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Upcoming Events

  • Erosion of Women's Rights Under Trump

    November 6

    Featuring guest speaker Carrie Baker

    The Trump administration has aggressively reversed women’s rights developed over the last 60 years across a wide range of areas, including healthcare, education, employment, gender-based violence, asylum rights, and more. This talk will review and explain these attacks and how women’s rights groups are resisting them—in the courts, legislatures, and in the streets.

    Carrie Baker is a Professor of the Study of Women and Gender and Chair of the Program for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Smith College.

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