by Artemis
The cover of the original edition of Our Bodies Our Selves published on newsprint. Photo: Terry Moon for News & Letters.
On Feb. 21, Paula Doress-Worters, American author, activist, and public intellectual, died at age 87. In the 1960s, she joined a group of young feminists appalled at sexist treatment from mostly male doctors. They formed the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, writing Our Bodies, Ourselves, a groundbreaking encyclopedia of women’s health. They broke the silence on “unmentionable” topics of health and sexuality, including abortion, contraception, and masturbation. They shifted the power balance in the doctor/patient relationship, researching topics themselves and writing about their own experiences. Doress-Worters co-wrote a chapter revealing causes of post-partum depression to be hormonal changes, isolation and physical and social stress. She had experienced this herself, only receiving condescension from doctors, medications, and a stay in a mental hospital. Readers contributed ideas to change the situation, including childcare and maternal leave. For subsequent, updated editions, she contributed chapters on sexual relationships, parenting, and aging. She co-authored the spinoff, Ourselves, Growing Older.
At Emerson College in the 1970s, she pioneered feminist research, teaching a women’s history course with one of the last living suffragists, Florence Luscomb, as a speaker. She organized against racism and war and for labor rights. She edited Mistress of Herself, a collection of speeches and letters of Jewish suffragist, freethinker, and abolitionist Ernestine Rose and founded the International Ernestine Rose Society.
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On March 11, José Antonio Kast became President of Chile. He is Chile’s most right-wing President since Augusto Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship ended in 1990. An admirer of Pinochet, Trump, and other far-right presidents, he wants to completely ban abortion and suppress immigration. As a congressman, he voted against the 2004 legalization of divorce.
On March 8th, International Women’s Day, protesters demonstrated in 20 cities. Half a million women and hundreds of feminist groups demonstrated in the capital of Santiago. They chanted “Not One Step Back, a Hundred Steps Forward” and pro-choice slogans. A sign read “Chile Does not Deserve this Punishment.” A member of the grassroots feminist network Con Las Amigas y En La Casa said, “Women are having abortions right now, they will be doing it tomorrow, and they will keep doing it—no right-wing government will stop that. Kast is very dangerous, but we know that women in Chile are strong and organized. We are confident we will keep moving forward.”
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On International Women’s Day, demonstrators marched in major cities of Brazil. Chanting “Stop Killing Us!” They protested “an epidemic of femicides” and a recent gang-rape in Copacabana. They demanded broader abortion rights and better working conditions.
In Argentina, the date was changed to March 9 to combine demonstrations with a general strike led by major labor unions. The main demonstration in Buenos Aires was organized by the feminist anti-violence organization Ni Una Menos (Not One Less) and the National Campaign for Legal, Safe and Free Abortion. They also protested President Javier Milei’s anti-labor austerity program causing massive unemployment and his elimination of women’s programs.
On March 8, in Montevideo, Uruguay, thousands of women marched against rape, femicide, and sexist stereotypes. They demanded the safe return of missing people. They called for a “fair budget” to implement a comprehensive law against violence against women, which has been repeatedly stopped by budget cuts. They protested “vicarious violence” which has received more attention since 2025. It is defined as “violence that aims to harm women through their loved ones, especially their children.”