Elissa Strauss has written for the Forward over a number of years. She is a regular contributor to CNN, whose work has been published in a number of publications including The New York Times, Glamour, ELLE, and Longreads.
Elissa Strauss
By Elissa Strauss
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Life New York Tabloids Shame Mayor’s Wife
Getty Images Earlier this week the New York Post ran a cover featuring Chirlane McCray, the First Lady of New York City next to the banner headline: “I WAS A BAD MOM.” I am so glad they did this. The Post article was a summary of the profile of McCray by Lisa Miller in New…
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Opinion Sexism in Journalism Really Lives on the Opinion Page
With all the worries about the founded or unfounded role of sexism in Jill Abramson’s firing from The New York Times, it’s worth remembering the very well documented way that gender discrimination plays out on the opinion pages of major publications. Recently both the Women’s Media Center and VIDA: Women in Literary Arts released their…
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Life There’s No Such Thing as ‘Acting Like a Man’
Getty Images Much of the conversation surrounding the dismissal of Jill Abramson from her post as editor of the New York Times is about how she was punished for “acting like a man.” We really need to stop saying that. “They are paid less, given fewer promotions and it’s held against them when they act…
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Life Why Shouldn’t Feminists Be Happy?
Getty Images // A smiling Gloria Steinem. In a recent column, the Guardian’s Jessica Valenti takes aim at our culture’s fixation on the happiness of women. She argues that we shouldn’t concern ourselves with whether or not feminism makes women happier because happiness is not the point. After all, a social justice movement seeks justice,…
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Opinion Is the Nigerian Schoolgirls Kidnapping Just Another ‘Never Again’ Moment?
I was 14, maybe 15, the first time I visited the then recently-opened Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. My classmates and I awaited our turn to receive our individual photo passport cards, each featuring the face and the name of a child who experienced the Holocaust. As we moved through the museum we would…
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Life Should Monica Lewinsky Be Mad at Feminists?
Getty Images In her already widely dissected 4,300 word Vanity Fair essay, Monica Lewinsky takes aim at the feminists of the late 90s. She says she found no support from the women’s rights crowd back then, and when they did respond to the situation she appeared either as a punch line or a scapegoat. No…
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Life Maternal Death Stalks Iran — and U.S.
Wikimedia Commons Only eight years ago the United States ranked 6th on Save the Children’s list of best places to be a mother. Since then we’ve plunged to 31st place out of 178 countries, according to their new report. “In the U.S., the lifetime risk of maternal death has risen more than 50 percent since…
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Life Why Women Are Gaga for Hillary
There’s been a sea change in the way the public feels about Hillary Clinton since her run for president in 2008. Back then we had respect for Clinton and knew she is competent and trustworthy, but we didn’t deem her worthy of the same giddy excitement as her then-competitor President Obama. Now, six years later,…
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