Indice dei contenuti per March 16, 2020 in TIME Magazine

JUDITH HEUMANN KNEW WHAT IT MEANT TO BE SEEN. IN 1977, after regulations for the first federal disability-rights law stalled, Heumann, an activist and wheelchair user, organized a sit-in, crowding more than 100 disabled protesters into a San Francisco federal building. “We demonstrated to the entire nation that disabled people could take control over our own lives,” she said. A month later, the regulations were signed, ushering in a new era of accessibility for millions of Americans. Heumann’s stirring story is just one example of the 100 in this issue. Also featured are chemist Rosalind Franklin, whose role in identifying the structure of DNA was overlooked in favor of her male colleagues, and environmental activist Wangari Maathai, who spent International Women’s Day in 2001 in jail for planting trees.…

THOUGH IT MAY FEEL AS IF WE’VE BEEN living with COVID-19 for a lifetime, that’s partly because things are moving so fast. It took about a week from when the World Health Organization (WHO) received reports of a novel coronavirus for Chinese scientists to sequence its genetic blueprint and just weeks more for labs to develop a test that could accurately identify it. Yet scientists are still scrambling for basic information that will be key to designing an effective public-health plan—including how fast the virus spreads and how often infections are deadly. Here’s some of what we know so far. How is COVID-19 actually transmitted—and how can I protect myself? First, definitions: a coronavirus is called novel because it’s new and the human body has no immunity to it. SARS-CoV-2…

Migrant death after Turkey opens border A child died after a boat carrying 48 people capsized off the Greek island of Lesbos on March 2. It was the first reported death since Turkey announced it was opening its borders with Europe to migrants on Feb. 29, resulting in a huge increase in people attempting to get from there to Greece. U.S. seeks new fees from immigrants Under a proposed Executive Office for Immigration Review regulation released Feb. 27, it could cost immigrants nearly $1,000 to fight deportation in court—nearly 10 times the previous amount. The rule would also charge asylum seekers a $50 court fee, with waiver applications available for those who can’t pay. Netanyahu tops Israel’s election Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed victory over centrist rival Benny Gantz…

1930 Martha Graham The deity of modern dance In 1930, choreographer Martha Graham debuted Lamentation, a wrenching solo piece in which a shrouded and self-bound figure twists and writhes, contracted into her pain and the search for its release. Created in contrast to male-dominated Russian and European schools—and the decorative roles they gave female dancers—Graham’s work laid the foundation for contemporary dance. Her technique uses the power of the pelvis, controlled breath and weighted movement to embody a ritualized way of inhabiting the feminine form. In reflecting visceral elements of universal human experience and collective memory, Graham asks us to move not just our bodies, but our souls. Tomei is an Oscar-winning actor 1931 Maria Montessori Rethinking the classroom In thousands of classrooms around the world, as children…

1980 Anna Walentynowicz Mother of Polish independence Poland’s escape from Soviet rule began with Solidarity, a movement for the rights of workers that Anna Walentynowicz, a welder and crane operator, helped create in 1980. In retaliation for her activism, she was fired that year from the Lenin Shipyard. Her colleagues went on strike to get her job back, sparking a mass resistance that culminated in the Gdansk Agreement, which allowed the first free-trade union in communist Eastern Europe. Within a year, the Solidarity union had nearly 10 million members, with Walentynowicz as one of its leaders. The triumph in Gdansk precipitated the fall of communism, a decade later. It also led generations of Poles to see Walentynowicz as the mother of their independence. 1981 Nawal El Saadawi For a more…

THERE COMES A POINT IN the unfolding of every epidemic when public-health officials acknowledge that despite their best efforts, an invisible microbial foe has managed to outwit them. That time has come. As cases of COVID-19 began to wane in early March in China, there was a surge in new infections around the globe, from Iran to Italy, South Korea to the U.S. Deaths also rose—the U.S. recorded its first coronavirus-related mortalities—and health officials warned that the disease has “pandemic potential.” There are now more than 80,000 cases of COVID-19 infection in mainland China and nearly 13,000 outside the country, with the latter tally growing daily. When the Chinese government took the unprecedented steps of quarantining first the city of Wuhan, where COVID-19 emerged, and then 60 million people living…

An “adult human female,” according to a seemingly commonsense slogan seen on the T-shirts and laptop stickers of those who oppose the idea that transgender women are women. They argue that gender itself is a false ideology masking the truth of biological sex difference. But “woman” is complicated in ways that have little to do with transgender issues. Only the delusional would deny biological differences between people, but only the uninformed can maintain that what the body means, and how it relates to social category, doesn’t vary between cultures and over time. The Caribbean novelist and intellectual Sylvia Wynter opposes the “biocentric” ordering of the world that emerged from European colonialism; the transatlantic slave trade depended, after all, on the idea that certain biological differences meant a person could…

1940 | DOCUMENTING AMERICA DOROTHEA LANGE DOROTHEA LANGE WAS EAGER TO GO HOME. AFTER A MONTH in the field in central California in March 1936, the photographer drove 20 miles past a sign that read PEA-PICKERS CAMP before a nagging feeling caused her to turn back. The decision resulted in a picture of 32-year-old Florence Owens Thompson and three of her children, which came to be known as Migrant Mother. It remains the most indelible image of the Great Depression, and is now one of the most famous photographs ever made. The photo prompted the government to respond to prevent starvation at the camp, and it was shown at the Museum of Modern Art’s first photography exhibition, in 1940. 1940, incidentally, was also the year Lange was fired from…

ON THE BIGGEST DAY OF VOTING IN THE 2020 Democratic primary, Joe Biden’s presidential hopes came roaring back to life. “They don’t call it Super Tuesday for nothing!” Biden exulted as he rallied supporters in Los Angeles on the evening of March 3, flanked by his wife and sister. “People are talking about a revolution? We started a movement!” It was a not-so-subtle jab at Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-styled revolutionary who looked like he was on his way to the nomination before everything turned topsy-turvy. The Super Tuesday voting in 14 states, which awarded about one-third of the total delegates in the Democratic primary, capped a whirlwind few days that reordered the campaign and catapulted Biden to the front of the pack. Biden’s resurrection sets up a fight for…

DIED Jack Welch Business leader WHEN HE TOOK THE REINS of American industrial behemoth General Electric in 1981, Jack Welch—who died March 1 at 84—launched a new era at the manufacturer. He cut divisions making small household appliances, which were stymied by competition from Asia; drastically expanded GE’s finance business; and shed thousands of jobs “for productivity reasons.” During his tenure, revenue nearly quintupled, and Welch retired in 2001 with a record $417 million exit package and a reputation as one of the most revered executives of the 20th century. GE has since fallen on harder times, and so has Welch’s legacy. The 2008 crisis made the finance arm a liability, and he has been denounced by critics for outsourcing manufacturing to China. Welch’s management style has fallen out of…

1920 The Suffragists 1921 Emmy Noether 1922 Xiang Jingyu 1923 Bessie Smith 1924 Coco Chanel 1925 Margaret Sanger 1926 Aimee Semple McPherson 1927 Queen Soraya Tarzi 1928 Anna May Wong 1929 Virginia Woolf 1930 Martha Graham 1931 Maria Montessori 1932 Babe Didrikson 1933 Frances Perkins 1934 Mary McLeod Bethune 1935 Amelia Earhart 1936 Wallis Simpson 1937 Soong Mei-ling 1938 Frida Kahlo 1939 Billie Holiday 1940 Dorothea Lange 1941 Jane Fawcett and the Codebreakers 1942 The Resisters 1943 Virginia Hall 1944 Recy Taylor 1945 Chien-Shiung Wu 1946 Eva Perón 1947 Amrit Kaur 1948 Eleanor Roosevelt 1949 Simone de Beauvoir 1950 Margaret Chase Smith 1951 Lucille Ball 1952 Queen Elizabeth II 1953 Rosalind Franklin 1954 Marilyn Monroe 1955 The Bus Riders 1956 Golda Meir 1957 Irna Phillips 1958 China Machado 1959 Grace…

1970 Gloria Steinem Women’s-liberation leader By 1970, Gloria Steinem was already becoming a key voice in the women’s movement through her reporting for New York magazine. But that year, her activism left the page in a momentous way. Though she was afraid of public speaking, Steinem did it anyway. That May, she testified at Senate hearings for the Equal Rights Amendment. “I have been refused service in public restaurants, ordered out of public gathering places and turned away from apartment rentals,” she told her almost all-male audience. “All for the clearly stated, sole reason that I am a woman.” At the Women’s Strike for Equality on Aug. 26, the 50th anniversary of U.S. women’s suffrage, Steinem spoke to some 20,000 in New York City. Her increasing dedication sparked her…

IN THE HALF-CENTURY SINCE I WROTE THE ESSAY BELOW, as part of a cover story on “The Politics of Sex,” there has been some definite progress. “Women’s issues” are no longer in a silo but are understood as fundamental to everything. For instance, the single biggest determinant of whether a country is violent, or will use military violence against another country, is not poverty, natural resources, religion or even degree of democracy; it is violence against women. And since racial separation can’t be perpetuated in the long run without controlling reproduction—and thus women’s bodies—racism and sexism are intertwined and can only be uprooted together. A belief in equality, without division by sex or race, is now held by a huge majority in public-opinion polls. But a stubborn minority of…