Ai-jen Poo

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In this Chinese name, the family name is Poo.
Ai-jen Poo
Born1974 (age 49–50)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
EducationColumbia University (BA)
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseGeorge Goehl
RelativesMu-ming Poo (father)
AwardsMacArthur Fellowship

Ai-jen Poo (/ˌaɪ dʒɛn ˈpuː/, Chinese: 蒲艾眞; pinyin: Pú Àizhēn; born 1974) is an American labor activist. She is the president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.[1] She is also the director of Caring Across Generations, a national coalition of 200 advocacy organizations working to transform the long-term care system in the US, with a focus on the needs of aging Americans, people with disabilities, and their caregivers.[2]

She is a 2014 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Award.[3] In February 2015, the New Press released her book, The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America.[4] She has been mentioned as a potential future Secretary of Labor under a Democratic administration.[5]

Biography[edit]

Ai-jen Poo's Taiwanese-American parents instilled her with strong "social justice values". Her father Mu-ming Poo[6] is a neuroscientist and one-time political activist who emigrated from Taiwan in the 1970s. Her mother Wen-jen Hwu[6] has a PhD in chemistry as well as an MD, and was an oncologist at two of the top cancer centers in Taiwan.[7][8][9] She was born in Pittsburgh,[10] and graduated from Phillips Academy in 1992 and Columbia University, where she was one of more than 100 students who occupied the rotunda in Low Library; this occupation led to the creation of Columbia's Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.[11][12]

She attended the 75th Golden Globe Awards in 2018 as a guest of Meryl Streep.[13]

Accomplishments[edit]

Ai-jen Poo began organizing domestic workers in 1996, with CAAV Organizing Asian Communities, which is a division within the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence. She is the founder and former lead organizer of Domestic Workers United, an organization of Caribbean, Latina, and African nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers in New York that organizes for "power, respect, and fair labor standards".[14][15]

In 2010, Domestic Workers United was instrumental in New York state passing the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights into law; this law was the first in the United States to guarantee domestic workers basic labor protections such as overtime pay, three days' paid leave, and legal protections from harassment and discrimination.[16]

DWU helped to organize the first national meeting of domestic worker organizations at the US Social Forum in 2007, which resulted in the formation of the National Domestic Workers Alliance that year. She has been NDWA's director since April 2010. In 2011, Ai-jen Poo helped launch Caring Across Generations.

She has received the Open Society Institute Community Fellowship, the Union Square Award, the Leadership for a Changing World Award, the Ernest de Maio Award from the Labor Research Association, the Woman of Vision Award from Ms. Foundation for Women, the Alston Bannerman Fellowship for Organizers of Color, the Twink Frey Visiting Scholar Fellowship at University of Michigan Center for the Education of Women, and the Prime Movers Fellowship.[17][18] In honor of the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day, Ai-jen was recognized by Women Deliver as one of 100 women internationally who are "delivering" for other women.[19] In 2009 she was named one of Crain's "40 Under 40" and Moves magazine's "Power Women". In 2010, the Feminist Press recognized her in their "40 Under 40" awards. In 2011 she was named one of Yes!'s Breakthrough 15, and received the Independent Sector's American Express NGen Leadership Award.[11][17] In 2012, she was elected an Ashoka Fellow. That same year, she was also named one of the Time 100 in Time magazine, as well as one of Newsweek's "150 Women Who Shake the World".[20] In September 2014, she was one of 21 awarded a MacArthur Fellowship grant, the so-called "MacArthur genius grants".[21] In 2017, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the New School.[22]

She has written for The Huffington Post,[23] The Guardian,[24] and other news outlets.

Supermajority[edit]

In the spring of 2019, Poo cofounded the group Supermajority with Cecile Richards and Alicia Garza. The group "aims to train and mobilize 2 million women over the next year to become organizers, activists, and leaders ahead of the 2020 election" to create a "multiracial, intergenerational movement for women's equity".[25][26] The main goal of Supermajority is to "push politicians to adopt an agenda akin to what Richards called 'a women's new deal,'" with issues like "voting rights, gun control, paid family leave, equal pay, and others" viewed as "soft issues" being seen as "issues that impact everyone".[27] In addition, they intend to educate women about issues such as "pay equity and affordable child care, as well as inform them on "basic organizing skills like voter registration".[25] In the 2020 election, cofounder Richards says "[the group will be successful] if 54% of the voters in this country are women and if we are able to insert into this country the issues that women care about and elect a president who's committed to doing something about them."[28]

Bibliography[edit]

Books[edit]

  • Poo, Ai-jen; Conrad, Ariane (November 15, 2016). Age of Dignity: Caring for a Changing America. New Press. ISBN 9781620970386. OCLC 910217632. Retrieved January 21, 2018 – via WorldCat.org.

Critical studies, reviews, and biography[edit]

  • Conrad, Ariane (January–February 2013). "A love to be reckoned with". Interview. Spirituality & Health. 15 (6): 74–79.[29]
  • Andrea Cristina Mercado; Ai-jen Poo Domestic Workers Organizing in the United States. AWID (Association for Women's Rights in Development), 2008. OCLC 833311952

References[edit]

  1. ^ Joann Weiner (September 18, 2014). "MacArthur fellow Ai-jen Poo on why she fights for the rights of domestic workers". Washington Post.
  2. ^ "Can 'Caring Across Generations' Change the World?". The Nation. April 11, 2012. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  3. ^ Lee, Felicia R. (September 17, 2014). "MacArthur Awards Go to 21 Diverse Fellows". The New York Times.
  4. ^ "The Age of Dignity". The New Press.
  5. ^ Smith, Aidan. "What Would A Left Cabinet Look Like?". Current Affairs.
  6. ^ a b Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (October 24, 2016). American Women Speak: An Encyclopedia and Document Collection of Women's Oratory. ABC-Clio. pp. 572–4. ISBN 978-1-4408-3785-2.
  7. ^ "The Age of Dignity". NPR. January 29, 2015.
  8. ^ Ai-jen Poo '92 named to list of 100 most influential people in the world Archived May 12, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Phillips Academy
  9. ^ Ai-jen Poo, Community Organizer, Public Affairs Television, Inc.
  10. ^ "Why I'm Walking 100 Miles to See Pope Francis". Time. September 15, 2015. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  11. ^ a b Engler, Mark. "The Yes! Breakthrough 15: Ai-jen Poo". Yes!. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  12. ^ "Take Five with Ai-jen Poo '96". Columbia College Today. December 15, 2017. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  13. ^ CNWN Collection (January 8, 2018). "Golden Globes 2018: How to Support the Activists' Causes". Allure. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
  14. ^ "Home". Domestic Workers United. May 10, 2012. Archived from the original on September 25, 2013. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  15. ^ "About". Caring Across Generations. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  16. ^ "The Nannies' Norma Rae". T. April 26, 2011. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  17. ^ a b "Staff". National Domestic Workers Alliance. Archived from the original on April 14, 2013. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  18. ^ "About the Participants | The Work-Family Dilemma: A Better Balance | New Feminist Solutions 3". Barnard Center for Research on Women. January 1, 2003. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  19. ^ "Meet the 2011 American Express NGen Award Finalists". Independent Sector. Archived from the original on September 25, 2013. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  20. ^ Steinem, Gloria (April 18, 2012). "Ai-jen Poo - 2012 Time 100: The Most Influential People in the World". Time. Archived from the original on April 19, 2012. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  21. ^ "Ai-jen Poo, Labor Organizer". MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  22. ^ "The New School Commencement 2017| The New School News Releases". www.newschool.edu.
  23. ^ "Ai-jen Poo". The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  24. ^ Ai-jen Poo (September 29, 2014). "America's most invisible workforce is the one we need the most". The Guardian.
  25. ^ a b Salam, Maya (April 30, 2019). "A 'Women's New Deal'". The New York Times. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
  26. ^ Walsh, Joan. "The New Political Group Supermajority Aims to Mobilize Women Across Race, Class, and Generation". The Nation. Archived from the original on December 7, 2019. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
  27. ^ Menendez, Alicia (April 29, 2019). "Black Lives Matter's Alicia Garza Wants Supermajority To Be Your New Home For Activism". Black Lives Matter's Alicia Garza Wants Supermajority To Be Your New Home For Activism. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
  28. ^ "Cecile Richards Discusses Women's Political Action Group, Supermajority". C-Span. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
  29. ^ Spirituality & Health often changes the title of a print article when it is published online. This article is titled "Home Sweet Home? Not for Domestic Workers. Ai-jen Poo Demands Justice" online.

Further reading[edit]

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