Time March 2–9, 2020Angela
Doyinsola Aina
EMPOWERING BLACK MOTHERS
The U.s. spends mUch more
on health care than any
other developed coun-
try does, and yet women
in the U.S. are dying of
pregnancy-related causes
more than they used to and
more than in other developed
nations. This problem is particu-
larly dire for African Americans, who
are three to four times more likely
than their white counterparts to suffer
pregnancy-related deaths. Black Mamas
Matter Alliance (BMMA), co-founded
by Angela Doyinsola Aina, launched
in 2016 to address these huge dispari-
ties; the group worked with Congress
to launch Black Maternal Health Week,
now held each April. “What is perpetu-
ating these adverse health outcomes is
structural racism and gender oppres-
sion,” says Aina, 36.
This year, Aina is drawing on her
own background in public health to
ramp up BMMA’s research efforts and
to promote the use of midwives and
doulas, who she says can be critical re-
sources for communities that have his-
torically fraught relationships with the
U.S. medical system. The World Health
Organization named 2020 the “year of
the nurse and midwife,” and Aina hopes
this increased attention will help lead to
more investment in black women–led
health programs. “Those are the initia-
tives that work best,” she says, “in com-
munities that are most impacted by
health disparities.” —aBigail aBrams
Greg Asbed,
Lucas Benitez and
Laura Germino
JUSTICE FOR FARMWORKERS
The coaliTion oF immokalee Work-
ers (CIW) began in the 1990s as a col-
lection of Florida-based farmworkers
organizing to fight long-standing labor
abuses. Lucas Benitez, 44, one of the co-
founders, tells TIME via translator that
INEQUALITY| VOICES
the CIW’s main goal is to correct the im-
balance of power between the food in-
dustry and its workers that “allowed for
the abuses that we were facing.”
In 2011, the CIW launched the Fair
Food Program (FFP), an agreement
between the CIW, farms and re-
tail food companies that pledge
to purchase produce only from
growers who agree to a code of
conduct with enforceable con-
sequences, ensuring the civil
rights of farmworkers are pro-
tected. Megabrands such as Mc-
Donald’s and Walmart are among the
participating buyers, and the group is
targeting holdouts: on March 10–12,
the CIW will lead a series of marches
through New York City to put pres-
sure on Wendy’s to join.“We realized
that if we were going to actually ad-
dress the poverty and the abuses on the
farm,” says Greg Asbed, 56, another co-
founder, “we’d have to look beyond the
farm for the answer.”
—madeleine carlisleDina Bakst
HELPING WORKING WOMENFor many american
women, especially
low-wage workers in
physically demand-
ing fields, having
kids means jeopardiz-
ing their jobs—so much
so that they may be forced
to choose between a paycheck and a
healthy pregnancy. That situation, says
Dina Bakst, “snowballs into lasting eco-
nomic disadvantage.”
As co-founder of the legal advocacy
organization A Better Balance, Bakst,
47, represents women who lose their
jobs while pregnant. She’s championing
federal legislation advancing in Con-
gress this year to help pregnant women
and new mothers get fair treatment at
work: the Pregnant Workers Fairness
Act and the PUMP for Nursing Moth-
ers Act would, respectively, require
employers to make reasonable accom-
modations for pregnant employees, and
make it easier for breastfeeding moms
to pump at work. At a time when there
are more women than men in the U.S.workforce, Bakst says implementing fair
work-life standards—including preg-
nancy accommodations, paid sick days,
paid family and medical leave, and qual-
ity affordable childcare—is more impor-
tant than ever: “It’s absolutely essential
for gender equality and for our nation’s
economic security.” —kaTie reillyWilliam C. Bell
FIXING FOSTER CAREThe roUghly 437,000
U.S. children in foster
care are more likely to
drop out of high school
compared with peers
who live with family,
and children who age out
of the system are more likely
to face homelessness, unemployment
and incarceration. Foster care, while de-
signed to help children in need, also ex-
acerbates existing inequalities: poorer
families are more likely to have a child
removed from the home, and many ad-
vocates argue that’s because the child-
welfare system scrutinizes signs of pov-
erty, labeling it child neglect.
William C. Bell aspires to an America
with as few children in foster care as
possible. As president and CEO of
Casey Family Programs, Bell, 60, was
one of the strongest advocates for the
Family First Prevention Services Act,
landmark bipartisan legislation that
aims to keep more families together.
The law, which took effect in October,
allows states to use federal funding to
help struggling parents before resorting
to putting children in foster care. “If we
can get more children being raised in
a family-like setting, either with their
parents or extended family,” Bell says,
“it bodes well for what happens in this
country in the long run.” —k.r.Kat Calvin
MAKING IDS MORE ACCESSIBLEmillions oF U.s. voTers don’T have
a photo ID, and yet—with a wave of new
laws in the run-up to the 2016 election—
about two-thirds of states require some
kind of identification to vote. Critics say
those laws suppress the votes of vulner-48