#FemNews Weekly Roundup Vol. 33

For all those badasses trying to catch up on the headlines, here are a few highlights from the past week. Sign up for our newsletter to receive #FemNews and other videos, articles, and updates from The Fem Word every Tuesday.

1. This Pi Day, a Google employee broke the world record for calculating our favorite irrational number and spoiler alert: she’s a WOMAN! Coming in at a whopping 31.4 trillion digits, Emma Haruka Iwao became the first person ever to compute π via the Cloud after 4 months of work. Our reigning Queen of Pi fulfilled her childhood dream, which started when she first downloaded pi-based-software at 12 years old in Japan. You know, kid stuff.

2. One small step for woman, one giant leap for womankind! This week, NASA confirmed the first ever ALL women spacewalk, set to occur March 29th (yes, you can stream it), just in time to close out Women’s History Month. This badass team includes two spacewalkers, with the roles of Lead Flight Director, Lead Flight Controller, and Ground Support all filled by females. Women supporting women to infinity and beyond!

3. In 2015, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. invested $38 million to test backlogged rape kits, (samples swabbed for DNA but never tested) and this week, the results are in. The good news: so far, the results have lead to 186 arrests and 64 convictions, with investigations and further prosecutions currently underway.

The not so good? Victims are often disbelieved, and rape kit tests can run up to $1,000 a piece, so it’s estimated that another 155,000 or more sexual assault evidence kits still await testing. Let your local lawmakers know we must #TestEveryKit

4. And then there were six... U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) officially entered the 2020 Democratic race this past week, joining Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), and activist Marianne Williamson from California. Gillibrand’s campaign calls for voters to be big, bold, and brave, in order to *ahem* trump a fear of progress.

5. It’s never too late to shatter the late night glass ceiling. Canadian YouTube star Lilly Singh will take over Carson Daly’s time slot to become the ONLY woman on the “Big 4” late night lineup. What’s more, as a bisexual woman of Indian descent and founder of #GirlLove, an organization which campaigns for girl’s education, Singh will be providing a fresh, diverse, and hilarious voice to the boys' club of late night TV! “A Little Late With Lilly Singh” kicks off this September at 1:35 AM EST.

6. This past week, Germany celebrated Equal Pay Day by offering a 21 percent discount on public transport to people who identify as women (yay inclusivity!). The holiday aims to raise awareness of the gender pay gap, and 21 percent is how much more men make than women on average. Get it? Twitter users all over the world said "HELL YES," and are hopeful this movement spreads!

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