It’s an honor to be showcased next to so many amazing women who are working online to change the world. Seriously, if nothing else, it’s an incredible list of women in feminist media.

If you’re so inclined, you can also vote for one of the nominees, who will be given the award at the end of November.

I’m trying to get to Netroots Nation this year, a yearly gathering of the online progressive community, associated with the blog Yearly Kos. I’ve never been and I’d like to make it there this year.

You can help me with just a few clicks of your mouse! Democracy for America is hosting a scholarship contest and the winners are partly chosen by online voting. Thanks to my awesome community I’m currently in 6th place. Can you help me make it to the top three?

You can vote for me here.

This year, two awesome radical doulas, who run the Prison Birth Project in Western Massachussets, are nominees.

Go vote for them! They definitely deserve it. Voting ends tomorrow.

More about Marianne and Lisa after the jump.

Marianne Bullock and Lisa Andrews founded the Prison Birth Project (PBP), which serves incarcerated mothers at the regional women’s jail in Chicopee, Mass.

PBP visits inmates prenatally and postpartum. PBP provides childbirth education classes or individual instruction, as well as time-intensive labor support (“doula care”).

PBP doulas ease transitions between jail and hospital, support single mothers and whole families, help mothers cope with labor, and help mothers to make informed decisions about medical care.  They’ve even made it possible for some incarcerated moms to breastfeed successfully.

I’m utterly moved by the two young women who saw a need, and just started going into the prison to serve these mothers. Marianne was all of 24 years old when she and fellow young mother and college student Lisa (whose background is in nutrition and organic farming) started going into the Women’s Correctional Center.

Now, in addition to childbirth education and doula care, they have taken theMotherWoman training, and they have created a program called Mothers Among Us — support groups for mothers inside and those who have been released.

Whether or not mothers and their babies are ultimately reunited, PBP believes that both mothers and children are served when pregnancy and childbirth are well supported with skill and compassion.  No matter what has come before in these women’s lives, PBP believes that there is nothing to be lost by adding loving kindness to the equation.

The collective members — especially Marianne and Lisa — work very long hours for very little pay, performing services and growing the organization. They are making a big difference in the lives of some of the most appreciative members of our community.

See the whole slate of nominees here.

Last week she blogged about my essay, When Sexual Autonomy isn’t Enough: Sexual Violence Against Immigrant Women.

Today I read Miriam Zoila Pérez’s essay, “When Sexual Autonomy Isn’t Enough: Sexual Violence Against Immigrant Women in the United States” for day eleven of the Blogging “Yes” project.  You may know Miriam from Feministing, or from her own blog, Radical Doula.  She’s one of my favorite bloggers out there, and in this essay she sheds light on an important issue, namely sexual violence faced by immigrant women. I also want to recommend a related blog post on Feministe written by brownfemipower, Confronting Citizenship in Sexual Assault.

The violence faced by immigrant women, both institutional and interpersonal, is a serious problem in the US. The essay I wrote only skimmed the surface of the issues at hand, but there is a large body of work and activism out there focused on this intersection.

Check out the rest of Judith’s post about my essay here.

Check it out here.

Go check it out! It’s an awesome thematic round-up of some of the best feminist blogging out there.

Each year, I find myself unable to write about choice without talking about why I want it to be justice instead.

As I’ve talked about before, choice isn’t enough.

Choice doesn’t recognize that we don’t all have a choice. That often times our choices are impacted by what others want, by what we can afford, by what we will allow ourselves to do.

Our choices are mediated by politicians, religious figures, our paycheck this month. Our choices are limited by our family members, our lovers, what we see on TV and who is close to us when we have to make a decision.

Our choices are determined by the color of our skin, the language that rolls off our tongues, the restrictions of our bodies, the gender we identify with and the people we love.

Our choices aren’t just about abortion, they’re also about how we live, how we create family, how we interact with our bodies, with society, and with the world.

So I’m going to spend today, instead of thinking about choice, thinking about justice.

The best part? She talks about her doula. Now that’s some good exposure for us. There are some nice pictures too.

Part one, part two and part three.

I joined the Twitter-mania a few months ago. I find it to be a great way to learn about breaking news and share links with other like-minded people.

You can follow me at http://twitter.com/miriamzperez

If you’re on twitter, send me a message!