Carla Goldstein, JD, is Omega Institute’s chief external affairs officer and cofounder of the Omega Women’s Leadership Center. An attorney with 25 years of experience in public interest advocacy, she has contributed to more than 100 city, state, and federal laws, and has worked extensively in city and state government on issues related to women’s rights, poverty, public health, and social justice. She is a commentator for WAMC’s show, 51%, writes a column and serves on the advisory board for Feminist.com, and serves as advisor to Women Without Borders. Before joining Omega, Carla Goldstein was vice president for public affairs at Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC), where she directed the agency’s advocacy and strategic communications work. Before joining PPNYC, Goldstein worked for the speaker of the New York City Council, where she helped craft and advocate for state and federal legislative agendas. While in law school at the State University of New York at Buffalo, she was cofounding editor-in-chief of the state’s first women’s law journal, the Buffalo Women’s Journal (now published as Buffalo Journal of Gender, Law, and Social Policy). Goldstein has also been featured at the New York State Bar Association’s “Women on the Move: Successful Women in the Know” Goldstein was an adjunct professor at CUNY Queens College for eight years, where she taught a course called Law and Social Justice, which was designed to empower students to be effective advocates for progressive social change. She now teaches a variety of workshops at Omega, including Omega’s Women & Power conferences and retreats, which inspire thousands of women from around the world. Carla Goldstein also appears regularly on local and national radio and television, and makes public presentations on issues related to women’s empowerment, holistic and sustainable living, activism, and spiritual activism.
Carla Goldstein
Carla Goldstein, JD, is Omega Institute’s chief external affairs officer and cofounder of the Omega Women’s Leadership Center. An attorney with 25 years of experience in public interest advocacy, she has contributed to more than 100 city, state, and feder
Blog Post List
May 8, 2018
The system of patriarchy is a historic construct; it has a beginning; it will have an end. -- Gerda Lerner An unexpected source, Steve Bannon, recently declared the certainty of patriarchy’s demise, pronouncing: "The anti-patriarchy movement is going to undo 10,000 years of recorded history." May it be so, because patriarchy is contraindicated for life. The definition of patriarchy is the control by men over women and children in all the important institutions of society. While patriarchy is primarily about gender, its deeper force is about dominance—dominance of one group over another, and...
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May 1, 2015
I have just travelled by train back and forth from New York to Washington D.C., passing through the Baltimore train station in each direction. Both times as I listened to the passenger doors opening and closing again, I looked out my window for the signs of social distress I knew was underway. I couldn’t see anything from my vantage point, but that did not mean it wasn’t there. With physical disease the symptoms that finally appear in the body as the telltale signs of illness create a reflexive and surprising gasp at the undeniable revelation that something is wrong. Yet something has been...
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August 19, 2014
Carla Goldstein talks about building a stronger partnership between women and men; partnership that acknolwedges and embraces our interdependence, and that builds on our mutual interests in achieving gender equality.
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September 19, 2012
In any discussion about the relevance of the women’s movement, outrage has its place; like when an elected official talks about “legitimate rape,” or a young pregnant woman dies of aggressive cancer because the state protects her fetus instead of her; or a woman is stoned to death for adultery; or a public official is censored for saying the word vagina in a policy debate. The supply of the outrageous is vast enough to keep us in a state of perma-scream. But that’s not sustainable. To make the kinds of change we dream of, outrage has to be paired with everyday efforts to create a fundamental...
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February 24, 2012
I cover the recent furor on Komen, the pink ribbon, and how disassociated our political geography is from the real lives of women. With thanks to Susan Barnett and her wonderful weekly program, 51% http://bit.ly/zsdTtq
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May 13, 2011
Listen as a podcast You wouldn't know it from a visit to the Hallmark card store, but the origin of Mother's Day in the U.S. has feminist anti-war roots. The earliest celebrations honoring mothers trace back to ancient times and were primarily spiritual in nature. They centered around goddesses and other icons that represented motherhood. Over time, celebrations shifted to focus on mothers themselves, and their contributions to families and society. As the holiday made its way to the United States in the early 1900s, it took a significant turn, becoming a call out to mothers to join in the...
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