Ai-jen Poo

{{Infobox person

| name = Ai-jen Poo

| image = Ai-jen Poo, National Domestic Workers Alliance, 2015.jpg

| native_name = 蒲艾真

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1974}}

| birth_place = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| party = Democratic

| spouse = George Goehl

| relatives = Mu-ming Poo (father)

| awards = MacArthur Fellowship

| education = Columbia University (BA)

}}

Ai-jen Poo ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|aɪ|_|dʒ|ɛ|n|_|ˈ|p|uː}}, {{zh|t=蒲艾真|p=Pú Àizhēn}}; born 1974) is an American labor activist. She is the president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/09/18/macarthur-fellow-ai-jen-poo-on-why-she-fights-for-the-rights-of-domestic-workers/|title=MacArthur fellow Ai-jen Poo on why she fights for the rights of domestic workers|author=Joann Weiner|date=September 18, 2014|newspaper=Washington Post}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/167354/campaign-about-caring |title=Can 'Caring Across Generations' Change the World? |magazine=The Nation |date=April 11, 2012 |access-date=September 21, 2013}}

She is a 2014 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Award.Lee, Felicia R. (September 17, 2014). [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/arts/macarthur-awards-go-to-21-diverse-fellows.html "MacArthur Awards Go to 21 Diverse Fellows"]. The New York Times. In February 2015, the New Press released her book, The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America.{{cite web|url=http://thenewpress.com/books/age-of-dignity|title=The Age of Dignity |publisher=The New Press}} She has been mentioned as a potential future Secretary of Labor under a Democratic administration.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2019/04/what-would-a-left-cabinet-look-like|title=What Would A Left Cabinet Look Like? |first=Aidan|last=Smith|journal=Current Affairs|date=April 10, 2019 }}

Biography

Ai-jen Poo was born to Taiwanese American parents. Her father, Mu-ming Poo,{{cite book|last=Snodgrass|first=Mary Ellen|title=American Women Speak: An Encyclopedia and Document Collection of Women's Oratory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlslDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA572|date=October 24, 2016|publisher=ABC-Clio|isbn=978-1-4408-3785-2|pages=572–4}} is a neuroscientist and one-time political activist who emigrated from Taiwan in the 1970s. Her mother Wen-jen Hwu has a PhD in chemistry as well as an MD, and was an oncologist at two of the top cancer centers in Taiwan.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/books/titles/382376968/the-age-of-dignity-preparing-for-the-elder-boom-in-a-changing-america?tab=excerpt#excerpt|title=The Age of Dignity|date=January 29, 2015|publisher=NPR}}[http://www.andover.edu/About/Newsroom/Pages/PooTimeMagazine.aspx Ai-jen Poo '92 named to list of 100 most influential people in the world] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120512111840/http://www.andover.edu/About/Newsroom/Pages/PooTimeMagazine.aspx |date=May 12, 2012 }}, Phillips Academy[http://billmoyers.com/guest/ai-jen-poo/ Ai-jen Poo, Community Organizer], Public Affairs Television, Inc.

Poo was born in Pittsburgh,{{cite magazine|url=http://time.com/4035349/why-im-walking-100-miles-to-see-pope-francis/?xid=newsletter-brief|title=Why I'm Walking 100 Miles to See Pope Francis|date=September 15, 2015|magazine=Time |access-date=September 15, 2015}} 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.{{cite web|last=Engler |first=Mark |url=http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-yes-breakthrough-15/ai-jen-poo-organizing-labor-with-love |title=The Yes! Breakthrough 15: Ai-jen Poo |magazine=Yes! |access-date=September 21, 2013}}{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=December 15, 2017|title=Take Five with Ai-jen Poo '96|url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/latest/take-five/take-five-ai-jen-poo-96|access-date=December 21, 2020|website=Columbia College Today}}

She attended the 75th Golden Globe Awards in 2018 as a guest of Meryl Streep.{{cite web|author=CNWN Collection |url=https://www.allure.com/story/support-causes-activists-2018-golden-globes |title=Golden Globes 2018: How to Support the Activists' Causes |magazine=Allure |date=January 8, 2018 |access-date=January 11, 2018}}

Accomplishments

Ai-jen Poo began organizing domestic workers in 1996, with CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, also known as 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".{{cite web|url=http://www.domesticworkersunited.org/ |title=Home |publisher=Domestic Workers United |date=May 10, 2012 |access-date=September 21, 2013 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925164744/http://www.domesticworkersunited.org/ |archive-date=September 25, 2013 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.caringacrossgenerations.org/about |title=About |publisher=Caring Across Generations |access-date=September 21, 2013}}

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.{{cite news|url=https://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/the-nannies-norma-rae/|title=The Nannies' Norma Rae|magazine=T|date=April 26, 2011 |access-date=September 21, 2013}}

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.{{cite web |url=http://www.domesticworkers.org/staff |title=Staff |publisher=National Domestic Workers Alliance |access-date=September 21, 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130414150526/http://www.domesticworkers.org/staff |archive-date=April 14, 2013 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://bcrw.barnard.edu/betterbalance/participants.htm |title=About the Participants | The Work-Family Dilemma: A Better Balance | New Feminist Solutions 3 |publisher=Barnard Center for Research on Women |date=January 1, 2003 |access-date=September 21, 2013}} 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.independentsector.org/2011_ngen_award_finalists/ |title=Meet the 2011 American Express NGen Award Finalists |publisher=Independent Sector |access-date=September 21, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925134520/http://www.independentsector.org/2011_ngen_award_finalists/ |archive-date=September 25, 2013 |url-status=dead }} 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. 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".{{cite news|last=Steinem |first=Gloria |url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2111975_2111976_2112169,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419073210/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2111975_2111976_2112169,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 19, 2012 |title=Ai-jen Poo - 2012 Time 100: The Most Influential People in the World |magazine=Time |date=April 18, 2012 |access-date=September 21, 2013}}

In September 2014, she was one of 21 awarded a MacArthur Fellowship grant, the so-called "MacArthur genius grants".{{cite web|title=Ai-jen Poo, Labor Organizer|url=http://www.macfound.org/fellows/924/|publisher=MacArthur Foundation|access-date=September 26, 2014}} In 2017, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the New School.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2017/commencement2017.htm|title=The New School Commencement 2017| The New School News Releases|website=www.newschool.edu}}

She has written for The Huffington Post,{{cite web|url=https://huffingtonpost.com/aijen-poo |title=Ai-jen Poo |newspaper=The Huffington Post |access-date=September 21, 2013}} The Guardian,{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/29/nannies-housekeepers-home-health-aides-workers?CMP=twt_gu|title=America's most invisible workforce is the one we need the most|author=Ai-jen Poo|work=The Guardian|date=September 29, 2014 }} and other news outlets.

Supermajority

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".{{cite news |last1=Salam |first1=Maya |title=A 'Women's New Deal' |work=The New York Times |date=April 30, 2019 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/us/cecile-richards-supermajority.html |access-date=December 15, 2019}}{{cite web |last1=Walsh |first1=Joan |title=The New Political Group Supermajority Aims to Mobilize Women Across Race, Class, and Generation |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/supermajority-cecile-richards-2020-presidential-election/ |website=The Nation |access-date=December 15, 2019 |archive-date=December 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207184306/https://www.thenation.com/article/supermajority-cecile-richards-2020-presidential-election/ |url-status=dead }} 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".{{cite web |last1=Menendez |first1=Alicia |title=Black Lives Matter's Alicia Garza Wants Supermajority To Be Your New Home For Activism |url=https://www.bustle.com/p/black-lives-matters-alicia-garza-wants-supermajority-to-be-your-new-home-for-activism-17231396 |website=Black Lives Matter's Alicia Garza Wants Supermajority To Be Your New Home For Activism |date=April 29, 2019 |access-date=December 15, 2019}} 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". 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."{{cite web |title=Cecile Richards Discusses Women's Political Action Group, Supermajority |url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4797306/cecile-richards-discusses-womens-political-action-group-supermajority |website=C-Span |access-date=December 15, 2019}}

Bibliography

= Books =

{{cite book | title=Age of Dignity: Caring for a Changing America | via=WorldCat.org | date=November 15, 2016 | url=https://archive.org/details/ageofdignityprep0000pooa | access-date=January 21, 2018 | isbn=9781620970386 | oclc=910217632 | url-access=registration | last1=Poo | first1=Ai-jen | last2=Conrad | first2=Ariane | publisher=New Press }}

=Critical studies, reviews, and biography=

{{cite journal |author=Conrad, Ariane |date=Jan–Feb 2013 |title=A love to be reckoned with |department=Interview |journal=Spirituality & Health |volume=15 |issue=6 |pages=74–79 |url=http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/activist-ai-jen-poo-love-be-reckoned }}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.
Andrea Cristina Mercado; Ai-jen Poo Domestic Workers Organizing in the United States. AWID (Association for Women's Rights in Development), 2008. {{OCLC|833311952}}