September/October 1995 Issue

Nine Lives

Portraits of women from around the world

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The women in the following pages were chosen according to their family’s size, income, type of dwelling, occupation, and religion; each is “statistically average” for her country. The verbal portraits, adapted from translated interviews, bear witness to the disparities between these women’s lives, and also to the commonalities–their endless work to get food on the table, their love of children, and their concern about the future.

Click on a nation or choose from the table beneath.

BHUTAN MONGOLIA CHINA
MALI BRAZIL HAITI
RUSSIA ITALY USA

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A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

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Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

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