In today’s rundown: Education and family size often determine a woman’s ability to escape from poverty. | A special election is being held in D.C. tomorrow. | Human trafficking is one of the U.S.’s biggest human rights problems.
— In an op-ed entitled “Poor Jane’s Almanac” in The New York Times, Jill Lepore tells the story of Benjamin Franklin’s sister Jane. Poorly educated and hard-working, Jane lived in poverty and buried her husband and 11 of her 12 children. Lepore writes that Jane’s story “is a reminder that, especially for women, escaping poverty has always depended on the opportunity for an education and the ability to control the size of their families.”
— The Washington Post previews tomorrow’s special election for the at-large seat on the D.C. Council. Polls close at 8 p.m.
— “From johns to judges, Americans often suffer from a profound misunderstanding of how teenage prostitution actually works — and fail to appreciate that it’s one of our country’s biggest human rights problems,” writes Nicholas Kristof in a New York Times op-ed about human trafficking in the U.S.