Posts Tagged ‘feminism’
C This
American women got the vote 90 years ago this month. It wasn’t easy. After 70 years of hard state-by-state campaigning, suffrage came down to a final vote in the Tennessee Legislature. The deciding ballot was cast by Harry Burn, a 24-year old who switched to “yes” after receiving a last-minute nudge from his mother. “I know that a mother’s advice is always the safest for a boy to follow,” Burn later said.
Read more about this historic struggle, plus all the news about women and work, in C This.
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Three’s a Charm
Elena Kagan joined the U.S. Supreme Court, and ForbesWoman asked: “Will three finally be the magic number that effects real change for women in terms of pay parity, access to education and sexual harassment in the U.S.?” I hope so, but let’s not stop there. Women make up roughly 51% of the U.S. population. To really reflect America’s diversity on the Supreme Court, let’s see at least one more woman—ideally, a woman of color.
READ: “And Kagan Makes Three,” by Meghan Casserly, ForbesWoman, 8/8/10
Know Before You Go
What can you do to counter gender biases that influence hiring decisions? In this article, Amy Williams lays out four rules, including learning about “illegal questions” and sex discrimination before you go in for the interview.
READ: “Four Ways to Fight Sexist Interviewers,” by Amy Williams, Ms., 8/16/10
Mentored to Death
In the latest edition of the Harvard Business Review, INSEAD’s Herminia Ibarra and Catalyst’s Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva reveal how high-potential women are not getting enough from mentors. Many are under-sponsored and over-mentored. “I am being mentored to death,” said one exasperated respondent. Are you?
Hear Them Roar
Who are the “new feminists”? The Guardian profiles seven courageous women “who dare to articulate what others would rather not see.” “I receive death threats all the time, but I’m not afraid,” said Shahla Farid, a lawyer who challenges the Taliban.
READ: “The New Feminists: Still Fighting,” by Susie Orbach and Shahesta Shaitly, The Guardian, 8/15/10
Rocking the Vote
What was the biggest obstacle to women’s right to vote in the United States? The U.S. Congress. Gail Collins recounts the long, hard slog to suffrage in this New York Times column. While we celebrate Women’s Suffrage Day on August 26, Collins prefers to commemorate August 18—the day of a tense final showdown in the Tennessee Legislature.
READ: “My Favorite August,” by Gail Collins, The New York Times, 8/13/10
C This
Where is the women’s movement heading? What can we do better? Philosopher Nina Power outlines ten areas feminists should focus on. We must “campaign for fairer and better work, even in the midst of an economic crisis,” she writes. More of her points plus news about the gender pay gap, The Catalyst Canada Honours, and the new UN agency for women in C This.
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Feminism 2.0
British philosopher Nina Power charts a new path for feminism. One suggestion: Don’t fixate on female firsts. “Feminism should not be misled by the successes of individual women at the top of their professions (politicians, CEOs, etc.),” she writes. “Feminism would do well to remember how the struggle for real equality and fair income can sometimes be disguised by the purported success of the odd individual woman.”
READ: “10 Things That Feminism Could Do Better,” by Nina Power, Alternet, 7/9/10
Frozen Gap
The latest data from the US Department of Labor reveals almost zero progress on closing the gender wage gap for women ages 16–19. The gap persists because young women still start and stay behind equally skilled men.
READ: “The Persistence of the Pay Gap,” by Heather Boushey, XXfactor, 7/14/10
Financing UN Women
The new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women—now called UN Women for short—has an initial annual budget of $500 million, less than 1 percent of the $27 billion budget for the entire UN in 2008. “With the UN’s own working group proposing that by 2015, 15 percent of overall development assistance will be allocated toward gender, why is that not happening?” said Daniela Rosech of Oxfam International.
READ: “New UN Agency for Women–First Battle Won,” IRIN, 7/16/10
Secrets to Success
The recipients of The Catalyst Canada Honours share some insights with The Toronto Star. “You just have to understand, we would not be what we are if we did not recruit the best people,” said Ed Clark, President and CEO of TD Bank Financial Group. “If you don’t do this you will not be a high performing company 20 years from now.”
READ: “Making a Business Case for the Advancement of Women,” by Emily Mathieu, Toronto Star, 7/15/10
Campus Satisfaction
A survey by The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education revealed that male academics are more satisfied with their work than their female colleagues. The differences, noted COACHE Research Director Cathy Trower, “cut across disciplines and, in fact, are most evident in disciplines in which women are relatively well represented.” Physical sciences and humanities professors reported being most satisfied with their positions, while those in visual and performing arts and education reported being least satisfied.
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