Is it Finally Tee Time for a Woman?

Let me preface by saying that I LOVE sports, golf included. One of my favorite sporting events of the year is the Masters, held by Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, GA. It’s the first major of the year, all the elite players compete, and best of all, it’s one of the biggest signs that spring has finally arrived. However, both golf and Augusta National have had their histories regarding sexism, and frankly, sheer pigheadedness.

Golf’s biggest star (arguably of all time), Tiger Woods, got into a lot of trouble over the past couple years involving excessive womanizing and countless incidents of adultery. Relevant now is the fact that Augusta National has a long and infamous history of sexism. Though a private establishment, Augusta National has run into a great deal of criticism and condemnation for continuing to remain an all-male club; only men are accepted as members, and the club has historically gone well out of its way to reject women. In 2002, Martha Burk, then of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, publicly took on Augusta National Chairman Hootie Johnson and implored the club to start accepting women. This was met with a great deal of resistance, with Burk, according to herself, being "called a man hater, anti-family, lesbian, all the usual things." Despite the fight, Augusta National continued to remain men-only.

Fast-forward to today, ten years later. IBM has long been one of the major sponsors of the Masters Tournament, and as a result, its sitting CEOs have traditionally been invited as members of Augusta National. On January 1, 2012, Ginni Rometty, a woman, became the CEO of IBM. Understandably, this has really put Augusta National on the hot seat, and creates a great deal of drama and conflict between two of the club’s long-standing traditions.

Will Augusta National alienate one of its major sponsors and receive even more amplified criticism and scrutiny by breaking tradition and refusing to invite IBM’s sitting CEO as a member? Or, will Augusta National have to break with one of their core tenets by inviting a woman to be a member?

Chances are, by the time the Masters begins next week on April 5, the club may have made a decision. This is a much bigger deal to the golf world than it may seem, and finally inviting a woman would be doing the sport of golf, as well as the institution that is Augusta National, a lot of favors. More importantly, Augusta National finally accepting a female member would be a long overdue way of finally doing the right thing.

For further reading, here is an article from ESPN.com about the situation.

Feminist poet and essayist Adrienne Rich dies

Feminist Poet and Essayist Adrienne Rich Dies

Associated Press-- March 28, 2012

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — Adrienne Rich, a fiercely gifted, award-winning poet whose socially conscious verse influenced a generation of feminist, gay rights and anti-war activists, has died. She was 82.

Rich died Tuesday at her Santa Cruz home from complications from rheumatoid arthritis, said her son, Pablo Conrad. She had lived in Santa Cruz since the 1980s.

Through her writing, Rich explored topics such as women's rights, racism, sexuality, economic justice and love between women.

Rich published more than a dozen volumes of poetry and five collections of nonfiction. She won a National Book Award for her collection of poems "Diving into the Wreck" in 1974, when she read a statement written by herself and fellow nominees Alice Walker and Audre Lorde, "refusing the terms of patriarchal competition and declaring that we will share this prize among us, to be used as best we can for women."

In 2004, she won the National Book Critics Circle Award for her collection "The School Among the Ruins." According to her publisher, W.W. Norton, her books have sold between 750,000 and 800,000 copies, a high amount for a poet.

She gained national prominence with her third poetry collection, "Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law," in 1963. Citing the title poem, University of Maryland professor Rudd Fleming wrote in The Washington Post that Rich "proves poetically how hard it is to be a woman — a member of the second sex."

She was, like so many, profoundly changed by the 1960s. Rich married Harvard University economist Alfred Conrad in 1953 and they had three sons. But she left him in 1970 and eventually lived with her partner, writer and editor Michelle Cliff. She used her experiences as a mother to write "Of Woman Born," her groundbreaking feminist critique of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood, published in 1976.

"Rich is one of the few poets who can deal with political issues in her poems without letting them degenerate into social realism," Erica Jong once wrote.

Unlike most American writers, Rich believed art and politics not only could co-exist, but must co-exist. She considered herself a socialist because "socialism represents moral value — the dignity and human rights of all citizens," she told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2005. "That is, the resources of a society should be shared and the wealth redistributed as widely as possible."

"She was very courageous and very outspoken and very clear," said her longtime friend W.S. Merwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. "She was a real original, and whatever she said came straight out of herself."

As Merwin noted, Rich was a hard poet to define because she went through so many phases. Or, as Rich wrote in "Delta," ''If you think you can grasp me, think again."

Her political poems included "The Burning of Paper Instead of Children," an indictment of the Vietnam War and the damage done and a cry for language itself: "The typewriter is overheated, my mouth is burning. I cannot touch you and this is the oppressor's language."

One of her best-known poems, "Living in Sin," tells of a woman's disappointment between what she imagined love would be — "no dust upon the furniture of love" — and the dull reality, the man "with a yawn/sounded a dozen notes upon the keyboard/declared it out of tune, shrugged at the mirror/rubbed at his beard, went out for cigarettes."

Rich taught at many colleges and universities, including Brandeis, Rutgers, Cornell, San Jose State and Stanford.

She won a MacArthur "genius" fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships and many top literary awards including the Bollingen Prize, Brandeis Creative Arts Medal, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and the Wallace Stevens Award.

But when then-President Clinton awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1997, Rich refused to accept it, citing the administration's "cynical politics."

"The radical disparities of wealth and power in America are widening at a devastating rate," she wrote to the administration. "A president cannot meaningfully honor certain token artists while the people at large are so dishonored."

In 2003, Rich and other poets refused to attend a White House symposium on poetry to protest to U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Born in Baltimore in 1929, Rich was the elder of two daughters of a Jewish father and a Protestant mother — a mixed heritage that she recalled in her autobiographical poem "Sources." Her father, a doctor and medical professor at Johns Hopkins University, encouraged her to write poetry at an early age.

Rich graduated from Radcliffe College in 1951 and was chosen for the Yale Younger Poets Prize for her first book of poetry, "A Change of World."

Living in Cambridge, Mass., she befriended Merwin, Donald Hall and other poets. In 1966, her family moved to New York City when her husband accepted a teaching position at City College. Soon after she left Conrad, he committed suicide.

Rich taught remedial English to poor students entering college before teaching writing at Swarthmore College, Columbia University School of the Art and City University of New York.

Number of Homelessness Veteran Women Doubles

Interesting report on the rise of homelessness among Veteran Women. The lack of housing for women with children seems to be a significant barrier to accessing veteran housing. Also there are financial disincentives for providers, as VA does not have the statutory authority to reimburse them for costs of housing veterans’ children.

http://pschousing.org/news/number-homeless-veteran-women-doubles

A U.S Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, seeking to assess the feasibility of eliminating veteran homelessness by 2015, finds a disturbing rise in homelessness among female veterans. The GAO evaluated data from the US Dept of Veteran Affairs (VA) and found that the number of homeless women veterans more than doubled from 1,380 in 2006 to 3,328 in 2010. Given that the number of women serving in the military has increased substantially since the 20th century, this trend is somewhat unsurprising.

The data analyzed was limited and is not generalizable to the entire homeless female veteran population. However, a few general characteristics were noticed in the data:

• Two-thirds of the women were between 40 and 59 years old.
• Many of the women had children under the age of 18 with them.
• Many of the women were not aware of the veteran housing services available to them.

The report exposed the need for better tracking of this population and the need for more outreach to homeless women veterans. For a summary of the report, click here. The full report can be found here.

Real Women Changing the World!

The below article celebrates real women who are changing the world! Nothing like a little inspiration to brighten your Tuesday!! Will you be the next person on this list?

Women Changing the World
Nell Merlino,
Founder, President and CEO, Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence
Huffington Post

We are smack in the middle of Women's History Month, and there's tons of happy news to report from the XX chromosome contingency! Now is a fantastic time to be a business leader, because so many of us are in positions where we can employ and help other women.

Let's start with Rosalind G. Brewer. In February, she was named president and CEO of Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. This is a HUGE deal on so many levels -- she's the first woman, and the first African American, to hold a CEO position at one of the company's business units. I am in awe. And, in a new initiative with Count Me In, the Sam's Club Giving Program is creating opportunities for hundreds of women small business owners to become leaders in their own right by increasing their revenues, creating jobs and improving the quality of their lives.

And let's give a big round of applause to Spanx creator y, who, at just 41, became the youngest woman on Forbes Billionaires List. Not bad for a woman who started her ubiquitous brand with just $5,000 in the bank.

Then there was the 3rd annual Women in the World Summit, which wrapped earlier this month in NYC. The brainchild of Newsweek/Daily Beast editor Tina Brown, the event brought together some of the world's most amazing female activists and dignitaries including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg and Academy Award Winners Meryl Streep and Angelina Jolie plus young women from around the globe who are changing their worlds, like Liberian writer, activist and Nobel prize winner Leymah Gbowee and women influential in the Arab Spring. Inspiring? That's putting it mildly.

It's been a pretty heady month for me, too. I was honored to visit with Gloria Steinem, Carol Gilligan and Pat Mitchell at a Feminist.com event at Gloria's apartment, where the discussion was -- once again -- about preserving and standing up for a women's right to choose in the face of legislation aimed at turning back the clock. Imagine being a business leader and not having control over your own body? Hard to believe we are still having this discussion in 2012!

I also caught up with my dear pals Suze Orman and Nely Galan and my new friend Dr. Julianne Malveaux at a Tavis Smiley taping of a three-part series called Made Visible: Women, Children & Poverty in America which will air on PBS on March 28, 29 and 30. I'm so happy that he is addressing this hugely important issue. No matter how much women are rising in numbers in terms of business leaders, we need to direct some of our focus to the challenges millions of women face. The number of U.S. citizens in poverty in 2010 is 46.2 million. That's the largest number in the 52 years since poverty rates have been published. The vast majority are women and their children; households headed by women had median income of $35,091 in 2007. But that dropped to $32,031 in 2010.

Suze, incidentally, has a new product out called The Approved Card. It's a pre-paid card -- not a credit card -- which means it's impossible to get into debt when you use it. Check it out www.theapprovedcard.com. It's genius.

Here at Count Me In, we're doing our part, too. On May 10 and 11, we'll be in Los Angeles presenting the first of three Urban Rebound events. This event is part of a national business growth initiative sponsored by Sam's Club Giving Program designed to help bring 300 women-owned businesses in the Greater Los Angeles, Detroit and Charlotte regions to $250,000 in annual revenues within 12-18 months. (If you're not a math person, that goal translates into $25 million in new economic activity and 200 to 300 new jobs.)

California is a perfect place for kicking off this initiative: The state is home to the largest number of women-owned businesses in the country -- 1,080,000 -- but ranks only 27th in terms of revenue growth for these businesses from 1997 to 2010, according to a 2011 report by American Express OPEN. The 2010 Census indicates that while women-owned businesses represented nearly 30 percent of privately-held companies in the U.S., 75 percent of them reached only $50,000 in annual gross revenues or less.

We're looking to change that.

And we can. Consider Garnett Newcombe, the CEO of Human Potential Consultants, a Carson, California-based employment solutions business. Garnett was one of our 2006 Make Mine a Million $ Business Awardees, and she's been an integral part of the Count Me In family ever since, even sitting on the CMI Board. CMI changed her life, she says: "When I first entered the M3 program, I didn't have any confidence at all. I didn't know how to articulate my business. I just felt like a mom and pop store owner, just making it day by day."

After joining CMI, she became "Much clearer about what I'd done and what I wanted to do. Prior to that it was all muddled in my head." She also speaks to the power of having a community of women supporting her: "The M3 community rejuvenates you in the sense that you're reminded you are not alone," she explains. "If you stay in your business too long without getting some fresh perspectives, you can start to get that 'Poor Me,' feeling: 'Poor Me. I'm the only one that has to restructure or cut people's hours.' But when you're active in the community, you meet people who are going through the same things and are also going back to the drawing board and you realize, 'Hey! I am not alone!' And that is so important. We can't isolate ourselves because that's when we get into trouble."

So what about you? Are you going to be the first woman in your family to start a business or grow to one million in annual revenue? How are you going to change the world? I invite you to visit our website (www.countmein.org) to see more inspirational stories, and learn how to set your own plan in motion.

I look forward to seeing you in May!

Bob McDonnell, Virginia Governor: 'War On Women' Is 'Political Theater'

Glad to see Gov. McDonnell is slipping in the polls!

Posted: 03/21/2012 4:19 pm Updated: 03/21/2012 4:29 pm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/21/bob-mcdonnell-va-gov-war-on-women_n_1370834.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has drastically slipped in the polls after backing two controversial anti-abortion measures over the past several weeks: the fetal personhood bill and the mandatory ultrasound bill. But in an interview on CNN Tuesday night, he said the "War on Women" is something Democrats have invented.

"This 'war on women' argument is very unfortunate," he told John King. "It's false, and it's been the political theater for the Democrats for the past couple of months."

He continued, "Listen, if I had Obama's record on jobs, on spending, on debt and deficit, on energy, I would want to talk about something else, too. And, John, that's really what's going on. And it's just very unfortunate that this politics of division, separating men from women, rich from the middle class, continues to be the theme of this campaign.

"If recent polling is any indication, Virginia voters disagree with McDonnell on this point. A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows that McDonnell's approval rating dropped a net 13 points in March to its lowest level since June 2011. The dip in support occurs in the month that McDonnell helped GOP legislators write a bill that requires women to have an ultrasound procedure at least 24 hours before having an abortion, even if the doctor deems it medically unnecessary.

The approval rating for the Virginia state legislature has also dropped from 47 percent to 38 percent since it passed the mandatory ultrasound bill in February.

"Virginia had been the only state surveyed by Quinnipiac University in which the state legislature had received a net positive job approval," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "The fact that the legislature's approval dropped so much, while approval ratings for other statewide elected officials are basically unchanged, indicates that voter dissatisfaction is targeted."

The Richer Sex

Rich Mom, Poor Dad: Women Become Breadwinners

by Jennifer Ludden

March 20, 2012

NPR

How The New Majority Of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love, and Family
by Liza Mundy

As a mother of young boys, I can tell you that chatty, detail-oriented girls rule the world among the younger set. I've always wondered when the big switch would happen, propelling males to their traditional dominance of the adult working world, but Liza Mundy is here to tell us that it won't. It turns out that in my lifetime, women will be the second sex no more.

Mundy's The Richer Sex is like a fantastical trip through the looking glass into a future few of us dared imagine, but which Mundy forcefully illustrates is already well underway. Forget gender parity. Mundy culls a broad range of research to lay out how women are fast overtaking men in today's economy, a shift that is happening worldwide.

Nearly 40% of U.S. working wives now out-earn their husbands, and Mundy says they'll soon make up a majority. Women hold most managerial and professional jobs, they earn most college degrees and longterm economic shifts favor fields dominated by women.

As with her 2007 book on reproductive technology, Everything Conceivable, Mundy deftly draws out people's conflicted emotions on the most intimate of subjects. Here, she explores the profound ways the new economic order is transforming the dating scene, the marriage market and the balance of power within relationships.

I've often thought the world would be a different place if children called out for "daddy" half as often as they do "mommy." How compelling, then, to read about Jessica Gasca, a paralegal in south Texas whose husband quit his job as a car salesmen to care for their children.

"They see me as the father," Jessica tells Mundy. Whatever the children need — from a glass of water to help at school — they call on her husband, Juan.

But before a female reader can get giddy at this notion, Mundy probes how Juan is coping. He does what he can to bring in extra money during school hours, even taking a job — I kid you not — selling Avon. Yet his in-laws are openly disrespectful of his choices, branding him a loser and a slacker. And Juan says the burden of these entrenched gender stereotypes has been hard on his marriage.

"Sometimes I fantasize about, like, leaving her," Juan confesses, "because I want to feel more masculine again."

And it's not just men with misgivings. We meet Kris Betts of Michigan, a stay-at-home mom who became the primary earner when her husband's employer went under. Betts tears up, and tells Mundy how devastated she was to sort through a year's worth of her sons' school art projects.

"It was all the two boys and dad. I'm like, 'Where am I?'"

Clearly, not all female breadwinners have taken on the role by choice. And Mundy touches only briefly on the clear losers in this economic shift, the growing numbers of working class women who — faced with men's diminished prospects — are not marrying at all.

But will this societal role reversal be easier for a younger generation? Mundy finds women who lie about their salary and profession in online dating sites, lest they intimidate potential mates. Others use subtle, face-saving ways to share costs with dates. Explains one female marketing entrepreneur, "I usually say, like, you got dinner last time, or oh, I'll just get the drinks, even though drinks cost more than dinner."

Still, Mundy meets a number of well-adjusted couples who are happily pioneering this gender revolution. Stay-at-home dad Danny Hawkins is married to a corporate executive and says, "My job is to make her life easier. And I like doing it."

Just as cooking became cool when men took over kitchens with their six-burner stoves, Mundy posits that a "new masculinity" will evolve as men play a bigger role on the domestic front. The question is whether the new class of high-powered women will learn to appreciate a man who can drive a mean carpool.

Read an excerpt of The Richer Sex

What's Fair is Fair

This week, I read an article on NPR's website about several Democratic lawmakers across the coun try proposing legislation to restrict men's access to reproductive health care. Situations include prohibiting men from getting vasectomies, to requiring cardiac stress tests for obtaining Viagra to ensure that they are healthy enough for sexual activity.

Of course this sounds ridiculous at first glance, and frankly, it is. That's the point. As Jennifer Lawless, director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University says, "The ultimate goal in proposing bills related to male reproductive health is not to get them passed. By drawing attention to these bills, Democrats are looking to motivate independent and undecided voters, especially women, to show up at the polls in November for the general election."

I don't support the laws on their literal content, but I fully support the message these lawmakers are sending: If you're going to propose ridiculous laws that unfairly affect women, why not propose ridiculous laws that unfairly affect men around the exact same issue?

I recommend you read the article, because it makes a lot of really good points and it's really well-written.

Article linked here.

Women Figure Anew in Senate’s Latest Battle

Women Figure Anew in Senate’s Latest Battle
by Jonathan Weisman, NY Times

Published March 14, 2012

WASHINGTON — With emotions still raw from the fight over President Obama’s contraception mandate, Senate Democrats are beginning a push to renew the Violence Against Women Act, the once broadly bipartisan 1994 legislation that now faces fierce opposition from conservatives.

The fight over the law, which would expand financing for and broaden the reach of domestic violence programs, will be joined Thursday when Senate Democratic women plan to march to the Senate floor to demand quick action on its extension. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, has suggested he will push for a vote by the end of March.

Democrats, confident they have the political upper hand with women, insist that Republican opposition falls into a larger picture of insensitivity toward women that has progressed from abortion fights to contraception to preventive health care coverage — and now to domestic violence.

“I am furious,” said Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington. “We’re mad, and we’re tired of it.”

Republicans are bracing for a battle where substantive arguments could be swamped by political optics and the intensity of the clash over women’s issues. At a closed-door Senate Republican lunch on Tuesday, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska sternly warned her colleagues that the party was at risk of being successfully painted as antiwoman — with potentially grievous political consequences in the fall, several Republican senators said Wednesday.

Some conservatives are feeling trapped.

“I favor the Violence Against Women Act and have supported it at various points over the years, but there are matters put on that bill that almost seem to invite opposition,” said Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, who opposed the latest version last month in the Judiciary Committee. “You think that’s possible? You think they might have put things in there we couldn’t support that maybe then they could accuse you of not being supportive of fighting violence against women?”

The legislation would continue existing grant programs to local law enforcement and battered women shelters, but would expand efforts to reach Indian tribes and rural areas. It would increase the availability of free legal assistance to victims of domestic violence, extend the definition of violence against women to include stalking, and provide training for civil and criminal court personnel to deal with families with a history of violence. It would also allow more battered illegal immigrants to claim temporary visas, and would include same-sex couples in programs for domestic violence.

Republicans say the measure, under the cloak of battered women, unnecessarily expands immigration avenues by creating new definitions for immigrant victims to claim battery. More important, they say, it fails to put in safeguards to ensure that domestic violence grants are being well spent. It also dilutes the focus on domestic violence by expanding protections to new groups, like same-sex couples, they say.

Critics of the legislation acknowledged that the name alone presents a challenge if they intend to oppose it over some of its specific provisions.

“Obviously, you want to be for the title,” Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of the Republican leadership, said of the Violence Against Women Act. “If Republicans can’t be for it, we need to have a very convincing alternative.”

The latest Senate version of the bill has five Republican co-sponsors, including Michael D. Crapo of Idaho, a co-author, but it failed to get a single Republican vote in the Judiciary Committee last month.

As suggested by Mr. Sessions, Republicans detect a whiff of politics in the Democrats’ timing. The party just went through a bruising fight over efforts to replace the Obama administration’s contraception-coverage mandate with legislation allowing some employers to opt out of coverage for medical procedures they object to on religious or moral grounds.

“There are lots of other issues right now that could be dealt with other than this one,” said Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, who is responsible for Republican messaging. “I suspect there’s a reason for bringing it up now.”

But if Republican lawmakers are not eager to oppose a domestic violence bill, conservative activists are itching for a fight. Janice Shaw Crouse, a senior fellow at the conservative Concerned Women for America, said her group had been pressing senators hard to oppose reauthorization of legislation she called “a boondoggle” that vastly expands government and “creates an ideology that all men are guilty and all women are victims.”

Last month on the conservative Web site Townhall.com, the conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly called the Violence Against Women Act a slush fund “used to fill feminist coffers” and demanded that Republicans stand up against legislation that promotes “divorce, breakup of marriage and hatred of men.”

The third reauthorization effort of the legislation started off in November the way the previous efforts had, with a bipartisan bill and little controversy. The measure, authored by Senators Crapo and Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, attracted 58 co-sponsors, including Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, Ms. Murkowski, Mark Steven Kirk of Illinois and Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts.

But Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, found multiple reasons to oppose the bill when it came up for a formal consideration last month.

The legislation “creates so many new programs for underserved populations that it risks losing the focus on helping victims, period,” Mr. Grassley said when the committee took up the measure. After his alternative version was voted down on party lines, the original passed without a Republican vote.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, one of two women on the judiciary panel, said the partisan opposition came as a “real surprise,” but she put it into a broader picture.

“This is part of a larger effort, candidly, to cut back on rights and services to women,” she said. “We’ve seen it go from discussions on Roe v. Wade, to partial birth abortion, to contraception, to preventive services for women. This seems to be one more thing.”

Republicans say they see that line of attack coming and will try through amendments to make the final version more palatable. But if Democrats dig in, Republicans will stand their ground, Mr. Blunt said, pointing to a new New York Times/CBS News poll that showed Americans supporting an exemption to the contraception mandate for religiously affiliated employers 57 percent to 36 percent. By 51 percent to 40 percent, Americans appeared to back Senate efforts to grant employers an exemption on religious or moral exemption grounds.

“Our friends on the other side are in serious danger of overplaying their hand on this one,” Mr. Blunt said.

Connecticut Hearts Women

http://courantblogs.com/susan-campbell/2012/03/14/connecticut-hearts-women/

Some good news for CT women, except regarding childcare and congressional leaders.

Hartford Courant
By Susan Campbell On March 14, 2012

The website iVillage has ranked Connecticut the No. 1 one place to be for women, based on data from organizations such as the National Women’s Law Center, National Partnership for Women & Families, the 2010 U.S. Census and the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

We scored well in part, said iVillage, because nearly 90 percent of Nutmeg women have health insurance, and we’re home to some of the top female wage-earners in the country.

We also scored well because of a history that includes Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ella Grasso, Helen Keller, and others.

Check out our measurements from iVillage (the interesting ones, not the body-ones):

The Lowdown: A select group of states earned high marks for being a place where women thrive but it was Connecticut that rose to the top of our list! Women here earn more, know more and take better care of themselves than their sisters in any other state.

The Good News: There’s so much! Ninety percent of women have health insurance, which is probably why Connecticut women are more likely to have regular Pap smears and mammograms. (Yay healthy girl parts!) They’re also fit and trim – nearly half have a healthy weight, likely due to their love of exercise, fruits and vegetables and quality time at Ocean Beach in the summer.

Financially, they’re among the nation’s top female earners. The median salary is $46,000. This is easy to accomplish when there are so many smarty pants in the state’s ranks. More than a third (35 percent) of women have a four-year college degree, well above national average of 28 percent.

The Bad News: Working moms shell out a huge chunk of their paychecks for childcare. Connecticut ranks among the most expensive states, averaging $12,650 a year for infant care. And in the state’s seven-member congressional delegation, only one representative goes by Ms. Thank you, Rosa L. DeLauro D-CT.

Hear Us Roar: Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, called Connecticut home, as did advocate for the disabled Helen Keller. Lillian Vernon, the first woman to take a company public on the New York Stock Exchange, can be found here too. Ursula Burns, CEO of Norwalk-based Xerox, is one of only 10 women leading a Fortune 500 company. And politically, in 1975 Ella T. Grasso became the first woman in the U.S. to be elected governor in her own right.

The rest of the top five states? Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, and California. Ella would be so proud.

"What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?"

If I wasn't afraid of anything what would I do? My first thought, go on a Ferris Wheel. I am scared of heights, like break out into sweats want to cry afraid of heights so I avoid Ferris Wheels like the devil and the few times I have been on them were an ugly sight. As I sit, eye's closed doing breathing exercises to stay clam, those around me always marvel at the amazing views, or jaw dropping foliage. So if I wasn't afraid of heights I would jump on a Ferris Wheel and take in the sights. What would you do if you weren't afraid?

Perhaps going to an amusement park is not your first thought, would you change career paths, open your own business, tell your boss how you really feel?

Marlo Thomas’s article below outlines just how women’ s fears can be a true roadblock to their success. What would it be like if we taught women to want power and not be afraid of it?

Huffington Post
Marlo Thomas

Women's History Month: Closing the Ambition Gap

March is Women's History Month, and I'm being asked the same question -- a lot:

"Whatever happened to the women's movement? Where are the feminist freedom fighters today?"

I guess if people don't see women marching, they don't think they're moving. But they need to remember that the marching, the protesting, of the Sixties and Seventies opened the door for a generation that we hoped would come after us. And it has.

It's exciting to see three women on the Supreme Court. It's exciting to see three women Secretaries of State and even women leading other nations. It's exciting to see women anchor the nightly news, and it's exciting to know that the chief operating officer of Facebook -- the one who helps you connect with your hundreds of 'friends' -- is, in fact, a woman.

But what's most exciting is that this woman of power -- and a billionaire to boot -- is not satisfied with how far women have come.

"The world is still run by men," Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg said in a recent speech. "We're not teaching our girls and women to have professional ambition. We're not encouraging women to lean into their careers and aim for powerful jobs. With only 3% of Fortune 500 companies run by women, we have a real problem."

Hearing Sandberg's words, I couldn't help but flash back to when I was 23 years old, producing my own television show, and people would say, "You're so ambitious!" And I would cringe, feeling the sting of their contempt. What they were saying was that I was "aggressive" and "assertive" and needed to be "in control." It would take me years to feel these words as a compliment, not as the pejoratives they were meant to be.

"We don't teach our girls to have power," Sandberg told me a few months ago. "We teach them to 'get along.' And if they get too loud or forceful, we call them 'bossy.'"

That made me laugh. What spirited young girl hasn't heard that word? Even Tina Fey titled her memoir "Bossypants."

Sandberg puts it simply. "I want my daughter to have the choice not to just succeed," she says, "but to be liked for her accomplishments." Nobody said that to me in the Seventies. That's why I created Free to Be...You and Me. I wanted to tell girls and boys what I hadn't been told. I didn't want them to take half their lives to figure out that, whatever they wanted, they should go for it all the way -- and not worry about doing what everyone else does, just so they would be liked.

That's why I love the posters on the wall at the Facebook offices that read, "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" I'd like to hang those posters in the hallways of every school in the country, to remind kids -- and their teachers, too -- that the barriers we face are mostly internal, not external.

Women's History Month is not just a time to celebrate where we've come from, or how far we've opened the door. It's also a time for us to express our dissatisfaction that the doors aren't opened wide enough. As always, it's the agitation that creates the pearl.

So where is the women's movement today? It is in the powerful hands of leaders like Sandberg, who, having risen to the top of their careers, feel the responsibility to reach out and inspire those women who follow them -- the college graduates, the women who are struggling at the first rung of their careers, the women who are stalled and frightened.

"Fortunes favors the bold," Sandberg told Barnard's graduating class. "Think big. Dream big. We will never close the achievement gap until we close the ambition gap."

With leaders like Sandberg, we will.

What Does A Feminist Look Like? Not Necessarily What You Think.

Who is a feminist? Who can be a feminist? What does a feminist look like?

I bet most people would answer these questions thinking of something like the following clip from the hit TV show “Portlandia” (note: some blunt dialogue, but no cursing).

I think “Portlandia” is an excellent show, and does a great job of pointing out the potential for absurdity amongst many different kinds of people. With that, I find it very important to note that “Portlandia” is entertainment, and not necessarily a clear reflection of real life.

Feminists come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and yes, genders. Women always have been, and always will be, the driving force behind the feminist movement. But in my opinion, the feminist movement needs men to become involved; not just by virtue of being men, but because as I have often said, we need to think of “women’s issues” as “everybody’s issues.” Once we think of these issues as “everybody’s issues,” men immediately become part of the conversation, and subsequently, part of the solution to numerous issues affecting women.

It’s important to note that being a feminist by no means makes a man less of a man. Consider that some major college football stars consider themselves feminists, including former Syracuse quarterback Donald McPherson, as well as recent Florida State cornerback (and Rhodes Scholar) Myron Rolle. Also considering themselves feminists are SNL all-star Andy Samberg and beloved M*A*S*H actor Alan Alda (once dubbed "the quintessential Honorary Woman: A Feminist Icon" by the Boston Globe).

This article from The Frisky contains a slideshow of 12 famous male feminists. As you will see, the group of people shown in the slideshow is comprised of some of the smartest, most talented, most respected, and manliest men around.

Fellow men: don’t be embarrassed to consider yourself a feminist. After all, what man worried about his masculinity wouldn’t want to be put in the same conversation as Brad Pitt, Barack Obama, or Eddie Vedder (or even yours truly)?

Working toward a Powerful Yes

This International Women's Day, I will embrace the idea that change is possible. That anything is possible. I will answer the call to sisterhood by making a promise to stand with those still fighting for their rights. We are able to make a difference as a team of one, a greater difference as a team of many. Let's work together, as a team, to say no to any rollbacks on women's reproductive rights. Let's work together, as a team, to say no to any rollbacks on women's equality. Let's work together, as a team, to say yes to progress, yes to equal pay, yes to choice. Let's work together to a powerful yes. Happy International Women's Day.

If you would like to get more inspired, join our International Women's Day happy hour at Barca (39 Bartholomew Avenue, Hartford), tonight 5 - 7 pm. I hear State Comptroller Kevin Lembo and Secretary of the State Denise Merrill may be joining us!!!


Why International Women's Day Matters
by Andrée Simon
President and COO, Women for Women International
Posted: March 7, 2012

This Thursday, March 8th, is International Women's Day and an opportunity to remember and honor all the ways women make a difference in our families, communities, and countries. This past year, we have seen countless examples of courageous women who defied the status quo and stood up to oppression. In the protests of the Arab Spring, women played a crucial role in revolutions that have deposed four dictators. Seeking freer, fairer governments, they risked their lives to lead protests, join the fighting on the frontlines, and care for the wounded without access to hospitals. For the first time last year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three women -- President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, and Tawakkol Karman of Yemen -- in honor of their inspiring work to end to violence in their countries.

For me, International Women's Day is a time to celebrate the important accomplishments and contributions of women such as these. This is a day to pause and remember how far we have come since the first International Women's Day 101 years ago, when women had the right to vote in only two countries and many faced restricted education and career opportunities. This is also a day to remember how far we still have to go.

In countries like Afghanistan, women have gained so much in a short time, but still face many struggles that lie ahead. Within the past decade, Afghan women have seen incredible improvements in education and health care. Women's life expectancy has increased by nearly two decades. Women can vote and now hold 27% of the parliamentary seats. These changes are due in no small part to the courageous work of women willing to put their safety at risk to speak out for women's rights. However, women still face serious daily challenges, and sadly, 87% still experience physical violence in their lifetime. Equality is still a long way off.

Since 2002, Women for Women International (WfWI) has worked with over 33,000 Afghan women and provided them the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to earn an income, claim their rights, and make lasting change in their lives. Many of the women we serve have struggled with poverty and abuse; they've grown up without being able to attend school, never believing they are equal to their brothers. Through our program, women learn they have rights and that they are equal to men, and when they do, they stop accepting the status quo. Nearly 60% of the women we serve have found the strength to take action to end violence against them. Signs of progress like this are encouraging, but I know it will take the courage of many more women and men for lasting change to be possible.

International Women's Day has a very real meaning. For women everywhere in the world who continue to face discrimination from those in power, who are the victims of violence, and who are taught by society from the day they are born that they are inferior to others, it is a reminder that they matter. That their voices are important. That they have the right to be heard, despite what their governments, society, or families tell them.

More than anything, International Women's Day is a call to sisterhood, to stand with those still fighting for their rights. Here in the United States, the long struggle for equality is not the work of one woman. It takes the support of many women, each contributing in her own way, to move our collective forward. This is true for women everywhere. Each of the women WfWI serves in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo relies on the support of a "sister" in another country, someone she has never met but who is there for her as she learns about her rights and develops the skills to be able to rely on herself. When women join together with a common goal, they are able to bring changes to their communities that would have been nearly impossible for one woman to do alone.

That's what sisterhood truly means, coming together to support each other through the hard times and working together to make life better for each other and for our children. At Women for Women International, we believe that one woman can change many things, but many women together can change everything. Women around the world continue to struggle for equality, in education, health care, economic opportunities, and political participation. It's going to take a sisterhood of women coming together, across borders and divides, to ensure those who are standing up for their rights and equality succeed. When they do, they will not only have made life better for women, but for everyone.

In the upcoming year, I hope that women will continue to make progress on the goals we have all been working towards for the past century. But most importantly, I hope women everywhere will join together in a sisterhood of support for the women who still have the longest fight ahead of them. When all women are free to pursue their dreams and not held back by discriminatory laws or societal norms, then International Women's Day will truly be something to celebrate.

Domestic Abuse Task Force Urges Longer Restraining Orders

Interesting article about changes to laws affecting domestic violence victims.

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Domestic-abuse-task-force-urges-longer-3379681.php

Ken Dixon
Published 05:57 p.m., Saturday, March 3, 2012

HARTFORD -- Restraining orders against domestic abusers could be extended to a year under legislation promoted Monday by a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Speaker of the House Christopher G. Donovan.

Currently, the maximum allowable time for a restraining order is six months. The extension was one of 20 recommendations that members of the speaker's three-year-old Task Force on Domestic Violence announced as legislative goals.

The group's proposals include forcing local bail commissioners to consider the victims of domestic abuse when evaluating the release of defendants. The August 2009 stabbing murder of Cathy Fox of Milford, following the release of her estranged husband on $1,000 bond, was cited as an example why this provision is needed.

During a news conference in the Legislative Office Building, Rep. Mae M. Flexer, D-Danielson, chairwoman of the task force, said the 2012 agenda would build on the previous three years. She warned that after funding was found last year for around-the-clock staffing at the state's domestic violence shelters, lawmakers have to work again to find money in the budget for similar programs.

"The most important thing that we can do is to talk about this issue, so that we can finally change the way that people look at domestic violence," Flexer said. "The question is not, 'Why does she stay with him? Why does she let him treat her that way?'

But instead, it becomes, 'Why does he think he can treat her that way?' " Donovan said, "We want to make sure that when a victim has worked up the courage to call police, request a restraining order, or to leave her home, we want to make sure that the services are in place to support a victim to protect herself. It's all of our responsibility to be vigilant, to help victims seek assistance, to promote prevention, to teach our kids at an early age about healthy relationships and to advocate for changes that make domestic violence socially unacceptable."

He said that the recommendations will become the basis of several bills that will work their way through the Legislature over the next two and a half months. Rep. Clark J. Chapin, R-New Milford, a member of the speaker's panel, said the task force has met with broad support. While some proposals require money, such as an expansion of the GPS tracking system for convicted abuses, others, such as the creation of more domestic violence dockets in state courts, do not, he said.

The GPS tracking project used $140,000 in now-expired federal funds to monitor abusers in Bridgeport, Hartford and Danielson. To renew it and spread it farther around the state, would take a million dollars currently not planned in the budget that takes effect July 1.

Annually over the last 10 years, about 16 homicides in the state have been attributable to domestic violence. Last year, the number dropped to 12, said Karen Jarmoc, a former House member who is the executive director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. About 37,000 court cases a year, one-third of all criminal cases, are linked to domestic violence, she said. The coalition, an 18-member group, annually assists 54,000 victims.

"Connecticut is only one of a handful of states that only allow a restraining order to be six months," she said. "Most states are one year to five years."

Join us this Thursday!!!

Join us this Thursday, March 8, at Barca for a networking event in celebration of International Women's Day!! This event is FREE and light appetizers will be provided!! We hope you can join us!!

Those who throw stones...

What exactly did Rush Limbaugh say on February 29th:

"A Georgetown co-ed told Rep. Nancy Pelosi's hearing that the women in her law school program are having so much sex that they're going broke, so you and I should pay for their birth control. Speaking at a hearing held by Pelosi to tout Pres. Obama's mandate that virtually every health insurance plan cover the full cost of contraception and abortion-inducing products, Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke said that it's too expensive to have sex in law school without mandated insurance coverage. Apparently, four out of every ten co-eds are having so much sex that it's hard to make ends meet if they have to pay for their own contraception, Fluke's research shows."

Can you imagine if you're her parents how proud of Sandra Fluke you would be? Your daughter goes up to a congressional hearing conducted by the Botox-filled Nancy Pelosi and testifies she's having so much sex she can't afford her own birth control pills and she agrees that Obama should provide them, or the Pope. "'Forty percent of the female students at Georgetown Law reported to us that they struggled financially as a result of this policy (Georgetown student insurance not covering contraception), Fluke reported. It costs a female student $3,000 to have protected sex over the course of her three-year stint in law school, according to her calculations.

"'Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school,' Fluke told the hearing. $3,000 for birth control in three years? That's a thousand dollars a year of sex -- and, she wants us to pay for it." All of this just since January 7th. Just since January 7th. You guys who are thinking you're not gonna go to college? Let me just say one thing to you: Georgetown. They're admitting before congressional committee that they're having so much sex they can't afford the birth control pills! That's all you gotta come up with. And all of this is the Republicans' fault. Sandra Fluke, one of the Butt Sisters, is being dragged out of law school by the hair. Wait 'til Rick Santorum hears about this. Wait 'til Gingrich hears about this! What do you think they'll do? They'll put a stop to this right away! They'll head over that university and they'll stop it!

They'll spy on Sandra Fluke and interrupt her in mid-coitus, and then they'll make 'em get married.

They'll make 'em get married and then make 'em have those babies and make 'em have 10,000 babies and then stay home...

Listening to The Troglodytes by The Jimmy Castor Bunch!

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

And his apology on March 3, 2012:

For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.

I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit?In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone's bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level.

My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.

Celebrate Women's History Month, Celebrate Women's Voices

Happy March 1! Today launches Women's History Month, so I hope you got yourself some plans to celebrate! If not, join us next Thursday, March 8, 5 - 7 pm @ Barca in Hartford for some cocktails and tasty treats to celebrate International Women's Day. Always more fun when celebrating with others!

I found out today that a march is being put together for April 28 across the country to protest the war against women. There's an FB page that you can join for the march here in CT, https://www.facebook.com/groups/CTWOW/.

Also, saw the below on NPR's site. I love reading about women's lives and learning from them. Thought this was an interesting interview about writing on women. If you click on the link, you can also go to the website to listen to the interview.

What It's Like To Write A Woman's Life
Women's History Month starts on Thursday. All through March, Tell Me More will dig into inspiring, bold and sometimes disturbing stories of notable women — from Cleopatra to Coco Channel. To launch the biography series, host Michel Martin talks with two essayists about why it's important to tell women's stories, and how that storytelling has evolved.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Coming up, raise your hand if you too have Linsanity, a love affair with breakout New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin. Later in the program, we will have a guest who will tell us about the actually very well established Asian-American basketball leagues that she says paved the way for Lin.

But first, we wanted to kick off Women's History Month, which starts today, by taking a closer look at the stories by and about women. As women around the world are rethinking and rewriting their roles in society, we decided to take a look at how the biographies of notable women reflect those changes.

In the coming weeks, we are going to dig into biographies of divas and dancers, leaders of nations and queens of fashion, but before we hear from these authors, we have called upon two scholars to help us get started by talking about how women's lives have been written about and why that matters.

With us now is Katha Pollitt. She's an award-winning essayist, author and poet. Among many books, she is the author of "Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism," and she's a columnist for the magazine The Nation. Welcome, Katha Pollitt. Thank you so much for joining us.

KATHA POLLITT: Thanks so much for having me.

MARTIN: Also here with us once again, Dana Williams. She is the chair of the department of English at Howard University and a professor of African-American literature. Welcome back to you. Thank you for joining us once again.

DANA WILLIAMS: Hello, Michel. Thank you.

MARTIN: So Katha Pollitt, I'm going to start with you because your 1995 book "Reasonable Creatures" is titled after a quote by the author Mary Wollstonecraft, who said that women are, quote, "neither heroines nor brutes, but reasonable creatures," which leads me to wonder whether - is that kind of a defensive title in that women - have women traditionally been just depicted as either heroines or brutes and not reasonable?

POLLITT: Well, it's interesting. What Mary Wollstonecraft actually said was, I wish to see women neither heroines nor brutes but reasonable creatures. And she was talking about everything from the - you know, the virgin/whore dichotomy, to putting women on a pedestal, but also condemning them as prostitutes and sluts. These are things we still see today.

And you can really see that in the way women's biography has developed, including biographies of her, because after her death she was demonized as - you know, she'd had a child out of wedlock, she led this riotous life, she did things women weren't supposed to do.

And it was only much, much later in our own time that you begin to see biographies of Mary Wollstonecraft that take her very seriously as a philosopher, which she was, as a major political figure in her time, as part - a big part of the romantic movement and so on.

So one thing that women's biography has done in our time is to put women back in history as historical actors, not just the wife of, the girlfriend of, someone who died a dramatic death and wrote a book no one reads anymore, that kind of thing.

MARTIN: Well, couldn't you make an argument, though, that sacred books have always, in fact, had in a way a biography of women? Or maybe that kind of just reinforces the existing point that they exist to tell a point as opposed to be people on themselves. I'm just thinking about, like, in Hebrew and the Hebrew Scriptures, like the book of Ruth. You could argue that's a biography, in a way.

POLLITT: Well, it's - I guess it sort of is a story about a woman. Yes.

MARTIN: OK. You don't have to agree with my theory, but that's...

POLLITT: Yeah. But, you know, on your point, it's very interesting, if you read the New Testament, how little there is about the Virgin Mary. You know, she really doesn't have a lot - have a big speaking part, and yet, you know, there is such a need for women as heroes, as important actors in history, that a whole - you know, a whole myth and scholarship and folklore about the Virgin Mary has grown up that is part of religion now, but a lot of it is - comes after the New Testament or is extracted from tiny little hints in the New Testament.

MARTIN: Professor Dana Williams, you specialize in African-American literature and you were part of our conversation last month where we kicked off our investigation of black memoirs. And you noted that formerly enslaved Americans set down memoirs and that African-American women were certainly a part of that. But what about biography?

WILLIAMS: We see black women's lives written about a lot and especially, as of late, just in the last two or three years we see three different biographies on Michelle Obama, for instance. So we see books about literary figures. There are several biographies of Zora Neale Hurston, and as we were talking a little bit earlier, there are several biographies of Ida B. Wells, for instance. And those are all very good and interesting.

MARTIN: Is this new, though? Is this presence of African-American women in biography a pretty new phenomenon?

WILLIAMS: I don't think so. I think there's a long kind of genealogy or history of black women being written about. The newer aspect may be having black women tell the stories of other black women.

MARTIN: Have you noticed a shift in the way these women are written about? Because one of the things I'm interested in digging into further is - can people really tell the truth of their lives or is it always through a lens of whatever the politics are of the time? For example, noting those biographies of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, we reported on, you know, a major work by Professor Paula Giddings when it was published. And one of the things that I was noting was how she grappled with the question of how much of a public role she should play - of course the great anti-lynching activist, a newspaper publisher, very significant figure, and also a wife and a mother.

So we're thinking - is she the original work/life balanced person, kind of angst-ing about that? Or is it that she felt she had to - she couldn't own her own interests in being a public figure because she felt like she had to pretend to be reluctant? I mean, and you don't really know. So Dana, what do you think?

WILLIAMS: In that regard, we do see a shift, indeed, particularly because now there are limitations of privacy. With the kind of multi-media age, the things that Ida B. Wells would have been able to keep to herself or to keep private just aren't an option anymore, so you have everything from the Internet to women writing journals that they're making public or allowing other people to read, to a letter.

So one of the biographies of Zora Neale Hurston, for instance, is actually a life in letters, where we begin to try to figure out who she is based on the letters that she wrote. Hurston is a good example, also, of women not telling everything about themselves. Hurston lied about her age, everything from when she was born to what she was interested in and what moved her. So now that we have these letters that are collected, we can begin to recreate her life and so in that regard too we see as much about the person who's writing the biography as about the person that the biography is about.

How are they choosing to frame the story? What are they imagining to be true about the person? What are they choosing to focus on?

MARTIN: But just briefly, why did she lie about her age, by the way?

WILLIAMS: I think it was just vogue for women to not tell their ages and so, you know, it's still taboo now in most communities where you ask a woman her age and she'll say, well, I can't tell you that.

MARTIN: Katha Pollitt, what do you think? Do you think that there is a - have you observed a difference in the way that women's stories are told? And it's been said that the biographies say as much about the biographer as they do about the subject.

POLLITT: Well, I think we need to see women's biographies now in the context of the revitalization of feminism and the effect it had on the teaching of history and our sense of what is history and also the tentative remaking or opening up of the literary cannon.

And Zora Neale Hurston is a really good example of that because she was incredibly famous during the Harlem Renaissance. She was a big deal, both as an anthropologist and as a folklorist and as a writer of fiction. But by the time she died, which I think was in the '60s, she was completely forgotten. She was working as a cleaning woman, and it was left to Alice Walker and other black writers that came up in the '60s and '70s to rediscover her.

And then we started getting this intense interest in her, where she had been seen by, for example, Richard Wright, you know, a very left wing political black writer, as she was seen as - well, she's telling stories we don't want told. This is all making black people look primitive.

When Zora Neale Hurston came back into favor at a different historical moment, she was seen as a very important figure, partly because she wasn't so time-bound to, you know, the struggles of the Communist Party in the '30s, and I think that, you know, now we're getting this wealth of information and interest in her that would never have happened if it hadn't been for the political developments of the '60s, '70s, '80s and ongoing to now.

MARTIN: You're right, by the way. Zora Neale Hurston died in 1960, according to our information. That's essayist and columnist for The Nation, Katha Pollitt. Also with us, Professor Dana Williams of Howard University. We're talking about women's biographies. And just briefly, to tie a bow on that, Professor Dana Williams, do you think that the - I'll just say the word lies or fibs - let's say fibs that women have been moved to tell about their lives - are they really any different from the ones that men have told to shape their narratives - to shape the narratives around men? Because I was just thinking, if you were sort of a male political leader, would you really want it known that you might have been, like, afraid to do something? Like, you know, that you didn't really want to go into the service or something, that you were scared or something like that?

Or a latter day(ph) - I just wondered if you think that there is just more shading. Do you think that - and I'm asking for your opinion - more shading around the story of women than the stories of men?

WILLIAMS: I don't think so.

MARTIN: More of a dissonance?

WILLIAMS: I don't think so. I think if we look at the stories that men tell or stories that are told about men, we see the same kind of dissonance that we see with women's stories. One kind of interesting distinction, to go back a little bit on something that Katha was suggesting, might be in looking at the lives of black women and their biographies and the way that they tend to focus more on an institution or an organization or the community as opposed to the individual life.

So we do see that shift from a kind of traditional biography, and even with the resurgence of feminism in, say, the last 10 or 15 years or so, we still see a distinct difference between the biography of Ella Baker, for instance, where even the title tells us it's the black freedom movement, so it's Baker's lens through which we're looking at the black freedom movement.

"For Freedom's Sake," again, with Fannie Lou Hamer, the idea is to look at a particular type of movement or a way of being that impacts the community, and one of the - I know you'll talk to the author of "Joan Myers Brown and the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina." So again, we're talking about Philadanco and what it meant to try to assert a place for black ballerinas in a civil rights kind of environment that wasn't as friendly to black ballerinas, everything from color to body type.

So it's interesting to see how black women's lives focus probably a little bit more on a communal kind of aspect, much more so than the kind of traditional white male story that takes on a different framework completely.

MARTIN: Interesting. To that end, here's a - I just want to play a short clip from a conversation with author Rebecca Skloot, whose book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" has been a huge bestseller about an African-American woman whose cells, cancer cells were used in medical research, had a profound effect on medical research. And this is Skloot speaking to NPR's Neal Conan in 2010.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

REBECCA SKLOOT: I just sort of became obsessed with this question of who was she and did she have any kids and what did they think about all this stuff that was done with her cells. You know, I spent many years trying to sort of uncover the story of both the science and the person behind that all.

MARTIN: I'll ask each of you. Katha Pollitt, I'll start with you. What do you think it means that a woman like Henrietta Lacks has now been given voice in this time? What do you think it means?

POLLITT: Well, I think it's fascinating. I think it shows that - a kind of democratization of the notion of history and, even in this case, maybe the notion of science, and that all these people that were considered to be completely unimportant, like the person whose cells are used for medical discoveries, turn out to be absolutely fascinating and turn out to be part of the story.

For example, you might find that the model for a great painting is an interesting person and that that model then, through that lens, you could see, well, you know, models played a more important role in the development of art than we might think, and I think that's happening all over and it's really great. I'm really happy that we live in this time of biography, when we find out so much that was hidden before.

MARTIN: Professor Dana Williams, what do you think it means?

WILLIAMS: I think it, again, raises that conversation that we were talking about, in terms of the distinction or the way that biography teaches us something about the biographer as much as it teaches us about the person. So I think we come to know more about the person and the choice of framing the story of Henrietta Lacks, probably - I wouldn't say more than we learn about Henrietta Lacks, because indeed we do.

But the tension that was present between the family and the biographer is an interesting conversation that even reminds me a little bit of the tension around "The Help," for instance, where - what do you do when the person whose story it is is not necessarily excited about the story being told in this particular way?

Or, in some instances, the lawsuit that happens, where the woman based on this story is saying, this isn't what I agreed to. So what do you do with that tension in terms of the person who's telling the story versus the family?

MARTIN: But wouldn't you rather know?

WILLIAMS: Sure.

MARTIN: Wouldn't you rather know than not know?

WILLIAMS: Absolutely.

MARTIN: I was fascinated when, in "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," the author, Rebecca Skloot, spent 12 years researching and writing this. She first discovered the cell line and that there was even a person's name that was known behind it when she was in high school or something crazy like that, and then the (unintelligible) well along in the story. And it is - would you rather know or not know or would you rather she'd kept that business out of it?

WILLIAMS: No. I think you certainly would rather know, I think. But what also has to happen is you have to understand how complicated the coming to knowing is about.

MARTIN: Before we let each of you go, we have to ask if you have a biography that you have read lately that you would like to recommend, this being Women's History Month. We'd prefer that it be about women, but we're not going to place restrictions on you. I know I'm springing this on you, but Professor Dana Williams, do you have a biography you'd like to recommend?

WILLIAMS: Yes. I'm actually thankful for the conversation with your producer, Anita(ph), and for your raising my attention to Joan Myers Brown and "The Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina." I'm fascinated with Philadanco and I had known a little bit about Joan Myers Brown, so I'm looking forward to getting into that one.

MARTIN: All right. Katha Pollitt, what about you?

POLLITT: Well, I think you've got Stacy Schiff's "Cleopatra" on your list, which I was going to recommend. So let's see. I would say, since you have one biography of Margaret Sanger on your list, I would also recommend the earlier book by Ellen Chesler, which is really long and very magisterial and a very full and quite - you know, just exemplar of what a biography should be. Her book, her biography of Margaret Sanger.

MARTIN: All right. Well, thank you. Katha Pollitt is an award-winning essayist, author and poet. She is the author of "Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism," among other works. She is a columnist for the progressive magazine, The Nation, and she was kind enough to join us from the studios at Radio Foundation in New York.

Here with us in our Washington, D.C. studios, Dana Williams, chair of the department of English at Howard University and a specialist in contemporary African-American literature.

Thank you both so much for joining us.

WILLIAMS: Thank you.

POLLITT: Thank you so much.

MARTIN: And we hope you will tune in throughout the month as we talk about women's biographies, from fashion icon Coco Chanel to health activist Margaret Sanger, as you heard. Next week, we will hear from the author of "Joan Myers Brown and the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina."

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