Dear Readers,
Thank you for so diligently following and subscribing to our blog here. From now on, all blog updates will be posted on our website to better coordinate all of our material. We hope to see you there!
CT NOW
5/17/13
4/23/13
News Links
Facebook's big misogyny problem
Advertisers and users are upset at inadvertent tolerance of abuse of women on the site. So why isn't Facebook taking more action? Read more here.
Indian police arrest second man over rape of five-year-old girl
Advertisers and users are upset at inadvertent tolerance of abuse of women on the site. So why isn't Facebook taking more action? Read more here.
Indian police arrest second man over rape of five-year-old girl
Fresh protests in Delhi against treatment of women after men accused of abducting, raping and attempting to murder girl. Read more here.
Is It Time for Off-the-Shelf Birth-Control Pills?
When a federal judge recently ordered the Food and Drug Administration to make the morning-after pill available to women of all ages without a prescription, the ruling was a political embarrassment for the Obama administration and unleashed protests from abortion foes and abstinence advocates. Read more here.
Eden Foods CEO Doesn’t Know Why He’s Against Contraception, but He Is
Michael Potter, the CEO of Eden Foods, has been outed by Irin Carmon at Salon as an anti-contraception crusader to his largely liberal customer base, and, to the delight of all watching, has an inability to grasp how incoherent he sounds as he keeps trying to explain what this is all about. Read more here.
When a federal judge recently ordered the Food and Drug Administration to make the morning-after pill available to women of all ages without a prescription, the ruling was a political embarrassment for the Obama administration and unleashed protests from abortion foes and abstinence advocates. Read more here.
Eden Foods CEO Doesn’t Know Why He’s Against Contraception, but He Is
Michael Potter, the CEO of Eden Foods, has been outed by Irin Carmon at Salon as an anti-contraception crusader to his largely liberal customer base, and, to the delight of all watching, has an inability to grasp how incoherent he sounds as he keeps trying to explain what this is all about. Read more here.
3/25/13
Take Back The Night
Join Trinity College as the Students Against Sexual Assault (SASA) sponsors its annual Take Back the Night march and rally on Thursday, April 4 at 6:45 p.m. at Cave Patio, Mather Hall in Hartford, CT.
For more information, contact mary.taliaferro@trincoll.edu or viridiana.medina@trincoll.edu
3/22/13
Updates in the News
A Former Teen Mother Speaks Out Against the Shameful NYC Shaming Ad Campaign
A young woman shares her experience on being a teen mother and how the anti-teen pregnancy ad campaign merely plays on stereotypes and tired old tropes. Read more here.
A young woman shares her experience on being a teen mother and how the anti-teen pregnancy ad campaign merely plays on stereotypes and tired old tropes. Read more here.
North Korea's Gender Dig: Why Does That Matter?
After using a traditional insult meant to denigrate women as inappropriately aggressive, North Korea blames the gender of South Korean president Park Geun-hye for the tensions between the two countries. To see how this dynamic plays out, click here.
Paid Sick Leave in Portland
A new bill passed in Portland, Oregon, will enable employees who work at least 240 hours a year to earn one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. For more information, read here.
New Hampshire House Rejects 24-Hour Waiting Period for Abortions
The "Abortion Information Act" (H.B. 483), which would have required women to wait 24 hours before having an abortion was voted down 229-121. For more information, click here.
DC Police Clarify Controversial Condom Policy
After controversy regarding a D.C. police policy that possession of a large quantity of condoms could be grounds for suspicion of prostitution, the police department issued a statement supporting safe sex practices. For more information, click here.
3/11/13
What's Happening...
Posters on Teenage Pregnancy Draw Fire
The curly-haired baby looks out from the poster with sad eyes and tears dripping down his tawny cheeks. “I’m twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen,” the text next to his head reads. Read more, click here.
Arkansas Adopts a Ban on Abortions After 12 Weeks
Arkansas adopted what is by far the country’s most restrictive ban on abortion on Wednesday —at 12 weeks of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can typically be detected by abdominal ultrasound. Read more, click here.
Why Do We Hate Successful Women?
It’s one of our current ironies that the same liberal people complaining that there are not enough women CEOs seem to harbor a special contempt for the women CEOs we do have. We like to say there aren’t enough women in the higher echelons of spectacularly successful business people, but when women do rise to those echelons, we attack them for that spectacular success. Read more, click here.
The curly-haired baby looks out from the poster with sad eyes and tears dripping down his tawny cheeks.
Arkansas adopted what is by far the country’s most restrictive ban on abortion on Wednesday —at 12 weeks of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can typically be detected by abdominal ultrasound. Read more, click here.
Why Do We Hate Successful Women?
Texas GOP: Planned Parenthood Is Convincing Teens To Get Pregnant So It Can Perform Their Abortions
Texas has already spent the past year targeting Planned Parenthood, effectively defunding the organization’s affiliates and forcing thousands of women to search for new doctors. But their crusade isn’t over yet. Read more, click here.
Where is India's feminist movement headed
On the night of June 28, 2012, the sarpanch, or the elected head of the village council, of Singar village in rural Haryana, his nephew and two other men allegedly abducted a 15-year-old girl. According to the official complaint, The Hindu reported, the four men beat her up and then took turns repeatedly raping her. Read more, click here.
The Feminization of Farming
ACROSS the developing world, millions of people are migrating from farms to cities in search of work. The migrants are mostly men. As a result, women are increasingly on the front lines of the fight to sustain family farms. But pervasive discrimination, gender stereotypes and women’s low social standing have frustrated these women’s rise out of poverty and hunger. Read more, click here.
3/4/13
Some News Links!
Will Abortion Law Change Help Female Troops?
Starting this year, for the first time in 22 years, military women and dependents pregnant by rape or incest won’t have to pay for their own abortions. Read more, here.
Sexual Harassment of Women is State Sponsored Say Egyptian Women
Systematic attacks targeting female protesters in Tahrir square have forced an ugly epidemic into the national spotlight. Check out more, here.
Incentives to Marry Won't Cure Gun Violence, Education and Jobs Are What Chicago Needs
Just three days after his State of the Union address, President Obama came to Chicago and addressed the city's gun violence crisis. Many across the city and country had called on the president to come to Chicago and give such a speech. Read more, here.
Judge Marissa Mayer by Her Job, Not Her Gender
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is abolishing the company's work-at-home policy and ordering everyone to show up at the office. Read more, here.
House Renews Violence Against Women Measure
The House on Thursday gave final approval to a renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, sending a bipartisan Senate measure to President Obama after a House plan endorsed by conservatives was defeated. Read more, here.
Photographer as Witness: A Portrait of Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is often shielded from public view. Usually, we only hear it muffled through walls or see it manifested in the faded yellow and purple bruises of a woman who “walked into a wall” or “fell down the stairs.” Despite a movement to increase awareness of domestic violence, we still treat it as a private crime, as if it is none of our business. Check it out, here.
Don’t blame the victim, or the photographer
Responding to a photo essay on domestic violence, commenters attacked everyone except the abuser. Read more, here.
Steinem’s Support for Quinn as Mayor Depends on Sick-Leave Bill
Gloria Steinem, the feminist author and activist, said this week that she would withdraw her support for Christine C. Quinn in the New York City mayor’s race if Ms. Quinn, speaker of the City Council, did not allow a vote on sick-leave legislation that is a cherished cause of liberal groups. Read more, here.
A Titan’s How-To on Breaking the Glass Ceiling
Before Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, started to write “Lean In,” her book-slash-manifesto on women in the workplace, she reread Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique.” Like the homemaker turned activist who helped start a revolution 50 years ago, Ms. Sandberg wanted to do far more than sell books. Read more, here.
Teen Pregnancy Is Most Common In Rural America, Where There May Be More Barriers To Birth Control
The teen birth rate is nearly one-third higher in rural areas of the United States than it is in more populous areas of the country, and teen pregnancy rates have been much slower to decline in rural counties over the past decade, according to a new study from The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Read more, here.
Starting this year, for the first time in 22 years, military women and dependents pregnant by rape or incest won’t have to pay for their own abortions. Read more, here.
Sexual Harassment of Women is State Sponsored Say Egyptian Women
Systematic attacks targeting female protesters in Tahrir square have forced an ugly epidemic into the national spotlight. Check out more, here.
Incentives to Marry Won't Cure Gun Violence, Education and Jobs Are What Chicago Needs
Just three days after his State of the Union address, President Obama came to Chicago and addressed the city's gun violence crisis. Many across the city and country had called on the president to come to Chicago and give such a speech. Read more, here.
Judge Marissa Mayer by Her Job, Not Her Gender
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is abolishing the company's work-at-home policy and ordering everyone to show up at the office. Read more, here.
House Renews Violence Against Women Measure
The House on Thursday gave final approval to a renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, sending a bipartisan Senate measure to President Obama after a House plan endorsed by conservatives was defeated. Read more, here.
Photographer as Witness: A Portrait of Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is often shielded from public view. Usually, we only hear it muffled through walls or see it manifested in the faded yellow and purple bruises of a woman who “walked into a wall” or “fell down the stairs.” Despite a movement to increase awareness of domestic violence, we still treat it as a private crime, as if it is none of our business. Check it out, here.
Don’t blame the victim, or the photographer
Responding to a photo essay on domestic violence, commenters attacked everyone except the abuser. Read more, here.
Steinem’s Support for Quinn as Mayor Depends on Sick-Leave Bill
Gloria Steinem, the feminist author and activist, said this week that she would withdraw her support for Christine C. Quinn in the New York City mayor’s race if Ms. Quinn, speaker of the City Council, did not allow a vote on sick-leave legislation that is a cherished cause of liberal groups. Read more, here.
A Titan’s How-To on Breaking the Glass Ceiling
Before Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, started to write “Lean In,” her book-slash-manifesto on women in the workplace, she reread Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique.” Like the homemaker turned activist who helped start a revolution 50 years ago, Ms. Sandberg wanted to do far more than sell books. Read more, here.
Teen Pregnancy Is Most Common In Rural America, Where There May Be More Barriers To Birth Control
The teen birth rate is nearly one-third higher in rural areas of the United States than it is in more populous areas of the country, and teen pregnancy rates have been much slower to decline in rural counties over the past decade, according to a new study from The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Read more, here.
3/1/13
Nominate A Woman of Inspiration!
Below is an announcement from our friends over at CWEALF. Not only is being inspired one of life's greatest moments, but so is letting a sister know she does the inspiring. DEADLINE: International Women's Day, March 8th.
A Woman of Inspiration a Day
Join CWEALF in celebrating the women in your life that have and continue to inspire you during Women’s History Month, March!
If you have a woman in your life that has inspired you, submit her photo along with a brief write-up about her and why she inspires you to Krystal Harrison at kharrison@cwealf.org.
Then, follow us on Facebook during March where we’ll be featuring one woman a day!
The woman in your life can be personal or professional, deceased or living. It’s your choice!
Please have all submissions into Krystal by March 8, 2013.
Questions? Contact Krystal at kharrison@cwealf.org
or 860.247.6090/ext. 103.
2/28/13
Healing Through “One Billion Rising” Campaign
CT NOW is honored to share these personal thoughts about the One Billion Rising Campaign. Thank you, Kylie, for your courage and advocacy. You are the change we wish to see in the world.
Healing Through “One Billion Rising” Campaign
by Kylie Nilan Angell, UConn Nursing student
What does Valentine's Day mean to you? To me and many other feminists, it means a movement called V-Day. Founded by Eve Ensler, playwright of The Vagina Monologues, this movement competes with the chocolate-infused fog that envelops the calendar day of February 14 by encouraging the world to raise its voice in a synchronized and honest manner to say that there must be a definitive end to violence against women.
In the present day, the campaign has grown to include another meaningful component to its arsenal of activist campaigns: One Billion Rising (OBR). With its adage “Strike/Dance/Rise,” OBR transcends geography as its calls for one billion women across the globe to unite and summon attention to the senseless pandemic that prevents women from living in safety.
Many ask what the number “one billion” references. This atrocious UN statistic illustrates the number of women on this earth who will be raped or beaten in their lifetime. In an interview with the British newspaper, The Guardian, Eve Ensler declared, “...with this dancing we express our outrage and joy and our firm global call for a world where women are free and safe and cherished and equal. Dance with your body, for your body, for the bodies of women and the earth.”
Why did I rise this Valentine's Day? Having been the victim of multiple acts of sexual violence as a University of Connecticut student, the past three years have without a doubt been tumultuous and anxiety-ridden, but transformative nonetheless. My transition into an ardent feminist has been seamless, as feminism is the only arena of life where I feel that my rights and views are supported and valued. Feminism told me that I could regain control of my body, and that there was no need to live in shame on the account of someone else's violence. When women come together through movements like OBR, we are empowered and free to shed the societal shackles that suffocate our spirits, the voices around us that say we are sexual objects and nothing more. With the support of other feminists in the V-Day movement as well as my therapist and advocates at the Women's Center, I have recovered my inherent womanly strength and passion. I've slowly sucked out the poison that had built up inside my veins. While I rose up and danced during OBR, the bondage of anger that had weighed me down for nearly three years released into the air. Temporarily I felt free from the heavy and constant fear of sexual violence.
Though this was only the first OBR, the movement is monumental to me because it advocates for spreading love and awareness through the expressive medium of dance. For a few moments on Valentine's Day women were able to envision a world where we are free to dance, and that we do have domain over our bodies, our vaginas, our womanhood. The V-Day and OBR movements weren't asking for chocolates or roses this Valentine's Day. They were demanding an end to rape and abuse against women like me and the other 999,999,999 that are also at the mercy of violence. The assault on women must be stopped and replaced with the love emanating from OBR.
Healing Through “One Billion Rising” Campaign
by Kylie Nilan Angell, UConn Nursing student
What does Valentine's Day mean to you? To me and many other feminists, it means a movement called V-Day. Founded by Eve Ensler, playwright of The Vagina Monologues, this movement competes with the chocolate-infused fog that envelops the calendar day of February 14 by encouraging the world to raise its voice in a synchronized and honest manner to say that there must be a definitive end to violence against women.
In the present day, the campaign has grown to include another meaningful component to its arsenal of activist campaigns: One Billion Rising (OBR). With its adage “Strike/Dance/Rise,” OBR transcends geography as its calls for one billion women across the globe to unite and summon attention to the senseless pandemic that prevents women from living in safety.
Many ask what the number “one billion” references. This atrocious UN statistic illustrates the number of women on this earth who will be raped or beaten in their lifetime. In an interview with the British newspaper, The Guardian, Eve Ensler declared, “...with this dancing we express our outrage and joy and our firm global call for a world where women are free and safe and cherished and equal. Dance with your body, for your body, for the bodies of women and the earth.”
Why did I rise this Valentine's Day? Having been the victim of multiple acts of sexual violence as a University of Connecticut student, the past three years have without a doubt been tumultuous and anxiety-ridden, but transformative nonetheless. My transition into an ardent feminist has been seamless, as feminism is the only arena of life where I feel that my rights and views are supported and valued. Feminism told me that I could regain control of my body, and that there was no need to live in shame on the account of someone else's violence. When women come together through movements like OBR, we are empowered and free to shed the societal shackles that suffocate our spirits, the voices around us that say we are sexual objects and nothing more. With the support of other feminists in the V-Day movement as well as my therapist and advocates at the Women's Center, I have recovered my inherent womanly strength and passion. I've slowly sucked out the poison that had built up inside my veins. While I rose up and danced during OBR, the bondage of anger that had weighed me down for nearly three years released into the air. Temporarily I felt free from the heavy and constant fear of sexual violence.
Though this was only the first OBR, the movement is monumental to me because it advocates for spreading love and awareness through the expressive medium of dance. For a few moments on Valentine's Day women were able to envision a world where we are free to dance, and that we do have domain over our bodies, our vaginas, our womanhood. The V-Day and OBR movements weren't asking for chocolates or roses this Valentine's Day. They were demanding an end to rape and abuse against women like me and the other 999,999,999 that are also at the mercy of violence. The assault on women must be stopped and replaced with the love emanating from OBR.
2/18/13
News Clips
Here are some newsclips from the past week.Click the titles to link to the articles. Happy late evening/early morning reading!
Why Gender Equality Stalled
THIS week is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Betty Friedan’s international best seller, “The Feminine Mystique,” which has been widely credited with igniting the women’s movement of the 1960s. Readers who return to this feminist classic today are often puzzled by the absence of concrete political proposals to change the status of women. But “The Feminine Mystique” had the impact it did because it focused on transforming women’s personal consciousness.
A Tiny Village Where Women Chose to Be Single Mothers
They had no plan to break barriers or cause trouble. But 30 years ago in this bucolic village in northern Vietnam, the fierce determination of one group of women to become mothers upended centuries-old gender rules and may have helped open the door for a nation to redefine parenthood.
Use of Morning-After Pill Is Rising, Report Says
The use of morning-after pills by American women has more than doubled in recent years, driven largely by rising rates of use among women in their early 20s, according to new federal data released Thursday.
The Jobs With The Biggest (And Smallest) Pay Gaps Between Men And Women
Women are paid significantly less, on average, than men — even when they're doing the same jobs. But the gap varies dramatically for workers in different jobs.
Ending gender violence: who is your inspiration?
Tackling gender violence is a major issue, but who is protecting women and girls? Tell us about the activists who inspire you
Why Gender Equality Stalled
THIS week is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Betty Friedan’s international best seller, “The Feminine Mystique,” which has been widely credited with igniting the women’s movement of the 1960s. Readers who return to this feminist classic today are often puzzled by the absence of concrete political proposals to change the status of women. But “The Feminine Mystique” had the impact it did because it focused on transforming women’s personal consciousness.
A Tiny Village Where Women Chose to Be Single Mothers
They had no plan to break barriers or cause trouble. But 30 years ago in this bucolic village in northern Vietnam, the fierce determination of one group of women to become mothers upended centuries-old gender rules and may have helped open the door for a nation to redefine parenthood.
Use of Morning-After Pill Is Rising, Report Says
The use of morning-after pills by American women has more than doubled in recent years, driven largely by rising rates of use among women in their early 20s, according to new federal data released Thursday.
The Jobs With The Biggest (And Smallest) Pay Gaps Between Men And Women
Women are paid significantly less, on average, than men — even when they're doing the same jobs. But the gap varies dramatically for workers in different jobs.
Ending gender violence: who is your inspiration?
Tackling gender violence is a major issue, but who is protecting women and girls? Tell us about the activists who inspire you
2/12/13
How about some self love this V Day!
 21 dark chocolate questions | |
So we've traveled through January and the annual resolution dance. Maybe you're on track, maybe not. Either way, we thought it would be a good time to give you the questions we ask our our clients at the beginning of our work together. Our hope is that you take these to heart, open your notebook, and give yourself a bit of self love for Valentine's Day.
here you go...
|
2/7/13
News Articles
Check out some of these articles from around the web...
India dramatically tightens laws on sexual assault, trafficking after gang rape
India dramatically tightened its laws on sexual assault and trafficking Sunday, with a far-reaching package of measures rushed through to satisfy public opinion in the wake of a horrific gang rape of a young woman in the capital in December.
Editorial: A Good Compromise on Contraception
The Obama administration has proposed a sensible way to provide women who work for religiously affiliated institutions with free coverage of contraceptives while exempting the organizations they work for from financial or administrative obligations to provide the coverage.
Boy Scout families deliver petition urging end to policy banning gays
The Boy Scouts of America's national executive board began three days of closed meetings Monday that are expected to include a discussion of its policy excluding gay members and leaders, and Scouts on both sides of the debate are weighing in.
A list of dudes who oppose the Violence Against Women Act
Welcome to the new Washington, where it’s now perfectly acceptable to take a basic sentiment, like “I think we should make life easier for women who’ve been beaten, assaulted, or raped,” and declare yourself publicly in opposition to it.
The Pro-Life Advantage: Why they hold political power—and how pro-choicers can stop them.
On Jan. 25, hundreds of thousands of abortion opponents assembled in Washington, D.C., for the March for Life. The weather was freezing, but they’re used to that. Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that declared abortion a constitutional right, was decided in January 1973. Every year, pro-lifers hold the march to mark Roe’s anniversary and renew their commitment to overturning it. “It might be 20 degrees out here,” activist Ryan Bomberger told the crowd, “but it has not put out this fire.”
Hillary Clinton: The Most Powerful Woman in American Politics
She changed the game irrevocably, and now she’s about to transform it again—by walking away.
India dramatically tightens laws on sexual assault, trafficking after gang rape
India dramatically tightened its laws on sexual assault and trafficking Sunday, with a far-reaching package of measures rushed through to satisfy public opinion in the wake of a horrific gang rape of a young woman in the capital in December.
Editorial: A Good Compromise on Contraception
The Obama administration has proposed a sensible way to provide women who work for religiously affiliated institutions with free coverage of contraceptives while exempting the organizations they work for from financial or administrative obligations to provide the coverage.
Boy Scout families deliver petition urging end to policy banning gays
The Boy Scouts of America's national executive board began three days of closed meetings Monday that are expected to include a discussion of its policy excluding gay members and leaders, and Scouts on both sides of the debate are weighing in.
A list of dudes who oppose the Violence Against Women Act
Welcome to the new Washington, where it’s now perfectly acceptable to take a basic sentiment, like “I think we should make life easier for women who’ve been beaten, assaulted, or raped,” and declare yourself publicly in opposition to it.
The Pro-Life Advantage: Why they hold political power—and how pro-choicers can stop them.
On Jan. 25, hundreds of thousands of abortion opponents assembled in Washington, D.C., for the March for Life. The weather was freezing, but they’re used to that. Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that declared abortion a constitutional right, was decided in January 1973. Every year, pro-lifers hold the march to mark Roe’s anniversary and renew their commitment to overturning it. “It might be 20 degrees out here,” activist Ryan Bomberger told the crowd, “but it has not put out this fire.”
Hillary Clinton: The Most Powerful Woman in American Politics
She changed the game irrevocably, and now she’s about to transform it again—by walking away.
1/22/13
CT NOW on 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
For immediate release
January 22, 2013
CT NOW: CELEBRATING BUT CONCERNED
AS ROE V. WADE TURNS 40, THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE IS CHALLENGED
HARTFORD, CT – Roe v. Wade has reached its 40th year, a historical moment for a historical case. While this is a cause for celebration, recent challenges to Roe v. Wade’s legality and legitimacy also create a cause for concern for the Connecticut Chapter of the National Organization for Women (CT NOW).
“The right to choose affords more than just access to safe, legal abortions—it also provides opportunity,” remarked Laura Bachman, co-president of CT NOW. “As abortion opponents tighten restrictions around abortion access, economically disadvantaged women in particular face the consequences. Many are forced to delay their abortions due to limited access or misinformation. The later the termination, the more expensive it will be, not only because of the cost for the service, but also that of lost wages, child care and other expenses.”
The Guttmacher Institute reports that six in ten women who have abortions already have at least one child and 69 percent of women seeking abortions are economically disadvantaged. Roe v. Wade allowed these women to make the decision that enabled them to make their own choices about their bodies and subsequently, their lives. CT NOW believes that as our own individuals, we should have the right to making decisions about our own bodies.
“Unfortunately, not everyone believes in the right to bodily autonomy,” noted Jacqueline Kozin, co-president of CT NOW. “The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,”passed the House of Representatives in 2011, and would prevent women who could not prove “forcible rape” from receiving federal funding for abortions. From forcing mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds in Virginia to creating unreasonable expectations for the operation and maintenance of abortion clinics in Kansas, Michigan, and many more states, anti-abortion advocates are pushing a dangerous agenda that could whittle down the foundation of Roe v. Wade even as the law still stands in effect.
State by state, anti-abortion advocates are working to weaken Roe v. Wade. As supporters of choice, CT NOW stands firm in their support and believes that as the country moves forward, CT NOW will remain dedicated to preserving and protecting this important right.
###
1/17/13
We Need You: Nominate a Hero
image from socialistrevolution.org
Nominations Requested!
While a new year brings new opportunities, new hopes, and new dreams, it also builds on the foundation of yesterday. As we look forward in anticipation, we also should look back in recognition.
For that reason, we ask for nominations for women activists who have passed away in 2012: women who have a history and a legacy of working towards advancing women’s rights and equality for our January Activist(s) of the Month.
While they are gone, they must not be forgotten. We are reaching out for nominations because we feel that this is the way to best ensure depth and breadth in potential awardees.
Please send your nomination to President@now-ct.org and include the following details:
- The nominee’s full name
- 2-3 sentences on why they deserve this recognition
- Your contact info (in case we have questions)
All nominations need to be submitted by Friday, January 25, 2013
1/8/13
Bravery
I Was Wounded; My Honor Wasn’t
By SOHAILA ABDULALI, Op-Ed Contributor, NY Times
Published: January 7, 2013
THIRTY-THREE years ago, when I was 17 and living in Bombay, I was gang raped and nearly killed. Three years later, outraged at the silence and misconceptions around rape, I wrote a fiery essay under my own name describing my experience for an Indian women’s magazine. It created a stir in the women’s movement — and in my family — and then it quietly disappeared. Then, last week, I looked at my e-mail and there it was. As part of the outpouring of public rage after a young woman’s rape and death in Delhi, somebody posted the article online and it went viral. Since then, I have received a deluge of messages from people expressing their support.
It’s not exactly pleasant to be a symbol of rape. I’m not an expert, nor do I represent all victims of rape. All I can offer is that — unlike the young woman who died in December two weeks after being brutally gang raped, and so many others — my story didn’t end, and I can continue to tell it.
When I fought to live that night, I hardly knew what I was fighting for. A male friend and I had gone for a walk up a mountain near my home. Four armed men caught us and made us climb to a secluded spot, where they raped me for several hours, and beat both of us. They argued among themselves about whether or not to kill us, and finally let us go.
At 17, I was just a child. Life rewarded me richly for surviving. I stumbled home, wounded and traumatized, to a fabulous family. With them on my side, so much came my way. I found true love. I wrote books. I saw a kangaroo in the wild. I caught buses and missed trains. I had a shining child. The century changed. My first gray hair appeared.
Too many others will never experience that. They will not see that it gets better, that the day comes when one incident is no longer the central focus of your life. One day you find you are no longer looking behind you, expecting every group of men to attack. One day you wind a scarf around your throat without having a flashback to being choked. One day you are not frightened anymore.
Rape is horrible. But it is not horrible for all the reasons that have been drilled into the heads of Indian women. It is horrible because you are violated, you are scared, someone else takes control of your body and hurts you in the most intimate way. It is not horrible because you lose your “virtue.” It is not horrible because your father and your brother are dishonored. I reject the notion that my virtue is located in my vagina, just as I reject the notion that men’s brains are in their genitals.
If we take honor out of the equation, rape will still be horrible, but it will be a personal, and not a societal, horror. We will be able to give women who have been assaulted what they truly need: not a load of rubbish about how they should feel guilty or ashamed, but empathy for going through a terrible trauma.
The week after I was attacked, I heard the story of a woman who was raped in a nearby suburb. She came home, went into the kitchen, set herself on fire and died. The person who told me the story was full of admiration for her selflessness in preserving her husband’s honor. Thanks to my parents, I never did understand this.
The law has to provide real penalties for rapists and protection for victims, but only families and communities can provide this empathy and support. How will a teenager participate in the prosecution of her rapist if her family isn’t behind her? How will a wife charge her assailant if her husband thinks the attack was more of an affront to him than a violation of her?
At 17, I thought the scariest thing that could happen in my life was being hurt and humiliated in such a painful way. At 49, I know I was wrong: the scariest thing is imagining my 11-year-old child being hurt and humiliated. Not because of my family’s honor, but because she trusts the world and it is infinitely painful to think of her losing that trust. When I look back, it is not the 17-year-old me I want to comfort, but my parents. They had the job of picking up the pieces.
This is where our work lies, with those of us who are raising the next generation. It lies in teaching our sons and daughters to become liberated, respectful adults who know that men who hurt women are making a choice, and will be punished.
When I was 17, I could not have imagined thousands of people marching against rape in India, as we have seen these past few weeks. And yet there is still work to be done. We have spent generations constructing elaborate systems of patriarchy, caste and social and sexual inequality that allow abuse to flourish. But rape is not inevitable, like the weather. We need to shelve all the gibberish about honor and virtue and did-she-lead-him-on and could-he-help-himself. We need to put responsibility where it lies: on men who violate women, and on all of us who let them get away with it while we point accusing fingers at their victims.
Sohaila Abdulali is the author of the novel “Year of the Tiger.”
A version of this op-ed appeared in print on January 8, 2013, on page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: I Was Wounded; My Honor Wasn’t..
1/2/13
Do Women always Need to Prove Their Competence?
--I just find something so patronizing about the above quote ... And the article as a whole. It could be having to return to work after the holidays, feeling fired up about the new year and a cold that arrived with an eye infection that has me feeling that this article portrays these fighters not as feisty and on the gentle side. I'm sure they had to be warriors in some way to get to where they are or maybe they didn't? Does it always have to be a fight? Maybe society has changed so it's not?
Thoughts??
From Congress to Halls of State, in New Hampshire, Women Rule
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
NY Times
Published: January 1, 2013
Most states are red or blue. A few are purple. After the November election, New Hampshire turned pink.
Most states are red or blue. A few are purple. After the November election, New Hampshire turned pink.
Women won the state’s two Congressional seats. Women already held the state’s two Senate seats. When they are all sworn into office on Thursday, New Hampshire will become the first state in the nation’s history to send an all-female delegation to Washington.
And the matriarchy does not end there. New Hampshire’s new governor is a woman. So are the speaker of the State House and the chief justice of the State Supreme Court.
“Pink is the new power color in New Hampshire,” declared Ann McLane Kuster, one of the newly elected representatives, at a recent forum at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in Manchester, where the women’s historic milestone was celebrated.
These women did not rise to the top together overnight. Nor was there an orchestrated movement to elect them. Each toiled in the political vineyards, climbed the ladder in her own time and campaigned hard for her job. But they have caught the state’s collective imagination, inspiring forums and media interest and prompting Jay B. Childs, a New Hampshire filmmaker, to make a documentary about them.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, 65, a Democrat and dean of the delegation, was the state’s first elected female governor and the first woman in United States history to be elected both governor and senator.
Senator Kelly Ayotte, 44, a Republican, was the state’s former attorney general.
Carol Shea-Porter, 60, a Democrat and former member of the House, lost her seat in 2010 and won it back in November.
Ms. Kuster, 56, a Democrat, is a lawyer and lobbyist who has not held office before but has long been active in the state and comes from a political family.
Maggie Hassan, 54, a Democrat and the new governor, was majority leader of the State Senate.
Women will make up 20 percent of the new Senate and 17.9 percent of the new House. These are records in Washington, but they fall far short of matching the 50.8 percent of the general population that is female.
While New Hampshire is doing more than its share of bolstering the number of women on Capitol Hill, six states — Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota and Vermont — have never elected a woman to the House. And four of those — Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi and Vermont — have never sent a woman to the Senate.
The state after New Hampshire, with the next highest proportion of women in its Congressional delegation, is Hawaii, where both House members and one senator are women.
In only three other states, Maine, Missouri and Washington, do women make up at least half of the delegations. Sixteen states, including New Jersey, have no women in Congress.
Although the women in New Hampshire are serving all at once by happenstance, women have long held prominent positions in New Hampshire government.
One reason is the size of the State House, a typical pipeline for aspiring politicians. It has 400 members, making it the largest of the states and the fourth-largest governing body in the English-speaking world (after the United States Congress, the British Parliament and the Indian Parliament). With so many seats available, women have a better chance of being elected in New Hampshire than they have in many other states.
New Hampshire also has a long history of volunteerism, and serving in the General Court, as the legislature is known, amounts to an act of volunteerism because it pays just $100 a year, plus mileage. Every year since 1975, more than 100 women have served.
“There are lots of opportunities for women to pitch in, prove their competence and learn a lot about governing and the political process,” Ms. Hassan said in an interview. “We’ve had a very deep bench of women.”
Even if the legislature in New Hampshire is big, the state itself is small. That makes it easier for everyone to know everyone else, and most of the women in the Congressional delegation have intricate ties to one another.
Continue reading, here.
12/17/12
Wage a War on Wages
How to Attack the Gender Wage Gap? Speak Up
By JESSICA BENNETT
Published: December 15, 2012
A workshop at the College of Mount St. Vincent in the Bronx dealt with the many issues of the gender pay gap — and offered ways for women to negotiate about salary. Sain Mota, a participant, answered a question during the session.
“How many of you know about the wage gap?” she asks a roomful of undergraduates, almost all of them women, at the College of Mount St. Vincent in the Bronx.
A few hands go up.
“Now, how many of you worry about being able to afford New York City when you graduate?”
The room laughs. That’s a given.
Ms. Houle is the national director of a group called the WAGE Project, which aims to close the gender pay gap. She explains that her dollar bills represent the amounts that women will make relative to men, on average, once they enter the work force.
Line them up next to a real dollar, and the difference is stark: 77 cents for white women; 69 cents for black women. The final dollar — so small that it can fit in a coin purse, represents 57 cents, for Latina women. On a campus that is two-thirds women, many have heard these numbers before. Yet holding them up next to one another is sobering.
“I’m posting this to Facebook,” one woman says.
One of three male students in the room is heading to the photocopier to make copies for his mother.
Another woman in the group sees a triple threat. “This is crazy,” Dominique Remy, a senior studying communications, says, holding the pink cutouts in her hand. “What if I’m all of them? My mother is Latina. My father is Haitian. I’m a woman.”
I’ve come to this workshop amazed that it exists — and wishing that there had been a version of it when I was in school.
I grew up in the Girl Power moment of the 1980s, outpacing my male peers in school and taking on extracurricular activities by the dozen. I soared through high school and was accepted to the college of my choice. And yet, when I landed in the workplace, it seemed that I’d had a particularly rosy view.
When I was hired as a reporter at Newsweek, I took the first salary number that was offered; I felt lucky to be getting a job at all.
But a few years in, by virtue of much office whispering and a few pointed questions, I realized that the men around me were making more than I was, and more than many of my female colleagues. Despite a landmark sex discrimination lawsuit filed against the magazine in 1970, which paved the way for women there and at other publications to become writers, we still had a long way to go, it turned out.
When I tried to figure out why my salary was comparatively lower, it occurred to me: couldn’t I have simply asked for more? The problem was that I was terrified at the prospect. When I finally mustered up the nerve, I made my pitch clumsily, my voice shaking and my face beet red. I brought along a printed list of my accomplishments, yet I couldn’t help but feel boastful saying them out loud. While waiting to hear whether I would get the raise (I did), I agonized over whether I should have asked at all.
This fear of asking is a problem for many women: we are great advocates for others, but paralyzed when it comes to doing it for ourselves.
BACK at the Bronx workshop, Ms. Houle flips on a projector and introduces Tina and Ted, two fictional graduates whose profiles match what’s typical of the latest data. Tina and Ted graduated from the same university, with the same degree. They work the same number of hours, in the same type of job. And yet, as they start their first jobs, Ted is making $4,000 more than Tina. In the second year, the difference has added up to almost $9,500. Why?
“Maybe he just talked up his work more,” one woman, a marketing major, suggests.
“Maybe he was mentored by other men,” another says.
“Or maybe,” chimes in a third, a nursing student, “she didn’t know that she could negotiate.”
Bingo. Over the next three hours, these women are going to learn how to do it — and to do it well.
There has clearly been much progress since President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, mandating that men and women be paid equally for equal work. Yet nearly 50 years later, if you look at the data, progress toward that goal has stalled.
Of course, not all statistics are created equal. Some account for education and life choices like childbearing; some don’t. But if you sift through the data, the reality is still clear: the gender gap persists — and it persists for young, ambitious, childless women, too.
Continue reading, here.
By JESSICA BENNETT
Published: December 15, 2012
A workshop at the College of Mount St. Vincent in the Bronx dealt with the many issues of the gender pay gap — and offered ways for women to negotiate about salary. Sain Mota, a participant, answered a question during the session.
“How many of you know about the wage gap?” she asks a roomful of undergraduates, almost all of them women, at the College of Mount St. Vincent in the Bronx.
A few hands go up.
“Now, how many of you worry about being able to afford New York City when you graduate?”
The room laughs. That’s a given.
Ms. Houle is the national director of a group called the WAGE Project, which aims to close the gender pay gap. She explains that her dollar bills represent the amounts that women will make relative to men, on average, once they enter the work force.
Line them up next to a real dollar, and the difference is stark: 77 cents for white women; 69 cents for black women. The final dollar — so small that it can fit in a coin purse, represents 57 cents, for Latina women. On a campus that is two-thirds women, many have heard these numbers before. Yet holding them up next to one another is sobering.
“I’m posting this to Facebook,” one woman says.
One of three male students in the room is heading to the photocopier to make copies for his mother.
Another woman in the group sees a triple threat. “This is crazy,” Dominique Remy, a senior studying communications, says, holding the pink cutouts in her hand. “What if I’m all of them? My mother is Latina. My father is Haitian. I’m a woman.”
I’ve come to this workshop amazed that it exists — and wishing that there had been a version of it when I was in school.
I grew up in the Girl Power moment of the 1980s, outpacing my male peers in school and taking on extracurricular activities by the dozen. I soared through high school and was accepted to the college of my choice. And yet, when I landed in the workplace, it seemed that I’d had a particularly rosy view.
When I was hired as a reporter at Newsweek, I took the first salary number that was offered; I felt lucky to be getting a job at all.
But a few years in, by virtue of much office whispering and a few pointed questions, I realized that the men around me were making more than I was, and more than many of my female colleagues. Despite a landmark sex discrimination lawsuit filed against the magazine in 1970, which paved the way for women there and at other publications to become writers, we still had a long way to go, it turned out.
When I tried to figure out why my salary was comparatively lower, it occurred to me: couldn’t I have simply asked for more? The problem was that I was terrified at the prospect. When I finally mustered up the nerve, I made my pitch clumsily, my voice shaking and my face beet red. I brought along a printed list of my accomplishments, yet I couldn’t help but feel boastful saying them out loud. While waiting to hear whether I would get the raise (I did), I agonized over whether I should have asked at all.
This fear of asking is a problem for many women: we are great advocates for others, but paralyzed when it comes to doing it for ourselves.
BACK at the Bronx workshop, Ms. Houle flips on a projector and introduces Tina and Ted, two fictional graduates whose profiles match what’s typical of the latest data. Tina and Ted graduated from the same university, with the same degree. They work the same number of hours, in the same type of job. And yet, as they start their first jobs, Ted is making $4,000 more than Tina. In the second year, the difference has added up to almost $9,500. Why?
“Maybe he just talked up his work more,” one woman, a marketing major, suggests.
“Maybe he was mentored by other men,” another says.
“Or maybe,” chimes in a third, a nursing student, “she didn’t know that she could negotiate.”
Bingo. Over the next three hours, these women are going to learn how to do it — and to do it well.
There has clearly been much progress since President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, mandating that men and women be paid equally for equal work. Yet nearly 50 years later, if you look at the data, progress toward that goal has stalled.
Of course, not all statistics are created equal. Some account for education and life choices like childbearing; some don’t. But if you sift through the data, the reality is still clear: the gender gap persists — and it persists for young, ambitious, childless women, too.
Continue reading, here.
12/5/12
Women Breaking Barriers on Congressional Committees
Nita Lowey breaks barrier on Appropriations panel
By DAVID ROGERS, Politico.com 12/4/12 11:44 PM EST
Rep. Nita Lowey — Bronx-born, Jewish and Mount Holyoke-educated — was tapped to be the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, making her the highest-ranking woman in the history of that once hidebound Southern male enclave that famously resisted hiring even female secretaries for decades.
The 75-year-old New Yorker will succeed retiring Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) in the new Congress just as Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) will move into the ranking spot on the House Financial Services Committee, replacing Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). Together with Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) in the Rules Committee, they pose a remarkable trio for Democrats: women leading the opposition party in three of the House’s five most exclusive committees.
For Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who broke her own barriers as the first female speaker of the House, it’s a personal triumph, made more so in Lowey’s case because of their friendship and Pelosi’s own roots in House Appropriations.
Indeed, in the early 1990s, first Pelosi and then Lowey and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) all won seats on the panel and established themselves as a force on labor, health and education issues as well as foreign aid. When Republicans took over the House in 1995, the three women had to scramble in the minority but those ties remained important even after Pelosi left the panel to climb the leadership ladder.
Among the top committee posts voted on Tuesday by the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, Appropriations was the only real contest. Lowey had to first get around another woman, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who enjoys more seniority on the panel but less of a following in the party.
In a secret ballot, the New Yorker prevailed easily, 36-10, and by prior arrangement, the two lawmakers had agreed not to contest the outcome in the full caucus. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Kaptur joked beforehand of being the Toledo Mud Hens vs. the New York Yankees: “I’m just happy to be in the league,” she told reporters.
For Lowey, it’s a lesson that patience pays. Elected to Congress in 1988, she has twice been seen as a potential Senate candidate, first in 2000 and then again in 2009. But on each occasion, she opted to stay put, accumulating the seniority that has now allowed her to move into the ranking position.
Indeed, the top Democratic ranks on House Appropriations have seen a remarkable level of change in the past three years, beginning with the sudden death of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) in February 2010, the retirement of former Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) at the end of that year and now Dicks’s surprise decision to leave after a relatively short two-year run in the top position.
Continue reading, here.
By DAVID ROGERS, Politico.com 12/4/12 11:44 PM EST
Rep. Nita Lowey — Bronx-born, Jewish and Mount Holyoke-educated — was tapped to be the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, making her the highest-ranking woman in the history of that once hidebound Southern male enclave that famously resisted hiring even female secretaries for decades.
The 75-year-old New Yorker will succeed retiring Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) in the new Congress just as Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) will move into the ranking spot on the House Financial Services Committee, replacing Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). Together with Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) in the Rules Committee, they pose a remarkable trio for Democrats: women leading the opposition party in three of the House’s five most exclusive committees.
For Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who broke her own barriers as the first female speaker of the House, it’s a personal triumph, made more so in Lowey’s case because of their friendship and Pelosi’s own roots in House Appropriations.
Indeed, in the early 1990s, first Pelosi and then Lowey and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) all won seats on the panel and established themselves as a force on labor, health and education issues as well as foreign aid. When Republicans took over the House in 1995, the three women had to scramble in the minority but those ties remained important even after Pelosi left the panel to climb the leadership ladder.
Among the top committee posts voted on Tuesday by the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, Appropriations was the only real contest. Lowey had to first get around another woman, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who enjoys more seniority on the panel but less of a following in the party.
In a secret ballot, the New Yorker prevailed easily, 36-10, and by prior arrangement, the two lawmakers had agreed not to contest the outcome in the full caucus. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Kaptur joked beforehand of being the Toledo Mud Hens vs. the New York Yankees: “I’m just happy to be in the league,” she told reporters.
For Lowey, it’s a lesson that patience pays. Elected to Congress in 1988, she has twice been seen as a potential Senate candidate, first in 2000 and then again in 2009. But on each occasion, she opted to stay put, accumulating the seniority that has now allowed her to move into the ranking position.
Indeed, the top Democratic ranks on House Appropriations have seen a remarkable level of change in the past three years, beginning with the sudden death of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) in February 2010, the retirement of former Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) at the end of that year and now Dicks’s surprise decision to leave after a relatively short two-year run in the top position.
Continue reading, here.
12/4/12
More Women in Government=Less Corruption?
Are women leaders less corrupt? No, but they shake things up
By Stella Dawson
Reuters – 8 hrs ago
WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (TrustLaw) - It is almost a cliché that getting more women into power is a good way to tackle corruption. Women, the argument goes, are less likely to take bribes or put personal gain before public good.
But is it true?
While many bristle at the suggestion that women are the "fairer sex," considering it simplistic and even sexist, a growing body of research hints that the ascent of women might indeed help dent corruption.
A deeper look shows the connection between gender and corruption is more complex than the cliché suggests.
It is not that women are purer than men or immune to the pull of greed. Rather, the link appears to be that women are more likely to rise to positions of power in open and democratic political systems, and such societies are generally more intolerant of wrongdoing, including the abuse of power and siphoning off of public money.
"It's not about having more women in politics and saying, 'Ah, that will change everything,'" said Melanne Verveer, U.S. ambassador for global women's issues.
"It's about changing the gender imbalance and then we could do a better job of tackling our problems. From what we can glean, you can tell this would have a salutary effect."
So it might not be a direct cause, but anecdotal evidence would seem to support the view that with more women in public office the quality of government improves, and with that. corruption falls.
In Lima, Peru, for instance, a field study by Sabrina Karim found that public perceptions of whether bribery was a major problem among traffic police had plummeted in 2012 compared with 14 years earlier. The change came after recruiting 2,500 women to patrol the streets.
A separate public opinion survey showed 86 percent approval for the job done by female traffic officers. From the point of view of the female traffic police, Karim, now a doctoral candidate at Emory University, found that 95 percent of those surveyed thought the presence of women on the force had reduced corruption and 67 percent believed women were less corrupt.
Mexico has copied Lima and introduced women officers as a way to tackle corruption.
India also has seen changes since a 1993 law reserved 30 percent of seats on village councils for women. The World Bank's annual World Development Report this year credited this change for increasing the provision of clean water, sanitation, schools and other public goods in the villages, and for lower levels of corruption.
The World Bank report found that bribes paid in Indian villages headed by women were 2.7 to 3.2 percentage points lower than in those led by men. When men control all the levers of power, researchers say, money is more likely to be invested in big-ticket construction projects such as road building where corruption is rife, rather than in schools or clinics.
BREAKING THE OLD BOY'S NETWORK
Mahnaz Afkhami, who was minister of state for women's affairs in Iran from 1975 to 1978, thinks raising women's voices can have a significant impact on the quality of government.
"There is a direct relationship between the level of democracy and the presentation of women in leadership and the quality of governance," said Afkhami.
"They are not part of the old boy's network and they are less willing to take for granted that this is the way things are done," she said.
Afkhami is now president of Women's Learning Partnership, a training and advocacy center for women leaders based in Maryland. During her tenure in Iran, she oversaw women gaining equal rights to divorce, support for employment, maternity leave and childcare.
In Nicaragua, a councilman soliciting sex in return for metal roofing for her home prompted Aurora Arauz to run for a seat on the municipal council.
Arauz was president of a women's cooperative and trained in her legal rights, so she filed a police complaint when the council member sought a sexual bribe, the U.N. Development Programme reported in a study published in October on women's perceptions of corruption. The council threw the man off the body and held a special meeting to improve services for women, including naming Arauz as a women's coordinator.
All these examples reinforce an influential World Bank study in 1999, which found that for every standard deviation point increase in women in public office above 10.9 percent, corruption declined by 10 percent.
NOT THAT SIMPLE
Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who as Indonesia's first woman finance minister earned a reputation as a tough reformer, agrees that at the grassroots level, more women in government can have an important impact particularly on how resources are allocated.
Women think of the welfare of children first and whether they have enough food to feed the family, whereas men can be less sensitive to public needs and serve their own interests, she said. "They are just being comfortable among themselves and are not having other views," she said.
At the national level, however, Indrawati and other experts said the impact of more women in power was less clear and it is too simplistic to say women clean up government.
Today, women hold a record 20.2 percent of seats in national legislatures, more than double their number in 1987, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Rwanda for example allots half its parliamentary seats to women.
Despite these gains, corruption is scarcely in retreat.
A Gallup poll of 140 countries released in May found that two-thirds of adults worldwide believed corruption was widespread in business and in their countries. Widely watched governance indicators from the World Bank likewise show that the number of countries that have improved their corruption scores is roughly similar to those that have deteriorated.
Helen Clark, who served nine years as prime minister of New Zealand, said there is no specific proof that women are any less corrupt than men. Instead, integrity may be more a function of opportunity and the way society operates than of gender, she said.
"There is a growing body of evidence that corruption operates in specific political and social networks to which women do not usually have access - particularly when women are new to positions of power," said Clark, who is the first woman to head the U.N. Development Program.
A new study titled "Fairer Sex or Purity Myth?" by researchers at Rice University and Emory University lends support to the idea that it is institutional structures that matter most, and that women's political gains are a result.
The report found that in autocratic regimes with strong male hierarchies, more women in power had little measurable impact on corruption, but that in more open, democratic political systems the change was noticeable.
The researchers speculated that the difference may be partially because women are less apt to take risks. They cite two different behavioral studies from 2003 and 2008 that show women are just as ready as men to take bribes, but they are more cautious if there is a good chance they will be caught.
In autocratic regimes, women are more likely to have gained power through male patronage, and if corruption is the norm within the male hierarchy, women are less likely to speak out for fear of losing their jobs, they said.
The opposite happens in open and democratic governments. The risk of getting caught is higher where the legal system functions well, and where voters are more likely to punish corruption at the polls. Because they tend to be risk-averse, women are doubly cautious, they said.
This could help explain why corruption in a patriarchal culture like India remains so pervasive despite women's increased political participation, while in open and transparent Nordic countries it is low.
Indeed, a new U.N. study examining 3,000 elected women and men in Indian villages noted that the social and cultural environment does play a powerful role. If women face low levels of literacy, poor training, a large housework burden, live in male-dominated societies and are financially and socially dependent on fathers and husbands, public positions for women have less impact on corruption and governance.
Lavina Banduah, executive director of the Sierra Leone branch of Transparency International, which watches out for graft worldwide, sees the problem daily in her country, which ranks high for corruption and low for accountability on governance indicators.
"Women cheat other women," Banduah said. "In the marketplace, it is women who are using the dubious means and weighting the scales."
(Reporting by Stella Dawson; Editing by Jackie Frank)
By Stella Dawson
Reuters – 8 hrs ago
WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (TrustLaw) - It is almost a cliché that getting more women into power is a good way to tackle corruption. Women, the argument goes, are less likely to take bribes or put personal gain before public good.
But is it true?
While many bristle at the suggestion that women are the "fairer sex," considering it simplistic and even sexist, a growing body of research hints that the ascent of women might indeed help dent corruption.
A deeper look shows the connection between gender and corruption is more complex than the cliché suggests.
It is not that women are purer than men or immune to the pull of greed. Rather, the link appears to be that women are more likely to rise to positions of power in open and democratic political systems, and such societies are generally more intolerant of wrongdoing, including the abuse of power and siphoning off of public money.
"It's not about having more women in politics and saying, 'Ah, that will change everything,'" said Melanne Verveer, U.S. ambassador for global women's issues.
"It's about changing the gender imbalance and then we could do a better job of tackling our problems. From what we can glean, you can tell this would have a salutary effect."
So it might not be a direct cause, but anecdotal evidence would seem to support the view that with more women in public office the quality of government improves, and with that. corruption falls.
In Lima, Peru, for instance, a field study by Sabrina Karim found that public perceptions of whether bribery was a major problem among traffic police had plummeted in 2012 compared with 14 years earlier. The change came after recruiting 2,500 women to patrol the streets.
A separate public opinion survey showed 86 percent approval for the job done by female traffic officers. From the point of view of the female traffic police, Karim, now a doctoral candidate at Emory University, found that 95 percent of those surveyed thought the presence of women on the force had reduced corruption and 67 percent believed women were less corrupt.
Mexico has copied Lima and introduced women officers as a way to tackle corruption.
India also has seen changes since a 1993 law reserved 30 percent of seats on village councils for women. The World Bank's annual World Development Report this year credited this change for increasing the provision of clean water, sanitation, schools and other public goods in the villages, and for lower levels of corruption.
The World Bank report found that bribes paid in Indian villages headed by women were 2.7 to 3.2 percentage points lower than in those led by men. When men control all the levers of power, researchers say, money is more likely to be invested in big-ticket construction projects such as road building where corruption is rife, rather than in schools or clinics.
BREAKING THE OLD BOY'S NETWORK
Mahnaz Afkhami, who was minister of state for women's affairs in Iran from 1975 to 1978, thinks raising women's voices can have a significant impact on the quality of government.
"There is a direct relationship between the level of democracy and the presentation of women in leadership and the quality of governance," said Afkhami.
"They are not part of the old boy's network and they are less willing to take for granted that this is the way things are done," she said.
Afkhami is now president of Women's Learning Partnership, a training and advocacy center for women leaders based in Maryland. During her tenure in Iran, she oversaw women gaining equal rights to divorce, support for employment, maternity leave and childcare.
In Nicaragua, a councilman soliciting sex in return for metal roofing for her home prompted Aurora Arauz to run for a seat on the municipal council.
Arauz was president of a women's cooperative and trained in her legal rights, so she filed a police complaint when the council member sought a sexual bribe, the U.N. Development Programme reported in a study published in October on women's perceptions of corruption. The council threw the man off the body and held a special meeting to improve services for women, including naming Arauz as a women's coordinator.
All these examples reinforce an influential World Bank study in 1999, which found that for every standard deviation point increase in women in public office above 10.9 percent, corruption declined by 10 percent.
NOT THAT SIMPLE
Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who as Indonesia's first woman finance minister earned a reputation as a tough reformer, agrees that at the grassroots level, more women in government can have an important impact particularly on how resources are allocated.
Women think of the welfare of children first and whether they have enough food to feed the family, whereas men can be less sensitive to public needs and serve their own interests, she said. "They are just being comfortable among themselves and are not having other views," she said.
At the national level, however, Indrawati and other experts said the impact of more women in power was less clear and it is too simplistic to say women clean up government.
Today, women hold a record 20.2 percent of seats in national legislatures, more than double their number in 1987, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Rwanda for example allots half its parliamentary seats to women.
Despite these gains, corruption is scarcely in retreat.
A Gallup poll of 140 countries released in May found that two-thirds of adults worldwide believed corruption was widespread in business and in their countries. Widely watched governance indicators from the World Bank likewise show that the number of countries that have improved their corruption scores is roughly similar to those that have deteriorated.
Helen Clark, who served nine years as prime minister of New Zealand, said there is no specific proof that women are any less corrupt than men. Instead, integrity may be more a function of opportunity and the way society operates than of gender, she said.
"There is a growing body of evidence that corruption operates in specific political and social networks to which women do not usually have access - particularly when women are new to positions of power," said Clark, who is the first woman to head the U.N. Development Program.
A new study titled "Fairer Sex or Purity Myth?" by researchers at Rice University and Emory University lends support to the idea that it is institutional structures that matter most, and that women's political gains are a result.
The report found that in autocratic regimes with strong male hierarchies, more women in power had little measurable impact on corruption, but that in more open, democratic political systems the change was noticeable.
The researchers speculated that the difference may be partially because women are less apt to take risks. They cite two different behavioral studies from 2003 and 2008 that show women are just as ready as men to take bribes, but they are more cautious if there is a good chance they will be caught.
In autocratic regimes, women are more likely to have gained power through male patronage, and if corruption is the norm within the male hierarchy, women are less likely to speak out for fear of losing their jobs, they said.
The opposite happens in open and democratic governments. The risk of getting caught is higher where the legal system functions well, and where voters are more likely to punish corruption at the polls. Because they tend to be risk-averse, women are doubly cautious, they said.
This could help explain why corruption in a patriarchal culture like India remains so pervasive despite women's increased political participation, while in open and transparent Nordic countries it is low.
Indeed, a new U.N. study examining 3,000 elected women and men in Indian villages noted that the social and cultural environment does play a powerful role. If women face low levels of literacy, poor training, a large housework burden, live in male-dominated societies and are financially and socially dependent on fathers and husbands, public positions for women have less impact on corruption and governance.
Lavina Banduah, executive director of the Sierra Leone branch of Transparency International, which watches out for graft worldwide, sees the problem daily in her country, which ranks high for corruption and low for accountability on governance indicators.
"Women cheat other women," Banduah said. "In the marketplace, it is women who are using the dubious means and weighting the scales."
(Reporting by Stella Dawson; Editing by Jackie Frank)
11/28/12
Hmmmm.. Newswomen's Attire
Not sure how I feel about this article yet..
The colorful evolution of newswomen’s attire
By Katherine Boyle, Nov 27, 2012 02:11 AM EST
The Washington Post Published: November 26
Dresses dangled on the racks at Neiman’s and Saks and all Norah O’Donnell needed was a suit.
Earlier this year, when the veteran news anchor was scouring stores for a suit jacket to wear for her “CBS This Morning” publicity photo, she discovered what her viewers have known for years: The women’s blazer is disappearing — from department stores and network news broadcasts.
I couldn’t find a nice suit jacket that wasn’t black,” O’Donnell said. “You used to find all kinds in blues and hot pinks. They stopped making them. That’s when I thought, what’s changed?”
For her head shot, O’Donnell, 38, ended up choosing a six-year-old navy Giorgio Armani blazer out of her closet, one she rarely wears except when interviewing presidents or heads of state. Like so many working women in the news media and other professions, O’Donnell hasn’t bought a suit in years, a surprising admission given that the newswoman spent her 20s wearing suits so she “could be taken seriously.” The same can be said of seasoned anchors such as Diane Sawyer and Andrea Mitchell, who rarely graced the screen in the 1980s and ’90s without lapels shielding their chests.
For decades, the suit jacket transformed women into workers. With jackets required for entrance at male-dominated clubs and boardrooms, women bundled up their breasts to blend into a professional culture that predated their arrival. But in recent years, even as men continued to assume corporate uniforms of suits and ties, newswomen — one of the last vestiges of female suit wearers — have resoundingly dismissed them from their closets. They now flank themselves in bright sleeveless sheath dresses and stiletto heels, renouncing the once hard-and-fast edicts of television news: no bare legs, no long hair, no feminine distractions from the news. The revision of the female anchor’s dress code happened swiftly and broadly on network and cable television. And if newswomen are the most visible barometers of workplace fashion, the women’s suit may one day go the way of the petticoat.
“Ten years ago, professional dress meant a Talbots suit for women,” said Dave Smith, president of SmithGeiger, a market research firm that consults with news networks. “What’s appropriate for female talent on television has evolved because of familiarity. The audience has equal regard for female and male anchors. It’s given women far more liberty to be feminine.”
O’Donnell agrees: “There has been an evolution of women’s wear on television. Part of that is the changing times, but it’s also because there are more women in media who feel comfortable about what they want to wear.”
That theory of empowerment rings true for many newswomen. They’ve finally laid claim to the anchor’s chair and can let their hair down or, at least, grow it past their shoulders. Even Sawyer and Mitchell have adopted subtle changes in wardrobe. Sawyer sometimes wears crisp black blouses sans jacket while anchoring the evening news. Mitchell often prefers pastel, cap-sleeved shells for her afternoon show on MSNBC.
Continue reading here
The colorful evolution of newswomen’s attire
By Katherine Boyle, Nov 27, 2012 02:11 AM EST
The Washington Post Published: November 26
Dresses dangled on the racks at Neiman’s and Saks and all Norah O’Donnell needed was a suit.
Earlier this year, when the veteran news anchor was scouring stores for a suit jacket to wear for her “CBS This Morning” publicity photo, she discovered what her viewers have known for years: The women’s blazer is disappearing — from department stores and network news broadcasts.
I couldn’t find a nice suit jacket that wasn’t black,” O’Donnell said. “You used to find all kinds in blues and hot pinks. They stopped making them. That’s when I thought, what’s changed?”
For her head shot, O’Donnell, 38, ended up choosing a six-year-old navy Giorgio Armani blazer out of her closet, one she rarely wears except when interviewing presidents or heads of state. Like so many working women in the news media and other professions, O’Donnell hasn’t bought a suit in years, a surprising admission given that the newswoman spent her 20s wearing suits so she “could be taken seriously.” The same can be said of seasoned anchors such as Diane Sawyer and Andrea Mitchell, who rarely graced the screen in the 1980s and ’90s without lapels shielding their chests.
For decades, the suit jacket transformed women into workers. With jackets required for entrance at male-dominated clubs and boardrooms, women bundled up their breasts to blend into a professional culture that predated their arrival. But in recent years, even as men continued to assume corporate uniforms of suits and ties, newswomen — one of the last vestiges of female suit wearers — have resoundingly dismissed them from their closets. They now flank themselves in bright sleeveless sheath dresses and stiletto heels, renouncing the once hard-and-fast edicts of television news: no bare legs, no long hair, no feminine distractions from the news. The revision of the female anchor’s dress code happened swiftly and broadly on network and cable television. And if newswomen are the most visible barometers of workplace fashion, the women’s suit may one day go the way of the petticoat.
“Ten years ago, professional dress meant a Talbots suit for women,” said Dave Smith, president of SmithGeiger, a market research firm that consults with news networks. “What’s appropriate for female talent on television has evolved because of familiarity. The audience has equal regard for female and male anchors. It’s given women far more liberty to be feminine.”
O’Donnell agrees: “There has been an evolution of women’s wear on television. Part of that is the changing times, but it’s also because there are more women in media who feel comfortable about what they want to wear.”
That theory of empowerment rings true for many newswomen. They’ve finally laid claim to the anchor’s chair and can let their hair down or, at least, grow it past their shoulders. Even Sawyer and Mitchell have adopted subtle changes in wardrobe. Sawyer sometimes wears crisp black blouses sans jacket while anchoring the evening news. Mitchell often prefers pastel, cap-sleeved shells for her afternoon show on MSNBC.
Continue reading here
11/16/12
Did Irish abortion laws kill a young Indian woman?
When Pro-Life Means Death
Nov 16, 2012 6:00 AM EST
Did Irish abortion laws kill a young Indian woman?
This week, thousands of people gathered outside the Irish Parliament to protest the death of a young pregnant woman who died in a hospital from blood poisoning after doctors refused to perform a life-saving abortion, reportedly on the grounds that “this is a Catholic country.”
Since the death of Savita Halappanavar on Oct. 28, outrage in Ireland and the rest of the world has steadily gathered force, and on Wednesday, demonstrators outside Parliament held candles as a minute’s silence was observed to commemorate the 31-year-old. Some wept while others expressed anger. “I have a heartbeat too!” one sign read.
On Oct. 21, the Indian-born woman went to Galway University Hospital with a back pain. She was 17 weeks pregnant. At the hospital, doctors told her that she was miscarrying but that the ordeal would be over in a few hours. Instead, according to her husband Praveen, Savita went on to endure four days of “agony” during which time she asked repeatedly that the pregnancy be terminated.
Doctors, however, told her that because there was still a fetal heartbeat, Irish law would not permit the termination of the pregnancy, he said, and that, “this is a Catholic country.” Savita protested, telling doctors, according to her husband, that “I am neither Irish nor Catholic.” But was told again that there was nothing medical staff could do while the fetal heartbeat remained.
The next day, Savita became visibly ill, shivering and vomiting, and the fetal heartbeat stopped during the following afternoon. Doctors then removed the fetus and Savita was taken to intensive care where she deteriorated rapidly, suffering multi-organ failure a few days later, dying in the early hours of Oct. 28. She had contracted a form of blood poisoning as well as an E. coli infection, a pathologist found.
Speaking from Karnataka in southwest India, where he had taken the body of his young wife to be cremated, Praveen was adamant that if Savita’s pleas for a termination had been listened to, she would have survived.
“How could they leave the womb open for days? It was all in their hands and they let her go,” Praveen said. “How can you let a young woman go to save a baby who will die anyway? Savita could have had more babies.”
The appalling events, first revealed in The Irish Times on Nov. 14, have led Irish news bulletins and have been reported across the world, catapulting the most divisive issue of Irish life—abortion—right to the top of the public and political agenda, exactly where the Irish government doesn’t want it.
Ireland has among the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. It remains illegal under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, though referendums in 1983 and 1992 have allowed for protections for pregnant women seeking information about abortion services abroad and wishing to travel for abortions. A High Court ruling in 1992 also stated that abortion was legal in cases where there was a threat to the life of the mother—and not simply the health.
The fussy legal language complicates what is sometimes a life-or-death situation. In Savita’s case, the fetus had a heartbeat, though it would clearly not live. At the same time, the mother’s health was clearly at risk but the doctors ran the risk of prosecution if they intervened and terminated the pregnancy.
Coincidentally, a report commissioned last year about how the government should respond to a European Court of Human Rights ruling obliging Ireland to provide abortions in situations when a woman’s life is threatened, was submitted the evening before news of Savita's death broke.
The larger of the two government parties, Fine Gael, has said it will not countenance legal abortion in Ireland. The smaller, the Labour Party, is avowedly pro-choice.
Solving what has become a political and, more significantly, a moral morass will be paramount for the government in the coming days. Both domestically and internationally, pressure has been mounting. Expressing its concern over the case, the Indian government has said it will closely monitor the two investigations into Savita’s death, which were announced this week by the Irish authorities.
In solidarity with the Halappanavar family, a demonstration calling for improved legislation is planned to take place this weekend in Dublin. It is expected to be one of the largest demonstrations on the streets of the Irish capital in decades.
Nov 16, 2012 6:00 AM EST
Did Irish abortion laws kill a young Indian woman?
This week, thousands of people gathered outside the Irish Parliament to protest the death of a young pregnant woman who died in a hospital from blood poisoning after doctors refused to perform a life-saving abortion, reportedly on the grounds that “this is a Catholic country.”
Since the death of Savita Halappanavar on Oct. 28, outrage in Ireland and the rest of the world has steadily gathered force, and on Wednesday, demonstrators outside Parliament held candles as a minute’s silence was observed to commemorate the 31-year-old. Some wept while others expressed anger. “I have a heartbeat too!” one sign read.
On Oct. 21, the Indian-born woman went to Galway University Hospital with a back pain. She was 17 weeks pregnant. At the hospital, doctors told her that she was miscarrying but that the ordeal would be over in a few hours. Instead, according to her husband Praveen, Savita went on to endure four days of “agony” during which time she asked repeatedly that the pregnancy be terminated.
Doctors, however, told her that because there was still a fetal heartbeat, Irish law would not permit the termination of the pregnancy, he said, and that, “this is a Catholic country.” Savita protested, telling doctors, according to her husband, that “I am neither Irish nor Catholic.” But was told again that there was nothing medical staff could do while the fetal heartbeat remained.
The next day, Savita became visibly ill, shivering and vomiting, and the fetal heartbeat stopped during the following afternoon. Doctors then removed the fetus and Savita was taken to intensive care where she deteriorated rapidly, suffering multi-organ failure a few days later, dying in the early hours of Oct. 28. She had contracted a form of blood poisoning as well as an E. coli infection, a pathologist found.
Speaking from Karnataka in southwest India, where he had taken the body of his young wife to be cremated, Praveen was adamant that if Savita’s pleas for a termination had been listened to, she would have survived.
“How could they leave the womb open for days? It was all in their hands and they let her go,” Praveen said. “How can you let a young woman go to save a baby who will die anyway? Savita could have had more babies.”
The appalling events, first revealed in The Irish Times on Nov. 14, have led Irish news bulletins and have been reported across the world, catapulting the most divisive issue of Irish life—abortion—right to the top of the public and political agenda, exactly where the Irish government doesn’t want it.
Ireland has among the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. It remains illegal under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, though referendums in 1983 and 1992 have allowed for protections for pregnant women seeking information about abortion services abroad and wishing to travel for abortions. A High Court ruling in 1992 also stated that abortion was legal in cases where there was a threat to the life of the mother—and not simply the health.
The fussy legal language complicates what is sometimes a life-or-death situation. In Savita’s case, the fetus had a heartbeat, though it would clearly not live. At the same time, the mother’s health was clearly at risk but the doctors ran the risk of prosecution if they intervened and terminated the pregnancy.
Coincidentally, a report commissioned last year about how the government should respond to a European Court of Human Rights ruling obliging Ireland to provide abortions in situations when a woman’s life is threatened, was submitted the evening before news of Savita's death broke.
The larger of the two government parties, Fine Gael, has said it will not countenance legal abortion in Ireland. The smaller, the Labour Party, is avowedly pro-choice.
Solving what has become a political and, more significantly, a moral morass will be paramount for the government in the coming days. Both domestically and internationally, pressure has been mounting. Expressing its concern over the case, the Indian government has said it will closely monitor the two investigations into Savita’s death, which were announced this week by the Irish authorities.
In solidarity with the Halappanavar family, a demonstration calling for improved legislation is planned to take place this weekend in Dublin. It is expected to be one of the largest demonstrations on the streets of the Irish capital in decades.
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