Women's Issues

[mabel1015j]

Women's Issues If Art imitates Life, what does Literature show about the place of women in our society? From the Red Tent to the new movie Anna Karenina,  to Malala Yousafzai in the news, has the state of women changed? What IS the state of women today, in your opinion? Let's talk about how women are portrayed in the press, and in literature, and how accurate it is.   How does advertising reflect, if it does, how women are portrayed?  (Remember heels and pearls to sell refrigerators?) How does it seem to you that women are portrayed today? Let's talk! National Women's History Project

Barb - i was a history teacher/professor and have an avocation of women's history. I like that Beard broke "new ground" in the mid-20th century, a hearld of things to come in the 60s, 70s and 80s scholarly studies to include women. Obviously, at various points in history there were writings that talked about women, women's diaries and journals, but almost all scholarly work through eons had talked only about men. Beard went looking for the history from women's point of view and she was a credible historian. The historiography interests me, as well as the material she brought to the attention of society.

I expect that there will be different perspectives of what should be the focus of study, or activism, and don't expect anyone to agree with my perspective 100%. i still find people interesting to read and know about even if we don't see eye-to-eye on everything. I appreciate their positive contributions - from my point of view.

Jean

[mabel1015j]

I love these tidbits of information.

Who Knew!?! A woman invented the circular saw!?!

http://pinterest.com/pin/474144666989207538/

[Steph]

senior moment. A very pretty blonde who was pregnant when made CEO last year. She recently decided that her company (Google???) will no longer permit employees to  work from home. At the same time she put down women taking maternity leave and had a nursery built next to her office. That's pushing it from my point of view.

[PatH]

It was Marissa Mayer, CEO at Yahoo, who had a nursery built next to her office at her own expense.  She then banned telecommuting, which had been fairly prevalent.  Her rationale was the need for collaboration, and the fact that there were abuses of the system.  That may be true, but could have been taken care of with closer monitoring of output plus requiring part office time.  She herself only took 2 weeks maternity leave, and made the remark that it was all easier than people made it out to be.  Yeah, sure, if you're rich and lucky enough to have an easy pregnancy.

[mabel1015j]

 Agree w/ both of you! One of my pet peeves is when people with authority don't have the guts to deal w/ individual misbehavior and instead impose a rule that impacts everybody, including those who were behaving. Not good management!

And Ms Yahoo obviously has no concept, or she's ignoring the knowledge she has, of the majority of women's/parent's lives or capabilities to not be able to bring their children to the office and hire a private babysitter to care for them. The costs of daycare today are extraordinary, and i understand why, we need to pay for GOOD daycare and we still aren't paying daycare providers what they should be paid. I don't know the answer, but it's very expensive for even middle class parents.

In the late-20th century women's movement we called this the "queen-bee syndrome", i got mine, you have to get yours on your own. The movement was about sisterhood and we're all in this together and, of course, the personal is political! This is a systemic problem, not an individual's problem. Marissa should learn some women's history and generate some empathy.

[MaryPage]

The inability of our homo sapiens species to see beyond their own life experience and walk in others shoes is mind boggling.
Empathy.
Surely it could be taught?  At an early age?
I don't know, I don't know.
A bleeding heart has been my downfall all of my life.  And one of my daughters is Even Worse!  She heard of a hungry family and, when her own resources were stretched so thin she was hard put to pay her bills on time, she was taking bags of groceries and leaving them at that family's door!  She just could not stand it!  Well, I taught my children that we cannot possibly fix ALL of this world's ills, but if we can do a little bit at a time we have contributed.
I am not trying to pat myself on the back here.  God knows I have many faults and frailties and omissions of effort.  But I am musing out loud here, and I do believe far fewer men feel empathy or ever own any in their makeup than do women.
I can remember being a tiny girl in Kindergarten and First Grade back when we had recess and we all piled out onto hard packed playgrounds and there were fights and running games and huge amounts of noise and commotion.  And always the child crying because they had been pushed down or a nasty comment made or they had been excluded from a game or some terrible hurt.  And I always went to them and tried to console them and I felt their pain.
Why?  Is there a gene for this?  I think there may be.
The Washington Post reports there were 70 beheadings of women for "committing adultery" in Afghanistan in 2012.  Seventy.  Public beheadings.  No punishment reported for the men involved, if indeed there were any.  An accusation from a husband who wants to get rid of his wife appears to be enough.  70 beheadings in Afghanistan with their population is the equivalent of 700 in the United States.  Can you imagine?  Can you bear the thought of ONE public beheading here?  How about SEVEN HUNDRED?
Dear God, why are not our male lawmakers interested in saving the lives of women, rather than spending all of their energies and resources on stamping out each and every abortion and curtailing contraceptives?  Why do they harbor such strong instincts to crush the value of the lives of women?
Painfully, I will soon leave this world;  and I do not find it a good one.

[Steph]

Why oh why do we throw so much money into a country that is so savage.. I try very hard to stay focused on how many good muslims there probably are, but the beheadings and murders of women and the belief that women are inferior simply drives me away from sympathy.

[MaryPage]

After I read Noble Savages by Napoleon Chagnon, I got and read Spirit of The Rainforest by Mark Andrew Ritchie.  Both books, albeit told from different perspectives, prove conclusively to me that the conviction men have that females are male property and expendable comes from our stone age roots.
If you try Spirit Of The Rainforest, I feel compelled to warn you in advance that it is very frank, blunt, and violent.  Men kill women, including their own wives, and are not held liable.  And they deliberately, one on one, kill children and babies, as well.  Everything in LIFE is all about them and their own seed.

[marjifay]

I remember reading about the Yanomamo people from my anthropology classes.  They live in the rainforest of Brazil.  A fascinating people.  I believe I still have Napoleon Chagnon's book, Yanomamo, The Fierce People, around here somewhere.  

I don't recall their doing anything anywhere near as bad as what the U.S. did in killing those thousands of people in Iraq.

Marj

[MaryPage]

It is just as bad, if not worse.  Just no technology involved and the numbers are, of course, much lower.  But percentage wise, it is probably worse in the rainforest.  The facts as laid out in this latest book are depressing, to say the least.  Man is a killer.

[Steph]

The sport of war is neverending. We did a lot of damage to our own Indians.. Males have some sort of underlying passion for death and struggle. Women... want to preserve life for the most part.

[MaryPage]

Well, exactly.

If our species is to survive, I think there may well be only one way:  build freezers full of sperm from the fittest and finest and exterminate all males under the age of 65.  Let women rule the world and gestate only female babies-to-be.  I think we can find the ways to make everything work better for everyone.

[mabel1015j]

One of those women we've never heard about in our history classes.......

New book: Glynis Ridley on “The Discovery of Jeanne Baret”

Quoting blog: But just in time for Women’s History Month, Glynis Ridley has kindly stepped in with a guest post talking about her non-fiction adventure story The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnaviagate the Globe.  I first ran across Jeanne Baret’s remarkable story in another book She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea by Joan Druett; and, yes, women have commanded navies, captained ships and served as crew long before modern times. I was delighted to have the opportunity to read Ms. Ridley’s riveting account of one these remarkable and neglected women in history.

Here's a link to the author's statement about the book:

http://faithljustice.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/guest-post-and-giveaway-glynis-ridley-on-the-discovery-of-jeanne-baret/#more-941

[MaryPage]

Gertrude Bell is another unknown to study and know about.  She was beyond amazing.  Incredible.  I admire her hugely, albeit I feel she made some rather drastic mistakes.  The way she invented what we today call IRAQ was a humongous mistake on her part, as she did not rightly take into account the divisions among the peoples she clumped together.

[JoanK]

I'm reading "Soundings: the Story of the remarkable woman who Mapped the Ocean Floor" by Halli felt. It raises too many memories of what it was like to work as a woman in a male-dominated area in the 50s.

Marie Tharp was the first to map the ocean floor, and discovered the Atlantic Rift: the first evidence of what was then called (but dismissed ) continental drift. When she explained to her boss, he dismissed it as "girl talk". But as the evidence accumulated, he was convinced. So when the find was first published, it had him as an author, and not her!!

[mabel1015j]

Isn't it fun to keep finding out about these women?

[maryz]

Here's another book about women - The Girls of Atomic City.  I just heard about this on the PBS News Hour (they're going to be talking about it at the end of the hour.  We may have moved on to basketball by then, but I'll bet it'll be on BookTV before long (not currently scheduled).

Anyway, it's about the women who worked in Oak Ridge, TN, on the Manhattan Project - the super-secret development of the atomic bomb during WW2.  If you're not from this area, you might not know about Oak Ridge, but it was an amazing situation.  I've bought this book for my iPad, and am really looking forward to reading it.

[mabel1015j]

In all the history i've read about the MP - not books, but articles and monographs - i don't remember the mention of a woman! Not surprised that they were there.

[maryz]

In the interview, the author said the people who worked from the "top down" (president, atomic energy scientists, etc.) were men and were the only ones you heard about.  It really looks interesting.

[Steph]

To some extent women today are where blacks were in the 70's and 80's.. When I was in school, there was never a mention in history books on any of the contributions of blacks or women.. Now there is black history month.. Possibly womens history month may come along some day.

[mabel1015j]

March has been designated Women's History Month since the 1980's. The unlikely couple of Senators Hatch and Mukalski sponsored the legislation. Here are 2 sites, one the general history and one about the 2013 theme of inspirational women of science. Google women's history month to read more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_History_Month

http://womenshistorymonth.gov/

[MaryPage]

I am all for women getting recognized, and am fully aware of the many indignities we have been required to suffer rather than get our properly due regard.  My cherished Brontes had to use initials and pass as male writers in order to get published.
But the occasional award, reward, or ribbon does not make up for the humongous amount of energy our national House of Representatives and some of our state politicians are putting toward crippling the chances of any female of any age getting needed medical attention and health care in this so called Leader of the 21st Century USA World on Planet Earth.  Not by a long shot.  They are working so hard they are outdoing themselves with their efforts in North Dakota, Arkansas, Virginia and Kansas.  Why aren't we women fighting back?  Why aren't these younger generations we have done our damnedest to raise with awareness standing tall on those outrageously ridiculous and expensive heels and screaming bloody blue murder?
Beats me!
The most outrageous truth is that most of these men really don't have a clue as to how women's reproductive systems work.
These primitive, stone age males are at war on women's rights to good health.  They don't even belong at the table, much less in the same room.
I despair.
Their wives and mistresses need to take them by the ear and give them a dressing down about the good they COULD be doing in this world.

[mabel1015j]

Here is a site that will send you a weekly Women's History newsletter, if you are interested. Jone does a good job of linking her subjects, so you can find some very interesting information. She writes it on a level that you can share with everyone form about 10 yrs old and up.

http://womenshistory.about.com/

It is sometimes very depressing as to what is happening in the field of women's issues if we only see the news stories on major media. They, of course, look for the most extreme stories, so that even though they are true and those events are happening, we get a skewed look at what is happening in the country and the world. Even some of the feminist blogs sometimes get bogged down in the negative, to find the balance takes some digging. I'll post some sites as we go along.

I think there are a lot of important progressive things happening in the shadows. There is a strong fight going on at the moment to reopen the battle for the ERA, to not have to go back to the beginning, but to be able to just fight for the 3 more states that need to ratify the 1972 Amendment.There is a lot of work going on in women's health. Actually, i kind of cheer a little when each of those idiot guys gets media time for being stupid. It makes feminists - men and women - and middle of the road girls and women and men mad. As long as those jerks stay in the minority, they are actually working for us, IMO. The North Dakota law was put up to test Roe v Wade. I think they will lose if it goes to the SC.

I was just, two hours ago, talking to a woman who teaches Women's Studies at the community college I taught at, she says that the college age women have a skewed sense of what is sexual empowerment - they think feeling good about what a man has said or done to them is empowering and don't understand the underlying control that gives him. They think dressing in a way that they believe they have determined as to what makes them feel sexy is empowerment, the 5/6 inch heels, the spandex short dresses, not realizing that if they are uncomfortable in those clothes they are not going to be confident in themselves, or look professional or confident, or capable. What happened to our seventies attitude that comfortability is the most important issue? Not that i'm a proponent of the granny dresses, etc. of the time. We left behind the girdle and now almost all the young women are wearing spanks!

[marjifay]

I just watched on TV as President Obama and Vice President Biden introduced the new head of the Secret Service, Julia Pierson, the first woman to head the agency.   I was really embarrassed for Ms. Pierson.  

President Obama made some remark about her being the most important woman in their lives next to their spouses, while Biden stood there grinning and nodding agreement with his arm around her.  How condescending.  Here's a mature woman with 30 years experience in the agency being treated rather like a cute little girl.  I know one of the most important jobs of the SS is to protect the president, but...  If this were a man, would they speak to him like that?  Of course not.  They would shake his hand and congratulate him.  You may see it on this evening's news tonight.

Marj

[MaryPage]

Actually, Jean, I quite liked the "Granny dresses!"
And I also like comfort and health.  Ask any orthopedic surgeon, and most doctors for that matter, and they will tell you that just as those brought up listening to Huge Noise bands will become deaf, so the damage to the spines and pelvises of these young women wearing these incredible heels will be intolerable.  For them.  Pity!
Oh well.  Live and learn.
You make some very valid points.  And you cheer me up with your positive talk about what is going on that we don't hear about.
So, bottom line, the male designers of women's clothing and accessories dress them (I don't say "we" here, because I have never fallen for it) up like trash and the women fall for the idea that they can turn on the men and feel flattered by their adoration, while all the time the men get all stirred up (and not with adoration), and when they rape they blame the provocation of the way the women dress!
I think that is called a vicious cycle.

[MaryPage]

Marjifay, I listened very carefully and saw the video clip twice.  President Obama said:  "This woman now HAS MORE CONTROL over our lives than any woman other than our wives."

Which is true, and I did not find it demeaning at all.  She now can GIVE THEM ORDERS about where they may and may not go and who will or will not be with them.  That is the law.

[mabel1015j]

You're right MaryPage, it is a vicious cycle and it sounds like 1913 instead of 2013 and yes, i think deafness and terrible backs are in our youth's future. I say that in sympathy, as a woman who has been dealing w/ a pinched nerve in my lower back for the last 8 months and as a woman who never wore a heel higher than 3 inches and for the last 2 decades no heel higher than a 2inch wedge. I got totally into the "comfort" mode, and i could do it and still be stylish and look good, for myself.

Your Obama qoute is correct and that didn't offend me, but i was appalled at Joe Biden holding her hand the whole time!!! I started to think," oh, that's just Joe," but caught myself and remembered that's what we used to say about men who were telling dirty jokes, or calling us "honey." oh dear! Two steps forward, but only one step back, there is a need for continuous vigilance and battle.

Jean

[kidsal]

Browsing in IMDB movie site -- a movie about Gertrude Bell is proposed for 2014.

[Steph]

I spent many years braless, but gravity has taken over and in my old age, I am back to finding comfortable bras.. No underwires.. lbut I confess that I adored high heels ( being short) and lamented after I broken my ankle and could no longer tolerate them..

[marjifay]

Per Jean: "Your Obama quote is correct (MaryPage) and that didn't offend me, but i was appalled at Joe Biden holding her hand the whole time!!!"

Yes, that was treating her like a good little girl, IMO. And I still think Obama's comment was condescending.  Neither their wives nor Ms. Pierson have control over them.  It's as though he's implying, "but we'll let you think you do. chuckle, chuckle."  He certainly would not have made that comment to a male.  

If you ever watch the game show Wheel of Fortune, does it bother you that Pat Sajak, the male host, always holds the hands of the female winners as they walk towards the final question -- as though females need his guidance to get there.  

Marj

[MaryPage]

I never watch any of the game shows or reality shows or audience participation shows (the noise is unbearable to me) or daytime talk/audience stuff, etc.  I am mostly just a news junkie, though I do watch quite a number of PBS documentaries.
It really offends my sensibilities to see humans acting like chimps.
I expect Dr. Jill Biden and Michelle Obama, Esquire let their husbands have it when they behave stupidly.
If a man is TRYING to rearrange his male instincts to take the proper attitude and direction, I can't waste time faulting him.
It is the real misogynists up there in front of their microphones every day streaming their hatred and bile throughout the 50 states and beyond that make me want to vomit up my meals.

[marjifay]

I agree it was subtle discrimination by Obama, unduoubtedly meant to be kind, polite, etc.  But I think these subtle discriminations, especially when made by important people, need to be pointed out and addressed as such, because many of them continue on and on  and they add up to tolerance for big discrimination.  That is why I sent both him and Biden a letter, and also posted my feelings to several forums.

Marj

[JoanK]

"I spent many years braless, but gravity has taken over and in my old age,"

After my mastectemy, I found the bras with the false breast so uncomfortable to wear, I started going bra-less and wearing baggy clothes. (Heck, I was so glad to be alive, I wasn't going to let a little thing like worrying about what I looked like stop me from enjoying life).Since gravity took over, you can't tell, I just look flat-chested.

[mabel1015j]

Some activist news from my friend Bobbie Francis who is the ERA Chair for the Natl Assn of Organiztion Women. She is working hard to get the legislation introduced to get the last 3 states ratified. Young people are active.............


There’s lots happening at Rutgers he could mention – like the Rutgers Center for Women’s Global Leadership’s 16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women (a major global initiative started there in 1991 under Charlotte Bunch).  I also remember at least one if not more projects by Rutgers men to oppose violence against women – somehow think a calendar was involved.
 
 
 
When I was Director of the Division on Women in the Florio administration, we expanded the domestic violence prevention program into the Office on Prevention of Violence Against Women in order to emphasize that domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, etc., were all “sides of the same cube.”  (The “etc.” also includes pornography, incest, and more, but I didn’t get into that at the time.)  

 
 
At the core, the best prevention is a social system based on gender equity and equal valuing of both women and men, but there are so many dimensions to achieving that goal (including putting the ERA into the Constitution!) that in dealing with violence against women, policymakers and activists need to engage primarily with more specific aspects of the challenge.

She was responding to a round of emails that a group of us in South Jersey had shared after Congressman John Runyon, a REpubican, had supported a national award for Alice Paul and had recently been a part of 19 Rep members who had pushed the House Members to accept the Senate version of the VAWA and it was passed. The Rutgers action was happening this week.

[Steph]

I am all for the
ERA, but live in Florida where there are a good many Neanderthals.. Think it will still be hard to pass in many places..

[marjifay]

I'm with you, JoanK, re false boobs.  Uncomfortable.  Shortly after my mastectomy (one side), I slipped and fell coming down a step from a fast food restaurant.  And horrors, my one false boob popped out of my bra and rolled down the sidewalk.  Luckily, it was dark outside and no one was around.  Last time I wore it.  Am a little lopsided, but who cares.

Marj

[mabel1015j]

The important factor of the ERA is that government enities will have to change ALL LAWs that discriminate. There won't have to be law suits, or battles for change, one at a time. So it doesn't change the neanderthals, Steph, but it does change the system. We know people change after the system has changed the circumstances - stopping employment discrimination meant that hundreds of thousands of people were forced to work with, and get to know, women, minorities and now gays, that didn't happen previous to the laws changing. Going to school with minorities, being in the military with minorities, or w/ women as officers, or "in the trenches" with women has shown many that women have many more capabilities than prejudiced individuals thought they had. When i worked for Dept of Army, i heard more then one male say the best commander they ever had was a woman.

On the other hand, i keep saying "the aliens have tainted the water" in relation to these nuts who are coming out of the woodwork, or the backlash against many things female.

Here's a good short bio of a woman who overcame enormous odds and was labeled as crazy because she was so smart. Barbara McClintock ended up getting a Nobel Prize for her work in genetics. Don't be put off by the title of the blog, it's the younger generations example of sardonic humor, she writes an excellent blog on women's issues.

http://saintssistersandsluts.com/barbara-mcclintock-nobel-prize-delayed/#comment-1392

[MaryPage]

I have hope! I have hope! Thank god, at last before I die, I have hope!

Have just finished reading the March 29/April 5 double issue of NEWSWEEK magazine on my iPad, and I shall read much of it again and again.

If you do not already subscribe to Newsweek, I urge you to do so or, at the least, to buy this one issue for your computer or laptop or iPod or iPad or whatever.  It is ALL about women.  All of it.  About women.

And read HOWEVER LONG THE NIGHT by Molly Melching.  Wow!  Quadruple Wow!

[MaryPage]

And Aimee Molloy.  It is also by Aimee Molloy.  I gather Melching lived it and Molloy wrote it.  Or something like.

[JoanK]

Marjafay "Am a little lopsided, but who cares."

Exactly my sentiments. If we happen to be lopsided on opposite sides (I'm missing left) we could walk together and even it out.

I'll have to get newsweek.

Mabil: exactly!  All these laws have the same descrimatory base. And they can be passed like weeds: get rid of one and three pop up.