Friday, November 21, 2014
What We've Been Reading 11/21
This interview was published on Ebola Deeply, a website that serves as a consolidated source for any Ebola related content available on the Internet. There is a plethora of news articles, opinion pieces, and videos that serve to raise awareness about the outbreak of the disease. Earlier this month, Ebola Deeply interviewd Chernor Bah, a Sierra Leonean youth advocate, education activist, and founder of the Sierra Leone Adolescent Girls Network. In the interview, Bah discusses the impact the disease has had on women and girls and how the government in Freetown must provide for the survivors of the disease just as efforts are being made for those currently infected with Ebola. Bah mentions how the patriarchal society in Sierra Leone as left many young female survivors helpless after the death of their fathers or husbands. Also, this lack of financial support is forcing many girls to engage in risky behavior in order to support their families. Bah believes the biggest challenge is the "invisibility" of girls Sierra Leone's policies and with most NGOs focused on Ebola, the needs of women in country are being neglected. While Ebola is a primary focus on Sierra Leone's agenda, emphasis must be given to issues such as sexual exploitation and reproductive health which have been amplified due to the outbreak of the disease in the country.
India's Lethal Birth Control
This New York Times' opinion piece discusses the flaws in India's population control strategy, which has received international attention after the death of thirteen women on November 8th due to medical complications post-surgery. Women are provided with monetary incentives to undergo sterilization procedures, which are often carried out in unsanitary conditions. While family planning is extremely important in countries like India, the women have the right to medical care that meets minimum standards. Also, tubal ligation procedures in so-called "sterilization camps" does not take into consideration the basic reproductive rights of Indian women. Providing monetary compensations is not enough; women should be educated about their birth control options instead of being forced to pick tubal ligations due to monetary compensations. Also, if a women chooses tubal ligation, the Health Ministry is responsible for providing adequate post-op medical care. While the government under Mr. Modi has ordered an investigation into the deaths of the women, many state governments are still going strong with their mass sterilization campaigns. Moreover, eleven Indian states have doubled the monetary compensation to be offered for undergoing the procedure. This is a flawed public health approach, since it leaves women with no choice as to what form of birth control they use.
Why Women Are Paying $1,300 More A Year For The Same Exact Products As Men
This article in Huffington Post discusses how firms sell "women's" versions of products at a higher price than the male alternative. Experts believe this is done because women are more likely to purchase the cheaper product marketed towards men than vice versa. In order to maintain profits, firms charge a higher price for the feminine version of product. With women making seventy-seven cents a male's dollar, it just equates to women spending a more significant percentage of their income for products such as deodorant, soap, and razors.
Also read: "The Woman Tax: The Surprising Reason Why Women Pay More Than $1,300 a Year"
Women in Leadership
Adam Bryant’s column in the New York Time’s Corner Office was intended to discuss issues of leadership with the top business executives. He previously didn’t give much thought to specific women executives and specific issues that pertain to that title. To him, they would be executives who just happened to be women. He has however noted that there are copious issues that accompany being a woman in a leadership position that need to be discussed. In his article “Four Executives on Succeeding in Business as a Woman” from the fall of last year, Bryant revisits the topic and re-interviews four women. This time he interviews them about the particularities of being a female executive.
The four executives featured in this article are Amy Schulman, the executive vice president of Pfizer, Lisa Price, the founder and president of Carol’s Daughter, Doreen Lorenzo, the president of Quirky and Marjorie Kaplan, the group president of the Animal Planet, Science and Velocity Networks. In regards to female leadership, Schulman states very profoundly that “there are clearly implicit biases and assumptions that follow you by virtue of your gender and your race. Workplaces need to be aware of those and do something to counterbalance those as institutions.” She warns if this does not occur we lose the diversity of voices that are crucial in running an organization. Price continues in this thread when commenting about women crying in the workplace and how it shouldn’t be done because it enforces the stereotypes or clearly implicit biases, as Schulman puts it. Lorenzo however highlights the advantages of stereotypes about women in the workplace. She explains that “women are better at team dynamics,” then goes on to discuss soft skills such as intuition and instincts. Lorenzo recalls schooling and argues “girls are taught to be cooperative more than boys,” contributing to the power dynamic in offices. Kaplan also speaks about her experiences with the issue of stereotypes and leadership. “It’s easy for women to be read as too nice, too kind.” She then continues that “Niceness and kindness are not the opposite of ambition and drive.”
The perspectives given by these four women are very eye opening into women how women fare in the corporate world. Their advice, though slightly clashing, give insight on the diversity of views about women’s ascent into power and how they wish to be viewed as equals. Bryant’s change of heart in featuring women’s issues in his column comes at a great time because it’s very important to portray these differing views.
See the whole article here:
Happy Birthday Abigail Adams!
Happy Birthday to Abigail
Adams, a self-educated, fierce advocate for women’s equality!
Adams famously wrote in a letter to
her husband, John Adams: “If particular care and attention
is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not
hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or representation.”
This message holds true today as we continue to
strive for greater representation for women in government across the
Commonwealth.
Friday, November 14, 2014
What We've Been Reading 11/14
“Codeathon Winner Makes Safety Alert System for Jawbone
Health Tracker”
This article in the Boston Business Journal
recaps the events of the Clinton Foundation’s Women’s Health Codeathon series.
These events not only serve to emphasize women’s health issues, it also
provides a platform for female programmers in a male-dominated field. The
winning program is called Safe.me, which uses the fitness tracker Jawbone to
send out alerts to emergency contacts. While the purpose to program this app
was the prevalence of sexual violence across college campuses, its aim is to
increase bystander intervention. While the programmers have only created a
prototype, the app is definitely taking a modern approach to persisting
societal issues.
“Pregnant, and No Civil Rights”
This opinion piece in the New York Times argues how the
abortion debate has resulted in the loss of fundamental rights for many
pregnant women. The author cites anti-abortion laws that are being used as a
basis to arrest women and prevent them from making choices about how they will
give birth. For instance, women have been arrested in Iowa, Utah, and Louisiana
for “attempted fetal homicide.” In one instance, a pregnant woman had fallen
down the stairs, and after seeking medical help, she was arrested by the
police. Other women have undergone forced caesarians, some of which have
resulted in the deaths of both the mother and child. This is an alarming
phenomenon especially due to the rise of laws suppressing abortion rights. For
this reason, the argues that we need to start focusing on the loss of women’s
civil and human rights as an issue rather than abortion.
‘Blame-The-Victim’ Culture May Discourage Female Vets From
Seeking Help For Trauma
This article in in the Huffington Post seeks to draw
increased public attention to sexual assault in the military and hardships
female vets undergo due to the prevalence of ‘blame-the-victim’ culture in the
military. A survey estimated around 26,000 cases of sexual assaults with only around
4,000 being reported. Women are hesitant to seek help for trauma since they
feel they do not “deserve to have help.” These are women who have valiantly
served their country but are stigmatized, discouraging them from seeking help.
The author argues that the military needs to create a more welcoming
environment at hospitals. Currently, most Veteran Affairs hospitals are male-dominated
and this may add to the discomfort the women feel.
Why so few women in
science, technology, engineering and mathematics?
The number of
women in science and engineering is increasing, yet men continue to outnumber
women, especially at the upper levels of these professions. In elementary,
middle, and high school, girls and boys take math and science courses in
roughly equal numbers, and about as many girls as boys leave high school
prepared to pursue science and engineering majors in college. However, fewer
women than men pursue these majors. Among first-year college students, women
are much less likely than men to say that they intend to major in science,
technology, engineering, or math (STEM). By graduation, men outnumber women in
nearly every science and engineering field, and in some, such as physics, engineering,
and computer science, the difference is dramatic, with women earning only 20
percent of bachelor’s degrees. Women’s representation in science and
engineering declines further at the graduate level and yet again in the
transition to the workplace.
Social and
environmental factors contribute to the underrepresentation of women in science
and engineering. The rapid increase in the number of girls achieving very high
scores on mathematics tests once thought to measure innate ability suggests
that cultural factors are at work. Thirty years ago there were 13 boys for
every girl who scored above 700 on the SAT math exam at age 13; today that
ratio has dropped to about 3:1. This increase in the number of girls identified
as “mathematically gifted” suggests that education can and does make a
difference at the highest levels of mathematical achievement. While biological
gender differences may play a role, they clearly do not provide sufficient
evidence and explanations for the gap between men and women in STEM. As
mentioned before, there are numerous external factors, such as social and
environmental, that impact the number of women in science and engineering.
Firstly, the environment around girls shapes their achievements and interest in
math and science. For example, when girls are told that by teachers and parents
that their intelligence can expand with experience and learning, girls do
better on math tests and are more likely to say they want to continue to study
math in the future. Secondly, at colleges and universities, little changes can
make a big difference in attracting and maintaining women in STEM. For
instance, providing a broader overview of the field in introductory courses,
can add up to big gains in female student recruitment and retention. The same
goes for improving departmental culture to promote the integration of female
faculty. Last but not least, bias, often unconscious, limits women’s progress
in scientific and engineering fields. This bias not only affects individuals’
attitudes toward others but may also impact girls’ and women’s likelihood of
cultivating their own interest in math and science.
To conclude,
women can be as successful as men in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
We should not hinder them from showing their skills and capabilities but rather
encourage them to explore their talents in whatever area of study they wish.
The research
report can be found here: http://www.aauw.org/files/2013/02/Why-So-Few-Women-in-Science-Technology-Engineering-and-Mathematics.pdf
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Thank You to Our Service Women and Men
A report conducted by Disabled American Veterans shows how services for female veterans are still lagging behind. Female veterans face unique challenges that their male counterparts do not, such as higher rates of Military Sexual Trauma and PTSD, for example. Veteran Affairs medical centers often lack gynecological staff and there is still not enough peer support groups or counseling geared towards female veterans and their needs. As the proportion of women in the armed services increases, it is important to make sure that these women are given adequate support once their service has ended and they return home.
Unemployment is another challenge highlighted in the report. However, recent developments show that we are moving in the right direction. The Veteran Affairs Center for Women Veterans is working with the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) to give female veterans assistance in finding leadership and career opportunities. Measures such as this will help our female veterans have greater representation in the workforce.
Though women are not permitted to apply for front-line combat positions until 2016, nearly 200 women who were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq were killed in the combat, and we wish to acknowledge and thank them and their families for the sacrifies made for their country.
The Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus wishes to express how grateful we are to all of the women and men who have served in our armed forces. Today we will join the people of the United States in honoring our veterans and celebrating the hard work they’ve put in for our country.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Midterm Elections Show Signs of Progress Towards Gender Equality
Across the country US citizens
voted in last week’s midterm elections and for the first time in history, we
have voted more than 100 women into the House of Representatives. This is just
one of the few landmarks that happened for the nation. Massachusetts is the
site of another landmark: we have elected the first openly gay attorney general
in the country into office. These historical events don’t mean that the US has
moved past issues of gender or sexuality, but that we are finally acknowledging
them and working towards building a more representative government of the
people. The amazing women elected into office last week have certainly earned
their spots, and we are happy to see that efforts for gender equality in
government are paying off.
Electing women into office isn’t
just about making the numbers higher, but about having people who will continue
to work for gender equality once they’re in office. Studies have shown that women in office are
more likely to support bills that address women’s issues and tend to be more
supportive of legislation that will empower other groups in the country. In
addition to that, women in government typically are more willing to work across
the aisle in order to compromise and move legislation forward. For these
reasons among many others, it is important to continue supporting women in
politics and to applaud those who won their elections last Tuesday.
The elections were marked by a
number of landmarks, and these landmarks show how far we’ve come. Electing
women into office is a sign that the country is acknowledging the equality of
the sexes. These elections also indicate that we will continue to have progress
in the future as our female candidates continue their hard work in office. It
is with this in mind that we want to congratulate our MWPC PAC-endorsed
candidates Christine Barber, Deb Goldberg, Maura Healey, Barbara L’Italien,
Karyn Polito, Marian Ryan. In addition, we offer our congratulations to Suzanne
Bump who was re-elected as state auditor. We also want to applaud Martha
Coakley for her hard fought-campaign for Governor and all of the work she has
done for women in her time leading up to it.
-Gia Rowley
Monday, November 3, 2014
What We've Been Reading 10/31
With the midterm elections just around the corner we’re taking a look at the key role women will play in shaping the debate in the next few days.
The Washington Post: The Fix Blog, Aaron Blake, “Single women are turning into a huge question mark for Democrats” October 29, 2014
A recent WaPo-ABC poll found that 58 percent of registered single women voters are following the election closely. The blog post explains that this is lower than every demographic except unmarried men which came in at 57 percent. This is concerning news for Democrats, for whom single women are a key demographic based on turnout in recent elections.
NBC, Perry Bacon Jr, “Hillary Clinton Is Talking More About Women. Here's Why It Matters.” October 28, 2014
It matters because it signals a larger shift in our political climate. One towards the inclusion both of women’s voices and of issues facing women and children in national conversations. The article quotes Rebecca Traister, author of “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, “It’s a very different cultural environment. You have a rise in the prominence of figures like [New York Senator Kirstin] Gillibrand, a growth in feminist media, you have more people who are writing as feminists,” Traister said. “This is a far friendlier environment to be talking about women-friendly social policy.”
CNN, Stephen Collision “How the 'war on women' is changing”
This article examined Republicans’ efforts to appeal to women voters and avoid controversies like those of the 2012 cycle such as the “binders full of women” gaffe.
According to Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for Women and Politics at Rutgers University, Democrats may not be doing enough to get women to the polls. Especially without a Presidential race to highlight the key differences, turnout should be focus for Democrats. "The bigger challenge that the Democrats are facing this time may or may not be about whether the Republicans are appealing more to women — but the Democrats are not inspiring or turning out the women," Walsh said.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Honoring Mayor Menino
We were deeply saddened to learn today that Boston lost a tremendous leader and advocate with the death of former mayor Thomas Menino.
Throughout his five terms serving the city of Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino never stopped working for the advancement of the women both within City Hall and in the broader Boston community.
Mayor Menino appointed the first women as his chief of staff and campaign manager. As cited by The Boston Globe, he appointed the city’s first woman police commissioner, first woman corporation counsel, and first woman director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
He was a strong supporter of the Boston Women’s Commission, which is tasked with addressing pressing issues affecting women and girls in Boston, and advancing programs and opportunities for all of Boston’s women and girls. Mayor Menino truly dedicated himself to ensuring that women and their families have access to the resources and tools they need to prosper.
The Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus honored this work in 2012, naming him a Good Guy recipient for his work to promote women’s equality in Boston.
“We are thrilled to honor Mayor Menino as one of this year's Good Guys,” said former MWPC Executive Director Priti Rao. “He has worked tirelessly to remove barriers for women of all ages within the city of Boston and is working to create a new generation of leaders. He truly deserves to be called a 'Good Guy'.”
In Mayor Menino we found a tireless advocate on behalf of women and families. The Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus community will miss him dearly. Our thoughts are with the Menino family and team.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
