Friday, February 6, 2015
#LikeAGirl
One of this year's most talked about commercials was an advertisement for the feminine hygiene company, Always. The commercial brought light to the phrase, "like a girl," particularly for its common use as an insult. The commercial spoke volumes about the ways society has grown to disempower women, girls and their skills and abilities. When asked to do something "like a girl" such as run, fight or throw, teenagers and young adults responded by acting out the movements in a weak, pathetic manner. In contrast, when young girls were asked to perform the same actions "like a girl" they responded by completing the tasks with all of their strength, power and energy.
The lesson: When we use this phrase, we teach girls that they are incapable and weak; that they are not as strong or as capable as their male counterparts. Eventually, they start to believe it, especially when they hear it during their more vulnerable years (from ages 10 - 12), as they try to find themselves.
Immediately after the commercial, social media buzzed with the hashtag #LikeAGirl, serving as an outlet for women to share what makes them strong.
Here are a couple tweets that serve as great examples of the hashtag:
To read more, click here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/03/why-like-a-girl-is-so-important_n_6598970.html
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Things to know about Attorney General Maura Healey!
Those at the MWPC were first introduced to Maura
Healey in the beginning of 2014 shortly after she announced her campaign to run for Attorney General of
Massachusetts. MWPC board member Amy Burke insisted we meet with this fantastic
woman and later in the year, Amy would serve on the Healey campaign's
fundraising team. After the election, the Attorney
General-elect hired
Amy to plan the inauguration of "The People's Lawyer"
at the historic Faneuil Hall which was held this past January. Filled with
long-time supporters and volunteers, as well as fellow power players in
Massachusetts politics, the Globe quoted a Republican insider in an article this
week stating “That, with a dollop of exasperation and a pinch of healthy regard,
was the inauguration of the governor of the Democratic Party.” It was a
tremendous affair marking the end of a hard won campaign and the beginning of
Maura Healey's term as Attorney General, where she will tackle tough challenges
such as opiate addiction and for-profit colleges.
Here are
some interesting things to know about Attorney General Maura Healey:
- Maura was Chief of the Civil Rights Division in the Attorney General's Office.
- Maura led the nation’s first successful challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal law that discriminated against same-sex married couples.
- She also defended the Massachusetts Buffer Zone law and protected women’s access to reproductive health care.
- Healey graduated from Harvard in 1992 and received her JD from Northeastern University.
- Considered an underdog when she first entered the race, Healey defeated former state senator Warren Tolman in the Democratic Primary with 62.5% of the votes.
- During her campaign she broke a fundraising record for a first time, female state-wide candidate to raise more than 1 million dollars - she raised $1.5 million!
- As part of her swearing in ceremony, the Attorney General also had to swear in over 200 assistant attorneys general.
- Her swearing in ceremony, held at Faneuil Hall, was at maximum capacity of 800 guests. In addition, nearly 200 people watching the ceremony streamed live from the Omni Parker House Hotel.
Friday, January 30, 2015
MWPC Board Member Comments on New Attorney General
To read the article in its entirety, visit: http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2015/01/29/one-week-into-her-term-maura-healey-faces-unusual-question-what-next/YdwXcTn00eL2nhKjNrfRDN/story.html
Thursday, January 29, 2015
The State of the Union as it Relates to Women
President Obama’s State of the Union address on January 20th, 2015 was said, among many things, to be transformative and progressive. In the 2014 address, the president validated the feelings of women across the country by acknowledging the wage gap between men and women. Many felt that one of the greatest quotes from last year's address was the following, “Today, women make up about half of our workforce, but they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. Women deserve equal pay for equal work.” With that in mind, women were rightfully anticipating equal or greater representation in this year's SOTU. According to an article written by Emily Tess Katz from the Huffington Post, the president met these expectations. There were four key points that the president made in his 2015 SOTU address that left women across the country cheering:
1.) Mothers should have access to affordable and quality child care. While this is an issue that affects all or most parents, it has the most significant effect on mothers and specifically single mothers.
2.) All working people should be afforded paid sick time. This arguably has the largest impact on single mothers who are left with very few options when they or their children become sick.
3.) Over the past year, the wage gap has closed in by a mere penny. The current statistic holds that for every dollar that a man makes, a woman makes 78 cents. The president continues to stand by his position that women deserve equal pay for equal work.
4.) Women deserve paid maternity leave. The president states that it is unacceptable in a nation as advanced as ours that we do not have a mandated paid maternity leave for mothers.
While women are pleased with the president's acknowledgement of these issues, it is clear that they also intend to demand action to follow. Read the article in its entirety here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/21/maternity-leave-state-of-the-union_n_6516658.html
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:
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