Archive: Nov 2008

This here’s one of my favorite conferences of all, and not just because Stephanie Coontz, Steve Mintz, Virginia Rutter, Lara Riscoll, and Barbara Risman are fun to dance with.  Though that part’s fun too.  I love the Council on Contemporary Families Annual Conference because of the caliber and savvy of its participants.  It’s the cream of the crop, bringing together researchers, practionners, and media types who are interested in the way public discourse sees and understands “family” in our day.  I joined the CCF Board this year, so I’m feeling very fancy and all grown up.

The gathering take place this year on April 17 and 18, 2009 at University of Illinois at Chicago (OBAMALAND!), and the theme is RELATIONSHIPS, SEXUALITY, AND EQUALITY.  What more could a girl want?

Deets:

Changes in American families have radically altered how we define ourselves as men and women. These changes have affected romantic relationships, power dynamics in same and opposite sex couples, and the way we parent. The 2009 CCF conference will examine the latest research and clinical findings about where the lives of boys, girls, men, and women have become more similar in recent years, where they continue to be different, and how these differences affect the prospects for each.  Nationally recognized speakers will address the dramatic ways these changes are affecting work patterns and political life, and in turn, how changing work patterns and social mores are affecting men, women, and diverse families.

Keynote speaker: Andrew Cherlin, author of the new book The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today.

The conference will also include a conversation between historian Stephanie Coontz, Ms. Magazine Editor Kathy Spillar, and Chicago Tribune columnist Dawn Trice, titled “Gender, Race, and Equality: What Has the Election Taught Us?”

A pre-conference workshop features media training for everybody. In sessions with Stephanie Coontz, Virginia Rutter, and Deborah Siegel (that’s me!), hone your skills in op-ed writing, get started turning your good work into a media message that makes an impact, or learn how—and why—to use the blogsophere. This conference workshop is free to conference attendees, but folks who are not attending the conference are invited to attend these practical workshops for a modest fee.

Click here for the full conference schedule.  Hope to see a bunch of you there, as I often do!

What Will Hillary Do? The latest:

Ted Kennedy Asks Hillary Clinton To Head Senate Healthcare Team
11/19/08
LA Times: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y), considered a prominent contender to become secretary of State in the Obama administration, was offered an alternative Tuesday — to be a senior member of the Senate team aiming to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system.

Why Obama Wants Hillary for His ‘Team of Rivals’
11/20/08
Time: As he wrapped up his second week as President-elect, it was clear that Obama was taking the long view in both diplomacy and politics. How else to explain the fact that he had all but offered the most prestigious job in his Cabinet to a woman whose foreign policy experience he once dismissed as consisting of having tea with ambassadors?

And while we’re on the subject of Cabinet appointments:

Will Tom Daschle Be The Secretary Of HHS The Reproductive Rights Community Wants?
11/19/08
RH Reality Check: Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s record on reproductive and sexual health and rights is a mixed one.

GWP’s Gwendolyn Beetham (coauthor with Tonni Brodber of our Global Exchange column) attended the Association for Women in Development Forum this month, in Cape Town.  Here’s her report.  And do note the contrast between Gwen’s sentiment and the findings of the Daily Beast report this week.  Feminism, alive and well. Not dead. Copy that, America?  -Deborah

November 20, 2008

I just got back from Cape Town, South Africa, where I was lucky enough to attend the 2008 AWID Forum, aptly titled The Power of Movements. While networking, learning and listening to fabulous feminists from around the world, I was inspired, moved, and most of all energized by the power of feminists! Do check out the website, they are in the process of posting summaries of the panel discussions, as well as videos and photos from the conference. I’ve listed some personal highlights below.

One of my favorite videos was done by the Young Women’s Caucus, younger feminists who also went around the conference passing around pink scarves to conference-goers to symbolize intergenerational collaboration among feminists and asking people how they define feminism. Although the video isn’t available online yet, I can tell you that many participants said that feminism is a way of life – love it!  For more on young feminist action at the conference, you can check out the Young Feminists at the AWID Forum blog, as well as AWID’s Feminist Tech Exchange (I must admit however, that some of the comments from the younger feminists really saddened me – it seems as if much of the “intergenerational” discussion hasn’t changed much from the point where it was five years ago when I was heavily involved in the young feminist movement here in the States.)

One of the best panels that I attended was hosted by the Third Wave Foundation, Ms. Foundation, and the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, along with some of their partner organizations. During the discussion, Rickke Mananzala, of the NYC-based organization Fierce, raised a really important point on the success of Prop 8 in California and similar bills in Arkansas and Florida.  He suggested that not only do these victories (for the right) point to the amount of funding that went into the promotion of these bills, but to the lack of an intersectional perspective in our own social justice movements. Makes me wonder what would have happened if youth organizations, children’s organizations and LGBT organizations would have come together to oppose the ban on unmarried couples adopting in Arkansas, or if organizations working for people of color and other marginalized groups would have come together to oppose Prop 8 in California. Don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of great organizations (including Fierce!) who do a great job of working collaboratively. But I do think that may organizations – especially those in the women’s movement, with which I’m most familiar – have really had problems incorporating both perspectives and actions which truly recognize the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, religion and age.

I would be happy to chat with folks in comments about the rest of the conference. And kudos to AWID for organizing such an amazing event!

And stay tuned for next week, when Tonni & I resume our Global Exchange. This time we’ll be talking about the impact of the global financial crisis on women internationally.  Stay tuned!

–Gwendolyn Beetham

This email has been circulating around, and I wanted to pass it on.  I have dear friends out in Wyoming who are Mormons.  Not all Mormons are evil.  But the actions described below, I agree, were.  Please circulate as you see fit:

On November 4, the people of California voted to ban gay marriage.  The big donors behind this campaign included the Mormon and Catholic churches.  They helped fund sinister ads which included blatant lies.  The ads were extremely effective in promoting fear and scaring people from knowing the truth.

In this country, you can be a church. You can be a political action committee. You cannot be both. The Mormon Church stands in direct defiance of the spirit of our laws by actively campaigning to change  California law.  Please click here and sign the petition (click on the address below) to repeal the Mormon Tax Exempt status.

(Thank you, Jacqueline, for the heads up.)

I am just brimming with Chicago Obama pride.  Today’s New York Times features a piece on a new wind blowing through the city I still often think of as home. Well, ok ok, so I lived in the Chicago ‘burbs for my first 18 years.  But it was still my city.  Just sayin. (GO CUBS!)

Check out this GORGEOUS collage over at the new collaborate blog Fourth Wave Feminism, which launched on the eve of the Democratic National Convention this year.  I just had to share:

While you’re at it, check out Fourth Wave’s mission statement, here.

As a chronicler of feminism, of course I’m fascinated by the term. Here’s Fourth Wave’s post on the third (wave, that is).  My basic position: I don’t care what we call it, let’s just keep on doing it.  Fourth, five, sixth, sixteenth….bring it on.

To veterans, these divisions get tiresome, and I have seen how they can keep us from coming together.  But IMHO, the rolling of waves and the recognition of intergenerational difference in any social movement is natural, and essential to its growth.  I’m not seeing the same tensions between the “new” and the “old” with this fourth as there seemed to be when the term “third wave” first came about in the early 1990s.  (Unless I’m missing something here?)  At the same time, as the savvy ladies over at the UK feminist blog, The F-Word, remind us, many of the aims of so-called second-wave feminism, both here and there, still haven’t been achieved.  So boo to generational in-fighting.  We’ve got far too much at stake.  And hence, a caveat: fourth, fifth, sixth, bring it on, but let’s all keep our eyes on the larger prize.

I write all about this waving of feminism (ah, the oceanography of it all…) in a book, of course, with a hot pink cover.  And the WomenGirlsLadies and I have been having a wonderful experience taking it all on the road.  Meanwhile, back in medialand, New York Magazine did a piece in April titled “The Feminist Reawakening: Hillary Clinton and the Fourth Wave” and there was an article in Utne Reader back in 2001 called “Feminism’s Fourth Wave.” Journalist Julie Leupold is doing a special project on “Fourth Wave Feminism” over at Porfolio at NYU.  And so the public conversation and feminism and its waves continues.

Once again, I’m curious…what do others think of the term?  Interesting conversation going on in comments, across the pond.

PS. Feminism, in some corners, has been known to eat its young. So to the Fourth Wave blog– “exploring feminism in the 21st century and grappling with the continued gender inequity in America and the world”–a hearty welcome again to the blogosphere! And speaking of exploring, do check out the 68th Carnival of Feminists, hosted at Fourth Wave.

Ok, so this is probably OBVIOUS from that shiny ad over there, but I didn’t want to be all sneaky about it and I wanted to explain WHY.

1. I heart BlogHer. For those who don’t yet know it, BlogHer describes itself as “the community for women who blog; you say it, we share it.” I went to my first BlogHer conference in 2007 and loved it from the first shalom. I learned a ton and credit the organization for helping me take all this blogging to the next level. I’ll be at BlogHer 2009, hopefully, this year too – it’s in Chicago, my hometown. And it’s their fifth anniversary this year!

2. I appreciate the mojo of the women who started BlogHer, and share their mission: increased visibility, support, and tools for women seeking to get their messages out there, via blogging in this case. I also appreciate their entrepreneurial spirit. Full disclosure: BlogHer and their bloggers share any ad revenue that comes in.

3. I’ve watched the trend of ads at political blogs unfold and have totally made peace with it. Many if not most of the progressivey bloggers I know and admire have incorporated ads on their sites over the past year. At first, I was hesitant, but I have come to feel that it is a-ok to try to earn a little extra from blogging, even when blogging is not itself commercially motivated. You won’t see the content change in any way, shape, or form. I promise. Except, of course, for this post.

4. We’re bringing on interns to help us develop now that we have gone group and there’s a whole lot more going on. And currently they are working for free. We’d like to change that.

If you have questions, comments, concerns, I do hope you’ll voice them in comments. And we here at GWP are more than happy to answer any questions! We are all learning as we go.

Speaking of learning as we go, a few preliminaries:
-Some ads are flash right now, but we’re opting for static, so that should change soon.
-We can also opt out of certain campaigns, so if you see an ad for Barbie or anything, know that I’m on it.  Of course, “or anything” is relative, but if you see something, say something, and we will definitely check it out!

It’s hard to know these days whether to see the glass half-full or half-empty: Obama won a historic election powered by the youth vote and women.

On the other hand, it’s hard to know when the economy is really going to hit bottom.

Maybe we should be relieved that we’re heading into this season of gratitude. To be sure it may take us all a little longer to count our blessings this year, or to figure out what counts as a blessing these days, so here are some thoughts from my Girl Talk perspective.

I’m thankful for:

1. Blue Sex—Margaret Talbot has a fascinating analysis of some recent and forthcoming research about teens, sex, and religion in the New Yorker. Talbot takes her title, “Red Sex, Blue Sex,” from sociologist Mark Regnerus’s research. I can’t do justice to the full article here, but I was especially struck by what Regnerus identifies as a new “middle-class morality.” According to Regnerus middle-class, well-educated young women “are interested in remaining free from the burden of teenage pregnancy and the sorrows and embarrassments of sexually transmitted diseases. They perceive a bright future for themselves, one with college, advanced degrees, a career, and a family. Simply put, too much seems at stake. Sexual intercourse is not worth the risks.”

This is great news for middle-class, well educated young women (and their parents).

But I’m even more excited about what it suggests for young women who are not middle-class, and for those of us who do education and advocacy work to support all girls and young women, because we can work together to create the potential for a “bright future.” I know that the Girl Scout Council of New York has just such plans in mind for its career exploration program that will be launching in Bronx middle schools.

2. Sasha and Malia Obama—My eight-year-old daughter was already a passionate follower of the Presidential campaign and the election itself; she and her best friend bet a quarter on the election outcome (my daughter came home with an extra quarter in her pocket on November 5), and she participated in a mock-election at her YMCA camp on election day. Now that she has peers in the White House, I’m willing to bet that national politics will stay on her radar screen, even if our attention is on the possible first pet or how the girls will get to school for now.

3.  The Little House on the Prairie Series—Reading is part of our family routine every evening, and we finished the Little House on the Prairie book series with my daughter about a year ago. I am especially grateful for the hardy, adventurous, strong-willed Laura Ingalls character now that our reading as turned to the offensive My Weird School series, with its sex-stereotyped characters, from the brainy, obnoxious girl to the bored and distracted boys. I’ve used these books as a way to talk about sex-stereotyping, and the ways it hurts girls and boys, but surely we can do better than this!

So GWP readers, do you have any tween books to recommend? Help me out and I’ll add those to my gratitude list too.  And I’m eager to know: What’s on your gratitude list these days?

One of the most exciting things coming off of election night was watching gangs of teenagers running through my neighborhood banging pots and cheering about Obama’s win. I’d never seen anything like it. Courtney’s here to talk concretely about the youth turnout in this election and what that may mean for the future of American politics. –Kristen

There was a lot of skepticism leading up to the election about young people. Many pundits talked about the usual pattern regarding youth enthusiasm about politics…it starts out with a bang and ends with a whimper. In other words, young people usually talk a big game, but then don’t actually show up to the polls in expected numbers.

Well this year was different. Plain and simple. Pew Research Center has just released a report titled, Young Voters in the 2008 Election and it’s chock-full of exciting news about the ways in which young people walked their talk this unprecedented election season. Some of the highlights:

• This year, 66% of those under age 30 voted for Barack Obama making the disparity between young voters and other age groups larger than in any presidential election since exit polling began in 1972.

• Among voters ages 18-29, a 19-point gap now separates Democratic party affiliation (45%) and Republican affiliation (26%).

• Just 62% of voters age 18-29 identify as white, while 18% are black and 14% Hispanic. Four years ago, this age group was 68% white. In 2000, nearly three-quarters (74%) of young voters were white.

There is all sorts of intriguing data coming out of the November 4th showing of young people, but perhaps most exciting is the inkling that a whole generation is shifting left like never before. There is real evidence that young people who have been galvanized by an Obama presidency are poised to concretize a real, solid progressive youth movement.

I’ve written about this before, but it bears saying again. In order to capitalize on the exciting youth movement that has been ignited by Obama’s presidency, progressives need to put some serious money behind a youth-directed, Democratic political machine. It’s as if we’ve all been given a golden opportunity—an inspiring leader who understood the importance of grassroots and netroots organizing. Now it’s time to run with our blessing.

Word on the street is that The American Prospect Online is working on a big story on how to transfer the Obama enthusiasm into a sustainable youth movement. Stay tuned for the link and analysis…

–Courtney Martin

This just in: The Daily Beast released a poll this morning that reveals the depth of women’s anger in the aftermath of Hilary Clinton’s and Sarah Palin’s campaigns. “The Barrier That Didn’t Fall” (downloadable) summarizes and analyzes survey results from 1,000 U.S. voters, coming on the high heels of “the first-ever presidential election with two high profile women candidates who ran but did not win.”

The stats:

• By an overwhelming 61% to 19% margin, women believe there is a gender bias in the media.
• 4 in 10 men freely admit sexist attitudes towards a female president. 39% of men say that a male is “naturally more suited” to carrying out the duties of the office
• Only 20% of women polled are willing to use the word “feminist” about themselves. Only 17% said they would welcome their daughters using that label.
• 48% of women thought Hillary Clinton received fair media treatment and only 29% believed Sarah Palin was treated fairly. In contrast, nearly 8 in 10 voters thought the press gave fair treatment to Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
• More than two-thirds of women said they were being treated unfairly in the workplace (68%)

In the words of a very articulate dear friend of mine: BLURGH.

(Thanks to Anna for the heads up.)