Archive: Jun 2009

Well now isn’t this interesting: Just as we learn that the world’s wealthy are losing faith in their fund managers, we are also learning that the VAST MAJORITY of fund managers are…guess what, surprise surprise…white and male.  Perhaps it’s time to shake things up with a little (say it with me) di-ver-sity on Wall Street?  You think?  Come on boys, why not just give it a try.

According to a new report covered yesterday in the Times Online (UK), almost half of the world’s 8.6 million wealthiest investors have lost confidence in their fund manager.  The report itself lays bare how the credit crunch has damaged people’s personal fortunes.  According to the article, “Investors’ lack of faith prompted a quarter of those with financial assets of more $1 million to pull funds from a manager or dismiss their adviser last year…”

Ouch.  But wait!  Here’s the good news:

Yesterday, nearly 300 people gathered at the Bloomberg headquarters here in NYC for the release of a report by my ladies at the National Council for Research on Women, aptly titled “Women in Fund Management: A Road Map to Achieving Critical Mass—And Why it Matters.”

To learn more about the report’s important findings, and the splashy launch, check out Kyla Bender-Baird’s live-blogging from the event, NCRW President Linda Basch’s oped yesterday over at the Christian Science Monitor, and the report’s very own website, right here.

My heartfelt kudos to all involved in the creation of this timely piece of research, and especially to Purse Pundit, aka Jacki Zehner, for making it happen, being a role model and postergirl for the advancement of women on Wall Street, and keeping it real.  Jacki’s latest on this all is up at Huffington Post, “Shattering the Ceilings for Good.”

A few years ago (ok may more than a few) Gil Scott Heron said the revolution would not be televised and Tracey Chapman, when talking about the revolution, thought it would whisper, not ‘tweet’. Iranian women and men are risking their lives to protest for their rights and their voices will be heard, televised, and ‘tweeted’.

If you’re like us, you’ve spent the past couple of weeks glued to your computer, watching the historic Iranian election – and its aftermath – unfold. For us, what’s been important are not only the changes in Iranian society that the post-election protests signal, but women’s role in these protests (dare we say revolution) and what this election means for Iranian women.

On June 20th a young woman and her father took to the streets demanding to be heard, not knowing that hers would echo across the globe. When they named their daughter, her parents probably could not fathom how well her name suited her; Neda in Farsi means the voice or the call. Neda and thousands of women are taking to the streets and demanding equal rights. Dana Goldstein, of the Daily Beast, stresses that the underreported part of what is unfolding in Iran is women’s involvement in the protests.

Feminist politics are not new to Iran. According to Manilee Bagheritari, an independent gender consultant of Iranian descent, the feminist movement, or rather the ongoing three-decades old wave, is divided by two different approaches; the secular feminists (e.g. Shirin Ebadi) and Islamic feminists (though they might not prefer the label). What is important is that the two groups both demand that the state first ratify and second harmonize its laws with those of the international human rights instruments, namely the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW.

According to Haideh Moghissi, Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at York University and founder of the Iranian National Union of Women (and author of one of my favorite books, Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism: The Limits of Postmodern Analysis), although the Iranian women’s movement has a robust and long history, “at no time has the political influence of women and women’s issues been so profoundly visible as at present.” Prior to the election and women’s visible presence in the post-election demonstrations, women’s organizations came together to demand change from presidential candidates. The coalition, which included 35 women’s and social justice groups and 600 activists and intellectuals made two major demands

“under the banner of ‘women’s coalition movement’ (jonbesh-e Hamgerai’i)…
1) Joining the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); 2) A constitutional amendment to eliminate discriminatory articles that deprive women of equal rights with men.”

The blog Vital Voices has the following breakdown of the positions taken on these issues by Ahmadinejad and opposition candidate Mousavi:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

* Ahmadinejad changed the name of the government organization the “Centre for Women’s Participation” to the “Centre for Women and Family Affairs”.
* Ahmadinejad proposed a new law that would reintroduce a man’s right to divorce his wife without informing her. In addition, men would no longer be required to pay alimony. In response, women’s groups have initiated the Million Signatures campaign against these measures.
* Ahmadinejad’s administration opposes the ratification of CEDAW…
* Ahmadinejad implemented the Social Safety program, which monitors women’s clothing, requires the permission from a father or husband for a woman to attend school, and applies quotas limiting the number of women allowed to attend universities.

Mir-Hossein Mousavi

* Mousavi pledged to disband the “Morality Police” that monitor women’s clothing in accordance with traditional Islamic dress.
* Mousavi vowed to support legal measures to end violence and discrimination against women.
* Mousavi has sounded support for the ratification of CEDAW.
* Mousavi promised to appoint female ministries and other high offices, if elected.

Zahra Rahnavard, wife of reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, addressed crowds earlier this month saying, “Thirty-four million women demand to have female cabinet ministers, 34 million women demand to be eligible to run for president, 34 million women want the civil law to be revised, 34 million women want the family law revised.”

What is truly beautiful about these protests is that men and women are protesting for human rights, which most seem to realize are incomplete without women’s rights. These protests feel like the modern day Middle Eastern manifestation of the French Revolution’s call for Liberté, Egalite and Fraternité…in this case a Fraternité that encompasses both brotherhood and sisterhood.

Quick round-up of links on women’s involvement in the post-election protests and demonstrations. Please feel free to add more in comments:

Iran and the Women Question

Iran’s Women’s Revolution

In Iran, “Pretty” is Sometimes the Protest

Who was really cheated in Iran’s vote? Women.

Protests in the Wake of Iran’s Election

The Women Protesting in Iran

You can also get up-to-the-minute info on Twitter by searching #iranelection

When I was growing up I thought it was my Uncle Frank who said, “most of day’s work is done by people who don’t feel very well that day.” In my family’s lexicon, this meant “life is hard” and “deal with it.”  (Later I learned it was Eleanor Roosevelt; but maybe she was quoting Uncle Frank?)

Here’s what the saying means now: most of a day’s work is done by people who don’t have adequate paid sick leave (not to mention decent health insurance). Our buddies at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) just published a report, “Contagion Nation: A Comparison of Paid Sick Day Policies in 22 Countries,” that will, well, make you sick. Here’s the abstract:

This report finds that the U.S. is the only country among 22 countries ranked highly in terms of economic and human development that does not guarantee that workers receive paid sick days or paid sick leave. Under current U.S. labor law, employers are not required to provide short-term paid sick days or longer-term paid sick leave.  By relying solely on voluntary employer policies to provide paid sick days or leave to employees, tens of millions of U.S. workers are without paid sick days or leave. As a result, each year millions of American workers go to work sick, lowering productivity and potentially spreading illness to their coworkers and customers.

The report couldn’t be more timely, as our swine flu anxiety plateaus out into recession’s hot summer. Workers under increasingly enormous economic stress cannot afford to take off when they are ill. “The economic costs of a serious flu outbreak are potentially enormous,” said lead report author Jody Heymann, Director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University. Her sentiment, and the report’s, were reflected in a New York Times editorial supporting the report’s call to provide workers with paid sick days. Now.

I know, I know. We can’t afford it. Jeepers, ya’ll, we’d really like to help, but we just can’t afford it. Hard times, high unemployment. I hear ya’ out there, and thank goodness for you smart free marketeers who can help us sort out priorities rationally. I mean, heck of a job on that financial sector!

Oh wait, this just in: CEPR did a cool little follow up to “Contagion Nation.” The very title, “Paid Sick Days Don’t Cause Unemployment,” tells the story. But let me recap: The researchers had already shown that availability of sick days doesn’t give countries a higher unemployment rate, nor does it make countries less competitive. But this time, they asked, what about the amount of paid sick days? Does that make a difference? The answer is no. Paid sick days don’t hurt employment–and they don’t help. They have no influence one way or another on unemployment. But, as Dr. Heymann and colleagues explain in “Contagion Nation”:

A substantial body of research has shown that in addition to the obvious health and economic costs imposed on employees by the lack of paid sick days or leave, significant costs result as well for employers. Workers who go to work while sick stay sick longer, lower their productivity as well as that of their coworkers, and can spread their illnesses to coworkers and customers.

The way things are, I don’t feel so good. But reading papers like this is like a shot in the arm. Let’s make sure this work reaches legislators. The National Partnership for Women and Families can hook you up here with a variety of ways to take action, including urging your members of Congress to support the Healthy Families Act, which guarantees workers a minimum of seven days of paid sick leave. (And send them both CEPR papers!)

-Virginia Rutter

My man is really involved in this pregnancy thing, I tell ya. What a modern dude.

So I’ve started to feel fluttering inside me — “quickening,” I’ve learned, is the official term when you start to feel the fetus(es) move. Last night I put Marco’s hand on my belly, to see if he could feel it on the outside. This morning, he turns to me and says “Wow – mine is totally moving around.” Accompanying photo attached.

We wrote a posted called “The Face of Domestic Violence” back in Februrary and wanted to offer this update:

We applaud Rihanna for having the courage to stand up for herself and the courts ensuring that justice was served. Hopefully Chris Brown can take this moment and grow from this, knowing that laying his hands on anyone especially a woman is absolutely unacceptable.

And more importantly, what can be done?

Come hear the answers this Wednesday at the launch of a new report by The National Council for Research on Women.

From the release:

In the last year, we have all been stunned by stories of financial crises, of the sudden demise of long established institutions, and the failures of leading investment professionals. In this report, The National Council for Research on Women calls for fundamental change in the systems, oversight, and leadership of our financial services sector to ensure that the talent pool for the industry includes a diversity of perspectives, including moderating and cautionary approaches, to ensure a stable, healthy, and sustainable financial system. Specifically, they call for a critical mass of women in financial institutions, resulting in greater size and quality of the talent pool and decreasing potential for group-think. They examine the proven benefits of greater diversity in business; the historical and cultural barriers for underrepresented groups; and offer solutions to overcome those barriers.

With crisis comes opportunity – in this case, an opportunity to bring greater diversity to the rarified realms of finance and to infuse the global marketplace with new thinking, broader perspectives, greater transparency, and more sustainable solutions. A panel of experts will discuss how we can take this opportunity to promote women’s leadership in fund management and throughout the corporate space.

Speakers:
Melinda Wolfe, Head of Professional Development, Bloomberg L.P. — Welcome
Linda Basch, President, National Council for Research on Women
Jacki Zehner, Founding Partner, Circle Financial Group and
Board Member Emerita, National Council for Research on Women

Additional speakers to be announced.

Please RSVP to ncrw@ncrw.org

A must-read this morning: WGL panelist Courtney Martin expounds on many of the themes we discussed at Saturday’s panel in her column this week at The American Prospect. Thank you, Courtney, for so beautifully summing up some of the issues, and then taking it the next step.

For another great post-Father’s Day fix, try this latest interview with Jeremy Adam Smith, author of The Daddy Shift, over at Salon, “Daddy on Board”, where Jeremy discusses why dads are spending more time with their kids.

Me and my WGLs (WomenGirlsLadies) at the Brooklyn Museum! Thank you to all who came out on a rainy Saturday to talk it up about Dads, Dudes, and Doing It. Marco says we look like an all-female band here and it’s true: we wish. (We wish we had a manager, actually, is what we wish! Any takers?!) I’m dressed a little hippy dippy here, like the sole member of the group singing folk, but I’m told I get pregnancy license and hey, it’s what’s comfortable!

I hope everyone had a Happy Father’s Day!

There’s so much Father’s Day goodness out there today I don’t know where to start.

Former NYTimes blogger Marci Alboher asks “Are Dads the New Moms?” over at her new Yahoo blog, Working the New Economy.

Lisa Belkin conducts a two part interview with The Daddy Shift: How Stay-at-Home Dads, Breadwinning Moms, and Shared ParentingAreTransforming the American Family author and Daddy Dialectic blogger Jeremy Adam Smith

Michelle Goldberg of ABCNews.com tells us What Laid-Off Dads Want

And I offer “Findings from from the Layoff Lab”— a Father’s Day assessment of recession-era dads — over at The Big Money! 

You can bet we’ll touch on many of these themes — and more, and from a fresh and feminist perspective — at the Brooklyn Museum tomorrow when the WomenGirlsLadies talk about “Dads, Dudes, and Doing It.” Event is free!  We’ll be giving books away!  I’ll be wearing straight-up maternity wear!  This is one you won’t want to miss 🙂

PS. Time Out New York just listed us as one of the “Ten Best Father’s Day events” in town!

Check out this amazing interview over at ForbesWoman, “Iran and the Woman Question”. Roya Kakakian, an Iranian poet and author now living in the United States, talks about feminism in Iran, and the climate over there right now.  A brief excerpt:

Forbes: What was your first reaction to seeing women among the protesters in the streets of Iran?

Hakakian: The presence of women is not a surprise to me at all.

Iran has had a robust women’s movement for several decades now. But in the late 1990s, a new generation took charge; and in the early 2000s, they managed to organize and unite in ways that women had not since the revolution in 1979. It started as petition movement to collect signatures to ban stoning women to death and has spun out to become the “One Million Signatures Campaign.” So this is precisely what I expected.

Read the rest.