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.

My dear friend (and fellow member of my writers’ group) Rachel Lehmann-Haupt appeared on Good Morning America this week discussing women’s fertility options without that note of sensational panic with which this topic is usually covered.  Remember the one about how a woman over 35 has a better chance of being in a terrorist attack that getting married and having kids?  No more.

I heart Rachel for writing In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment, and Motherhood, for celebrating choice in an age of mixed messages about the “proper” timing of women’s lives, and for honoring the myriad configurations of the modern family these days.  Watch her, right here!

(“Love the purple.  It’s working for you.”)

We’ve heard of the cock block, right? Well, here’s a new one (I just made it up — maybe): the Dad block.

According to a Wall Street Journal article today, “Helping Moms to Let Dads Be Dads,” research shows how kids benefit from having a positive, involved father, but negative “gatekeeping” by mothers can be an obstacle.  Hmm…Must go investigate this.

For another look at modern fatherhood, check out Sharon Jayson’s article in USA Today, “New Daditude”.

Look for more from me on dads at Slate’s The Big Money on Friday! And, of course, ahem, at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday at 2pm, where I’ll be whooping it up with my fellow WomenGirlsLadies.

(Thanks to CCF and to Rebekah at the WMC–always–for the heads ups)

A simply-must-read over at American Prospect, “When Opting Out Isn’t an Option”, offers a four-part look at the under-explored side of the current recession:  How is recession affecting women who have to balance caregiving with wage-earning, and who make up an immense but largely invisible workforce, including nannies, maids and retail clerks?

Contributors include Heather Boushey, Ann Friedman, Dana Goldstein, Janet C. Gornick, Harriet B. Presser, Caroline Batzdorf and Elissa Strauss. Need I say more?

(Thanks to CCF for the heads up)

I’ve been busy working up my comments for this Saturday’s 2pm panel at the Brooklyn Museum, billed as “a fresh conversation among feminists in honor of Father’s Day.” We’re an editor’s pick over at the Daily News and Time Out is supposed to be featuring us too!

We’ve been launching a multimedia publicity attack, so if you receive email from me and another from Facebook, please bear with us.  As always, it’s one great experiment in getting the word out in the age of social media.  (Learning lots along the way!)

For a taste of WomenGirlsLadies, you can check out this YouTube video from one of our past events:

My fellow WGLs Courtney Martin, Gloria Feldt, Kristal Brent Zook, and I REALLY like to make these talks interactive, so it’d be so great to have YOUR voices there! And if anyone’s game for liveblogging it here on GWP, the door is open!  Just email me and let me know.  K?

I will look for some of ya’ll there! Where you can find me:

Everything You Need to Know about Blogging and Why
10:45 am – 12:15 pm
CUNY Graduate Center, Room 9206
NYC

My latest, up at Recessionwire.com today!  Today’s post questions whether laid off men’s (ok, Marco’s) values are changing, now that they’re spending more time at home.  Hint: It’s all about the eggs. I’d love your comments!

According to a recent report from National Center for Health Statistics, nearly 40 percent of all babies born in the United States in 2007, up from 34 percent in 2002 and 18 percent in 1980, were born to “unmarried” (their word) women.  And the other week (May 26), Cathy Young asked in a Boston Globe article (“Single Mothers and the Baby Boom“) whether we should be treating single motherhood as “the new normal” or (once again) as a problem that needs to be addressed.  Writes Young:

Today, we have two contradictory trends. Millions of fathers are involved in hands-on child care to an unprecedented degree; millions of children have little or no contact with their fathers. Ironically, the mother-child family unit takes us back to a very pre-feminist idea: family and child-rearing as a feminine sphere. (For both biological and cultural reasons, men are far less likely to parent on their own.) Male alienation is another likely result.…Certainly, many single parents do a wonderful job of raising their children and many married couples do not. But in general, the two-parent family does work best for children, women, and men, and marriage seems the best way to ensure it. No one wants to go back to the day when unwed mothers and their children were outcasts. But restoring a cultural commitment to married parenting is a goal that should unite sensible conservatives, sane fathers’ rights advocates, and reasonable feminists.

Call me unreasonable, but I’m not so sure.

And on that note, be sure to check out Rachel Lehmann-Haupt’s awesome new book, In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment, and Motherhood.  Rachel will be talking it up on Good Morning America next week, and keep an eye out for forthcoming reviews in both The New York Times and The Washington Post. This book is generating BUZZ.

(Thanks, of course, to CCF for the heads up on Young’s article.)

Tis the season of awesome events here in NYC, if you’re into next-generation feminism that is.

On THURSDAY, the National Council for Research on Women will hold a special session as part of their Annual Conference on Igniting Change, called “Youth: Opportunities and Challenges for Building Leadership Pipelines”. The session takes place from 9:00 am – 10:30 am in Room 9205 at CUNY Graduate Center. Here’s the descript: As tomorrow’s voters and leaders, young women need to be vital partners in advancing the movement for social justice. This means working in partnership with young women, recognizing and valuing their diversity, to understand their perspectives and concerns and foster programs that emphasize both their rights and civic responsibilities. The panel will highlight current issues facing young women and address structural and cultural factors that support or hinder their empowerment. Attention will also be given to strategies for working across generational and cultural differences to build a viable movement.” Speakers include Rosalina Diaz-Miranda, Medgar Evers College, CUNY; Supriya Pillai, Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing; Kim Salmond, Girl Scouts of the USA; Ellen Silber, Graduate School of Social Service, Fordham University; Sally Stevens, Southwest Institute for Research on Women, University of Arizona; and Liz Abzug, Bella Abzug Leadership Institute.

On FRIDAY, the blog of all blogs, Feministing, is throwing a 5th anniversary fundraising bash. Even if you can’t go, you can still contribute!

On SUNDAY, Girls Write Now will hold their Annual Spring Reading from 4-6pm at The New School, Tishman Auditorium, 66 W. 12th Street. Some of NYC’s best teen writers will showcase original work, and keynote speaker Amy Robach and featured reader National Book Award Nominee Jean Thompson will be there too. The event is FREE and open to the public.

And that’s just this week!

We’ll be at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday, June 20 at 2pm for what promises to be one of our liveliest versions ever. There’s more over at the WomenGirlsLadies blog, and on a YouTube channel coming soon. Please spread the word!

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