Ken Starr (the lovely man who brought us the campaign to impeach President Bill Clinton) filed a legal brief last month — on behalf of the “Yes on 8” campaign — that would forcibly divorce 18,000 same-sex couples that were married in California last year before the passage of Prop 8.

Watch “Fidelity”, a brilliant and moving response brought to us by The Courage Campaign:

“Fidelity”: Don’t Divorce… from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

The Courage Campaign is asking for signatures on a letter to the state Supreme Court. Tell the Supreme Court to invalidate Prop 8, reject Ken Starr’s case, and let loving, committed couples marry. DEADLINE: Valentine’s Day.

55,536 people have signed the letter (as of Sunday, February 8). I just added my name, so make that 55,537. Will you add yours?

(Thank you thank you thank you, Virginia – I’m still weepy from watching this.)

And according to a cover story in today’s NYTimes,“As Layoffs Surge, Women May Surpass Men in Job Force”. Writes reporter Catherine Rampell:

“A deep and prolonged recession, therefore, may change not only household budgets and habits: it may also challenge longstanding gender roles.”

I have so much to say about this I can’t contain it in a post! More soon though, I promise, as the gender&recession story continues.

Watch for a new installment of “Love in the Time of Layoff” — my new column over at Recessionwire.com (the upside of the downturn) !  The feature will be appearing regularly, on Thursdays, and today’s should go live soon. (My previous one is posted here.)

Meanwhile, those savvy bloggers are doing all sorts of clever over there — Recession Concessions, Productive Loafing, Recession Lexicon, and more!

Well, certain wives of presidents aren’t the only ones thinking about working family’s issues these days.  Check out GWP friend Heather Hewett’s interview with Caroline Grant and Elrena Evans (pictured left), editors of the collection Mama, PhD (reviewed here last month)  and Professor Andrea O’Reilly, author and editor of many books about mothering and Director of the Association for Research on Mothering at York University in Ontario.  The convo is posted here, at The Mother’s Movement Online.

Since I’m all about the mens for the moment, particularly as their working family issues and work lives affect women, here’s an excerpt that touches on the question of what’s going on:

Heather Hewett: Do these [work/life] challenges face fathers as well as mothers?

Elrena Evans: As far as fathers facing the same sorts of challenges, when Caroline and I were first dreaming up this book we talked about whether it should be a collection from both men and women, or just of women. Eventually we decided that while fathers do indeed face these challenges, and more involved fathers face them to a greater degree, since the brunt of biology falls on women, women are the ones whose stories we wanted to hear. Because men can choose to be involved, but they can also choose not to be — and those kinds of decisions are more difficult to face when you are the one who is pregnant or nursing. Even beyond the biological factors, though, we’re so conditioned to think of mothers as the primary caregivers of children that it’s really hard to escape that.

Caroline Grant: Fathers who ask that a meeting be rescheduled so they can take their kid to the doctor are viewed as charmingly hands-on, while mothers who ask for that accommodation are viewed as asking for special favors. And that’s an attitude that’s not exclusive to the academy; it’s just how mothers and fathers are viewed in the U.S.

And while I’m on it, I loved this comment on a GWP post from last week, by Lydia, a grad student who shares this anecdote about her spouse, a SAHD:

A few years ago I started grad school and my spouse became a stay-at-home dad. Something we have both found disconcerting is just how much attention he gets as an “exceptional father” because he is doing this. [Like when the above father was introduced to the playgroup as “we have a daddy with us!”]. The same response does not happen for a woman who chooses to stay at home and may have made the same sacrifices to do so. The problem is that our society does not expect fathers to take such an active role in parenting, despite what strides we have made. The fact that the title for this piece was the new “Mr. Mom” shows how much parenting is associated with women in our society.

I also question the psychologist’s advice to be on the job hunt. This assumes that the choice is temporary and out of necessity, and not a valid choice for fathers to make just because they want to or feel it will be good for their children. When I began grad school, my spouse’s family kept asking him if he was looking for a job to help support me, until I finally said to them that if our roles were reversed, everyone would be supportive of me choosing to stay at home without the need to look for other employment. Obviously “mother”work is still undervalued in our society (unless a man is doing it, and then he’s a good man).

A note on all this framing: All the mothers are working, all the workers with work/life issues are women, but working men who are also involved fathers get to be “brave.”

Harumph.

The deadline to propose panels for the 2009 National Women’s Studies Association conference in Atlanta is Feb 15, 2009 (my 40th birthday!)  And among the themes this year is this:

Theme 5: Women’s Studies 40 Years Later: Where Are We Going, Where Have We Been?
Because 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the first WS program in the U.S.  So this occasion marks a pivotal moment in which to reflect on the state of the field and its practices, past and present.  Some questions to start mulling over, from the call for proposals:

• How are the histories and origin stories of WS as a field and of feminist theory as a body of knowledge (differently) documented, narrated, and conceptualized?
• Who claims WS, presently and/or historically?  Who disclaims it, presently and/or historically?
• How has feminist theory been reconceptualized?  What ‘counts’ as feminist theory in WS?
• Has the feminist subject been adequately reconceived?
• What do we name ourselves and why?  (e.g., feminist studies, women’s studies, women’s & gender studies)
• What are some difficulties within WS cross-generationally?  What are some sites of connection across generations?
• How has the WS curriculum changed, and how does it still need to be transformed, particularly the introductory course (Intro. to WS) and the Feminist Theory course?
• Are there ways in which WS functions simultaneously as a site of social control as well as a site of resistance and transformation in the academy?

More: NWSA invites all of those interested to submit proposals for panels, papers, workshops, and performances that represent the wide rage of intersectional and transnational scholarship in the US and beyond.  Proposals must address one of their five themes.

Read about the other four themes, and download the complete CFP by going here.

I’ve been waiting for an article about Michelle Obama’s emerging role beyond M-i-C to emerge.  And here it is (phew!):

Michelle Obama Crafts Policy Agenda, Politico.com: As she prepares to step out beyond her role as the self-described “mom in chief,” Michelle Obama has been busy behind the scenes crafting a policy-driven agenda that will bring working-family issues into the White House.

Go Michelle, go.

(Thanks to WMC’s Rebekah for the heads up)

Ok America, time to step up. Our friends at The Guardian are covering how recession is hitting the ladies–and writing about how it’s largely men created this mess.  So now it’s your turn.  Let’s hear about it.  Some links:

As the worldwide recession continues, will women bear most of the job losses? The Guardian

While the economic mess has been mostly created by men, should women clean it up? Also, where are the women at Davos 2009? The Guardian

Though to be fair, check these out too:

If women face discrimination and stereotyping on interviews, how can they ever get jobs during these tough times? Management Issues

When Pregnancy Collides with a Recession, The Wall Street Journal Juggle Blog

And my personal favorite:

To recover in these tough economic times, many argue that diversity is a necessity for recovery and success. The Wall Street Journal

(Thank you to Laura Sabattini and Cheryl Yanek at Catalyst for the heads up!)

From “Why the Sting of Layoffs Can be Sharper for Men,” NYTimes Jan. 31, 2009:

As job losses reverberate across the economy, differences in “his” and “her” layoffs are beginning to take shape — revealing gender dynamics that may not have been as apparent when the Dow was at 14,000.

Dr. Louann Brizendine, author of “The Female Brain” and a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, says that women who lose their jobs “aren’t going to take as much of a self-esteem hit” as men. That is because the most potent form of positive social feedback for many men comes from within the hierarchy of the workplace. By contrast, she said, women may have “many sources of self-esteem — such as their relationships with other people — that are not exclusively embedded within their jobs.”

She said that over the past six months, her clinic has had an increase in the number of men seeking help for difficulties related to job loss.

Terrence Real, a family therapist and the founder of Real Relational Solutions in Arlington, Mass., said the difference in reactions could be explained by the idea of performance esteem.

“Everyone who has written about male psychology has acknowledged that men base their sense of self on the maxim that ‘I have worth because of what I do,’ ” Mr. Real said. The feeling is that “you are only as good as your last game or your last job,” he said.

In his practice over the past 12 months, Mr. Real says, he has seen a roughly 20 percent uptick in the number of men seeking help because of the economic downturn.

Interesting….More from me on all this to come.  (Check out Recessionwire.com, plug plug!)

Today marks the launch of the best little darn thing, IMHO, to come out of this damn recession so far: GWP readers, please meet Recessionwire.com.

It’s the upside of the downturn.

This new pop-up site promises to chronicle these tough economic times until they end. Content is aimed at urban professionals looking for news, inspiration, advice, cultural insights, and a dose of humor. Think of it as your user’s guide to the recession.

Here’s how it all began, as described on the site:

A party, wine, conversations about layoffs—it was so very holiday ‘08. It was also where Lynn Parramore, a freelance writer who had lost several gigs to the downturn, and Laura Rich and Sara Clemence, who had just been laid off from Condé Nast Portfolio, decided to turn misfortune into opportunity. Inspired to capture the stories and improve the lives of urban professionals who, like them, were getting effed by the economy, they founded a website in early 2009. And that’s how Recessionwire was born–as a pop-up site™, ready and willing to die.

The editors’ vision was so in sync with my own–the desire to do something creative with misfortune, the impulse to make lemonade from shit–that I just had to be a part.

As ya’ll know, I just haven’t been able to stop writing about gender shakeup in the wake of recession after Marco got laid off. So now my musings have a home. I’ll be writing a regular feature for Recessionwire called Love in the Time of Layoff. It’ll appear every Thursday. The first installment–“Honey, They Shrunk My Job”–is now live.

In addition to my rather personal (ahem) take on the ways and woes of relationships in tough economic times though, please look to Recessionwire every day for perspective, work (or out-of-work) advice, spending tips, and more.  Other regular features include:

Recession Briefing: A daily roundup of the news you need to survive and thrive
Lemonade Makers: Spotlights on people seeing opportunity in this economy
Redux: A cultural series that looks into history to see the path ahead
Retooling: Profiles of companies working out New Reality strategies
Recession Lexicon: The new terms, expressions, euphemisms that are coming out of this economy
Recession Concessions: Peeks at what people are giving up as they cut back–and the luxuries they won’t concede.

I promise you will find some solace here, or at the very least a snort or a laugh.  Personally, this site has made my month.  I can’t wait to share it all with you.  Do take a look, and then please please pass it on!

Reccessionwire.com

Conference Details
Date: Monday, February 2, 2009
Time: 09:30 AM – 05:00 PM
Location: George Washington University
Betts Theater at the Marvin Center
800 21st Street, N.W Washington, DC 20052

Even if you can’t go, do check out the conference program. The lineup includes bloggers including GWP’s own Veronica Arreola (aka Viva la Feminsta) and my fellow Progressive Women’s Voices gals Joanne Bamberger (aka PunditMom), Latoya Peterson (aka Racialicious), Kristen Rowe-Finkbeiner (aka Moms Rising Executive Director), as well as Melissa Silverstein (Women and Hollywood blog), Tedra Osel (Bitch PhD), and BlogHer co-founder Elisa Camahort Page!

A final, pre-conference twittercast takes place this Sunday. The theme will be: “Fem2.0 Agenda: What do you think? What themes are missing? How can we improve next time?”

For conference registration, click here.