Folks are often asking me for various status-of-women stats.  As we get ready to usher in a new year, I thought I’d post some, right here right now.  Warning: they’re pretty dismal. Here’s hoping for improvement in 2009!

Politics

• The US ranks 68th of 134 nations worldwide with only 16.8% women elected to the House of Representatives and 16.0% women elected to the Senate. (SOURCE)

• The US ranks 27th in terms of women in power (measured as “top political and decision-making roles, including relative access to executive government and corporate posts”) – below Germany (11th), Britain (13th), France (15th), Lesotho (16th), Trinidad and Tobago (19th), South Africa (22nd), Argentina (24th) and Cuba (25th). (SOURCE: 2008 Global Gender Gap report by the World Economic Forum)

• In 2008, 87 women serve in the U.S. Congress. Sixteen women serve in the Senate, and 71 women serve in the House. The number of women in statewide elective executive posts is 74, while the proportion of women in state legislatures is at 23.7 percent. SOURCE: Center for American Women in Politics)

• Of those 87 women, 20 (or 23%) are women of color, all serving in the House.  Women of color constitute 3.9% of the total 535 members of Congress. No women of color serve in the US Senate. (SOURCE: Center for American Women in Politics)

Business

• Women currently make 78 cents to the male dollar.
• Percentage of female Fortune 500 corporate officers: 15.4%
• Percentage of female Fortune 500 board seats: 14.8%
• Percentage of female Fortune 500 top earners: 6.7%
• Percentage of female Fortune 500 CEOs: 2.4% (SOURCE for all above: Catalyst)
• Number of female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies: 12
• Number of female CEOs in Fortune 501-1000 companies: 10
• Total female CEOS in Fortune 1000 companies: 22 (SOURCE for all above: Catalyst)
• In Silicon Valley, for every 100 shares of stock options owned by a man, only one share is owned by a woman. (SOURCE)
• Only 1% of the world’s assets are in the name of women. (SOURCE)

And there’s more — Poverty, Violence…
Poverty

• Over half of the 37 million Americans living in poverty today are women. And women in America are further behind than women in other countries—the gap in poverty rates between men and women is wider in America than anywhere else in the Western world.
• In 2007,13.8 percent of females were poor compared to 11.1 percent of men.
• Elderly women are far more likely to be poor than elderly men. Thirteen percent of women over 75 years old are poor compared to 6 percent of men. (SOURCE)
• 70% of people in abject poverty worldwide — living on less than $1 per day– are women. (SOURCE)

Violence

• The United States is the only industrialized nation that has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
• One in three women around the world will be raped, beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime.
• Every day 4 women die in the US as a result of domestic violence.

On the upside, in education and business:

• Women now graduate high school at rates higher than those of men — 87 percent for women; 85 percent for men. But on the other hand, a higher proportion of males in the general population had a bachelor’s degree or higher (28.9 percent compared with 26.5 percent of women).
• There are 9.1 million women-owned businesses in the US. (SOURCE)
• Women of color now own 1 in 5 women-owned firms and women of all colors are expanding into non-traditional industries. (SOURCE)
• Women own 20% of firms with revenues exceeding $1 million.  (SOURCE)

Of course, there are many more, but I’ll stop there!

Rick Warren as Obama’s choice for the inaugural invocation, for reals?

The best critique I’ve seen so far is this one, by Michelle Goldberg over at Religion Dispatches. (Addendum: See also Gloria Feldt, “Say It Isn’t So, O!”)

I get the bridging of constituencies intended through this pick, but still SO not cool. Why why why?

Please feel free to post links to any organized efforts you’ve seen to send messages of outrage to Obama HQ in comments.

I’ve been posting lately on writing resolutions, and now here’s a post for anyone with a resolve — or aspiration — to blog. For those of you who are interested in becoming bloggers but don’t know how or where to start, two fresh guides to check out, chock full of useful sounding tips:

1. This Slate article: “How to Blog”

2. This book: The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging

(Thanks to Annie for the heads up!)

Hells yeah, as long as folks like Andi Zeisler are running the show. Check out this interview with Bitch magazine’s editor, by Jessica Wakeman, over at The American Prospect. And GO, BITCH! I think I’m gonna make it a holiday gift for some folks this year.

Thank you to those who responded to my question about what helps you stay on track with long writing projects the other day! The collective wisdom out there always humbles me. Writing can be so isolating, but I think it helps hugely when we share our difficulties and, importantly, our strategies for keeping it going. So in that spirit, here’s what some of you said:

Sez Dawn, of This Woman’s Work:
“Sanity comes from accepting that my life doesn’t have a neat, predictable schedule and not fighting that too hard. Writing around kids and clients (and currently without childcare) means missed opportunities and making myself crazy about that just makes me crazy — it doesn’t help. So acceptance. (sigh) Which is hard.”

Sez Anniegirl:
“Setting word counts and periodic deadlines for myself is helpful but sometimes taking a day or two away from the project lets me recharge or think or mentally reboot myself when I am wondering who the hell will I ever sell this to. I recall a writer who recommended physical activity as a way to literally run or walk yourself past the low spots or over the humps. I find I do my best writing while thinking during a workout. All I need is about 4 miles under my feet to get back on track.”

Sez Alison Piepmeier, of Baxter Sez:
“A little more than three years ago, I was at the beginning of writing my book on zines by girls and women….I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say, and I got to the point of realizing that my writing days were done. Unbeknownst to me, I had already written the last intelligent thing I was ever going to write. The semester was about to start, I hadn’t finished a chapter, and I was sliding into a pit of despair.
Fortunately, I encountered Conseula at a campus meeting on a day that I was trying not to cry, and she, too, was feeling pretty despairing about her own writing project. So we decided to start a writing group. Claire, Conseula, and I have been a writing group ever since. It’s fantastic. The group buoys us emotionally, keeping us from staying long in those places where we feel like we have nothing to say, and it helps us to be productive: all three of us have finished book manuscripts in the time we’ve been together.”

Alison posts guidelines for starting such a group right here. Really great guidelines. I second them all!

Got more suggestions, wisdom to share? Keep it coming, GWPenners! I learn from you.

A friend just showed me this video and it really moved me.  And I’m a Jew 🙂

According to the Second Annual “Women And Major Magazines Cover Stories Monitor”, women were the full photo subject on 22 covers, earned 65 full photo cover story bylines and eight full photo cover credits, of the total 203 issues in 2007 of Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, Newsweek and Time.  Not so good.  Feh.

We’re approaching New Year’s, and we’re also approaching the 2 year anniversary of GWP! I launched the blog in January 2007, just as my first book (Only Child) hit the shelves.  Since then, I came out with a second one and started a proposal for my third.  As GWP friends know, this latest book proposal (still in progress!) has been a long journey, and not always so smooth.  I’ve been wanting to compile a “lessons learned” post, to share some of the process with GWP readers who are similarly working on book proposals — or aspire to — cause really, friends don’t let friends figure out how to write books alone.

So speaking of said journey, yesterday I was listening to a talk by Buddhist teacher Tara Brach while on a walk in Riverside Park and she said something so true.  At the time of the talk, Brach herself was working on a book.  Writing, she was finding, involved a lot of “self.”  And sometimes, what she needed was for that self to just get out of the way, so she could remember what mattered most, and what mattered first, and what needed to be said.

One thing I find helpful when “self”, or ego, or the internalized voices of critics (or however you define the obstacles that come from a mind that likes to work overtime, as so many of ours do!) is the “toggle” effect: Some weeks I’ll be going strong in my thinking and writing around the proposal, then I’ll hit a point of self-doubt.  So I’ll give myself a break for a day, or two days, or three, and then come back to it again.  When I’m in the book writing stage, I find it far more helpful to show up to the page consistently, every day.  But when I’m in the conceptualizing phase, sometimes I just need to give it–and me–a mental rest, and just focus on other things (like all my consulting projects, for instance, which pay the rent).  It may sound obvious, but sometimes it’s the obvious that’s the easiest thing to forget.

Lots of you I know are writing books while working other jobs (like, say, being a professor! or, addendum, a MOM) that demand your attention.  What helps you stick with a writing project through its (and your) ups and downs?  I’d love to hear.

(And gratitude to Virginia for introducing me to talks by Tara Brach!)

I’m late to the table with this one, but in case you haven’t seen it (as I hadn’t til last week!) I bring you “The Girl Effect” — an amazing video. Pass it on!

It happens every time this year. The pile of books that publishers have sent me unsolicited in the hopes for a review stares me in the face, creating a sense of guilt. Though I know that all publicists send books out widely as part of their general marketing strategy, I always feel, well, bad if we don’t end up reviewing a book that nevertheless looks fantastic. The book just sits on my shelf.

So in the interest of clearing my slate, and easing my guilt (oy), I’ve decided to do something different this year.

Below is the list of those books on my shelf MOST itching for a review. If any GWP readers (in the US due to postage expense, sorry!) would like to review one, I’ll send my copy out to the first person who requests it. You can email me at deborah@girlwpen.com and state the title of your preference in the subject header. These reviews will be “due” by the end of January, and I’m asking that they be short ‘n snazzy (700 words or less).

It’s a great opportunity for anyone who has wanted to submit a guest post this year but haven’t yet to start off 2009 with a bang!  Ok, so here’s the list:

Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography by Sabrina Jones
The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50, by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
34 Million Friends, by Jane Roberts

And a book I’ve mentioned here a few times but didn’t get a chance to give it the review it deserves:
Ready: Why Women Are Embracing the New Later Motherhood, by Elizabeth Gregory (a very personal subject over here right about now, ahem!)

Lastly, ANY book put out this season (or next!) by the publisher who put out Sisterhood, Interrupted — Palgrave Macmillan. You can find that list here.

And speaking of GWP reviews, do keep a look out soon for Elline Lipkin’s review of Mama, PhD: Women Write About Motherhood and Academic Life! It’s been the hopper for a while but is coming soon, we promise. A personal aside: As a PhD and an aspiring Mama, of course I loved this one.