Veteran lesbian activists Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 83, whose 2004 wedding in San Francisco was invalidated by the California Supreme Court, were the first same-sex couple to legally marry there yesterday at 5 p.m. County clerks across the state must begin issuing licenses to same-sex couples this morning.

This here is a rather gorgeous picture of my friend/colleague Susan Marine, Director of the Women’s Center at Harvard, with her wife Karen. Hear Susan read from a beautiful essay about her quest for the white dress on NPR. (Note: scroll forward to about the last third of the show to hear Susan’s essay.)

For those of you here in NYC, join me tomorrow from 9am-12 for a stellar event, and one whose theme I will be touching on, actually, during campus talks this fall. The event: “From Soundbites to Solutions: Bias, Punditry, and the Press in the 2008 Elections.” Sponsored by the White House Project, the Women’s Media Center, and the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, the event is free of charge, and open to the press and the public. But seating is limited. To register, click here.

For those of you nowhere near NYC, there’s a chance I may be live blogging part of it (wireless pending), so come back tomorrow for the scoop.

Ok, so I’m stepping up my blogging savvy this season and I’m taking you with me. I’ve started religiously reading ProBlogger for the latest in tips; I really like this guy’s approach.

So I’ve been resisting Twitter, but there’s an interesting post up over there on the importance of building an online network before you need it. Writes Darren Rowse, the ProBlogger guy:

When I began to interact on Twitter I had no plans to use it as a medium for book promotion – however when launch day came I had 6000 people just a 140 character message away.

Another example was recently using LinkedIn. I’ve never really found a way to use LinkedIn effectively before but have promoted my profile on it (in my blog’s footer) because I knew that there would come a time when it would be worthwhile having connections there. Last week it paid off as I used my network of 600 connections to get introductions to a number of key people that I’d have had no way to contact previously.

In both situations the network came before the need to use it.

Hmm…Check it all out and see what you think, here. ProBlogger dude also just came out with a book called, guess what, ProBlogger. I’ll let you know what I learn!

This just in, courtesy of the Women’s Media Center: Shaky Economic Times are Shakier for Women by Heidi Hartmann, director of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

A summary:

As politicians’ focus turns from the Primaries to the General Election, the economy has become the biggest issue for voters. Based on an Institute for Women’s Policy Research survey about Americans’ economic insecurities, there are differences between men and women, as Heidi Hartmann reports in the latest WMC Exclusive. Hartmann points out that women are especially concerned about Social Security, whatever their income level or minority status, and highlights that three primary facts drive women’s economic concerns. First, women have the children and generally rear them to adulthood. Second, women earn less than men. Third, women live longer than men. Hartmann concludes by saying that “women rely on Social Security. This election season, with economic issues becoming paramount, women would do well to find out which candidate-whether running for the White House or the Senate or House of Representatives-is most likely to sustain and strengthen the system that is so important to them.”

Read the article.

Check out this quickie in Dame about the advent of the male pill–an injection or patch once every 12 months that acts as an impermanent vasectomy. Writes Dame’s Jonathan Bender, “It’s about time science caught up to the changing gender roles.” More on the science of it here. Thoughts?!

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While my own dadio was having brunch with my family in the Chicago burbs (without me – man I hate long distance father’s days), our man Obama was speaking on fatherhood at a Chicago church.

In honor of Father’s Day and dads across the land, do check out the latest on both The Daddying Movement and Reel Fathers. The latter is a collaboration between Allan Shedlin and Deborah Boldt, who are working toward the first annual REEL FATHERS Film Festival in Santa Fe on Fathers’ Day weekend 2009. How cool is that?

(Thank you, Suzanne, for the heads up!)

This month Seal Press offers up another new anthology, About Face: Women Write about What They See When They Look in the Mirror, edited by Anne Burt and Christina Baker Kline. In this one, 24 women of varying ages (23 to 75) and races brave a standoff with their reflections. From the book’s description:

From lines to wrinkles, dark circles to freckles, a woman’s face tells the unique story of her life. In many ways it’s a roadmap — with each singular characteristic, crease, and blemish serving as a milestone of having lived, loved, and endured….In the essay “On Reflection,” contributor Patricia Chao stares at herself and dares to ponder who she is when she is not being loved or desired by a man. In “My Celebrity Face,” Alice Elliott Dark must endure hearing her college crush tell her that she looks like the man on the Quaker Oats box. This leads her to a life filled contradictions — but ultimately ends in contentment with the woman she’s become….About Face dares women to look at themselves — no flinching or turning away; no poses, and no excuses. Both challenging and warm, About Face will inspire women to examine their faces, flaws and all, and to learn to love what they see.

And hey wow: celebrity makeup artist Bobbi Brown wrote the foreword. Essayists include Jennifer Baumgardner, Bobbi Brown, Kristin Buckley, Marina Budhos, Patricia Chao, Alice Elliott Dark, Susan Davis, Louise DeSalvo, Bonnie Friedman, Kathryn Harrison, Annaliese Jakimides, Dana Kinstler, Benilde Little, Meredith Maran, Manijeh Nasrabadi, Ellen Papazian, Kym Ragusa, Jade Sanchez-Ventura, Pamela Redmond Satran, Rory Satran, Alix Kates Shulman, Catherine Texier, S. Kirk Walsh, and Kamy Wicoff.

Had I been writing an essay for this one (ahem! kidding. sort of), I would have written about my nose and teeth and ears — all of which caused me great suffering as a teenager. Right through the eighth grade, a mean boy named Jeff Foy called me, alternatingly, Bugs Bunny, Dumbo, and The Beak. Didn’t seem to help me to know that everyone called him Jeff Foy the Toy Boy. Yep, Jeff suffered too.

Anyway, as I was explaining just yesterday to a beautiful and dear friend, when your physical appearance was made fun of as a kid, that feeling of ugliness gets internalized. It’s often very hard to wish away. Adolescence may be time-limited, but that sense that there is something wrong with you persists. Shout outs to college, college therapists, and college boyfriends — all of whom, in my case, helped me face that self-doubt and feel better about, well, my face.

I look forward to reading this book! Would any GWP reader like to offer up a guest review? Email me at girlwpen@gmail.com and we’ll arrange.

My dad loves to read (yes, apple doesn’t fall far from tree). For dads open to reading about, well, dadhood, here’s a host of suggestions:

Philip Lerman, Dadditude: How a Real Man Became a Real Dad

Cameron Stracher, Dinner with Dad: How I Found My Way Back to the Family Table

Kevin Powell, Who’s Gonna Take the Weight: Manhood, Race, and Power in America

Michael J. Diamond, My Father Before Me: How Fathers and Sons Influence Each Other Throughout Their Lives

Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

David Strah and Susanna Margolis, Gay Dads: A Celebration of Fatherhood

Lewis Epstein, More Coaching for Fatherhood: Teaching Men New Life Roles

David Knox, Divorced Dad’s Survival Book: How to Stay Connected with Your Kids

And, finally, though I’m not personally digging this title AT ALL, others may, and, well, it takes all kinds (this book just came out):

Bobby Mercer and Alison D. Schonwald, Quarterback Dad: A Play by Play Guide to Tackling Your New Baby

Other suggestions? Or got ideas for the perfect gift for feminist dad? Please share.

Well here’s reason to feel depressed: In today’s Inside Higher Ed, Scott Jaschik reports that interviews with 80 female faculty members at a research university — the largest qualitative study of its kind — have found that many women in careers are deeply frustrated by a system that they believe undervalues their work and denies them opportunities for a balanced life. While the study found some overt discrimination in the form of harassment or explicitly sexist remarks, many of the concerns involved more subtle “deeply entrenched inequities.” These include: unintended bias and outdated attitudes, devaluing positions once women hold them, and service and gender.

Ok, ye academic women GWP readers out there. Does this describe you? And if so, what do you do?

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