This just in, from my friends at New Moon:

25 Girls Nominate Themselves As Most Beautiful…Just They Way They Are.

Eighty percent of 10-year-old American girls diet. The number one magic wish for young girls age 11-17 is to be thinner. (justthink.org) Studies show that reading “teen magazines” and having exposure to thin models creates lower self esteem, body dissatisfaction, decreased confidence and potential eating disorder symptoms in young girls (mediafamily.org)

By age 13, approximately 53% of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies”. This number will increase to 78% once girls reach 17 years of age. (National Institute on Media and the Family)

In the May/June 2008 25 Beautiful Girls issue of New Moon, the magazine puts a new twist on the annual theme by asking girls to nominate themselves as beautiful girls. The magazine entitled Toot Your Own Horn, features twenty-five girls from around the country who wrote essays explaining what makes them beautiful. The issue brings together compelling evidence of the ability for girls to see themselves for who they really are…and find it beautiful. Nominations for the 2009 “25 Beautiful Girls” issue are due by September 15, 2008. For more information visit, www.newmoonmagazine.org.

And BTW, New Moon is sweeping up awards. The mag recently received the 2008 Parents’ Choice Gold Award for best children’s magazine and has garnered nine Parent’s Choice Foundation Awards, five Educational Press Association of America Design and Editorial Awards, a National Association for Multicultural Education award, a Folio Award and the Association of Educational Publishers prestigious Golden Lamp Award in 2006.

While we were all focused on PA, the Republicans were busy filibustering to prevent a vote on the Fair Pay Act. NOW has been tirelessly fighting for this on all of our behalf. As Kim Gandy tells it, there’s nothing new in this bill. Writes Kim, “The Fair Pay Act just gives women back the rights that the Supreme Court took away last May. Simple, right?” For the latest, which isn’t good, click here.

And do check out the interview with Lily Ledbetter in TAP. Here’s the preamble:

Of all the appalling decisions the Roberts Court issued last year, one of the worst was the 5-4 ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, which gutted the equal-pay provisions of the Civil Rights Act and overturned a decades-old employment-law precedent.

The plaintiff, Lilly Ledbetter, worked for nearly two decades at a Goodyear Tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama. She brought an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint against Goodyear after she discovered that for years she had been paid less than male co-workers with the same job. The justices ruled that employees can only file a wage-discrimination complaint within 180 days of when the payroll decision was made.

After the Supreme Court issued its decision, which leaves women and minorities in Ledbetter’s situation with no recourse, congressional Democrats pledged to pass legislation that would give employees two years to file a complaint, in accordance with the law before the Supreme Court issued its decision. The Senate is considering the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act this week, and TAP talked with Ledbetter, who was in Washington to push for the bill’s passage.

Read the interview here.

I just saw a clip from The League of First Time Voters on CNN and must say I’m impressed with what CNN is doing over there. I just watched a panel of young women — first time voters, all — talk with the host about the issues. Nice site. I urge folks to check it out.

Quick hit post-game coverage of yesterday’s results:

Allison Stevens at Women’s eNews (“Women’s Vote Gives Clinton Pennsylvania Win”) notes, “White women went particularly strong for Clinton, with 64 percent backing Clinton and 36 percent for Obama.” And goes on to quote Ellen Bravo: “‘Some of it is gender identity and some of it is admiring her on other grounds,’ said Ellen Bravo, an Obama supporter who is former director of 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, an advocacy group in Milwaukee. ‘Some of it may also be race. I don’t think it’s so simple.'” Obama, in turn, drew heavy female support from African-American, young and anti-war women.

PunditMom shares insights culled from Pennsylvania college students.

And over at Addie Stan, some folks just want to Make. It. Stop.

Last night I informally celebrated the 90th birthday of one of my mentors and guides: Mariam Chamberlain, founding president of the National Council for Research on Women, major funder of women’s studies back when she was at the Ford Foundation, economist at Harvard from the days when women didn’t do such things. Mariam was surrounded by the young women who know and love her from our various stints working at the Council. (I worked there for two years straight outa college, and then returned for another round after I finished my PhD.) When conversation came round to the election, my favorite response came from friend and former colleague Gwendolyn Beetham, who simply said: “I’m for whoever is going to be McCain.” After amazing lemon cake from Buttercup, all rushed home to watch the returns.

To Mariam (who is on email daily): May your 90th year be filled with hope, love, continued faith in the vitality of a women’s movement in all its flavors, and a candidate who can beat McCain.

All this generational conversation of late has made me want to take action and create more space for young people to speak their mind. So come fall, I’ll be taking it to the campuses some more. If interested in bringing me to yours, please do get in touch! Here’s the blurb:

Talkin ’bout My Generation: Youth, Gender, Race and the 2008 Election

Young voters—and female ones in particular—have been the subject of heated debate in an election where race and gender matter like never before. But what do young voters really think about gender, feminism, race, and the Presidential election? In this talk, feminist author/cultural critic Deborah Siegel sheds fresh light on media myths and real-life generational rifts that surfaced during primary season. Join Deborah for a lively, interactive forum in which members of the so-called postfeminist, post-Civil Rights generation are invited to freely speak their minds.

For more info, please contact Speaking Matters at info@speakingmatters.org.

Image cred

For anyone who has taken my “Making It Pop: Translating Your Research for Trade” workshops, here’s a great way to keep it going: I’ll be doing a day-long workshop on nonfiction book proposals at Woodhull’s upcoming writers’ retreat. Tell them Girl with Pen sent you and receive a $50 discount. Details below.

Raise Your Voices: An Intensive Nonfiction Writing Retreat for Women
May 9 – 11
(Retreat starts Friday at 1PM and ends Sunday at 3PM)
Ancramdale, New York

Why: Women are underrepresented as nonfiction authors and opinion writers. In a long weekend of writing instruction and one-on-one critique, participants gain fundamental knowledge of: Op-ed pieces, features, book proposals and pitching ideas. Tuition covers lodging at Woodhull Institute retreat house, food and materials.

More info here. Contact: Elizabeth Curtis at ecurtis@woodhull.org

This weekend I’ll be at the Council on Contemporary Families 11th Annual Conference (April 25-26) in my sweet home Chicago, where I can’t wait to hang with all those CCFers board members I know and love–Virginia Rutter, Stephanie Coontz, Steve Mintz, and more. If in Chicago, come join me! I’ll be giving a workshop on blogging on Saturday (10:45-12:45), with the help of Veronica Aerrola, who prolifically blogs here, here, here, and here. My session’s aimed at researchers and therapists and is called “What You Need to Know about Blogging and Why.”

And here’s more:

CCF 11th Annual Conference
Family Issues in Contention
University of Illinois, Chicago (Room 605, Student Center East)
750 South Halsted

Featuring:

— A panel on the “hooking-up” patterns of today’s youth, with new
research and commentators from diverse perspectives on the impact of these practices.

— Another workshop on the controversial question, “Is Transracial and
Transnational Adoption the Right Policy for Parents? Children? Society?”

— Still another panel of demographers and clinical psychologists examines whether cohabitation is “good” for love or for marriage.

— And the latest thoughts of researchers and clinicians on whether unhappy couples should divorce of “stick it out.”

Full conference program available here. To register, visit www.contemporaryfamilies.org . Press may receive complimentary registration by contacting Stephanie Coontz, Director of Research and Public Education, at coontzs@msn.com.

Well if this isn’t the most timely book ever published, I don’t know what is. Deborah Carr, a brilliant sociologist at Rutgers, has teamed up with journalist Julie Halpert to write Making Up with Mom: Why Mothers and Daughters Disagree About Kids, Careers, and Casseroles (and What to Do About It). If they had timed it a bit differently, they could have easily added “and Candidates” to the subtitle. The book shows how generational differences in women’s lives have created (fixable) frictions between Gen X/Boomer women and their moms. I like the emphasis on “fixable.”

Here’s from the book description:

Young women today have infinitely more options than their mothers and grandmothers did decades ago. “Should I become a doctor, a writer, or a stay-at-home mom?” “Should I get married or live with my boyfriend?” “Do I want children?” Women in their twenties, thirties, and forties today are wrestling with life-altering decisions about work and family—and they need all the support they can get.

But the very person whose support they crave most—their mother—often can’t get on board, and a rift is created between the two generations, even for women who have always had a strong relationship.

A mother’s simple question, like “How can you trust a nanny to watch your children all day?” can bring her poised, accomplished CEO daughter to tears, or provoke a nasty response more suitable to a surly teenager than a leader of industry. Why can’t mothers and daughters today see eye to eye when it comes to important choices about love, work, children, money, and personal fulfillment? Why does a mother’s approval matter so much, even to the most confident and self-possessed daughter? And when daughters choose paths different from their mothers’, why is it so painful for the older generation?

Making Up with Mom answers these important questions by focusing on three core issues: dating/marriage, career, and child rearing. Relying on interviews with nearly a hundred mothers and daughters, and offering helpful tips from more than two dozen therapists, Julie Halpert and Deborah Carr explore a wide range of communication issues and how to resolve them, so mothers and daughters everywhere can reclaim their loving relationships. This enlightening book is a must-read for all women today.

The perfect gift for Mother’s Day?! The authors will be reading at Barnes & Noble in North Brunswick on Tuesday May 20 at 7:30 p.m. For more, check out www.makingupwithmom.com.

Gloria Feldt is a sanity-inducing voice in the midst of the generational snarkfest that’s currently going on. I’m sharing her comment on my last post here, as a post, because I wonder if I ever shy away from the flames of controversy just a wee bit too much. (Hmm…paging Dr. Freud!)

I truly believe in engaging debate and viciously hate the anger-filled tone that debate seems to have taken on of late. Doth Girl with Pen protest too much? I’d be curious to hear what others think about tactics for airing differences. How do we clear a space for argument, as Gloria urges below, in a way that genuinely moves debate forward? (And doesn’t this image of Gloria on an IPOD just make your day?)

In any event, one of the many things I value about Gloria is her ability to engage–meaning debate and differ–with younger generations while maintaining a deep sense of respect. And here she is:

Deborah-
I couldn’t agree more with your suggested course of action to defeat McCain together. That’s the job #1 of all feminists for sure.

At the same time, I want to put in a good word for engaging the debate even when it is with gloves off. I suggest that what women need most is to learn how to engage vigorously and constructively without being turned off or frightened off.

Like you, I believe we shouldn’t trash each other, but (probably because I’ve had lots of experience with hardknuckle conflict and know that one lives to tell the tale–and even learns and grows stronger from it), I think we need to clear a space for arguing about the issues together with the goal of not just understanding but making concrete plans to go forward on matters like winning the general election.

Every generation has to speak in its own tongue. We don’t have to be angry with one another to air our differences.
Gloria Feldt