I just learned that the forum that Demos, NCRW, Woodhull, and Ms. Foundation sponsored last week on my book will air this Thursday (Aug. 2) from 9:30AM to 10:30 AM ET on Truth For A Change, Time Warner Channel 34, and streaming simultaneously 9:30 AM ET here: http://www.mnn.org (select channel 34).

New York Times film reviewer Matt Zoller Seitz has an intriguing review of No Reservations (July 27). Seitz notes how while the Catherine Zeta-Jones’ character can’t quite figure out how to combine parenthood and work as a chef, the Aaron Eckhart character literally and metaphorically brings the little girl (Little Miss Sunshine‘s Abigail Breslin)into the kitchen. I smell a trend — and it’s one I like. In the August 6 issue of US Weekly–which, yes, I proudly on the plane last night, while my neighbor, a lovely intern who works at The Nation, poured through her glossy — there’s a feature on “Sexy Dads” that similarly posits Hollywood men as models for combining parenting and work. Now put that in your oven and bake it.

On a break from seriousness, here’s a pic Marco just sent me from our trip out west (aka “book tour”)…

Taking a moment away from BlogHer to note that tomorrow’s New York Times Magazine article, “Family-Leave Values” by Eyal Press, features the work of two stellar scholars, Joan Williams and Shelley Correll. Here’s a sneak-preview, courtesy of Steve Mintz of the Council on Contemporary Families:

The results, as reported in the May 2007 issue of The American Journal of Sociology, are striking. Among the volunteers, mothers were consistently viewed as less competent and less committed and were held to higher performance and punctuality standards. They were 79 percent less likely to be hired and, if hired, would be offered a starting salary $11,000 lower than nonmothers. Fathers, by contrast, were offered the highest salaries of all. Meanwhile, in the test run with real-world employers, the hypothetical female applicants without children were more than twice as likely as equally qualified mothers to be called back for interviews.

Sigh. The mommy gap is alive and well.

My mother and my 98-year-old grandmother drove me down to Navy Pier this morning (guess who drove), and I’m jumping in, in medias res, to one of the session I’ve most been looking forward to: “Earn Our Votes: What Questions Do Women Bloggers Want Candidates to Answer in Election 2008?”

The panel begins with a series of presentations by pollsters. Anita Sharma of Lake Research Partners is talking. So here we go:

In 2006, women decided the country needed a new direction. Women’s votes were key in VA, MO, and MT, where the races were close. Unmarried women, the fastest growing demographic in the US, were more likely to vote for the Dems in 2006. They are 47% of American women. Turnout among this group shot up in 2006.

Women’s agenda is broader than men’s: women are concerned about Iraq, but also child care, early education, equality for women, and the environment.

Independent and Dem women put health care at the top of their concerns, while Rep women put the war on top. Number 2 on Dem women’s agenda is Social Security, and number 3 is economy and jobs.

When asked about the importance of having a woman Speaker, over 1/2 of the women surveyed said it was important.

Will 2008 be the year of the woman president? Recent data published in the NY Times/CBS News poll, 70% of Dem women view Hillary favorably, while only 15% of Rep women do.

Hillary is most popular among single women (54% view her favorably. 39% of married women do.)

Totally interesting. But here’s where I really wake up: One of the panelists comments that married swing voters have trouble with Hillary because she, as a professionally successful married woman and mother, has been able to have it all. Say WHAT? Way to fuel the overblown mommy wars with false ammo.

But thank goodness. Jenn Pozner of Women in Media and News to the rescue. Jenn notes that media coverage may portray women as making decisions out of emotions like jealousy, but isn’t it important to also emphasize how women, more often, actually care about more than that and vote based on policy issues?

Panelist Sarah Simmons counters, “But the reality is that women are challenged by other women’s success.” Sigh. Meow. (Sarah served in the Office of Strategic Initiatives in the Bush White House, not that that’s relevant, just throwing it out there.) Lisa Stone poses the general question to the panel of pollsters, do women vote based on policy, or personality? The panelists answer: both.

Lisa Stone–a fabulous moderator and provocateur–asks if anyone in the audience would vote for a candidate based on her gender. Jenn Pozner notes aloud that NOW President Kim Gandy, who is here in the house, didn’t raise her hand. So Lisa invites Kim to speak. Among other smart responses, Kim speaks about the power of the mirror. She also says it’s important for our sons to see that women can be leaders. Hells yeah.

Time for breakout group, then off to lunch…I’m afraid this will be my last “live” post for now, as after the business sessions this afternoon, my parents are picking me up for some much-needed family time while I’m here. For old times sake, we’re heading to the Lincoln Park Zoo. But watch for more coverage of this and other sessions over at the BlogHer site.

Here are some hot resources I’m hearing about, to check out:

On marketing:
Seth Godin’s blog
Made to Stick
www.successful-blog.com

On writing good headlines for posts:
copyblogger.com
problogger.net

On finding speaking venues:
Confabb
Speakernetnews.com newsletter
BlogHer has a speakers wiki

Technical tools:
(The entire presentation for the tech tools session today, complete with links, is here)
Google custom search engine (see here for example of how this works)
alexa.com (to check for broken links)
websiteoptimization.com (to check and improve the speed of your site)
searchengineland.com (to research your keywords and phrases for search engine optimization)

On streamlining blogging workflow:
(The enitre presentation for the workflow session today is here)

This one’s for Laura and Elizabeth, who can’t be here:

My favorite quote from the welcome session: “Blogging is the gateway drug to technology.” – Lisa Stone

And my second favorite quote: “Everyone here is press.”

I’m writing from a Starbucks around the corner from my dad’s office here in downtown Chicago, waiting for the opening bell of BlogHer to ring. Yesterday’s Demos Women’s Leadership Forum about my book was truly a high. Thank you to all you who came out — especially those who had to stand in the doorways! Respondents Mary Hartman of the Institute for Women’s Leadership at Rutgers and Desiree Flores from the Ms. Foundation were fabulous (and said such nice things!). Ever since my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Furstenburg, taught us to say “Thank you, Grandma, thank you”, I’ve been a firm believer in gratitude. So I thought I’d share the public thanks part of my talk:

I begin with a story about an intergenerational exchange.

When the folks at Demos and I had our first conversation about putting together this forum, I was working on Q&A document for my publisher to send around with the book, and I sent an early draft to Linda Tarr-Whelan. There was a question about what are the stereotypes that different generations of women, and in particular, feminists, have of each other. I wrote in response that feminists have fallen into the worst kind of generational stereotyping. “Veteran feminists, Boomers, tend to think younger women are self-hating, apolitical bimbos who aspire to be Bettie Page instead of Betty Friedan.” I then wrote, “Younger feminists think veterans are man-hating power-mongerers who won’t pass the torch and never go online.”

And Linda rightly stopped me there and said “Which Boomer women are you talking about? And what kind of feminism? Academic feminism?”

And in doing so she reminded me, of course, to be wary of falling into the broad stereotyping that I rail against in my book.

So I preface my talk by saying that there are indeed shining examples of cross-generational collaboration among women and within the feminist movement. And as I’ve toured the country these past two months, I’ve been struck by the connections that I’ve witnessed during and after some of my readings.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that Demos itself has partnered with the Building Movement Project, and together they’ve done stellar work on the topic of generational change and nonprofit leadership.

The Ms. Foundation has been a stalwart supporter of younger women’s organizing.

The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership is built around the premise that older women leaders need to mentor younger ones.

And various women at the National Council for Research on Women have personally mentored me since I was in college – I’ve been working on and off with women’s research centers within this network pretty much since my senior year.

So I want to give kudos where kudos are due. And I want to send forth a note of profound gratitude for the hard work that these organizations do. I feel honored and humbled to be here in a room with such change-makers. I thank you all for coming together to cosponsor this event. You are the avant-garde. I look forward to the day that you are the norm….

This is my first participation in a meme (thanks, PunditMom!), so bear with me. My 10-second introduction to folks at the BlogHer conference in Chicago, where I’m headed after today’s Demos event here in NYC:

I AM…
->the author of two books this year — Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild (just came out) and Only Child
->a former-academic-turned-pop-writer
->left-handed
->according to Courtney Martin, a “writer, feminist, and entrepreneur”
->living in NYC (but was born in Chicago!)
->co-founder of the webjournal, The Scholar & Feminist Online
->a consultant specializing in women’s issues
->according to Lisa Johnson, a hot dancer
->very excited about attending my first BlogHer conference!

blogme2007

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