Quick Hits

Check out this amazing interview over at ForbesWoman, “Iran and the Woman Question”. Roya Kakakian, an Iranian poet and author now living in the United States, talks about feminism in Iran, and the climate over there right now.  A brief excerpt:

Forbes: What was your first reaction to seeing women among the protesters in the streets of Iran?

Hakakian: The presence of women is not a surprise to me at all.

Iran has had a robust women’s movement for several decades now. But in the late 1990s, a new generation took charge; and in the early 2000s, they managed to organize and unite in ways that women had not since the revolution in 1979. It started as petition movement to collect signatures to ban stoning women to death and has spun out to become the “One Million Signatures Campaign.” So this is precisely what I expected.

Read the rest.

Is the recession upping the ante on birth control and/or abortion?  Two writers in my authors group ask the question this week.  Check out Lauren Sandler over at The Big Money: No Way Baby – Are Market Forces the Ultimate Contraception? And Annie Murphy Paul over at Double X: Is the Recession Causing More Abortions?

And then, there are those, like (ahem) me, going entirely the other direction…

In a Time magazine article about an Oregon school for troubled youth that is under scrutiny, journalist Maia Szalavitz (author of Help At Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids) deserves huge props for throwing the spotlight on it all.

Check this out: In required seminars that the school calls Lifesteps, students at Mount Bachelor Academy in Oregon say staff members of the residential program “have instructed girls, some of whom say they have been victims of rape or sexual abuse, to dress in provocative clothing — fishnet stockings, high heels and miniskirts — and perform lap dances for male students as therapy.” Think you can treat ADHD by making girls dress up as French maids? Think again.

Coverage at Jezebel, here.

I’ve been rather quiet around here these past few and am soon to jump back on the horse (or in the saddle, or however that phrase goes). Just wanted to throw out a quick one, courtesy of the CCF listserv, from today’s WSJ:

Money Matters Can Make or Break Marriages by Jeff D. Opdyke

Even in the best of times, couples regularly argue about finances. But at this juncture, when so many Americans are feeling stung and frustrated by a weak economy, a housing-price collapse, and a stock-market crash, it’s particularly critical that newlyweds — and even long-time spouses — are on the same page when it comes to money.

Sigh.  Note to world: though Marco’s job situation is still precarious, we are going strong, in our 9th month of marriage.  I chalk it up to open communication, giving each other lots of space in which to unfold, and of course our kitten, Tula, who keeps it real.

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Check out this article in the LA Times, Recession Hits Male Workers More, which offers all sorts of theories about the big gender split we’re seeing:

A bona fide “man-cession” invites all sorts of social theories: Maybe women are cheaper to keep on the payroll because they tend to make less. Maybe women are better communicators, which helps shield them from the ax. Maybe women feel they have more to prove, so they get retained for trying harder.

To hear economist [Mark] Perry tell it, two factors far outweigh those theories.

This recession started with a crash in the housing market, and construction is about as male-dominated as it gets: 88%, Perry says. Manufacturing also took a dive: It’s 70% male. The male bastions of the financial-service sector got whacked too: Testosterone-heavy trading desks ain’t what they used to be, post credit crunch.

Meanwhile, practically the only major sectors holding their own are education and healthcare, which run 77% female combined. “Those differences account for quite a bit of it,” Perry said.

The other big difference: higher education.

Since 1981, women have earned far more bachelor’s degrees, collecting 135 for every 100 awarded to men, Perry said. At the master’s level, the “degree gap” is an even wider 150 to 100. Because unemployment among college graduates stands at 4.1%, less than half the rate of high-school grads, those sheepskins count.

And with so many more men getting pink slips — a misnomer, these days — women will make up a rising share of the labor force.

The article goes on to cite our friends Catalyst and others, noting that even with women making such dramatic gains, their numbers in business leadership are hardly skyrocketing.  Turns out neither higher education nor the economic devastation of traditional male strongholds are making all that much difference when it comes to cracking the glass ceiling.  Yet.

(Thanks to Catalyst for the heads up!)

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Over at Broadsheet this week, Amy Benfer has a nice little post on “accidental” pregnancy in which she writes:

About half of American women will have an accidental pregnancy before age 45. So while we like to think of accidental pregnancy as a rare and catastrophic event that happens only to women who take extraordinary sexual risks, it’s actually rather common. Nevertheless most stories about accidental pregnancy focus on teenage girls whom many people feel entitled to automatically dismiss as unfit mothers. Thus I was initially excited to see that this month’s Self magazine leads with a feature that puts a face on those who constitute the vast majority of unplanned pregnancies, one with the subhead: “Forget Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol. The new face of accidental pregnancy looks like … you.” But while it starts out by allegedly showing that even “good girls” can get knocked up, it ends up reinforcing some very old stereotypes about what the choices women make say about them.

About 50 percent of unplanned pregnancies end in abortion,  but the article does not contain a single quote from a woman who had one.

Hmm…

(Thanks to CCF for the heads up.)

Intergenerational convo–my fave subject, as you know!–currently going on over at RH Reality Check:

The Feminist Blame Game

Lighting Our Own Torches

And for more, join me on Weds at the 92Y Tribeca of course 🙂

(Thanks to Gloria Feldt for the heads up…)

What Kind Of Economic Stimulus Do American Women Want? by Ruth Rosen
2/18/09
Talking Points Memo: Advocates for women workers have felt great anxiety about whether the Obama administration would make sure that women – along with men – would be included in the $787-billion stimulus package that on 17 February 2009 completed its passage through both houses of Congress.

Two Women Show Real Bipartisanship, by Madeline Kunin
2/17/09
Huffington Post: As the $789 economic stimulus plan is being signed today by President Barack Obama in Denver, two women deserve much of the credit. Without the leadership of Maine Senator Susan Collins and her colleague Senator Olympia Snowe, there would be no signing ceremony today.

(Thanks to the ladies at the WMC, as usual, for the heads up.)

A few quick hits:

A front page story in this weekends Style section titled “Daddy’s Home, and a Bit Lost”

Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon on “Rosies of the Recession

Barnard’s new President on “One Gender’s Crash” in WaPo

Former Sec’y of Labor Robert Reich on The Stimulus: How to Create Jobs Without Them All Going to Skilled Professionals and White Male Construction Workers

And for kicks (though not explicitly on recession), a new video from the YWCA’s OWN IT initiative on what young women want from the Obama Administration.

Seen more stuff on gender and the recession? I’m collecting links!

On the 90th anniversary of women’s suffrage in Britain, Observer reporter Rachel Cooke asks how far have we come in a thoughtful article titled “Post-feminist backlash – or new dawn for equal rights?” Read up on the latest around Amy Winehouse, Georgina Baillie, politics, wages, the sex industry, much more…

I’m quoted!