I’m still catching up on things that were released while I was away mooning over honey. And here’s one I particularly wanted to share, as it’s from one of my favorite orgs, Catalyst.

According to a new study released on July 23, Advancing Women Leaders: The Connection Between Women Board Directors and Women Corporate Officers, the more women on the board, the more women higher ups. To wit:

-Companies with 30 percent women board directors in 2001 had, on average, 45 percent more women corporate officers by 2006, compared to companies with no women board members.

-Companies with the highest percentages of women board directors in 2001 had, on average, 33 percent more corporate officers in 2006 than companies with the lowest percentages.

-Companies with two or more women members on a company’s board in 2001 had 28 percent more women corporate officers by 2006 than companies with one woman board member in 2001.

Seems rather significant in this era when folks continue to scratch their heads and ask “where are the women in senior management?” The study drew on data from the 359 companies that were in the Fortune 500 during the years under investigation, 2000, 2001, and 2006. For more on the results, click here.

Oh, how men take pride in their sperm.

As a fertility specialist cum (hey no pun – it’s Latin) interview subject recently told me, often when a man learns that his sperm are plentiful, mobile, and strong, he’ll proclaim right then and there: “My guys are good! My guys are good!” Meanwhile, awaiting her diagnosis, his partner will slowly retreat back in her chair. And get this: even in an era when severe male factor infertility is one of the diagnoses most easy to treat, some guys who go in with their partners for fertility workups refuse to go through with the semen analysis because they’re too afraid of the results. For more on all this, of course, check out Sperm Counts: Overcome [pun intended] by Man’s Most Precious Fluid by sociology and women’s studies prof Lisa Jean Moore, a book I blogged about here a while back.

So with all that as a prelude, I thought I’d start out the week by karmically balancing the universe. Color me 1970s, but I firmly believe that more women should greet the news that their ovaries are working with “My Girls Are Good!” Or something like that. “Girls” doesn’t quite cut it. Any one out there got an alternative expression for ovum pride? I’m taking suggestions.

I’m thrilled to announce that a report I took the lead on for the Women’s Media Center, the White House Project, and the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, will be released and distributed at the DNC in Denver on August 25. The report, “Bias, Punditry, and the Press: Where Do We Go From Here,” includes recommendations for the media and consumers of media and will be available for download after its official release.

Additional happenings of interest going on at the DNC, all conveyed via Carol Jenkins (thanks, Carol, for the heads ups!):

-On August 25, there will be a reprise of the WMC/WHP/MIJE forum, From Soundbites to Solutions: Bias, Punditry and the Press in the 2008 Election, on which the report is based. This time the panelists will be Michel Martin of NPR, Jonathan Alter of Newsweek, Patricia Williams of The Nation, Rebecca Traister of Salon, Jamal Simmons of CNN, and María Teresa Petersen of Voto Latino, among others. Video clips from the original forum, which took place at The Paley Center, can be accessed from the WMC website.

-On Tuesday, August 26, Senator Hillary Clinton will address the delegates. That is the 88th anniversary of the day the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution became law, which gave women the right to vote in 1920. Senator Barack Obama accepts the nomination on Thursday, August 28th, before a public audience of 75,000 people. That is the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

-On Wednesday, August 27, the WMC is hosting a panel with Women’s eNews at which six leading congresswomen (Loretta Sanchez-CA, Rosa DeLauro-CT, Carolyn Maloney-NY, Gwen Moore-WI, Lois Capps-CA confirmed so far) will discuss WEN’s The Memo– a status report of six areas that the candidates and delegates must address. The congresswomen will address the media’s handling of women and the economy, immigration, women in the military, international issues, war and peace, and health. Do check out my fellow PWVer Pramila Jayapal’s Election Dispatch on Immigration and Jennifer Hogg’s Election Dispatch on Women in the Military.

-And finally, this year, the convention is chaired by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the highest ranking woman elected official in the country, co-chaired by Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Texas State Senator Leticia Van de Putte, and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. The CEO of the Democratic National Convention Committee is Leah D. Daughtry.

So the deadline has been extended for the search for a program director at the Bitch headquarters in Portland, Oregon.

They’re looking for “someone bright, with a deep talent and love for analyzing media/pop culture from a perspective rooted in social/economic justice, who’s passionate about both print publishing and newer (to us, at least) forms like online, audio, and video, someone excited about helping shape the future of the work we do at Bitch (and who recognizes Bitch’s potential), someone committed to DIY/grassroots operating, who understands Bitch’s role as both critiquing what’s crappy and praising what’s good, who’s as excited about Bitch as a multimedia organization as Bitch as a magazine.”

Sound like anyone you know?

Some of the job duties associated with this position:
– Oversee the editorial and production process for the magazine
– Edit articles and help shape editorial tone and scope of magazine
– Manage writer’s agreements and payment for each issue
– Outreach, fundraising, and event planning
– Oversee editorial internship program

For more info, contact publishing@b-word.org. Deadline for apps is now August 15.

I loved all your unveiled feelings-about-veils comments yesterday. And cuz it’s Friday I thought I’d round the week out with two last (unless you tell me you want more!) wedding photos — one more featuring “the costume,” left. The beauty in black full length gloves is filmmaker Ilana Trachtman, a dear friend from college who reminded me during her toast that I once stole a Ding Dong with her from The Village Corner in Ann Arbor.

The photo below is of Marco and me and our gaggle of flower girls. Because matter how cynical or intellectual one might be, it was very hard for me to resist inviting every little girl in my life to be a flower girl. I stopped at six.

Marco, always looking out for me, fears I’m going to lose my feminist cred if I keep wedding blogging. But I beg to differ! I’m still the same ole Girl with Pen. Ok ok, so your Girl is a little wedding obsessed right now. Thank you for indulging me.

Check out an essay from Kristal that I posted over at feminsting. An excerpt:

They were interested in fashion, and topics such as weight gain, designer
brands, drinking, and parties. Oh, and they hated long flights.

Their conversation got me thinking about women and power. Maybe I was being
too hard on the girls, but I wondered: with the myriad of options available
to them in this day and age of possibility, achievement and access, why were
they missing out?

Why hadn’t any of the things feminists had been writing and speaking about
(and living) actually translated into their lives?

Of course there are pea-brained young men out there too. But there was
something about these two women that was especially unsettling: perhaps it
was their profound vulnerability, I thought, in a world that will so quickly
leave them behind.

Or maybe it was the fact that they seemed so disinterested in their own
potential — their own present, as well as future power.

Or maybe I was just a 40-something old fogy, witnessing that perfectly
normal phase that so many young people go through as they struggle to find
their way into adulthood. I’ve been there. Maybe they’ll pull it together
eventually, I thought, and find their own unique passions.

And when they do, I hope that feminism will be there — ready to help make
the journey beyond fashion and fake eyelashes, into true power.

Linda Hirshman’s guest post over at Broadsheet yesterday, “Getting Nudged into the Chapel,” is summarized thusly by Salon: “There’s something in all of us that craves the trappings of a classic wedding — even intellectuals who rail against the institution’s traditions.” Well, color me intellectual, but I had a BLAST dressing up as a 1950s-era bride, white gloves, veil, and and all. I figured, if I’m going to be the bride, why not camp it up and play it as a role?

Weddings are theater, we figured (our guests were invited to dress in 1950s garb and many of them took us up on it) so why not have some fun. The soundtrack was mambo (and klezmer) and we pretended — sort of — that we were at a Catskills resort, you know, the ones where Latin bands like Tito Puentes’ taught the summering Jews how to dance. Since Marco and I are Latin-Jewish fusion and all.

But here’s the thing: though I went into it “playing” the bride, I utterly became one. And it was the veil that did it. I became a bride not in the retro pregnant-in-kitchen kind of way (though I must say, at 39 and undergoing fertility treatments, I certainly wouldn’t complain about the pregnant part–and regarding the kitchen, I’ll always be an active labor force participant by necessity and choice). Rather, the veil helped me become a bride in the physically-spiritually-transformed-special-and-set-apart kind of way. My groom, who donned a white linen suit in order to feel his own kind of special, was in costume too.

Sometimes a veil is just a veil. And sometimes it’s not. What about you, dear GWP readers? Did the marrieds among you don it or ditch it? I’d be interested to hear.

(Hey–Shira–someone’s gotta write about brides, feminism, and fashion for your new book. Any takers?)

NOTE: The comments didn’t transfer for some reason when we switched to WordPress. But you can find them still here.

Women feel the impact of economic insecurity and rising food, energy, education, and health care costs more deeply than men – and see government as a key to the solution — according to yesterday’s poll from the National Women’s Law Center. Are we surprised that women are significantly more pessimistic than men in their attitudes about the status quo in America, both on a societal level and in terms of their own lives?

Turns out, regardless of age, income, and education, more than half of women (55%) feel that the government should do more to solve problems and help meet people’s needs. Candidates, are you LISTENING? For more on it all, check out the NWLC’s (stellar!) blog.

Those who know me know I’m not a big drinker, so I thought you might find this one amusing. This is the evening of the day we were married. There’s a funny story behind it which I can’t exactly write about online, but needless to say it’s all good.

Because it’s still only a few days since I’m back, I can’t resist weddingblogging. This here is a pic of the aisle we started down. For reals. It’s in the backyard of our friends’ house where we were married. !!!