The Independent Women’s Forum finally responds to that woman-hating oped by Charlotte Allen that ran in The Washington Post. (Allen was later ID-ed by Katha Pollitt in her lively takedown as associated with the IWF; she used to work there.) Writes IWF’s Carrie Lukas:

I agree with the critiques that she took it too far (and lost me on the humor), particularly with the ending: “Then we could shriek and swoon and gossip and read chick lit to our hearts’ content and not mind the fact that way down deep, we are . . . kind of dim.”

Allen responded to the furious response to her piece in a live question-and-answer session at the Post, and feministing posted some highlights. I loved the questions, including this one:

“Can I have some of whatever wacky antifeminist week that you’re smoking?”

Hehe. Sing it sister.

In case you missed it, Emily Bazelton offers a reality check in “Hormones, Genes and the Corner Office,” her NYTimes review of Susan Pinker’s new book, The Sexual Paradox: Men, Women, and the Real Gender Gap. Bazelton begins with the question: “Why do girls on average lead boys for all their years in the classroom, only to fall behind in the workplace? Do girls grow up and lose their edge, while boys mature and gain theirs?” She goes on to critique Pinker’s answer–which, basically, sounds like a version of biological difference feminism. Some snippets from Bazelton’s review:

Because of their biological makeup, [Pinker] argues, most women want to limit the amount of time they spend at work and to find “inherent meaning” there, as opposed to domination. “Both conflict with making lots of money and rising through the ranks,” she points out. Pinker is surely right to contest what she calls the “vanilla male model” of success — “that women should want what men want and be heartily encouraged to choose it 50 percent of the time.” Or that when employers say jump, employees should always say how high. Even as they work fewer hours for less status and less money, on average, more women report that they are satisfied with their careers. Maybe men might well think the same if more of them felt they could cut back. But Pinker’s difference feminism doesn’t really allow for that possibility. She is a believer: “The puzzle is why the idea of sex differences continues to be so controversial,” she writes.

Bazelton concludes that “In her zeal, Pinker veers to the onesided.” To wit:

She doesn’t acknowledge that some of the research cited in her footnotes is either highly questionable as social science (Louise Story’s 2005 article in The New York Times, for instance, about her survey of Ivy League women’s aspirations)….Pinker omits the work of scientists who have shown that sex-based brain differences pale in comparison to similarities. We shouldn’t wish the role of sex differences away because they’re at odds with feminist dogma. But that doesn’t mean we should settle for the reductionist version of the relevant science, even if the complexity doesn’t make for as neat a package between hard covers.

Ah yes, that old bugaboo called EVIDENCE. Of course, since I’m a junkie for pop writing on sex and feminism, and since Pinker uses the word “Extreme Men” and I’m dying to know what she means by the term, I’ll find my way to this book and will let you know if I agree with Bazelton’s take, or if there’s more there of interest from which we can learn. But on many levels, it sounds like one those looking for fact-based analysis might veer elsewhere.

An endorsement from Christina Hoff Sommers kind of confirms it for me. Sommers lauds the book thusly:

“Susan Pinker’s The Sexual Paradox is meticulously researched, brilliantly argued and thoroughly persuasive. It moves the debate over sex differences to a new level of sophistication.” — Christina Hoff Sommers, author of Who Stole Feminism? and The War Against Boys

Oh boy.

While I’m on it, thought I’d post an updated list of where I’ll be giving workshops, too. Thanks, as always, for spreading word! And hope to see some of you there, soon!

As always, there a full listing available at:
http://www.deborahsiegel.net/events.htm

March 28-29 – Writing a Book Proposal That Sells
Women and Media (WAM!) Conference
Cambridge, MA
More info: http://www.centerfornewwords.org/wam/

April 7 – Breaking into Anthology Writing
MediaBistro
NYC
More info: http://www.mediabistro.com/courses/cache/crs3683.asp

April 13, 17 – Finding Your Subject, Finding Your Voice: A Seminar in Personal Nonfiction
Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership
NYC
More info: http://www.woodhull.org/classes/

April 25-26 – What You Should Know about Blogging and Why
Council on Contemporary Families Conference
University of IL, Chicago
More info: http://www.contemporaryfamilies.org/

I’ve been really moved reading the comments and emails posted in response to Courtney and my oped (“Come Together? Yes We Can”) in The Washington Post yesterday–everything from “This primary fight is breaking my heart” to ” I am so glad to read what I have been thinking,” and even the occasional “WTF” and “dream on,” as it puts me in touch with the various perspectives out there and gives me a sense of what we (as in we Dems) are up against.

The same week our oped appeared, an essay by Jessica Valenti titled “The Sisterhood Split” appeared in The Nation, and Gloria Feldt responded over at Heartfeldt, “What’s That about a Sisterhood Split?” For more, see also an article by Jennifer Wells in The Globe and Mail, “Battle Lines Harden on the Gender Front”.

Clearly, there’s a hunger for discussion! Gloria, Courtney, Kristal Brent Zook, and I are taking the conversation on the road this month with what I’ve been tongue-in-cheek calling the intergenerational feminist roadshow (otherwise known as “WomenGirlsLadies: A FRESH Conversation Across Generations”*). There’s one event in there (March 14 @ Eastern Michigan University) where Courtney and I can’t make it, and we’re delighted and honored to have Hannah Seligson and Paula Kamen speaking in our stead.

I’m posting our March events below, along with talks I’m giving on Sisterhood Interrupted this month too. A thousand thanks for spreading word, and def come say hi if you’re there!

March 11 @ University of Missouri, Kansas City (Sisterhood, Interrupted)

March 14 @ Eastern Michigan University (WomenGirlsLadies)

March 17 @ Central Michigan University (WomenGirlsLadies)

March 18 @ Eastern Michigan University, Central Michigan University (WomenGirlsLadies)

March 26 @ Lafayette College, PA (Sisterhood, Interrupted)

March 27 @ New School (Feminist Generations/Feminist Locations with Ann Snitow, Meredith Tax, me, Cleopatra Lamothe, and Ercia Reade)

April 18 @ Harvard University (WomenGirlsLadies)

*WomenGirlsLadies will be booking throughout 2008. To book an engagement, please contact Taryn Kutujian at taryn.kutujian@gmail.com.

When Ann Snitow calls, I jump. And so, I of course said YES to participating on a panel at The New School in celebration of Women’s History Month. Ann is coeditor of The Feminist Memoir Project and a founder of New York Radical Feminists (circa 1969), the group that brought us the Miss America Protest that put women’s liberation on the map, and so much more. The panel, “Feminist Generations/Feminist Locations: The Continuing Vitality of Feminist Thought and Action,” will take on the state of feminism across generations. Joining me will be:

AI-JEN POO of Domestic Workers United
MEREDITH TAX of Women’s World
(a founder of Boston’s Bread & Roses – 1969)
ANN SNITOW of Eugene Lang College and New School
(a founder of New York Radical Feminists – 1969)
CLEOPATRA LAMOTHE of Women of Color Collective, Lang
ERICA READE of Moxie, Lang College Feminist Club

When and where, you ask?

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2008
66 WEST 12TH ST., ROOM 407
6:30-8 PM

For more info, please contact Soraya Field Fiorio, fiors393@newschool.edu.

Many democracies–the United Kingdom, Argentina, India, Israel, the Philippines, Pakistan, Liberia, France, and Jamaica, to name a few–have or have had women heads of state, and other countries–oh, like Peru and Bolivia–have elected presidents who are members of racial minority groups. Not so much here in the US of A, which is why, of course, it is rightly Such a Friggin Huge Deal. And the scholars are rightly getting busy.

On September 26-27, 2008, the Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic Development at St. John’s University School of Law will hold a symposium entitled Making History: Race, Gender and the Media in the 2008 Elections at their Queens campus to explore it all. They’re inviting proposals from scholars from all relevant disciplines (law, media, political science, gender studies, race studies, ethnic studies, sociology, economics, history) and activists engaged in “developing concepts, analyses, methods, or data relevant to race, gender, media and elections.” Any takers? The deadline for submissions is March 14, 2008. More info available here.

Quick–pass it on!

My oped with Courtney is live, in The Washington Post! Here tis: “Come Together? Yes We Can.”

This week Miss Courtney Martin and I penned a joint rebuttal, of sorts, to dear Charlotte Allen’s oped and to other divisive pieces by women about divides among us around this election of late. And it’s going to appear in Sunday’s WaPo, in the Outlook section. Please visit, leave comments, and let us know what you think!

My first national oped was placed with the help of Kathy Vermazen at the Women’s Media Center, and my dear friend Heather Hewett, who shared a contact with me. Thank you, ladies! Needless to say, Courtney and I are damn ridiculously thrilled.

Incredibly exciting news this week from Goldman Sachs, via Purse Pundit, who was summoned to a press conference last week and told only that the announcement would make her proud. She writes:

Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, took center stage to tell us why we had been summoned. Goldman Sachs was announcing a brand new initiative that “will provide 10,000 under-served women, predominantly in developing and emerging markets, with a business and management education.” Why? Because he, they, Goldman Sachs, the firm that gave me my start in the business, the firm I worked with for fourteen years and gave me the honor of being a partner, had come to believe that the way to change the world for the better was to economically empower women. Here they were making a considerable and creative commitment to do just that. Damn right that was “right up by alley.” I was floored.

Also check out Purse Pundit’s call to Goldman to hook up with key experts within the women’s movement to help provide direction. And a joint post she and I wrote for HuffPo about it, here.

A radio interview Daph and I did for the launch of the paperback of Only Child is now available online–the producer says it’ll be there for perpetuity. Here tis.