Yay!  Read all about it here.

We just hit 1700 members, and counting…

(Thank you, C!)

A hearty welcome to a brand new blog by Julie Zeilinger, a 16-year old from Pepper Pike, Ohio and a colleague of mine at the National Council for the Research on Women, where she is currently an intern.

According to Julie, Thefbomb.org aims to demystify “Mean Girl” image of young women — that “f”, of course, standing defiantly for “feminist.”  She’s got some great content going on, including this exclusive interview with Gloria Steinem.  Says Julie of her blog: “It is loud, proud, aggressive, sarcastic…everything teenage feminists are and should be today.”

Hells yeah to that.

It’s SHE WRITES’ one-week anniversary, and, thanks to the fact that so many women — including many GWP readers — have joined, we are on the MAP!

Friend of GWP and now SHE WRITES member Jessica Wakeman gave us a fabulous shout out this morning over at The Frisky! The post “fell off” the front page over there already (content flies!) but if anyone wants to go over there and leave a comment on it, it would end up back on the front. Just sayin 🙂

Every day over here is turning into a new adventure with this new venture. I’ve got some exciting tricks up my sleeve to announce soon over here at GWP, as well. Some new bloggers are joining us. Stay tuned!

Can I just say: I am so hoping that Sarah Palin will be giving us a “hiking on the Appalachian Trail” speech soon. How long do we have to wait before we have a woman politician who has an affair (and gets caught at it)? I think Sarah may help us break that barrier. Would be the Virginia Slims of politics. And if Todd can stand by his woman, perhaps quote some scripture about the importance of doing so in these times, I will know that we are closer yet to full equality.

-Virginia Rutter

Chest hair, growth spurts, voice changes, lust! In this edition of The Man Files, Rebekah Spicuglia writes about the challenges of feminist parenting when boys start coming of age.

My 11-½-year-old son recently announced that he is going through puberty.

My usually obsessive preparations for Oscar’s visits now have a new urgency. I find myself planning discussions I somehow never thought I would need to have. When kids grow up it’s an exciting — but scary — time for any parent. And as a noncustodial, long-distance mom, the challenges and opportunities for me are unique. Over the years, lots of conversations with my son have been held over the phone. Lately, we’ve had some incredible talks about more adult things (you know … coffee, sex ed). more...

Be one of our first 1000 members! We’re already up to 740, and it’s only Day 4!

Plug plug plug: www.shewrites.com

I’m THRILLED! And now I’m going to sleep.

Really, you know I don’t do this often. But yesterday Tula was curled up in the body pillow (which I’ve dubbed The Mommy Pod) that Daphne (of Super in the City fame) passed along to me. And I just couldn’t resist.

Please help me welcome an awesome new addition to the feminist blogosphere: Laura Sundstrom, who just recently graduated from Beloit College in May 2009 with a B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies, can now be found musing at: Adventures of a Young Feminist.

I’m always psyched to see more young feminism out there online. And hey, Laura just joined SHE WRITES, so extra props for her! There’s now a few different bloggers groups over there and I’m jazzed….

You may have noticed that it’s been a little quiet over here.  I’m finally resurfacing–breathlessly!–to tell you why.

On Monday, Kamy Wicoff, Nancy Miller, and I launched a new social networking site for women writers called SHE WRITES. You can find us at: www.shewrites.com.  OMG.  I’m struck with how fast this is catching on.  We just hit 400 members and it’s only been 48 hours!!!!!

If you are a woman who writes (and that means MANY of you!!!), please join.  It’s easy, it’s free, and it’s an enactment of the philosophy that I’ve always subscribed to here at Girl w/Pen: a woman writing need not write alone.

I’ll be migrating much of the consulting I’ve been doing — writing coaching, workshop leading, etc — to SHE WRITES.  Look for future workshops under the SHE NEEDS HELP tab.  The site is changing every minute, as more and more people sign on and get active over there.  I hope you’ll join us and come see what it’s all about.  The GWP community has been so sustaining for me over the years it’s been here, and in so many ways, YOU, the GWP community, are what led me to want to throw my all into the creation of an even wider community of women writers.

There’s so much more to say about this exciting new project, and I’ll share it all soon, but in the meantime, let’s just say I’ll see you there!   And, of course, here at GWP.

Well now isn’t this interesting: Just as we learn that the world’s wealthy are losing faith in their fund managers, we are also learning that the VAST MAJORITY of fund managers are…guess what, surprise surprise…white and male.  Perhaps it’s time to shake things up with a little (say it with me) di-ver-sity on Wall Street?  You think?  Come on boys, why not just give it a try.

According to a new report covered yesterday in the Times Online (UK), almost half of the world’s 8.6 million wealthiest investors have lost confidence in their fund manager.  The report itself lays bare how the credit crunch has damaged people’s personal fortunes.  According to the article, “Investors’ lack of faith prompted a quarter of those with financial assets of more $1 million to pull funds from a manager or dismiss their adviser last year…”

Ouch.  But wait!  Here’s the good news:

Yesterday, nearly 300 people gathered at the Bloomberg headquarters here in NYC for the release of a report by my ladies at the National Council for Research on Women, aptly titled “Women in Fund Management: A Road Map to Achieving Critical Mass—And Why it Matters.”

To learn more about the report’s important findings, and the splashy launch, check out Kyla Bender-Baird’s live-blogging from the event, NCRW President Linda Basch’s oped yesterday over at the Christian Science Monitor, and the report’s very own website, right here.

My heartfelt kudos to all involved in the creation of this timely piece of research, and especially to Purse Pundit, aka Jacki Zehner, for making it happen, being a role model and postergirl for the advancement of women on Wall Street, and keeping it real.  Jacki’s latest on this all is up at Huffington Post, “Shattering the Ceilings for Good.”