Catch me at WAM! on Sunday, 11:30, for the panel “Going Group: How Blogging in Numbers Gets It Done,” with Racialicious’ Latoya Petersen, Shira Tarrant of GWP’s “The Man Files,” and Ebony Utley. And see you in the halls!

On Monday, I”ll be giving a bunch of talks and workshops at Framingham State College, hosted by GWP’s own amazing Virginia Rutter (the BEST hostess EVER!) Can’t wait….

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.)

My latest at Recessionwire.com is now up: Love in the Time of Layoff: Her Expendable Career. I go all politico over subsidized childcare in this one, so please check it out, spread the link, leave comments, etc! It’s very Girl w/Pen-nish, this time.

Some folks told me they had trouble with the link from yesterday’s Today Show women’s history segment, so I’m indulging and posting the vid here. (I think by now my mother has sent the link to EVERYONE she knows — I’m getting emails from friends abroad — thanks for the props, Mom!)

What a serendipitous day for feminism this is turning out to be.

As I was being prepped in the green room at Rockefeller Center for this morning’s Today Show appearance (and stuffing myself with donuts and potato chips), I saw friend/mentor/icon Suzanne Braun Levine in the next chair over!  Suzanne was there to do the segment just before mine, in connection with her hot new book Fifty is the New Fifty.  Then, between Suzanne’s segment and mine, Kathie Lee bade a happy 75th birthday to our mutual friend (again for me, make that friend/mentor/icon) Gloria Steinem.  And now today, in honor of Gloria’s birthday, the Ms. Foundation for Women has launched an online social change campaign called Outrageous Acts for Simple Justice, a project designed to share and support outrageous acts in the cause of simple justice for women, families and communities.

How much better could this day get?!

Well check it out: Outrageous Acts is already catching on. Kymberly Blackstock of Alaska used Facebook to organize a rally protesting Governor Palin’s rejection of federal economic stimulus money; in a video, Claire Tran of FIERCE, a Ms. Foundation grantee in New York City, suggests that viewers commit an outrageous act by signing onto their white paper advocating for access to public space on the Hudson River Park for LGBTQ youth of color; and Jacki Zehner, a women’s leadership and workplace commentator brought her outrageous act to CNN when she appeared to discuss the impact of the economic crisis on women while wearing a Wonder Woman t-shirt. (That’s my Jacki – go Purse Pundit go!)

I feel like so many of us are experiencing the current crisis as, among other things, opportunity.  Says Ms. Foundation prez Sara Gould, “The times demand this kind of creative action….[P]eople are poised to create change from the grassroots. And on the heels of an historic presidential election, we’re reminded of just how effective outrageous acts — from bake sales and buttons to signatures and songs — can be.”

For Gloria’s take on it all, watch the video, here.

And for a celebratory piece on Gloria’s birthday, see here (Thanks to my other favorite Gloria–Fedlt–for the heads up!)

Women’s History. Who knew?!

Ok ladies and gents, let’s see if we can start a Women’s History Meme here.  I’m posting six quiz questions to complement the quiz I’m doing on The Today Show tomorrow with Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kobt (10am ET).  Take the quiz below, see how you do, and if you have a blog, feel free to post the quiz there AND ADD ONE ADDITIONAL QUESTION OF YOUR OWN.  Don’t forget to post these same instructions when you post the quiz on your blog, so that others then can do the same!  If you send me the link once you’ve posted, I’ll do a roundup next week.  Just email me at deborah (at) girlwpen (dot) com with the header “Women’s History Meme.”  Alrighty then.  Here we go:

1. In 2009, women make up what percent of the U.S. Congress?
A.  3%
B.  17%
C.  33%
D.  50%

2. How many CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are female?
A. 15
B. 28
C. 59
D. 84

3.  Who was the first First Lady to create her own media presence (ie hold regular press conferences, write a daily newspaper column and a monthly magazine column, and host a weekly radio show)?
A. Eleanor Roosevelt
B. Jacqueline Kennedy
C. Pat Nixon
D. Hillary Clinton

4. The Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced to Congress in:
A.  1923
B.  1942
C.  1969
D.  1971

5. Who was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature?
A. Phyllis Wheatley
B. Alice Walker
C. Toni Morrison
D. Maya Angelou

6. What percentage of union members are women today?
A. 10%
B. 25%
C. 35%
D. 45%

ANSWERS:

1:B, 2:A, 3:A, 4:A, 5:C, 6:D

Can someone puh-lease get all the Wall Street shills like this one off my t.v.? As the economic horizons look darker and darker, economists at Janet Gornick and Pam Stone’s awesome work/family mini-conference at the Eastern Sociological Society meeting in Baltimore this weekend presented, by way of contrast, really nice work.

At the concluding panel, “Public Policy and Working Families: Providing, Supporting, and Equalizing Access,” Heather Boushey (Center for American Progress), Chai Feldblum (Workplace Flexibility 2010), Heidi Hartmann (Institute for Women’s Policy Research) and John Schmitt (Center for Economic and Policy Research) discussed horizons for work and family policy. And they really took Obama adviser Rahm Emanuel’s advice to “never waste a perfectly good crisis” to heart. All four demonstrated that the particulars of the current downturn plus key demographic trends will help us to move work/family policy issues higher up on Obama’s and Congress’s priorities list, even in these hard times.

Here are some key points:

*Four out of five jobs lost since December 2007 are men’s. This means that women are increasingly sole breadwinners in partnered families as well as in single-mom families. As Heather Boushey argued in a recent paper for CAP, this shift in family relations and the workplace makes work/family issues more salient as the economic crisis deepens. Boushey encourages us to focus on the implications of a “woman, making 78 cents on the dollar, now supporting her family.” More than ever, we gotta have pay equity. And here’s the crisis-as-opportunity piece:
more...

Because I’ll be there!  I’m doing a segment with Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb for Women’s History Month.  I promise to post linkage here.  It should be lotsa fun!  A hint: we’re doing a pop quiz….

We’re pleased to bring you another cross-post from our friends at Feminist Review. In this week’s edition, Sarah Eve Nichols-Fulghum reviews Michelle Goldberg’s The Means of Reproduction. –Kristen

In The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World, author and investigative journalist Michelle Goldberg uses her abilities to uncover the truth about the reproductive rights (and lack thereof) for women around the world. As we grow into a global community, the politics of sex, child bearing, and child rearing are monumental issues that are overlooked for the convenience of those in power. This book explores the reality of the situation, including many real life accounts of the struggles faced by women in countries that span four continents.

Chapter one begins with a heartbreaking tale of the first victim of an abortion ban in Nicaragua. The country deemed that abortion in any form was illegal. Jazmina Bojorge began suffering a miscarriage and due to fear of legal repercussions the doctors, against their better judgment, gave her medicine to stop the labor because helping her with the miscarriage—that is, terminating the pregnancy—would have been illegal. The delay in action caused her to die. If the doctors could have performed medical assistance in ways that are associated with abortions, it would have saved Jazmina’s life.

The book goes into great detail about the various issues that surround women’s rights and the laws and culture that repress them. Topics include contraception, pregnancy and childbirth, AIDS, female circumcision, abortion, sex-selective abortion, rape, and the role of women in society. The political stances of both the Left and the Right are dissected with suggestions of what should be done and how women can stand strong together to fight against the torment we collectively endure.

The Means of Reproduction is a hard hitting read. Goldberg opens the eyes of the reader to the unjust treatment of women due to reproduction. Feminist activists will be motivated to take stronger action after reading this book. Anyone else will be hit with the realization that they can no longer choose to be ignorant. The facts are stacked up, and it’s time to take action.

Review by Sarah Eve Nichols-Fulghum

(Crossposted at Feminist Review)