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Mar 23, 2010

If you’d have asked me two years ago, I’m not sure I would have described myself as a feminist. It’s not that I didn’t believe in women’s rights—what modern woman doesn’t?—but it was just that, well, I didn’t really see the point. When I think about it now, it sounds ridiculous—I know. But it’s telling of a generation like mine, who shrugged our shoulders at the thought of feminism; we were already convinced that we had won the war.

Are We There Yet?

Jessica Bennett, Jesse Ellison and Sarah Ball

In 1970, 46 women sued Newsweek for gender discrimination. Today, three young writers examine how much has changed.

Full Article Here:http://www.newsweek.com/id/235220

Art Can Save The World!

When I was younger, my mom refused to let me watch two Disney movies: Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. I asked her years later about what I thought was a strange prejudice against the delightful animated fairytales, and she explained that she didn’t want me growing up absorbing stories of women being saved by a white knight.

Don’t get me wrong, I did watch those movies when I was little, just at friends’ houses, keeping it a secret from my mom. I had a sense then that she disapproved of the movies, but little idea as to why.

I understand better now. It was the same reason why my Barbie doll collection was so much smaller than my peers’, why she never bought me an Easy Bake Oven, and why most of the books I read centered around strong female protagonists. My mother was raising me to be a feminist and I hardly realized it……

(This is the part I love):

While the feminist movement may have provided women with more access to the “man’s world,” it did little to overturn the pervasive patriarchy in our culture. We became really good at enacting laws to protect women. Granted, these laws are necessary to protect women’s rights within the dominant male order, but they can also create the illusion that feminism has made more progress than it actually has. Congress may have passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act over 30 years ago, for example, but it’s more than naïve to think that a woman’s potential or actual motherhood does not affect employment decisions. Creating a law to address a problem does not necessarily solve it, especially when the issue is as culturally entrenched as gender bias. We degrade their legacy by declaring this era “post-feminist,” as if gender inequality is a thing of the past.

Check out the full article here

I have three kids – son, daughter, son.

This story happens when my oldest boy was playing high school football.  He was well known at his school, he was funny and smart and kind.  He was also the shortest nose tackle in the  region, measuring in at 5’5″ (which is my fault he’ll tell you).  He has a neck like a barrel and shoulders like a brick wall and he was a steamroller on first string baby.

The situation -

I was well known in union, political, non-profit and feminists circles for my expertise with women’s employment issues, garnered through different endeavors with helping women get non- traditional jobs, which I started doing over 30 years ago.

My current job was running a National Job Problem Hotline for 9to5, National Association of Working Women.  The organization had quite a bit of recognition on a national level and was considered, by many, to be the go to organization on women’s employment issues such as sex discrimination, sexual harassment etc.

The job problem hotline was a national 1-800 number that women could call to get advice on their problems on the job.  I was the person most of them talked to.  To explain the magnitude of this project, in a 4 1/2 year period the hotline processed about 65,000 calls and at least 3/4 of them were handled by me.

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