The Buck Stops Here

Tuesday, April 8^th is Equal Pay Day – the calendar date that marks the approximate extra time the average American woman would need to earn as much as the average man did in the prior year. According to the federal government, women make an average of 77 cents for every dollar that men earn.  Women, think about everything that has happened in your life from January 1^st through April 8^th.  You’ve lived many a storied day, I’m sure.  Now, get your head around the fact that if you were being paid as much as men in your field, you’ve effectively been working for free these last 98 days.  Sobering thought, no?

 

How do these pay discrepancies happen?  Because most people don’t know what other people make.  There is a big giant cloud of secrecy regarding wages that allows employers to vary employee pay for any number of reasons, including discriminatory ones.  

 

Enter the Obama administration.  Tomorrow, on Equal Pay Day, the president will put forth two new executive actions aimed at reducing or eliminating pay discrimination.  The first, an executive order, will prohibit federal contractors from retaliating against employees who talk about how much money they make.  The second action, a memorandum, will require federal contractors to report data to the government showing the compensation provide their employees by sex and race. 

 

The effects of these actions?  Transparency.  We can only fight battles we know about.  And, granted, these actions only affect the approximate 1 in 5 women who work for government contractors, but are significant in that they will hopefully establish transparency among all industries and professions.  These actions don’t require listing of employee wages or true confessions during lunch meetings, but they will do away with being punished for seeking such information, and they encourage healthy comparisons. 

 

I applaud this important step toward wage equality.  Once we can see that women in the same positions as men get paid the same wages, we can move onto to other, more slippery, realms of wage inequality, like those that financially favor occupations deemed “male” (Math/Science professor) over very similar occupations deemed “female” (Humanities professor).  But that’s another blog for another day, yes?

 

 

2014: The Year of Reading Women

 

Women writers won't be surprised to learn that female authors are read less frequently and are given less exposure than male authors.  The organization VIDA:  Women in Literary Arts, founded in 2009, has documented women's unequal representation in print and their less-favorable reviews.  Feminists have long discussed the "male aesthetic," or the idea that cultural references and expression lean more heavily toward male characters, male writers, ideas of masculinity, and the portrayal of male experiences.

 

Recently, authors, bloggers, publishers, book sellers, and reviewers are trying to address this imbalance by unofficially declaring 2014 "The Year of Reading Women."  Check out this post in The Guardian to see their take on the subject, which includes a list of 250 excellent female-authored reads.  Want more details?  Click on VIDA's website to see the stats and pie charts.

 

For my part, I just finished Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement and am starting Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch.  I adored Tan's latest novel and have heard great things about Tartt's book. 

 

What about you?  What female authors have your read lately that you'd recommend?



Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is, without doubt, a leader in every sense of the word.  His numerous speeches are loaded with inspiration.  Here, I've compiled but a few of this civil rights leader's most memorable lines.  Which are your favorites?

1.  “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.”

2.  "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

3.  "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

4.  "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.  Intelligence plus character -- that is the goal of true education."

 5.  "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.  This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

6.  "We must accept finite disappoint, but never lose infinite hope."

7.  "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

8.  "The time is always right to do what is right."

9.  "We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear."

10.  "Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.  It is a sword that heals."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Techli and me . . .

Now, not many of you would think of me as a techie, but, believe it or not, I was a guest blogger yesterday on Techli, a wonderful technology blog.  My post?  CEO Sundays: Why Communication Needs to Be a Part of the Science.  So, all of you whiz-brained geniuses out there, give this little missive a gander, and let me know what you think.

To read my Techli guest post, click here:  Science and Communication

 

 

 

 

Coins on top or bottom?

What's wrong with this picture?  Isn't it obvious?  The cashier has given you back your change with the coins on top method.  Now the coins are going to slide all over the place, maybe even land on the floor.  And, if  you're lucky, same cashier will top this whole debacle off with the receipt, which you'll stash in your mouth for safekeeping while you deal with the rolling coins and eventually get a chance to tuck the all-important bills into your wallet.  Grrrrrrr.

 Now, take a look at this picture.  Doesn't your blood pressure go down?  How calming and reasonable to have the cashier give you back your change with the coins on bottom method.  You slip the bills into your wallet, put the coins in your pocket or change purse, and all is well.  Perhaps, the cashier has even nicely counted your change back to you -- coins first -- and you are certain you've gotten back the correct amount.  Maybe you even feel so good about this transaction that you take your handful of coins and deposit them in the cashier's tip jar!

 

It's obvious which method I prefer.  Lately, the coins-on-top thing has become a pet peeve of mine.  But, I've heard various defenses for the coins on top method -- mainly, that the cash register shows the change as dollars first, coins second, and so cashiers grab the change that is shown and put it into your hand . . . also as it is shown, with coins on top.  They don't count back to you because they don't know how or were trained not to.  I've also heard that cashiers use the coins on top method because they don't want to touch germy hands and so put the bills (sanitary as they are) into your hand first, then drop the coins on top to avoid actual skin-to-skin contact. 

 

We won't even begin to talk about putting the receipt on top of everything because this issue is complicated enough.  But, please do tell which you prefer.  Are you a coins on top or a coins on bottom kind of customer?  And, if you're a cashier, what is your method of change delivery?

 

 

2012 Humanist of the Year Award

"Equal pay, and I mean for equal work, would put $200 billion more into the economy every year ... Those women are not going to put that money into a Cayman Island bank account, they are going to spend that money, and that is going to create jobs." ~ Gloria Steinem

The Humanist of the Year award was established in 1953 to recognize a person of national or international reputation who, through the application of humanist values, has made a significant contribution to the improvement of the human condition. Selection of the awardee is based on research derived from biographical data, writings, studies, and contributions to humanity.  The 2012 recipient of The Humanist of the Year award is . . . none other than the fantastic Gloria Steinem. 

Here, here!  Congratulations to a humanist among humanists for this well-deserved honor.

For more information about the American Humanist Association, click here: American Humanist Association

Trickle-down is still a trickle

 

This photo and quote say it all.  Trickle-down is, at best, a trickle. 

 

 

Cuteness

A few weeks ago, I gave a reading at Cook Memorial Library in Libertyville, IL.  The reading was well attended and during the Q&A, a woman asked if I had any advice for young wanna-be writers.  Well, naturally, I waxed effusively about the joys and wonders of the writing life and encouraged any as-yet-unpublished scribblers to write away, keep the faith, never give up, etc.

After the reading, a ten-year-old girl came up to me and confessed that it was her mother who had asked the question about writers for her.  We chatted for a little while and the little girl told me that she was already “writing a lot” – in her diary and in emails.  Recently, she had also started a blog and had a right smart number of followers.  I told her that she had a great start as a writer since she was already doing exactly what she needed to do – practice.  I told her to keep writing and she would have a book herself someday.

She thanked me, grinned sweetly, then presented me with this little bit of origami.  “It’s a bunny,” she said.  “I made it for you.” 

How adorable is that?  She absolutely made my day. 

Of course, I gladly accepted the bunny, and still have it sitting on my desk.  Whenever I see it, I smile, thinking of the little girl who made it and her wishes and dreams.  I can only hope the advice I gave her had half as much impact on her as her impromptu gift had on me.

Here’s a toast to up-and-coming little writers everywhere – may your pencils be sharp and your imaginations unfettered!

Feminist = Fine

First, she took Britain by storm. Next up, the United States.  Caitlin Moran’s mission: to blow up the nasty image feminism has acquired and to reclaim the word (and the ideology) for the people. Sort of a backlash to the backlash. And, she's a hoot (which helps).

According to Sarah Lyall of The New York Times, Moran’s book, How to Be a Woman, is “part memoir, part philosophical rant, part manifesto written with the lightest touch. . . The book aims to make women proud of being feminists.”

Moran says, “The word ‘feminism’ has for some reason gone off the rails to connote, incorrectly, preachy humorlessness and grim separatism.  When I talk to girls, they go, ‘I’m not a feminist.’  And I say, ‘What?  You don’t want to vote?  Do you want to be owned by your husband?  Do you want your money from your job to go into his bank account?  If you were raped, do you still want that to be a crime?  Congratulations:  you are a feminist.”

Check out Caitlin Moran’s website and see for yourself:  http://www.how-tobeawoman.com/

Highlighted Author

I'm happy and honored, today, to be the featured author, on esteemed Charlene A. Wilson's "Highlighted Author" blog.  Stop by Wilson's blog to read up on Shame the Devil, sure, but don't stop there.  You can also explore a virtual bookshelf of other literary delights, indulge in loads of book trailers and scan little known facts about countless authors and their missives.  Enjoy finding your next great read!  


Click here to visit the website:  Highlighted Author

Take a gander at my Book Trailer:  Shame the Devil  (It's got a great song!)



Texters: Beware!

There are a myriad of bad behaviors to be seen while out on the town.  It doesn’t matter if you’re going to the theater, the ballet, the symphony, an opera or a run-of-the-mill movie – there are certain things that polite, considerate human beings just do not do.  You shouldn’t wear tall hats, yak on cell phones, argue with seatmates, hit or yell at your kids, or take up more than your share of the allotted seating.  Patrons of public performance also shouldn’t scatter trash, eat or drink loudly, heckle performers or whisper running critiques of the experience.   

All of these breaches of public good manners are nothing, though, compared to the hair-raising experience of sitting behind or next to a texter.  Now, texting is certainly fine while on a bus or sitting at a hockey game, but there’s a reason there are always announcements against texting before any dimmed-light experience – texters, in effect, shine a flashlight into the faces of the people around them. 

I’m proud (and maybe a little embarrassed) to say that I have become the vinegar-lipped scold to those unfortunate few who dare text near me.  I don’t hesitate to tell texters to nip it, and now.  I must have perfected my teacher-face because, so far, texters have always immediately dropped their hardware and given me a sheepish look.  They know they’re not supposed to be peeking at their phones, they have just decided to risk it and hope nobody notices.   

Well, here’s a note to texters:  You’re noticed.  Of course.  When the lights are down and everyone is immersed in the hush and delight of the performance and you pull out your gadget and break everyone’s concentration . . . we notice.  We do!   

So stop.

*What’s your public peeve and what, if anything, do you do about it?



"Sleigh Bells and Ink Wells" Blog Hop

Are you ready to hop?  Take this tour of 12 blogs -- some you may already know and some new ones.  It's easy.  It's fun.  It's a good Friday diversion.

*******

‘Tis the season, you know, for giving and receiving – mostly for giving, though, right?  But, what is the nature of true giving?  How does one define generosity?  Philanthropy?

As is often the case, my idol, Fanny Fern, has already written the perfect seasonal column about this very topic.  Who is Fanny Fern?  Fanny Fern (the pen name of Sara Payson Willis), was one of the most successful, influential, and popular writers of the nineteenth century. A novelist, journalist, and feminist, Fern (1811-1872) outsold Harriet Beecher Stowe, won the respect of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and served as literary mentor to Walt Whitman. Scrabbling in the depths of poverty before her meteoric rise to fame and fortune, she was widowed, escaped an abusive second marriage, penned one of the country's first prenuptial agreements, married a man eleven years her junior, and served as a nineteenth-century Oprah to her hundreds of thousands of fans. Her weekly editorials in the pages of the New York Ledger and other periodicals over a period of about twenty years chronicled the myriad controversies of her era and demonstrated her firm belief in the motto, "Speak the truth, and shame the devil."  

As part of the “Sleigh Bells and Ink Wells” Blog Hop, my blog will introduce you to the real-life writing of the heroine of my historical novel Shame the Devil.  Her typically-sarcastic June 5, 1852 article, published in Boston’s The Olive Branch, follows:

Mistaken Philanthropy

“Don’t moralize to a man who is on his back;—help him up, set him firmly on his feet, and then give him advice and means.”

There’s an old-fashioned, verdant, piece of wisdom, altogether unsuited for the enlightened age we live in; fished up, probably, from some musty old newspaper, edited by some eccentric man troubled with than inconvenient appendage called a heart!  Don’t pay any attention to it.  If a poor wretch—male or female—comes to you for charity, whether allied to you by your own mother, or mother Eve, put on the most stoical, “get thee behind me,” expression you can muster.  Listen to him with the air of a man who “thanks God he is not as other men are.”  If the story carry conviction with it, and truth and sorrow go hand in hand, button your coat up tighter over your pocket book, and give him a piece of—good advice!  If you know anything about him, try to rake up some imprudence or mistake he may have made in the course of his life, and bring that up as a reason why you can’t give him anything more substantial, and tell him that his present condition is probably a salutary discipline for those same peccadilloes!  Ask him more questions than there are in the Assembly’s Catechism, about his private history, and when you’ve pumped him high and dry, try to teach him—on an empty stomach—the “duty of submission.”  If a tear of the wounded sensibility begins to flood the eye, and a hopeless look of discouragement settles down upon the face, “wish him well,” and turn your back upon him as quick as possible.

Should you at any time be seized with an unexpected spasm of generosity, and make up your mind to bestow some worn-out old garment, that will hardly hold together till the recipient gets it home, you’ve bought him, body and soul; of course, you are entitled to gratitude of a life-time!  If he ever presumes to think differently from you after that, he is an “ungrateful wretch,” and “ought to suffer.”  As to the “golden rule,” that was made in old times; everything is changed now; it is not suited to our meridian.

People shouldn’t get poor; if they do, you don’t want to be bothered with it.  It is disagreeable; it hinders your digestion.  You would rather see Dives than Lazarus; and, it is my opinion, your taste will be gratified in that particular,—in the other world, if not in this!

--Fanny Fern


Ha!  You said it Fanny!  To learn more about Fanny Fern and my historical novel about her, click here: Shame the Devil.

To continue onto the next “Sleigh Bells and Ink Wells” blogger, the amazing Malcolm R. Campbell, click here: Malcolm’s Round Table.  From Malcolm’s site, you’ll be directed to hop to the next blog until you finish the whole short, wonderful tour of twelve blogs.  Enjoy! 

“Sleigh Bells and Ink Wells” blog hop participants are authors of small press/university press books that are eliciting discussion and notice.  Blog hoppers include:

Smoky Zeidel @ Smoky Talks

Patricia Damery @ Patricia Damery

Debra Brenegan @ Debra Brenegan, author

Malcolm R. Campbell @ Malcolm’s Round Table

T.K. Thorne @ T.K.’s Tales

Anne K. Albert @ Anne K. Albert

Elizabeth Clark-Stern @ Elizabeth Clark-Stern’s Blog

Collin Kelley @ Modern Confessional

Sharon Heath @ Sharon Heath

Melinda Clayton @ Author Melinda Clayton

Ramey Channell @ Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge

Leah Shelleda @ After the Jug was Broken

Coming to you: Friday, Dec. 16th

You're Invited to a

"Blog Hop"

Read about new books

Read about new authors

Get ideas for your holiday gift list

Visit some new, quality blogs

Enjoy!!



Gloria Steinem Still Rocks

In an article printed today in Bloomberg Business Week, famed feminist Gloria Steinem said, “Sometimes people say to me, at my age, well aren’t you interested in something other than women’s issues? And I say ‘show me one. Show me one that isn’t transformed by including both halves of the population.’”

Steinem still says it all, still cuts to the crux of the issue. It is not just about equality and equal opportunity, about equal pay and equal rights. It’s about allowing 51% of the population to fully participate. It’s about basking in the benefits those 51% of people bring to society – absorbing their input, relishing their creativity, living with the wonder of their ideas and beliefs and values, profiting from their expertise, learning from their perspectives. Full societal participation by all people won’t take away from those who already participate – it will add to the betterment of everyone in ways we have yet to imagine.

To read the entire Bloomberg Business Week article click on the link below:

Steinem article in Bloomberg Business Week

Heifer International

I know, I know. Friday was Black Friday. Today is Cyber Monday. I know, I know, I know. I shake my head at merchants putting up Christmas trees during Halloween, cringe to hear Christmas carols playing on the radio while I’m making my Thanksgiving pies. “The Season” has arrived and, at least during these weeks, it doesn’t have much to do with anything but retailing. Merchandising. Materialism. Capitalism. You label it how you want to.

Now, of course, I don’t want people to fail in business and I’m all for a recovered economy, but it seems that the glitz and hoopla descends earlier and earlier, crashing through any meaningful attempts at peace and renewal the season might offer. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I like presents. And, yes, I like giving other people presents, too. But, I’m trying to regroup, simplify, make more conscious choices. In the process, I’ve discovered (through a gift given to my husband and me), the world of Heifer International.

Heifer International takes your tax-deductible donations and purchases chickens, goats, cows, vegetable seeds and other goods for impoverished families to help them start businesses that support themselves and their communities. Through your donations, you help to pull people out of poverty and give them the greatest gift – the gift they really want – self-reliance. The best part? You can make donations in someone else’s name and give two gifts at once.

For the people on your list who really don’t need anything – and you know who those people are – why not explore Heifer International, or one of the other many charitable opportunities out there?

Check out Heifer's website:  Heifer International

What are your favorite charitable organizations? Do you have suggestions for charitable holiday giving?

A Winner!

I don't usually do two book reviews in a row, but today is a definite exception to that way of thinking. I just read (devoured, is probably a better word) Ann Weisgarber's The Personal History of Rachel DuPree and absolutely loved it! It seems I'm not the only one -- Weisgarber's book won the Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction and the Texas Institute of Letters' Steven Turner Award for Best Work of First Fiction, not to mention being a finalist for the Orange Prize for New Writers.

Weisgarber's book tells a story you think you already know -- about the hard-scrabble life of Homesteaders in the early 1900s -- but includes information you didn't even know you didn't know -- about the experiences of black Homesteaders. Consider the narratives put forth by books like The Little House on the Prairie. Rich in detail, readers gobbled up those stories that rarely allowed people to fall too hard. Sure, crops failed and children got sick, weather raged and fancy dresses were rare, but neighbors helped each other through hard times and, in the end, everything worked out (and there was usually a barn dance). There's little prairie romance in Weisgarber's tale -- not only do crops fail, but people starve.  Not only does weather rage, but people, white and black alike, die because of it . . . and, ultimately some of them give up on the land and go back to the cities where they could usually score basic necessities like food, clothing and shelter.

I won't spoil the story line of this amazing book, but will just suggest that the harsh realities of the early South Dakota Badlands were even harsher upon the few blacks who drew up their courage and tried to carve out their existences there. Loneliness and racism do much to make harsh conditions almost unbearable. This story, the story of Rachel DuPree, shows that world and illuminates a narrator and character of incredible strength.

Read this book -- soon!  You will not be disappointed.

Women for Women

I recently heard about a fantastic organization, Women for Women, a group dedicated to helping female survivors of war and civil strife heal and rebuild their lives and communities. 

 Women for Women’s cause is justified and necessary. War takes an enormous emotional, physical and psychological toll not only on the military personnel who have to endure it, but also on the citizens who must cope with as much, if not more, war-induced trauma as soldiers do.

Women for Women’s amazing website is:   Women for Women International

Women for Women’s stated vision is:  “Women for Women International envisions a world where no one is abused, poor, illiterate or marginalized; where members of communities have full and equal participation in the processes that ensure their health, well-being and economic independence; and where everyone has the freedom to define the scope of their life, their future and strive to achieve their full potential.”

Take a peek.  See what you can do to help out a sister in need.