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?

 

 

Rule #1: Don't ask a feminist to promote a sexist product.

You've all likely heard about the ridiculous "Pens for Women" Bic has been trying to market.  They are, basically, regular pens that come in pink and purple and are twice as expensive as "men pens."  There is so much wrong with this idea, all of which is expertly, and oh-so-humorously, pointed out by the brilliant Ellen DeGeneres.  Believe it or not, Bic apparently asked Ellen to be a product spokesperson for the lady pens.  You guessed it -- she refused.  And she came up with this hilarious stand up about it. 

So, get yourself a splash of coffee, tea, or something stronger.  Now, sit back and enjoy Ellen's witty comeback. 

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?



NOW

Have you heard of NOW – The National Organization for Women?  It’s an organization, for women and men, of feminist activists in the United States with 500,000 contributing members and an agenda you wouldn’t believe.  Founded in 1966, NOW’s goal has been to “take action to bring about equality for all women.”  How?  Specifically, NOW avows that it “works to eliminate discrimination and harassment in the workplace, schools, the justice system, and all other sectors of society; secure abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women; end all forms of violence against women; eradicate racism, sexism and homophobia; and promote equality and justice in our society.” [Quotes from NOW website]

NOW’s website is a cornucopia of information about all of the latest topics that affect women – reproductive rights, gay marriage, domestic violence, discrimination, and the latest media hot buttons and legislative battles.  Check out their site below to sign up for their amazing newsletter, take the reproductive rights pledge, or to volunteer at one of their sponsored events, especially their “One Billion Rising” campaign. 

Curious?  Click here and be one of the one billion rising.




Stop the Princess Machines

Just in time for the holidays – a kick-butt, fun, alternative to “pink stuff” and Barbie.  GoldieBlox is a toy company that makes construction sets and other cool engineering-inspired toys geared toward girls.  The company was started by Stanford-educated engineer Debbie Sterling, who was frustrated by how few women there were in her field, and by how few options there were for girls to fall in love with engineering through their toys.

Check out this powerful GoldieBlox ad (that is going viral) Click here , and visit the GoldieBlox website Click here to order some amazing toys for the girls on your list. 

Then, sit back, all smug, and drink a toast to future gender equality in EVERY professional field.

 

Exhausted Workforce

Warning:  This post has no suggestions for solutions.  It is full of observations, some of which might make you cranky.

A recent New York Times article about gender inequality cited various statistics comparing the United States' workplace policies and practices to roughly 190 other countries of similar economic and political development.  The results were heartbreaking, but did help to explain why so many people feel like the cartoon man in the above picture -- exhausted and overwhelmed at work.

According to the article, the United States places "dead last" as far as family-work policies and ranked among the very highest in the hours most employers required their average employees to work.  Many Americans now clock 50 or more hours per week at work, far more than any other industrialized country, including Japan.  Add to this the increasingly-popular practice of hiring young people as "interns," for no wages, and we've certainly got a workforce crisis in the making.

There's a myth that the United States is the most progressive place around, that we are the world's leader, the most-progressive of the progressive.  This article is one of many that challenge that myth.  The question, of course, is:  What can we do about it?

The lengthly article discussed much more than the increase in work hours.  Click here to read the article for yourself:  NY Times Article

Trickle-down is still a trickle

 

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

 

 

VIDA -- Check it out!

VIDA – Women in the Literary Arts – is at it again.  They’ve counted and calculated and found that, yes, again, women are vastly underrepresented in publication and review in the world of literary arts.  See the pretty pie charts.  Read the gripping conclusions.  Things this year are, well, about the same as they were last year.  Despite the fact that women make up 51% of the country’s population (and more women than men attend and graduate from graduate-level creative writing programs), women’s works account for only 25-33% of published literary works.  Why is that?  Do women write fewer stories and poems?  Are women just worse at writing than men?  Do women not submit their work for publication? No, no, and no, of course.  Read more on VIDA’s website by clicking here:  VIDA

What do you think about this phenomenon?  Is there any way to change things? 

Really?

With the latest social battle again being waged on and about women's bodies, I laughed out loud at the Saturday Night Live link being circulated on facebook and elsewhere.  Seth and Amy give a spirited and outraged reaction to the latest headline-gaining debates about reproductive health and show just how ridiculous and backward such arguments are becoming.  I mean . . .

REALLY.

Hopefully, we'll all be able to look back on this rhetoric and laugh.  Anything else would bring me closer to tears.  Check out this Hulu link to see what I mean:  Really?!?!

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