October 2009
29 posts
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What if it had been “Lehman Sisters”?
The New York Times reports that two separate studies showed that the companies in Europe and the US with the most women on their boards were more profitable than others. Although the studies don’t prove a causal relationship, a handful of investment firms like the Swiss Naissance Capital, have created funds to invest in companies with female senior executives. Comparisons of male and female...
One Man's No Holds Barred Thoughts on Rape →
If you read nothing else on this blog, read this. All the way through.
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Advice for Working Women
In her New York Times op-ed, Joanne Lipman, a former deputy managing editor at The Wall Street Journal and the founding editor in chief of Condé Nast Portfolio, encourages women to be more aggressive, and notes that in her time as editor many men asked her for a promotion but not a single woman did. It got me thinking about at what age women are taught to be passive. I remember schoolteachers...
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“By 11, [boys] have already learnt that calling a girl fat effectively finishes...”
– Kate Townshend, Schoolteacher, Gloucestershire, England
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You Were a Child
In Jack’s the other day I was reading at the only free table, which happened to be next to two girls and their nanny.
The girls were around nine years old, I think, but they could have been older. I’m not around kids enough to know. And they were loud. I’d try to read a sentence and hear, “This is THE best. Chocolate chip cookie. I’ve ever had. In my life.” I’d try to read the sentence again and...
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Violence Against Women has Intensified During...
According to NOW, the economic recession has led to increased domestic violence due to tension surrounding job loss and declines in income, and more time around the house for out-of-work abusers. Although the recession is not the direct cause of violent behavior, it is an aggravating factor. Unfortunately, the weakened economy has caused state budgets to cut back on social service programs and...
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The Line
Photo from whereisyourline.org
I recently saw Nancy Schwartzman’s documentary The Line, which asks what happens when two people are already engaged in consensual sexual activity and one person takes it too far. Unlike “rape” as we traditionally define it (there is a clear perpetrator and victim), Schwartzman explores a situation where the victim is a sexual person too. And as a sexual assault...
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Why Aren't Boys Being Vaccinated Against HPV?
A British Medical Journal study advises against vaccinating boys for HPV because it’s less cost-effective to vaccinate both girls and boys and besides, if girls are vaccinated, boys don’t have to be. As Slate’s William Saletan writes:
In other words, boys don’t have to get vaccinated for the same reason they don’t have to wash dishes, do laundry, buy birth control, or think...
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“Oversharing is a charge that is overwhelmingly leveled more toward women than...”
– -Michael Chabon to The New York Times
Photo by Chrys Wu
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The Problem with Studies
Photo by eHow
A recent study purports to measure if women are less happy then they were 35 years ago.
From the abstract:
By many objective measures the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet we show that measures of subjective well-being indicate that women’s happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men.
I’m tempted to send...
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More on Older Women and Younger Men →
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My Interview with Cindy Gallop about Relationships... →
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WatchCindy Gallop’s apartment where we had our interview.
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“The single best lesson I ever learned in my life was being in the advertising...”
– -Cindy Gallop, Founder of ifwerantheworld.com
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The Importance of the Humane Workweek
What emerged from the comments section of Judith Warner’s article is a conclusion I often think about: “What we really need to fight for, for everyone, is a humane work week.”
As it stands, an inflexible 50-80 (100?) hour workweek makes it impossible for those working to care for their children, so each working person has to team up with a non-working person in order to have a family. Since men...
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Women Would Rather Work
Judith Warner wrote a compelling article, as she tends to do, about “The Choice Myth,” in which she explains that women do not choose to stay home with their children, and all but the least educated women overwhelmingly prefer to stay in the work force.
The only women ‘opting out’ in any significant numbers were the very richest — those with husbands earning more than $125,000 a year — and the...
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“One of the biggest challenges for the feminist movement is that feminism...”
– Marcia Pappas, National Organization for Women New York State President
Photo by design is mine
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Lesbians are Disproportionately Expelled Under... →
Pentagon statistics obtained by University of California researchers show that women are more likely than men to be kicked out of the military under the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” banning openly gay servicemembers.
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Young Married Women are Taking Charge of the...
FindLaw.com, a legal information website, conducted a national survey that found that married women between the ages of 18 and 34 were the most likely - among married men and women of all ages - to manage the household finances, and to do it without fighting.
Photo by Chicago Magazine
Thirty-seven percent of young married women say they handle all the household finances, compared with only 30...
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Why Women have Affairs with their Older Male...
Photo by New York Daily News
Bonnie Fuller wrote an article for The Huffington Post theorizing that David Letterman’s younger female employees fell for him because they fantasized about being whisked away by an older, established man. The theory might have some merit, though I imagine that most men and women have fantasized about getting involved with someone in a higher economic bracket at...
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Advice for Men that Want to Date Women →
10 rules for dating from a woman’s perspective. I like how she insists on being taken on a real date, like dinner, instead of drinks, and writes, “Even Patrick Bateman took his women on dates.” Also amen to, “Don’t ask me out if you have a girlfriend.” Amazing how often that one comes up.
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October is Breast Cancer Month
And someone I know got hit with it this month, again. I’ve been keeping up with her on Facebook, and on her blog Dishalicious: Cancer is the New Black.
Photo of the IAC building in New York by Grufnick
A theme in the blog, which is honest, funny and well-written, is trying to get women in their mid-30’s to get mammograms. She writes, “Here’s the thing ladies, I have NO history of BC in...
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Gender Balance on Social Networking Sites →
The most shocking thing about this for me is that anyone goes on Classmates.com.
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What Women Find Sexy
Salon.com interviewed clinical psychologist Cindy M. Meston and evolutionary psychologist David M. Buss about their new book “Why Women Have Sex.” In the interview Buss and Meston talk not only about why women like sex but also why we find certain types of men attractive. For example, masculine features like a square jaw, heavier brow region and low voice are linked with...
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A new study finds that, regardless of gender, the... →
Researchers conduct a speed dating study to try to determine who is more selective: women or men.
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“The press tries to paint the picture that I was this downtrodden, ugly girl who...”
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Gabby Sidibe, star of Precious, in an interview with New York Magazine
Photo by Antoine Doyen