NPR Article: Women Are Speaking Up About Harassment And Abuse, But Why Now?

Earlier this morning I read an NPR article entitled, "Women Are Speaking Up About Harassment And Abuse, But Why Now?", which attempts an explanation of why we are witnessing an upsurge in sexual harassment and abuse claims. The article references Anita Hill's testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, paralleling the reaction to this hearing with the reaction to the release of the Trump's Access Hollywood tape in which he brags about grabbing women. Similarly to the outpouring of sexual harassment and abuse claims after Anita Hill's testimony, the article's author claims that Trump's video has also served as an impetus for many women to stand up to high-profile figures and reveal the injustices done to them. In light of our conversation on Anita Hill's testimony sparking women's involvement in political elections, I wonder if a similar pattern will follow in our political elections today? Will more women run for political office to take a stand to these men in positions of great power in the near future? 

Here is the entire article for your reference: http://www.npr.org/2017/10/27/560231232/women-are-speaking-up-about-harassment-and-abuse-but-why-now?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2055.

The Gender Pay Gap (Washington Post)

I came across this article while reading the news today, and I wanted to share it since we've been discussing unequal opportunities and wages for women in the workplace during the mid-twentieth century. Especially in comparison to the statistics given in "A Day Without Feminism" by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, from yesterday's readings, it's striking both how much things have improved today and how women are still facing the same barriers we see in the 1970s.

I enjoyed reading this piece not only because of the really informative infographics, but also because it highlights key claims that are often made in society to explain why women are paid less than men.

In summary, the article debunks (at least partially) the following claims of those who deny the existence of a pay gap: 

1) Women choose lower-paying jobs.

2) Women choose to work part-time.

3) It's not the case for younger, more educated women.

Finally, the article ends with a conclusion that reminded me of our own class discussions:

"What this all hints to is that the causes of the gender gap are many and more nuanced than just individual choices or corporate discrimination. However you slice the data, the gap is there. Only by recognizing the complexity of the variables that play into the gap can companies and the government enact policies to root out the deeper causes of those disparities, instead of alleviating its symptoms."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/business/women-pay-gap/?utm_term=.fd70bdfc4312

-Jane

Op-Ed on Megyn Kelly

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/opinion/megyn-kelly-problem.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

There was a very interesting New York Times Op-Ed in the paper yesterday. The article discusses Megyn Kelly's unique place as a woman who has been an outspoken advocate against sexual assault cases and supporter of women while working at Fox News, among conservatively-deemed newscasters. This opinion piece discusses a trend of conservative women disagreeing with their traditional party views on some women's issues, but neglecting to consider themselves 'feminists'. I do not see this as a proven concept, but acknowledge that it's an interesting idea to think about within changing political climates. I think this relates to the ways we have seen women as a gender unite with similar mindsets and goals despite different alliances. One example would be how beneath women participating in the WKKK we see their desire for women's equality similar to members of traditional women's groups despite membership of an extremist and violent larger KKK organization. I am interested in what people think about conservative women's place in politics, and newscasters / reporters specifically. I think they are extremely important in using their alliances within right-leaning groups to spread awareness on women's issues and try to make 'feminist' initiatives bipartisan.

Also, if anyone is interested in Megyn Kelly, I would highly recommend reading her autobiography, Settle for More, regardless of agreeing with her political views or not. She has a fascinating story and also tells about her wild interactions with Trump throughout his campaign.

Gender Neutral Policies & Their Potential Harm to Women

This last weekend was homecoming week at my former high school. Homecoming court has been an important tradition to the school and underwent policy changes in my Senior year. Formally, the homecoming court ceremony consisted of 5 "Princes" and 5 "Princesses" voted on by the school for their accomplishments and contributions during their time at the school. During the ceremony, one women and one man from the court would be crowned homecoming Queen and King. My Freshman year, an out gay male student was elected as one of the Homecoming princesses, to which he accepted the election and the school permitted him to serve as a princess. This is the only recent example of gender-bending the rules, and came with minimal public controversy to my knowledge. My senior year they changed the court so that 1) voting was gender neutral, you voted for ten individuals, 2) members of SEC (student government) were not eligible to be on the court and 3) there would no longer be a queen or king, just a court of ten students. This year, they changed it back so that members of SEC could be on the court. For the past 2/3 years that the new rules have been in place, women have be in the minority of the court by more than one member difference. My senior year, there was 6 female, 5 male, the next year there was a sudden drop with 2 female, 8 male, and this year 3 female and 8 male. In addition, the temporary ruling that SEC members cannot serve effectively barred the only female student body president and vice president that served during the past five years of the school from the court. Though the policy has only been in place for three years, the trend from my senior year to now is discouraging for female representation.

This dilemma behind gender-blindness and representation is reminiscent of our brief discussion in class on gender-neutral paternity leave and other policies, as researched by CMC professor Heather Antecol. The attached article does a good job summarizing the study and how new policies discriminated against women, including how the "stopping the clock" even benefitted tenure for men and decreased tenure for women.

As the name of the study, "Equal but Inequitable," highlights, both the homecoming ruling and new paternity leave policies demonstrate how acting in the name of equality can leave cracks that allow for even increased unfair treatment. It's sad to look back at my high school and see that many female students who are in high leadership positions and tirelessly contribute to the community are not recognized by their peers, however how does recognition change when you enforce a quota? Is the idea of a homecoming court at all rooted in exclusion? Is paternity leave an example of "gender difference" arguments, where men and women should not be treated in the same manner? Though the two examples deal with very different circumstances and stakes, both demonstrate the double edge sword of gender neutral rulings.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/06/27/stopping-tenure-clock-may-help-male-professors-more-female-study-finds

In New York, an Influential First Lady Redefines the Position

According to today's New York Times:
"Chirlane McCray, the wife of Mayor Bill de Blasio, has far extended the boundaries of what a first lady does in the city."

A Hamer of Today

While I was reading about and listening to Hamer's testimony at the Democratic Convention in 1964, I was reminded of Tia Oso - national coordinator for the Black Immigration Network - who bravely stood on stage at the 2015 Netroots Nation Presidential Town Hall in Phoenix, AZ (my home state) to bring attention to police violence against Black women in America.

Here's an article from the Atlantic describing it.

Netroots Nation is a national political convention for progressive activists, so the parallelism in the two acts are fairly similar - they both utilized an event that meant to represent the "progressives" of their time as their platform to demonstrate the failures of those who claim to be advocates of society's oppressed. In addition to being a Black American woman, Tia Oso had the additional intersectional dimension of representing the Black immigrant community: her parents were immigrants from Nigeria, and experienced a multi-tiered oppression often ignored in progressive politics.

Tia Oso spoke specifically of the death of Sandra Bland and other black women killed while in police custody; again, very similar to Hamer's testimony discussing the police violence they faced when attempting to register their citizenship. Similar to Hamer's Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, she also created a community that branched away from the community of the convention she attended: "I worked with Phoenix-based organizers to create #BlackRoots, a space to focus on black perspectives and connect national organizers with local black community members."

Oso also tapped into the hearts of her viewers like Hamer: "we called the names of black women killed in police custody, expressed our heartbreaking requests to the community should we ourselves die in police custody, and looked on as respected and revered progressive leaders were woefully unable to answer our reasonable question as to how they will lead America to a brighter future." She aimed her questions and demands at the democratic presidential candidates at the time O'Malley and Sanders, who struggled to address how they would work to unearth structural racism and ensure black lives are recognized and respected as equal people and citizens of America. The next convention was held in St. Louis, Missouri, and focused primarily on the American Blackness narrative while featuring many leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement.

It's interesting to see how similar tactics are repeatedly used to effectively call people into a movement for change; it's also interesting to see how similar problematic views and ignorance recur as modern manifestations of America's tumultuous history of racism and misogyny. While Sanders and O'Malley didn't interrupt Oso with an impromptu press conference, they hadn't even considered preparing answers to Oso's questions. Hopefully more actions like Hamer's and Oso's will eventually bring the Black female narrative to the forefront of politicians' mind when they consider the primary issues of concern they ought to address should they take office.

Women in Business

Connected to our common theme about maternalism, this article speaks to the issue of women and family-life and their career development. I think it was super interesting and spoke to the biological necessity to take time off of work to start a family but how hard it is to reenter the workforce after starting a family. It talked about how a woman's career goals should not be inhibited by the fact that they have to have children and take time off to start a family. They say that there is almost an expiration date on a woman's career due to them wanting to start a family. Its really interesting and I would love to here your guys' take of it.

"A woman’s dreams are not to be tied up by the name of a special bond she shares with her baby or the natural instinct that makes her take over family responsibilities. As a person who believes that the society as a whole has a role to play if we want more women in the corporate world, I’d like to reiterate that even the question, ‘Who decides the expiry date of a woman’s dreams’, holds good only when women are at least given an opportunity to weave their dreams by minimizing the constraints imposed!! "


full article:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/women-business-devika-r/?trackingId=covzrenoh%2F91IRgg6n4VJQ%3D%3D

The Hidden Battle of the Sexes (WSJ)

I came across this article a few days ago and thought it related back really well to an earlier thread that was happening regarding women in the workplace.

I made a comment that spoke to the rise of women in entry-level positions but these numbers not translating to upper-lever management and executive positions. This post actually broke down the numbers and saw a drop from 47% of women making up entry-level positions to only 20% in executive positions. One of the comments I found most interesting regarding this was

"In the same offices and on the same teams, women largely view gender equality as a work still in early progress, while many male colleagues see a mission accomplished. Significantly more men than women say their companies are level playing fields and have plenty of women leaders, even in places where less than 1 in 10 top executives are women. And they are much more likely to say gender diversity isn’t a priority for them, often because they think merit would suffer."

I think its really interesting that men see the rise of women in entry-level positions as a job well done and mission completed in terms of equalizing the playing field. Women see a lot of these issues as still very relevant and problematic and offer solutions to how they would be able to break into the executive positions but they don't feel heard. I'd love to hear what you guys think.

Full article:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-hidden-battle-of-the-sexes-at-work-1507608661?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3BcrLQUSkXQiuJxwxGkRIQPw%3D%3D

Gender Equity in the Workplace

The Atlantic just shared on Facebook an interview it conducted with Barbara Annis, the founder of a consultancy that helps firms create gender equitable cultures. In the interview, Annis made two interesting points:

1) "If you look at technology companies, they’re looking to overcome what they call the “brain drain” or what they call the “talent drain.” They’re losing women: Women come in after having graduated and they last three to five years, so that’s one."

2) “Why aren’t we making progress?” We’ve made great progress in middle management: Why aren’t we making progress in senior management?"

Basically, Annis says that many technology companies hire women but are unable to keep hold of them. Second, she says that women progress to middle management but do not reach senior management levels in many firms. 

The good news is that society has progressed to the point that most big firms seek to hire 50% women. In terms of the numbers, most big firms are gender equitable. The bad news is that turnover for women is high -- probably because they think that the work environment is not accommodating and supportive of women. And if women do not leave these firms, they are unable to progress to senior management -- probably because the people who decide the promotions are male. In short, there is still a long ways to go to achieving gender equity in the workplace!

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/women-work-gender-equality-workplace/399503/ 

Aftermath of 2016 Election: Women Running For Political Office

After almost a year since Trump was elected to the presidency, I wondered how this affected women and their political aspirations. 

Cosmopolitan magazine recently took a survey with respondents ranging from ages 18-34 and asked them how the political climate after the election made them feel about involving themselves in politics. The results were about equal when you compare the numbers of women less likely to run v. the numbers of women inspired to run. 

One respondent Ariel Dye, 27, lives in California and said that she’s been intrigued by the idea of holding a political office since she served as her high school class president. But she said the election brought home just how difficult politics can be for women — and especially women of color. “I feel like it’s something I should think about doing as a black women because we’re so underrepresented,” she said. “But realistically, with this combative political climate, I don’t think the country would be receptive to someone like me.”

72% of the respondents answered that it is harder for a woman to get elected than a man. Women feel less motivated to take on political roles because they feel they’ll be more heavily scrutinized than there male peers. 

I asked myself a lot of questions upon thinking about this issue. How do we make political life more accessible to women? Why are women judged more harshly as political actors than men? What can we do to change these perspectives?

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a12436504/women-run-for-office-2016-survey/

Professor Zimmerman Connecting to Class Discussion

I thought Professor Zimmerman’s Athenaeum talk was very relevant to many conversations we have had in our classroom. Specifically, Professor Zimmerman discussed the dilemma faced by many K-12 teachers on how to address difficult topics in our nation’s history and present reality. His thoughts immediately made me think of our class discussion of the reality of MLK’s leadership. We know the reality of his actions to include many faults outside of his inspiring actions. It’s a very difficult concept to consider making heroes seem less heroic, especially to young students. At the same time, though, if we want to progress and change how people interact in the face of disagreement and controversy, I think sharing these truthful realities beginning at young ages will create a more open, cooperative and progressive nation. One of the biggest realities with Professor Zimmerman's comments about college campuses and everyday speech, conversations and attacks, is that there is no easy or quick solution to enacting change. Starting from how we raise our nation's children and educate them may be one possible long term solution that shapes how people engage in discussion and progress forward.