Latent Biases Against Women

Cathy Tinsley, a professor at Georgetown (woot!) and executive director of the GU Women's Leadership Initiative, wrote this editorial in the Washington Post featuring work that she has done which has shown gender bias in the corporate world. She specifically uses two examples from her research where women are judged more harshly than men when it comes to being assertive and taking time off for an emergency. Check it out.

Alice Walker and Rebecca Walker

Rebecca Walker, one of the pioneers of third wave feminism, has written an article "How my mother's fanatical views tore us apart." It delves into her personal relationship with her mother, Alice Walker, and how besides being inattentive when Rebecca was growing up, also taught her that "motherhood was about the worst thing that could happen to a woman." Rebecca describes her happiness at being a mother herself and how Alice Walker's feminism has caused a generation of women to dismiss their biological clocks.

Though Alice Walker may not have been the best "mother," I disagree with her Rebecca Walker's view that women nowadays don't focus nearly enough on their biological clocks. People in our generation do. We do think about when we're going to have kids along with our careers and still have godlike images of soccer moms coloring our perspectives.

I agree with Rebecca Walker that motherhood should not be viewed as something bad--certainly it should be celebrated--but with caution, because Mother's Day, while offering some sort of symbolic recognition does not hold up to the truth that childcare providers who do the work of "mothering" everyday are paid far less than most other professions. Alice Walker's feminism really did exclude a lot of women who chose to be feminine, etc, and thus is far too ideological, but I think that that generation's feminism's attempt to wrest motherhood out of its sacred stranglehold was important for women. Has it gone too far? I would say no, but perhaps others would disagree.

Student Protest of Phyllis Schlafly

I'm sure many of you have heard about the protest of Phyllis Schlafly, professional anti-feminist and conservative leader, as the graduation speaker at Washington University. Here is a clip from CNN that summarizes it quite well and highlights her opinion that marital rape is not rape (refreshing!). Fortunately, around half of the student body was estimated to have turned their backs in protest. Go WashU!

Via.

Contraceptive pills

Chile banned the distribution of the morning-after pill in the country's public health system. Chile is a Catholic country and abortion is illegal, so many women resort to unsafe underground abortions. Well, banning the morning-after pill will for sure increase the number of the latter.


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Little greek island

I came across this article and I thought I would share.