Sexism and the conservative imbalance
Women and the people who love them must vote in the Texas Gubernatorial race lest sexist Republican Greg Abbott and his sexist friends maintain the status quo on equal pay for equal work, and the right to sue in a court of law when ever the pay discrimination is discovered (Lilly Ledbetter Act). Abbott actively fights against equal pay legislation and defended Governor Perry's vetoing a bill to help end it. While we expect that from Abbott, why did Cari Cristman of the Republican PAC, RedState Women, blame women's schedules for unequal pay? Oh, what she really meant, according to Beth Cubriel, the executive director of the Texas Republican Party, is that women need to be better negotiators instead of pursuing fair pay in a court of law.
"We lead busy lives, whether working professionally, whether working from home, and times are extremely busy. It's a busy cycle for women, and we've got a lot to juggle."
Wendy Davis's campaign spokeswoman Rebecca Acuna says Cubriel's statement is an insult to women:
“Greg Abbott’s allies’ defense of his opposition to equal pay for women are out-of-touch and offensive," she said. "Texans deserve a governor like Wendy Davis who will fight for economic fairness for all hardworking families instead of Gregg Abbott’s business as usual hostility to fair pay legislation.”
Move along republicans, clearly Wendy Davis is an irritant among sexist circles because of her bill that would have provided a minor fix to the current anti-discrimination legislation. Even though it didn't pass, it did illuminate the fact that current laws are not sufficient to protect women from unequal pay in Texas.
According to Karen Agness, founder of the Network for Enlightened Women, the Ledbetter Act is bad because...
“the left is quick to offer policy solutions that seem to want to get in the middle of that employee/employer relationship.”
...because employers always have their employees best interests at heart, right?
And while we're talking about the war on women, let's blame women's unhappiness on feminism. The conservative Heritage Foundation celebrated Women's History Month by inviting a trio of professional women to trash the very movement to which they most assuredly owe their status in the workplace.
Shall Hilary Clinton school them?
The lens through which we view policy is male dominated, but women are actually the majority of the country.
Most recently, the flaw in this paradigm can be witnessed in the clueless and humanity killing discussions revolving around women’s rights to sovereignty over their own bodies. It’s tough to imagine the opposite – a world in which a mostly female legislature or Supreme Court considered their alleged “morality” to supercede a man’s right to make his own medical decisions, and mostly female pundits reported on this surreal hijacking of 14th amendment rights with the calm of the safe and privileged so that it was framed as a righteous discussion – the ladies’ morality can’t be offended by his right to make his own decisions. What to do? Huh. It’s a real toss up.
The ongoing saga brought on by forced-birthers seeks to make medical care less safe, more time consuming, more expensive, and disproportionately impacts women of lesser economic means. Arizona wins for having the
strictest rules on the use of abortion drugs in the nation (and Meteor Blades isn't fooling around).
Planned Parenthood weighed in on HB1400 in Jackson, MS yesterday, passed by the State House of Representatives. HB1400 restricts a woman's ability to end her pregnancy after 20 weeks with extremely limited exceptions. Mississippi only has one abortion clinic in the entire state.
Black male sexism and the intra racial imbalance
But Black Women Have Always Been "My Brother's Keepers" so Who is "Keeping" the Sistas?
So I was socialized to love and appreciate and act in consideration towards Black men quite frankly at the expense of myself. Whereas the fact is that Black men are absolutely not socialized to be the same way towards Black women.
As Black women we are supposed to minimize the impact of Black male sexism. We are supposed to be careful to add as a disclaimer that this is just "some" Black men. And that we still LOVE Black men.
To not let my love for Black men -- something I was socialized to have but don't want to divest of -- blind me from seeing the ways in which Black women are marginalized and disrespected by the same people we are constantly running to support.
The gender imbalance
Are our daughters set up for gender inequality before they enter school? The "pinkification" of toys is but one example of gender bias that may lead to fewer girls entering careers in science, technology, engineering, and math at lower rates than boys.
But the detrimental effects of this kind of marketing, though clearly only one factor in a mix of many influences on the young, may run broader and deeper. It polarizes children into stereotypes. It's not just that vehicles, weapons, and construction sets are presented as "for boys" while toys of domesticity and beautification are "for girls." Toys for boys facilitate competition, control, agency, and dominance; those for girls promote cooperation and nurturance. These gender stereotypes, acquired in childhood, underlie a host of well-documented biases against women in traditionally masculine domains and roles, and they hinder men from sharing more in the responsibilities and rewards of domestic life.
A recent report from the L'Oreal Foundation found that
women are three times less likely than men to become scientists, largely due to negative stereotypes that deter young women from pursuing careers in the sciences as researchers.
Rising in spite of oppression
Afghanistan Heads to the Polls Today
Women are central participants in this election. IEC Commissioner Laila Ehrari commented that the Commission’s “expectation for Afghan women, who constitute a hardworking segment of Afghan society, is that they will have broad participation in the elections and cast their votes.” Women have appeared at several campaign events, and are also running as candidates. Hundreds of women are running for seats in the provincial council, and one woman, Habiba Sarobi, the former governor of Bamian province, is running for vice president. Sarobi appears on Zalmay Rassoul’s ticket and has been actively campaigning with Rassoul in Afghanistan. At a campaign rally in Mazar-e-Sharif last week, thousands of Afghans – both men and women – cheered enthusiastically for Sarobi, and according to a campaign aide, “She pretty much rocked the show.”
Young women show their strength and resourcefulness against cyberbullying
When someone created an offensive website, posting Facebook pictures of female students at Newmarket’s Sacred Heart high school and asking people to vote on whether they’d like to have sex with them, the girls fought back.
Balance through the arts
Natasha Carlitz Dance Ensemble
Marcia G Yerman, Kossack, painter, art curator, writer, feminist and more, reviewed
Feminist Stories From Women’s Liberation: 1963-1970. by Jennifer Lee, a film about the great women's liberation movement.
Shining a light on the grassroots women who had less media visibility, Lee traces the fight for rights that now appear to once again be in danger. She also exposes the fissures within the movement—which continue to play out today.
Written and performed by poet Mark Grist
"I like a girl who reads."
In a world where we are inundated with lyrics and images that relentlessly sexualize and objectify women...
Action Items:
Breaking news! A vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act is coming in the U.S. Senate – as early as next Tuesday, April 8th! [1]
*Now is the time to make sure your U.S. Senators know you want them to support this important bill.
#NoMadMenPay
Paul Ryan said it himself, "We don't want a country where abortion is simply outlawed. We want a country where it isn't even considered."1
Please take that next step now by making a generous contribution to Pro-Choice America. It's critical that we fund our political program early to ensure we can win in November while we continue all of our work to protect choice.
One in three women worldwide have been raped, abused, forced into prostitution, or suffered some other form of violence. This is happening every day, in every country around the world – but those who commit these acts all too frequently walk away without consequences. We need to do something to stop this atrocity.
Tell your Representative to co-sponsor H.R.3571 - the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA).
the Everyday Sexism project
By sharing your story you’re showing the world that sexism does exist, it is faced by women everyday and it is a valid problem to discuss.