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The Pitfalls of the Blogosphere
Tweet Share on Facebook January 31, 2007 CommentThe "Gay Sheep" story is a recent example of Internet punditry that caused a much greater stir and circulated worldwide. The blogosphere discovered last summer that a research scientist in Oregon was studying the brains of "gay" rams (male sheep) and erupted in a furor over such questions as whether science should be trying to discover what makes animals (or humans) prefer same-gender sex, whether taxpayer dollars should fund experiments in which animals are slaughtered, and whether the research findings might be used to abort potentially gay human fetuses.
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Internet Unleashes Unguided Punditry
Tweet Share on Facebook January 29, 2007 Comment (1)Jenny Dombrowski writes: "If indeed the women's movement is over, then why are women still treated as objects in our society? We are inundated with images of perfection at every turn: from the checkout line of the grocery store to the movie theater to the billboards along the highway."
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The End of Punditry
Tweet Share on Facebook January 26, 2007 CommentThe Internet has brought us so many ambrosial capabilities: online access to global information and research, online shopping, online business dealings, online dating. The list expands daily. But one of high tech's less ambrosial characteristics is the Internet's plethora of self-appointed pundits. Anyone with a computer and broadband may now make his or her thoughts available to a global audience.
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Seizing on the Female Poll Advantage
Tweet Share on Facebook January 24, 2007 CommentAre there some Americans who'd give a female candidate preference over a man? An ABC/Washington Post poll taken last month says yes. Twenty-three percent of women voters told those pollsters they are more likely to vote for another woman. Even though female candidates like to paint themselves as agents of change, only 9 percent of men said they'd give a female candidate extra points. Lord knows, if there ever were a time when the nation could benefit from major changes in our political leadership, this is it.
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Hillary and the Critical Women's Vote
Tweet Share on Facebook January 22, 2007 Comment (1)OK, so Hillary's "in," but can she win, and, most important, can she win the votes of women? As Dick Morris and Eileen McGann have reminded us, "Remember that women are 52 percent of our population, 54 percent of the registered vote, and usually between 55 percent and 56 percent of actual turnout."
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Single Women: An Ominous Demographic Shift
Tweet Share on Facebook January 19, 2007 Comment (19)Earlier this week the New York Times reported that 51 percent of American women are single, a probable all-time high.
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More Evidence of the Opt-Out Delusion
Tweet Share on Facebook January 17, 2007 Comment (1)Once again mainstream media got it wrong, wrong, wrong about women and work. This time it's a study by the Simmons School of Management in Boston showing highly educated career women aren't dunking careers as so much detritus once babies come along. Quite the contrary–they are making more use of flextime and working while parenting.
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The Administration's Fake Feminists
Tweet Share on Facebook January 16, 2007 CommentCondoleezza Rice or Tony Snow standing up for feminism is tantamount to Donald Trump standing up for Rosie: The spectacle is improbable, unspeakable, and comical. It seems to me that Rice has made a career out of dewomanizing herself. Asked her position on abortion rights, the secretary of state has said she is either "reluctantly" or "mildly" pro-choice–not exactly a response warmly received or endorsed by the National Organization for Women.
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Sanchezes: Sisters to Watch
Tweet Share on Facebook January 12, 2007 CommentThere is talk, again, that spitfire superwoman Loretta Sanchez is running for governor of California, or as Governor Ah-nold pronounces it, Kahl-EE-for-neee-ah. This is not the first time one of the Sanchez sisters (the first and only sisters to serve simultaneously in Congress) has been rumored to be running.
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Harvard's Chance to Bridge the Gender Gap
Tweet Share on Facebook January 10, 2007 CommentBy appointing a woman as president, Harvard University not only would pull down one of the last remaining Ivy League gender barriers, it would complete the mop-up process induced by former President Lawrence Summers's loose-mouthed mess. Summers managed to unnecessarily alienate many female professors and students in that now infamous incident when he said that women's lack of ascension to top posts in the sciences might be attributable to "innate differences" between men and women.
