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grrrly news 7/10

July 10, 2004 08:28 AM posted by lisa : track it (0)

Women in Iraq Seize Political Opportunities
As car bombings and mortar attacks rock the country with alarming regularity, many women in Iraq have quit school or left jobs. But with the power handoff last week, many are also seizing political opportunities and looking forward to democracy.

Edwards Strengthens Pro-Choice Platform
John Edwards' strong pro-choice record, along with his favorable voting record on women's wage and health legislation, makes his choice as running mate to John Kerry popular among many women's groups

New 'Stepford Wives' Fuels Old Anti-Career Views
The updated "Stepford Wives" movie pokes fun at ambitious women. However humorous, it also made our commentator consider the serious extremes--cold careerist or domestic dishrag--that still tear away at female identity.

Reality TV Features 4 Women in Presidential Race
American Candidate," the Showtime reality TV series that begins broadcasting in August, could sweeten some women's interest in politics. The show's casting process, however, has soured some applicants, who thought it would be more democratic.

Female Troops in Iraq Redefine Combat Rules
Female soldiers who fought in Iraq provide a snapshot of just how close they were to combat areas at the opening stages of the war. Often, combat decisions on their duties were made on the battlefield, not by the book

Female Playwrights Leap to Front Stage
Women have only received nine Pulitzer prizes for drama, but in a sign of recent momentum, female playwrights are sweeping regional festivals and being produced across the country

Women's Ingenuity Displayed at Centennial Fair
July 4, 1876. Female Ingenuity and the American Centennial: For the 1876 Centennial celebration in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin's granddaughter Elizabeth Duane Gillespie organized a pavilion to showcase American women's know-how.

Wal-Mart faces huge sex discrimination suit
Class-action status for case on behalf of 1.6 million women
A federal judge granted class-action status Tuesday to a lawsuit on behalf of 1.6 million women who claim that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. discriminated against them in pay and promotions, a ruling that exposes the world's largest private employer to the largest civil rights suit in the nation's history.

Berkeley, Calif., residents to vote on legalizing prostitution
Residents of this left-leaning city will have a chance to vote in November on whether they think prostitution should be a crime.
An advocacy group announced Wednesday it had gathered nearly 3,200 signatures, about 1,000 more than needed to get the initiative on the ballot
In a reversal, job growth fades for women workers
For decades, even in the worst of times, women continued to steadily join the workforce, catching up to men in terms of the percentage of the population with a full-time paycheck. But during the most recent downturn, more women left the workforce than came in for the first time in more than 40 years. One economist calls it the first equal-opportunity recession.

Taliban Say Killed Women Poll Workers, Freed Turk
The Taliban took responsibility for a bomb attack on Saturday that killed at least two female election workers and a child in the eastern city of Jalalabad and also said they had freed a kidnapped Turkish engineer.

Women in the Dock
Rape Is Recognized as a Crime Against Humanity, But Will Women Be the New Perpetrators of Wartime Sexual Abuses?

Food Cops Not Cooking With The Joy Of Truth
Food cops never miss a chance to blame the so-called "obesity epidemic" on an illusory "toxic food environment." Never letting the facts get in the way of their pursuit of "fat taxes" and other restrictive policies, nutritional nags like Marion Nestle and Kelly Brownell continuously insist that our diets are worse than ever before. But a simple look at the changes in the Joy of Cooking -- the unofficial bible for food enthusiasts -- and an examination of government statistics tells a different story.

Council upholds same-sex benefits
The City Council voted Monday to override the mayor's veto of controversial legislation that would require city contractors to provide the same benefits to employees with same sex partners that they provide to employees with spouses

Dim Coverage Given to Abortion-Ban Ruling
Coverage of the San Francisco ruling earlier this month on the abortion ban shows how the political polarization surrounding reproductive rights has invaded the supposedly impartial territory of journalism

Where are the women in the new Iraq?
NOW THAT the Iraqi Governing Council has been dissolved, the transitional government taking its place is being hailed as "diverse" for its multiethnic, multiconfessional representation. Yet while outsiders and Iraqi politicians are busy divvying up the future government along religious and ethnic lines, they are sidelining the single largest group of Iraqi citizens -- women, the one constituency with the potential to exert a unifying effect on the country

Israeli army attacks bare-handed Palestinian women
The Israeli army opened fire at three bare-handed Palestinian women Saturday in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, injuring one of them seriously and the other two moderately.
Witnesses said that the three women, holding white flags, attempted to leave their houses to get food and urgent supplies after the town had been besieged for 12 days

Iraqi former women prisoners break their silence, form their first association
Weeping broke the silence inside Iraq's National Theater as people watched the drama of a woman pleading for five more minutes with her baby. Instead, her guards took her away to be executed for spying.
The play was part of a day of events intended to draw attention to an association for Iraqi female political prisoners. The group wants to document the crimes of the former regime and highlight the crimes women suffered under Saddam Hussein's rule.

Women turn away from hormone therapy to alternative treatments
For decades, women took prescription drugs - synthetic versions of the hormones progesterone and estrogen, known as "hormone replacement therapy" - when they began to suffer menopause symptoms. But studies in 2002 and earlier this year showed that the drugs may increase the risk for breast cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Women can get lost in world of warriors, testosterone
Men may be from Mars and women from Venus, but when it comes to the office, they might as well be from different galaxies.
What is it about what a man says in a meeting that drives his female co-workers bananas? How is it that a man and a woman can hear the same criticism from the boss but only the woman ends up crying? Why is it that a man and a woman can each propose the same idea, but only the man gets credit for it?

When women don't stand up for women
In the second day of the Arab regional conference "10 Years after Beijing: A Call for Peace," Tallawy said women in high-ranking posts were sometimes hesitant to work on women's issues because they're "scared to lose the support of men" in decision-making positions.

Women want fantasies for role models
Ten years ago, a list of female role models would have been dominated by worthies such as Mother Teresa or tragi-queen celebrities like Princess Diana.
But 21st-century women, it seems, prefer their heroines to be unsullied by the grubbiness of real life. In a new survey, young women chose fictional characters as their role models almost every time.

Girls get a science booster at Sally Ride camp
Girls, nerdy or not, were targeted this year by gender role astronaut Sally Ride in science camps that brought 400 female campers into contact with the tech sector in sessions one to three weeks long at Stanford University.
The package included a truncated college experience complete with residence halls, picking a different major each week -- oceanography, astronomy and mechanical engineering -- meeting new people and team building, said camp director Camilla Lau.

Girls light up like the stars
A new report supports the notion that adolescent girls may be inclined to smoke if their favorite movie stars light up on screen.
California researchers asked more than 3,000 12- to 15-year-olds to name their most admired celebrities. (Brad Pitt was the top choice for girls; Pamela Anderson for boys.) The scientists then watched all films that featured these stars between 1994 and 1996

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I find it a bit depressing considering the mainstream media OPTIONS given for "today's female role models". More often than not, there's common themes like Woman Chasing Man, Woman Needs Man, Woman Needs To Reproduce To Feel Whole....

What year is this ?!

Maybe I'm in the vast minority regarding the choice to have a uterus and yet not use it for procreation (?) Since BIRTH I have known I would not reproduce. It has NEVER interested me, and according to reports the number or women choosing careers over family life are climbing. These articles are usually peppered with "statistics" stating health problems that childless high-level corporate females encounter, such as heart disease and shorter life expectancies. Funny, I had no idea having children and being a housewife extended your lifespan and reduced your stress(?)

Likewise, famous/popular women who choose NOT to reproduce (ie. Oprah, Roseanne, Stevie Nicks...) rarely receive press on the issue, unless a tabloid decides to make a statement about them already having children (unknown to everyone else) or to suggest they are secretly planning on adopting. The concept of being fulfilled without children seems to be lost. Pregnancies in Hollywood are celebrated and those famous & new to motherhood regularly featured on Entertainment Tonite. How great these famous women are for making babies, as though it is some amazing unheard of feat. Look how so&so can be a mom and juggle a career at the same time. The inference from our tabloid-slash-news media being that if you are "up to the challenge you TOO can do both and still be successful". Reality of course is, those unable to afford personal trainers, nannies and chauffeurs often are forced to choose motherhood OR career due to the COST of daycare alone, the cost of their guilt or the stress to themselves and or partners.

But forget the mass media- let's look at our media at a local level. I love it when they release the stats saying the birth rate is on a sharp decline. The cold hard fact is the economy depends on community growth from, among other things, BIRTHS. I suppose the reality is, even the economic impact of the disposable income over a lifetime of a childless professional couple would never equate to that of a family with 2.5 kids. It costs to have a family, and that's good busine$$.

Aside from capitalism, the inferences in media and maybe the general public perception of childless women, my other major concern with pregnancy and procreation is in the amazingly inadequate planning and pondering leading up to it. How many women do you know spend time considering their thoughts on these topics :
what a "family" is, what raising a child involves (especially the potential of raising a special needs child or multiple children), the level of investment required (emotionally, financially, physically), their parenting and personal values, morals and disciplinary attitudes and whether they relate or not to their spouse's.

Or how about ultimately the biggest question of all, WHY do I want kids ?
Do I want them because I've been encouraged to do so since birth because of my gender ?
Do I want them because my family wants them ?
Do I want them because my spouse expects them from our relationship ? (Have we discussed this?)
Do I want them because I feel I can effectively teach and mentor someone throughout their life ?

How about this one ( my personal favorite and by far the most indignant question in the list ):
why does having a family mean we have to become pregnant and have "OUR baby"? If you truly wanted "a family" and to make a difference mentoring young lives, wouldn't you want to consider providing foster care or adoption? What is the necessity of having "your own" if those needs and "family qualities" are then satisfied? I can only conclude that many couples are enamored with their own genetics and creating Mini Me's that, in theory, effectively capture the best qualities of each parent. What other reason is there ? Are your genetics that amazing that they need to be xeroxed or are you genuinely interested and dedicated to parenting ? Dedicated enough to unselfishly raise those children that are already here and in need of the love, support and stability of "a family"?

Understandably, those who are parents are not at all receptive to this theory. I agree it's fairly offensive to suggest that ego plays any part of creating a family. But I argue that it does; unpopular idea or not, I think it really does.

Hope this stimulates conversation and thought. Agree or not with my rantings, this is a topic I passionately encourage conversation about for all women at all ages. It's so important for each of us to reflect and review the changing roles of women.

Think!

A thought is the greatest creation your body can make !

Posted by: Poke It With A Stick on July 11, 2004 04:02 AM |

I just wanted to say that I could really appreciate the previous comment as someone who prefers to remain child-free. Being a mother when one has all kinds of help and resources at her disposal is much different than being one when the person who deals with the crying baby is not an assistant, but the actual mom. Too bad the crappy glossy magazines don't like to talk about that.

Posted by: Kerri on July 12, 2004 02:19 PM |