International Women’s Day in Review

In the U.S. no one knows it is International Women’s Day. It’s not even listed on half the calendars. It says “Mardi Gras” on most calendars I saw. Of course we would be celebrating a big party with booze flowing than the rights of over half the population.

In many parts of the world, women get the day off from work and men give them flowers. How can we start that tradition here? We hold an annual event for IWD every year, co-hosted by our International Student & Scholar center, but I think next year we should have every woman take a personal day and let the university see what it would be like to function without women, just for a day.

The Republicans are attacking reproductive rights in our country with only two and a half months in office. And it isn’t just happening at the federal level. State legislatures are already gearing up to limit access and to try to pass laws given fetal rights over a woman’s. Here’s an interesting attack in Georgia “H.B. 1, a law proposed in the House of Representatives of the Georgia General Assembly by State Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta). This law would not only make abortion completely illegal in Georgia (the bill refers to it as ‘prenatal murder’), but it would also put a burden on any woman who has a miscarriage to prove that it happened naturally and was not induced in any way. The result would be that every single miscarriage in the state of Georgia would have to be reported to state officials. Many could be potentially investigated by the authorities, a daunting proposition given that anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of known pregnancies miscarry. The penalties for this so-called prenatal murder, whether by abortion or by a miscarriage that authorities determine had “human involvement,” include life in prison—or even death.”


In South Dakota, Iowa, & Nebraska lawmakers are looking at making the killing of abortion doctors “justifiable homicide.” Justifiable homicide? Sometimes I wonder if I went to sleep in October 2010 and woke up in Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale this year. If we want to make the world a better place for women, we know that giving them freedom in deciding when to bear children makes a huge difference. According to today’s Huffington Post, “an estimated 215 million women in the developing world want to avoid a pregnancy, but are not currently using a modern method of birth control.”

As we move into Women’s History Month, perhaps we can begin reflecting on what we are doing to make this a better world for women and staying on top of what our elected officials are trying to do in the name of budget deficits to limit our freedom.

The Biggest Loser is Sexist

This week I am going to write about the only Reality show I watch: The Biggest Loser. My office mate watches it, as well, and every Wednesday we talk about the night before. We have two huge issues with the show, but continue to be sucked in by it. The show has some underlying sexism that needs to be explored.

First off, last night, the black team had low weight loss. All but two of the contestants on the black team are women. My husband turns to me and says "They're all having their period." I said he was probably right. Then he says "don't women get on the same cycle when they live together?" Why he is asking this is beyond me as we had a roommate for over a year who was a woman and she and I were most definitely in sync. What interests me most about this topic is that the show NEVER addresses it. They never say that women tend to fluctuate water weight throughout the month based on their menstrual cycle. In fact, statistics show that women can fluctuate as much as 2-4 lbs during their period. This might not seem a lot, but when you're on The Biggest Loser, a four pound gain can mean you are going home. For me, this is more about addressing all the reasons that people gain weight and if they are going to ignore a natural bodily process because it is too controversial or "dirty," I probably should stop watching it.

The other sexist thing that occurs on this show is what people wear. Early on, the women have to wear sports bras while the men get to wear t-shirts. And the men get to take off their t-shirts for the weigh-ins, but the women have to keep theirs on. Why would anyone make obese people show off their stomachs on national television? My suggestion is to keep them all in tank tops. It's not fair to the women to have to wear sports bras and also not fair that the men get to take off their shirts.

So that's my rant for the week. February is a crazy month for me with birthdays and V-Week, so my brain is not in its normal Feminist Critic mode. I promise to get it there for next week's posting.

Where are all the Women Playwrights?

For those of you who know me, I often lament the lack of women's plays being performed on the American stage. Approximately 17% of all plays produced in the U.S. are written by women. We’ll break these stats down by race another time. We also know that only one woman has ever won an Oscar for best director and only four women have ever won Tony Awards for best direction of a play or musical. Marsha Norman, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright of ‘night, Mother recently addressed my concerns in an article for Theatre Communications Group. What is even more compelling about this topic, however, is that women playwrights are not the only female artists not achieving parity; almost all women artists are affected. (Unless you play in an orchestra where they hold blind auditions).

She writes that
the U.S. Department of Labor considers any profession with less than 25 percent female employment, like being a machinist or firefighter, to be ‘untraditional’ for women. Using the 2008 numbers, that makes playwriting, directing, set design, lighting design, sound design, choreography, composing and lyric writing all untraditional occupations for women. . . If it goes on like this, women will either quit writing plays, all start using pseudonyms, or move to musicals and TV, where the bias against women's work is not so pervasive http://www.tcg.org/publications/at/nov09/women.cfm.

Playwright Gina Gionfriddo, whose play I recently saw at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren, Rhode Island (www.2ndstorytheatre.com), protested the lack of plays produced in New York that are written by women. "Producers, directors and perhaps audiences, she said, seem much more willing to accept unappealing male characters than unappealing women" www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/theater/30gina.html.

And her play, Becky Shaw, is full of unappealing women. It is the second of her plays I have seen, being blessed to attend the Humana Festival of New Plays in 2005 and seeing After Ashley. But I’m not going to write about how much I loved this play and what it is about. You can get that information in the local paper. The RI Monthly has a great review of it and asks the question where all the young theatre goers are?

I want you to go see this play because I want all of us to recognize the lack of women artists in our culture. If we don’t attend their art shows, go to their plays, listen to them sing, watch them dance, than we are buying into this mythical notion of a “human” experience that can somehow only be represented from a male world view. This is the crux, you see.

Let me give you an example. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is considered one of the best plays ever written because of its ability to connect with “everyman.” This play was considered an excellent representation of the human struggle. And while I love much of what Mr. Miller has put down on paper, this play does not represent MY struggle. I feel alienated from that play, particularly as a woman and even more so because of the way the women are portrayed in the play. On the other side, numerous plays by women have not been “mainstreamed” because they were too much about a “woman’s” experience rather than the “human” one. Huh? Are women aliens and nobody told me?

But Becky Shaw appealed to me and certainly appealed to the 150 + people packed into 2nd Story Theatre on one of the first warm and sunny days of winter in Rhode Island (including the three people who came with me). Apparently part of her interest in developing the character of Becky Shaw was to expound on a literary topic covered in numerous books for centuries; that of women being judged for changing their class status, or “moving on up.” And I'm sure if you go see the wonderful actresses and actors and the pinpoint direction, you'll be glad you did.

No Waiting for Republicans

In just a few weeks in office, the Republican run House is already set to start stripping away women's rights. Really? They have proposed legislation that would only provide federally funded abortion services if the woman was a victim of FORCIBLE rape, not just plain old every day run of the mill rape. So ladies, make sure you have your iphones ready to take a picture of your forcible attack so you can prove that you were forced into your sexual assault and that you were not willingly raped.

Even using the term forcible with the word rape doesn't seem appropriate. Like all other rapes are not forced? It just makes me sick to my stomach. Do they even realize how this makes victims/survivors feel when they see legislation like this? The right wing is so anti-choice that they will stoop to making women prove that they were raped by force so they don't have to carry their rapist's unborn fetus to term. Otherwise, tough luck, sister, enjoy your pregnancy, carrying your rapist's baby to term.

And that's not even all. But I can't even vent about it any more. Go to moveon.org for more information.

A Season of Light. A Season of Stress.

I sent this to The Herald News for a December 26th run, or so I thought. The writer in charge of "Community Voices" never got back to me, and I couldn't find it in any archives, so who knows if it was ever published. Nevertheless, I've decided I just need to post more about what I'm thinking. . .

I watched a re-run of Family Guy last night. In this episode, Lois freaks out because she is exhausted from Christmas preparations. She sets fire to their tree and goes on a rampage through the town of Quahog. This episode really resonated with me, even though I don't have children. I have done the majority of the shopping for the approximately 40 people on our list, many of whom are nieces and nephews on my husband's side of the family. Last Saturday I spent hours wrapping all of those presents. And I'm still not done. I have to pick up something for my Dad, find the perfect book about trains for my Godson, get something for my neighbors who were overly generous last year, a gift certificate for my brother in law and his wife, go to Target and get dog toys for nine dogs, and maybe something else for my mother.

Then I have to buy the ingredients to make a Christmas Eve dessert, develop a shopping list for Christmas dinner, which will include making another dessert, and finish wrapping the gifts I haven't finished wrapping, including some I need to wrap when my husband is elsewhere.

Christmas has become a race to exhaustion. And while I love to buy Christmas presents, I wonder if we have stepped too far afield of its meaning. While we hear all the time that we have to "get back to the real meaning of Christmas," like a new group on Facebook called "Let's keep the Christ in Christmas," none of this addresses the pressure that, in most cases, women face during this time of year.

And why does the holiday pressure fall on women? I know I am the one who nagged my husband about decorating the house. I was the one who wanted our house to look "pretty" in my neighborhood. I was the one who went to get a tree and then decorated the whole thing while he cooked dinner one night. I did manage to get him to come shopping with me for some of our nieces and nephews, but I couldn't get him to move at the pace I needed. Am I the one who puts this pressure on me? Do women bring this on themselves? Or are men happy to let us take charge?

I often get a good cold this time of year. Women run themselves into exhaustion, staying up late wrapping presents or baking cookies or decorating. I wonder if next year, instead of getting back to the real meaning of Christmas, maybe we could begin to think of an equality of Christmas, where no one person in the home takes full responsibility for the increased chores that come with this beautiful season of lights.

In June 2008 the new Bristol County Commission on the Status of Women was passed into legislation.

Nine months later, nine commissioners were appointed representing the following towns throughout Bristol County: Mansfield, Assonet, Norton, Swansea, Raynham, South Dartmouth, New Bedford and Berkley.

The move to make this legislation came out of a regional council of women brought together after a regional hearing of the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, held in Bristol County.

The MCSW regularly travels throughout the state holding regional public hearings where citizens of the commonwealth may express concerns relating to the status of women and girls in Massachusetts.

After holding a hearing in Bristol County, a group of women, led by Gail Fortes, the Executive Director of the YWCA of Southeastern Massachusetts and a new BCCSW commissioner, began to meet regularly to examine research and data on girls and women in Bristol County in order to develop an agenda and action plan on women’s issues.

Out of this agenda came the need to develop a county commission. Regional council members felt this was the best way to represent women, as developing specific city-based women’s commissions would be more difficult and time consuming. For example, having to develop commissions in Taunton, Fall River and New Bedford would have been all-consuming and the outlying towns would not have representation in those city commissions.

State Sen. Joan Menard and Rep. Pat Haddad were the envoys for the legislation, writing it and pushing it through both the House and the Senate. Strangely, the bill was stuck for months in the Ways and Means committee, even though the legislation does not include any funding from the state.

But after months of waiting, it was finally passed. And then the MCSW went to work trying to find commissioners in Bristol County. This task took nine months.

On March 31, seven of the nine appointees were sworn in before a small crowd of friends, local politicians and commissioners from the MCSW at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The first meeting was held following the swearing-in to examine by-laws and the rules of running a local state commission.

As there had been priorities set previously by the regional council, these issues were brought to the table. These five priorities are as follows:

1. Education: funding for education, particularly higher education, keeping girls in school and workforce development.

2. Pay equity: closing the wage gap and equal pay for equal work.

3. Health care: access to affordable health care and access to birth control options, including abortion.

4. Leadership development: providing opportunities for women and girls, developing a mutual support network for women and girls, and promoting advancement opportunities for women in the workforce.

5. Providing access to affordable housing, childcare and transportation.

Of the seven commissioners present, all were in agreement with these five priorities, but felt that adding the issue of domestic violence as a sixth priority was imperative.

The commissioners will meet again for their second meeting on May 6 at UMass Dartmouth and will begin their work.

Announcements will be forthcoming in the fall regarding local city and town hearings where citizens of Bristol County can provide input on issues facing girls and women in Bristol County. The commissioners will then make recommendations and propose solutions.

It is an exciting time to be a woman in Bristol County!

http://www.heraldnews.com/archive/x50619358/COMMUNITY-VOICES-New-commission-strives-for-gender-equality-04-18-09

Should First Ladies Get a Paycheck?

There is a debate on the Internet about first ladies getting a paycheck. This is an interesting debate, and of course one that brings up much larger issues than why the first lady does not get paid.
In fact, when I raised this question with my colleagues and family, I got to witness quite an interesting debate. I could not find any research that lists whether the first lady is “allowed” to work or not.
Some say the first lady should not get paid because her position is not elected. Her job does not have an official job description or official duties. The president, with his $400,000 a year salary makes enough for both of them, including all the perks they get.
Compared to the reasons why she should be paid, the argument against her getting paid seems very weak. For instance, hundreds of staffers at the White House are not elected positions, yet they get paid, including the first lady’s secretary. The two major jobs the first lady does are playing hostess to heads of state, or event planner, and meeting with various guests, which resembles the job of a lobbyist. Those two jobs make between $45,000 and $130,000 a year.
Another point to raise here is if Hillary Clinton had become our next president, would Bill Clinton stop doing lectures and speeches? Would he stop making money for the four or eight years she was in office? Would he turn down his annual presidential salary for that time?
There was talk during the inauguration that Dr. Jill Biden was interested in teaching at a local community college. Why should she be allowed to work, but not the first lady? She is obligated to give up her career and cannot earn an income, pay off old debts or build for retirement.
If Obama is re-elected, that would mean eight years of her not earning any Social Security or money toward her retirement, which could adversely affect her in the future, regardless if she gets some kind of “package” for being the president’s wife.
The larger issue surrounding the first lady not getting paid, however, is about sexism and the rigid sex roles we still assign to men and women in our culture.
While she is welcome to come up with a platform and champion a cause that is personal to her, working for charity is not valued as important work in our society. Planning events, managing a home and children, and entertaining guests are also not valued in our culture and these are tasks assigned to the first lady.
Women do not get paid for the work they do in the home and raising children. The United States is often criticized for our lack of support for housewives and mothers. And when the woman married to the man at the top of the country cannot earn money for the work she does in the home to support her husband, then why would any other woman expect to get paid for her time spent in the home?
Arlie Hochschild’s book, “The Second Shift,” written in 1990, examines couples in dual career marriages and the time they each put in for housework and childcare. Her 10-year study revealed that women, who work full time, also work more 24-hour days than their husbands taking care of the home and the children.
The old adage “a man may work from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done” will always remain part of our culture until something changes. Maybe at the top?

http://www.heraldnews.com/archive/x1278515502/COMMUNITY-VOICES-Can-Obama-change-rigid-sex-roles-01-24-09