Great post by Ruth Rosen about the lack of real discussion of women's economic concerns by the candidates.

I've worked as a waitress. In fact, that's how I got through my undergraduate education. I met many Josephines and none of them imagined, like Joe the plumber, that they would ever earn $250,000. If they're lucky, they earn just barely enough to provide for their families.

As Obama has insisted, they are the ones who need his proposed tax cuts. So why did he and Sen. McCain continually talk to Joe the Plumber, who was a Republican and had already made up his mind? Why didn't Obama change the subject and talk about Josephine the waitress? Or Jane, the single mom, who has just lost her home? Or Joanna, who has just lost her job and has no health care?

When all the examples are of men's travails, guess who feels excluded, indeed invisible. 

 Read the rest at TPMCafe.

Feminist Bloggers?

As part of her PhD, Jessie Daniels is looking for bloggers who identify themselves as feminist. 

Pre-screening survey can be found here (just a few quick questions). If you are what she is looking for, an hour interview (face to face or phone) would be involved. 

Biden-Palin Debate

Just because she didn't fall flat on her face doesn't mean that she did well!! More later.

The Girl Effect

Just watch the video.

Chronicle of a feminist death foretold...NOT!

I have written approximately three drafts for pieces that I never uploaded because they all seemed boring, lacked originality or were just plain uninspiring. And I knew this was not due to a lack of subjects to discuss, or the fact that there were no issues that, from a feminist perspective, caught my eye.

And then today I ran into a piece published in The Guardian by Kira Cochrane entitled "Now, the backlash" an insightful, well-rounded and poignnant piece on the backlash of feminism. Touching upon subjects such as the prevalence of sexual harassment, the declining rates of rape conviction in the UK, discrimination in the workplace and the obsession with female celebrities and their pregnancies, just a few statistics are enough to acknowledge that the feminist agenda has accomplished a lot, and much more is pending.

Even though women have come a long way, we are still underpaid, underemployed, undervalued (devalued?), and under protected by the law. Furthermore, some of the rights we thought were guaranteed now suddenly are being discussed again. One, clearly being the issue of abortion rights (recently discussed in the UK and currently being discussed in the Supreme Court for Mexico City's case). It seems that birthing is attractive when being carried out by Angelina Jolie, but if you happen to be her employer, according to statistics provided by Cochrane, 68% would rather not have hired her (given that it is illegal for an employer to ask a woman about her family plans).

Still, I am a positive person at heart, and found Cochrane's theory of this backlash somewhat uplifting. It is exactly the small gains, the baby steps if you will, that strengthen this backlash. The feminist debate is growing, and maybe the backlash is indeed a sort of pendulum reaction to the accomplishments achieved other the past decades. As Professor Liz Kelly, chair of the End Violence Against Women campaign, very eloquently explains: "What a backlash does is it curtails us, but we never take those two steps back, and that's what I think can send the conservatives...and the rightwingers...absolutely wild...What do they think we're going to do?... Go back into the kitchen and make a sandwich?"

NYT Article - Pre-Roe

Go check out this essay in the NYT about the coat hanger myths. The argument that women will resort to harmful home-methods if abortion is made illegal or more difficult to access is usually shot down by the opposition because there is little hard evidence.

Pre-Roe v. Wade women rarely reported who performed back-alley abortions on them and no one was taking note of the women who ended up dead or severely damaged from self-inflicted abortions. The data we have available to us is anecdotal, through word of mouth, as is much of women's history.

"There I saw and treated almost every complication of illegal abortion that one could conjure, done either by the patient herself or by an abortionist — often unknowing, unskilled and probably uncaring. Yet the patient never told us who did the work, or where and under what conditions it was performed. She was in dire need of our help to complete the process or, as frequently was the case, to correct what damage might have been done.

The patient also did not explain why she had attempted the abortion, and we did not ask. This was a decision she made for herself, and the reasons were hers alone. Yet this much was clear: The woman had put herself at total risk, and literally did not know whether she would live or die.

This, too, was clear: Her desperate need to terminate a pregnancy was the driving force behind the selection of any method available."

The French government has launched a new campaign to get people to hire more domestic help. The initiative isn't really new (tax cuts for hired help at home were introduced about five years ago), but this campaign is. The campaign centers around the tongue-in-cheek image of the 1950s household where the wife does everything domestic and we were all happier (right?). The ad agency who came up with the campaign were quoted as saying that "In 2008, no-one could imagine that the images of the 1950s are being taken seriously."

Firstly, women still do most of the housework in France, so lets not pretend that the 1950s are so far away.

Secondly, as a someone commented on Bremner's post on this campaign, what the hell happened to the non-white population in France? Yes, we get that the ads are supposed to be a joke but for those of us who don't think it's funny, it's just reinforcing sexist and racist stereotypes.

True Feminism versus True Capitalism

It's been a while. I have no excuse. Well, I'm starting a business, which is a fairly good excuse. But doesn't let me off the hook. However, it does tie in perfectly with an article in the SF Chronicle that got my blood boiling: Callie Millner's When Can I Call Myself A Feminist Again?

Hoyden About Town posted about it, prompting others to 'dissect' the piece. In the comment thread on her post, Deborah from In A Strange Land wrote "But I have found that the sh*t h*ts the fan when you have children." (see full thread for context). Which really hit home for me.

I get why Millner is complaining. There are women who are held up in mainstream media as feminist icons, whether or not they actually are, and they will at times disappointed, misrepresent, and say things that some of us might be considered fairly unfeminist. And we should point out these times and keep on going, not be so disillusioned that we decide to practically renounce feminism, upset that the mass media is not choosing talking heads who directly understand, appreciate, and agree with our political views. But that's not really what got me about the article. It was more the disregard for the enormous percentage of women who are feminists and deal with sexism on a daily basis and who aren't characters out of Sex and the City.

" "The new behaviors we're seeing in young women - buying their own homes, starting their own businesses, traveling the world - these aren't revolutionary behaviors," Weeks went on. "It's the attitude of these women that's truly progressive. They're not angry at men for historical grievances. They're just trying to take advantage of all these different opportunities without having anyone get in their way, male or female."

Of course! This is my life - and Weeks' life - and the life of virtually every other young woman we know."

Wait, what? "the life of virtually every other young woman we know." ??? Really? Wow, I'm so glad to hear that 'every other young woman' has the financial stability to become a home owner, start their own business, and travel. That's sort of news to me. Also, "they're not angry at men for historical grievances"???! Is that what my 'anger' is about? I'm just pissed at men?! I don't think so.

This image of the 'real' feminist is not the image I believe portrays feminist women. Or even modern women. And back to the whole motherhood throwing a spanner into the works - this image does not include mothers. Even those of us who are home owners and have business and travel. But the 'real feminist' according to this article doesn't have children. And if she does, she probably can afford excellent day care and has a great boss that gives her plenty of maternity leave and doesn't' mind if she can't work late.

The image portrayed is saccharine sweet, easy and nice to swallow. It doesn't touch on so many of the issues that feminism is working and needs to focus on. It doesn't touch on the nitty gritty of daily life, on fighting for domestic equality, on assault, on sexual harassment at work, on poverty, racism, abuse, neglect, discrimination.