Tag Archive for women

A Pardon I Can Live With

August 18, 2020 Comments Off on A Pardon I Can Live With

I haven’t agreed with all the pardons President Trump has either granted or contemplated, but I do with this one…Susan B. Anthony, leader of the Women’s Suffrage Movement. That woman dared to vote in 1872, when it was illegal for women to vote. And she got caught.

I’m a bit surprised that Pres. Trump pardoned her, with his fierce stand and warnings against voter fraud (which this was), but who am I, a simple American citizen, to question his decisions?

Details at Trump to pardon women’s suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony.

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Take a Bite Out of Poverty

January 31, 2020 Comments Off on Take a Bite Out of Poverty

Think about it: over 37 million people of all ages in our country are suffering from the ravages of poverty.  These are men, women, and children off all ethnic backgrounds.  They are healthy or unhealthy, mentally unstable or perfectly stable, families or individuals, unable to work or have been “downsized” and can’t find work.  In short, poverty can strike anyone at any time–and it has.  We can’t fix our economy overnight, but those of us who are fortunate enough not to be part of the 37 million can help through our donations not just of money but of time. Everyone has a little time to give.  If serving at a soup kitchen takes more than you have, how about spending a few extra minutes while you grocery shop to shop for food items for those kitchens, or bake extra cookies for a shelter while you’re baking for your family.  If you don’t have time to help a local charity pack sack lunches for the homeless, you probably do have a minute to smile and say “Hi” to the homeless man outside the store, thus letting him know that he’s recognized as a human being rather than an objectionable object. After your daughter’s softball game, when you go with the team to pizza, you have a second to invite along as your family’s guest the girl who can’t afford to go.  In other words, poverty can be fought on the human level–one human being to another.  And you fight the battle in little ways.  As I always say, Small things really DO count!

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Women Vets

November 11, 2019 Comments Off on Women Vets

They’re often-unsung heroines. Let’s remember them today.

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To Women Everywhere

March 8, 2019 Comments Off on To Women Everywhere

Happy International Women’s Day to all my female friends. Let’s be extra kind to all of our sisters today.

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Worth-less Women

November 29, 2018 Comments Off on Worth-less Women

Remember all those reports about women making 70 – 80 cents less per hour than men doing the same job? Those were short-term reports. The gap is even larger, according to a 15-year study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. They say it’s actually 49 cents for every dollar a man makes in the same job.

Yes, there are laws that are supposed to secure pay equity. But they’re being ignored or circumvented by such devices as hiring two people to do the same job yet giving the man one title and the woman another title.

That gap really affects families and children, because half of the people in the workforce are women. If you’re a single mom, that hurts. If you’re a two-salary family out of necessity, that hurts. If you’re a child in either situation, that hurts.

This, then, is more than an economic or fairness issue–although it’s decidedly both.  It’s also a human issue, one that puts women and children, and even men, on the edge of financial disaster and out on the streets.

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Women, Sex, and Photos

July 25, 2018 Comments Off on Women, Sex, and Photos

Someone please explain the facts of life to me. Whether it’s news or a Hollywood event, there’s a big difference in how men and women are photographed. The cameras will capture a male through a full-body shot and move forward to his upper body, often including his arm around a woman and a bright smile.  Photos of women are different, though. They  often start at the feet and move slowly up the body, capturing legs, butt, and boobs.

Maybe we’re just being shown the lovely/extravagant/outrageous dress the woman is wearing. But the men don’t always wear conservative business suits. Maybe it’s because the women strike model-poses that emphasize their figure. But the men strike manly poses and do manly things, like encircling their “arm candy.”  Could it be that the women enjoy the attention more than men?  Come on…we’re talking prominent people who earn a living based largely on their looks.

It’s time for camera-people to start at the men’s shoes and work slowly up, panning slowly past the crouch and up past the trim belly and tight butt and up to the $500 haircut.

No, I guess not, because that might be considered obscene.

 

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Calling all Women!

March 7, 2018 Comments Off on Calling all Women!

Tomorrow is YOUR DAY.  It’s International Women’s Day. I’m not calling you to action or  protest or even stand up for your rights–unless, of course, you choose to.  I just want to wish you a joyous day in which you simply celebrate the woman you are.

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A Tip About Tips

December 13, 2017 Comments Off on A Tip About Tips

Ever been a restaurant server? If you or a loved one has, you know how hard the work is and that this is one of the worst-paid professions–often below minimum wage. You wouldn’t be able to make ends meet if you didn’t have tips.

Take  away those tips and give them to the owners. That’s what wealthy restaurant owners, represented by the National Restaurant Association, has been trying to do for many years.  And this year–in time for Christmas!–they have a good chance of success.

Why should we care if we aren’t part of that working group? Because the majority of restaurant workers are women and people of color who put up with frequent sexual harassment.  Because of where the practice of tipping started–after emancipation, it was a way to avoid paying Black workers.

Only since 2012 has it been law that tips belong to the workers themselves.  Now, though, the Dept. of Labor is pushing to give tips to the owners to keep or “pool” (meaning they dole out however much to whichever workers they choose).

Tell the Dept. of Labor that you think this is unfair and would hurt people who are struggling to make a living already.  There’s a petition at https://act.credoaction.com/sign/tiptheft?t=7&akid=26387%2E7078302%2EA0Dubn

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How to Add $513 Billion to Our Economy

April 4, 2017 Comments Off on How to Add $513 Billion to Our Economy

$513 B could flow into our economy if women earned as much pay as men, says the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.  That’s a number that should stick in the minds even of CEOs who hire women because, as one of them (Evan Thornley, multimillionaire and co-founder of online advertising company LookSmart) says, “Women [are] like men, only cheaper.”

Today is Equal Pay Day.  True, the actual day is a projected guess, since it’s based on averages from the census data, which isn’t available soon enough to set a specific real date.  Also true, the amount is based on average earnings of all full-time workers, not comparing specific  job to specific job.  So it isn’t perfect statistically.

However, it’s a symbol that points up a problem in our economy: women overall earn less than men.  If CEOs paid their women workers the same as they do men for the same job, if women didn’t get only 79.6 cents for every dollar a man makes, if working mothers weren’t limited in their hiring possibilities because of employer fears of their taking off too much time for family, if men didn’t dominate corporate Boards, if, if, if….

The answer to those “ifs” is less poverty among women and children and a more vibrant economy for us all.

By the way, if you support  equal pay, the American Association of University Women asks you to wear red today.

 

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Women, Hide Your Faces

September 30, 2016 Comments Off on Women, Hide Your Faces

An investor and entrepreneur who also also teaches entrepreneurship at UC, Santa Barbara, has come up with a way for women to get good jobs in the tech industry: use your initials or a gender-neutral name on applications and profiles. This will hide the fact that you’re female.  In fairness,  John Greathouse apologized later for his statement.  But it points out how rampant gender bias is in some industries.

See Wall Street Journal article.  Click the X in the upper right corner of the ad to get rid of it.  If the Journal won’t let you in, get to it via this other article.

Of course, women poets and writers have had to use this trick since the beginning of time–even JK Rawlings.  Only, though, if they wanted their work to be published and they weren’t a celebrity.

The point is, Greathouse is just reflecting the thoughts, beliefs, and biases of a large number of people.  I think it’s interesting that rather than offering a solution to solve this societal problem, he offered a way to cover it up and continue it.

 

 

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