So it's National Women's History Month

[LisaM]

http://www.nwhp.org/

Please celebrate responsibly!

Seriously, I was thinking about this all weekend.

I realized that this a political movement that is splintered so deeply. For every active feminist, there's a Phyllis Schlafly or Laura Schlesinger trying to undo the progress that's been made. There has been one seminal piece of women's legislation (Roe v. Wade) that people have been working to systematically dismantle since it's been law. The Supreme Court is being assembled to specifically undermine this ruling.

Insurance will cover Viagra, but not bith control. Teen pregnancy rates are on the rise. Pharmacists can claim moral reasons not to dispense Plan B to scared, young women. Sexist language has crept into the vernacular so stealthily that people don't even recognize it.

When I look around our cities, where are the Margaret Sanger statues? Where are the Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cady Stanton Boulevards? No, as feminsts age, they are dismissed and marginalized.

It worries me.

[BuyingThyme]

1. http://lee.house.gov/

http://lee.house.gov/

[anigbrowl]

2. I have a Susan B Anthony dollar

I just mention this because I spotted it in my change the other day and put it aside.

I wonder if you might be better posting this in general discussion, since it's not obviously election-related. I do think it's an interesting question and you posed in a non-partisan way (difficult these days on GD:P).

[LisaM]

4. Hmmm. I thought about that.

I guess I was just thinking about the wrong-headed divides we've been experiencing over here in GD-P. To cross post, do you just re-post?

[TahitiNut]

14. I save all my Susan B. Anthony and Sacawajea dollars.

... and I haven't spent a penny in over 35 years. :shrug:

[Recursion]

25. that's the problem

People like the coins and don't spend them. So it's like they disappear from circulation.

[TahitiNut]

27. It's a "problem" with a well-known "solution" - mint more and make them so common nobody saves 'em.

It seems there's some "critical mass" that causes the caches to be dumped into circulation. There are two factors that work counter to that "solution" ... (1) it's "profitable" for the bank to sell something for a dollar that costs pennies to mint and (2) if the minting is severely limited then the coin eventually becomes a collectable with higher market value.

[iconocrastic]

3. They get a whole month?

[rodeodance]

10. Brush up on history sweetie

They get a whole month?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

5. they're all in Seneca Falls NY at the Women's Rights National Park

http://www.nps.gov/wori


The site of the First Women's Rights Convention held July 19 and 20, 1848



.

[rodeodance]

9. I was there a few years ago--awesome history. They were adding to

the building at time. Hope to get back there soon.

[LisaM]

17. I wish I could go there

Well, one of these days.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

35. it's a wonderful experience in a beautiful part of NY....Watkins Glen is ....

at the southern end of the lake and great vineyards in between

I took my daughters and granddaughters there last summer. It was a very bonding trip and it created a lasting and beautiful memory together.

I know you would love it.



.

[scheming daemons]

6. and... by the end of this month, Hillary's campaign will be "history"......

....just playin'.....

;-)

[rodeodance]

11. you need a new crystal ball. Your's is broke.

[VotesForWomen]

7. it's up to us to keep up the fight. nt

[LisaM]

8. I know! I try not to get discouraged

But sometimes it's hard not to.

[rodeodance]

12. REC

[Johnny__Motown]

13. It's Also St. Patrick's Month... sorry... maybe womens history month should be switched to a better

one

less competition



THIS WAS A JOKE


Please don't start the sexist crap

[Adelante]

15. Here's to us

:toast:

[Recursion]

16. Well, there's *some* good news

Women are graduating from college at the highest rate ever (higher than men), there are 16 female Senators (not yet 53, but getting closer) and 8 female governors (not yet 26, but getting closer). Rape rates have fallen 75% in the past 20 years, which tells me that the "no means no" message is actually getting out there, and I'd imagine it also reflects on the economic strides women have made in the past years. While there is still a pay gap at the upper end of the work force it has essentially disappeared at the entry and intermediate level. Women are entering science and engineering at unprecedented rates (again, not enough, but getting closer) and can be found in boardrooms, labs, hospitals, and spacecraft.

Meanwhile, I, a 31-year-old male from the south, have only had female managers in my professional career (and that was a career in IT), over 2/3rds of my professors have been women, and my high school US history curriculum required being able to identify Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the 19th Amendment, and Seneca Falls. Before the reminders come in, of course I know it hasn't been nearly enough yet, but if you compare the situation to 20 years ago I would say things are on the right track as long as we keep working. Some particular trouble areas I'm concerned about:

1) Reproductive choice is under assault through the judiciary. This is sadly ironic since we had to use the judiciary to secure these rights in the first place; I suppose this is an example of "live by the sword". The one question we most need to ask potential judges is "would you overturn Roe v. Wade?" and that is precisely the one question they cannot answer. IMO, this is an example of why a judicial decision is simply not a strong enough basis for the securing of this right, and we need both a national conversation on the issue and a legislative agenda to secure choice.

2) Culturally, the "feminism" brand is kind of at a low point. This is due mostly to vilification by antifeminists but also seems to somewhat reflect the fact that many people who support the principles of feminism also associate the term itself with a confrontational political style that is no longer relevant to their conditions.

3) Many women of color feel left behind by the advances of feminism in the past few decades, and indeed it is in these communities that the advances have been the most stymied, for many reasons tedious (and contentious) to list. Not to put too fine a point on it, this is a large part of why this post does seem somewhat at home in GDP.

4) Pay inequality still perniciously exists, particularly among older women. A large part of the problem is that current pay is tied more closely to past pay than to any other factor, and older women started with a handicap in that regard; another part of the problem is that older women have, on average, spent more time away from work than men in their age group. This is, yet again, a national conversation we need to have, and we need to find some way to financially reward the work women have done in non-commercial areas that are still crucial to the economy and the nation as a whole (ie, the time they spent with their children).

[LisaM]

18. But part of the problem is active reversal

Particularly in the case of Roe v. Wade. The pharmacist thing is particularly disgusting. It's part of a broader pattern.

I worry that our groundbreakers are leaving us, and there's no one to take our place. There is a perception that things are getting better, and maybe for some of the youngest women they are. That's small consolation to women who are older than, say, 35 or 40, who look ahead to a bleak retirement picture, particularly if they are alone. Unless they can share retirement benefits, they are likely to get much lower SS benefits than a man who's been in the workplace longer, and with better pay.

And public safety is another concern. How long until we can move freely at night, or not worry every time we go to the mall that we need to park in a lighted, close place?

[Recursion]

19. Good points

Unless they can share retirement benefits, they are likely to get much lower SS benefits than a man who's been in the workplace longer, and with better pay.

I agree, and that's why we need some form of compensation to the older generation of women that started out at a lower pay rate and have essentially been playing catch-up this whole time. But IMO it needs to be bluntly put that way; talking about a nationwide pay gap may be true in the aggregate but it doesn't speak to a lot of people my age who see equal pay among our peers (I mentioned I've only had female managers; it's probably the case that they made less than their male peers, but my female peers and I have made the same pay).

This will also become an issue if and when 20- and 30-something women have children and face the choice of immediately returning to work or not (and every indication is that younger women are more eager to stay home with children than older women were, while younger men are infinitely more eager to do that since older men for all intents and purposes universally did not, while some younger men are). When this happens, seniority and pay are generally frozen; at your next job or at the resumption of the previous job, you pretty much start from exactly where you were before. This is another issue we need to address, and we need to find a way to let people raise families without unduly burdening their earning potential.

And public safety is another concern. How long until we can move freely at night, or not worry every time we go to the mall that we need to park in a lighted, close place?

Is this a women's issue in particular? I've been assaulted 3 times and I'm not a woman. The vast majority of the victims of violent crime are male; I am much more likely to die by violence than you are.

[LisaM]

20. Having pay based on previous pay is a problem

Which is not helped by the fact that people are rewarded for changing jobs, for coming from a state with higher pay and getting more in the new state, etc.

Where do you live that you have been assualted to often? I'm just talking about going shopping, or walking home at night from the bus when it's dark (I have to go through a wooded area).

[Recursion]

21. Yeah

It is a problem but it's a hard one to address in the right way. I'm open to ideas.

Where do you live that you have been assualted to often?

This was in DC, in a fairly nice neighborhood.

I'm just pointing out that the vast majority of violence in this country is male-on-male; while violence against women is horrible, women are generally safer from violence than men are.

[LisaM]

23. Well, they have been trained to be careful, too.

Of course, I'm also not afraid of being assaulted by another woman (I understand the rates of women being violent is going up too), so in a lot of ways, violence is an issue men really need to address within their communities.

[Recursion]

24. Is it?

I understand the rates of women being violent is going up too

Is it? I hadn't heard that; I'd still imagine violence by women is statistically fairly insignificant.

so in a lot of ways, violence is an issue men really need to address within their communities.

Agreed 100%. Men need to fix the violence problem.

Well, they have been trained to be careful, too.

That's one thing I've noticed teaching self-defense: despite being more built for fighting (hips are a tremendous asset in both punching and grappling), women aren't taught how to do it and tend to assume they can't or "shouldn't". It's that damned shrinking violet legacy. And yet the same woman who won't lift a finger to defend herself becomes an absolute vicious she-wolf if somebody lays a hand on her kids. Sigh...

This is a slippery slope, though; I've caught hell from the self-defense class I taught because I mentioned techniques to avoid and/or extricate yourself from sexual assault: advocating a proactive security posture (something many men seem taught to do from birth) is, to some, dangerously close to blaming victims. That is an issue with a long history (for example, you asked me where I was living that I kept getting mugged; I doubt you would have asked a woman who had been raped where she had been living, though obviously I don't have a crystal ball so maybe I'm wrong).

[ieoeja]

26. For you: a good story on the pharmacist issue.

Couple years ago a pharmacist in downtown Chicago refused to fill a woman's birth control prescription over her lunch hour. All hell broke out as scores of professional female executives in the area started raising hell. The cops had to be called in to protect the pharmacy from this spontaneous mini-riot.

Within 24 hours the Governor of Illinois signed an executive order requiring pharmacists to fill all prescriptions presented to them. The States Legislature quickly followed suit passing a law to the same affect as the Governor's executive order (which means a successor in the Governor's mansion could not simply repeal the executive order).

It is really nice living in a modern, civilized state.

[LisaM]

33. Yet it failed here in Washington state, even though we have a woman governor

We also have a lot of rural areas with no transit, so if a pharmacist at Wal-Mart says no, you're screwed.

[Ysabel]

22. here's to all women against war (incl. myself)...

of which women and children suffer the most...

- to the one who betrayed us all and voted for war shame on her...

[rodeodance]

28. SHAME ON YOU---you know perfectly well Hillary did not vote FOR war.

here's to all women against war (incl. myself)...
Posted by Ysabel


of which women and children suffer the most...

- to the one who betrayed us all and voted for war shame on her...

[Recursion]

29. Public Law No: 107-243

H.J.Res. 114
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002

Senator Clinton: Aye

[rodeodance]

30. go blow in the wind.

[Recursion]

31. *shrug* if she doesn't even understand that that was an authorization for using military force...

...I have trouble accepting the fact that she is still in the Senate.

[rodeodance]

32. THIS POST IS about Women's Hx month--go start your own thread if you want to talk war.

[Recursion]

34. Women are disproportionately victims of war

That's why so many people think trying to distinguish those two questions is a falsehood.