work-life reports:

A tale of two clocks:
New report stresses the need for paid leave and workplace flexibility

New report tracks increase in "family responsibility discrimination" lawsuits

Women's advancement in corporate leadership slows

The case for paid leave for family caregivers

New guides on workplace supports for parents of children with special needs

recent research:

Left behind by welfare reform

2006 Kids Count Data Book now online
National trends in child well-being no longer showing steady improvement

New report calms hysteria about boys falling behind

Harvard study examines impact of partner violence on health of pregnant women and newborns

money:

Taxes are a woman's issue

marriage& family:

Life Without Children:
Marriage proponents mourn the passing of the "century of the child"

workplace:

Selected news and commentary about women, work and the changing workforce

motherhood beat:

Breastfeeding buzz, NY moms let loose, "baby bump" insanity and other articles and commentary about motherhood and mothering

men, sex & babies:

The changing face of fatherhood, the difference between a womb and a wallet, men who hate sex and much, much more

women:

Backward drag, young feminists, thoughts on Linda Hirshman, more

reproductive health & rights:

New report on abstinence-only education funding

The ugly truth about crisis pregnancy centers

Other notable news and commentary on reproductive health & rights

my kind of politics:

Race is always part of the story; the end of small politics; American greed

Selected news and commentary about women, work
and the changing workforce

Crafting the new American dream
Penelope Trunk, Boston Globe/ Demos, 11.jun.06
The American dream used to be a college education, a steady job, a nice house (and a family to fill it), and a better financial picture than what your parents had. There is a new American dream that is still about "doing better than your parents," but not in a financial sense. This dream is about fulfillment.

Logging in Long Hours in a Bid to Get Ahead
Emily Meehan, Wall Street Journal Online/Career Journal, 29.jun.06
Twentysomethings often put in grueling hours hoping the effort will jumpstart their careers. But if you start out willing to work 12-hour days, will it ever end? Have you simply embraced a career path where that kind of commitment is part of the ethos of the industry?

Younger moms are stating their needs
More firms are flexible on shifts; both see benefits
Joanne Cleaver, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, BostonWorks.com, 23.jul.06
"Baby boom moms largely worked out the details of flexible hours, telecommuting, and the like with their bosses one at a time, behind closed doors, for fear of setting an apple-cart-upsetting precedent. Their daughters, now mothers of young children, put their expectations squarely on the table. Employers can respond with 'flexwork' options, or they can look for someone else."

Women at Work
Elizabeth Pantazelos, Atlantic Monthly Unbound, 23.may.06
Articles from the '70s, '80s, and '90s address the ongoing obstacles that career women face.

A Childcare Worker Speaks Out
Melvina Vandross, AlterNet, 25.jun.06
I take care of your kids 11 hours a day—here's what you should know about me.

Nurses Claim Hospitals Conspire to Keep Pay Low
Allison Stevens, Women's eNews, 4.jul.06
Nurses are suing national hospital corporations in four major cities, claiming their employers conspire to keep their wages artificially low by revealing to each other the wages of their nursing staffs. The profession is more than 90 percent female.

More companies sprinkling some fun into the workplace
Gail Appleson, BostonWorks.com, 4.jun.06
While advertising and marketing firms have a great need to inspire creativity, corporations are also learning that office space can make a difference. Muehlemann said companies are moving toward more open work spaces and communal areas for employees.

'Prada' movie spotlights the Nasty Boss phenomenon
Jocelyn Noveck/Associated Press, BostonWorks.com, 5.jul.06
Some analysts say that in certain fields, particularly creative ones, a difficult, mercurial personality can actually be a status symbol. But others say bosses who behave badly are a drain on productivity and society.

'Devil Wears Prada' Puts Heat on Boss-Women
Joie Jager-Hyman, Women's eNews, 2.aug.06
"The Devil Wears Prada" may demonize a female boss for dramatic effect, but studies point to young women's disaffection with female superiors. Joie Jager-Hyman ties the hostilities to a workplace that often remains unfriendly. "Intergenerational research conducted by the American Business Collaboration found that only 36 percent of college-educated women surveyed wanted to move into jobs with more responsibility, compared with 57 percent in 1992." (The author does not note that professional ambition has declined for college-educated men as well).

Oh, Those Bad Bosses
By Barbara Ehrenreich, AlterNet, 4.aug.06
"The problem isn't particular bosses, but what I call Bossism -- the hierarchical system that governs all known bureaucracies, both public and private. Giving one person huge power over others is like a giving a three-year-old a hose: not everyone will get soaked, but the chances of coming out dry are slender."

A battle cry for the rank and file:
`Dignitarian' cause gives voice to principle that every worker deserves respect
Penelope Trunk, BostonWorks.com, 6.aug.06
"Here's a new word for the workplace: rankism. File it in your brain next to racism and sexism, and brace yourself for a big change at the office, because rankism is another kind of discrimination we should not tolerate."

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The changing face of fatherhood, the difference between
a womb and a wallet, men who hate sex and much, much more

Paternity Leave: The Next Frontier
Ron Lieber, Wall Street Journal, CareerJournal.com, 13.jul.06
"Many men worry about how this will look in a world where 'leaving to spend more time with his family' is generally code for having been fired. If someone holds your leave against you come promotion time later on, income lost to leave will pale in comparison to the long-term effect of a foregone raise."

The Freaks of Father's Day
Jeremy Adam Smith, AlterNet, 16.jun.06
Feminism has given women more freedom and men the opportunity to be stay-at-home dads. But just how many Mr. Moms are out there?

Full-Time Dad and Fine With It
Disabusing false notions of life as a stay-at-home dad
Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle, 23.jul.06
"As the demographic grows and the raising-children-is-women's-work stigma subsides, most stay-at-home fathers will tell you their job isn't a novelty anymore. But even though there are a great many similarities between moms and dads who raise children full time, there are also some qualities that set daddies apart."

Are the "daddy wars" next?
Lori Leibovich, Salon Broadsheet, 24.jul.06
"While it's refreshing to see a piece that treats stay-at-home fatherhood as a viable and positive choice—the 2002 U.S. Census reported 189,000 stay-at-home dads—it's hard not to imagine the shit storm this piece would have produced had it been about stay-at-home moms."

A New Kind of Father's Day
Geoff Boehm, Women's Media Center, 19.jun.06
"Caring for children or ill family members shouldn’t be the exclusive terrain of either men or women. And parental leave shouldn’t be the domain of only those who could afford it. Rigid gender roles, class schisms, and narrow laws and policies aren’t serving families. We need a better balance."

21st-century dads turn to blogs for help:
Father's Day in a Modern World: Computer and burp rags replace pipe and slippers
Paul Nyhan, Seattle Post-Intellingencer, 17.jun.06
"At the root of much daddy blogging though is a basic desire for community, bloggers say. The parenting world is largely designed for mothers, and Generation X and Y dads are seeking their own support networks, they add."

The Changing Face Of Fatherhood
Worldwide, Old Traditions Are Giving Way To New Ambitions
CBS Sunday Morning. 18.jun.06
CBS Sunday Morning takes a look at how dads in the United States, Italy and Japan are transforming the traditional roles of fatherhood.

Oh, Daddy!
King Kaufman, Salon, 16.jun.06
The author of a new book about fatherhood on today's "insane" parenting culture, and why guys can use a little advice about raising kids.

POINT: The Difference Between a Womb and a Wallet
Kai Ma, AlterNet, 26.jul.06
A woman's decision to terminate a pregnancy is not the equivalent of a man's choice to financially opt out of fatherhood.

COUNTERPOINT: Respect a Man's Choice, Too
Glenn Sacks and Jeffery M. Leving, AlterNet, 1.aug.06
It's wrong to force pregnancy on an unwilling mother; but it's equally wrong to do so to an unwilling father

Men Who Love Burgers and Loathe Sex
Susie Bright, AlterNet, 16.jun.06
There's an unhappy host of young men who seem to have soured on the mating game—but why?

Infertile fathers fight stigma as 'DI Dads'
Rita Rubin, USA Today, 14.jun.06
"You can hardly pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV without seeing a story about single women or lesbian couples and their sperm donors. In these families, Mom clearly had outside help conceiving. But until now, fathers of children born through donor sperm insemination have drawn little attention.

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Backward drag, young feminists,
thoughts on Linda Hirshman, more

Women Losing Ground
Martha Burk, TomPaine.com, 27.jul.06
"Women's status in the first years of the 21st century compares to how it looked at the start of the "second wave" of American feminism beginning about 1963. The ongoing losses are the culmination of 20-plus years of conservative influence in the public square… we’re losing ground and fighting hard just to keep the ideals of women’s equality in the public debate."

NOW's Under-30 Crowd Heads to Weekend Retreat
Jeanine Plant, Women's eNews, 21.jul.06
NOW hosts a gathering for women under 30 at its annual conference this weekend. Some of those attending say their key concerns are birth-control access, abortion, caregivers' rights and human trafficking. Some participants are in their teens.

Women Press U.S. Violations at U.N. Rights Review
Bojana Stoparic, Women's eNews, 17.jul.06
When the U.N. Human Rights Committee in Geneva reviews U.S. compliance with a civil and political rights agreement this week, advocates will be raising women's rights violations in a critical shadow report. The report notes that the lack of paid maternity leave and affordable child care in the U.S. has made it difficult for women to attain equality at work.

In Struggle for Women's Freedom, Which Side is US On?
Steven Conn, Common Dreams, 23.jun.06
The lesson of the 20th century is clear, at least to the rest of the world. Free societies allow their citizens to make their own reproductive decisions; repressive ones restrict them. Which side are we on when this administration votes with countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia to block funding for family planning initiatives in the United Nations?

The Madness of Makeovers
Lakshmi Chaudhry, AlterNet, 7.jul.06
A new reality television show demeans women whose greatest fashion crime seems to be that they aren't rich. "While public humiliation is de rigeur for reality programming, what makes 'What Not to Wear' painful to watch is that none of its participants resemble the attention-hungry contestants on "Survivor" or "Real World." These are, for the most part, really nice women, many of whom are working moms with low-level white-collar jobs who simply don't have the money or time to preen in front of the mirror."

Female Base for Hillary in '08 Is No Sure Thing
Allison Stevens, Women's eNews, 25.jun.06
If she runs for president, Hillary Rodham Clinton will offer women the historic chance to put one of their own in the White House. But while some politically active women withhold early support others are attacking her on Iraq and other issues.

Rappers Aren't Feeling Oprah's Love
Yvonne Bynoe, AlterNet, 21.jun.06
Oprah has refused to bring Ice Cube and Ludacris on her show. But it's not their music she hates—it's their message of contempt for black women.

Women at Center of Consumer Eco-Push
Molly M. Ginty, Women's eNews, 19.jun.06
Women buy most home products and predominate as activists in schools and churches. That makes them central to a new consumer-style push for eco-friendly products and policies.

Give Me That Old-Time Feminism
Barbara Ehrenreich, AlterNet, 10.jul.06
While Muslim women are being stuffed into burkas, American post-feminists are trying to stuff their feet into stilettos.

"Strident" and proud
Jessica Valenti, Salon, 12.jul.06
Columnist Katha Pollitt blasts feminism's new timidity and says, "This 'girls just want to have fun' feminism is a very shallow approach to life."

Choosiness
Neva Chonin, San Francisco Chronicle, 22.jun.06
"Quitting one's job to tend house and children because hubby won't do it? Not a feminist choice. Taking maternity leave and then having hubby share baby chores so you can pursue your other interests? Now you're talking."

Understanding Betty Friedan: Why Linda Hirshman doesn't
Emily Bazelon, Slate, 26.jun.06
"Hirshman is rigidly pro-work; she doesn't really make room for women who work part-time or step out of the job market when their children are small. Friedan, by contrast, realized that her call to get out of the house and away from the kids wasn't for everyone and made her peace with that. Rather than being faithful to Friedan's legacy, Hirshman is cherry-picking it."

Women - Declare Your Independence
Martha Burk, Ms. Magazine, June 2006
In praise of Linda Hirshman's "Get to Work."

A Working Girl Can Win: The case against staying at home with the kids
Meghan O'Rourke, Slate, 26.jun.06
"What has riled everyone up isn't just Hirshman's message that only in the work force will women find fulfillment. It's that Hirshman attacked the sacred cow of the motherhood debate: the notion that it's a good thing liberated women are allowed to choose whether to work or stay at home -- an intellectual paradigm Hirshman dubbed 'choice feminism.'"

Let's reclaim the f-word
Katherine Rake, Guardian UK, 8.aug.06
To see off the feminist-bashers, we must unite around core concerns and harness a third wave. "Why has feminism always provoked such hostility? Unlike other radical movements, feminism is calling for something many women and men find difficult: a profound change in the power relations between sexes - not only in the public sphere, but also, much more trickily, in the private sphere. …Feminism is not just about allowing women to lead the same lives that men have for many years; it's about changing the rules of the game, mapping out a possible future in which activities that do not directly contribute to further swelling the coffers of UK plc, such as caring for family and others, are valued much more highly. It's about more than tinkering at the edges - and that feels threatening to a lot of people."

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Abstinence-only education:
your tax dollars at work

The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) has published the third edition of SIECUS State Profiles: A Portrait of Sexuality Education and Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs, the most comprehensive document of its kind detailing sexuality education and abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in states and communities. This report comes on the heels of a July 17 report by Rep. Waxman (CA) that found that more than $30 million federal dollars have been funneled to anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers through abstinence-only-until-marriage accounts.

According to the latest analysis, federal spending on abstinence-only-until-marriage education programs increased from $117.5 million in 2001 to $218 million in 2006. A portion of this spending is dedicated through TANF. Since 1998, more than $1 billion federal taxpayer dollars have been poured into abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, almost $800 million of which were granted between 2001 and 2006.

The full report offers a state-by-state breakdown of federal funding received, current regulations and pending legislation affecting sex education and information, and agencies and organizations receiving funding through state grants.

SIECUS
www.siecus.org

States and Communities Push Back Against Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage
Dictates from Washington While Proliferation of Programs Continues
Press release, 19.jul.06

Sexuality Education and Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs
in the States:An Overview
"As the federal government continues to tighten the restrictions governing abstinence-only-until-marriage programs funded through Title V, states struggle to maintain the integrity of these projects. Specifically, the Bush Administration has required increasing adherence to all eight-points of the federal government's definition of “abstinence education.” By focusing on only some of the eight points, many states had designed programs that allowed them to receive the much-needed funding while still remaining committed to more comprehensive prevention strategies."

State Profiles (2005): A Portrait of Sexuality Education and
Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs in the States
Index page to full report.

Related articles:

Abstinence Double Standard Threatens Girls' Health
Jessica Valenti, AlterNet, 26.jun.06
"The U.S. government has a solution for unwanted pregnancies, AIDS and cervical cancer. It's called abstinence education, and the government funds it to the tune of around $178 million per year. The only problem is that study after study shows that abstinence education has no effect on the rates of premarital sex or STD infection."

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The unwholesome truth about Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) are deceptive facilities that look like medical clinics but are actually anti-choice centers that exist to keep women from having abortions, according to a new report from the National Abortion Federation (NAF). CPC staff routinely misinform and intimidate women to achieve their goal; women have described being harassed, bullied, and given blatantly false information.

The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is the professional association of abortion providers in the United States and Canada.

National Abortion Federation
www.prochoice.org

Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Information and Policy Reports
(Index)

Crisis Pregnancy Centers: An Affront to Choice
National Abortion Federation, June 2006
Report, 23 pages in .pdf

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Other notable news and commentary
on reproductive health & rights

Pregnant and Unhappy About It
Chrisse France, AlterNet, 22.jun.06
"As an abortion provider, I see women every day who don't identify with either the pro-choice or "pro-life" movement. They come because they're pregnant and don't want to be. Many come because they desperately want to be good mothers and know that, at this particular time in their lives, they can't fulfill that promise. They're aware that they are about to terminate a potential life, the possibility of a baby that might be welcomed and well cared for at another time and in other circumstances."

No Choice When It Comes to License Plates
Jennifer Fox, AlterNet, 1.jul.06
Why are anti-abortion 'Choose Life' license plates legal, while pro-choice plates keep being struck down? "On Monday, June 26, the Supreme Court refused to tackle a lawsuit about the matter, ensuring that the "Choose Life" plates—which originated In Florida—remain legal in Louisiana, Tennessee and the few other states where they have grown in popularity. Proceeds from the plates have raised about $4 million for anti-abortion organizations."

States probe limits of abortion policy
Christine Vestal, Stateline.org, 22.jun.06
While the makeup of the Supreme Court is the focus of much of today’s political calculations about the future of abortion in America, the role of states is equally important. Stateline.org outlines the states’ pivotal involvement in this contentious social issue in a special “Backgrounder” that explains how states now deal with abortion, the history of state abortion laws, legal precedents, legal repercussions for states if Roe v. Wade were overturned. and a rundown of current state restrictions on abortion.

Will states require cancer vaccine?
Daniel C. Vock, Stateline.org, 30.jun.06
A federal panel of scientists recommended that all 11- and 12-year-old girls get a vaccine that could prevent 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. Now discussion moves to state capitols, where legislators will decide whether to make the three-shot treatment mandatory before girls enter certain grades.

Core Issue Missing in Birth-Control War Reports
Gloria Feldt, Women's eNews, 28.jun.06
The dominant media has started to notice that the attack on abortion extends to contraception. But Gloria Feldt says the underlying story—about the intrinsic and generalized hostility to women—is still getting passed over.

Ban on gay marriage denies justice to children
Sara Miles. Salon, 10.jul.06
The N.Y. court says marriage is good for kids. Then why doesn't my daughter deserve the same legal protection as the children of opposite-sex parents? "The fact is, lesbians and gays are not going to stop having kids because we can't marry. Our children are not going to disappear."

Abortion Is a Basic Human Right
Carmen Angélina Valenzuela, AlterNet, 11.jul.06
A doctor who was tortured for giving medical aid to Guatemalan rebels says a woman's right to end her pregnancy must be considered an international human right.

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