Social Insecurity:

In US, two-thirds of middle-class families face financial insecurity
plus: related articles

Study finds one-third of Americans are downwardly mobile; risk is greater for African Americans
plus: related resources and articles

Poverty, racial bias contribute to overrepresentation of African American children in foster care

Work & Family:

Take Care Net Presidential Candidate Survey:
Democratic contenders show broad support family friendly policies -- Republicans did not respond

OECD recommends work-life reconciliation policies for family well-being, economic growth

Stressed much?
Work, money and parenting are major source of stress for Americans

Business Week: Can you afford to raise kids?

More news and commentary on work, family, and public policy

Motherhood & Mothering:

Knocking yourself up, post-partum plastic surgery, and other madness

Women:

Notable news and commentary about women & gender equity

Reproductive Health & Rights:

Candidates on sex ed, more about sex, and other noteworthy items on women's reproductive health

In US, two-thirds of middle-class families face financial insecurity

A new analysis of the financial well-being of middle-class families in the United States finds that nearly four out of five do not have adequate resources to cover basic living expenses for more than three months should their source of income disappear. In nearly one-quarter of middle-class families, at least one member lacks health care coverage of any kind. The report concludes that among middle-income households, one-in-five white families, and one-third of African American families, are at high risk of slipping out of the middle class.

The study, By A Thread: The New Experience of the Middle Class, is the result of a collaboration between the non-profit group Demos and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University. The research sample for the report included households with incomes more than two times, but not more than six times, the federal poverty level ($40,000 - $120,000/year for a family of four). To capture the working age population, the sample was also limited to households headed by adults between the ages of 25 and 64. Based on an a comparison of assets (financial assets other than home equity, minus debt), educational attainment, housing costs, family budget, and healthcare coverage, the authors found that only 31 percent of middle-income families are securely middle-class. 44 percent face a moderate risk of falling out of the middle-class, and 25 percent are at high risk of slipping into the low-income level. Lack of adequate assets to cover basic living costs for more than three months was the most common source of risk; Only 9 percent of middle-class families matched optimal thresholds on four or more security factors.

Noting that America's strong middle-class did not simply emerge from favorable market conditions, but was "created through deliberate policy measures and investments" in the years following World War II, the By A Thread report offers a several policy recommendations. The authors stress the need for government programs to encourage savings and asset-building for middle-income households, as opposed to "the existing patchwork of policies" that "overwhelmingly benefit households that already have substantial net worth and economic security." Other recommendations include making college education more affordable by strengthening the Federal Financial Aid System, and ensuring that all Americans have affordable, comprehensive health care coverage.

A critical omission in the report is the failure to acknowledge the relationship between married women's employment and middle-class security in the US. Hopefully, the authors intend to address this issue -- and the potential role of work-life reconciliation policy in improving income mobility and financial sufficiency for low- and middle-income families -- in a future report.

Demos
www.demos.org

By a Thread: The New Experience of America's Middle Class
Jennifer Wheary, Thomas M. Shapiro, and Tamara Draut.
Demos, November 2007

Middle class feels the squeeze
Kenneth W. Musante, CNNMoney.com, 28.nov.07
Rising costs of health care, housing, and education are forcing middle-class families to work harder and longer, says a new report.

Related articles:

It's the Economy, Stupid -- But Not Just the Current Slowdown
Robert B. Reich, The American Prospect, 5.dec.07
"Middle-class families have exhausted the coping mechanisms they've used for over three decades to get by on median wages that are barely higher than they were in 1970, adjusted for inflation."

All We Want for Christmas is a Good Economy
Marie Cocco, AlterNet, 13.nov.07
As the holiday season approaches, a recent poll shows that the economy has beaten Iraq as the issue of most concern to Americans.

U.S. Falls to No. 15 in Average Worker Income
David Francis, AlterNet, 13.nov.07
That ranking would surprise most Americans, who likely consider their nation the most prosperous in the world.

Neediest kids live in rich states
Wendy Koch, USA Today, 26.nov.07
"Low-income children who fare the worst in health care, education and family structure live in some of the nation's wealthiest states, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware, a study to be released next week reveals."

Taxing the Poor
Paul Buchheit, AlterNet. 7.nov.07
"Conservative groups claim that the richest U.S. households pay more than their fair share of income taxes. However, when social security and sales taxes are included, the typical wage earner pays about a 40 percent overall tax, about the same percentage as the average American millionaire. Multimillionaires pay even less."

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Study finds one-third of Americans are downwardly mobile; risk is greater for African Americans

Three new studies on economic mobility in the US find that while two-thirds of American families are earning more today than their parents did a generation ago, their likelihood of moving up -- or down -- the economic ladder is largely dependent on their parents' position. The reports were published by the Economic Mobility Project, a collaboration of experts from conservative and progressive research groups concerned with family well-being and economic trends, including the American Enterprise Institute, The Brookings Institution, The Heritage Foundation, and The Urban Institute.

The first report, The Economic Mobility of Families Across Generations, finds that while working Americans have higher incomes than the previous generation, it doesn't necessarily mean they are moving up the economic ladder compared to their parents or to other families. Only one-third of Americans are considered "upwardly mobile," while another one-third are "downwardly mobile." The study also found Americans' ability to move up or down the economic ladder is highly dependent on their parents' economic position. Forty-two percent of children born to parents at the bottom of the income distribution remain at the bottom, while 39 percent born to parents at the top, stay at the top. Middle-income children had a roughly equal chance of ending up in a higher or lower income bracket than their parents. The report also notes that the venerable "rags to riches" story is more fantasy than fact: only 6 percent of children in families at the very bottom of income distribution find their way to the very top.

The second and third reports break down intergenerational economic mobility by gender and race. Overall, sons and daughters were found to have similar levels of mobility, with the exception of daughters born to families in the bottom income quartile. Close to half of women born in low income families were downwardly mobile compared to their parents, partly because they are more likely to be single parents. And although both white and black men in their 30s experienced a decline in income compared to their fathers, the decline was steeper for African American men. According to the study, nearly half (45 percent) of African American children born in solidly middle-class families fell to the bottom of the income distribution, compared to 16 percent of white children -- and African American children born in poor families were more likely to stay poor (54 percent) than white children born in poor families (31 percent). African American children born in middle-income families were also significantly less likely to move up the income ladder (17 percent) than their white counterparts (37 percent).

The Economic Mobility Project is a project of the Pew Charitable Trust Foundation.

Economic Mobility Project
www.economicmobility.org

Key Findings:
Economic Mobility Across Generations - Men and Women - Black and White Families
1 page, in .pdf

Economic Mobility of Families Across Generations
Executive Summary, 4 pages, in .pdf

The Economic Mobility of Men and Women
Executive Summary, 3 pages, in .pdf

The Economic Mobility of Black and White Families
Executive Summary, 4 pages, in .pdf

Related resources and articles:

Blacks See Growing Values Gap Between Poor and Middle Class:
Optimism about Black Progress Declines
Pew Research Center on Social Trends, 13. nov.07
"The new nationwide Pew Research Center survey also finds blacks less upbeat about the state of black progress now than at any time since 1983. Looking backward, just one-in-five blacks say things are better for blacks now than they were five years ago. Looking ahead, fewer than half of all blacks (44 percent) say they think life for blacks will get better in the future, down from the 57 percent who said so in a 1986 survey." Includes links to survey results.

The American Dream, or a Nightmare for Black America?
Joshua Holland, AlterNet, 17.dec.07
Forty years after fighting and bleeding for full legal equality, African Americans are falling further behind whites economically.

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Poverty, racial bias contribute to overrepresentation of
African American children in foster care

A report from the US Government Accountability Office concludes that poverty, lack of access to affordable housing and family support services, and racial bias on the part of child welfare workers are among the factors contributing to the disproportionate number of African American children in US foster care system. While African American children make up 15 percent of the general child population in the United States, they represent 34 percent of children in foster care.

The overrepresentation of African American children placed in foster care has long been recognized as urgent issue by welfare rights and reproductive justice activist. Legal scholar Dorothy Roberts, author of Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare (2002), has also focused on the issue in her work.

African American Children in Foster Care
GAO-07-816, July 2007. 87 pages, in .pdf

Race Matters: Unequal Opportunity in the Child Welfare System
Fact Sheet, Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2006

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Take Care Net Presidential Candidate Survey:
Democratic contenders show broad support family friendly policies -- Republicans did not respond

A new survey of Presidential hopefuls finds that all Democratic candidates favor expanding support for working families, including guaranteeing a minimum number of paid sick days, increasing child care funding, and covering more workers under the Family & Medical Leave Act. Republican candidates did not respond to the questionnaire.

The survey, which queried the candidates' positions on twenty-six family-friendly policies, was coordinated by Take Care Net, a network of work and family experts who support public policies that take care of those who give and those who need care.

Candidates who responded to the survey expressed a strong commitment to expanding public policy supports for care work. Senator Dodd and Governor Richardson supported every single policy addressed in the survey. The other Democratic candidates supported almost all policies listed; in cases where they didn't, most described support for similar policies aimed at achieving the same goals. In no case did the candidates who responded oppose any policy listed.

The survey effort was co-sponsored by the Labor Project for Working Families, MomsRising.org, the Mothers’ Movement Online, the National Council of Women's Organizations, the New York State Paid Family Leave Coalition, Take Back Your Time, and 9to5, the National Association of Working Women.

Take Care Net
www.takecarenet.org

Leading Democratic Presidential Candidates Voice Support for Family Friendly Policies
Press Release, Take Care Net, 27.dec.07
2 pages, in .pdf

Take Care Net Presidential Candidate Survey Results
6 pages, in .pdf

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OECD recommends work-life reconciliation policies for
family well-being, economic growth

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a new analysis of social and economic indicators, public spending, and work-life reconciliation policies among member countries, including cross-national comparisons. The report, Babies and Bosses - Reconciling Work and Family Life, is the latest in a series of studies highlighting the relationship between workplace flexibility and public supports for working families and variables such as fertility rates, maternal employment, and child poverty in OECD countries.

According to the report, parents face different obstacles to striking the desired balance between job demands and family responsibilities depending on their economic resources and where they live. However, parents in all OECD countries "face considerable challenges when they try to reconcile their work and family commitments…One way or another, as long as there are people who are constrained in their choices about work/life balance, the result may be both too few babies and too little employment and/or unsatisfactory careers."

The study concludes that model work-life reconciliation policies promote high rates of maternal employment, healthy child development, and gender equity while supporting replacement-level fertility rates. Boosting economic growth by increasing women's employment has been a particular goal in the European Union, but falling fertility rates in some OECD countries suggest that economic conditions and work-family conflict continue to influence men's and women's decisions about family formation. However, OECD countries with the highest female employment rates -- which include the Nordic countries and Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, and the US -- also have fertility rates at or near replacement level, despite considerable variation in labor, child care, and family leave policies. (The report notes that although government concerns about low fertility are becoming widespread, most OECD countries "do not consider the fertility rate a public policy objective.")

The United States stands out, however, for having higher-than-average rates of maternal employment coupled with exceptionally high rates of child poverty (by international measurements, child poverty in the US is six times greater than that in Denmark and Sweden; among OECD countries, only Mexico and Turkey have a higher percentage of children living in poverty). Although several countries with low child poverty rates have a higher incidence of out-of-wedlock births than the US (36 percent of all US births are non-marital, compared to 45 percent in Demark and 46 percent in France), the US has the highest percentage of sole-parent households among all OECD countries (33 percent). A weak commitment to social spending in may be a compounding factor in high rates of child poverty in the US -- the OECD calculates that combined public expenditures on cash benefits, services and tax breaks for families in the US are one-half the OECD average (1.2 percent versus 2.4 percent of GDP), and one-third the level of spending found in family-friendly locales such as Denmark, France, Norway, and Sweden.

The Babies and Bosses report acknowledges that while some policy approaches are more successful than others in promoting the dual goals of maternal employment and family well-being, there is "no 'one size fits all' policy recipe." Based on the report's findings, the OECD offers a shortlist of general recommendations:

• Parental leave should be relatively short (4 to 6 months) and well paid to encourage healthy infant development and mothers' workforce attachment.

• Parental leave policies should be structured to encourage/assure leave-taking by fathers as well was mothers.

• Tax and benefit systems should be designed to give both parents in couple-families equally strong financial incentives to work.

• Policies should ensure that child care issues do not create barriers to employment. While the Nordic solution is exemplary in guaranteeing affordable, quality child care to all families, the OECD notes that it may not be a feasible model for all countries.

• Workplaces need to be more family-friendly, but uniform change in employer practices is unlikely to occur without policy intervention.

• Proposals that subsidize women's caregiving in the home (such as cash allowances based on the number of children in a household) may reduce mother's economic vulnerability, but also affect women's employability if employers assume that women will leave the workforce when they become mothers.

• Lone and low-income parents who receive public benefits should be required to seek work, and guaranteed access to quality child care so that they can. Adequate services should be provided for parents with significant barriers to employment, and benefit sanctions for non-employment should be moderate.

The full report -- which is packed with informative charts and tables for those who crave a detailed overview of how poorly US families are faring compared to families in peer countries -- may be purchased in print and electronic formats from the OECD web site. Additional resources and summaries are available from the site at no charge, including a selection of charts and tables on social and economic indicators from the OECD's online family database.

The 30 member countries of the OECD are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
www.oecd.org

Improved childcare policies needed to achieve better work/life balance, says OECD
Press release/summary, November 2007

Babies and Bosses - Reconciling Work and Family Life:
A Synthesis of Findings for OECD Countries
Highlights and index of resources

Matching Work and Family Commitments
Issues, Outcomes, Policy Objectives and Recommendations
OECD, November 2007
Babies and Bosses backgrounder, 8 pages in .pdf

OECD Online Family Database

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Stressed much?
Work, money, and parenting are major source of stress for Americans

A national survey by the American Psychological Association found that nearly one-third (31 percent) of employed adults have difficulty managing work and family responsibilities, and 35 percent cite jobs interfering with their family or personal time as a significant source of stress. Overall, close to one-half of all Americans said that stress has a negative impact on both their personal and professional lives.

Among employed respondents, workers were more likely to report that job demands had interfered with home life (52 percent) than to report that family responsibilities had affected their job performance (43 percent). Half of all employees said that they had considered or made a decision about their jobs as a result of workplace stress, including looking for a new job or declining a promotion.

Parents with younger children were more likely to say that work-life conflict was a major source of stress than parents of teens, and around two-thirds of all parents reported that work demands had interfered with their ability to meet their family responsibilities. Half of all parents with young and school age children reported arguing with a spouse of partner because of stress (compared to one-third of parents with older children).

Overall, survey-takers were more likely to report that "work" and "money" are a significant source of stress in their lives than they were one year ago. Two-thirds said that "workload" and "children" were significant stressors, and three out of five said that "family responsibilities" were a major cause of stress. Health concerns, housing costs, and "intimate relationships" were other common sources of stress. Roughly half of survey-takers reported that stress had a negative impact on their relationship with their spouse or partner and their satisfaction with their jobs.

The survey also collected information on how well Americans cope with stress, finding that individuals with higher incomes were more likely to manage their stress effectively than those with household incomes under $50,000 a year. Lower-income Americans were also likely to report a higher incidence of physical and psychological symptoms related to stress, such as "irritability and anger" and "feeling nervous and sad."

A press release and report (in Word format) are available from the APA web site.

American Psychological Association
www.apa.org

Stress a Major Health Problem in the U.S., Warns APA
Press Release, October 2007

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Business Week: Can you afford to raise kids?

In case you missed it, the November 12 issue of Business Week magazine featured a special report on the high cost of raising children. Given that the baseline expense of raising a child from birth to 18 runs around $11,000 a year for middle-income households, the question of whether or not Americans can afford to have children (or have as many children as they desire) is a serious and timely topic. Unfortunately, Business Week's spin on the subject is how to raise a family without doing too much damage to your pocketbook (articles include tips on "Great Places to Raise Your Kids for Less" and paying for college without wiping out your golden nest egg). Stories are focused exclusively on the high cost of child-rearing in professional-class families (parents are advised to set up special savings plans for big-tickets items like vacations, summer camp, and Bar Mitzvahs). Oh yeah, and if you want to raise a family without going broke, your best bet is to uproot your life and/or career and move somewhere with great public schools and a lower housing costs.

Although the tone of the articles is pro-child, the authors emphasize that raising kids is the economic equivalent of throwing your hard-earned cash into a black hole. In response to a comment by Ellen Galinsky of the Families & Work Institute that having children adds meaning to life, writer Karyn McCormack responds "All of that sounds nice, but what's it going to cost me?" Although McCormack's article alludes to the fact that our dysfunctional approach to privatizing the cost of child care and higher education add to the financial burdens of parenting in the US, the underlying message is that having kids is a dicey investment -- and after weighing the costs and benefits, smart young adults are concluding that it's not worth the headache.

Business Week Special Report:
The Cost of Raising Kids

Is Raising Kids a Fool's Game?
Karyn McCormack, Business Week, 12.nov.07
Parenting is fulfilling, but the financial burden can be overwhelming -- and then there's the crimp it puts in your leisure time

They're Making Money From Your Kids
John Tozzi, Business Week, 13.nov.07
"Does your toddler wear perfume? Should your newborn eat organic? And has your four-year-old been to the gym lately? Moms and dads a generation ago might have laughed at these questions, but today there is a booming market for products and services targeting affluent parents willing to spend freely on their kids."

US Department of Agriculture:
Expenditures on Children by Families, 2006
33 pages, in .pdf

Related articles:

The More the Merrier
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen. Time Magazine, 6.dec.07
"There's an odd phenomenon being reported in tony enclaves across the country: highly educated, highly compensated couples popping out four or more children--happily and by choice."

The Rise of Family-Friendly Cities
Joel Kotkin, WSJ/Opinion Journal, 27.nov.07
"There is a basic truth about the geography of young, educated people. They may first migrate to cities like New York, Los Angeles, Boston or San Francisco. But they tend to flee when they enter their child-rearing years. Family-friendly metropolitan regions have seen the biggest net gains of professionals, largely because they not only attract workers, but they also retain them through their 30s and 40s."

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More news and commentary on work, family, and public policy:

Workplace tensions rise as dads seek family time
Stephanie Armour, USA Today, 11.dec.07
"As dads demand paternity leave, flexible work schedules, telecommuting and other new benefits, they've ignited what workplace specialists are calling the Daddy Wars."

Fatherhood in Pop Culture
Tomas Moniz, mamazine, 11.nov.07
"We need to ask ourselves why so many in our society don't trust men to be competent at parenting, to be trusted to handle a newborn without being watched over by the mother or the grandmother. And a good place to start would be to start questioning the images of bumbling fathers we're inundated with. It is the butt of our parenting jokes: men fucking up, dressing kids, trying to feed kids, trying to be both macho and cool, because parenting in our society equals mothering. Not fathering or fathers. And is not cool."

Seven Tips for Modern Dads
John Badalament, VoiceMale Magazine, Fall 2007
"As a modern dad, much more is expected of me and I want to be more of a presence than my own father was. Being a presence means getting involved in the “everydayness” of family life at home -- no matter what your family structure is -- from consistently setting limits to helping with homework to putting away the dishes. It means doing what sociologist Arlie Hochschild called The Second Shift, a term used to describe the second job most working women are left to do when they come home at night -- housework and childcare." From the Men's Resource Center for Change.

Updates on Family Leave and Paid Sick Days Policy Campaigns
Progressive States Network, 3.dec.07
"The 2007 to 2008 legislative sessions are shaping up to be ones where work and family issues take center stage, as voters increasingly demand that legislatures make giving people the time to care for their families the priority it is every day at the kitchen table. Below are a few of those key issues and the organizations active in different states."

Taking U.S. pulse on paid sick leave
Dennis Cauchon, USA Today, 11.nov.07
"So far, early support for mandatory paid sick leave laws has come in liberal jurisdictions. Last November, San Francisco voters approved the nation's first mandatory paid sick leave law. The law -- providing about eight paid sick days a year for full-time workers -- took effect in February. The Washington, D.C., city council is considering a similar law. Massachusetts legislators held a hearing on a proposal last week."

Poor Morale Adds Up to Even More No-Shows:
CCH Survey Finds Most Employees Call in “Sick” for Reasons Other Than Illness
CCH, 10.oct.07
Two-thirds of U.S. workers who call in sick at the last minute do so for reasons other than physical illness, according to the findings of the 17th annual CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey. (CCH is a leading provider of human resources and employment law information and services and part of Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.)

Out-of-pocket elder expenses strain caregivers' finances, lives
Maggie Jackson, Boston Globe, 11.dec.07
"The 34 million Americans who are helping an aging relative or friend often dip into their own savings or paychecks and scale back their household spending to help defray the medical or living expenses of the elder in need, according to the first in-depth study to track out-of-pocket costs associated with such care."

Democracy Belongs in the Workplace, Not Just in the Voting Booth
Omar Freilla, AlterNet, 12.nov.07
In search of democracy? Start at the office.

Do Snap Judgments Amount to Bias in the Workplace?
Freada Kapor Klein, AlterNet, 30.nov.07
An expert on workplace diversity and fairness explains in her new book how unconscious bias routinely creeps into split-second decisions in the office. Excerpt from Giving Notice: Why the Best and Brightest are Leaving the Workplace and HOW YOU CAN HELP THEM STAY, by Freada Kapor Klein (Jossey-Bass, 2007).

Head Start Measure Expected to Launch New Era for Program
Alyson Klein, Education Week, 27.nov.07
"Lawmakers are hailing a long-awaited measure to renew the federal Head Start preschool program as an example of the kind of legislation that can emerge from bipartisan consensus and compromise. But crafting the reauthorization of the Head Start Act, which has been pending since 2003, wasn’t always harmonious."

New York Home-Based Child Care Workers Seek Union
Karen Matthews, Associated Press, 12.nov.07
"In New York State, former Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, had vetoed a bill giving home-based child care providers the right to unionize, but Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer authorized it in an executive order signed in May."

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Knocking yourself up, post-partum plastic surgery,
and other madness

Knocking Yourself Up
Lorraine Ali, Newsweek, 5.nov.07
Some women laugh about turkey basters replacing Mr. Right. The ongoing debate over going it alone.

Going solo
Maggie Jackson, Boston Globe Jobs, 4.nov.07
Single working parents find creative ways to face life, career demands. "Single mothers report making more sacrifices in both career and in home lives than married parents, the research shows. In other words, they are squeezed both ways. But above all, their children tend to come first."

Holiday Shopping? Skip the Tummy Tuck Gift Card
Sandra Kobrin, Women's eNews, 28.nov.07
"The signals urging women to maintain or reclaim their youth have become ingrained in our culture…But what's scary is that more than ever, smart, professional, successful women are undergoing expensive, complicated life-threatening cosmetic surgeries. With all they have going for them, more and more of these successful women are choosing to roll the dice with their lives in search of a flatter tummy, less wrinkles or firmer breasts."

Maternal Health Donations Overflow Bush Blockade
Kara Alaimo, Women's eNews, 8.nov.07
A U.N. agency shunned by the Bush administration is one beneficiary of a major fundraising push behind maternal health initiatives. New online tools give citizens a personal handle on the progress and invite them to join the effort.

Bad parents bare all on Bad Mom websites
Chrisopher Noxon, Reuters, 5.nov.07
"Parents are unloading like never before. Whether trading horror stories at birthday parties or penning "momoirs," more parents are finding comfort in swapping tales of their woes."

We Can't Shop Our Way to Safety
Erin Wiegand, AlterNet, 16.nov.07
Concerned with toxic chemicals, more people are buying products with labels like "organic," "green," and "natural." But a consumerist response to environmental threats is not only inadequate, it is dangerous.

Spying Parents: When Worrying Becomes Stalking
Ellen Goodman, AlterNet, 9.nov.07
"Having privatized child raising, we seem to be turning parents into private eyes."

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Notable news and commentary about women & gender equality

Report: Women govs get high marks
Pamela M. Prah, Stateline.org, 30.nov.07
"Women running for governor still have to work harder than men, but once elected, voters think female governors are better at getting things done and solving problems than their male counterparts, new research released Nov. 29 shows."

News Skips Context in 24-7 Peterson Coverage
Anne Friedman Glauber, Women's eNews, 21.nov.07
News reports have probed every angle in the Stacy Peterson disappearance and how her husband became the prime suspect. But when Anne Glauber tried to persuade media producers to interview an advocate about domestic violence, there were no takers.

Women Resume 30-Year-Old Agenda in Time for 2008
Frances C. Whittelsey, Women's eNews, 15.nov.07
More than 600 people gathered in New York a few days ago to mark the 30th anniversary of a landmark women's activism event that left a long, unfinished agenda. A 10-point plan for the 2008 election campaigns looks to restart the momentum.

Do We Still Need Feminist Media?
L.S. Kim, AlterNet. 9.nov.07
Despite women's advancements, in some areas of news journalism they continue to lag way behind.

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Candidates on sex ed, more about sex, and other noteworthy items on women's reproductive health

Views on Sex-Ed Divide Democratic, GOP Candidates
Alison Bowen, Women's eNews, 26.nov.07
The U.S. has spent about $1 billion on abstinence-only education in the last decade and the White House seeks $28 million more. Here's how presidential candidates line up on the issue.

Prude: New Book Rolls Sexuality Back Centuries
Rachel Kramer Bussel, AlterNet, 14.dec.07
"Carol Platt Liebau is proud to be a prude. In fact, "Proudly, A Prude," is the concluding chapter in her teen-sex-shockfest Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Damages Girls (and America, Too!) (Center Street). What sets Liebau, an attorney, political analyst and commentator, and self-professed "voice from the right," apart from the spate of other recent books decrying the ills of teen sexual exploration, is her unabashed conservatism and real desire to roll back the clock -- sometimes as far as previous centuries."

Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic
Courtney E. Martin, AlterNet, 28.nov.08
Martin interviews psychotherapist Esther Perel, author of Mating in Captivity. "It is ironic that sex makes babies and then children spell erotic disaster for couples. The unprecedented child centrality we see today all over the West has sanctified childhood like never before. We no longer get work out of our kids, today we get meaning. So we have adults who become a round-the-clock child-rearing factory in order to foster the flawless and painless development of their offspring."

Women's Health Caught in Congress' Holiday Rush Run
Allison Stevens, Women's eNews, 27.nov.07
Reproductive health advocates are pushing for several bills to become law before Congress adjourns for the holidays. Low-cost contraception and postpartum research are high priorities to make it through the legislative backlog.

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