Womens Articles

Some women are smarter than men and some aren’t. But to suggest to women that they deserve dominance instead of equality is at best a cheap applause line.

My bigger concern is that in courting women, Mr. Obama’s campaign so far has seemed maddeningly off point. His message to the Barnard graduates was that they should fight for a “seat at the table” — the head seat, he made sure to add. He conceded that it’s a tough economy, but he told the grads, “I am convinced you are tougher” and “things will get better — they always do.”

Hardly reassuring words when you look at the reality. According to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, about 53.6 percent of men and women under the age of 25 who hold bachelor’s degrees were jobless or underemployed last year, the most in at least 11 years. According to the Pew Research Center, if we broaden the age group to 18- to 29-year-olds, an estimated 37 percent are unemployed or out of the work force, the highest share in more than three decades.

The human faces shouldn’t get lost amid the statistics. I spent last weekend with a friend who attended excellent private schools and graduated from Tufts University two years ago. She’s intelligent, impressive and still looking for a full-time job.

The women I know who are struggling in this economy couldn’t be further from the fictional character of Julia, presented in Mr. Obama’s Web ad, “The Life of Julia,” a silly and embarrassing caricature based on the assumption that women look to government at every meaningful phase of their lives for help.

My cousin in Louisiana started a small company with a little savings, renovating houses. A single mom, she saved enough to buy a home and provide child care for her son. When the economy went belly up, so did her company. She was forced to sell her home and move in with her parents. She has found another job, but doesn’t make enough to move out. Family, not government, has been everything to her at this time of crisis. She, and they, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Another member of my family left her job at an adoption agency just before the economy crashed. Also a single mother, she has been looking for a way back to a full-time job ever since. She has been selling things on eBay to make ends meet. Friends and family, not government, have been there at the dire moments when she has asked them to be. Again, she, and they, wouldn’t have it any other way.

This is not to say that government doesn’t play a role in their lives. It does and it should. But it isn’t a dominant one, and certainly not an overwhelming factor in their daily existence.

It’s obvious why the president is doing a full-court press for the vote of college-educated women in particular. The Republican primaries probably did turn some women away. Rick Santorum did his party no favors when he spoke about women in combat (“I think that can be a very compromising situation, where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interest of the mission, because of other types of emotions that are involved”); when he described the birth of a child from rape as “a gift in a very broken way”; and how, if he was president, he would make the case for the damage caused by contraception.

But Mitt Romney will never be confused with Rick Santorum on these issues, and many women understand that. (I should disclose here that my husband is an adviser to Mr. Romney; I have no involvement with any campaign, and have been an independent journalist throughout my career.) The struggling women in my life all laughed when I asked them if contraception or abortion rights would be a major factor in their decision about this election. For them, and for most other women, the economy overwhelms everything else.

Another recent Pew Research Center survey found that voters, when thinking about whom to vote for in the fall, are most concerned about the economy (86 percent) and jobs (84 percent). Near the bottom of the list were some of the hot-button social issues.

Tiffany Dufu, who heads the White House Project, a nonpartisan group aimed at training young women for careers in politics and business, got a similar response when she informally polled young women in her organization. “The issues that have been defined as all women care about are way off — young women feel it has put them further in a box they don’t necessarily want to be in,” she told me. “Independence is what is so important to these women.”

I have always admired President Obama and I agree with him on some issues, like abortion rights. But the promise of his campaign four years ago has given way to something else — a failure to connect with tens of millions of Americans, many of them women, who feel economic opportunity is gone and are losing hope. In an effort to win them back, Mr. Obama is trying too hard. He’s employing a tone that can come across as grating and even condescending. He really ought to drop it. Most women don’t want to be patted on the head or treated as wards of the state. They simply want to be given a chance to succeed based on their talent and skills. To borrow a phrase from our president’s favorite president, Abraham Lincoln, they want “an open field and a fair chance.”

In the second decade of the 21st century, that isn’t asking too much.

Campbell Brown is a former news anchor for CNN and NBC.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/opinion/sunday/obama-condescending-to-women.html

With the US and NATO planning the departure of their forces from Afghanistan by December 2014, some Afghan women and international rights advocates are growing increasingly concerned that a decade-long focus on expanding Afghan women’s rights will go with them.

As NATO leaders – mostly men, it’s fair to say – assembled in Chicago to plan the transition to a fully Afghan-led security effort next year, another gathering – this one of Afghan and American women – focused on the need to protect Afghan women’s educational, social, and political gains over the last decade.

“We have to ensure that our commitment to Afghan women does not end as our troops come home,” said US Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D) of Illinois, at a conference Sunday that laid out an eight-point plan for safeguarding and strengthening Afghan women’s rights.

RECOMMENDED: How well do you know Afghanistan? Take our quiz.

Amnesty International, which sponsored Sunday’s conference, called it a “shadow summit” in part because women, and Afghan women in particular, are largely absent from the NATO gathering taking place at the same time.

The Afghan delegation to the NATO summit led by President Hamid Karzai originally included no women, according to Frank Januzzi, director of Amnesty International’s Washington office. But at least two women were added, including one female member of the Afghan Parliament, when prominent Afghan women protested the absence.

“We were told the Chicago [NATO] summit has nothing to do with us women,” said Mahbouba Seraj, an Afghan women’s and children’s advocate, describing the explanation the Afghan presidential palace originally offered when asked about the all-male Chicago delegation. But she said she and other members of the Afghan Women’s Network considered it crucial that “we bring the voices of the voiceless women of Afghanistan.”

The eight steps called for by Amnesty International and endorsed in an open letter sent to President Obama and Mr. Karzai include significant participation by women in peace talks with the Taliban, institutionalized guarantees of women’s rights in any reconciliation agreements with the Taliban, creation of a fund targeted at sustaining and enhancing women’s rights, and specific training of security forces to protect women against violence, including domestic violence.

Concerns about the status and future of Afghan women come after a decade of considerable progress, yet as threats to that progress intensify – sometimes in shocking fashion.

About 3 million Afghan girls are in school – more than one-third of the school population – a decade after Taliban rule that kept girls home. But at the same time, the Taliban continue to ban girls from school in the areas they control, and they burn schools for girls and threaten and kill girls’ teachers in disputed areas. Earlier this year insurgents sickened the girls at one school by poisoning the water supply.

Women won more seats in the 2010 parliamentary elections than the law mandated, and a few women are judges and prosecutors.

Earlier this year, at a meeting of the US-Afghan Women’s Council, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called protecting Afghan women’s rights a “red line” for the US. But she acknowledged that forces are arrayed to weaken the progress already made.

“There are always going to be those, not only in Afghanistan, who want to roll back progress for women and impose second-class citizenship on women,” she said. But she insisted the US “will not waver on this point,” adding that “any peace that is attempted to be made by excluding more than half the population is no peace at all.”

Afghan women concur that warnings are multiplying of a backsliding on rights as the Western presence wanes. One example: a statement issued earlier this year by the country’s religious leaders, or Ulema Council, advocating segregation of the sexes in Afghan society, including in schools, a ban on women traveling unaccompanied by a male relative, and respect for polygamy. It was not refuted by Karzai.

“President Karzai is in a position where he has to appease the Taliban and also work with the international community,” said Manizha Naderi, executive director of Women for Afghan Women.

“What we heard back from the palace was that this [Ulema statement] was only a consultation,” added Hasina Safi, executive director of the Afghan Women’s Education Center in Kabul. “There have been gains” for women, she added, but this example demonstrated how “they need to be more specific” and institutionalized.

Representative Schakowsky said such examples underscore exactly why women can’t simply be seen as the beneficiaries of rights granted by someone else, but must be a part of the discussions that deliberate on those rights – including at forums like the NATO Summit.

“It’s not just about women’s rights, it’s about women being part of the process that creates an enduring peace” in Afghanistan, she said. Citing a favorite saying, she added, “If you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu. So women need to be there.”

RECOMMENDED: How well do you know Afghanistan? Take our quiz.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/nato-summit-afghanistan-few-womens-voices-heard-202105601.html

The women’s triple jump was a recent addition to the Olympic Games in 1996. With the impressive performances of women in the triple jump for a decade or more prior to the Atlanta Olympics, the inclusion of their event there was long overdue. The following list takes a look at the women who have won Olympic triple jump gold:

Francoise Mbango Etone: A native of Cameroon, Etone won both the 2004 and 2008 Olympic women’s triple jump golds. At the Beijing Olympics, she narrowly defeated Russian standout Tatyana Lebedeva with an Olympic record distance of 15.39 meters. (Lebedeva’s silver was the third of her Olympic career in the triple jump with a bronze in 2004 and a silver in 2000.)

Etone’s 2004 Olympic victory was achieved with a landing at 15.30 meters. She defeated Greek silver medalist Hrysopiyi Devetzi on her home track in Athens. (Devetzi was also the bronze medalist in the event in Beijing.)

In addition to Etone trying to defend her Olympic title this summer at the London Games, other names to watch for should include Olha Saladhuka of Ukraine-the 2011 World Championships gold medalist-and Yamile Aldama of Great Britain, who recently captured the 2012 World Indoor Championships title.

Tereza Marinova: The Bulgarian took the triple jump gold in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics with a hop, skip and jump of 15.20 meters. Marinova won by clearing the distance of Russian rising star Tatyana Lebedeva. Marinova’s talent peaked in 2000-01 as she added to her Olympic feat with the World Indoor Championships title the next year.

Inessa Kravets: The Ukrainian achieved one of many milestones in her career by taking the first women’s Olympic triple jump gold in 1996 in Atlanta. Kravets won by landing her final jump at 15.33 meters, easily outdistancing Russian silver medalist Inna Lasovskaya.

She still possesses the world record of 15.50 meters, set in 1995, making it one of the longest-lived athletics standards. However, her two-year ban starting in 2000 after a positive test for steroids calls into question the legitimacy of her career bests.

Article source: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympic-athletics-history-womens-triple-jump-champions-222000824--oly.html

President Obama‘s recent outreach to women voters has won him strong support in polls, but former CNN and NBC anchor Campbell Brown says in an op-ed column published Sunday that the effort “so far has seemed maddeningly off point.”

Brown wrote in The New York Times that Obama is “trying too hard” to win the women’s vote. “He’s employing a tone that can come across as grating and even condescending. He really ought to drop it,” she said. “Most women don’t want to be patted on the head or treated as wards of the state. They simply want to be given a chance to succeed based on their talent and skills.”

Brown charged that the women she knows “couldn’t be further from the fictional character of Julia, presented in Mr. Obama’s Web ad, “The Life of Julia,” a silly and embarrassing caricature based on the assumption that women look to government at every meaningful phase of their lives for help.”

Brown is married to Dan Senor, a Fox News contributor who served as spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq under President George W. Bush.     

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-tv-anchor-obama-condescending-women-121755008.html

CAIRO – Just from hearing it, it’s like any professional orchestra. But the assembly of white-veiled Egyptian women in matching black gowns has a startling difference. Every woman in the orchestra is blind.

The women in Cairo’s Egyptian Blind Girls Chamber Orchestra first learn the songs by reading sheet music in braille. Since it is impossible to read braille and play an instrument at the same time, the musicians must memorize every note of every song. Pacing is also critical because the musicians cannot see the conductor. He merely claps three times to start each song.

The orchestra was born out of the El Nour Wal Amal (Light and Hope) Association, a group founded in 1954 by women volunteers who sought to educate blind women and help them become independent women.

Today the organization provides free education, literacy programs and vocational training to more than 300 blind girls and women. The women learn to thread carpets and weave wicker tables that they sell to help fund the school.

But the association is most known for its orchestra of 38 blind women. The orchestra travels the world playing for embassies, music conservatories and other international hosts.

“They are more successful abroad than here in Egypt, but I hope, God willing, that here in Egypt they will start to be known as well as abroad.” said Amal Fikry, vice-president and matriarch of the El Nour Wal Amal Association.

The Blind Girls Chamber Orchestra has performed on five continents in 24 countries.

“We represent Egypt and we represent blind women. We have many challenges and we have to achieve our goals,” said musician Shaimaa Yehia.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/one-egyptian-orchestra-blind-women-memorize-note-note-134009083.html

We step out of the dimly-lit meeting room into the cheerful hubbub outside. We are in a village in western Tanzania, not far from Lake Malawi, among small-scale farmers. Young women and men are crowded around the back of the pick-up truck. Small children run in and out of the crowd, and in circles. Giggles and chatter fill the air.

I ask what’s going on. I’m told that the women farmers we just finished interviewing about their coffee crops want to show their gratitude for our visit, so they are giving us gifts for our journey home. Men and boys load the truck with live chickens strung upside down with their legs banded together, two big bags of potatoes, coconuts, beans and bananas. I am a bit alarmed, not the least because the live chickens will not be welcome passengers on my flight!

I also worry. The women are so poor. How can they spare this food? How can I possibly accept these gifts? They have so little themselves. They live in mud huts. Their clothes are clean but threadbare. They just shared with me how they struggle to feed and clothe their children and to make ends meet. But they also told me that if they don’t get paid on time for delivering their coffee to the local processor or if the harvest fails because the rains didn’t come, they find an alternative. After all, the kids have to eat, school fees must be paid and the roof has to be repaired. It all takes money. So they find other ways to earn an income — they help harvest a neighbor’s crop or set up a small retail business. As they continuously face difficult economic circumstances, they are always innovating and ever resourceful.

Like their sisters all over the developing world, women farmers work hard to grow food for themselves and their families, and for sale. They plant and tend, fertilize and weed, harvest and process — in short, do all it takes to produce a crop. But they don’t get much in return. Their yields are low and, even if some crops are sold, the women may not see any income since men who take the crop to market may not feel obliged to share it.

When international development projects come around to try to change these conditions, they don’t always reach out to women farmers. They assume that the women are not the “real” farmers because they don’t own land or go to market, or because they have other household responsibilities such as fetching water and caring for children.

However, studies done in many developing countries show that women undertake a variety of farm work along with their household chores. Despite this reality, women are left out of projects that offer new technologies, improved fertilizers or training in practices that could help them produce more. Other studies show that when women have the same access as men to such farming resources, women could produce more, earn more and live better lives.

Fortunately, there is growing support for women farmers like those I met in Tanzania. It comes from the highest levels in global agreements like the G8 L’Aquila Food Security Initiative — which committed $20 billion over three years for sustainable agriculture development — and policies such as the United States Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future initiative.

Developing country governments are also on board. And on-the-ground organizations are responding with innovative ways to reach out to women: Recognizing that farmer business associations need not be just for men, they are suggesting changes to association by-laws so women can also become members and access the associations’ services and training programs.

Meanwhile, farmer field schools are altering their practices. In these schools, men traditionally served as the “lead,” or model farmers, who adopted and demonstrated new techniques. Now, both women and men can lead either as partners or in turn. This shift boosts the likelihood that more women farmers realize that training is also meant for them. Finally, women increasingly can sign contracts with agribusiness firms that offer new technologies and resources in return for buying and marketing farmer crops. With contracts, women can get paid directly.

With these and other changes in the way we do business with women farmers, we are beginning to catch up with their creativity and resourcefulness. We must speed up the pace so more of the world’s small farmers, men and women alike, can prosper.

***

Dr. Rekha Mehra is the director of economic development research and programs at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), a global gender research institute based in Washington, D.C., with offices in New Delhi, India, and Nairobi, Kenya. One of its many focuses is on ensuring that women and girls are central to solutions to end poverty.

Dr. Mehra is a speaker at this year’s G(irls)20 Summit, which will be live streamed May 28, 29 31 at www.girls20summit.com. Take part in the discussion and ask Dr. Rekha Mehra questions using #girls20summit.

Want to join the global campaign to empower women and girls? Send a message to G20 leaders through the What’s Your Number? campaign.

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-rekha-mehra/girls-20-summit-women-farmers_b_1525514.html

Irish boxing legend Katie Taylor successfully defended her title at the Women’s World Championships in Qinhuangdao, China May 19 in a rematch with Russian Sofya Ochigava. The gold medal bout of the World’s lightweight division could be a glimpse of what’s to come in London this summer.

The 2012 London Olympics will be the first ever with women’s boxing as an event. There will only be three weight classes in the Olympics versus 10 at the Worlds. If things go as expected and women’s boxing turns out to be a very successful event at the Summer Games, look for more at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Taylor and Ochigava were even after the first two sessions of the four-round fight at 4-4. In the third Taylor began to pull away, ending at 8-6 before closing things out with a strong fourth-round. The point tally when the fight was finished favored Taylor, 11-7. For Taylor, it’s her fourth AIBA World title in a row.

Marshall makes history for Britain

Middleweight Savannah Marshall claimed the first-ever gold medal for a female boxer from Britain when she defeated Elena Vystropova in a hard-fought bout that scored out at 17-15. Marshall made herself a legitimate contender for Olympic gold by taking a tough road through the worlds that saw her take out top contenders.

Marshall downed previously unbeaten Claressa Shields from the United States, European champion Lotte Lien of Norway, China’s AIBA world champion Li Jinzi and another AIBA world champion in the person of Russian Nadezhda Torlopova on the way to the final.

Marshall turned 21 on the same day she won the gold medal at Worlds. Shields, a 17-year-old from Flint, Michigan was still able to fulfill her dream and make the Olympic team.

European silver medalist Maria Badulina, from Ukraine, eliminated Netherlands’ Marichelle De Jong in the welterweight semis before facing United States national champion Raquel Miller. After an even start, Badulina took charge of the bout on the way to a 14-8 gold medal win.

With the buildup to the London Games featuring strong fighters from so many different countries, look for women’s boxing to be a big Olympic event and further the sport.

Jeff Musall has been a fan of good boxing, professional and amateur, since he watched the Thrilla in Manila as a kid years ago. He is looking forward to the Olympics, both men and women’s boxing.

Article source: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/katie-taylor-savannah-marshall-womens-boxing-history-fan-030200734--box.html

EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) Going to an NCAA women’s lacrosse final four never loses its luster, even for Northwestern.

Erin Fitzgerald scored four goals and the defending national champion Wildcats rebounded from a slow start to defeat Duke 12-7 on Saturday night to advance to the national semifinals for the eighth straight season.

Second-seeded Northwestern (19-2) pulled away in the second half – outscoring the Blue Devils 6-3 – and will face No. 3 Maryland on Friday in Stony Brook, N.Y.

”Obviously we’re very excited to have the opportunity to make a trip to the Final Four,” said Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, whose coaching record in NCAA tournament play improved 30-2 to tie the record for wins in women’s lacrosse. ”It never gets old. It’s a very special thing.

”And I think tonight was a great game. Duke battled hard to the end.”

Northwestern’s Shannon Smith scored three times, giving her 252 career goals to set a team record for Northwestern, which has won six of the last seven NCAA titles, missing only in 2010.

”It’s a huge honor to do it,” Smith said, ”but I wouldn’t have any of those goals if it wasn’t for my teammates.

”Right now, I’m just really excited to head back to Long Island for a final four.”

Smith leads the Wildcats with 64 goals this season and Fitzgerald is second with 53. The one-two punch came through again against Duke.

”When it comes to these types of game, it’s important that your top scorers produce,” Amonte Hiller said. ”But it’s important that your players that are almost role players and have less goals come up big.”

Northwestern got that, too, as Amanda Macaluso, Taylor Thornton, Alyssa Leonard, Lacey Vigmostad and Garbiella Flibotte also connected.

Taylor Trimble and Maddy Morrissey both scored twice for Duke (12-7), which also got goals from Makenzie Hommel, Amanda Jones and Kerrin Mauer.

”We’re pretty young and even to be one of the last eight standing, I was really proud of our team,” Duke coach Kerstin Kimel said ”I thought we had a hell of an effort tonight.

”We did a lot of good things. We had a lot of good opportunities. Unfortunately, we didn’t finish off some of those.”

The Blue Devils led 2-0 5:45 in and 4-2 midway through the first half before Northwestern went on a 5-0 run capped by Smith’s record-setting 251st goal 7:04 into the second half.

The Wildcats might have found themselves in a bigger hole early if goalkeeper Brianne LoManto hadn’t made several key point-blank stops. She finished with eight for the game.

”I think Brianne had a couple of huge saves tonight,” Kimel said ”She ended up with eight and we only scored seven goals, so it was a huge difference maker.

”I think some of our kids had great looks, and she just read them real well.”

Duke’s Mollie Mackler blocked five shots.

Article source: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/northwestern-women-beat-duke-ncaa-021951770--spt.html

Republicans seem immune to criticism. In an angry speech last month, John Boehner, the House speaker, said claims that his party was damaging the welfare of women were “entirely created” by Democrats. Earlier, the Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, sneered that any suggestion of a G.O.P. “war on women” was as big a fiction as a “war on caterpillars.”

But just last Wednesday, Mr. Boehner refuted his own argument by ramming through the House a bill that seriously weakens the Violence Against Women Act. That followed the Republican push in Virginia and elsewhere to require medically unnecessary and physically invasive sonograms before an abortion, and Senate Republicans’ persistent blocking of a measure to better address the entrenched problem of sex-based wage discrimination.

On Capitol Hill and in state legislatures, Republicans are attacking women’s rights in four broad areas.

ABORTION On Thursday, a House subcommittee denied the District of Columbia’s Democratic delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, a chance to testify at a hearing called to promote a proposed federal ban on nearly all abortions in the District 20 weeks after fertilization. The bill flouts the Roe v. Wade standard of fetal viability.

Seven states have enacted similar measures. In Arizona, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a law that bans most abortions two weeks earlier. Each measure will create real hardships for women who will have to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy before learning of major fetal abnormalities or risks to their own health.

These laws go a cruel step further than the familiar Republican attacks on Roe v. Wade. They omit reasonable exceptions for a woman’s health or cases of rape, incest or grievous fetal impairment. These laws would require a woman seeking an abortion to be near death, a standard that could easily delay medical treatment until it is too late.

All contain intimidating criminal penalties, fines and reporting requirements designed to scare doctors away. Last year, the House passed a measure that would have allowed hospitals receiving federal money to refuse to perform an emergency abortion even when a woman’s life was at stake. The Senate has not taken up that bill, fortunately.

ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE Governor Brewer also recently signed a bill eliminating public funding for Planned Parenthood. Arizona law already barred spending public money on abortions, which are in any case a small part of the services that Planned Parenthood provides. The new bill denies the organization public money for nonabortion services, like cancer screening and family planning, often the only services of that kind available to poor women.

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature tried a similar thing in 2011, and were sued in federal court by a group of clinics. The state argues that it is trying to deny money to organizations that “promote” abortions. That is nonsense. Texas already did not give taxpayer money for abortions, and the clinics that sued do not perform abortions.

Last year, the newly installed House Republican majority rushed to pass bills (stopped by the Democratic-led Senate) to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood and Title X. That federal program provides millions of women with birth control, lifesaving screening for breast and cervical cancer, and other preventive care. It is a highly effective way of preventing the unintended pregnancies and abortions that Republicans claim to be so worried about.

EQUAL PAY Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, the epicenter of all kinds of punitive and regressive legislation, signed the repeal of a 2009 law that allowed women and others to bring lawsuits in state courts against pay discrimination, instead of requiring them to be heard as slower and more costly federal cases. It also stiffened penalties for employers found guilty of discrimination.

He defended that bad decision by saying he did not want those suits to “clog up the legal system.” He turned that power over to his government, which has a record of hostility toward workers’ rights.

President Obama has been trying for three years to update and bolster the 1963 Equal Pay Act to enhance remedies for victims of gender-based wage discrimination, shield employees from retaliation for sharing salary information with co-workers, and mandate that employers show that wage differences are job-related, not sex-based, and driven by business necessity.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Last month, the Senate approved a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, designed to protect victims of domestic and sexual abuse and bring their abusers to justice. The disappointing House bill omits new protections for gay, Indian, student and immigrant abuse victims that are contained in the bipartisan Senate bill. It also rolls back protections for immigrant women whose status is dependent on a spouse, making it more likely that they will stay with their abusers, at real personal risk, and ends existing protections for undocumented immigrants who report abuse and cooperate with law enforcement to pursue the abuser.

Whether this pattern of disturbing developments constitutes a war on women is a political argument. That women’s rights and health are casualties of Republican policy is indisputable.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/opinion/sunday/the-attack-on-women-is-real.html

Commentary – As a society, we learn about the world and advance our well-being through science and engineering. The United States may be known around the world for its higher education, but compared to many other leading and steadily emerging countries we lack a strong focus on educating scientists and engineers. One significant reason that we have fallen behind is that we do not encourage our female students to pursue career paths in Science, Technology, Engineering or Math (STEM). This needs to change, as the lack of women in STEM will continue to plague our country until all students, regardless of sex, have adequate opportunities to explore math and science throughout elementary, middle, and high school. If we want to attract the best and brightest minds into the fields that will move us forward, we can no longer look to only half of the population. More women can contribute to our field and we can help make that happen.

While young people today have more opportunities to become exposed to STEM subjects than 20 years ago, more still needs to be done. Out of school programs are gaining popularity, and in order for that to continue, those of us in STEM fields have to support both local and national efforts to foster girls by functioning as a mentor.

The value of mentorship is irreplaceable. Finding a mentor early on can do wonders for the amount of satisfaction we find in our jobs, thus leading to a higher retention rate. The people that we choose as mentors need to have the capacity and capability to lead us toward success. A mentor is not only someone who is willing to take the time to teach us techniques and processes but also someone who takes an interest in our long term advancement. Because this person can see one’s potential, he or she is willing to go beyond job duties and put in the extra work to ensure that we gain the understanding that is needed to progress.

One of the most important confidence builders can be found day to day on the job or in school in the form of a mentor. Teaming with a mentor is a career strategy that can bring huge benefits, especially to women in unbalanced work environments like engineering. The majority of successful women time and time again credit their participation in some sort of mentorship for dramatically helping them reach their career goals.

However, even with mentorship, the fact still remains that women in STEM careers have higher attrition rates than do their male coworkers and women in careers outside of the STEM disciplines. In 2005, the Society of Women Engineers conducted a retention study of over 6000 engineering graduates. The survey indicated that one in four women were either unemployed or employed in other fields compared to one in ten men (Frehill, L., SWE, Summer 2008, page 15). Addressing the reasons why the attrition rates are drastically higher is important for starting the discussion and correcting the problem. Researchers are exploring other factors that possibly overwhelm women in STEM fields, including extreme work schedules, more frequent disciplinary actions and unclear rules about advancement.

Women are gaining numbers in traditionally male dominated fields, but they are still significantly outnumbered in STEM occupations. Getting talented women into male dominated careers is one struggle, while keeping them is another. The issue is especially apparent in STEM careers, which is extremely important to the global economy. Attracting and retaining more women in STEM careers will help tremendously to improve diversity, maximize creativity, and boost competitiveness.

Having people with different mind-sets, capabilities, and imaginations on production teams improves the creative process and helps to minimize avoidable mistakes. Products rooted in science and technology are likely to better meet the needs of both men and women if the products are designed by team comprised of both genders. It is a matter of designing products that are compatible with a broad audience; it is a matter of safety; and it starts with attracting more women into STEM careers.

As women become more prevalent in STEM careers, more and more young girls will begin to recognize the additional career opportunities open to them. With more women in the field, it will become more evident to young girls what they, as engineers, can offer the world. Without being able to see this link, they will continue to have problems envisioning certain positions as viable possibilities, even if they have some intrinsic interest in the subject matter. If girls cannot visualize themselves in STEM careers because they have never seen women in those positions, they will be much less likely to ever use their innate aptitudes and abilities in a math or science oriented specialty. That will truly be a loss of gigantic proportion, for our women, our profession and our country.

biography
Karen Purcell, P.E. is the founder, owner, and president of PK Electrical, an award-winning electrical engineering, design and consulting firm, which handles public and private sector work. She is author of the forthcoming book, “Unlocking Your Brilliance: Smart Strategies for Women to Thrive in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.” She is available for speaking engagements. Website: http://www.unlockingyourbrilliance.com, http://www.STEMspire.com, http://www.pkelectrical.com

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