Daughter of the Patriarchy: Admissions
“When I was your age, my parents wouldn’t send me to college,” my mother was telling me. “I had to work my way through on my own. I don’t want you to have to stop. I will do everything I can to help you keep going to school. Your education is the most important thing to me.”
We stood in the kitchen, a printed letter lying on the counter between us. It was not good news.
I glanced up at my mother with a strained smile. I knew that if wishes could be cashed at the bank, I’d be writing my admissions essay to an ivy-coated castle. Instead, I was trying to find a way to pay the bill from my last semester of community college in time to register for fall classes. It was already August.
...read moreMarriage, Singledom, Social Evolution, and that Kate Bolick piece in “The Atlantic”
Okay, so. Since I am a Feminist Commentator ™, many folks have asked my opinion on a piece that recently ran in “The Atlantic” called “All The Single Ladies“, by Kate Bolick. Many of you have probably already seen Bolick’s piece — I’ve got a roundup of a few relevant links and snips at the [...]
...read moreAlso: pink NFL jerseys
This book is dedicated … to those women who cope with kids six days a week and when it’s Daddy’s turn on Sunday–find him long gone to the stadium or equally long gone in front of the TV, watching football from August to January. All this is generally bad news for American Womanhood. Definitely. That [...]
...read moreCupcake redux
A post a few weeks ago about girliness, gardening, cupcakes, and Sigourney Weaver was the focus of some amount of passion from women who happen to love cupcakes, gardening, and/or Sigourney Weaver in equal parts. One member of those ranks is, apparently, original post author Peg Aloi, who had the following to say in our [...]
...read morePenelope Trunk’s new “Blueprint for a Woman’s Life:” Same as the old blueprint. Sigh.
I think that Penelope Trunk sometimes gives great career advice. I like that she values being lost, being open and honest, and making interesting mistakes on the way to finding an interesting and happy life. And even when I strongly disagree with her she never bores me. She really pisses me off sometimes, but she [...]
...read moreStrength in cupcakes
“Women are girly. Again,” she says. And apparently, that sucks. Writing for the Huffington Post, Peg Aloi bemoans the death of the “tough gal,” as evidenced by blogs about cupcakes, gardening, Hello Kitty, and knitting. Women write about cuddly kitties. BUST is sponsoring a craft fair, holy shit! Feminism has not only come to an [...]
...read moreWorst Modern Love ever?
“I began to wonder if we hadn’t become scabies ourselves.”
...read moreMore on Kay Hymowitz
So I should probably stop beating this Kay Hymowitz horse to death, but her “successful women have made men TERRIBLE” really stuck in my craw. In her piece, she suggests it’s a big problem that “Not so long ago, the average American man in his 20s had achieved most of the milestones of adulthood: a [...]
...read moreLove & Money
Jessica Grose has a fascinating series up on Slate about marriage and money — how couples manage their money, whether they share, and why they split or merge their bank accounts. Part One lays out the inspiration for the piece: She’s recently married, and she and her husband are figuring out whether to maintain separate [...]
...read moreOn Generosity
This is the third in a series examining issues raised by a blog post from Chamber of Commerce Senior Communications Director Brad Peck, where he suggested that women’s interest in closing the gender pay gap amounted to a “fetish for money,” and the subsequent apologies for it by himself and Chamber COO David Chavern. Part [...]
...read moreThe Motherhood Discounting
This is the second in a series examining a post written by Chamber of Commerce Senior Communications Director Brad Peck, and the subsequent apologies for it by himself and Chamber COO David Chavern. Peck decided to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the recognition of women’s right to vote by writing that the well-documented gender pay [...]
...read moreNew York Expected to Extend Protections to Domestic Workers
This is great news. The bill that New York is considering also protects workers who are undocumented, and requires a series of basic workplace protections: The State Senate this week passed a bill that would require paid holidays, sick days and vacation days for domestic workers, along with overtime wages. It would require 14 days’ [...]
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