Tag: women

5 ways higher education can be seen as hostile to women of color
EDUCATION

5 ways higher education can be seen as hostile to women of color

In 2019, Amy Bonomi, a women’s studies scholar, co-edited “Women Leading Change: Breaking the Glass Ceiling, Cliff, and Slipper.” The book examines the perspectives of 23 female leaders on issues of leadership and the challenges of confronting structural racism, bias and discrimination at colleges and universities. Here are five takeaways that Bonomi offers from her book about how higher education can be hostile toward the women of color who serve as college and university leaders. 1. Not reflected in leadership Only 30% of college and university presidents are women. Although nearly 40% of Americans are people of color, according to a 2017 study, just 5% of college and university presidents are women of color. This 5% is even more striking when you consider how approximately 45% of underg...
As professional sports come back, members of the US women’s soccer team are still paid less than the men’s
SPORTS

As professional sports come back, members of the US women’s soccer team are still paid less than the men’s

The U.S. women’s soccer team reported being “shocked and disappointed” by a federal judge’s dismissal in May of the team’s lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. The lawsuit alleged discriminatory pay practices by the federation between its men’s and women’s team, which seemed especially unfair because the women’s team was so successful compared to the men’s team. The U.S. women’s soccer team dominated the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament last summer, taking a record fourth World Cup title. The U.S. men’s soccer team, on the other hand, failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2018. On June 24, the federal judge denied the women’s team request to immediately appeal their equal pay claim. Members of the U.S. women’s soccer team are the first professional athletes in the United S...
A short history of black women and police violence
IN OTHER NEWS

A short history of black women and police violence

Just after midnight on March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor, an EMT in Louisville, Kentucky, was shot and killed by police officers who raided her home. The officers had entered her home without warning as part of a drug raid. The suspect they were seeking was not a resident of the home – and no drugs were ever found. But when they came through the door unexpectedly, and in plain clothes, police officers were met with gunfire from Taylor’s boyfriend, who was startled by the presence of intruders. In only a matter of minutes, Taylor was dead – shot eight times by police officers. Although the majority of black people killed by police in the United States are young men, black women and girls are also vulnerable to state-sanctioned violence. The #SayHerName campaign has worked to bring greater a...
The lack of women in cybersecurity leaves the online world at greater risk
TECHNOLOGY

The lack of women in cybersecurity leaves the online world at greater risk

Women are highly underrepresented in the field of cybersecurity. In 2017, women’s share in the U.S. cybersecurity field was 14%, compared to 48% in the general workforce. The problem is more acute outside the U.S. In 2018, women accounted for 10% of the cybersecurity workforce in the Asia-Pacific region, 9% in Africa, 8% in Latin America, 7% in Europe and 5% in the Middle East. Women are even less well represented in the upper echelons of security leadership. Only 1% of female internet security workers are in senior management positions. I study online crime and security issues facing consumers, organizations and nations. In my research, I have found that internet security requires strategies beyond technical solutions. Women’s representation is important because women tend to offer vie...
6 Shows for Some Women-Led Belly Laughs
CELEBRITY NEWS, Journalism

6 Shows for Some Women-Led Belly Laughs

Time and time again women have proven that viewers are interested in the stories they tell. Before the advent and popularity of streaming services such as Netflix, I watched shows and movies that were available through my cable package. Growing up in the ’90s and early aughts, I rarely watched comedies that starred women. And if I did come across comedies with women in the lead, the women were vying to be the objects of men’s affection, like in Clueless, or men were trying to get their attention (sometimes with ill will), like in 10 Things I Hate About You. In short: The male gaze was ever-present. Often films were cast aside as “chick flicks” and given less attention and smaller budgets, despite their success at the box office. In the 1970s and ’80s—an era often referred to as the...
Women film directors set a record in 2019: New study
CELEBRITY NEWS

Women film directors set a record in 2019: New study

Of the top 100 movies released in 2019, women took just under 11 percent of the directing roles, despite hitting record. Fast Facts Of the top 100 movies released in 2019, women took just under 11 percent of the directing roles. The number of women directing major movies more than doubled to the highest mark ever last year, though they still only accounted for a sliver of those coveted jobs. Women got almost 11% of the directing roles for the top 100 movies released in 2019, according to a study released Thursday by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California. Improving diversity has became a major rallying cry across Hollywood, where women routinely have fewer opportunities than men. For example, there are no women nomi...
Spinster, old maid or self-partnered – why words for single women have changed through time
LIFESTYLE

Spinster, old maid or self-partnered – why words for single women have changed through time

In a recent interview with Vogue, actress Emma Watson opened up about being a single 30-year-old woman. Instead of calling herself single, however, she used the word “self-partnered.” I’ve studied and written about the history of single women, and this is the first time I am aware of “self-partnered” being used. We’ll see if it catches on, but if it does, it will join the ever-growing list of words used to describe single women of a certain age. Women who were once called spinsters eventually started being called old maids. In 17th-century New England, there were also words like “thornback” – a sea skate covered with thorny spines – used to describe single women older than 25. Attitudes toward single women have repeatedly shifted – and part of that attitude shift is reflected in the nam...
Journalism

New studies show discrimination widely reported by women, people of color and LGBTQ adults

In recent years, U.S. public opinion has been divided about the existence and seriousness of racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. Amid growing racial divides in civil and political views, our research team at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in partnership with NPR and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, asked 3,453 adults about their experiences of discrimination. We surveyed adults who identified as members of six groups often underrepresented in public opinion research: blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, women and LGBTQ adults. U.S. public opinion is divided over who faces discrimination. fizkes/Shutterstock.com Our studies, published in December, show that people from these groups report high levels of discrimination from both institutions ...
Democrats Need Black Women Voters Now More Than Ever
POLITICS

Democrats Need Black Women Voters Now More Than Ever

Turnouts demonstrate that when we are effectively engaged, our work can make seemingly impossible victories possible. Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro caused a stir last week when he remarked that it’s time to change the order of the primary states in presidential elections. The current schedule puts first two of the Whitest states in the country, Iowa and New Hampshire. Neither is demographically “reflective of the United States as a whole, certainly not reflective of the Democratic Party,” Castro said. After that MSNBC interview, Castro furthered those comments to other media outlets. He told Rolling Stone, if Democrats don’t elevate voters of color, “Why the hell are we Democrats in the first place?” To Vogue, he said, “We can’t go around thanking Black w...
Black Trans Women Are Being Killed. Could Paying Them Help Stop This?
Journalism

Black Trans Women Are Being Killed. Could Paying Them Help Stop This?

A little more financial security could make the difference between life and death for these women, who are often relegated to the margins of society. One of the more under reported trends in the LGBTQ community is the high rate at which trans people, especially Black trans women, are murdered. In 2018, 26 trans people were killed, most of them people of color. And at least 20 trans or gender nonconforming women of color have been murdered in the United States as of November 2019 alone. Those numbers do not account for unreported and misreported murders, or trans people who have unexpectedly died under suspicious circumstances, but whose deaths have not been determined to be homicide. While the number of individual deaths is low, Mic’s “Unerased: Counting Transgender Lives...