Her Daily News

At age 6, Darlene took her first guitar lesson. By 25, she was playing in a band and recording music. Last March, she purchased new digital, programmable hearing aids. “Since I have had this problem all my life, I don’t view it as challenging so much.” Her problem is congenital deafness.

I interviewed Darlene Hagler about her upcoming performance for Art in the Park in Mint Hill, NC. She will be a solo performer on Sunday, August 26, 2007, for the festival which started three years ago to showcase artists, musicians, and local talents. 20 years ago, Darlene and her band traveled all over North Carolina and recorded a couple of demos. “We even had fans!” she quipped. Adult life and responsibilities crept in and the band went their separate ways, but Darlene still enjoys playing.

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How Fares the Fairer Sex? is a new series that will feature a brief look at some of the top headlines for women. In this first edition, we will look at Reese Witherspoon, Natascha Kampusch, Skinny Bitch, and Leona Helmsley’s mansioleum.

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This article really hit home with me. In the Houston Chronicle today, there is a story about a study done by the University of Texas that shows teenage girls who are obese are half as likely to attend college as their slimmer counterparts. The study also showed that obese teenage girls were more likely to engage in reckless behaviors such as skipping school, underage drinking and drug abuse. Such acting out stems from feelings of isolation. What I found most poignant in the article was how the societal stigma of appearance is not the same for obese boys.

Today is my birthday and I’m venturing into my mid-twenties. But it wasn’t too long ago that I was a teenage girl in high school facing the same pressures discussed in this article. For girls, even at an early age, looks and weight become the focus. Once you fall outside of the desired parameters for looks in society, the change begins. It is a shame that these girls are judged by their looks before they have even had time to develop them. What is even more of a shame is that these outside factors are affecting the educational choices of these young women. Because you don’t wear a certain size means you aren’t supposed to be successful in life? This shows me how much young women tie beauty to self-worth. The unfortunate part is that beauty and outward appearance will fade and can be taken away. It’s what you learn, give to others and grow into as a person that makes you special. Those types of lessons often come with life experience and wisdom, both of which you do not need outer beauty to attain.

women, obesity, education, beauty, society, teenage girls, pressure

So I’m taking a break from my normal hard-hitting news routine to kind of vent my frustration with news resources. In this blog, my focus is on women’s interests and issues. While I think that leaves room for a pretty broad range of information, I am still finding it difficult to find stories that matter. Maybe I am picking or judgmental but I really want to focus on all aspects of female life. What I find, however, is that often the articles focus on women in relation to men in society. It always seems to be a compare and contrast of gender. I think many of the articles I have posted on here are great examples, such as articles about occupations, business and gender roles in society. Part of me wonders if we could use this type of information to keep women informed and in the know as opposed to just showing them what they already know about their roles in society.

My other beef is with the lack of substance. I do some other types of freelance writing and actually submitted one of my published articles as part of my application here. One of the articles I wrote and submitted is about the lack of substance in today’s female society. This is not to say that there aren’t women today with intelligence and insight to offer; it is that American society and often the world-at-large chooses not to focus on those things. Many womens sites, magazines and media outlets focus on fashion and beauty rather than education and independent thought. As I sat down today to write my post, I found myself on the hunt for useful, informative information that relates to women’s interests and issues. More and more often though, I leave disappointed. I don’t want to discuss Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton. I don’t want to give women tips on hair color. And I don’t want to talk about listen to women whine about dating. These things are temporary and often superficial. Unfortunately, this is what many women find as resources for life.

Now, this isn’t to say that I haven’t found some great resources for news and information. Women’s Media Center, Women’s eNews, the New York Times and some of the sites you see listed under my links have been very helpful. Some of the stories overlap and I do think there is a need to increase the number of resources. I think overall my point is that I want to see women’s view of society change so that society’s view of women will change. I think progress should be the major goal in the end.

women, news, resources, research, society, gender, news, information

So what would it be like if gender roles were truly reversed? Well, a news series on Fox this fall will explore just that. The brilliance of the idea almost makes me wonder why this hasn’t been explored before (possibly by a better network). Below is the series description:

When Women Rule the World - Fox

What if it was “a woman’s world”? What if women made ALL the decisions? If men were their obedient subjects?

These questions and more will be explored when a group of strong, educated, independent women, tired of living in a man’s world and each with a personal axe to grind, rule over a group of unsuspecting men used to calling the shots on WHEN WOMEN RULE THE WORLD.

The unscripted series will reveal how women and men react in a world where women are in charge and men are subservient, and each gender’s ability to adapt to a new social order will be put to the test.

The participants will be brought to a remote, primitive location where the women will have the opportunity to “rule” as they build a newly formed society – one where there is no glass ceiling and no dressing to impress. For the men, their worlds of power and prestige are turned inside-out and upside-down. And for these women, turnabout is fair play!

In order to win, the men must accede to the women’s every demand, 24/7. Here, women command and men obey. Over the series’ duration, the men will be eliminated by the women until one last man is standing.

How will the men react? How will the women treat the men? Can women effectively rule society? Will the men learn what life is like for some women in today’s world? Will this new society be a Utopia or a hell on earth? And in the end, who will be man enough to succeed in the new social order?

I guess it wouldn’t be safe to call this a reality tv show since it is the opposite of the society we live in today. That is not to say that the concept is an impossible reality. I view it more as a “what-if” scenario, acted out for the whole world to see. Unless the cast is poorly chosen, I think this will be an eye-opener for both men and women.

women, television, utopia, men, gender roles

Talk about a man’s world. An article in the People’s Daily Online shows that China is the most gender imbalanced nation in the world right now. Currently, there are 37 million more males than females. And the ration of girls born compared to boys is at 100:116 and expected to climb. The story cited three major reasons for the problem: “a long period of paying more attention to men than women, an incomplete social security system, and the abuse of ultra sound technology.” That is a polite way of putting it I think. Years of systematically aborting, murdering and neglecting baby girls seems like a more direct way of stating the cause.

Because of the growing problem a number of laws have been implemented to curb the problem. Just to name a few: “ Population and Family Planning Law, A Regulation on Banning Non-medical Need of Identifying the Gender of a Fetus, and Sexually Discriminative Artificial Suspension of Pregnancy. The Care for Girls Activity was also launched to advocate the idea that men and women are equal, in order to deal with the gender imbalance.” So the conclusion can be drawn that the country is taking positive steps to educate their citizens.

It still leaves me to wonder how difficult it will be to break the tradition. Boys are favored because they will care for their parents when they are older, while women will marry into another family and do nothing to support their family. If that tradition alone changed there wouldn’t be much of a problem. Women could grow up and get an education and help support her parents the same as her male counterpart if women were given the opportunity for success the same as men. Another issue raise in the article was social security. These parents rely on their sons to take care of them when they are older because the government has nothing else in place. Wouldn’t some sort of social security program or retirement education benefit in this case?

China is headed down a slippery slope if changes aren’t made in how women are viewed. They aren’t just risking the present security of the women and children that will become the victims of the societal chaos but they are also risking their future. If some have forgotten how valuable women are to a society let me refresh you memory: women are the ones that carry, birth and raise the children, male and female. So this leaves a society such as China’s in a catch-22. In order to continue their sexist traditions of valuing men over women, they will need to take a step back and start valuing women enough to close the gender gap.

women, China, gender, abortion, human trafficking, social security

Female only floors in hotel. At first glance you might jump to one of a number of conclusions. Is it sexist? Discrimination? Anti-feminist? A safety measure? Well, after reading the article below, you be the judge…

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Though it is still early and there is still much to be seen regarding the presidential election, I wanted to take a moment to show some important factors women should consider when voting in 2008:

• Women outnumber and outvote men, and candidates are already creating campaigns to woo the female vote and strategists are tailoring campaign issues to focus on women’s concerns, including health care and education.

• Women constitute more than half the population, which makes them highly sought-after voters, political observers say.

• They register and vote in larger numbers than men.

• Although some may be influenced by their sex and thus likely to vote for a woman on the ballot, others are just as likely to vote for a man, observers say.

• in last year’s midterm election, exit polls indicated that proportionally more women than men voted for Democrats, and they were credited with helping Democrats regain control of Congress.

• Married, suburban women historically are more likely to vote than their younger, unmarried counterparts, observers say.

• In the 2004 election, 50 percent of women ages 18-24 voted, compared with 44 percent of the men that age, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civil Learning & Engagement.

• Worldwide, more than 40 countries - but not the United States - have had women in charge of their government. England has had Margaret Thatcher, Ireland has President Mary McAleese and Germany has Chancellor Angela Merkel, to name a few.

• The U.S. lags far behind others in female legislative leadership, ranking 70th out of 139 countries, according to data from Women in National Parliaments.

• Top on the list was Rwanda, with 48.8 percent women in their House and 34.6 percent women in their Senate. In the U.S. Congress, women are 16.3 percent of U.S. House members and 16 percent of the Senate.

• Presidential candidates are creating special groups to try to draw women to their camp. Women for Giuliani. Women for Hillary. Women for McCain. Women for Richardson. Women for Romney. And so on.

Source: Women’s Vote is a big factor in 2008 - Anna M. Tinsley, Miami Herald

women, voting, politics, election, presidential, 2008, voters

In the view of many women, having your choice between Ms., Mrs. and Miss when filling out a form may seem like a minor inconvenience. Some don’t even notice at all and happily mark the box that best fits their current status. But when you look deeper at the social impact of the choices given, you see that there is so much more to these titles than society lets on. So much of this name game is steeped in tradition that women don’t stop to look at whether the tradition itself is sexist.

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