Queercents

I recently finished reading We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters, by Cokie Roberts. The book is about the changing roles of women in American society. Roberts examines women’s participation in a variety of fields, including athletics, medicine, business, and the military. Each chapter offers a brief look into the lives of women who have redefined a woman’s place, and the book is very accessible for the average reader.

Two of the chapters that I found the most interesting were about women as entrepreneurs and women as philanthropists. In the “Entrepreneur” chapter, Roberts tells the stories of three women who made a fortune by capitalizing on traditional women’s roles. For example, Bette Nesmith Graham invented liquid paper when she was a secretary who had grown tired of retyping a whole sheet of paper if there was a single mistake on the page. Graham concocted the recipe for liquid paper in her kitchen blender and eventually went on to make millions with her invention.

Madam C. J. Walker was woman who made a fortune simply by inventing something that would improve her daily life. Walker noticed that many African American women had lost their hair because of the harsh chemicals and the hot combs they used to straighten their locks. Walker invented a hair cream to help improve the health of women’s hair. She started selling the product door-to-door and wound up hiring thousands of women to sell her hair product. Read the rest of this entry »

I was pretty stunned over the weekend when I read an article that said that the gender=based wage gap is an issue for White House staffers. Women reportedly make more than $9000 less than male White House staffers. This, despite all of Obama’s promises to make some changes at the top.

The wage gap isn’t just an issue for White House staffers, though. It still permeates both American and European societies. Full-time working women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar that full-time working men make. (This doesn’t take into account, of course, the unpaid labor that women perform in the home.)

There are several contributing factors to the wage gap. According to the European Commission on Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities:

Frequently women earn less than men for doing jobs of equal value. One of the main causes is the way women’s competences are valued compared to men’s. Jobs requiring similar skills, qualifications or experience tend to be poorly paid and undervalued when they are dominated by women rather than by men. For example, the (mainly female) cashiers in a supermarket usually earn less than the (mainly male) employees involved in stacking shelves and other more physical tasks.

Read the rest of this entry »

Guest blogger Andrea Hance is is an activist and educator in New York City. Currently, she works with school and community groups at the New York Tolerance Center attempting to light the flame of cultural understanding. She regularly blogs for Progessive Plaid and Feminists For Choice. These are her words . . .

Try to imagine a job that requires you to get up early in the morning to cook meals, chauffeur and entertain your clients. Once your clients have left the building, you look at the to-do list and find cleaning and administrative paperwork that must be done. Finally, when your clients return for meetings they need you to be their teacher, nurse and sometimes psychologist. Now imagine that you don’t receive any financial compensation for this job.

Mothers, both working and stay-at-home, perform several job functions and go unpaid for their skill and energy. Salary.com estimates that stay-at-home moms perform tasks that would equal an average income of $122,732 a year and working moms would add $76,184 to their annual earnings. Read the rest of this entry »

Feministing is reporting on a recent study that looks at gender differences as they relate to risk and money.

The National Council for Research on Women has a new report out called, Women in Fund Management: A Road Map for Achieving Critical Mass – and Why it Matters, that argues that diversifying the leadership at the highest levels of the financial sector will ensure a more secure financial future for everyone. They call it the “critical mass principle.” The report’s lead sponsor was long time financial superwoman Jacki Zehner, who wrote a really interesting commentary on her experiences in the sector and her hopes for the future on Huffington Post when the economy sunk.

Courtney goes on to summarize some older studies that might shed some light on the subject.

A 2005 study from the Center for Financial Research at the University of Cologne documented differences between male and female fund managers: Women managers tended to take less extreme risk and to adopt more measured investment styles (which perform well over time). And according to research published in 2002 in the International Journal of Bank Marketing, women tend to make investment-related decisions with a detailed, comprehensive approach, while men are more likely to simplify data and make decisions based on an overall schema.

Read the rest of this entry »

A new report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) shows that development assistance for family planning services in developing nations is a pretty remarkable investment. According to the study, donor nations can see a 4-fold return on their investment if they support family planning services.

• For 2007, donor countries should have contributed $3 billion of the $17.1 billion total estimated cost for contraceptive services.  Yet the actual support provided by donors was only about $500 million – leaving a shortfall of $2.5 billion.
• In a time of global financial difficulties, donor countries may want to avoid fulfilling such financial commitments.  This would be a mistake.  The cost of meeting the need for contraception is relatively modest, and an investment now will result in large future savings:  Studies show that each dollar invested in contraceptive services will avoid between $1.70 and $4.00 in expenditures . . . but can total as much as $31.00 for each dollar spent on family planning.

Part of the problem is that the United States spent the last eight years neglecting to fund family planning services because of the Global Gag Order (aka “Mexico City Policy”), which prohibited US funds from being distributed to organizations that performed abortions, whether or not US funds were being used to perform them.  This means that agencies which provided contraception options for women were woefully underfunded as a result.  Thankfully the Obama administration has lifted this ban.  But there is still a large financial shortfall that needs to be addressed. Read the rest of this entry »

What brought this train of thought on?

Well, I had read an article on Identity Theft earlier in the day where along with the fact that such theft is committed overwhelmingly (more than 50%) by someone the victim knows, (family member, friend, or coworker), among other things it stated a victim of identity theft was 26% more likely to be female.

Later on at work (I drive a Bus hauling around college students working in the Disney College Program so I generally see the same kids day to day) and I happened to notice something that on reflection is a frequent habit among the ladies but rare among the men.

What do they do? Well, in order to ride the transportation system you have to show your Housing ID.

No less than 6 times on Saturday night a lady had to ask her lady friend for her wallet so she could get her ID… seems it is a rather common practice for the lady with the big purse to end up as the carryall for small clutch purses or wallets. (God forbid, you put anything in a pocket… it’s treated worse than panty-lines)

Once in a while same can be said for the boyfriend out with girlfriend and she has his wallet in her purse. And once in a VERY great while one man will have the others wallet in his pocket. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve all seen the studies that show there is a stark gender gap in the workforce. Recent statistics show that “women comprise 46.5% of the U.S. workforce, 49% of all managers, 16% of upper managers, and 2% of the Fortune 500 CEO’s.” The US is several decades past the feminist revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s, yet the glass ceiling is still firmly in place.

The global economy is in a precarious state. The blame for the mess needs to be placed squarely on the shoulders of the male CEO’s, bankers, and stock brokers who made the bad decisions that precipitated the global economic crisis. That being said, what would the economy look like if there were more women in charge?

According to an article from the Boston Globe:

Several studies have linked greater gender diversity in senior posts with financial success. European firms with the highest proportion of women in power saw their stock value climb by 64 percent over two years, compared with an average of 47 percent, according to a 2007 study by the consulting firm McKinsey and Company. Measured as a percent of revenues, profits at Fortune 500 firms that most aggressively promoted women were 34 percent higher than industry medians, a 2001 Pepperdine University study showed. And, just recently, a French business professor found that the share prices of companies with more female managers declined less than average on the French stock market in 2008. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s February. The groundhog has spoken. So where do you stand on your 2009 financial goals? Defining goals is one thing, but consistent action and commitment to keep with the plan is another. Yet the small sweet steps of this distance run are what will make or break you in the end.

I set out to find 10 tips for managing money that really work. What was most interesting was that when people think of financial goals and managing money their thoughts turn instantly to ways to save money. Saving money is great and in these times every penny saved is a victory. However, saving is just one piece of the puzzle. You need to invest in your own well being and self-development, spend your money wisely, and work a do-able budget as well. There is more than one wall holding up your financial house.

Saving Money

OK let’s get these fine tips out there right off the bat. Saving money is a quick feel good hit that can fuel you for the tips to come.

1) Frugal for Life shares one of my absolute favorites in “25 Ways I Save Money”:

Put raises or bonuses in savings or apply towards debt Read the rest of this entry »

Did anyone catch the article, My Sister’s Keeper in the New York Times on Sunday? Newser gave a good summary that I’ll repeat here:

So-called “womyn’s lands” are quietly persisting across North America but face a cultural shift as modern gays embrace mainstream society, the New York Times reports. Founded in the 1970s to give lesbians man-free, safe, non-judgmental communities, the roughly 100 groups have seen membership dwindle and populations age. “In 20 to 25 years, we could be extinct,” said one founder.

The communities’ rural locations limit membership, as do strict codes forbidding bisexuals and male children. While debate thrives over such rules, many members say they have suffered too much in the straight world to compromise. “It was hard enough fighting for the last 30 years,” a founder said. “Now it’s a family that wants to be here and die here.”

The article focused on a bygone era, a time when these women felt the need to withdraw from heterosexual society. One resident explained:

For Ms. Adams, every choice she makes today — which restaurant to go to, which contractor to hire, which music to listen to — is guided by a preference to be around women. Read the rest of this entry »

This week NBC is asking an interesting question: Should the First Lady get paid a salary for the work she does on behalf of the country?

In case you didn’t know it, the First Lady currently does not get paid. According to Politico:

When incoming President Barack Obama meets with a world leader, attends a diplomatic dinner or reads to a roomful of rapt schoolchildren, he’ll be doing the work of the nation as well as earning his $400,000 annual salary. But when his wife attends the same functions at his side — or in his stead — she’ll be doing it for love.

Because being first lady means you don’t get paid.

While the position carries no official duties, the president’s spouse has long been expected to serve as a highly visible goodwill ambassador for the nation, performing a wide range of ceremonial and quasi-diplomatic jobs. The work involved is not insubstantial: Although Hillary Rodham Clinton was accused during her presidential campaign of having inflated her policy efforts as first lady, she wasn’t just at home baking cookies, either.

Her 11,000-page schedule implies a fair amount of time and energy put in on behalf of her husband and the country.

Yet because they are presidential spouses, first ladies are expected to volunteer their assistance.

Read the rest of this entry »