Nona and Emma's Feminist Road Trip Begins in Chicago

More on the young feminist road trip I mentioned briskly in an earlier post. Twenty-three year old writer Nona Willis-Aronowitz (daughter of Ellen Willis, founder of Redstockings, Voice editor, and the New Yorker's first rock critic) is pairing up with Emma Bernstein (daughter of painter and art journal editor Susan Bee -- and niece of my mentor/friend Susan Bernstein) to document what "feminism" means to members of their generation, in words and images. Their book will map the future and acknowledge the past. I'm looking forward to doing whatever I can to help these ladies out - how much do I LOVE this project?!

Blogging While Academic?

I just learned about MediaCommons, an online community exploring the changing nature of what it means to “publish,” and new forms of digital scholarship and pedagogy. Interesting convo going on over there now about the issue of what blogging and other forms of online publishing “count” for in the academic system of reward. For those of you tenure bound, might want to check it out!

(Thanks to Elizabeth Curtis for the heads up.)

History Hits

From the National Women's History Project's blog, Writing Women Back into History, come these tidbits and reminders:

September includes the anniversaries of Billie Jean King defeating male chauvinist, Bobbie Riggs, on the tennis court in 1973 and Sandra Day O’Connor being sworn in as the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court eight years later. The first weeks of September also include the play-offs for the WNBA.

GREAT hooks for anyone considering writing an op-ed this month!

(Pic is of the tennis dress King wore at the match.)

Britain's Young Feminists

Louise France and Eva Wiseman set it straight, with a piece in the Observer Woman on how younger women's attempts to rebrand feminism 35 years after the launch of Spare Rib magazine. The article begins:

My mother and I are in the pub. I tell her that I'm researching a piece about Britain's young feminists. My mother, who is in her 50s and was inspired by reading Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch when she was a Seventies housewife, looks astonished. 'But there aren't any,' she says, with the finality of a lid being placed on a saucepan.

F-Word editor Jess McCabe and other young feminists answer the following questions: How did you become a feminist? How are you different from your mum's generation? What are the clichés about feminism? Can you be a feminist and go to a lap-dancing club? What makes you angry? Check out their answers here.

(Thank you, Catherine, for the clarification!! -GWP)

Seeking Editorial Assistance on That Book?

People are always asking me if I know any freelance book editors, so I thought I'd post some info here about someone I always recommend.

Jean Casella is an editor, writer, and publishing consultant with more than twenty years of experience as an in-house editor for distinguished independent publishing houses. She provides a full range of editorial services to authors, publishers, and non-profit organizations.

Jean served, most recently, as editorial director and then publisher of the Feminist Press at the City University of New York, where she launched several successful new publishing initiatives in international literature, U.S. literary classics, and nonfiction by women. Earlier in her career, she managed the editorial programs at Thunder’s Mouth Press and the Fiction Collective. She has run a successful freelance editing and consulting business since 2005.

If you are interested in working with Jean, mention Girl with Pen and receive a 10% discount.

Contact:
917-974-0529
casellaj4@msn.com

Never-Married Twentysomethings on the Rise

This just in: There's been a sharp increase in never-married twentysomethings in just six years. According to new Census figures released today, almost three-quarters of men and almost two-thirds of women in their 20s in 2006 said they had never been married! As reported in USA Today:

Among men ages 20-29, 73% said they had never been married in 2006, compared with 64% in 2000. For women, 62.2% had never married in 2006, compared with 53.4% six years earlier.

The data also show the percentage of those marrying in their 20s continues to decline. A USA TODAY analysis of the new Census figures shows that just 23.5% of men and 31.5% of women ages 20-29 were married in 2006. (The analysis excludes those who are married but separated.) Both the number and percentage of those in their 20s fell from 2000, when 31.5% of men and 39.5% of women were married.

"These clearly are quite dramatic changes by demographic standards," says demographer Peter Morrison of the non-profit RAND Corp., which studies public policy issues. "The amount of change in six years is quite substantial. It's impressive in terms of the degree to which the institution of marriage is evolving. There clearly is a process of social evolution occurring here, and one can speculate about where it will end."

The trend toward delaying marriage has emerged over several decades as economic and social forces have made it more difficult for those in their 20s to reach independence. Sociologists and demographers say other factors are also at work, including increasing numbers of cohabiting couples, more highly educated women who have fewer highly educated men of comparable age to partner with, and more choices open to women than in decades past.

For those reasons and others, experts say they don't expect this upward trend in the ages for marriage to reverse.

So what are twentysomethings doing instead? For one, as also reported in USA Today, Gen Y is involved. Check it out here.

And finally, twentysomethings Nona Willis-Aronowitz and Emma Bernstein are taking a feminist roadtrip! Read all about it in The Metro. I'm looking forward to meeting with Nona next week.

Ok, I'm headed off to my cousins' for Rosh Hashanah dinner (Mom - I made a killer kugel!) -- I'll be back on GWP tomorrow night!

(Thanks to CCF and Susan Bernstein for the links!)

Women, Girls, Ladies

Marco strikes again, with a hot little logo for our "Women, Girls, Ladies: Join the Conversation" program for Women's History Month this year. (THANK YOU, M!)

The group blog is now open. It'll look prettier, though, very soon :)

Has Soccer Mom Gone Shrew?

A must-read over at Brain, Child magazine: In "Soccer Mom Loses Her Kick," Tracy Mayor asks whether, starved after decades on the sound-bite diet, mothers might get some meat from politicians in '08.

Think moms are apolitical? Think again. Check out these posts from one of my favorite political moms, here, here, and here. And definitely, always, stop by Pundit Mom, MomsRising, and the Mothers Movement Online, too.

(Thanks to Steve Mintz, Stephanie Coontz, and Veronica Arreola for the heads up!)

Susan Faludi and Naomi Wolf on 9/11 Aftermath

Talk about synergy. On the way to my authors group last night, I picked up a copy of Leo Braudy's From Chivalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity. Then I learned that on October 2, feminist superstar Susan Faludi is coming out with a new book called The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America. Anyone remember how, following 9/11, media headlines declared women to be suddenly less inclined to be satisfied as single and independent beings? And that another baby boom was apparently bound to occur as women's biological clocks began to tick faster after the tragedy? With what sounds like her hallmark in-depth documentation, Faludi looks at the gendering of cultural response.

The Liberaloc and USA Today have posted excerpts, and here's what I've gleaned (from the book description):

Why, Faldui asks, did our culture respond to an assault against American global dominance with a frenzied summons to restore “traditional” manhood, marriage, and maternity? Why did we react as if the hijackers had targeted not a commercial and military edifice but the family home and nursery?

Faludi shows how an attack fueled by hatred of Western emancipation led us to a regressive fixation on Doris Day womanhood and John Wayne masculinity, with trembling “security moms,” swaggering presidential gunslingers, and the “rescue” of a female soldier cast as a “helpless little girl”? The answer, Faludi finds, lies in a historical anomaly unique to the American experience: the nation that in recent memory has been least vulnerable to domestic attack was forged in traumatizing assaults by nonwhite “barbarians” on town and village. That humiliation lies concealed under a myth of cowboy bluster and feminine frailty, which is reanimated whenever threat and shame looms.

In taking on the subject of American culture in the wake of 9/11, Faludi joins fellow superstar Naomi Wolf, who just came out with The End of America: Letter to a Young Patriot, as I mentioned in a previous post. It seems highly relevant that prominent feminist thinkers are turning their attention to the state of our union--which, according to both, is dangerously unraveling. The threat, they both argue, is not merely external; in the wake of 9/11, the threat to our nation's integrity also comes from within.

I can't wait to get my hands on these two books. More on this to come, for sure.

L'Shannah Tovah / Happy (Jewish) New Year

This is a card I was sent by my friend Stephanie Aaron (of Aaron Design). It's too pretty not to share. Wishing you all the sweetness of apples and honey all the year long!

Two 9/11 Stories

One for each of our towers.

Kathy Rich, author of the forthcoming book Unspeakable: A Story About India and Life in Other Words and a writer in my authors group, wrote a beautiful, poignant essay for the Modern Love column in Sunday's New York Times. Thank you, Kathy, for giving us your amazing tale.

And my guy Marco has a very astute post up today over at Hokum on the branding of OBL. Ok, so granted, I love the guy (Marco), but I objectively think this post is brilliant. See for yourself - go check it out.

(Photo credit)

Introducing: Womengirlsladies, the Blog

Fellow writers Courtney Martin, Gloria Feldt, Kristal Brent Zook and I have launched, yep, a group blog which we hope will foster some FRESH conversation among intergenerational feminists about what matters: power, work, sex, motherhood, pop culture, the future, and everything in between. Since I temporarily can't figure out how to post over there (doh), I thought I'd make my post live here for the time being. So here it goes:

Sisterhood, UNinterrupted

I'm thrilled to be part of this dialogue. In my head, I confess, I've been calling it "Sisterhood, UNinterrupted," and I feel so fortunate to be working with my fellow womengirlsladies to foster some much-needed cross-generational talk. These wgls inspire the heck outa me. In addition to continuing the conversation I've been having at readings and talks around my book these past few months, the significance this dialogue has for me goes straight to my core. I've worked in the women's movement and in academia for about 15 years now, and, like Courtney, I've watched some pretty rough dynamics play out between women of different generations at work. And I've often felt caught in between -- the confidant of women on both ends of the age spectrum. Old enough to sympathize, young enough to want things to change. Now that I'm working independently, I watch the generational chasm reflected -- or rather, writ large -- in our popular culture. Stereotypes of young women as apolitical bimbos ("Britney, c'est moi!") and Boomer women as bra-burning throwbacks ("Hillary - so out of touch") drive me insane. With so much unfinished business, so much still to be done to ensure that women across ages and classes and races have the opportunity to live safe and full lives, I'm convinced it's time for a different tune.

Check out what Courtney, Gloria, Patti Binder, and others have to say so far over at www.womengirlsladies.blogspot.com. And join the conversation!

In Memorium

And may they long be remembered in our hearts.

My First Vlog!

Here's a preview (practice version?!) of something we prepared for the National Women's Studies Association -- complete with a goofy out-take at the end. (Hint: I cackle.) Thank you, Elizabeth, for leading the way!

Woodhull Gets Wired!

As many know, I'm a Fellow at the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership. An exciting announcement: Woodhull and Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty have teamed up to offer "Real Women, Real Success Stories" . Over the next 16 weeks, Woodhull faculty and fellows will be teaching modules that are taught at the leadership retreats--online. Everything officially launched today, and you can get to it all by clicking here.

Congrats, Woodhull!

Stripping Pole Just Won't Go Away...

Ok, I'm on a roll this morning and really MUST get to work (um, paid work). But I just had to share this post from Jessica over at feministing, on some shoddy reporting about how feminism is responsible for the stripping poles some fraternities are apparently installing in their lust dens.

I saw over the weekend that my Guardian piece on why I hope the whole stripping pole business soon goes the way of the old charred bra was picked up by the Kuwait Times last week. Here's a tidbit from it - I wonder how this reads in Kuwait??:

What the burned bra was to the second wave, the stripping pole has become to the third - a bogey that distracts us from the far less sexy reality that feminism is, and always has been, serious work. It is time to stop deploying rigid and vapid cliches - damsel, good girl and slut - and fixating on the alleged excesses of one contested aspect. We need to keep our eyes on the wider array of women's issues. May the stripping pole go the way of the charred bra, a quaint reminder of how those calling it from the sidelines got it very wrong.

On Men, Abortion, and "Baby Daddys"

Two quick hits: Don't miss this important piece by Courtney Martin on why men should be included in the abortion debate, posted over at AlterNet last week, and this post by Lauren at Faux Real on the usefulness (or not) of the new slang term, "baby daddy."

Merci, mes amis!

A thousand thanks to everyone who came out on Friday night to my reading at Park Slope BN: mother/daughter teams Leslie and Clea Weber and Daph and Rena Uviller; father/daughter team Scott and Grace; Megan McKenna; Jean Casella; fellow Invisible Institute member Christine Kenneally; Susan Doherty; Iggy, all those I didn't know but asked awesome questions (including Marjory and Sam, in the back), Eryka Peskin from The Red Tent, and, of course, Marco (who promises he's not yet sick of my schpiel). Shout outs to Samantha for organizing it, and to the post-game crew for eating meat loaf and chocolate cake!

I was only sorry I wasn't able to make it back on Sat. morning for Lauren Bank Deen's reading for more on one of my favorite subjects: food. Congrats on Kitchen Playdates, Lauren, and those of you with kids, definitely check it out! Lauren was on The Today Show today, and for those who missed it, there's a piece by her today on MSNBC.

Stalled Progress for Women Who Think

Turns out the New Yorker's Shouts and Murmurs isn't the only place women aren't being published. Just came upon this uplifting little tidbit, via Inside Higher Ed, about a paper by MIT philosophy professor Sally Haslanger on the limits of progress for women in philosophy. The paper won’t appear until next year, in the journal Hypatia, but Haslanger posted a version of it online and it's attracting considerable attention. (Total non sequitor: I will always have a soft spot for Hypatia. They published my first academic article, as part of their special "third wave feminism" issue back in 1997.)

Here's the scoop:

Haslanger studied the gender breakdowns in the top 20 departments (based on The Philosophical Gourmet Report) and found that the percentage of women in tenure track positions was 18.7 percent, with two departments under 10 percent. She also looked at who published in top philosophy journals for the last five years and found that only 12.36 percent of articles were by women.

As Inside Higher Ed goes on to note, "While Haslanger hasn’t made formal proposals for reform, in her essay and in the interview, she spoke of the importance of ensuring that women receive equal treatment through blind review of journal submissions and that 'efforts ought to be made to make sure women aren’t solo in graduate programs.'”

Interesting discussion going on about it all over at Crooked Timber, an academic group blog I just discovered.

Science, She Wrote

This is cool: At Rutgers, the Office of Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics has created a Girl Geeks / My Story website, where female faculty get personal and fess up about why they became scientists. The pic is of a young Joanna Burger, now a professor in the Department of Cell Biology & Neuroscience, pictured with a gull chick. Aw.

Keep an eye out for girl geek Debby Carr's story, which I believe be up there soon. Debby is a sociologist and a friend of mine from my Madison days. Her first "crossover" book comes out this spring. It's about generational conflict among mothers and daughters who make different choices around careers, kids, and, well, life, and when the time comes, I'll blog bout it here! As may Debby, too.

Jack Scrolls Down

In a departure from our usual fare, I'm taking a moment to pay homage to a writer my guy Marco adores: Jack Kerouac. It's the 50th anniversary of the publication of On the Road. (To Marco's credit, he's equally obsessed by the writings of the Beat women -- Hettie, Joyce, and Diane -- go Beat girls!) Check out my dude's post today over at his blog, Hokum. You won't think of "scrolling" the same way again.

I'm Reading Tonight at Park Slope BN!

Please come say hello tonight if you happen to be in Brooklyn! Thanks to the karaoke-wielding Sam, I'll be reading from and talking about Sisterhood, Interrupted at Barnes and Noble in Park Slope (267 7th Avenue) at 7pm. (Note: there will be no karaoke, just lots and lots of books.)

Marco and I are considering moving to the Slope eventually, so I'm going to pretend this is my neighborhood bookstore and see how it feels.

Correction! Charleston...

One lil clarification regarding info in the mammoth newsletter just sent out: Sisterhood, Interrupted is being promoted by the Women's and Gender Studies Program at the College of Charleston (not the city, the college!) as the official "book group book" for Women's History Month. (Thank you, Alison!)

Announcing Fall Webinar: MAKING IT POP

Back by popular demand :)

MAKING IT POP: Translating Your Ideas for Trade, with Deborah Siegel (er, me)
Tuesdays 11/6, 11/13, 11/20, 11/27, 12/4, 12/11
8:00 - 9:15 pm ET
Format: Online forum + weekly conference call
Fee: $250 ($275 after Oct. 19)

Public debate lacks a sensitive discussion of the complex forces shaping the lives of women and girls. Researchers, nonprofit workers, and savvy writers everywhere have the opportunity to frame public debate about these issues. Too often, however, important work fails to reach an audience outside the academic and advocacy worlds. Writing a trade book is one way to join the debate. To sell a book in today's competitive publishing climate, one must be able to write engaging, accessible prose that will appeal to a wide audience. These skills can be learned.

Participants will learn from exchanges with New York City-based agents and editors why it's essential to think about audience and market in a different way, and why you need a book proposal. We'll explore the differences between popular and academic writing, why a dissertation or a monograph is not a trade book, and how to write an effective book proposal-meaning one that has the best chance of being sold. We'll also consider the latest aspects of book publicity, focusing in particular on new media. (See what past participants are saying about the course here.)

Space is limited. Please send a note describing your rough idea for a popular book in 1 paragraph to deborahsiege (at) gmail (dot) com, and I will be in touch with further details.

Read more about MAKING IT POP in Women's eNews:
Women's Studies Scholars Vie for More Media Turf

My bio is here.

In Memorium: Grace Paley

I met Grace Paley--activist, teacher, former state poet, feminist extraordinaire, lover of life--when she spoke on a panel I had organized in the early 1990s. I was in my early twenties. She seemed ageless. Grace Paley was magnificent, humble, and real.

Robin Morgan wrote a beautiful tribute to Paley's life, invoking Paley's signature style, for the Women's Media Center. The New York Times obituary is here. And, for those who have yet to have hear it and for those who already miss it, you can still listen to her voice here, on NPR.

Here are two of my favorites, from her New and Collected Poems:

1. My dissent is cheer / a thankless disposition / first as the morning star / my ambition: good luck / and why not a flight / over the wide dilemma / and then good night to sad forever.

2. A stranger calling a dog whistled / and I came running though I am not an afghan / or a highclass poodle and not much like a city boy's dog with a happy wild tail and red eyes / The stranger said excuse me, I was calling my dog not you / Ah I replied to this courteous explanation / Sometimes I whistle too but mostly for fear of missing the world I am a dog to whistlers.

We'll be whistling for you, Grace.

Introducing the GWP Institute!

Ok ok, I know it's a fancypants name for a humble endeavor, but heck, I'm running with it. I mean, if the Tooth-fairy can have an institute....

So GWP Institute is going to be the new label for posts here that offer tips, advice, answers to reader questions, and news about workshops and online courses that I'll be offering over the next year.

To read older posts, just click on the "GWP Institute" category label on the right side of this blog (scroll down to get there).

Have a question about feminist-y publishing or popularizing academic-y ideas and prose that you'd like to see addressed here? Send 'em my way. I'm deborahsiege (at) gmail (dot) com.

(Does the Toothfairy have a blog?!)

Why I Heart the Feminist Carnival

Fire-eating ladies? Contortionists? Huh?!

For those of you as yet unfamiliar with the concept of a blog carnival, do run over and check out the 44th Carnival of Feminists over at Reproductive Rights Blog. It's one of the places I catch up on greatest hits, all wrapped up in an engaging, organized narrative. I'm all for aggregation.

For the newbies: The Carnival of Feminists is held (usually) on the first and third Wednesday of each month. Hosted by a different blogger for each edition, it aims to "showcase the finest feminist posts from around the blogsphere." Explains the illustrious Natalie Bennett, a British blogger who blogs at Philobiblon and runs the Carnival of Feminists:

The Carnival aims to build the profile of feminist blogging, to direct extra traffic to all participating bloggers, but particularly newer bloggers, and to build networks among feminist bloggers around the world....Posts that celebrate women's lives and contributions to society - either current-day or historical - are particularly welcome. Posts will usually have been made in the period since the last carnival. (Only one nomination per blog please.)

This week, Carnival host Cara focuses the current round-up on policy, economics and feminism. (Thank you, Cara, for all your hard work over there!)

Check out what The Guardian had to say about it all last year.

And for a big fat listing of other carnivals, go here.

The Professorial Entrepreneur

Does the idea of self-marketing make you nauseous? Try to get over it! Harsh words, I know, but I have to say, for authors in our DIY culture, I tend to agree.

The Chronicle of Higher Ed has an interesting piece out on entrepreneurship and academe. Writes Philip L. Leopold, an associate professor of genetic medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University:

The entrepreneurial topic that academics are least likely to embrace might be the most important concept in their career: marketing.

To a professor, the term might carry connotations of profit motives and deceptive practices. Insomuch as marketing represents the dissemination of the product, professors should realize that marketing is an essential responsibility of their profession.

So true, especially when it comes to book promotion; publishing houses can only do so much, then they move on. The article puts it all in a larger, and interesting, context for those on an academic track. Read more here.

Guest Edit G2 Women's Pages for a Week

I heard it at The F-Word, where Jess McCabe writes:

The Guardian is running a competition to edit the Women section of G2 for a week. The competition celebrates the women's pages 50ths anniversary, and opened back in July (thanks Dollymix), but there are only a few short weeks to enter. If you're interested, head over to the Guardian pronto to get the full story. You'll need to pull together:

- Five ideas for articles that you would like to see featured on the women's pages, outlining each of them in no more than two paragraphs
- 500 words explaining why you would like to be women's editor and why you would be well suited to the role
- A one-page CV outlining any relevant experience

What an opportunity, huh?

GUEST POST: "Sex Does Not Define Us!"

I'm so pleased to start off the day with a guest post from Melinda Parrish, a 22-year old instructor in the English Department at the US Naval Academy. Melinda is based in the Writing Center. Here she is! -GWP


Wendy Shalit's new book, Girls Gone Mild, is the second in her legacy of literature, which includes numerous articles and online publications that preach abstinence to young girls as the best way to reclaim their feminine identity from the hedonistic, post-sexual revolution culture that currently holds it hostage. She claims that, "the plain fact is that girls today have to be 'bad' to fit in, just as the baby boomers needed to be good. And we are finding that this new script may be more oppressive than the old one ever was."

But, Wendy, by countering the sexual revolution with another sexual argument, are you not just perpetuating the cycle? Whether you're pro-abstinence or, well, easy, aren't you still allowing what happens to your “good girl” (wink) define the entire girl? Isn't THAT the biggest threat to the feminine identity of a young girl in modern society?

It makes me furious to think since the dawn of time, women have been defined primarily by their sex lives. I concede that in recent decades the values table has flip-flopped because of the sexual revolution and some young women may feel pressure towards promiscuity for social acceptance. But I don't regard Shalit's counter-argument as an enlightened or relevant one because it leads us back to where the feminists of the late sixties and early seventies started. Aren't we a sophisticated enough society to progress beyond this issue? Can't we find SOMETHING to focus on that doesn't reside between our thighs?

My plea to my fellow young women: stop making your vagina your defining characteristic! Don't let someone pigeon-hole you as a Madonna or a whore, or allow your life's happiness to rest solely on the success you achieve in bed; rather, devote your energy into developing your (other) physical, intellectual and artistic abilities to such a degree that your worth as a human being is undisputed, regardless of who you go to bed with!

(If you're interested in more of Shalit's work, check out her blog entitled, "Modestly Yours.")

Get Your Monthly Memoir Fix - Passion, Pleasure, Pain!

A quick announcement on behalf of my friend Lori, who is leading a juicy sounding monthly discussion group at the Barnard Center for Research on Women Courses this Fall.

CONSUMING PASSIONS: Pleasure & Politics in Women’s Memoirs, with Lori Rotskoff
Wednesdays, 9/26, 10/24, 11/28, 12/19, 1/23, 2/27, 3/26, 4/30, 6/4, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
BCRW, 101 Barnard Hall
Fee: $315

Here's the description:

What are the passions, pleasures, and political commitments that fuel women’s lives? In this class, we will discuss memoirs by American women who have embarked on journeys of personal fulfillment, intellectual growth, or political activism from the 1920s to the present day.

And here's more Lori:

Lori Rotskoff is a cultural historian of American family life. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University, and has written articles and reviews for the Chicago Tribune, Reviews in American History, and The Women’s Review of Books. This is her third year teaching at the Barnard Center for Research on Women.

For more information call 212-854-2067 or visit www.barnard.edu/bcrw

This Week's Guest Scholar-Blogger Posts

I've had a number of responses to my offer the other week and am delighted to post this week from an English prof at the Naval Academy and perhaps, in addition, a Duke historian. Stay tuned! (And if you'd like to participate as a Guest Scholar-Blogger, please take a look at the guidelines and then email me at deborahsiege AT gmail DOTCOM.)

Dads Taking Kids to First Day of School

To kick off the week, here are two nuggets on one of my latest favorite subjects: men.

By way of the Christian Science Monitor last week comes news of a push to bring dads into kids’ school lives. Around the country, many African-American men are embracing a national movement called the Million Father March that encourages people of all races, but particularly black men, to be active in children’s educational lives. Created four years ago, the Million Father March is sponsored by The Black Star Project, a Chicago group working to build strong students, encourage parental involvement, and improve life in African-American and Latino communities.

Meanwhile, back at home, married men do less housework than live-in boyfriends, finds an international survey. But married women do more housework than their live-in counterparts. "Marriage as an institution seems to have a traditionalizing effect on couples-even couples who see men and women as equal," said co-researcher Shannon Davis, a sociologist at George Mason University in Virginia. For more on this, click here.

(Thanks to via the Council on Contemporary Families for the heads up.)

The Times Gets Hip to Authors Promoting Books Online

Welcome back from a deliciously long weekend!

While this author was busy blissing out in the country (thank you, Daph, Sacha, and Rena!), then in New Jersey (thanks, Schettinos!), then in Prospect Park, the New York Times ran two interesting articles on how industrious authors are using blogs and social networking to promote their books. Check out Kara Jasella's informative article on the blog book tour (The Author Will Take Q's Now) and Pagan Kennedy's tongue-in-cheek back-page essay in yesterday's Book Review on MySpace (A Space for Us). I've blog toured a bit and will be sharing more of what I've learned soon.

Oh - and Girl with Pen made the Chronicle of Higher Education last week, broadcasting (via Broadsheet of course) that study about the lack of women "Shouts and Murmur" authors in The New Yorker. (Thank you for alerting me, Steve!) Funny how people there all assumed that the scholar who did the count was female. He wasn't.

Gone Fishing

These are my cousins, the Fisches. This is a pic from their canoe trip in the Boundary Waters (between Minnesota and Canada) this summer. Today, I am not fishing (nor fisching), but I am out in the country with my dear friend and collaborator Daphne. Wishin everyone a happy long weekend! I'll be back on Monday. Til then, be good :)

Guardian post on "Third Wave" now up

Here it is, here. I'd like to note that the rest of the paragraph that ends with "shaving your legs" went like this, before it was cut AGAINST MY WISHES:

To Walker, "third wave" meant a feminism linked to her mother's, but different. It meant continuing and improving upon the best that second-wave feminism had to offer - grassroots activism and critique of the media, for instance - but still shaving your legs. It meant embracing multiculturalism, contradiction, and, if that’s what grooved you, proudly sporting a thong. Soon after Walker’s rallying cry, author/activists Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards published their book, ManifestA, which provided analysis and strategy for the young women now poised to carry the torch. This was a propitious moment.

Just sayin. I did not want them to end with "shaving your legs" when there was so much more substance to the graf.

I Heart Jewesses with Attitude

I just discovered this amazing blog, Jewesses with Attitude. Judith Rosenbaum, Director of Education at the Jewish Women's Archive, is a Jewess this Jewess would love to meet. Ok, Judith posted a lovely review over there, but that's not the only reason I want to meet her. I swear. She sounds pretty amazing. Definitely check out the blog.

Lunch with Alison and Walter

I think I just made a new friend. I've met (and adore) Alison Peipmeier, but Marco and I just met her blogging and real-life partner, Walter. They live in South Carolina. Walter, upon learning that Marco is a graphic designer, posed to him the artistic challenge of the century: "Hey, can you design a butthole [sic] out of the Confederate flag?"

The backstory (sorry, bad pun), straight outa Wikipedia is this:

Originally placed [on top of the South Carolina State House dome] in 1962....[c]urrent state law prohibits the flag's removal from the State House grounds without additional legislation. Police were placed to guard the flag after several attempts by individuals to remove it....In 2005, two Western Carolina University researchers found that 74% of African-Americans polled favored removing the flag from the South Carolina State House altogether. The NAACP and other civil rights groups have attacked the flag's continued presence at the state capitol. The NAACP maintains an official boycott of South Carolina, citing its continued display of the battle flag on its State House grounds, despite an initial agreement to call off the boycott after it was removed from the State House dome.

I heart Walter. Nuf said.

Two Upcoming "Appearances"

1. A piece I wrote for the Guardian goes live tomorrow. Stripping poles, charred bras, third-wave feminism, fourth waves, and more. Plus, a photo of me that I haven't yet seen. Let me know what you think. (Not about the photo, thank you, but the article!)

2. Come say hello next week if you're in Brooklyn! I'll be reading from Sisterhood, Interrupted at Barnes and Noble in Park Slope on Friday, Sept. 7 at 7pm. (Thank you, Sam! Karaoke, when?!) Come for discussion, come to say hi, or, come for chocolate. I recently learned there's this place down the block, called Cocoa Bar, that has rather stellar chocolate cake.

Babelicious, FILF, and...the Brassiere

I seem to have caused a little tussle over in Broadsheet's comments section yesterday, resulting in another Anonymous (not the one I spent part of yesterday answering, I suspect) calling me "babelicious" and a "FILF" (Mom, Dad, please don't ask), and the original Anonymous challenging my scholarly integrity. This is my first time being labeled with those monikers, and I'm not sure if I should be flattered or freaked. These semi-flattering, semi-lewd comments rarely come up about men who post. Officially irked on that. But challenging scholarly integrity is a trap we all fall into from time to time when we profoundly disagree with someone, so I'm just gonna let that one go.

On a lighter note, as Broadsheet's Lynn Harris reminds us in her roundup today via AlterNet, it's the 100th anniversary of the bra! Wait--again, do we celebrate, or curse?

Man, do I need a latte.

Fun with Anonymous

Phewph! After spending part of today conversing with Anonymous in the comments section at Broadsheet (love the broads over there!), I'm back here at Girl with Pen. A few quickie updates about two fellow crossover-y types I adore:

Megan Pincus Kajitani, who has participated as a story editor for the forthcoming Daring Book for Girls, has also started a really interesting blog project called Having Enough. Megan asked me to answer 4 questions about having enough in a having-it-all (and never enough) world. Our interview is up now, here. Thank you, Megan, for making me think!

One thing one can never have enough of, of course, is lunch with fine feminists. I'm taking time out tomorrow for lunch with Alison Piepmeier, English/Women's Studies prof extraordinaire down in South Carolina, coeditor of Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century, and girl with excellent hair. Alison is one of my early bloggy mentors, and for that I'm forever grateful. In tribute, I stole (er, shall we say, borrowed?) the title of this post from her.

We Won't Always Have Paris!

So just a quick update on that traveling panel I'm helping organize this year for Women's History Month, cause I'm too darn excited not to share. As some of you know, I'm teaming up with three amazing women / girls / ladies this March:

Gloria Feldt, Kristal Brent Zook, Courtney E. Martin

We're taking it on the road to continue the conversation that I started in Sisterhood, Interrupted, and that these women have been having of late too. Together, we want to spark discussion about women's lives, power, entitlement, and the future of feminism, from a generational perspective. Sound good? If you'd like to bring us to your organization or school, please feel free to contact any of us (I'm deborahsiege AT gmail DOTCOM). But hurry -- our schedules are booking up quickly!

One of the versions we're offering is described thusly (is thusly really a word?):

We Won’t Always Have Paris:
A New Conversation about Young Women and Pop Culture

Why do teen girls dress and dance so provocatively? Do they really think that drinking and drugging at the club is empowering? How can they worship airheads like Paris and Nicole?

Why don’t older women see that there is more to our culture than Britney Spears? Have they ever heard of the World Wide Web? Was it really that different in their day or have they just romanticized it?

Sound familiar? Too often finger-pointing statements like these get thrown around by women of different generations when it comes to conversations about pop culture. With all the injustices yet to be challenged, it's time that women of all ages talked and listened to one another instead of rehashing the same cliquish complaints. It's time to reopen a dialogue about women’s lives, power, pop culture, and entitlement -- from a generational perspective.

Issues that we'll address include:
• Does liberated sexuality equal Paris Hilton? Madonna? Bisexuality? Girls Gone Wild?
• Are young women really charmed by today’s pop icons?
• Where are the strong, smart young celebrities without addictions or eating disorders?
• How can we get more positive images of women in the media?
• What do power and empowerment look like to women of different generations?
• What is the major unfinished business for women in the media and pop cultural arenas today?
• How do we keep our eyes on the prize of more complex, diverse, and healthy representation of women?

Another version we're doing goes like this:

Womengirlsladies: A Fresh Conversation Across Generations

Many of the young female students in my classes seem to think empowerment means short skirts and high heels! Even young women who say they are feminists often don’t know what’s still at stake—from pay equity to Title 9 to reproductive justice-- and they are unwilling to put in the hard work necessary to fight for change!

Older female professors act like it’s a crime against the Goddess to have a little fun! Women’s Studies classes are just too pc. I’m not a feminist but I totally believe in equality. Doesn’t everybody? And by the way, weren’t those battles already won by our mothers, so why do we have to fight them again?
Do these complaints sound familiar?

With all the injustices yet to be challenged, it is time that women of all ages talked and listened to one another. It is time to reopen a dialogue about women’s lives: our power, our entitlement, and our futures -- the future of feminism. Among issues to be addressed:

•Power and Parity: What do power and empowerment look like to women of different generations, and to women of different races and cultural backgrounds? What can we envision achieving together for women in the future? What might a powerful woman look and act like twenty years down the road?

•Unfinished Business: What are the major loose (or lost) ends of the feminist movement today? And how can we get what we need now?

•The F-word: Why are so many younger women afraid of being identified as feminists? Do older women secretly resent the entitlement of their younger, female employees and students?

•A Stripping Pole in Every Living Room: Does liberated sexuality equal lap dances? Free love? Bisexuality? Are Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan good role models for sexual empowerment? Were Madonna or Lil’ Kim?

•The “Opting Out” Fiasco: How has the media slashed and distorted real women’s choices about balancing work and family? Could listening to popular myths about your options in the workplace and the home topple your career choices?

•Passing the Torch without Extinguishing the Flame: How can younger women learn from older women while speaking in their own language about the issues that matter most to them?

We'll be offering these panels throughout 2008, but please do get in touch soon, as our schedules are filling up fast: taryn.kutujian@gmail.com

Would love to bring it your way!

Feminism: The Soundtrack

I love this story. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune has a nice little feature by reporter Rohan Preston on Dorothy Marcic, a former a professor of management at Vanderbilt University, who quit her secure job to indulge her teenage passion: theater. The professor - turned - playwright then did something equally bold. She created a jukebox musical, "Respect: A Musical Journey of Women," based on research she did for her book, Respect: Women and Popular Music. The show -- which had its more humble beginnings as a lecture with music -- has now played in more than a dozen venues in the United States and Australia and is currently playing in Minneapolis. The show's music, which includes swing and jazz, show tunes, rock and country, "Respect," and "I Will Survive," tracks the evolution of the social consciousness of American women in each decade of the 20th century. Says the 58-year-old Marcic, "You have to go with your passion, no matter how long it takes." Check out Dorothy's blog here.

And here's something to sing about:

This week marks the 87th Anniversary of women's suffrage in the US. Yep, that's right. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment of the US Constitution was ratified granting women the right to vote. (Hey - if you're anywhere near New Jersey, go celebrate with a trip to Paulsdale!) Now, if we can just use that vote to get our country a real President next time.

Absence of Women's Shouts and Murmurs

Straight from the gals at Broadsheet comes this annoyingly newsworthy tidbit: There has not been a woman author of a Shouts and Murmurs piece in The New Yorker for over three years. The last one was in 2004. Reports Catherine Price,

[W]e just found a link to a blog post from the World's Fair in which the author takes a break from his academic pursuits to examine the male-female breakdown of Shouts and Murmurs authors. (The post is arguably more amusing than most S&M columns.) His conclusion: "Out of the 133 authors of features under the Shouts and Murmurs banner (in the modern, post-1992 era), 17 have been women. That's 12.782%." To put it another way, men are represented in the section at a rate 8 times that of women.

Love that it was an academic who did the calculations. Hate that it's true. Wonder if , in addition to other (ahem) factors, women are submitting in smaller numbers, as they do when it comes to op-eds? That'd be interesting to find out. If anyone finds that out, please send a shout and a murmur over to G w/ P and we will broadcast the news far and wide.

Guidelines for Guest Scholar-Bloggers on GWP

Are you a scholar (or someone with their fingers on the pulse of current research about women or girls) seeking to enter the blogosphere and give blogging a try? Read on! Hey, if my grandmas (left) can do it, you can too.

Submission Process
Email me a 1-paragraph overview of the post you'd like to propose. When I greenlight it, please send the full post to me at deborahsiege AT gmail DOT com at least one day before you ideally would want me to run the post. Depending on how many submissions come in any a given week, I may not be able to run every post right away. But I will certainly do my best to try. Submissions should be pasted in the body of your email or attached as a MS Word document.

GUIDELINES FOR POSTING ON GIRL WITH PEN

SUBSTANCE. Girl with Pen is about bridging feminist research, popular reality, and the public. Posts should generally fall under this rubric. The best posts are those that are timely, unexpected, passionate, and somewhat personal.

LENGTH. The strongest blog posts read like mini, hypertexted op-eds. Op-eds are generally 700-1000 words; posts on Girl with Pen (and most blogs) are shorter (300-700 words max) and are very quick to get to the point.

TIMELY. Posts must have a news hook. A news hook can be new research (your own, or someone else's), an interesting news item, an event, an upcoming holiday or anniversary, a happening from pop culture, a popular assumption that’s the subject of current media coverage, or another article that is currently in the news. The news hook must come at the beginning of the post, to capture the scanning web reader’s attention.

UNEXPECTED. Go for the counterintuitive, that little known reality that is the opposite of what we all think! There are so many myths out there about the lives of women and girls. Set us straight. Clarify reality. Go beyond the obvious. Surprise us.

PASSIONATE. Tell us what you really think. If you care passionately, others will. Take a stand. Be controversial. Go out on a limb.

PERSONAL. Personal stories keep us reading. Include a personal anecdote or, if you aren’t comfortable writing about yourself, include an anecdote about someone else.

LINKS. Posts should include links. When submitting a post, if you're comfortable using the html code for links, please use it to embed your link in the text. If not, please include the link in brackets following the word(s) that you'd like to see in hypertext. Put the word(s) that you'd like to hypertext in bold.

EXAMPLE (w/o hypertext): Take the sentence “Please visit my website for more.” If I wanted the words “my website” to take the reader to my website’s homepage, I would write: Please visit my website [http://www.deborahsiegel.net] for more.

PICTURE AND BYLINE. Be sure to send a jpeg or gif (either a photo of you, or another relevant image related to the post) that you'd like to run with the post, along with a byline that includes your affiliation and anything else you'd like readers to know.

Questions? You can always post 'em in the comments section of this post, because chances are, others will be wondering the same thing. I'll run additional tips and tidbits in response.

Save Our Country!

And speaking of heros, Naomi Wolf has a new book out called The End of America: Letter to a Young Patriot. As Naomi recently asked on HuffPo, "Is it still America if the president ignores or deliberately eviscerates the Constitution?"

Along with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, MoveOn.org, and
True Majority, Naomi is spearheading a new grassroots and grasstops democracy movement, the American Freedom Campaign, and has asked us all -- as well as each of the presidential candidates -- to sign the American Freedom Pledge. The pledge reads:

"We are Americans, and in our America we do not torture, we do not imprison people without charge or legal remedy, we do not tap people's phones and emails without a court order, and above all we do not give any President unchecked power.

"I pledge to fight to protect and defend the Constitution from assault by any President."

Now if a candidate can't sign that, then I for one sure as hell can't vote for her (ok, ok, or him). I heard on MSNBC the other day while on the treadmill that the campaign has already had 20,000 hits. Go Naomi, and go America. The America that believes in the Constitution, that is.

Join us in signing the pledge!

Germaine Greer, Fay Weldon, and Magnus Linklater Have Some Reading to Do

An extremely off the mark, nudge nudge wink wink article on the so-called collapse of feminism ("At Times Like This, It's Better to Just Be One of the Boys"), by Magnus Linklater, appeared in the Times Online (UK) last week. Writes Linklater,

"Sometimes it’s a relief to be a man. Watching, at a safe distance, the collapse of feminism is a bit like seeing a huge chunk of melting glacier falling into the sea. You know it’s a sign of something serious going on, but you’re glad not to be anywhere near when it happens."

The commentors in the comments section are doing an excellent job setting ole Magnus straight. My favorite is from "PN," from London, who writes:

"This article is based purely on two feminist thinkers [Fay Weldon and Germaine Greer] who have made comments in the last week which have been jumped on and to some extent distorted by the media. Strangely enough, I don't think my only choices of feminist icon are Anne Hathaway or Diana purely because Germaine Greer happens to have said something about them.

There are things to be said in defense of both Weldon and Greer, but I think the more important point is that the opinions of these two people hardly constitute the collapse of feminism. Perhaps you need to get on the internet and investigate some of the blogs and comments on feminist sites which seem to have missed the newsflash that their movement has collapsed."

Aside from the comments, the most interesting tidbit I gleaned here was that Germaine Greer has a new book out called Shakespeare's Wife. One of my all-time favorite moments in literature is Virginia Woolf's speculation about Shakespeare's sister in A Room of One's Own. (He didn't have one, but Woolf imaginatively speculates about her fate nonetheless. What if she had wanted to write?) Anyway, back in real life, apparently men from James Boswell to Anthony Burgess had all assumed that Anne Hathaway (aka Shakespeare's wife) was either "a lustful, scheming woman who lured Shakespeare into a loveless marriage, or an ugly harridan who drove him away by making his life a misery." Greer takes a new look. The book sounds intriguing.

Now, if only Greer and Weldon (heros, truly!) could stop commenting all over the place that feminism is dead among young women long enough to get themselves online and to a bookstore and take a new look themselves, perhaps they'd reconsider. Or maybe not. Either way, though, it would make for a much fresher article. Then again, Magnus may not be the person to write it. He's too busy dreaming of ice chunks and thanking god (or whoever) for having made him a man.

I Heart Seal Press: Single State of the Union

A quick shout out of gratitude to the folks who are posting their favorite blogs by women scholars in the comments section of the post below! Keep em coming! Meanwhile, I'm rushing off to go hear some of my favorite city girls (including Lusty Lady Rachel Kramer Bussel) read at McNally Robinson in celebration of a new anthology from Seal (hi, Laura M!). Come join me, if you're here in NYC... Here's the deal:

Single State of the Union: Single Women Speak Out on Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Seal Press)

Monday, August 27, 7 pm, Free
McNally Robinson Bookstore, 52 Prince Street (SoHo, between Lafayette and Mulberry), NYC

The popular media give us shoe shopaholics, ditzy desperados, and wannabe brides forever making cow eyes at The Bachelor. But what do single women have to say about their own lives? In the myth-busting tradition of anthologies like The Bitch in the House, the impressive roster of writers of Single State of the Union set the record straight about the experiences of single women in America. Rachel Kramer Bussel is a popular writer and teacher of erotica and the editor most recently of erotica anthologies Caught Looking and Cross-Dressing. Lynn Harris is the author of the smart New York mystery Death by Chick Lit. Judy McGuire is an advice columnist and author of How Not To Date. Susan Shapiro is the author of the memoirs Five Men Who Broke My Heart, Lighting Up and most recently Only As Good As Your Word. Join us for a discussion with these and other smart single (and formerly single) women that will give you a new perspective on the single state.

Where Are the Women Scholarbloggers?

Dear readers: I need your help! I'm compiling a list of interesting blogs by women scholars (you know, like BitchPhD, Feminist Law Professors Blog, CultureCat, Baxter Sez, Afrogeekmom...) as part of my mission to entice even more women scholars to bring their perspective and analysis into the blogosphere. I'm looking in particular for examples of blogs that balance astute cultural, social, or political commentary with a-day-in-the-life. If you have one to suggest, please comment here. I'll post the resulting list here on G w/ Pen soon.

Guidelines for Guest Scholarblogging are available here.

Who's Your Nanny?

The movie version of The Nanny Diaries opened last week, and my good friend and fellow traveler Heather Hewett, Coordinator of the Women's Studies Program at SUNY-New Paltz, has an extremely smartypants op-ed on it all today in the Washington Post titled "Who's Your Nanny?". Muses Heather,

I can't help noting how little the story has to do with reality -- either with the situation of parents like me, who depend on nannies and babysitters to care for our children, or with the lives of most women who work as caregivers.

She goes on to contrast reality (the feminization of migration) with the nanny fantasies that currently abound in pop culture -- not only The Nanny Diaries, but a slew of so-called reality tv shows and plays. I find Heather's op-ed an excellent example of accessible writing that surveys the latest theory and pop thinking on the subject and makes us all think. GO HEATHER!

Work It, Girl

There's an interesting trio of articles in the current issue of the New York Press: "By the Numbers" by David Crone, "Working Girls" by Marin Resnick, and "Who Needs Work?" by Gaije Kushner. I find the headline on the cover ("City's White Collar Women Shatter the Glass Ceiling) to be at odds with the emphases of the articles (glass ceiling not so shattered). I'm all for celebrating progress, but the cover message sends an inaccurate message, one that is debunked in the issue's very pages. What gives?

On another note, I love what they've done with the Rosie the Riveter image, updating her to represent the more ethnic face of New York. But wait - isn't she wearing a blue collar, though the headline is all about white? Now I'm double confused.

(Thank you to Marco, always on the hunt for visuals, for pointing me to this cover.)

Guest Scholarblogger: "Mom and Dad Are Busy"

Girl with Pen's first Guest Scholarblogger post comes to you from a researcher who happens to be a dear old friend. Introducing Rebecca London, Ph.D., Director of Research at Stanford University’s John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities. Rebecca lives on California’s central coast with her husband and two school-age daughters. She's frequently quoted in the press as an expert on poverty, youth, and working motherhood. She makes a mean strawberry margherita. Here she is!

Mom and Dad Are Busy: Schooling Our Schools
By Rebecca London, Ph.D.

Summer is dwindling, days are getting shorter, and parents everywhere are sighing in relief as their children return to school. I was contemplating this freedom when I realized that this year, with my younger daughter headed to kindergarten at our local public school, I will have this and my older daughter’s 2nd grade class in which I’ll be expected to volunteer. (I say “I” here because it is my experience that the mother is expected, but in my family my husband and I tend to share this responsibility.) Between my nearly full-time job and my hour-long commute that can only be done off-hours, how in the world am I going to manage this?

“Parental involvement” in school is the new way of characterizing the activities performed by the PTA and room mothers from our childhoods. Now, in addition to organizing bake sales and class picnics, schools and teachers want and expect all parents to contribute, especially with their time in the classroom. There is actually a good reason for this. Several years ago the National Research Council compiled research on the characteristics of youth-serving settings that turn out the most well-developed adults (for the executive summary, click here). A key to success, it turns out, is placing youth at the center of the intersection of family and school (and also community, a topic for another post). But for this to happen, family and school need to meaningfully intersect. In many cases, they don’t.

As challenging as it is for me – with my professional job and long commute – to find time to volunteer in my daughters’ classrooms, imagine what it would be like if I had a low-wage service job with no flexibility. Or if I didn’t speak English very well or knew that my education level was lower than that of every teacher and staff member at the school. What if I felt like I was never good at school and didn’t want that to rub off on my own kids, or heaven forbid, someone else’s? These are the challenges faced by parents and schools in many disadvantaged neighborhoods, where schools struggle for lack of funds and facilities, and parents struggle to provide these same life essentials for their families. If youth are to be at the center of family and school in these communities, we need to tear down the power differentials that shield the school from its parents and create opportunities beyond helping with academics, beyond being present during school hours, and beyond contributing through fundraising. Schools need to think outside the box on this one and learn from their parents what works.

As for me, I’m thinking I will run for the school site council, a body of teachers, parents, and administrators that make governing decisions for the school. I figure that because it meets after school hours, I might actually be able to manage my service without doing time during my workday. Hopefully it will count in the race to place my own kids at the center of their intersection with family and school. And for all the other parents with less flexibility and fewer resources, may their schools figure out more feasible ways for them, too, to be involved.

Email Rebecca at rebecca_london@yahoo.com

(A note from Girl with Pen: If you are a feminist-y researcher and interested in guest blogging opportunities on this space, please email me at deborahsiege@gmail.com with a few sentences describing your idea for a post.)