On January 15, 2020 the state of Virginia became the 38th state to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. There will be a series of complicated legal battles before the ERA can become a part of the Constitution but without this step in Virginia those battles could not be waged.
When Kelly Loeffler was sworn in as Georgia’s newest senator, she became the 26th woman in the Senate, setting a new record. [Broadsheet 1/8/20]
The following is very small selection from the Abstract of a paper written by Heidi Alexander in 2002 while at Amherst College.
The paper is titled, “The Conflict Between being a Woman and Being an Athlete: A Psychological Evaluation of the Female Athlete.”
This study examines the question of whether or not female athletes feel a conflict between being a woman and participating in athletics…
The results revealed that female athletes view themselves in terms of gender differently in general and when playing sports, indicating a change in their gender self-concept according to contest. Athletes viewed themselves as more masculine and less feminine when playing.
However, overall, athletes reported very low levels of conflict between participating in athletics and being a woman…
As predicted based on past literature, athletes who considered sports as a male domain also reported feeling conflict. Athletes who reported feeling conflict also reported that their participation in sports will detract from their femininity and they that they are worried that they will be labeled masculine. This suggests that athletes are concerned that people view them as less feminine and more masculine based on the notion that sports have been traditionally seen as masculine in nature…
In sum, the results suggest that the conflict for female athletes may be between the way they view their gender self-concept and the way in which they believe that others view their gender identity, rather than how they view themselves as a woman and as an athlete.
[WW – Heidi Alexander is my niece]
To date, eight female members of Congress have served in the United States Armed forces prior to serving in Congress. [U.S. House, History, Art & Archives]
When Jeannette Rankin took the oath as a U.S. Representative on April 2, 1917, she became the first woman in Congress. [U.S. House, History, Art & Archives]
A record 220 female MPs have taken their seats in the British parliament after the most recent election. Women now are 34% of either chamber of parliament. This is the highest proportion of women in history. Just a quarter of the Conservative party MPs are female, whereas the Labour party will now be represented by more women than men with a record of 104 females MPs. [The Guardian 12/16/19]
For the first time since 2010 and the second time ever, women outnumber men on U.S. payrolls, holding 50.4% of jobs (excluding farmworkers and the self-employed.) The reason seems to be that industries dominated by women are growing and expected to maintain that growth in the years ahead. [Broadsheet 1/13/20]
Title IX passed in 1972, transforming American sports – it decided that girls deserved the same opportunities as boys to play sports.
Before Title IX, women were head coaches of more than 90% of women’s college teams. Passage of the law flooded women’s sports with money and created many more jobs, many of which went to men. Now only about 40% of women’s college teams are coached by women. And only about 3% of men’s college teams are coached by women. [GenderAvengerBlog 1/2/20]
The New York Times economics reporter, Ben Casselman, reports that 42% of his sources in 2019 were women. 15% of his sources were minorities. [Talking Biz News 1/3/20]
According to former President Barack Obama, “The world would be a better place if more women were in charge. Continuing he said that many of the world’s problems stem from “old people, usually old men not getting out of the way.”
He said that if women were put in charge of every country for the next two years, the result would be gains “on just about everything. “There would be less war, kids would be better taken care of and there would be a general improvement in living standards and outcomes.” [NPR 12/16/19]
On December 10, 1869, John Allen Campbell, Wyoming’s first territorial governor, signed a bill extending the vote to women – the first jurisdiction to do so. [Carl Cannon’s Morning Note 12/10/19]
A report released by the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center shows that U.S lawmakers might be partially responsible for the low numbers of women at elite military academies such as West Point. By law, many military academies only consider applicants who have been nominated by a member of Congress from their state. Since 1994, women have never made up more than 27% of all congressional nominations made in any year for admission to the three major military academies.
[Politico/WeLeadReader 12/7/19]