Yes, I entered the Washington Post's Next Great Pundit contest. I cobbled together a piece about adoption, abortion, feminism and my undying love for Dawn Friedman. Then Latinos in America was on and I sent in an entry about how much I did not appreciate that series. I knew it was a publicity sontest for WaPo, but the fact that they excluded already published op-ed'ers made me believe I had a decent shot.
When I saw that the ten finalists were 5 men and 5 women, I was fairly happy. Four of the dudes appeared to be white. Strike. The women seemed fairly diverse in ethnicity as well as kinda age. Althou someone on one of the many listservs I'm on said they felt the candidates skewed young. Point taken.
Then the final two came down to a white dude, Kevin, and a woman of color, Zeba. I guess I thought the feminist media community would throw it's weight behind Zeba - She worked on Obama's campaign and while her pieces weren't screaming feminism, she fit what I thought we'd want to see in a new op-ed voice. I admit that before the final two, I tweeted the contest without backing anyone. I was leaning towards Zeba, but also thought that having Courtney win would be fine too. Honestly I didn't have a horse in this race, but did think that if we could will it, a woman of color should win. Once it was a two person race, I tweeted my support for Zeba. Alas Kevin won. Zeba came up 600 votes short.
If Zeba had been a contributor at Feministing or Feministe would she had kicked ass in the final vote? Did we get tired of all the voting? On the last day? She was disconnected, from my POV, from the feminist media community despite having gone thru the Op-Ed Project and thus we didn't rally for her. Perhaps many of us were just disappointed that Courtney had been eliminated.
I am eagerly awaiting Courtney's reflection post on the whole process. She was called perky and I believe I read some comments about her voice. All things that are rarely, if ever, mentioned about a man.
As I said, I know that this whole thing wasn't set out to find that hidden jewel of punditry, but to jack up the hits at the WaPo. But they did have a golden moment when it had the opportunity to anoint Zeba or Courtney (the second runner up) as the next great pundit. A lot has been said about the contest and the quality of the finalists, but I still held out hope that the result would be different.
Or maybe America really does just want to hear from white dudes...But I highly doubt it.
Oh WaPo, you got me good.
Windy Citizen There is too much, let me sum up
Because I have a presentation on gender equity on Thursday, found out about another extension on a chapter I was writing & gave up on, AND the hubby is out of town meaning I have less time for me this weekend, I present you with a bullet point blog post. Enjoy!
- Help some awesome Radical WOC get to the Allied Media Conference. I swear, I'd be there myself to represent the not-so-radical WOC contingent, but I have to attend another conference that weekend. Oh...and if you've ever wondered where the super kewl WOC bloggers are, start with this list!
- kameelah writes * little black book * RGV goes to the AMC * cripchick * Writeous Sister Speaks * Mamita Mala * Tigera Consciente * A Womyn’s Ecdysis * Having Read the Fine Print.
- Peggy Simpson from the Women's Media Center sums up the fallout from the NARAL Pro-Choice endorsement. As does Scott at RH Reality Check is also following the fallout. (Is it me, or does he look like Bobcat Goldwaith? But of course, far less scary!)
- My reaction? Award for the worst timing EVER! While I did give NARAL kudos earlier this month, I gotta say that I was shocked at such poor timing. I know that Kate Michaelman is an Obama woman, but come on...it's not like you were trying to submarine Lieberman! *sigh* I'm on a listserv with a lot of second wavers & 99% of them are working their tails off for Hillary. The heartbreak is unbearable.
- The NY Times has a great piece on women in science and the hurdles they have to jump through AND why sometimes they just pack up their microscope and go home. KUDOS! But...there's always a but, eh? The article is in the fashion/style section. I mentioned it on another listserv I'm on and someone pointed out that perhaps instead of being in a more "serious" section, it's getting more attention. Thoughts?
- Noemi reports, "In at least one case, a guard reportedly got a female detainee pregnant. It’s all happening at the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall. News 4 Trouble Shooter Brian Collister brings you the fall out from his investigation." Read more.
- Want to evacuate from a hurricane? Better have your papers ready!
- The Ask a Working Woman Survey 2008 is out! "The survey is an opportunity for working women in America to tell decision-makers what it's like to be a working woman in America in election years. Opinions will be collected through June 20, 2008. The findings will be announced to decision makers and released in nationwide media in order to highlight and help improve the status of the working mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, aunts, cousins, and nieces in all of our American families." Go take it!
- Chicago Public Schools are tauting an increase in the number of graduates attending college. Parents United for Responsible Education isn't so sure we should be celebrating.
- June 2nd is the 3rd Annual Blogging for LGBT Family Day!
- Ward Connerly's Super Tuesday is losing steam. Maybe he can rename it Good Tuesday?
- An interview with Amy Richards (not to be confused with one of my BFFs) at RH Reality Check is a must read.
- Today Google had another special holiday logo, this time about the invention of the laser. So it got me thinking...have they tipped their hat to a woman? Answer, outside of recognizing International Women's Day in 2005, nope.
Happy Fair Pay Day!
Today is Friday, April 18th...the 109th day of the year. Why does that matter? Because Equal Pay or Fair Pay day marks the day when women have finally earned enough money to equal what a man made in the previous year.
In other words, if the dude in the cubicle next to you made $50,000 last year and on average you made $38,5000. That is 77 cents on the man's dollar....it would take you until today to equal his $50,000. Of course, he's still earning, so you're super behind for this year.
Of course my example is compared to a white man's dollar and that woman earning 77 cents on the dollar are white women. What about us Latinas?
Minority women fare significantly worse. In 2006, the median earnings of African American women working full-time, year-round were $30,3525 compared to $48,4206 for white, non-Hispanic men; the median for Hispanic women was only $25,198.7 This means that an African American woman earned just 63 cents for every dollar earned by a white, non-Hispanic man, while a Hispanic woman earned only 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white, non-Hispanic male counterpart.8 In both cases, this pay gap for women of color was only marginally smaller than it was in 2004. [link]52 cents? Pinche 52 cents?
Instead of just getting all pissy about us getting the shaft there is something to be done! The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will be voted on at any moment. Contact your Senators!! Of course you known one of mine and he better get his hopeful ass off the campaign trail to make that vote, close or not. NOW describes the bill and why we need it passed:
Fair pay is one reason why I push young women and girls into science & engineering. Women in some of these fields are earning a fair pay, for the most part, and sometimes are in such demand that they earn MORE than the white dude next to them. Go ahead and use that the next time your daughter tries to talk you into blowing off her math homework.The Ledbetter Act was drafted to overturn the Supreme Court's May decision in the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which dealt a near-fatal blow to underpaid workers' ability to use the protections of civil rights laws to remedy pay discrimination.
Lilly Ledbetter had worked at Goodyear for 19 years when she discovered she was being paid significantly less than every single one of her male counterparts. A jury agreed that she had been paid unfairly, and awarded her $223,776 in back pay, and over $3 million in punitive damages, but a judge cut that to only $300,000 because of a 1991 law that limited a company's liability for damages — even when found guilty of willful wage discrimination.
In an "off with her head" moment, the U.S. Supreme Court took away every penny of the back pay and damages awarded to Lilly Ledbetter, saying incredibly that the 180 day filing limit had begun way back when the very first paycheck showed lesser pay. Eighteen years of continuing wage discrimination against Ledbetter by Goodyear held no sway with the Roberts court.
Women in the construction industry, for example, earned median weekly wages that were only 86% of what their male counterparts earned. And women in computer and mathematical occupations had weekly earnings that were 85% of the wages paid their male counterparts. [link]Technorati tags: fair pay, equal pay, feminism, work, latina, National Women's Law Center
New Blog -- My Voice, My Choice
The Chicago Abortion Fund has launched a new blog for their My Voice, My Choice leadership project. It's still brand-spanking new with only 3 posts, but make sure that you bookmark them, grab their RSS feed, or add them to your blogroll.
This blog will be THE place to hear from young women of color who have had abortions, aren't afraid to tell their stories, and tell the stories of others.
I've been in many, many meetings where feminists wring their hands and scratch their heads and wonder, "Where are the women of color?" "How can we get them to the table?" Well folks, they are right over at the CAF blog and they set their own table. Why don't you please join them?
Technorati tags: abortion, women of color, feminism, women's health, Chicago Abortion Fund
