Viva la Feminista

Venus Vs. Premiere Date | July 2nd at 8:00PM ET on ESPN People, pop the popcorn, grab your sodas and get comfy because "Venus Vs." is a must watch film. And no, you don't have to be a sports fan. Let me tell you why. I love tennis, but I don't follow it very closely. When the Williams sisters arrived on the tennis scene, I fell in love. They were brassy and definitely not "country club" players. In Serena William's memoir , she discussed some of the racism that the sisters have experienced at the professional level. In "Venus Vs." this racism is addressed via the infamous "hair bead" situation and other incidents. But most of this film focuses on Venus' decision to take on the decades long battle to obtain equal prize money for women players at Wimbledon. When Billie Jean King won Wimboldon in 1968, her prize money was equal to 37% of the men's pay package. In 2005, Venus joins the off-and-on fight for equal money. And ...

When I graduated college in 1997, I walked away with just over $10,000 in student loan debt. It seemed insurmountable back then. It would seem like pocket change today. Today, student loans are impacting a generation of young people like nothing else. Democracy for America has created this great infographic to show us exactly what is at stake when it comes to the student loan crisis. Besides the marketplace reasons to get student loan debt under control, I am seriously worried about the number of people putting off starting a family. I am also worried about what this crisis is doing to young women's earning and savings power. Due to the wage gap, women end up paying MORE of their newly earned income compared to the men they graduated with: A woman with a B.A. in psychology and social work without a graduate degree brings in a median of $40,000 annually, compared to a man with the same credentials, who makes $52,000. Take-home pay can vary by state, but if this woman ...

I have to be honest, I really didn't expect the Supreme Court to toss the Wal-Mart class action. I don't know what I was thinking, but when I read that the USSC sided with Wal-Mart I yelped...and not a good one. The issue that the class action hinged on? Commonality. Apparently because the majority did not think that all the 1.5 million women of Wal-Mart had a common experience, the case can't be a class action suit. I wonder where they leaves other large class action suits ? But what really got my goat is the implication that Wal-Mart is so large that it can't be held responsible for what a few "bad" managers do in respect to women employees. Really? Wal-Mart is too large to sue for sex discrimination? Oh hell no! Then in the majority decision, Scalia says that he believed that any manager would want the best person for the job, man or woman. Really? This clearly shows that Scalia has no idea what happens in the real world and hasn't had to cold app...

Today is Blog for Equal Pay Day!  This post isn't meant to be lazy, but I realized that the idea I had for today I already did over at Girl w/Pen . Yes, I've finally gotten to the point in my writing where I have forgotten what I've written about. It took a web search to remind me. Oh, so pathetic...but back to today's post.... One reason why I am passionate about piquing girls' interest in science and engineering as a career path is the money. Even in this recession, starting salaries for computer-related and engineering careers are on the rise. They are also usually higher than any other field. This can be quite a carrot for sticking out a second semester of Calculus or even organic chemistry. But I also tell my students that there is a wage gap for scientists and engineers. Back in 1999, the National Science Foundation found that the wage gap for engineers was only 13 cents . Not bad. Overall for science, engineering and math, it looks like the wage gap in...

This was originally posted at the AWEARNESS blog. There is a reported rise in people simply walking away from their mortgages . To me, that's pretty darn scary. And what's more, considering that the Obama-backed refinancing program isn't all it's chalked up to be, I can picture more people doing this. And why shouldn't they? Businesses do it without much repercussion. Well, the big stick in this picture is our credit history. Walk away from your mortgage and who knows what the future has for you? The credit risk is high and akin to smashing a mirror on purpose -- back out of a mortgage and get yourself seven years of bad credit. There's also the theory that by walking away from your dream home that is underwater, you start to sink your neighbor's dream as well. That's a lot of guilt to manage. On a recent NPR segment, a caller named Bill said he thought that paying one's mortgage was the morally correct thing to do. Brent White, law profess...

Originally posted at the AWEARNESS blog Fellow AWEARNESS writer David Alm shed a light recently on the plight of teenage runaways . Having to cope with economic uncertainty ripping their families apart, and even sex slavery (that's what I call underage prostitution, especially when it involves 10-year-olds), many of our nation's youth are facing tough times that can result in homelessness. Even my favorite "Golden Girl," Bea Arthur, chimed in on the topic from the heavens when her estate revealed last week that she left $300,000 to a gay youth shelter . Now that's being a friend to the end. . . and then some! But if there is any silver lining whatsoever to the cloud of homelessness, it's that the media are beginning to show homelessness in a new, human, light. The Chicago Tribune just profiled a family who goes between living in a storage unit and various motels. Why is this news? Because it is straining our education systems: Ron O'Connor, Will Cou...

Can it be done? I sure hope so. While I still identify with my working class background, I also acknowledge the numerous privileges I have earned. My mother always let my sisters and I know that my parents moved us into our school district for the "better" education we would get. This wasn't just so we would get a good education, it was so that we would have better career options than our parents had and thus for our children to have a "better" life. So here I sit with bachelor's and masters degrees in my fairly comfortable upper middle class life. wow. What got me thinking about all of this were two things: 1) Our daughter came home with a note about an after-school science program. My husband asked her if she wanted to do it and she said yes. He immediately filled out the application and was ready to grab the checkbook to pay the almost $200 fee. WOW. I pulled out of Model UN and color guard camp for money reasons. Thus when I did get to participat...

By Seth Wessler Fourteen months ago, Vincent, a slim 46-year-old Black man with a youngish face and a pressed plaid shirt, worked as a maintenance technician in Detroit. He’d been with the company for almost three months, but five days before he would have become eligible for full-time hire and benefits, his employer ran a criminal background check, and told Vincent to pack up. “A lot of times, they cut you out of the job before they hire you in [full time],” Vincent said, sitting at a diner near the temporary worker center where he waits for work from 8 am to 6 pm every day. Vincent has had a few temporary jobs since but hasn’t found even a day of work in recent weeks. A breaking and entering conviction from 25 years ago follows him everywhere. “It’s real hurtful to know that your chances are so broke down to zero,” he said. I met Vincent last month while traveling the country to explore the hidden impacts of the recession for my job at a racial justice think tank. Dozens of people to...

In my attempt to understand economics better, I've made friendly with Susan F. Feiner . I asked her a few months ago if she could address the issue of "fair trade" and this is what she sent me: A friend and colleague, Robert Pollin (see PERI, political economy research institute) has done fabulous work on fair trade (and living wages). In his book Contours of Descent he works up an example asking "what would happen to US retail prices if the wages paid to workers in Mexican garment assembly factories in the maquiladora zone were paid a Mexican living wage?" The answer is surprising: US retail prices MIGHT go up as much as ten cents (on items that now cost around $25), or the price increase might be as little as a nickel. Like Pollin I think most Americans would be happy to pay ten cents more for a $25 shirt or pair of pants if they knew that meant the workers making the clothes were receiving a living wage. If you'd like I can explain the real reasons polit...

I was thinking about how Palin keeps touting her experience as a hockey mom, that I'm a full fledged soccer mom now (practice was yesterday!) then I was inspired by Mamita Mala's post about privilege , I thought that I'd price out the starting cost for this executive experience: All prices are from Sports Authority . Please leave a comment if you think I forgot a piece of equipment. I left out things that might be under uniform (t-shirt, jersey, etc.) and I priced things out as cheap as possible on both sides. Hockey Equipment Cost Soccer Equipment Cost Easton Synergy SY50 Senior Ice Hockey Skate 49.99 Wilson Traditional Soccer Ball 9.99 Nike Bauer Supreme 30 Senior Ice Hockey Shoulder Pads 59.99 Pro Feet Mens Acrylic All-Sport Team Sock - Minimum 2 Pairs Per Order 2.99 Nike Bauer Supreme 30 Senior Ice Hockey Elbow Pads 39.99 Lotto Stadio Azzurri Team FG 2T Soccer Cleat Mens 44.99 Nike Bauer Supreme 30 Senior Ice Hockey Shin Guards 24.97 adidas Predator Lite Shin Guards 6.9...

You're 45, but don't look a day over 5. Why? Because Fair Pay is still an issue, so it's hard to believe that you are 45. That for 45 years we have had fair pay "the law of the land" yet we still wonder if the man down the hall is getting paid more than we. You are the law that made it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who perform equal work — which was signed by President Kennedy back in 1963. Since women still only earn 77 cents to the dollar, you are in desperate need of some back-up. But even though several bills have been introduced repeatedly — including the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Fair Pay Act — Congress still hasn’t stepped up to the plate. Plus, of course, the Senate still hasn’t passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act , which would have a major impact on the lives of women who’ve been subject to pay discrimination. Of course, we wouldn't know if we were being discriminated against because some people don't have th...

Remember my post about a new feminist economics blog? Well, there's another! Susan Feiner left a comment to let me know about her blog. I just zoomed thru her first posts and I am in love. Not sure if with her or the idea of feminist economics, but it's love. Here are just a few snippets from her blog: 45 years ago American feminist Betty Friedan saw how suburban isolation undermined women’s health and restricted women’s choices. In a now classic essay, “ The Problem That Has No Name ” Friedan successfully linked the repressive domesticity of the 1950s to suburbanization. Friedan’s analysis was pooh-poohed as a “women’s” issue. Coming soon to a station near you: $5.00/gallon gas. VOILLA! Here’s the basic idea. In a recession, people are losing their jobs, businesses are cutting back, and the level of private spending is falling off. The government can step in and replace some of the purchasing power that’s disappead. People without jobs have no income so their spending go...

I have a some-what secret obsession...economics. I've only taken one economics course and I HAD to take it for my master's degree. I dreaded it like nothing I've ever taken before - Yes, even Organic Chemistry was less of a dread. My freshman year of college, my roommate's (not the hubby!) dad was a well-known economist. He had held positions in I think the Bush I administration and kept bugging me to take economics. "You're a smart girl and I think you'd like it." GAG! Economics? Learning about the market forces that I knew were keeping poor people poor? Well, yes...I really did need to know about that. That said, during my econ course, I swear I must have made the instructor so upset that he wanted to kill me. This was microecon I...total intro to econ course, thus reality was to be left at the door. Except that NO ONE told me that! I vividly recall one night where he was talking market forces, supply & demand, and why local entities shouldn'...