Viva la Feminista

As long-time readers know, my paying job is to support women who are studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). I often get asked what the magic key or silver bullet is for getting more girls into STEM. While the actual answer is complex and nuanced, when I am talking with parents it usually ends up being, "Let them break things & get dirty." This is why I am excited to invite you to join me for #STEMchat with SciGirls on May 21st about citizen science. I love the tagline, "Do Try This at Home," because that is such a key to the puzzle! Do science at home. Demystify it. You don't have to be a genius to do science. And I'm super excited to be chatting with SciGirls. Now in its third season, SciGirls features real-life girls and mentors engaging in science, citizen science. As the SciGirls track toads and count clouds, they also hope to inspire SciGirls (and SciBoys) to join the citizen science movement. Citizen science invit...

One of the best outcomes from Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In,” is that the issue of women in leadership has taken center stage in the public conversation. Concepts such as the glass ceiling, the wage gap and gender bias in the workplace have a renewed sense of purpose. What also has renewed activity is the debate over having it all and work/life balance. I got the opportunity to speak to Sheryl Connelly, Futurist for Ford Motor Company . Yes, I got to speak to a woman who is high up on the leadership ladder whose job it is to spirit the future. First thing's first, what is a futurist? Connelly says, "Well, I am not a fortune teller and I do not try to predict the future. What I try to do is pick up on trends that will be important to Ford’s long term plans." According to Connelly, any organization that does long term planning and strategy is futuring. Considering that the conversation about women's equality, especially in the workplace and elected positions is alwa...

I made it into the NYTimes, folks! I wrote an op-ed about how the perfect gift for Mother's Day is a selfie. It stems from the fact that I do not have a lot of photos with my mom. Please check it out and share widely. I also wrote a Mother's Day piece for LatinaMom.me about learning to love Mother's Day again : It has been 12 years since I've had a mom. It has also been 12 years since I became a mom. The cognitive dissonance can be overwhelming and becomes unbearable as we build up to Mother's Day. My mom died at the start of my third trimester, as I was pregnant with her much-requested first grandchild. And it sucks more and more every Mother's Day. But every year, I also grow to love Mother's Day in a new way. Soon after my mom's death, I let my subscription to Mother Jones lapse because their renewal notices had marketing copy on the envelopes that read: "Your Mother Wants to Hear from You!" In my head was a litany of curse ...

Are you looking for last minute gifts for Mother's Day? Well I'm last minute blogging about it! CARDS: Don't send the mother figure in your life a cheesy card from the drug store. No way! Send the radical woman in your life a radical Mamas Day card . I particularly love this one because my university's graduation falls often falls on Mother's Day as it does this year. These cards are awesome because you can send it to her via email, but the images are beautiful enough to print out and hand make a card. GIFTS: You can refer to previous gift guides to get some ideas, but since this is last minute we need to think strategically. Give the gift of Bitch Magazine! If your mama is a feminist and loves pop culture, she'll love Bitch magazine. Or if she can wait a bit, get her a print of the "Home & Away" issue . Maybe she needs some new coasters to rest her Manhattans? Oh yeah, I am now on the board of Bitch Media , so I'll be asking you ...

In what will be just the start of Hillary products I get pitched comes a fun peek at the girl who would be President. Hillary: The Coloring Book gives you over 60 pages of coloring including a page dedicated to when she was dancing up a storm in South Africa . Since coloring books for adults are all the rage, why not grab one where you get to color in a zillion pant suits? My favorite pages are of hippie Hillary. And thanks to the publisher, I can offer you a head start on creating your own Hillary campaign poster. Just download the PDF file and grab your crayons. Support Viva la Feminista by purchasing your book through Indiebound .

If you were to judge " Bitch Planet " by its back cover, you would expect a barrel of feminist camp awaiting you. The back cover of the first two issues are a play off 1950s comic book ads for x-ray glasses and hypnotizing tools, this time the glasses see through men's intentions and you hypnotize women away from being perfect...to allow you to take the top slot! I do want to conceal $3.00 in an envelope for a new signature. But once inside, the world of "Bitch Planet" will take your breath away. The premise is that in the near future humans have found a planet to exile problematic women at an auxiliary compliance outpost, aka Bitch Planet. It is clearly run by a cadre of men who take joy in seeing non-compliant women punished into submission. But with a tip of the hat to Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale," the women are greeted and interrogated by virtual women who look like Faye Dunaway in a Xena costume and even some women in riot g...

Half way through Frida Berrigan’s contribution to mom lit, It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing Into Rebellious Motherhood , I thought this was the best book ever. I even said in my Goodreads update that it was so good that I could put my aspirations of writing a book on motherhood to bed. Now that I am done with her part-mothering book, part-memoir, I can say that I still might give mine a go, but this is certainly one the best books about raising children I have ever read. Berrigan is the daughter of acclaimed peace activist Philip Berrigan. Some of us might know his name from the Dar Williams song, I Had No Right , which depicts Phillip and his brother Daniel’s trial for burning draft cards . Frida was raised in strict accordance to her parents’ dedication to the peace movement which included a commitment to living as simply as possible and shunning good ole’ fashioned American consumerism. As a former priest and nun, Frida’s parents also raised them t...