Posts Tagged ‘ sexism ’

So if Robin Givhan isn’t sexist…

May 26, 2010
By
So if Robin Givhan isn’t sexist…

By now you’ve probably heard that Washington Post fashion columnist Robin Givhan took on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan and her wardrobe in Givhan’s column this past weekend. She wrote about Kagan, “mostly she embraced dowdy as a mark of brainpower.” Why is it the media always assumes women who don’t relish fashion are making some kind of statement? Last month Kate Betts at The Daily Beast tackled Hillary Clinton’s wardrobe and “distinctly dowdy pumps.” Betts wrote about Clinton’s Oscar de la Renta suits, “She wears them to fit in, not to stand out, and that’s what bugs me.” How does Betts know that? And how does Givhan know Kagan dresses to send a message about her brains? They don’t. Yes fashion can make a statement – a powerful one at that – but only for the people who care about that stuff. Remember that episode of “Sex and the City” when Berger says to Miranda about a guy who never called after the first date, “he’s just not that into you“? Well guess what Givhan and Betts, some people just aren’t that into fashion. Some people, believe it or not, wear clothes because they have to – clothes keep them [...]

Read more »

Is Elena Kagan a Careerist?

May 13, 2010
By
Is Elena Kagan a Careerist?

“She seems to be smart, impressive and honest — and in her willingness to suppress so much of her mind for the sake of her career, kind of disturbing.” So wrote New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks about President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. Kagan is a tough nut for the media to crack. Three days after the President named her as his nominee, there is still no “wise latina” controversy to feed on. Yes her sexual orientation has been questioned and her appearance has been criticized, but that’s about as deep as it gets. And wise Americans know it’s also irrelevant. Neither the left nor the moderate right can confidently claim her as their own because Kagan has not left much of a paper trail in the course of her distinguished career. Aside from a memo about late term abortions – more strategic than opinionated, Kagan has managed a stellar, and mostly neutral career. And so, we criticize her for that. Critics are saying Kagan is a careerist. Careerists don’t make the best friends. They’ll blow off drinks for a deadline. They usually don’t make the best spouses or the best parents. But if they have savvy [...]

Read more »

Confession: Sexual Harassment, I Dealt With It

May 6, 2010
By
Confession: Sexual Harassment, I Dealt With It

In the wake of Cindy Adams irresponsible New York Post column where she tells women who experience sexual harassment to “deal with it” I have a confession. Several years ago I took a job where I was the only women on the management team and the first female vice president at the company. One month after I started, I was at a tradeshow with some of the sales team, and one of our vendors visiting from Germany, all men. When the exhibit hall closed, the event organizers hosted a cocktail party with a live band and dance floor. I decided to hang out for awhile – thinking it would be a good opportunity to bond with my new coworkers. But after a few drinks, the sales guys started morphing into pigs. Our European guest was on the dance floor, extremely drunk and hitting on every woman he saw. The rest of the group decided it was time to move on to another bar. “We can’t just leave (our vendor) here. Someone needs to drive him back to his hotel,” I said. Their responses varied from, “Why don’t you take him home? He’d like that,” to “If we leave him here [...]

Read more »

Cindy Adams Gets it Wrong

May 4, 2010
By
Cindy Adams Gets it Wrong

Last week in the New York Post, columnist Cindy Adams shared advice for victims of sexual harassment. “Deal with it.” Adams writes, “Calling a lawyer to say, “I’m suing because this guy laid his hands on me”? Oh, please, if that’s his only part he laid on you, get some nail extensions and inform Larry Lothario next time you’ll rake him like the leaves.” When it comes to sexual harassment in the workplace, conventional  corporate wisdom, sadly, still says woman who bring claims against coworkers should be prepared to walk away from their jobs, and sometimes their careers. Those who call out the offenders can be pegged as undesirables in the corporate world. But advocating a woman just deal with it, is not the answer. Consider this: in 2009 the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received 12,696 cases of sexual harassment and resolved 11,948 of them. Sexual harassment can be devastating. Even Adams remembers the names of the people who harassed her – at ages ten and 16. How well has she dealt with it? Adams gets one thing right – “we’ve all been there. Those things happened to every one of us in our earlier days.” How we deal [...]

Read more »

WWND?

April 8, 2010
By
WWND?

Ladies, I need advice. Here’s the dilemma. What would you do if you wanted to affect positive change but you knew the change would not be well received if it was presented by a woman to an entrenched ole’ boys network? My head is telling me to get a man to make my case publicly and to stay behind the scenes for the sake of my cause.  After all, isn’t the cause more important than being right? But I don’t think it’s that simple. By remaining behind the scenes, do I risk winning the battle and losing the war? My heart is telling me to own the process and the “boys” will have to just deal with it. If I take this course of action, my proposal might fail, but at least a woman will have stepped forward and spoken up for what she believes. And frankly, I think we need to see a lot more of that going on. But then again, if I do speak out and lose the battle, does the establishment get to use me as yet another proof point for why women don’t belong in the game? When Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was [...]

Read more »

Won’t Work for Free

March 30, 2010
By
Won’t Work for Free

I am reeling. Still. Yesterday morning my client asked me to work for free. The client runs a startup organization and I know money is always tight when a company is trying to get off the ground. Businesses need marketing to attract clients. And they need clients to pay for marketing. It’s always a bit of a chicken egg scenario in the beginning. So I thought what my client was asking was for me to defer billing for several months. I’ve done that before. But no, that’s not what he wanted. He wanted me to work for FREE. I am glad I asked for clarification. In exchange for my expertise, honed for more than 20 years in the business, he was offering me “exposure.” And he said he “hoped” to be able to pay me someday. I run a business.  I feed my family from that business. Hope and exposure don’t buy groceries or pay the mortgage. I am not a recent college grad just starting out and trying to build a portfolio. I am not a housewife with a hobby. I am a breadwinner. Seriously, would my client have asked a man to work for free? I can’t say [...]

Read more »

Newsweek takes on sexism

March 24, 2010
By
Newsweek takes on sexism

Brava to the three Newsweek writers who take on gender discrimination at their own magazine. In the March 29 issue Jessica Bennett, Jesse Ellison and Sarah Ball ask just how far women at Newsweek have come since 46 women filed a sexual discrimination suit against the magazine in 1970. They go on to describe a culture of sexism perhaps less blatant than the corporate landscape of the 1960s and 70s but harder to confront. It is the micro inequities women face every day that can be hardest to address. Tell me “women don’t write here” “or sell here” or “manage here” and I can deal with that. But fail to give me the choice assignments and instead hand them to my male colleagues and what do I do with that? And good luck getting any support from coworkers – male or female. No one wants to fight the good fight, especially since we’ve been told we already won. Write the authors, “There’s no denying that we’re enjoying many of the spoils of those women’s victories. We are no longer huddled in secret; we’re reporting for a national magazine, and we’re the ones doing the writing. We have a president whose [...]

Read more »

For the Ladies

February 12, 2010
By

Remember that Dodge Charger ad titled, “Man’s Last Stand” that aired during the Super Bowl? The one where the man says he will drive the car he wants to drive since the woman in his life makes him do oppressive things like put his dirty socks in the hamper, clean the sink after he shaves and carry her lip balm. Well, there is a “Woman’s Last Stand“ commercial too. And you must see it. This one, is for the ladies. Enjoy the weekend!

Read more »

Super Bowl Backlash

February 9, 2010
By
Super Bowl Backlash

This year’s Super Bowl ads revealed a common, and bizarre, theme. More jarring than even any of the GoDaddy.com spots, were the number of ads that portrayed women as controlling, emasculating and domineering. Or did they portray men as weak, pathetic and incompetent? It was hard to tell. For starters, there was the Dodge Charger ad titled, “Man’s Last Stand.” The ad implied that because of women, men have it tough, real tough. Men (because of the bossy women in their lives) have to walk the dog, eat fruit, shave, clean the sink, take our calls, say yes when we want them to say yes, listen to our opinions and put the toilet seat down. I might have felt sorry for these pathetic creatures portrayed in the ad, if I hadn’t remembered that men do not have to do the majority of the housework, don’t take home .77 cents on the dollar in their checks every week, are occupying the corner office, and Don’t. Give. Birth! And Flo TV’s ad “Spineless” painted an equally upsetting image of a poor man’s life. In this spot, sportscaster Jim Nantz, whose own marriage suffered when his wife lost interest in his career, informed [...]

Read more »

Dear CBS

February 4, 2010
By
Dear CBS

Dear CBS: This weekend my family is going to spend time together celebrating life –we are going to watch the Super Bowl. I hope that during the event you won’t air any frightening or violent commercials for prime-time television shows like CSI or for R-rated movies. My children get really frightened when they see those ads during Sunday afternoon games in the regular season. Actually, forgive me for suggesting you would air any inappropriate commercials this weekend. After all, I know you have gone to great lengths to protect my children. Thanks to you, my kids won’t hear the phrase “Go to hell” in any ads from Electronic Arts. That would have been just shocking. “Hell awaits” is much more family-friendly. And I am so relieved that because of you my children won’t see two men kissing in a ManCrunch ad. Seeing that ad might have forced me to teach my children acceptance and tolerance and they are much too young for that. Since you handled those other thorny issues so well, I am hoping you can help me with another tough parenting topic. When my young daughter asks about the half-naked, NFL cheerleaders gyrating on the sidelines during the [...]

Read more »

Get Adobe Flash player