I’m not making this up, though I wish I was. And it’s not in some right-wing paper either. I imagine we’ll be hearing a lot about this. (Thanks, BTPS.)
Do female academics have fewer kids? July 9, 2008
This study (of anthropologists) suggests that they do– as compared to women in other professions with similar training times. Many interesting puzzles to be found in the data, but I’ll never get this book written if I get started on them here! (Thanks, Sally!)
Mentoring and Diversity June 9, 2008
Sophia Wong has posted a short essay on “how to mentor someone who doesn’t look like you”, but as she notes the issues are much broader than those related to appearance– how, for example do you mentor a student with kids if you don’t have kids? Or a trans person if you’re not trans? A disabled person if you’re not disabled? Since under-represented groups *are* under-represented, people from the better represented groups need to do some thinking about how to be good mentors to those unlike them. And Wong lists some simple, useful tips. Go check it out!
Women Still Not Running for Public Office June 2, 2008
For the American version of the Fawcett report, see the recent Brookings Institute report which surveyed thousands of men and women in public service, to produce “the first comprehensive investigation of the process by which women and men decide to enter the electoral arena.” The good news is that by most measures, women perform as well as men in office and once on ballots. The less thrilling news is that women are far less likely to run. This is for both internal and external reasons, e.g., women report feeling less ambitious with respect to high office, but in addition, women are asked less often, seeming to occur as options less often to recruiters. (Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post immediately noticed the difference between women in public service primarily responsible for house- and child-care, 60%, and men in public service primarily responsible for house- and child-care, 4%. One might call that a significant difference!)
If only my dad were in a position of power. When I asked him to imagine candidates for vice-president, all he could come up with in either party were the names of women. I suggested, oh, about 80% of the U.S. Senate, to which he replied, “Nah.” Way to go, Dad!
A Pregnant Man April 6, 2008
The story of a man (an FTM trans man) having a baby has got a lot of press. Rachel McKinney was right, though to write and urge us to get feminist philosophers talking about it, as it really is great food for thought– and for messing with all those traditional sex and gender binaries. McKinney writes at her blog:
I like the situation discussed in the Advocate article because it can be interpreted as evidence that reproductive capacity as a sufficient condition for sex distinction is not uncontroversially true.
And it can also serve to make one really wonder whether it’s a sex distinction or a gender distinction at issue. Or how each of these should be drawn. (Think of definitions of ‘woman’ as a gender term that include as sufficient the experience of being pregnant; but also of those that focus on self-identification; or those that invoke how one is perceived by others. Think of definitions of ‘female’ as a sex term that focus on reproductive organs; now think of those that include secondary sexual characteristics like facial hair.) And, as I realised when I went to click on categories, about the categories of maternity and paternity. (This father will in all likehood give birth in a maternity ward.) This is one of those cases one can keep going back and forth with, realising the inadequacies of our current categories. Its also a really lovely tale of a couple managing to have their much-wanted child despite both infertility problems and the additional problems of truly vile discrimination that they encountered. Though the latter is pretty depressing to read about.
Trading housework for sex? March 6, 2008
From the AP’s article “Men Who do More Housework Get More Sex”
American men still don’t pull their weight when it comes to housework and child care, but collectively they’re not the slackers they used to be. The average dad has gradually been getting better about picking himself up off the sofa and pitching in, according to a new report in which a psychologist suggests the payoff for doing more chores could be more sex.
The article reports on what sounds like an all-around good trend: more equitable division of household labour and more sex. What’s not to like? Well, one thing not to like is the assumption that sex is a reward for men– a thing that women give to them in exchange for labour. Has it ever occurred to the article’s author or the headline writer that sex might be, well, desired by both partners? Or that if it’s happening and it *isn’t* desired by both partners that’s something *bad*? (Thanks, Jender-Parents!)
Strange and Disturbing Statistics January 25, 2008
From an improbable source (a NYRB article on global warming), I’ve learned:
that between 1992 and 2004, the percentage of Americans who agreed with the statement “The father of the family must be the master in his own house” went from 42 to 52 percent. But at the same time, the percentage who agreed that “taking care of the home and kids is as much a man’s work as women’s work” rose from 86 percent in 1992 to 89 percent in 2004.
What did I find so striking about this? Well, if I’d only seem the second set of figures, I might well have thought that 89% of Americans in 2004 had abandoned the idea of traditional gender roles within the family– it sounds great that 89% think “taking care of the home and kids is as much a man’s work as women’s”. And it is great. But the shocking thing is that at the very same time 52% still think the man must be “master in his own house”. If I’d read this one alone, I would have thought over half of Americans supported traditional gender roles in the family. So I found this quite an important lesson regarding how crucial it is not to just look at one set of figures and think we have the full picture. (In fact, it makes me want to go look at the rest of the study– who knows what might be in there?– but I haven’t had the chance.)
Another surprise: if I’d been told that there was a big difference in answer to the two questions, I would have guessed that more people would be willing to say that taking care of children is women’s work than would be willing to say that a man should be “master in his home”. After all, the first fits well with rather widely accepted claims about innate differences between men and women, and the second sounds (to me anyway) like a very obvious endorsement of male dominance. I would have expected the latter to be less socially acceptable and so less likely to be agreed to.
The final surprise: the number assenting to the “master of his house” claim went UP. Eek.
What Every Baby Needs: Disembodied Hands December 11, 2007
Aside from the OH MY GOD IT’S SO CREEPY factor (not to be underestimated), and my view that we all need a laugh at this point in the semester, this is actually relevant to our blog. Because those are apparently the MOTHER’S hands being simulated (who else’s could do the job?) And yes, Mom does seem required to be beige. But I’ve just got to leave you with the tagline: “It’s like leaving a part of you with the baby.” Really. That is actually the tagline. (Thanks, Mr Jender!)
“Gay Rights Have Gone Too Far!” December 6, 2007
A likely response, I expect, to news that a UK man who donated sperm to a lesbian couple, now separated, is being required to pay child support. The truth, actually, is precisely the opposite. (1) If the couple had obtained sperm from a donor bank, the man would have no legal responsibilities. But donor banks are currently permitted (though not required) to turn away lesbian couples because of the absence of a male role model. (2) If the non-birth-mother had been legally recognised as a parent, the man would not have had any legal responsibilities. So really what’s needed is MORE gay rights. Changes to the law are currently being considered:
Proposed legislation, at committee stage in the House of Lords before passing to the Commons, would give equal parenting rights, including financial responsibilities, to both members of same sex couples, but the change will come too late for Bathie, who is lobbying for the laws to be made retrospective and for him not to be seen as the legal parent of the children, now aged two and four.
A really nice illustration of interconnectedness. Lesbian rights help heterosexual man!
Having Children and Doing Philosophy November 27, 2007
Noelle McAfee’s got a really interesting discussion going over at her blog about problems combining parenthood and being a philosopher. Go check it out!
Right To (Request) Flexible Work November 7, 2007
In the UK. From The Guardian
Gordon Brown used his first Queen’s speech yesterday to set out a potentially costly and controversial work-life balance agenda that could give flexible working rights to as many as 4.5 million extra parents. Employees with children as old as 17 could be extended rights that have proved incredibly popular to parents with much younger families.
At present the right to seek flexible working applies only to parents with children under six or parents of disabled children under 18.
Note that this is only the right to *request* flexible work. But that in itself is important, as employees have been discriminated against just for making such requests. Even more importantly, however, it seems employers are actually responding well to such requests.
The government released a survey yesterday that suggested there was increasing interest in flexible working, with a surprising 93% of employers responding favourably to requests by staff.
(For those unfamiliar with the Queen’s Speech Phenomenon, it may seems strange that *Brown* could make proposals via the *Queen’s* speech. But the Queen’s speech is written by whoever is in goverment– she just delivers it. Hmm… there’s gotta be something interesting in there for a creative philosopher of language to play with!)
Knowledge and Emotions September 28, 2007
Feminist philosophers have been played an important role in the now-quite-popular rejection of the idea that emotions are only obstacles to reason and knowledge-seeking. Here’s a nice example of emotions helping someone to arrive at moral knowledge– specifically the knowledge that gay relationships and people deserve the same respect as straight ones. The Republican mayor of San Diego recently reversed his opposition to same sex marriage, citing knowledge gained from his relationship with his lesbian daughter and her partner:
He fought back tears as he said that he wanted his adult daughter, Lisa, and other gay people he knows to have their relationships protected equally under state laws. His daughter was not at the news conference.“In the end, I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships - their very lives - were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife, Rana,” Sanders said.
A Wonderful Shop September 22, 2007
Having recently criticised gender-stereotyped children’s marketing (kind of like shooting fish in a barrel), it seems a good time to call your attention to the fabulous Twisted Twee and its Equal Opportunity Baby Grows. They also have other very funny items. Can’t say, however, that I personally will be rushing to order Margaret Thatcher underwear for my son.
More on Prosperity, Sex Selection and Language August 26, 2007
Jender relayed the dismal news that sex selective abortions have risen with the rise in prosperity in India. According to a report in MS, there may also be a mitigating trend.
Cable television may promote gender equality and reduce domestic violence in rural India, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper. Women who were exposed to cable television over a 6- to 7-month period in India were less likely to report a preference for sons or complacency with domestic violence, and more likely to report autonomy in household decision-making, according to the working paper. In addition, more girls enrolled in school and fertility rates dropped.
The NBER working paper, based on surveys conducted in 2,700 households in the years 2001, 2002, and 2003, indicates that television alters behavior by exposing individuals to a new set of worldviews and lifestyles.
The researchers register the worry that part of what they are seeing is just a change in what the respondents think they are supposed to say, but they think that’s still progress. This observation may remind one of Jender’s comments about the language used to report the original finding. Is changing the language - or what counts as the right thing to say - progress?
My vote is “yes.” To make years or centuries of denigrating language publicly impermissible is a way of problematizing issues. My reasons for saying that are based on experiences with political-geographical areas where racist and sexist language and comments have not been disallowed, and the underlying attitudes remain relatively unexamined.
Changing what one will say to an interviewer may then be a start in the reexamination of views. It is a small change, but, according to the NBER working paper, one accompanied in this case by positive changes in both girls’ schooling and fertility rates.
What do you think?
Prosperity and Sex-Selection (and Language) August 22, 2007
A very grim story, sent by the Jender-Parents: Apparently as people in India get wealthier, sex-selective abortion is on the rise. (The older, cheaper method of female infanticide is still going strong, too, as evidenced by a recent finding of 40 female foetus and baby skulls in a well.) This article serves as a reminder of how complicated things are. Increasing prosperity: Good. Increasing access to abortion: Good. But put these in an unjust context, and the effects may not be so good. This is why it’s vital to look at the total picture, as advocates of reproductive justice urge.
(At the risk (make that ‘certainty’) of being a pedant, I can’t help but notice that the BBC article also offers some interesting linguistic tidbits:
Even though it is illegal in India for a doctor to reveal the gender of an unborn child, the law is rarely enforced.
First, we’ve got the use of ‘gender’ where sex is clearly what is meant, then we get the use of ‘unborn child’ for foetus.)
Police Campaign on Genital Mutilation July 12, 2007
Here’s a report from the BBC about the Metropolitan Police’s new Campaign to counteract female genital mutilation. They are offering a £20,000 reward for information which leads to a convictions for female genital mutilation. Apparently, they’ve timed the campaign to coincide with the school summer holidays since this is the time when it happens most - they suggest as many as 7000 girls in the U.K. are at risk.
Lack of affordable childcare… July 11, 2007
…during the summer holidays reported on here, following a survey by the daycare trust.
Obviously the article isn’t aiming to say everything that one might say about childcare, but I found it interesting that there is NO mention of gender issues at all - the implications of the lack of childcare, say, for parents and in particular, given norms about primary care giving roles, mothers. Presumably widespread boredom of children isn’t the only consequence of the lack of childcare. Some parents must be doing a fair bit of juggling, or cutting back on hours, or double shifts in order to work around childcare…
(Again, see Okin for more related to this, and how such commitments, combined with the fact that women often take on the primary care-giving role, contribute to their exclusion from or hindrance in the workforce.)
Work, childcare, ending gender June 20, 2007
Zoe Williams writes here about recent statistics on fathers’ participation in childcare and workplace strategies for enabling this - they indicate relatively low participation (1 in 20 refusing payrise, 1 in 10 going part time - though it is not clear whether the data concerns all men, or all men who are fathers). Her take, similarly to Okin’s (1989), seems to be that until we ‘end gender’ - in particular, the assumptions about who does what, family-structure-wise - problems of equal participation in the work place and the family will remain.
She recommends that men should sacrifice the potential to earn more in the short term, in order to take advantage of, and normalise, the working structures that permit more equal participation in childcare. Interesting that this is expressed all in terms of ’sacrifice’, rather than emphasising the surely many good things for men who have more participation in the family…
Naming and Choice June 15, 2007
So… we’re probably all familiar with feminist arguments against the assumption that children must bear their father’s last name. And we’re all familiar (some of us intimately) with people, including feminists, who give children the father’s last name. It’s actually very interesting to see the wide variety of explanations for this choice, which somehow the overwhelming majority of couples (even couples where the woman kept her own name) end up making. But did you realise that until 2002 this wasn’t a choice in Washington, D.C.? Up until this time, a married couple couldn’t get a birth certificate for a child unless they gave the child the husband’s name. Also important to the issue of choice is the fact that, in most states, it’s far more difficult and expensive for a man to change his name than for a woman to do so. Nice example of the way that constraints on men and women are inter-related. More on this from Jessica at Feministing here.
Paternity Leave in the UK June 5, 2007
A new scheme is due to come in soon in the UK, under which there will be a statutory 12 months parental leave upon the birth of a baby. (I don’t know if this applies to adoption as well.) Mothers get the first six months, and either mothers or fathers may take the second six months. This scheme is now being criticised as unlikely to be taken up by many men, because the £100/week they would be paid is not very much money. It is predicted that only 4-8% of UK men would take this leave, compared to 90% of men taking up paternity leave in other European countries. Campaigners are arguing that the UK should follow Sweden’s lead in having some leave that is only available to men. For more, see here.
