It’s a phrase that we’ve been hearing a lot lately. The “War on Women,” a battle that is sweeping across America, pushing women back decades. Both democrats and republicans have been accused of waging a war on women. This week things took an interesting turn when Hilary Rosen questioned Ann Romney’s ability to relate to women in America because she’d “never worked a day in her life.” Michelle Obama, jumped to Ann Romney’s defense, and Rosen was quickly denounced as she does not have any affiliation with the Obama campaign. As I’m no expert on American politics — I am, after all, Canadian — I thought I’d roundup some of the internet chatter about the “War on Women,” which really is just a fight to win over female voters. (A fight which Obama currently appears to be winning.) Read More »

One Republican woman joined a group of mostly Democratic senators late last week to try and convince Republicans to support an extended version of the Violence Against Women Act.

The act started as a bill created in 1994 to provide money for “emergency shelters, counseling, rape crisis centers, and legal services for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking.” It passed seven years ago, making it through the Senate without opposition. But a month ago, the new version of the bill was voted down by eight Republican men on the panel. Currently the bill is just two sponsors shy of the 60-vote margin that would guarantee it being passed.

From what I’ve read, the bill is stuck because some politicians oppose the ideas behind the new language. To some, the new provisions appear controversial. Language to include same-sex couples and adding illegal immigrants to its protections are seen as issues by some senators. The Republican senator from Alaska who stood for the bill said: “The Violence Against Women Act is, I think, a ray of hope for those who service victims of domestic violence and sexual assault within our villages.”

Leah has her Bachelor of Journalism in sight with just over a month left at Ryerson University in Toronto. When she’s not working on the Ryerson Review of Journalism she’s baking tasty cupcakes and hunting for a job (hopefully that pays). Follow her @Elleandbee. 

The women’s rights movement has been great, right?

In many ways, yes. In many ways women are much closer to equal income and in some college programs there are more women that men. All in all, women have been making strides over the years. But this isn’t the case for all women. While rich and middle-class women have been climbing all sorts of ladders, less fortunate women have the same amount of equality as back in the 1970s.

Economic Professor Nancy Folbre wrote for the New York Times’ blog, Economix, that 18 percent of women with only a high school diploma are granted paid maternity leave. This is in contrast to the 66 percent of women with a college degree, and just up from the 1970s when 16 per cent of high school grads received paid mat leave. Read More »

So the economy sucks. Graduating with a university degree no longer means you’re a catch when it comes to job hunting, meaning more grads are moving in with their parents. Moving in with your parents and not having money means you’re taking longer to settle into relationships and therefore get married. For a lot of people this will also mean you’re taking longer to have kids, if at all. And everyone seems to be holding this against women.

A study done by Australian researchers shows women who do not have children are at a greater risk for poor health than mothers. Some women with pre-existing health conditions that would discourage them from having children were included in this survey, therefore increasing the number of childless women with poor health. However, overall, women who have not popped out children may have trouble with social functioning and mental health as a result of societal pressures to have children. I’m sure you could relate if you sat next to your old aunt at Thanksgiving that measures accomplishments by the presence of a ring on your finger and a stroller in front of you. Read More »

Obama has endured a ton of criticism in his presidency. His push for health care reform was socialist. His health care reform wasn’t socialist enough. He doesn’t know how to stand up to Republicans. He’s too passive. He’s trying to run our country into the ground by spending too much money. He’s not spending enough to assist the poor. He’s too soft on terrorism. Osama Bin Laden shouldn’t have been killed before having a trial. The list could go on, and on, and on. While I proudly voted for him in 2008, I will freely admit that I feel he’s dropped the ball on important issues. That said, today is his birthday, and I’d like to take a moment to point out some of the great things he has done in the last 2.5 years.

1. Fought for children to have access to their parents’ insurance plan until they’re 26.
This is near and very dear to my heart. I hadn’t been to a doctor in years. I made it through college with nothing more severe than a cold and a bruised ego from too many bad decisions. Naturally, 2.5 seconds after graduating, I got hit with a gnarly kidney infection. Pre-Obama, this would have meant that I was SOL because I was no longer a student. Luckily, that is no longer the case. Especially in this rough economic climate where millions and millions of people are unemployed or in jobs that offer no benefits, this is a great law that protects so many of us.

2. Cracked down on aggressive marketing of credit cards to college students.
We all know the danger of credit cards, but the lure of having hundreds (or thousands) of dollars at your immediate disposal can be great…but not if you lack the means to pay the bill every month. Credit card companies used to actively push credit cards onto students, who usually don’t have enough funds to be responsible credit card owners. So it was not uncommon to graduate college with thousands of dollars in credit debt in addition to student loan debt — making it easier for companies to justify raising interest rates (more debt = higher risk). Now anyone under 21 must have a co-signer and/or verification of independent income. Credit card debt can have a harrowing effect on one’s financial status for many, many years  and Obama’s emphasis on protecting college consumers is definitely admirable.
Read More »

It’s 2011, right? Um, so can anyone tell me why women are STILL getting paid less than men for equal work? Because, as a newly minted college grad looking to jump start my career (and pay off my loans), I’d really like to know.

In a study of nearly 13,000 graduating seniors last fall, researchers discovered that the median starting salary for female college graduates with bachelor’s degrees was $36,451. Not bad, right? Except that the median salary for male college graduates with a bachelor’s degree was $7,708 more. For the same job.

So, apparently having a penis gets you a pay raise? I guess all of those nights I spent praying for boobs in 7th grade would’ve been better spent asking for something else.

The statistics are sad and infuriating. After all, women make up over 50% of university classes! We’re being educated like never before, so it’s not like that’s working against our changes. And the study could not find a correlation between college major and earning, meaning that it’s not like guys are making more money because they tend to pursue a field that pays more. They’re just getting paying more…because they’re men. And keep in mind this is before the company sees any type of job performance.

That sounds fair and equal. Read More »

One of the easiest ways to send me into a rage blackout is to start slut shaming anyone.

Our society has incredibly dysfunctional, scary, and repressive ways of approaching sexuality, especially female sexuality. If we dare to step outside those narrowly defined boundaries, society finds it completely acceptable to hurl words like “slut” and “whore” at us. We’re called sluts for endless reasons: our hair is too big, our nails are too red, we wear too much glitter, our skirts are too short, we look like we may enjoy giving blow jobs, we dance too suggestively, our sense is humor is too raunchy, we like casual sex, we talk about sex, we’re not ashamed of our breasts and vaginas…the list could go on for ever. We all know a lot of men who hate women, and will find any excuse to brand women as sluts.

But there are far too many women who openly buy into those standards and hyper-judge other women.

The other day, I read a CC article giving advice on how to be sexy and not whorey. This attitude merely perpetuates the idea that women can’t openly enjoy sex. Indicating you enjoy sex doesn’t mean you want to have sex with everyone, and it certainly doesn’t mean you’re reckless and riddled with sexually transmitted diseases. (Sidebar: 80 percent of sexually active adults will contract at least one STD in their lifetime, so maybe we should stop stigmatizing them). And maybe women wear high heels because they make our legs look long and give us an extra boost of fierce confidence, not because we’re walking street corners hoping to lure some sucker into paying $50 for a BJ. And perhaps we wear cropped shirts because our stomachs may never be this flat and toned again, so why not relish it and show it off? Read More »

Happy (almost) Independence Day, people! It’s time to bust out the sparklers and consume massive amounts of grilled meat, all in the name of this here country.

While there are many things about America that are less than lovable – Nascar, the current economy, the fact that Heidi Montag makes millions of dollars – we live in a pretty awesome country. And most of us don’t really appreciate all that we’ve got, like free education, freedom of speech… and Miley Cyrus.

So I thought it was about time for all of us to take a moment to reflect on what we love most about being Americans. Get your American Pride on in the comments below.

Katherine – University of Delaware: I love being an American because you can experience completely different lifesyles without ever leaving the country’s borders. Yet whether you’re from the south, the midwest, or the coasts, you still share a common bond.

Sara C – Fordham: What do I love about being American? Being able to be a woman who can speak her mind if she so desires. Being able to go for a run in a sports bra and compression shorts on a hot summer day. And Ben & Jerry’s. God bless Chunky Monkey.

Kari – Florida State: I love being an American most when I’m milling around a bar at Happy Hour and I can yell “F**K YEA, AMERICA!” Which will spark warm sentiments of agreement from other bar patrons. Not much more American than profanity and self-promotion!

Ricki – University of Michigan: The fact that I can wear whatever I want in the summer.  Can you imagine a country where women can’t wear shorts?  Read More »

It happened suddenly. I was doing some work in my living room while one of my roommates watched The Bachelor in the background. I needed a break from all the writing so I joined her on the couch. Ten minutes later, I was hooked.

Now my Monday nights have been taken over by this cheesy sh*tshow that I wish I wasn’t so damn addicted to, and my Tuesdays are spent hashing out all the crazy-girl drama with my friends.

Today’s topic: Ali, obvi. Read More »

While us girls may not have the upper hand in dating right now, once college ends and the real world begins, guys are the real victims of the hookup culture.

And according to Charlotte Allen, it’s because all women are sluts.

In her recent essay The New Dating Game, Allen tries to communicate the message that because women now have the power to choose who they date (and sleep with), males, particularly beta-males, are being pushed to the back burner.  In the “New Paleolithic Age,” alpha males are “dragging women by the hair into their caves– and the women love every minute of it.” According to Allen, all women spend the better part of their 20′s dressing like hookers and going out to clubs to try and take home the most desirable dudes. That is until they get dried-up (at the ripe old age of 28) and are forced to settle for a less-than-stellar guy so they can get married and pop out a few babies.

Yeah, a woman actually wrote all that.
And now let me react. Read More »