Category: Uncategorized

Inside the Rings: A Giant Leap for Women, but Hurdles Remain

From the NYT:  During Friday’s opening ceremony, Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, drew loud and sustained applause when he said: “For the first time in Olympic history, all the participating teams will have female athletes. This is a major boost for gender equality.” It is true that women have come light-years …

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Sally Ride, Trailblazing Astronaut, Dies at 61

From the New York Times:  Dr. Ride was the first American woman in space, flying on the shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983, and on a second mission in 1984. Before the first shuttle flight, Dr. Ride — chosen in part because she was known for keeping her cool under stress — politely endured reporters’ …

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Woo hoo for Yahoo for making pregnant Marissa Mayer its new CEO

From the Washington Post:  Not having it all is so last week; now here comes 37-year old Marissa Mayer, who in a single day showed up for her new job running Yahoo and announced that she’s expecting her first child in October.  Of course, Yahoo knew Mayer was pregnant when they hired her. “They showed …

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Study Says Meeting Contraception Needs Could Cut Maternal Deaths by a Third

From the NYT: A study published in The Lancet, a British science journal, suggests the maternal mortality rate could drop by a full third if all needs for family planning were met.  Read here.

Before Games, Wins for Women

From the NYT: The drastic transformation of sports in recent decades, with women increasingly populating competitive arenas throughout the world, reached two significant milestones this week: Saudi Arabia agreed to send two women to compete at the London Olympics, meaning that for the first time all participating nations will have female athletes competing; and, also …

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Rainbow-Colored Oreo

From the Washington Post:   The rainbow-colored Oreo graphic unveiled for LGBT Pride Month proves at least one thing: Gays are just as susceptible to clever marketing as straights. At long last! Equality under commercialization. The graphic was posted Monday evening on Oreo’s Facebook page and drew more than 52,000 shares and 177,000 likes in 24 …

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Olympics Struggle with ‘Policing Femininity’

From thestar.com:   There are female athletes who will be competing at the Olympic Games this summer after undergoing treatment to make them less masculine. Still others are being secretly investigated for displaying overly manly characteristics, as sport’s highest medical officials attempt to quantify — and regulate — the hormonal difference between male and female athletes. …

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Elite Women Put a New Spin on an Old Debate

More details to continue the discussion from the June 22 post.  From the NYT: A magazine article by a former Obama administration official has blown up into an instant debate about a new conundrum of female success.  Women have greater status than ever before in human history, even outpacing men in education, yet the lineup …

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Why Women Still Can’t Have It All?

Anne-Marie Slaughter,the Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and was formerly Dean of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and director of policy planning at the State Department has penned a new essay in the Atlantic that begins with the following quote: “It’s time …

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A Father, a Son and a Fighting Chance

From the NYT comes this very moving father/son tale:  WHEN my son Jeff was little, he was a pain in the neck about eating. On one drive to Huntsville, Ala., he sobbed for 70 minutes (I know because I timed it) about how we were starving him to death.  We stopped at a diner and …

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