Birth Rate Drops but Population Grows: Environmentally, It's Bad News
My colleague Tom Diemer last week described a study that may show Americans are having fewer children due to the recession: "Taking into account the population, which grew, the birth rate in 2009 was 13.5 for every 1,000 people, the Associated Press said. That marked a second straight year of fall-off and a drop from 14.3 in 2007, before the full force of the recession hit. More babies were born in 2007 than in any year in the nation's history." Does a recession-driven drop in the fertility rate mean those of us who are worried about human overpopulation and its impact on the environment can ...
When the Boss Is Female: Poll Raises Questions About Hormones and Destiny
No women's history class curriculum would be complete without inclusion of early British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 treatise, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman." With this critical piece of writing, she secured for Great Britain a place at the head of the line of nations leading the then-nascent fight for women's equality and suffrage. But one might never know that to read the results of a survey on British employee views of female bosses, released last week by the online recruitment firm UKJobs.net. Among the spicier and more controversial findings: -- Majorities of men and ...
Nancy Pelosi Q&A: Financial Law Reform Is a Modern 'New Deal'
Love her or not, Speaker Nancy Pelosi's list of legislative accomplishments is formidable. On Wednesday, she capped four years of negotiating, cajoling, compromising and pressuring lawmakers by witnessing President Barack Obama sign the biggest remake of the financial regulatory system since the Great Depression. Pelosi calls the landmark legislation nothing less than a modern version of the 1930's New Deal. Since Pelosi became speaker in 2006, she has pushed through the U.S. House of Representatives a half-dozen pieces of transformative legislation, starting with the first increase in the ...
Childless? Heck No -- Child Free!
I, like my colleague Donna Trussell, have chosen not to have children. But unlike Donna, I abhor the word, "childless," which she uses to describe herself. I am a deliriously happy child-free individual. The very term, childless, makes one sound something lesser than. The word makes it seem as if every woman over 40 without kids is infertile, forlorn and stares covetously at the local sperm bank. Or maybe she's the type who chases strollers inhabited by Gerber babies just for the chance to coo over a perfect child if only for a mere ten seconds. I remember as a thirty-something, newly ...
While We Debate Climate Change, the Rest of the Planet Prepares for Mass Migration
While we here in the good old U.S. of A. are still debating climate change (whether it exists, whether it is man-made) the rest of the planet not only agrees it is real, but is planning for its impact on mankind. One such change has generated a term hardly ever heard in the United States but well known to the rest of the globe: environmental refugee. We let ourselves be held back by those who refuse to admit sea temperatures are rising due to human activity. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is busily planning how to handle the fallout when larger portions of the globe become uninhabitable. ...
Oprah, Lady Gaga, Beyonce: Girls Rule Hollywood, Says Forbes
Women's-rights advocates can pack up and go home. The playing field is now level. In fact, it has been nuked and upended and now tilts in favor of powerful women -- if you believe Forbes magazine, that is. Forbes' release of its "Celebrity 100" list contains the names of more women than men. Six women dominate the list's top-ten celebrities in the world including Oprah Winfrey as No. 1. Forbes describes the list as the "ranking of the richest and most powerful actors, actresses, and musicians." Oprah is followed in the top ten by: Beyoncé Knowles (OK, I guess) Lady Gaga (puh-leeze!!!) ...
Another Contraceptive Pill, Another Abortion Debate
The Food and Drug Administration's Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health has voted 11-0 that ulipristal acetate is effective and safe for use as an emergency contraceptive. The new drug from HRA Pharma, called Ella, is one step up from the so-called Plan B in that it prevents pregnancy for up to 120 hours after unprotected sex. Plan B is made of Levonorgestrel, which is a progesterone-like hormone compound. It can prevent pregnancy up to 72 hours after intercourse and it's about 85 percent effective. Ella works up to 120 hours, or five days. It contains ulipristal acetate, which works to ...
'Feminist' Label Is Meaningless, and Abortion Is Not Tragic
In the words of the inimitable Rita Mae Brown, if the world were a logical place, men would ride side-saddle. Although I'm no fan of much of Brown's feminist theory, a visual picture of the anatomical reality she describes in that observation proves that she is right on at least one point, and the world is illogical. With that in mind, I hoist myself into the saddle to join my lively blog-sister debate on two questions: 1) whether conservative women can or have co-opted the term "feminist"; and 2) whether abortion is a tragedy. On the first point, I'm no feminist. I avoid labels like I avoid ...
My Theory: Tipper Gore, Who Never Liked the Public Eye, Left Al
What stuns me most about the Gore separation is the fact that we all, as my colleague Melinda Henneberger notes, have a psychological tic that forces us to hang onto the childhood fantasy that some relationships are forever. Why we continue this fantasy in an age of divorce is beyond my ken. But I'm just as big a patsy as the next guy or girl, and I fell into the same pit Tuesday when I learned the Gores were untying the knot. I was shocked and saddened, like someone had put a pin in my balloon at my 5th birthday party. I'm trying not to pry into a private relationship that was conducted ...
'Don't Ask Don't Tell' Tougher on Minorities, Women
Here's one thing you probably know about "don't ask, don't tell," the Pentagon policy on gays and lesbians in the military. As my colleague Patricia Murphy reports, a bill to dismantle this outdated policy is wending its way through Congress. Here's one thing you probably don't know about the 17-year-old law that says, essentially, gays and lesbians can remain in the military as long as no one knows they are gay: The ban has disproportionately affected minorities and women. The latest data, compiled by the gay rights group Servicemembers United from Defense Department numbers, show that in ...
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