The Conversation: Worldwide, climate change is worse news for women
We know women suffer inequitable economic and health outcomes in developing countries. We also know that climate change is going to disproportionality affect developing countries. So what happens when you put those two factors together?
Extreme weather events kill more women than men globally – the more extreme, the bigger the gender gap. Among the 150,000 people killed by the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, 90% were women.
Survival in a disaster is influenced by social circumstances: poverty, social restrictions, roles in decision-making, even things as basic as knowing how to swim. Even if they make it to an emergency shelter, women and girls are at increased risk of violence.
The Atlantic: Why I Put My Wife’s Career First
Anne-Marie Slaughter’s husband wrote this fascinating article about how they made the decision for him to take the lead parenting role and the effect that’s had on his career and sense of self-worth.
The cultural barriers to male lead parenting only grow stronger as children—and parents—age. A dad in his 20s or 30s who takes some time off to care for an infant is adorable. (Think of those Samsung commercials with Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell.) But a dad in his 40s or 50s who limits his work schedule or professional ambition to attend to a teenager is suspect—not least to some women, ironically. When Anne-Marie was interviewed by Katie Couric at the Aspen Ideas Festival about how work and family are balanced in our household, a woman in the audience asked me—without apparent irony—to stand up so she could make sure “he really still is an alpha male.”
NY Times: Happy Birthday, Hillary Clinton
It was Hilary Clinton’s birthday yesterday, she’s got a fair bit to celebrate.
It’s not that age no longer matters, but that we’ve come to realize it hits different people in different ways. Some lose energy and focus, while others seem to get smarter and stronger. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court, at 82, does push-up routines with her trainer. Gloria Steinem celebrated her 80th birthday riding an elephant in Botswana.
The Conversation: Alice in Wonderland at 150: Why fantasy stories about girls transcend time
Speaking of birthdays, Alice in Wonderland – the original manic pixie dream girl – is 150!
In girls’ fiction from the early twentieth century, it was common for adventurous heroines become hastily engaged in the final pages of a novel.
Whether this capacity derives from the combination of negative assessments of children and females as less rational in comparison with adults and males, or marks girls out as more perceptive and empathetic, is debatable.
What is clear is that these girl heroines take different paths to characters on the typical male hero’s journey. Even within fantastic literature, where anything is possible, there are clear gendered distinctions for protagonists.