Female Supremacy Articles - Page 17
College gender gap widens: 57% are women
By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
October 19, 2005
In May, the Minnesota Office of Higher Education posted the inevitable culmination of a trend: Last year for the first time, women earned more than half the degrees granted statewide in every category, be it associate, bachelor, master, doctoral or professional.
Cause for celebration — or for concern?
Before you answer, consider the perspective of Jim McCorkell, founder of Admission Possible, a St. Paul program to help low-income high school kids prepare for college. Last year, 30% of the students were boys. This fall, that has inched up to 34%, but only because "we actually did a little affirmative action," McCorkell says. "If we had a tie (between a male and a female applicant), we gave it to a boy."
As women march forward, more boys seem to be falling by the wayside, McCorkell says. Not only do national statistics forecast a continued decline in the percentage of males on college campuses, but the drops are seen in all races, income groups and fields of study, says policy analyst Thomas Mortenson, publisher of the influential Postsecondary Education Opportunity newsletter in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Since 1995, he has been tracking — and sounding the alarm about — the dwindling presence of men in colleges.
College administrators shy away from the term "affirmative action," a murky concept rooted in redressing historic inequities and loaded with legal implications. Yet the imbalances do trouble some admissions officials. (Related: Colleges remain cautious). So just as they might consider race or geographical diversity in building freshman classes, they similarly look for gender parity.
There are more men than women ages 18-24 in the USA — 15 million vs. 14.2 million, according to a Census Bureau estimate last year. But nationally, the male/female ratio on campus today is 43/57, a reversal from the late 1960s and well beyond the nearly even splits of the mid-1970s.
The trends have developed in plain view — not ignored exactly, but typically accompanied by some version of the question: Isn't this a sign of women's progress?
Today, though, the blue-collar jobs that once attracted male high school graduates are drying up. More boys are dropping out of high school and out of college. And as the gender gap widens, concern about the educational aspirations of young men appears to be gaining traction, albeit cautiously.
But even as evidence of a problem — a crisis, some say — mounts, "there's a complacency about this topic," McCorkell says.
There has been no outcry, for example, on the scale of a highly publicized 1992 report by the American Association of University Women, How Schools Short-Change Girls, which compiled reams of research on gender inequities.
That study "really ... got people to focus on girls ... (but) there is no big network that protects the needs of boys," says family therapist Michael Gurian, author of the just-published The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons from Falling Behind in School and Life, which argues that elementary and secondary schools aren't meeting the developmental needs of boys.
The minefields ahead:
And the needs of boys and girls are different, says Kimberly Tsaousis, a college-prep adviser who works mostly with low-income minorities at Cleveland High School in Seattle. "Girls are way more likely to just pay attention" during advising sessions, she says. "It's almost less cool" for boys to show interest in college.
Talk of gender is fraught with social, legal and political minefields. Witness the outcry after Harvard President Lawrence Summers remarked in January that women might be underrepresented in sciences because of innate differences in abilities. For one thing, female inequities persist.
There's still a pay gap. According to the Census Bureau, women on average earned 77 cents to each dollar paid to male counterparts in 2004.
So it's perhaps no surprise that most educators exploring the issue have an eye toward equilibrium.
Maine's Department of Education, for example, created a task force to look closely at boys' poor academic performance and found a ratio of 154 women for every 100 men in the state's colleges and universities in 2000, the greatest gap of any state. But the final report, to be released this fall, will recommend strategies to promote gender-equitable education.
"We very quickly decided ... we wanted to make sure we did not neglect" girls even while exploring obstacles facing boys, says deputy commissioner Patrick Phillips.
The University of Washington recently started a college-prep program for boys, but administrator Thomas J. Calhoun Jr. notes the university also supports girls-only programs, including one aimed at increasing women in engineering.
And though President Bush in his State of the Union address singled out boys when he unveiled a$150 million initiative, led by Laura Bush, to dissuade kids from joining gangs, a conference hosted by the first lady Oct. 27 is called "Helping America's Youth."
Federal laws pose additional challenges. Under No Child Left Behind, for example, schools must track data by race and gender, which helps educators pinpoint vulnerable populations.
Yet because of potential conflicts with federal laws created to ensure gender and racial equity, educators "can't target resources to where they see the need," says Deborah Wilds of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which finances college scholarships for underrepresented kids. "You know that the kids least likely to graduate are a particular gender or ethnic background, but then you have to walk a fine line in how you serve them."
Value in. .. equal numbers:
Most of those tracking the issue agree that getting males into the college pipeline is best addressed in elementary and secondary schools.
Even so, the disparities on campuses worry some admissions officials, particularly at liberal arts colleges where gaps are widest.
"We think there's value in having equal numbers," says Jim Bock, admissions dean at Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College. Last year, the school admitted more women than men, but it admitted a greater percentage of the male applicants than female. The student body's male/female breakdown is about 48/52.
In interviews, several college administrators, including Bock, said they would not admit a male over a better qualified female. But they do try to build a diverse class — an idea that echoes the Supreme Court's 2003 ruling on race-based affirmative action. That ruling struck down a University of Michigan formula that gave extra points to minorities because of their race. But the justices also ruled that schools could consider race as one of many factors because achieving diversity on college campuses is an important goal. In 2000, a federal judge told the University of Georgia to stop awarding bonus points to males (and minorities) in admissions.
A study this year of admissions processes at 13 liberal arts schools, most with a predominantly female applicant pool, found that gender was "not a significant determinant" in admissions decisions. When a gender preference for men emerged, it occurred at historically female campuses where the share of female applicants had reached 55% or more, authors Sandy Baum and Eban Goodstein say.
The authors neither advocate nor oppose affirmative action, but as men grow shorter in supply, "we should be talking about whether it's reasonable to give preferences to men," says Baum, a Skidmore College professor.
UCLA higher education professor Linda Sax says such a discussion should address what effect, if any, the gender composition of a college has on men and women. To find out, she examined data from more than 17,000 students at 204 four-year colleges.
Preliminary results show that on campuses that were predominantly female, both men and women got higher grades. Predominantly female campuses also led to a "significant increase" in men's commitment to promoting racial understanding and led males to more liberal views on abortion, homosexuality and other social issues, her research found.
"What we're talking about here is the impact of women's attitudes and values," Sax says.
For his part, author Gurian says one reason colleges may fail to attract more men is precisely because they are more geared to female learning styles and interests. Colleges that want to compete for the dwindling pool of men should emphasize male interests, such as sports, he says, and offer more male role models.
But meaningful change must take place well before the college years, says Gurian, who acknowledges a personal interest in the subject: He has two daughters. "We all know a boy that's struggling," he says. "If we create a generation of men who aren't getting an education, that's bad for women."
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Pamela Anderson: Feminist Tribute
By Erica Albanese
So I have been going to the gym at totally random hours lately and managed to catch a muted episode of VIP, Pamela Anderson's latest career endeavor, for the first time ever. Although the garbled lyrics of Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers) deeply contrasted the titillating drama of VIP, I managed to figure out the general temperature of the set in most scenes sans subtitles, and while I missed a lot of the dialogue, it was irrepressibly hard to miss the main points Pamela was unabashedly making.
Although I was initially unsure of why only the actresses were dressed so scantily on what could have only been yet another undocumented, never-before precedented, ho-hum sub-zero California day, it didn't take long for the show's cocksure imagery of manifest feminism to embody me, too---along with the millions of others---and take effect.
Just as the creators of VIP had surely visualized their show would induce, my head suddenly became engorged with this thrilling sensation of power and my being experienced an unyielding, instinctual urge to conquer and overcome all over this society we live in.
It was then that I saw the error of my closed-feminist ways.
How rhetorical that I would view Pamela Lee as a leading perpetrator of sexism, lookism, and female objectification in our corrupt society and not see her for what she really is, a leading avenger of female society. Having never before even seen an episode of VIP, I had already assumed that the show would be comprised of the same intolerable bullshit glamorized on her former series, the multi-climactic, indiscreetly loin-soothing, Baywatch.
Now I am left only to beseechingly question my own feminism, for nary a thought did occur---until that cathartic moment that day on the treadmill---that perhaps VIP, a show chock full of half-naked women on nonexistent grisly California days, was actually shoving a quintessential truth of female superiority right down men's throats!
Women have a stronger threshold for pain, and as far as this feminist is concerned, VIP was really pushing it by focusing so much on this basic female attribute. Eyes open and pride in check, I viewed on. I cannot even begin to describe how not only commendable but plain damned neato it is the way VIP boldly eschews female stereotypes by not only featuring only dainty women as bodyguards, but dresses them in the likes of red vinyl hip-huggers and bright yellow halter tops as well, to even further disseminate the oppressive, outdated stereotype that career women cannot also be viewed as sexually appealing. And I especially admire the way Pamela has apparently insisted that all the other leading actors not dress as revealing as her and instead has opted to personally absorb the stigmatic brunt of all misguided sexual thoughts, feelings, and desires evoked by the power she largely projects, which can only be quite the burden on her. It takes a self-assured woman to exhibit her strengths with such sheer voracity, but Pamela, no-holds barred in both attitude and camisole, undoubtedly pulls it off with ease.
Of more persuasion to this girl-next-door is the observation that all the other prominent female characters have at least one significant sexual handicap (i.e.: the manly, non-button nose, short hair, real breasts, brown eyes, etc.). This can only be attributed to the headstrong producers of VIP, who are continually striving to provide us viewers with a real show, depicting real women, as real bodyguards.
It is without question that Pamela Anderson redefines the mold, reshapes our standards, and redirects our visions, and it now troubles me when I hear others, namely women, talking about how much Pamela sucks or how awesome it is that she's consistently negated. As a feminist, I should think everyone would find it of most dire inspiration to have such influential, huge models as Pamela Anderson, a political figure for all to study as she continues to procure feminism the hard way in today's society. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that entire groups of women combined can still only aspire to her, a woman who outwardly remains abreast of what truly matters in this world and who fears not the likely consequences of such an enormous, perilous, infrastructure.
Cheers to Pamela Anderson, icon of feminism! Pamela candidly refuses to conceal her struggle from the limelight and instead chooses, in perhaps her ballsiest decision yet, to not only be up front about it, but to actually flaunt it! In an ideal world, objectified women should indeed rally regarding her support and men should watch the women they love come to her ideology also. Alas, if only all of society could just thank her as I, with fervent thunder, deem appropriate: for utterly risking the safety of her future to expose the falsehoods that oppress us today!
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Patriarchal attitudes, practices explain half the discrepancy in life expectancy between sexes
Dr Alex Scott-Samuel, Division of Public Health, University of Liverpool,
Liverpool, UK
19 Sep 2005
Systematic male dominance - patriarchy - explains half the discrepancy in life expectancy between the sexes, suggests research spanning four continents in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
The researchers base their findings on a comparison of the rates of female murders and male death rates from all causes in 51 countries across Europe, Australasia, Asia, North and South America.
Rates of violence against women are used to indicate the extent of societal male dominance over women, otherwise known as patriarchy.
The wealth of a country, as indicated by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head of the population, was also taken into consideration, as socioeconomic factors are strongly linked to health.
The results showed that women lived longer than men in every single country included in the study, with murder rates among both sexes and GDP strongly linked to death rates in men.
GDP accounted for 13.6% of the variation in death rates among men. But this was nowhere near as high as the female murder rates, which accounted for 48.8% of the variation in death rates among men. Male murder rates accounted for just 3.5%.
The higher the rate of female murders, and therefore the greater the level of patriarchy, the higher were the death rates among men and therefore the shorter their life expectancy, the figures showed.
“Our data suggest that oppression and exploitation harm the oppressors as well as those they oppress,” conclude the authors, adding that the higher death rate among men, and hence their shorter life expectancy, is “a preventable social condition, which can potentially be tackled through global social policy.”
They cite the way that children and young people are currently socialised into patriarchal gender roles, such as those emphasising excessive risk taking, aggression, and the suppression of emotions by boys and young men, as examples that need to be tackled.
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Female Students Outstudy Males
BY: JOCELYN KIM
UC Irvine New University
Volume 38
September 19, 2005
Women outperform men in college classes and tend to graduate earlier, according to a recent study conducted by the Student Monitor, a market research group that specializes in providing information about college students.
The study found that academic superiority by women is largely due to differences in study habits.
“Unfortunately, male students have the access to the tools but are not using them, while female students are more focused and pay more attention to their books and materials. ... Our research has shown that learning tools such as textbooks and supplemental materials are better utilized by women”, said Stacy Scarazzo, assistant director for higher education of the Association of American Publishers.
The study found that women outstudy men by one-third and that men party 20 percent more often than women.
“Women are 35 percent more likely to study daily, 21 percent more likely to study 15 or more hours weekly and 23 percent more likely to read their textbook thoroughly,” said Eric Weil, managing partner of Student Monitor. “These differences in study skills and habits translate to higher grades and a higher course completion rate.”
Results of the survey support the conventional wisdom that studying hard is the best way to achieve academic success.
“We’ve generally taken for granted that hitting the books translates to better grades and a more successful college experience,” Weil said. “This research confirms that hard work matters and quantifies the difference between those students with a set of solid study habits and those without.”
The time of day a student studies is an important factor in academic success, according to the study. Students who study during the evening hours between 6:00 p.m. and midnight are twice as likely to earn A’s as students who study after midnight.
The AAP commissioned the study to address the growing problem of students spending more than four years in college. The United States Department of Education reports that almost half of college students are not graduating within four years.
Students spending more time in school can put more strain on university resources and worsen budget problems. Publishers and educators hope to better understand study habits in order to cultivate classroom success.
“Publishers are now taking a different role on campus,” Scarazzo said. “The study was conducted to find out how our materials are being used. We found that our materials improve success rates.”
Justin May, a second-year aerospace engineering major, agrees with the findings of the study that males tend to study more infrequently than females.
“Since I do not study that much, I would tend to agree with results of the study, but hopefully this year I can change that,” May said.
Vy-Van Tran, a second-year biological sciences major, disagrees with some points of the survey.
“I would say that I [agree with] the survey because I study more than the average male student, but I earn grades a little above average without studying,” Tran said.
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Boy Brains, Girl Brains
Are separate classrooms the best way to teach kids?
by Peg Tyre
Newsweek
Sept. 19, 2005
Three years ago, Jeff Gray, the principal at Foust Elementary School in Owensboro, Ky., realized that his school needed help- and fast. Test scores at Foust were the worst in the county and the students, particularly the boys, were falling far behind. So Gray took a controversial course for educators on brain development, then revamped the first- and second-grade curriculum. The biggest change: he divided the classes by gender. Because males have less serotonin in their brains, which Gray was taught may cause them to fidget more, desks were removed from the boys' classrooms and they got short exercise periods throughout the day. Because females have more
oxytocin, a hormone linked to bonding, girls were given a carpeted area where they sit and discuss their feelings. Because boys have higher levels of testosterone and are theoretically more competitive, they were given timed, multiple-choice tests. The girls were given multiple-choice tests, too, but got more time to complete them. Gray says the gender-based curriculum gave the school "the edge we needed." Tests scores are up. Discipline problems are down. This year the fifth and sixth grades at Foust are adopting the new curriculum, too.
Do Mars and Venus ride the schoolbus? Gray is part of a new crop of educators with a radical idea-that boys and girls are so biologically different they need to be separated into single-sex classes and taught in different ways. In the last five years, brain researchers using sophisticated MRI and PET technology have gathered new information about the ways male and female brains develop and process information. Studies show that girls, for instance, have more active frontal lobes, stronger connections between brain hemispheres and "language centers" that mature
earlier than their male counterparts. Critics of gender-based schooling charge that curricula designed to exploit such differences reinforce the most narrow cultural stereotypes. But proponents say that unless neurological, hormonal and cognitive differences between boys and girls are incorporated in the classroom, boys are at a disadvantage.
Most schools are girl-friendly, says Michael Gurian, coauthor with Kathy Stevens of a new book, "The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons from Falling Behind in School and Life," "because teachers, who are mostly women, teach the way they learn." Seventy percent of children diagnosed with learning disabilities are male, and the sheer number of boys who struggle in school is staggering. Eighty percent of high-school dropouts are boys and less than 45 percent of students enrolled in college are young men. To close the educational gender gap, Gurian says, teachers need to
change their techniques. They should light classrooms more brightly for boys and speak to them loudly, since research shows males don't see or hear as well as females. Because boys are more-visual learners, eachers should illustrate a story before writing it and use an overhead projector to practice reading and writing. Gurian's ideas seem to be catching on. More than 185 public schools now offer some form of single-sex education, and Gurian has trained more than 15,000 teachers through his institute in Colorado Springs.
To some experts, Gurian's approach is not only wrong but dangerous. Some say his curriculum is part of a long history of pseudoscience aimed at denying equal opportunities in education. For much of the 19th century, educators, backed by prominent scientists, cautioned that women were neurologically unable to withstand the rigors of higher education. Others say basing new teaching methods on raw brain research is misguided. While it's true that brain scans show differences between boys and girls, says David Sadker, education professor at American University, no one is
exactly sure what those differences mean. Differences between boys and girls, says Sadker, are dwarfed by brain differences within each gender. "If you want to make schools a better place," says Sadker, "you have to strive to see kids as individuals."
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Female Domination
By Angela St. Lawrence
As well as being the title of Elise Sutton’s long-awaited and well-received book, Female Domination is rapidly becoming the sex du jour for an ever-increasing number of mainstream couples. Along with other out-of-the-closet carnal intimacies such as fetishes (feet & toes, nylons, leather, smoking….), homosexuality (Shhh! Don’t tell the republicans!), masturbation (mutual and solo), strap-on sex (Surely, dear female reader, you knew this?), and the widely embraced metrosexual phenomenon (Google “sissy” or “feminization” or “panty boy.” I dare you!), the male desire to surrender control to an erotically powerful woman is no longer the “dirty little secret” it once was.
Being currently (and ever so blissfully!) immersed in Ms. Sutton’s book, and having a certain proclivity toward Dominant Phone Sex, I find this to be a singularly delicious expansion of the ever-evolving sex games boys and girls like to play. In other words, this is not your father’s phone sex any more! In fact, this is not even your father’s (or even your mother’s, Goddess forbid!) wet dream! The playing field has not only been leveled, but, irrevocably, skewed. And the allure of that sexy umpire-ess ordering you, a lowly bat boy, to crawl to third base and kiss her leather boots, is just too intoxicating to resist.
While I would never lay claim to being an expert in human sexuality, I am in the business of creating fantasy. More than occasionally I not only find myself with a front row seat from which to observe the conventional and not-so-conventional desires of the submissive male but am the privileged Phone Mistress who will mind-fuck him into subspace. Submissive men come in all shapes and sizes and flavors and perversions. What I find so delightfully disarming about these exquisite creatures is that they are --nine times out of ten-- men of serious substance and quiet dignity. I can always count on them to be polite, congenial, accommodating, quick-witted, and downright, intoxicatingly clever. These men, over-all, are a sweet breath of fresh air. They have no hidden agendas. They dwell confidently and authoritatively in their every day and relatively well-balanced lives. And it is, indeed, a good life: Fulfilling, successful, accomplished…perhaps, even self-actualized. In fact, if we daughters had been raised by fathers like these, there would be no need for Jungian therapists, motivational gurus, self-help books, or Twelve Step recovery programs.
And, therein, beloved kinksters, lies the rub! When one is perceived as “in charge” in his everyday life, where does he go to find that sexual rapture that only can be realized when we give up control? While, courtesy of the internet, we are all experiencing an expanding sexual consciousness (Even if to simply know, “You are not alone.”), the submissive male has somewhat of a quandary on his hands. Most likely he has presented himself to his inamorata as, at the very least, a vanilla lover, and even more likely, an aggressive one. After all, that is what is expected of the “normal” man, right? While he and the rest of us are realizing that our nasty and secret desires are neither as nasty nor secret as we once thought, he finds himself unable to bring this au courant flavor to the sexual table he, himself, has set. How does he tell his dinner partner (Perhaps, his cherished wife of 10 or 20 years?) that his palate now craves spicier fare?
I often tell my submissive callers that they are really just romantics on steroids. Even after a lifetime of pursuing, courting, loving, fucking, and perhaps marrying women, a man continues to be both perplexed and enamored with the ever-illusive Feminine Mystique. Not to torture a cliché, but as has been the case since Eve bewitched Adam (Honestly, how much sweet-talk do you really think it took?) into eating her forbidden fruit, women have been dragging men around by their dicks. This really isn’t anything new; it’s just been “super-sized,” so to speak. Even in a situation where the guy is supposedly the dominant, let’s not fool ourselves, ladies and gentlemen. If his lady friend does not concede to dressing in evocative slut-wear, painting her lips cock-sucking red, donning the proverbial ball gag, and submitting to a bit of elaborate rope binding (not to mention some delicious bottom spanking), “Master” is not going to have an orgasm anytime in the foreseeable future!
There are as many variations to the D/s (Domination/submission) relationship as there are enthusiasts. This is the party of the season, and it seems everybody from the bootblack (male) to the CEO (female) has shown up. So here we are, all at the same party, just wearing different party hats. From the sensually sublime to the viscerally extreme, name your poison: Body worship, face sitting, bondage, forced feminization, cock and ball torture (cbt), orgasm denial & control, cuckolding, erotic hypnosis & mind control, humiliation (verbal &/or public), toilet training, objectification, and more, so very much more…it’s here for the taking.
Wallflower type? Looking for a little objectification? Grab your dick, take a seat, and don’t you dare move a muscle! So you think you’re the life of the party and wanna be Mistress’s party favor? Dangle that pretty pink lampshade over your head and jump up on the coffee table for some contemptuous browbeating while you squeal like a pig. What? You’re looking for the buffet? Right over here, darling! Now, put your head back and Mistress will just take a seat right here on your face. Mmmm…. Such exquisite cuisine, is it not? And you? You say you’re not a guest, that you’re the piñata? Oh! They are waiting for you in the dungeon. Just right down those stairs and around the corner. Just follow the smell of leather. No, it won’t hurt that much.
Not much into parties? More of the homebody type? Well.... If you have been a reasonably well-behaved partner in the course of a long-term relationship and think your ladylove is ready to meet the new & improved submissive you, you might want to start with some user-friendly (pun intended!) reading material. Elise Sutton’s book, Female Domination, is an excellent starting point. Because the author practices the FemDom lifestyle (she is married to her submissive) and regularly counsels female-dominant couples (her educational background is in psychology), the material she presents is backed by both personal and professional experience. Giving readers an intimate, first-hand peek into the everyday lives of “normal” couples who just so happen to be ardent practitioners of female domination, she presents an eloquent argument for the logic of the female-dominant relationship. Combining passionate commentary with a quiet spiritualism, Elise shares her personal history and evolution, looks at the progressive societal trend to empower women, and the psychological “rightness” of male submission. This is a book from an intelligent heart that will speak to you and your lady’s emotions, intellect, and libido!
(Be sure to visit Angela’s site at www.literatesmut.net)
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The Elite will soon be Female
By Inge Kloepfer, Germany
September 30, 2005, Deutschland
Never have professional women been more successful than they are today. Never before have so many women attended university or gone out to work. And yet despite all these successes there are still very few women at the top. Although there are a lot more women than there used to be in the boss’s chair, the percentage of women in top jobs is still below average. However, scientists believe this is about to change, too: in future it will be impossible to ignore the increasing number of well-educated women used to be relatively alone as a woman,” recalls Inge Rösler and says that the word “exotic” comes to mind.
She began her career as a trainee at Deutsche Bank over 25 years ago. Today at the age of 52 she has come a long way and leads a large team in the bank’s credit-risk management section. “I was one of very few women, sometimes the only woman, in the classical lending business where I began my career,” she says. But “That has changed a lot,” she says. The reason: “Today, many women are much better trained and have good initial qualifications.” And yet, she adds, it has still not become much easier for them to reach management level. Competition for top jobs is hard, she says. And apart from that, even today it is usually left to women to work out how to organize a career and a family – and make the two compatible. Rösler knows; she has a grown-up son.
In fact, women are more successful in their careers today than ever before. Inge Rösler’s generation laid the foundation on which crowds of young women are now building. They are much more self-confident – as well they might be. Never before have so many women attended university or gone out to work – 47% of Germany’s wage earners today are women, and they have never earned as much as they do today either.
Whereas the dominance of the sole-male-earner model was reflected in women’s gross incomes in Germany in 1980, this has changed markedly in the last 25 years. “For childless women at least it has become normal to go out to work,” confirms Nicola Hülskamp, researcher in educational and labour-market policy at the Cologne-based Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft ( Institute of German Private Enterprise, IW). “In the early eighties, women rarely had their own income, whether they had children or not,” she says. This has changed. And yet, things still look quite different for mothers in Germany. The message of the IW’s figures is clear. In contrast to Scandinavian countries, for example, a large proportion of working mothers in Germany are still to be found in low-income groups today. Many of them work part-time, and that alone considerably reduces their average salary.
Sociologist Jutta Allmendinger, 48, professor at Munich University and director of the Federal Employment Agency’s Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (Institute for Employment Research, IAB), sees one reason above all others for the success of women: “They have access to education and training opportunities that were completely closed to them a hundred years ago. As far as education is concerned, they have not only caught up with the men, they have overtaken them.” More young women than men are leaving school with the top qualification – Abitur (a general entrance qualification for higher education) – and there are just as many female as male university graduates these days. The gap is also narrowing when it comes to PhDs. Furthermore, “There are now far fewer women than men in the group of people with low-qualifications,” she says. Professor Allmendinger – who is very highly educated and runs an institute and a university department – is one of those who have “made it”. She is also a mother, although she did have her child late and had obtained her professorship long before she became pregnant. Combining a family with a top job was no longer a problem then.
It is looking as though women’s chances on the labour market will improve even further in the coming years. Ulrike Detmers, 49 (mother of three children, professor of business administration at the University of Applied Science in Bielefeld, part-owner and manager of the Mestemacher bakery group in Gütersloh), has long said: “The elite is turning female.” After all, “40% of jobs in Germany will require higher qualifications by 2010.” This is related to the pressure of international competition, she says, so that Germany will increasingly have to create value-added from areas of activity requiring higher qualifications. The demand for well-trained staff is growing and, as far as women are concerned, meeting with an increasing supply, says Detmers. Progress in education can be seen especially among women under the age of 29. “And these women want a reward for the investment they have made in their education.” Ulrike Detmers is very optimistic as regards the future of female social climbers. She herself has succeeded in doing what many people dream of: she has long-since been well-integrated in the male-dominated world of management – after many years of hard work. She also knows that “It is still difficult to get into these networks, especially for young women. There are still prejudices.” This is why she is personally committed to the idea of a “more female” elite in the future, first and foremost in her own company.
After all, despite immense progress in education, the influence of women at the top levels of German business has remained minimal. According to the Federal Statistical Office, only 33% of managerial positions in Germany are occupied by women; the figure among top executives (company directors and CEOs) is only 21%. There are currently only two women on management boards at DAX-listed companies. Christine Stimpel, headhunter and boss of the German branch of Spencer Stuart, a leading international executive search firm, knows the phenomenon:
“Women often choose courses of study that promise them a certain amount of personal freedom. You find a lot of women in self-employed, highly qualified professions, and there are a lot of successful female lawyers, notaries and scientists. There are also a huge number of women in middle and upper management. We sometimes have only female candidates when we are recruiting for a job in human resources, marketing or PR. But that is not reflected at all in general management functions, and certainly not in management boards.” She has come to realize, however, that this is not because companies don’t want women, but that the infrastructure (full-time care for children, household-help services, etc.) still leaves a lot to be desired, so that many women don’t even aim for top jobs. “The companies who approach us virtually always want us to search for a female candidate. They would be delighted if we could present more female top-class people. Women are in demand,” she says.
Professor Desirée Ladwig (40, two children) from Helmut-Schmidt University in Hamburg points out that women have especially good chances of promotion in companies where over 20% of managers are already female. Dorothee Ritz, director at Microsoft since August 2004, agrees. Her advice to young women is to “look for companies that support women, are open to the idea of equality and say so in their statutes.” According to the 36-year-old manager, executive positions are especially suitable for women with children. “Leading or managing is not the same thing as working,” she explains, “because managing is qualitative, not quantitative work. It depends on how the substructure is organized.”
Programmes for promoting women, the legal obligation to offer equal rights, the Anti-Discrimination Act, quotas for women, better infrastructure – all these are evidently still necessary. Another important aspect is transparency among companies that really want women as specialists and managers. Helmut-Schmidt University and the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs have founded a new information platform called Genderdax. Companies can present themselves on the website after verification by the organizers of their active support of career-oriented women. The platform at www.genderdax.de is now open for companies to register. 100 large and 100 medium-sized enterprises now have an opportunity to present themselves there. Companies you would automatically expect to find in such a context are already on the site. They include Volkswagen and Westdeutsche Landesbank, already known for their support of women. But there is still plenty of room for others. And otherwise, too, there remains a lot to be done.
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Caning can cure everything from drug addiction to depression
London, Mar 30 (ANI):
Russian scientists have claimed that beating on the naked buttocks with a cane can cure everything from drug abuse to alcohol addiction and from depression to suicidal tendencies.
The researchers at Novosibirsk said that caning releases endorphins, the body's natural 'happiness hormones', which lead to feelings of euphoria, a reduction of appetite, the release of sex hormones, an enhancement of the immune response and prevents drug and alcohol addiction.
"The treatment works. I'm not sadistic, at least not in the classical sense, but I do advocate caning," Fox News quoted lead researcher Dr Sergei Speransky as saying to Izvestia daily.
The scientists recommend a standard treatment course of 30 sessions with 60 of the best, delivered on the buttocks by a person of average build.
Another researcher, Dr Marina Chuhrova, said that she had 10 patients she caned regularly. "At first they didn't like it, but when they started to feel the benefits they kept asking for more."
The Russian team will now start charging for the caning sessions getting 57 pounds per patient for a standard treatment. (ANI)
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Fleiss Plans a Brothel to Serve Women
• The former Hollywood madam and a partner hope to open 'Heidi's Stud Farm' in Nevada.
By Shawn Hubler, Times Staff Writer
Former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss bid farewell to Los Angeles on Wednesday, and put out the word: She's looking for a few good men.
In a move bound to hearten aspiring Deuce Bigalows the world over, Fleiss said she is joining with a Nevada brothel owner to open the state's first house of prostitution in which men cater to women.
Fleiss, whose partner notified Nye County officials of the plan this week, said they will charge $250 an hour and call it "Heidi's Stud Farm."
"Women are more independent these days; they make more money and it's hard to meet people," Fleiss said as she packed for what she said would be a permanent move to Nevada.
"You wouldn't believe the number of women who've told me, 'Heidi, if you do this, I'll be the first one in line!' I mean, relationships are harder than dieting, you know what I mean?"
The daughter of a Los Feliz pediatrician, Fleiss became notorious in the 1990s for running a prostitution ring catering to show business people and international businessmen. She eventually was convicted on charges of money laundering, pandering and tax evasion. She was released in 1999, after serving 21 months in prison.
Fleiss — who has capitalized on her notoriety as a madam — has been exploring the possibility of opening a legitimate business near Las Vegas.
She soon turned to the oldest of trades again, which is legal in parts of Nevada. But she shied from buying an existing brothel when the going prices were too high. She then said she might build her own brothel on 60 acres she owns near Pahrump, but determined that it would be more profitable as housing.
Eventually, she made a deal with Joe Richards, who owns three Nevada brothels, in part to prove she would run a clean business. There's also the felony hitch. State law allows counties to refuse a brothel license to convicted felons. County Commissioner Candace Trummell said Wednesday that county attorneys were looking at the proposal, and it was unclear whether the plan would be approved.
Fleiss' Las Vegas attorney, Richard Schonfeld, said state law allows for some discretion, and her partner, a 30-year brothel operator, has said Fleiss' name would not be on the license. Her role would be more promotional, and her job title would be "hostess/madam," Richards added. Brothel employees, both men said, are typically subjected to a far lesser degree of legal scrutiny.
In a letter to the Nye County Liquor and Licensing Board, Richards also said the business would not be a new one. He and Fleiss would remodel and change the name of one of his existing bordellos, which is now a bar and a collection of trailers called the Cherry Patch about 20 miles north of Pahrump.
Fleiss added that she plans to swap the bordello's Western theme for a more Hollywood look, with waterfalls and palm trees. "It's gonna be like Leo DiCaprio in 'The Aviator,' " she said, "and I'm going to put out a casting call for about 20 guys — I bet I get thousands of applicants."
Richards said in the letter that a male brothel would "address an ever-increasing fact of life," because "society is witnessing a unique evolution of the female gender reaching out for the same service we now offer male clients." In an interview, he elaborated: "Say a guy gets into an argument with his wife. What does he do? Lot of times, he goes out, gets a drink, goes to a place to be serviced. Now women can say, 'Hey, if you can do it, I can too.' "
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Study: Half of All Teens Have Had Oral Sex
By Laura Sessions Stepp
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 16, 2005; Page A07
Slightly more than half of American teenagers ages 15 to 19 have engaged in oral sex, with females and males reporting similar levels of experience, according to the most comprehensive national survey of sexual behaviors ever released by the federal government.
The report released yesterday by the National Center for Health Statistics shows that the proportion increases with age to about 70 percent of all 18- and 19-year-olds. That figure is considerably higher for those who also have engaged in intercourse.
Several leaders of organizations that study or work with youth expressed surprise at the level of girls' participation. "You assume that females are more likely to give, males more likely to receive," said Jennifer Manlove, who directs fertility research for the organization Child Trends. "We were surprised that the percentages were similar."
A report by the center nine months ago, based on the same survey, showed that slightly more girls than boys have intercourse before they turn 20. In addition, other national data indicate that the proportion of high school girls who have one-night stands, as well as nonromantic sexual relationships, equals boys.
"This is a point of major social transition," James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a reproductive health organization, said yesterday. "The data are now coming out and roiling the idea that boys are the hunters and young girls are the prey. It absolutely defies the stereotype."
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Ratio of women in panels tops 30%
The Japan Times: Nov. 19, 2005
Women accounted for 30.9 percent of government councils and committees at the end of September, clearing the government's 30 percent target set in 2000, Kuniko Inoguchi, minister in charge of sex equality and the falling birthrate, reported to the Cabinet Friday.
Of the 1,792 members on the central government's 104 panels, 554 were women, up 55, or 2.7 percentage points, from a year earlier, according to the Cabinet Office.
The government plans to review the 30 percent target and make a decision on whether to change it by March.
The government intended to achieve the 30 percent target by March 31, but the ratio at 76 of the panels already exceeds it, and three of them, including the Environment Ministry's independent administrative body assessment committee, are 42.9 percent female.
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Woman takes active role in ministry, faith
Rita Root became first female pastor at local Federated Church
Article by: Rasmieyh Abdelnabi - Staff Reporter
Northern Star
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Rita Root always had a desire to be in a religious order. Growing up in the Roman Catholic Church she thought of joining the convent. After discovering a rift between her understanding and the church’s understanding of Christianity, Root left the Catholic Church and began exploring other faith traditions.
When Root’s son, Joel, was about 12 years old he became good friends with the son of a United Methodist Church minister. One day Joel came home and proclaimed he needed more religion in his life. The church was planning a ski trip and Joel was under the impression that only church members were allowed to go. Root called the minister to express concerns about the exclusion. He told her Joel was more than welcome to come and the last thing he said to Root was, "But it wouldn’t hurt you to come to church."
After thinking about it, Root decided to go to church and soon enough became very involved in church activities, going from youth group leader to district youth group leader at the church in Minnesota.
"The way God speaks to me most clearly is through the Christian faith, while I value and treasure the other ways that God speaks because I think God speaks in many ways," Root said.
While attending a conference in Colorado, a minister asked Root when she was going to attend seminary and she said she wasn’t even considering the seminary.
When she returned home, Root spoke to her pastor about the Colorado minister’s question. He said it was not really a question of when but where Root was going to attend seminary. "I think you are the only person who doesn’t know that God is calling you into the ministries," he told Root.
After giving the matter a considerable amount of thought and graduating from Minnesota State University, Mankato with a degree in psychology and religious studies, Root began her divinity studies at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. In 1992, Root received a Master’s of Divinity degree and was ordained in the United Methodist Church.
Root acted as the director and campus pastor of United Campus Ministries at NIU for three years.
"What a joy it has been for me to come back into the Christian church and rediscover the wonderfulness about it and challenge the things that caused me to leave. I think that’s a gift when we challenge our faith traditions and make that conscious choice to stay within it or find one where we can receive God’s word," she said.
In 2001, Root left the United Methodist Church because ministers were being told that performing a holy union for a gay couple could result in loss of pastoral privileges.
"I knew at that point, because of my own faith convictions, that if I were asked to do a holy union I would and I have," she said.
She left the United Methodist denomination for the United Church of Christ denomination and became the first female pastor of the Federated Church in Sycamore.
"It was the right time and the right congregation," Root said.
She is very happy at Federated Church. "This is a very open church, very embracing of diversity," she said.
Still as a woman in a leadership position she faces some opposition because of her gender.
"We’re still not at the place where women are as easily affirmed in the ministry as men," Root said.
The Federated Church is the third church in which Root served as the first female pastor.
"There’s the undertone of sexism in leadership roles for women in the church, I don’t think however that that is different than the same kind of sexism and resistance to leadership outside the church," she said.
Pastor Jane Eesley of the First United Methodist Church in DeKalb echoes these sentiments. She said although there is no direct rejection, there are indirect comments made.
It’s just something women have to deal with when working within a traditionally male field, Eesley said.
Colette Morrow , an associate professor at Purdue University Calumet and a visiting women’s studies professor at NIU, said when women go outside their traditional roles, there is a certain discomfort expressed by society.
"Part of it is seeing women in non-traditional roles, it is discerning for people," she said.
Generally speaking, culturally there are still social beliefs about women’s capabilities, characters and appropriate roles, Morrow said.
The other side of the problem is the definition of masculinity, she said. Strides have been made in acknowledging stereotypes about femininity, but there is much work to be done determining the stereotypes regarding masculinity, Morrow said.
It is assumed that only men can hold positions of supremacy and female leaders challenge that traditional idea. Masculine qualities of strength and supremacy are challenged. "It’s really harmful for men that we construct masculinity that way," she said.
Root doesn’t like to spend a lot of time thinking about places she is not accepted. "I always believed that my call came from God and I figured if God thought it was a good idea, I don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about the denominations that would not recognize my ministry."
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Gender Issues Dominate Festival
The Herald (Harare)
November 13, 2005
Professor Joel Harare
At the point of going to press I have seen only half of the more than two dozen films which constitute this year's overwhelmingly successful International Images Film Festival for Women, of which the great majority consists of full-length, featured imports. At the end of virtually every screening I have been left stunned and in awe of how well the year's theme, Women of Passion, has been exemplified.
In limning what I have long trumpeted as the inevitability of the rise to dominance of the female gender, films such as these will be given as evidence of the stepping-stones which paved the way.
Do you question my use of the word "inevitability"? Certainly for all of history, and all over, it has been "a man's world". Men possessed most of the tools one needed for power and success, muscles, connections and control of the crucial social institutions.
But then along came the information age to change all that. In the information age, education is the gateway to success. And that means this is turning into a woman's world because women are overwhelmingly and worldwide better students than men.
Through elementary, high school and universities women get higher grades in every subject. They are more likely to take advanced placement courses and the hardest maths courses. In every country women have higher reading and writing scores on national assessment tests.
They are more likely to be involved in student government and academic clubs. Differences between the sexes become monumental at the university level. In the United States, for instance, there are now more than 60 females for each 100 students, with the ratio continuing to rise each year. Among black Americans there are more than twice as many female as male students. The US Department of Education predicts that by the end of this decade there will be 155 female university graduates for each 100 male graduates.
For the purpose of my assignment to write an overview of this year's film festival, I look at a few of the entries as they describe the current position of women and/or predict the year ahead. And in every case how they execute and put before us the highly emotive term "passion".
To my surprise, I got extremely similar responses when I queried several dozen of my fellow festival-goers, on their understanding of the word itself: Passion. And very close they were to the strict dictionary definition; emotion as distinguished from reason: violent, intense, or overmastering feeling, outbreak of anger; ardent affection, love, strong liking for or devotion to some activity, object or concept, object of deep interest. Words such as fervour, ardour, enthusiasm, zeal were given to me.
No one considered the case in which passion can lead a person astray, at least in the mind of him or her who suffers the consequences. The passion, which motivated Adolf Hitler or Nikolai Lenin, for instance, has been shown to have stirred violent feelings in those who resisted them.
In the film Hometown Blues from France, a discontented, childless wife, living in a provincial town, overturned at one go the life that she and her bewildered husband had planned, as she pursued her will-o-the-wisp career in singing.
The film from Poland, Ever Never, illustrates how a wife, abruptly abandoned by her husband who runs to a younger woman, can take hold of her destiny and re-fashion her future.
The film from Italy, Facing Windows presents us with Giovanna, a wife, a mother and worker in a low-paying, miserable job. She fantasises about an attractive single man whom she views through her window in an adjoining block. She acts upon her passion, but with less than satisfying results.
Everyday life in Japan is, for me, all but entirely unknown. In the film from Japan, First Love, we learn of the passion of a mother for a man other than the man she married, and of her daughter's desire to find this man and bring him back into the situation. A recipe for disaster, you might say, and indeed one which ends with the daughter's passion less than satisfied.
Leaving the film from Sweden, Four Women I felt as though I was fleeing a war zone. With but little reaction from the men in their lives, four women, singly and in unison, in a format not unlike a "home movie" reveal to the general public why I (a marriage counsellor) deplore the likelihood that, given the current freedom to choose, and then un-choose, a partner, feel that marriage as it is presently practised, will within twenty or thirty years become largely an anachronism.
Passion, coupled with the talent needed to put it into play, is fully exhibited by Rachel, in the film from Cuba, The Beauty of the Alhambra. Climbing over the opposition by whatever means necessary, a showgirl from an inconsequential travelling show, Rachel's passion leads her to a coveted position as the top-starred vedette of the nation's showplace, the Alhambra.
The film from Germany, A Map of the Heart, is less clear to me in its depiction of how Katrin acts upon or works out her feeling of desolation. Upon the separation deeply painful on both sides, from her lover and co-worker Jurgen, who will return to his newly-pregnant wife, we the audience only see her dithering as she contemplates her next course of action.
In the film The Upside of Anger from the United States we have a veritable cornucopia of passion, exhibited each in her own way, by a quintet of females - mother and four daughters. One wishes to marry young and have babies, one to become a communications personality, one to be a ballerina, one to make herself "available" to her 15-year-old boyfriend to prove to him that he is not, indeed, "really gay."
With a deep sense of appreciation we all give thanks to Tsitsi Dangarembga and her crew for this magnificent festival.
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From Eve Hogan’s “He Said, She Said”
"How do you feel about shaving your genital area?"
Carol, 32: Taking a razor to your hubby's crotch and rendering him totally hairless puts you in the driver's seat. Granted, the more he fights to keep his hair, the bigger your challenge. But once you have him bald down there, your husband/wife relationship will never be the same.
Jen, 39: From what I have read and personally experienced, if a woman keeps her pubic hair while making her male partner remove his, he tends to exhibit submissive tendencies for fear that she will make his hairless state known to others - especially other men. Keeping him hairless gives her the upper hand in their relationship.
Natalie, 39: Call me crazy, but my stay-at-home husband has become noticeably more submissive since I started shaving him. I got the inspiration after some casual but eye-opening discussions with two married coworkers who are both self-proclaimed feminists. (One shamelessly wears the key to her husband's chastity device around her neck.) I work long and crazy hours as a real estate agent and have been most successful at it. As for Brad, he's been an unemployed computer programmer for some time now. He makes a great but sometimes reluctant househusband. But like magic, once I was persuaded to remove his pubic hair, he has become completely docile and attentive to my every need. I can now relax in front of the tv most evenings with Brad's tongue tucked sheepishly into my bush. If that doesn't relax a working gal at the end of the day, I don't know what does. Of course, there is always his hairless genitals to amuse me when I'm in a reciprocating mood. His cock and balls are much more palatable without all that male hair. I still want him to be able masturbate naked in front of me whenever I ask him, but he is painfully shy about it.
Debbie, 43: I started shaving my husband over 5 years ago. This was to show him who was in charge. It must have been almost 4 years ago I started having him put on hair removel cream on in the morning and again at night(everyday). This has removed all of his pubic hair and now he will only grow back fine wispy stands when I let him. This I did as a test just to see what is left.
I believe only women should have pubic hair. It stands as a sign of womanhood. Naked male genitals show a sign of surrender to the Female.
Ellen, 41: The tables have turned. I used to let my husband shave me quite often. But that stopped about a year ago. I now shave him. I have found this to be true with many wives today. It is amazing how many men have their genitals shaved as a requirement for sex with their wives. This is the rule I have put into place at my home. I also keep him nude most of the time so I can view his shaved cock and balls. I find it to put me in a very dominant position. I also like us to shower together so he sees my hair and his removed. When we are toweling off I always like to point out that I am the one with the hair in my pants and this talk always gives him a massive hard-on. He has now admitted to me he likes me to shave him. He says it is like I am putting my brand of ownership on his genitals.
Abby, 34: My husband and I have been married four years and during that time, I have gradually taken over as head of our household. One of the first things I did in our female dominated marriage was to make him remove his pubic hair. Ladies, if you skip this important first step in taking control, you're missing the boat. Being kept hairless down there has a profound effect on the male ego and makes a man truly submissive. Trust me, it works.
Sandy, 42: I just started requiring my husband Ian to remove his pubic hair for me. He is non argumentative with me to begin with, so his resistance was short-lived. I love his new look and smooth feel. I plan to keep him totally bald down there for a long, long time... I trim but have no desire to shave. Besides, I simply enjoy being the only spouse with hair in my pants. And Ian has clearly become more submissive as a result.
I'm familiar with Elise Sutton and visit her web site often. She's a self-proclaimed female supremacist who advocates, among other things, that women keep their husbands shaved. In fact, her own husband must keep his genitals completely shaved and locked in a chastity device. My kind of role model.
