Shame. It may be the single most corrosive force of our time. When my husband and I were in our final year of the MFA program where we met, we were each responsible for producing a book-length thesis. Jason and I had started dating in our first year and moved in together quickly, realizing that […]
Is our sub-par family leave legislation supposed to be equally dismal for men and women? Is this the measure of equality? Today, August 26, is Women’s Equality Day. Hooray for one day! Forgive my cynicism. I’ve long been convinced that true equality requires evolution, and the existing generations are a lost cause. Sexism is far […]
The phrase “self-care” comes loaded with assumptions about who has the ability to care for themselves, and what kind of care is valuable. Exercise is virtuous. Devouring “Making a Murderer” in a single sitting is gluttonous. Here’s a scene: It’s my daughter’s 2nd birthday party, and I’m standing in my Elmo-bedecked kitchen with three other […]
We shouldn’t need the terrible luck of an inheritance in order to give our children the beginning we want. When I had my daughter in January 2014, my father—always the first to grab his checkbook when I needed rent money, or a non-thrift store winter coat, or a load of groceries—gave my burgeoning family the […]
Despite all the successes of women, the white male establishment has prevailed. In 1955, Mrs. Dale Carnegie, whose husband wrote the best-seller How to Win Friends and Influence People, advised her fellow housewives: “The two big steps that women must take are to help their husbands decide where they are going and use their pretty […]
For a country so taken with the idea of ‘family values,’ we do a remarkably terrible job at helping people start families. For a country so taken with the idea of “family values,” the United States does a remarkably terrible job at helping people start families. We are the only industrialized nation that doesn’t have […]
U.S. women’s workforce participation has been on the decline since 1999. According to a recent New York Times story “Why U.S. Women are Leaving Jobs Behind,” Europeans countries—which have expanded family-friendly benefits such as paid parental leaves and protection for part-time workers—have witnessed an increase of mothers with children under 18 in the workforce. Alternately in the U.S., […]
