Emerging Leaders Network

"This qualitative study examined the sexual socialization experienced by emerging adult, African American women, ages 18 to 26 years, who received services at a sexually transmitted infection clinic. Data obtained from in-depth interviews revealed that women received information about sex and relationships from three primary sources: women of the previous generation, who emphasized relationship quality, contraception and the consequences of sex; partner qualities, and role responsibilities; same-generation women, whose messages addressed relationship quality and the consequences of sex and male family members, who emphasized men’s treatment of women and sexual issues. Women described both direct and indirect (observed) messages, as well as differences and similarities in messages. The analysis focused on the content of these messages, and the influence of race, class, gender, and age in the socialization experience."

"Women waded steadily into politics from 1971 until 1991, culminating with the famous Year of the Woman in the 1992 election. That fall, 24 new women were elected to U.S. House of Representatives, and five to the Senate. But in retrospect, that election was more a high-water mark than harbinger of things to come. Women’s political participation has largely been flat-lining ever since.

'That flat-lining holds true for candidates as well as office-holders, reinforcing the notion that if women run, women win,' Walsh said. 'The problem we have is not that women are running in huge numbers, they’re increasing every year, and they don’t get elected. The problem is they’re not running in first place. That’s the real challenge here.'

Walsh was speaking on a conference call Monday afternoon to detail an ambitious new CAWP initiative to draw women into politics, at just the moment when they may feel most discouraged. The national, nonpartisan 2012 Project hopes to exploit what researchers have learned over the last several years about why so many women don’t run.

Frequently, women cite predictable roadblocks: family, privacy, the negativity of campaigns, the daunting task of fundraising (women like to raise money for other people and causes, Walsh notes, but they are often uncomfortable doing so for themselves).The most common explanation, though, is a bit more surprising: “Nobody ever asked me,” many women say.

The 2012 Project is planning to do that — to put the idea to women who have never considered it before. The initiative will target women over 45 (of any party), the baby boomers who were the first generation of women to have extensive career options, and who are now past the responsibility of raising children. The project wants to find women in finance, science and technology, energy, the environment, health, small business and international affairs.
'We not only want to diversify in terms of gender, we want to add value in terms of expertise,' said Mary Hughes, the director of the project. "

"President Obama on Friday named Elizabeth Warren, a consumer advocate and Wall Street adversary, to oversee creation of an agency to regulate banks, lenders and credit-card companies. Sidestepping a Senate confirmation fight — for now — Obama stopped short of nominating Warren to head the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Instead, his action will let the Harvard Law School professor and expert on bankruptcy to move quickly to shape the bureau.

The interim role for Warren, 61, averts a political problem for Obama in this election season. Rejecting her would have angered many party liberals. Liberal and consumer groups had lobbied hard for her, along with some lawmakers, including Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.  Senate Republicans view Warren as too critical of Wall Street and big banks. The business and banking community opposed her as director of the new bureau, contending she would make the agency too aggressive.

The creation of the bureau was a central piece of the legislation overhauling the financial-regulatory system that Obama signed into law in July. Its genesis was an article that Warren wrote a year before the near-collapse of the financial system in 2008, a crisis blamed, in part, on abusive mortgage practices.  The new bureau is charged with writing and enforcing new rules covering the largest banks to the smallest storefront payday lender. Lenders will face new restrictions on the type of mortgages they write and won't be rewarded for steering borrowers to higher-cost loans. The bureau also is to protect borrowers from hidden fees and abusive terms."

"The U.K. government may enforce quotas to increase the number of women on the boards of listed companies if a better gender balance cannot be reached through less direct measures, according to the head of the government's inquiry into gender inequality in public companies.

Mervyn Davies, former U.K. Trade Minister and chairman of Standard Chartered PLC, told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview Friday that a quota system was a "last resort", but one that would be pursued if progress was not made.

'If it [gender equality on boards] is not going to change over a brief period then we will have to do quotas,' he said. 'The reality is we only have 12% of FTSE 100 board members who are women, and when you go to the FTSE 250 it falls to 7%.'

Davies, who was appointed last month to lead the inquiry, said Norway's experience of using a quota system would be closely examined. Since it was introduced in 2008, Norway's rules have required public companies allocate 40% of board seats to women or face possible closure and delisting from the Oslo Stock Exchange.

His comments develop those made in March by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who said that if there was not a dramatic change in the proportion of women on public boards the government would have to consider taking 'serious action.'

Davies said the reasons behind gender inequality in the boardroom were complex, but said there is already a large pool of women who would be ideal to hold board positions.

'Britain is full of female entrepreneurs, but you don't see many of them on the boards of big companies. Why is that?' Davies asked. 'The business case for diversity is clear. The big question is: How do we have a mindset change in Britain?'"