Higher Education

Should the Violence Against Women Act Be Reauthorized?

Teaser:

Essays for and against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

Editorial:

The Violence Against Women Act, a groundbreaking piece of legislation addressing domestic and sexual violence, was first enacted in 1994 and then reauthorized in 2000 and 2005. Among the measures the act has taken to protect victims and prevent abuse, the law strengthened the legal action taken against perpetrators of domestic violence and provided services, including rape crisis centers, hotlines, and community support programs, for its victims. Congress is now debating its reauthorization, as the law expired in September, and while it has received broad bipartisan support in the past it has recently come under political fire from some Republican lawmakers who object to provisions which Democrats have added to this year’s reauthorization. Critics specifically object to provisions which would expand the law’s coverage to illegal immigrants, homosexuals, and American Indians, who would have greater authority to persecute non-Indians who commit crimes against American Indian women. Republicans argue that these were purely political additions designed to induce GOP lawmakers to oppose an otherwise popular bill, giving Democrats more ammunition in their campaign argument that Republicans are “anti woman.” Furthermore, some conservative activists object to the law entirely, arguing that it does not cut down on—and might even increase—instances of domestic abuse while overextending the federal government’s jurisdiction. Should the Violence Against Women Act be reauthorized? Here is the Debate Club’s take:

[...]

Source:

US News & World Report

URL:

http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-the-violence-against-women-act-be-reauthorized

Date:

March 20, 2012

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Allstate - National Journal Heartland Monitor XII: Gender

Submitted by asklar on Sat, 03/17/2012 - 5:40pm

The twelfth installment of the Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor polling series focused specifically on the different experiences and economic expectations of men and women in the changing economy. This survey catalogues experiences of men and women in their home, family, and professional life, and gathers perspectives on the idea of opportunity in society and the workplace in the present day and how opportunity has and will change across generations. The survey also measures Americans' opinions about the changing gender profile of the country's workforce and what factors contribute to the continuing wage gap.

March 2012

URL:

http://www.allstate.com/heartland-monitor/gender-h12.aspx

Women Leaving Collegiate Coaching Jobs

Teaser:

Longtime female coaches say that many qualified candidates, especially those who are mothers or plan to be, leave the profession rather than juggle the demands of coaching and motherhood.

Editorial:

From The New York Times:

Only 14.3 percent of Division I coaches are women, the fewest since 1992, according to a national survey by the former Brooklyn College professors R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter.

Longtime female coaches say that many qualified candidates, especially those who are mothers or plan to be, leave the profession rather than juggle the demands of coaching and motherhood.

Fewer, they say, are willing to uproot their families to pursue jobs, as men routinely do, or toil for 10 years at modest pay for a chance to be a head coach when so few women are hired. Most Division I assistants make $40,000 to $50,000 a year. The median salary for Division I head coaches is $125,100, according to the 2004-10 N.C.A.A. Gender Equity Report.

[...]

Source:

The New York Times

URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/sports/in-college-hockey-female-coaches-often-skate-away-from-demands-of-the-job.html

Date:

March 17, 2012

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Associated Issues & Expertise:

Who Are the Next Generation's Leaders in Technology, Science, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)?

Teaser:

In the next five years, STEM jobs are projected to grow twice as quickly as jobs in all other fields according to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics. While all jobs are expected to grow by 10.4 percent, STEM jobs are expected to increase by 21.4 percent. Similarly, 80 percent of jobs in the next decade will require technical skills.

Editorial:

From the Huffington Post:

By this measure, future STEM jobs represent a huge opportunity to today's students. But to put these numbers into perspective, of the 3.8 million ninth graders in the U.S., only 233,000 end up choosing a STEM degree in college, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This means only 6 percent of ninth graders will become STEM graduates. And of these graduates, women will be even more underrepresented in most STEM fields.

These are alarming statistics. How do we get more young boys and girls to be interested in STEM-related fields? It isn't an easy task. Schools do not always adequately prepare students for these rigorous subjects, and college programs are designed to weed out the less persistent. Nationally, only 41 percent of initial White and Asian American STEM majors who begin a degree in STEM-related fields complete their degree in less than six years.

In addition, societal pressures continue to loom over girls who might otherwise consider the STEM fields. A couple of years ago, I met amazing parents, both of whom had a background in engineering and hoped their 10 year-old daughter would follow in their footsteps. They encouraged her to take an after school science/robotics program. When she got there, she found she was outnumbered 6:1 by boys in the class. As the only girl, she came home crying much of the time because she was teased and told that geeky girls are not welcome in the boys' club. Ironically, by the time young adults are entering college programs in STEM fields, many complain about the lack of gender diversity.

[...]

Source:

Huffington Post

URL:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ivo-lukas/girls-stem_b_1342471.html

Date:

March 14, 2012

Affiliate:

Mixed News for Female Sci-Tech Faculty

Teaser:

For female faculty in scientific or technical fields, a new study has good news, with some caveats.

Editorial:

From LiveScience:

Overall, women in these fields, collectively known as STEM, for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, are staying in these positions at the same rate as men, according to work done by Deborah Kaminski of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Cheryl Geisler of Simon Fraser University.

"This is really good news, it means if we hire them we are going to be able to keep them," Kaminski said in a podcast released by the journal Science, in which the study appears. The two also found that men and women receive promotions at about the same times.

In these fields overall, half of faculty will have departed within 10.9 years of their careers. One discipline bucks the overall trend, however. In mathematics, half of women leave by 4.45 years, and half of male faculty by 7.33 years into their careers, the study found. (A study released this week found that due to the demands of a professorship, many women choose motherhood over academics in math and science fields.)

Source:

LiveScience

URL:

http://www.livescience.com/18517-women-stem-faculty-retention.html

Date:

March 14, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Intellectual Property and Women Entrepreneurs

Submitted by asklar on Sun, 03/11/2012 - 11:54pm

The number of women awarded patents has soared over the last several decades far beyond previously reported figures, and the percentage of trademarks granted to women has more than doubled, a new study commissioned by the National Women’s Business Council found.

The study found that women had a higher representation among trademark holders than patent owners; in 2010, 18 percent of all patents granted went to women while 33 percent of all trademarks granted to individuals and sole proprietorships went to women.

[...]

URL:

http://nwbc.gov/research/intelletual-property-women-entrepreneurs

International Women’s Day: The real reason women get fewer patents than men do

Teaser:

Men file far more patents than women do, but women are securing an increasing number of patents and trademarks, according to a recent study by the National Women’s Business Council, a government advisory panel.

Editorial:

From The Washington Post:

In 2010, 22,984 patents were granted to women, a 35 percent jump over the previous year. The increase for men was only 28 percent.

“Overall, women held 18 percent of all patents granted in 2010, compared to the 14 percent they had a decade earlier. In 1990, they earned only 9 percent,” the study found.

Interestingly, the NWBC paper found that the highest rate of increase in the grant of patents to women was in the 1986-1993 period, and the slowest rate was in the 1999-2006 period, during the dot-com bubble.

The picture for trademarks was even better. Women nearly doubled their share of trademarks within a 30-year span.

[...]

Source:

The Washington Post

URL:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-small-business/post/international-womens-day-the-real-reason-women-get-fewer-patents-than-men-do/2012/03/08/gIQAWw1szR_blog.html

Date:

March 11, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Women and Graduate Management Education

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 11:36am

Data from the Graduate Management Admissions Council indicates that more women are working towards MBAs than ever before.

According to the GMAC, women accounted for 41 percent of the close to 259,000 people who took the Graduate Management Admission Test in 2011, which is a requirement for most MBA programs. The number of exams taken by women was 106,800, marking the sixth consecutive year of growth for women test-takers. This was also the third year in a row that over 100,000 women took the exam.

In the United States, women took nearly 46,000 exams -- the largest number out of any country in the world. The greatest percentage of women who took the GMAT, however, was in China, where 64 percent, or about 33,000, of those who sat for the test were women.

Nevertheless, the GMAC research also found that female MBAs who graduated from 2000 to 2011 and are working full-time earned just 81 percent of what their male counterparts did.

URL:

http://img.gmac.com/mediaroomresources/pdfs/women_and_graduate_management_education-gmac-28Feb2012.pdf

Women react to Rush's apology: Not accepted?

Teaser:

The outcry over Rush Limbaugh calling birth control activist Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute,” seems to have worked. Several days after his attempt to slut-shame the Georgetown University law student, Limbaugh issued a rare apology on his website, saying "in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize."

Editorial:

From MSNBC:

The outcry over Rush Limbaugh calling birth control activist Sandra Fluke a “slut”and a “prostitute,” seems to have worked. Several days after his attempt to slut-shame the Georgetown University law student, Limbaugh issued a rare apology on his website, saying "in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize."

The conservative radio host also claimed he wasn't against birth control, according to a transcript of his show.

But the apology may be too little, too late for scores of women who felt personally stung by the attack.

[...]

Source:

MSNBC

URL:

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/02/10564407-women-react-to-rushs-apology-not-accepted

Date:

March 5, 2012

Affiliate:

Blame biological clock for dearth of women in math: study

Teaser:

Women are shunning academic careers in math-intensive fields because the lifestyle is incompatible with motherhood, researchers at Cornell University found in a study to be published next month in American Scientist Magazine.

Editorial:

From Reuters:

Universities have long been criticized for hiring and evaluation policies that discriminate against women, but the findings of this new study point to the female biological clock as a main reason why so few women end up as professors in fields such as math, engineering, physics and computer science.

A woman who wants a family looks at the rigorous path to a tenured position and considers how old she will be before she can start a family and how little time she will have to raise her children. Many of those women opt for a more flexible career.

"Universities have been largely inflexible about anything other than the standard time table, which is you kill yourself for years and only then would you consider getting pregnant," said Wendy Williams, a human development professor at Cornell who co-authored the study with her husband, Stephen Ceci.

Williams and Ceci analyzed data about the academic careers of men and women with and without children. Before women became mothers, they had careers equivalent to or more successful than their male peers. But once children entered the equation, the dynamic changed.

Women in other academic fields such as the humanities and social sciences face similar hurdles and often leave academia as well. But because there are so many women in those Ph.D. programs, enough ultimately stay to amount to a critical mass of female professors.

In math-heavy fields, however, women make up a tiny minority of the graduate students. So when the rare few who make it through a Ph.D. program leave because universities are insensitive to their needs as mothers, the net result is virtually no women represented on faculty rosters, the study said.

[...]

Source:

Reuters

URL:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/17/us-women-math-idUSTRE81G17V20120217

Date:

February 21, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

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