Higher Education

Military academies report more sexual assaults

Teaser:

The Defense Department said the nation’s military service academies had received 65 reports of sexual assault during the 2010-2011 academic year, the highest total since the Pentagon began maintaining data in 2004.

Editorial:

From the article:

...

On Tuesday, the Defense Department said the nation’s military service academies had received 65 reports of sexual assault during the 2010-2011 academic year, the highest total since the Pentagon began maintaining data in 2004.

The academies reported 41 such assaults in the 2009-2010 academic year.

It’s unclear whether those figures represent a step in the wrong direction, with assaults actually on the rise, or a step in the right direction, with more victims willing to come forward to report assaults. The Defense Department said it “does not have the ability to conclusively identify the reasons for this increase in reporting behavior.”

...

Source:

Washington Post

URL:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/military-academies-report-more-sexual-assaults/2011/12/27/gIQADaT7KP_blog.html

Date:

December 28, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Women moving into college athletic deprtments

Teaser:

In 2005, at age 49, Arizona State University hired Lisa Love as vice president for athletics, the highest-ranking job in the department. Six years later she is one of just five women to occupy the top athletics administrative position at a Division I-A school.

Editorial:

From the article:

Some believe the lack of women serving as athletic directors is about to change, with qualified women rising up the ranks. Others believe it would have changed already if not for qualified women — and men — who are happy occupying the No. 2 spot and who have no desire to take on the far more public role of athletic director.

Still others believe it's as simple as not having enough university presidents and chancellors willing to hire a woman to lead a major athletic department.

"I think it's a long journey that we've been taking for more than 40 years where half the population has said, 'Treat me fairly,'" said Chris Voelz, a former women's athletic administrator at the University of Minnesota and current leadership gifts officer at Women's Sports Foundation founded by Billie Jean King. "If we were to switch positions, would the men still be pleased with the position women have? To that end we have not arrived."
...

Source:

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

URL:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/college/s_773711.html

Date:

December 26, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Vt. fraternity closed indefinitely over rape survey

Teaser:

The national Sigma Phi Epsilon announced, after an internal investigation and lengthy discussions with the University of Vermont, that the University of Vermont chapter, whose members are accused of circulating a survey that asked who they would like to rape, has been closed indefinitely.

Source:

USA Today

URL:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2011-12-16/fraternity-vermont-rape-survey-closed/52016446/1

Date:

December 18, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

U.S. Female Students Enter College Most Prepared for STEM Studies, According to Faculty at America's Top Research Universities in a New Bayer Survey

Teaser:

American women entering college are the best prepared academically to hit the books and successfully graduate with a STEM degree (82 percent), according to a survey of faculty from the nation’s top 200 research universities who chair STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) departments. The survey, conducted by Bayer Corporation, is the 15th by the company and the fifth to examine the underrepresentation of women, African-Americans, Hispanics and American Indians in many U.S. STEM fields.

Editorial:

From the press release:

...

Specifically, the chairs say being discouraged from a STEM career is still an issue today for both female and underrepresented minority (URM) STEM undergraduate students (59 percent) and that traditional rigorous introductory instructional approaches that “weed out” students early on from STEM studies are generally harmful and more so to URM (56 percent) and female (27 percent) students compared to majority students (i.e. Caucasian and Asian males). Yet, a majority (57 percent) of the chairs do not see a need to significantly change their introductory instructional methods in order to retain more STEM students, including women and URMs.

The Bayer Facts of Science Education XV survey polled 413 STEM department chairs at the country’s leading research universities and those that produce the most African-American, Hispanic and American Indian STEM graduates. The survey asks the chairs, who are largely male (87 percent) and Caucasian (88 percent) to shed light on the undergraduate environment in which today’s female and URM STEM students make their career decisions.

...

Source:

CSRwire press release

URL:

http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/33452-U-S-Female-Students-Enter-College-Most-Prepared-for-STEM-Studies-According-to-Faculty-at-America-s-Top-Research-Universities-in-a-New-Bayer-Survey

Date:

December 8, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Surge of Young Nurses Could Help Reverse Shortage

Teaser:

According to a report published Monday in the journal Health Affairs, young registered nurses are now entering the workforce at a rate not seen since the 1970s.

Editorial:

From the article:

...

According to a report published Monday in the journal Health Affairs, young registered nurses are now entering the workforce at a rate not seen since the 1970s.

After peaking at 190,000 in 1979, the number of RNs between the ages of 23 and 26 plummeted below 110,000 in the early '90s. That's a drop of about 50 percent, bottoming out at 102,000 in 2002.

Then, unexpectedly, everything changed. Between 2002 and 2009, the number of mid-20-something RNs jumped by 62 percent. According to the report, "If these young nurses follow the same life-cycle employment patterns as those who preceded them -- as they appear to be thus far -- then they will be the largest cohort of registered nurses ever observed."

But if your local hospital already has a shortage of nurses, it might be a little early to celebrate the trend. A second Health Affairs study published Monday found that nurses rarely move very far for a job. In fact, 52.5 percent of nurses work within 40 miles of where they attended high school.

Next to teaching, the report shows, nursing is one of the least-mobile professions for women. Without intervention, areas currently struggling to produce RNs probably won't be seeing an upswing in their numbers any time soon.

...

Source:

PBS Newshour

URL:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/12/surge-of-young-nurses-could-help-wipe-out-shortage.html

Date:

December 6, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Steinem’s Wall Street Occupied as Women Still Earn Less Than Men

Teaser:

For Gloria Steinem, the international conversation that the Occupy Wall Street protests sparked about economic inequality is, at its heart, about gender.

Editorial:

From the article:

...

Start with the thousands of dollars in student loans that saddle the average U.S. college graduate. Women “are paid unequally -- so they are going to have a harder time paying back that debt,” Steinem, the 77-year-old feminist who helped start the women’s rights movement with the publication of Ms. Magazine nearly 40 years ago, said in an interview at Bloomberg News’ New York bureau. “It’s outrageous because they are kind of indentured when they graduate.”

Steinem’s comments echo a common lament among young women in the Occupy movement, which began on Sept. 17 as a demonstration against the widening wealth gap and an economic system that protestors say favors the rich. The unemployment rate for college graduates aged 20-24 rose to 9.1 percent last year from 8.7 percent in 2009, the highest on record for that demographic, according to the Project on Student Debt. Add to that the burdens of student loans, and young Americans say they don’t stand much chance.

...

Source:

Bloomberg

URL:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-05/steinem-s-wall-street-occupied-as-women-earn-81-cents-on-each-male-dollar.html

Date:

December 5, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Tanzania: Women in Science, Beyond Bias and Barriers

Teaser:

Article discusses the need to continue improving the scientific education of girls in Tanzania.

Editorial:

From the article:

Women have continued to lag behind in terms of education and independence, all because of bad policies and cultural norms. Culturally, boys are given better chances of education than girls.

In a home where parents are financially constrained, they will use the meager resources they have to educate boys as the girls remain home to do household chores and are eventually married off to get bride price. And with those who get the opportunity to go on with school, fewer have been joining sciences. But are we seeing this changing? Perhaps yes, as statistics may confirm to us.

Already, there have been improvements with respect to girl enrolment currently at an average of 30 percent in non-physical science and about 10 percent for mathematics, physics and engineering. Government initiatives At a recent forum in Dar es Salaam under the auspices of UNESCO, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry for Community Development, Gender and Children, Ms Mijakazi Mtengwa painted a picture of optimism, noting that even as girls faced cultural barriers, more were now pursuing science subjects.

Explaining, she said that potential future scientists are lost in the transition from high school to college, in the transition from college to graduating at school, and in the transition from gaining a doctorate to getting a job. Ms Mtengwa was speaking at the Women in Science Workshop for ministries, independent departments, government agencies and private sector where a Women In Science Reference Group in Tanzania has been formed under the support by UNESCO.

...

Source:

allAfrica.com

URL:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201112010303.html

Date:

December 1, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Making Macroeconomics Work for US: A Feminist Perspective

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 12/01/2011 - 11:12am

As the world experiences increasing inequalities and gaps between and within countries, women’s rights organizations are working to challenge current hegemonic systems and develop alternatives for change. Building on feminist economic analyses, the Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL) is undertaking the production of periodic briefs - Nexus: Shaping Feminist Visions in the 21st Century - to enhance women’s leadership for the realization of human rights. The briefs aim to both engender analytical and practical approaches to human rights in general, and economic and social rights in particular, as well as strengthen the capacity of feminist and social justice movements.

Brief Number 1 - "Making Macroeconomics Work For US: A Feminist Perspective" - highlights linkages between macroeconomics and human rights in order to better inform discussions about solutions to the current economic crisis in the United States.

URL:

http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/publications/nexus/October%202011%20Brief%201.pdf

Member Organization:

Center for Women's Global Leadership

Completing College: Assessing Graduation Rates At Four-Year Institutions

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 11:10am

Current methods used by colleges and universities for predicting graduation rates fall short on accuracy because they leave out key information about the types of students the institutions enroll, according to a new report from the Higher Education Research Institute(HERI) at UCLA.

By taking into account a broader array of social, economic and psychological characteristics of incoming students, as well as an institution's mission, colleges and universities could more precisely assess how effective they are at moving students toward completion of their degrees over four, five and six years, the report's authors say.

URL:

http://heri.ucla.edu/pr-display.php?prQry=80

In other words: Communicating feminism

Teaser:

The Egyptian feminist organization, the Women and Memory Forum (WMF), published the first volume in their series of feminist translations, “Reader on Gender and Political Science,” in 2010. And they are anticipating the publication of the second, a "Reader on Feminism and Religious Studies," in the coming weeks. The inspiration for the project, according to WMF founding member Hala Kamal, came through the organization’s work in promoting women’s studies and feminism as an academic discipline in Egypt. Since its establishment in 1995, the mission of the group of women scholars has been to “produce and disseminate alternative knowledge about women in the Arab region” and to “reread Arab tradition and cultural history.”

Editorial:

From the article:

Though other institutions, such as Egypt’s National Center for Translation, have translated a number of feminist works on a case-by-case basis, the comprehensive effort to make scholarly feminist writings in English available to Arabic readers is unique.

The inspiration for the project, according to WMF founding member Hala Kamal, came through the organization’s work in promoting women’s studies and feminism as an academic discipline in Egypt. Since its establishment in 1995, the mission of the group of women scholars has been to “produce and disseminate alternative knowledge about women in the Arab region” and to “reread Arab tradition and cultural history.”

...

Source:

Almasry Alyoum

URL:

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/510846

Date:

November 3, 2011

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

GET INVOLVED

What We Do

NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

Higher Education

Search NCRW