Communications, Culture & Society

From Publishers Weekly:

Approximately a dozen women’s presses are actively publishing in the U.S. today, down from about 30 during the 1990s, when feminist publishing and bookselling were at their peak. There are, additionally, several women’s presses sporadically publishing, and a few others putting out regional titles with limited distribution.

While fewer presses specialize in feminist books, those doing so are holding their own in the marketplace, and a few are thriving. Most of the presses contacted by PW reported that sales are steady, while Aunt Lute Books reported a 20% increase in sales this past year, and Seal Press reported a 23% increase.

Several of these publishers are maintaining their viability by redefining what it means to be a feminist press or expanding their operations. All are focusing on publishing books that do well in backlist, such as Seal’s fall 2012 release of Lynn Fairweather’s Stop Signs, a title about domestic violence that the press hopes will generate the same kind of sales as a related 1982 release, Getting Free (100,000 copies), did.

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From The Globe and Mail:

North of the 49th parallel, we’re experiencing our own gender-inspired game-changing political election, albeit in a less dramatic, more Canadian kind of way.

Women have led parties into elections here since 1988 and Canada now boasts four female premiers. But never before has the race to watch been between two women. Since the start of the Alberta election, polls have been putting Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith and the Conservatives’ Alison Redford neck and neck.

Suddenly, “the best man” has double the odds of being a woman. How might this change the political conversation?

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 From PsychCentral:

From Forbes:

A study in 2010 conducted by the Census, looking at its own data on stay-at-home mothers, showed that as compared to the make-up in 1979, today’s moms in the home are younger, less educated, and much more likely to be Hispanic – and in particular, foreign born. The report states, “on average stay-at-home mothers do not have higher levels of educational attainment compared with their counterparts.” In fact, 18 percent lack a high school degree, compared to just 7 percent of women in the workforce. They are also younger: women under 35 are more likely to be stay-at-home mothers now than they were in 1969.

 From the Huffington Post:

 From the press release (Marketwatch):

"Most women don't realize it, but an important factor in a woman's career choice is how easy or difficult it is to find a husband," said Durante. "When a woman's dating prospects look bleak -- as is the case when there are few available men -- she is much more likely to delay starting a family and instead seek a career."

In one study, the researchers examined the ratio of single men to single women in each U.S. state and Washington D.C. They found that as bachelors became scarce, the percentage of women in high-paying careers increased, women delayed having children, and had fewer kids when they finally decided to start a family.

In another study on college campuses, the researchers led women to believe that there were either more men or less men on campus by having participants read one of two news articles about the student population. When women read that there were fewer men than women on campus, they became more motivated to pursue ambitious careers rather than start a family.

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"Sex Ratio and Women's Career Choice: Does a Scarcity of Men Lead Women to Choose Briefcase Over Baby?" was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Durante and Griskevicius's coauthors include the University of Minnesota's Jeffry A. Simpson and Stephanie M. Cantu and Joshua M. Tybur (VU University Amsterdam).

 From The Christian Science Monitor:

An American archbishop was appointed to oversee reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which will include rewriting the group's statutes, reviewing all its plans and programs -- including approving speakers -- and ensuring the organization properly follows Catholic prayer and ritual.

The Leadership Conference, based in Silver Spring, Md,, represents about 57,000 religious sisters and offers programs ranging from leadership training for women's religious orders to advocacy on social justice issues. Representatives of the Leadership Conference did not respond to requests for comment.

The report from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said the organization faced a "grave" doctrinal crisis, in which issues of "crucial importance" to the church, such as abortion and euthanasia, have been ignored. Vatican officials also castigated the group for making some public statements that "disagree with or challenge positions taken by the bishops," who are the church's authentic teachers of faith and morals."

Church officials did not cite a specific example of those public statements, but said the reform would include a review of ties between the Leadership Conference and NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby. NETWORK played a key role in supporting the Obama administration's health care overhaul despite the bishops' objections that the bill would provide government funding for abortion. The Leadership Conference disagreed with the bishops' analysis of the law and also supported President Barack Obama's plan.

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 From CNN: