Discrimination

Study: Correlation Between Wal-Mart Stores and Hate Groups

Teaser:

The Christian Post reports on a Penn State study that finds a correlation between the number of Wal-Mart stores and the number of hate groups in a given area, and on the reaction to the study by Concerned Women for America.

Editorial:

From the Christian Post:

The president and CEO of a national women's organization expressed her outrage this week over a study from Penn State University which indicates that the existence of hate groups in a particular county is correlated to the number of Wal-Mart stores.

Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America, expressed her anger with the study in an article titled "Elitism of the Left," which appeared on her organization's website on Monday.

"Penn State must have had to do amazing mathematical gymnastics to correlate that the hard-working families who shop at Wal-Mart are members of hate groups," wrote Nance. "But that's the trouble with leftist elites. They hold fast to their egotism and preconceived notions, dismissing everyone who opposes their ideologies as ignorant and bigoted."

The study, titled "Social Capital, Religion, Wal-Mart, and Hate Groups in America," appeared in the April edition of Social Science Quarterly and was conducted by Stephan J. Goetz of Penn State University, Anil Rupasingha of New Mexico State University and Scott Loveridge of Michigan State. The hate group statistics used in the study came from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Mongtomery, Ala.-based civil rights organization.

Goetz, a professor of agricultural and regional economics, told The Christian Post on Thursday that Nance was wrong about the study in that it doesn't associate any particular demographic with hate groups.

[...]

Source:

Christian Post

URL:

http://www.christianpost.com/news/study-correlation-between-wal-mart-stores-and-hate-groups-74429/

Date:

May 7, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Should the Senate Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act?

Teaser:

Three essays in favor and three opposed from the U.S. News and World Report Debate Club

Editorial:

From U. S. News & World Report:

After battles over the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and the mandate by President Obama’s healthcare law that religious institutions cover contraceptives for employees, another storm is brewing in Washington over women-oriented issues. The Senate is expected to call a vote in the coming weeks on the Paycheck Fairness Act, an update on 1963’s Equal Pay Act, which made wage discrimination based on one’s sex illegal. With a reported 77 cents to the dollar pay gap between women and men, respectively, persisting nearly five decades later, the Paycheck Fairness Act is designed to help those who believe they are victims of gender-based wage discrimination by making wages more transparent, by requiring that employers prove that wage discrepancies are tied to legitimate business qualifications and not gender, and by prohibiting companies from taking retaliatory action against employees who raise concerns about gender-based wage discrimination. The bill, supported by the Obama administration, was passed by the House in January 2009 only to be stalled in the Senate in November 2010, and was reintroduced in both chambers in April 2011. Democratic National Committee Chair and Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz recently urged presumed GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to take a stand on the bill, bringing it back into the political limelight and putting the pressure on Senate Dems to prioritize a vote on the legislation.

Proponents say that more must be done to close the pay gap between men and women, particularly with much greater participation by women in the workforce since the Equal Pay Act became law. Opponents say that the proposed new law misdiagnoses the problem, questioning the data cited by its supporters, and would unfairly harm small businesses as the economic recovery struggles to pick up steam. Should the Senate pass the Paycheck Fairness Act? Here is the Debate Club’s take.

Source:

U.S. News and World Report

URL:

http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-the-senate-pass-the-paycheck-fairness-act

Date:

May 7, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Nebraska Women’s Health Equity Report 2012

Submitted by asklar on Tue, 05/01/2012 - 10:48am

A report issued by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and the Women’s Health Advisory Council shows that while Nebraska is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, women of color continue to experience disparities in deaths, health outcomes, preventive care, health care access, and social determinants of health.

From 2007-2009, Black women in Nebraska were more likely than women of other racial/ethnic groups to die from cancer, heart disease, and stroke. American Indian women and Hispanic women were more likely to develop diabetes, and American Indian women more likely to die from the disease.

[...]

URL:

http://dhhs.ne.gov/publichealth/Documents/Womens_Equity_Report.pdf

Obesity affects job prospects for women, study finds

Teaser:

An Australian study finds that obese women are more likely to be discriminated against when applying for jobs and receive lower starting salaries than their non-overweight colleagues,

Editorial:

From EurekAlert:

The study, led by The University of Manchester and Monash University, Melbourne, and published in the International Journal of Obesity, examined whether a recently developed measure of anti-fat prejudice, the universal measure of bias (UMB), predicted actual obesity job discrimination. The researchers also assessed whether people's insecurity with their own bodies (body image) and conservative personalities such as, authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation were related to obesity discrimination, as they are related to homophobia and racism.

Psychologist and lead researcher Dr Kerry O'Brien said the nature of the study was initially concealed from the participants to avoid biased results, and simply advertised as a study on whether some people are better at personnel selection than others.

[...]

Source:

EurekAlert

URL:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-04/uom-oaj043012.php

Date:

May 1, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Violence Against Women in Melanesia and Timor-Leste Progress made since the 2008 Office of Development Effectiveness report

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 04/27/2012 - 10:15am

This report builds on an earlier report published in 2008 by the Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE) of AusAID that assessed current approaches to addressing violence against women and girls in five of Australia’s partner countries: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Timor-Leste.

URL:

http://www.icrw.org/publications/violence-against-women-melanesia-and-timor-leste

Member Organization:

International Center for Research on Women

Monthly State Update: Major Developments in 2012

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 11:04am

This monthly update provides information on legislation, as well as relevant executive branch actions and judicial decisions in states across the country. For each of the topics, the number of states in which legislation has been introduced is given, as are the names of the states in which subsequent action has been taken. Detailed summaries are provided for legislation that has been passed by at least one house of a legislature and for major court decisions; actions for the current month are in bold.

Abortion
Adolescents
Contraception & Prevention
Pregnancy & Birth
Refusal Clauses
Reproductive Health and Environmental Hazards

URL:

http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/updates/index.html

Black Women, Sexual Assault and the Art of Resistance

Teaser:

Brooke Axtell examines the implications of the statistic that 60 percent of Black girls have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18.

Editorial:

From Forbes:

According to an ongoing study conducted by Black Women’s Blueprint, sixty percent of Black girls have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18. More than 300 Black women nationwide participated in the research project. A similar study conducted by The Black Women’s Health Imperative seven years ago found the rate of sexual assault was approximately 40%.

The pervasive nature of this trauma could translate into an increased risk for Black women and girls to experience depression, PTSD and addiction, common symptoms experienced by many survivors of rape.

The Department of Justice estimates that for every white woman that reports her rape, at least 5 white women do not report theirs; and yet, for every African-American woman that reports her rape, at least 15 African-American women do not report theirs.

There are many reasons why Black women may choose not to report incidences of sexual assault. Survivors of all races often fear that they will not be believed or will be blamed for their attack, but Black women face unique challenges.

[...]

Source:

Forbes

URL:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/shenegotiates/2012/04/25/black-women-sexual-assault-and-the-art-of-resistance/

Date:

April 25, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Rising to the Top?

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 04/19/2012 - 10:52am

Asia Society and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy deliver “Rising to the Top?”, a study that highlights the current socio-economic landscape for women in China and the region. The report discusses gender gap issues and presents policy recommendations to ease gender inequality.

URL:

http://sites.asiasociety.org/womenleaders/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Rising-to-the-Top.pdf

A cover-up in the beautiful game

Teaser:

The Globe and Mail article discusses the International Football Association Board's unanimous recommendation to rescind the hijab ban first introduced by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association in 2007.

Editorial:

From The Globe and Mail:

This rule had resulted in the banning of individual female players in FIFA-sanctioned games – including the forfeit of an Olympic qualifying match by the Iranian women’s team. Some (the Quebec Soccer Federation, for instance) used the FIFA edict as a pretext to ban the hijab from the soccer field for non-FIFA events.

The ban reversal followed intense lobbying by Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, a FIFA vice-president, who sought to allay safety concerns by working with Cindy van den Bremen, a Dutch designer of sports-safe hijabs, for a dozen years. Montrealer Elham Seyed Javad (who created a hijab for female martial arts athletes in 2008) has also submitted a design for consideration by FIFA. Muslim women, for whom soccer is a passion, welcomed the IFAB decision. After all, the “beautiful game” is the most universal of sports, encompassing cultures and nations.

Those who fought to have FIFA include hijab-clad players should also lobby Saudi Arabia to allow women to be part of its Olympic national team. Last week, the Saudis confirmed their opposition to sending Saudi women to the London Games. This, despite the Olympic Charter: “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, sex or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”

[...]

Source:

The Globe and Mail

URL:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/a-cover-up-in-the-beautiful-game/article2400352/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2400352

Date:

April 18, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Pay Equity and Single Mothers of Color

Teaser:

Recent Census data indicates that women earn 77 cents on the dollar compared to men--but for women of color, that wage gap is even higher.

Editorial:

From the Center for American Progress:

Although social and political efforts have been made to close the wage gap and in turn the wealth gap, recent Census data still indicates that women earn 77 cents on the dollar compared to men. For women of color the gap is even wider: Black women earn 69.5 percent, and Hispanic women 60.5 percent, compared to the earnings of their white male counterparts.

The wage story is just as unequal for single mothers: They make less than men, less than married women, and less than women without children. Adding race to the equation, single mothers of color are hit hardest by the wage gap. Studies show that single mothers of color are much more likely to live in poverty and face significant barriers to creating wealth. Lower wages can often prevent families from engaging in asset- and wealth-building mechanisms such as pension plans because of fewer job benefits and resources. Lower earnings can hinder families from investing and saving their money, a key strategy for building wealth. Additionally, wealth not only impacts economic security but long-term retirement security as well.

While it’s recognized that the racial wealth gap is widespread there is a critical need to understand the intersection of race and gender in accumulating wealth.

[...]

Source:

Center for American Progress

URL:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/04/pay_equity_color.html

Date:

April 17, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

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