Atlantic Monthly: What Women And Non-White Male Commentators Say Isn’t “Influential”

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Sep 162009
 

According to Atlantic Monthly’s Atlantic Wire, the 50 most influential pundits in the U.S. are–wait for it–mostly white guys.  And how was this determined?

Think of The Atlantic 50 as our all-star team. These are the most influential commentators in the nation, the columnists and bloggers and broadcast pundits who shape the national debates. To compile the list, our team spent months collecting and analyzing data, tracking a group of 400 names that eventually became our 50. Our in-house methodology relies on three streams of information:

  • Influence: A survey of more than 250 Washington insiders – members of Congress, national media figures, and political insiders – in which respondents rank-ordered the commentators who most influence their own thinking
  • Reach: Comprehensive data collection and analysis to measure the total audience of each commentator
  • Web Engagement:  In partnership with PostRank, a company specializing in filtering social media data, the Wire analyzed top commentators on 16 measures of webiness, including mentions on Twitter and performance on popular social media sites like Digg and Delicious

The final list is the result of an algorithm that brings together these three factors.

They don’t provide a name for this algorithm, but if they did it might be the Racist, Misogynist Algorithm of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies because all this careful data collection and analysis led to a list that by my count includes only 9 women (all white) and 2 men of color.  According to my algorithm to analyze their  algorithm, the Atlantic ls the latest winner of the Tillie Olsen Silences Fail Award.

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 Posted by Fempeace on September 16, 2009

Women And Healthcare Quote Of The Day

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Sep 162009
 

Now how often do I tell you to leave this blog and go someplace else, but I urge you, please click on over to RH Reality Check and read Dr. Willie Parker’s excellent essay on women and healthcare ends with these right on target words:

Women make up half our population. Their reproductive health cannot be separated from their overall health, and their overall health impacts their families, their jobs, and our society as a whole. Congress must place reproductive health care at the center of reform. Women should have affordable access to pelvic exams, cancer and STD screenings, contraception, prenatal care, miscarriage treatment, maternity services, and abortion care. Helping women stay healthy will help us all.

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 Posted by Fempeace on September 16, 2009

New U.N. Agency For Women Is Approved (Finally)

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Sep 162009
 

Via IPS News:

After more than three years of political foot-dragging, the 192-member General Assembly adopted a historic resolution Monday aimed at creating a new U.N. agency for women.

The decision to create a separate powerful body to deal exclusively with gender-related activities comes years – or decades – after the United Nations created specialised agencies to deal with specific issues, including children, population, refugees, food, environment, education, health and tourism, among many others.

Currently, there are four existing women’s U.N. entities in the world body: the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM); the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues; the U.N. Division for the Advancement of Women; and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW).

When the new women’s agency is created, perhaps by the middle of next year, it will be headed by an under-secretary-general (USG), the third highest ranking position in the U.N. system, after the secretary-general and the deputy secretary-general.

The four existing women’s entities are not headed by USGs, while all agencies such as the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) and the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are.

Charlotte Bunch, executive director of the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University, told IPS: “We are very relieved that the General Assembly has finally taken decisive action to create the new gender equality entity on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the Beijing women’s conference.”

“We consider this a great victory for women’s rights as well as for the coalition of women’s and other civil society organisations that have worked hard for over three years to bring this entity into being,” she added.

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 Posted by Fempeace on September 16, 2009

The Voice We Should Have Listened To Eight Years Ago

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Sep 152009
 

Many thanks to Code Pink for putting together this thought provoking video and most of all to Barbara Lee for being the ONLY member of Congress brave enough to say no to war in Afghanistan:

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 Posted by Fempeace on September 15, 2009

Dowry Violence Continues In Bangladesh Despite Being Outlawed

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Sep 152009
 

Via IRIN:

When parents in Bangladesh fail to come up with a promised dowry for their newly married daughters things can get nasty.

Dowry-related violence – including torture, acid attacks and even murder and suicide – also stigmatizes women, the group says.

In the first half of 2009, 119 cases of dowry-related violence, including 78 deaths, were reported, said Ain O Salish Kendro, a local NGO working for human rights.

In 2008, 172 women were killed and the figure for 2007 was 187, ASK said, adding that there were at least five reported cases of women committing suicide in the first half of this year when dowries went unpaid.

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 Posted by Fempeace on September 15, 2009
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