6 year-old transgender girl not allowed to use girls' bathroom

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/transgender-girl-s-parents-sue-for-her-right-to-use-the-bathroom-201415013.htmlhttp://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/transgender-girl-s-parents-sue-for-her-right-to-use-the-bathroom-201415013.html

Unisex Easy-Bake Oven

This 13-year old girl petitioned to get a unisex Easy-Bake oven, so that her younger brother could also play with it, too.
Gender stereotyping that only girls should learn how to and enjoy cooking.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2012/12/17/unisex-easy-bake-oven/1775955/

Boys Will Be Girls (sketch comedy)

Take a look at this skit from the comedy group Harvard Sailing Team.  What gender stereotypes does this skit poke fun at, and what makes it funny?

Orlando movie clip - 1750 Society

1750 Society is a gathering of poets who demonstrates contempt for women. 

Zero Dark Thirty-Two-Point-Six

Despite the success of Oscar winning(2010) director Kathryn Bigelow and all the buzz she's been getting for Zero Dark Thirty, a film which heavily features a female main character, women still have 32.6 perfect of speaking roles in award winning films. The statistics on gender inequality that this article presents are pretty shocking. 

"If this were a Fortune 500 company and they looked at these statistics, they would have diversity committee working on this immediately...How could you have a company in the 21st century and less than 10 percent of its leaders are women?"

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/23/hollywood_still_sucks_at_gender_equality_partner/

The Battle of the Sexes

Erika and Nicholas A. Christakis draw parallels to Aristophanes' Lysistrata (I know, right??!:)) in their explanations of the shifting gender roles of today's economy. 

http://ideas.time.com/2012/09/11/is-it-really-the-end-of-men/

Are Mixed-Gender High Schools the Reason for the Gender Gap?

New research from the University of California, Davis suggests that mixed-gender high schools "are at least partially to blame for the persistent gender gap in the salaries of men and women."It argues that males and females who go to set gender schools (all females or all males) they are more likely to go on to college and choose majors that are closely associated to higher paying jobs later on. They also found that females who attended schools that had a higher prevalence of females than males tended to go on to major in things that would lead to higher paying jobs; females who attended mixed-gender schools tended "to choose stereotypical majors that [would] likely lead to lower short-run earnings, lower long-run earnings and limited overall career potential." I find it interesting that this article focuses more heavily on the idea that males in schools are hurting females' performances later in life, but it only briefly mentions the idea that it could be the other way around. This follows along with what we talked about in class: how "gender" tends to stereotypically be a "female" thing to study, because it tends to focus more on them.

http://news.yahoo.com/research-suggests-mixed-gender-high-schools-perpetuate-gender-070151523.html;_ylt=AwrNUbAF8SpRNB8AS_DQtDMD

Ellen DeGeneres Addresses "Feminine" Products

I saw this video a little while ago, and it has a lot to do with what we discussed in the beginning of the semester. Ellen DeGeneres brings to everyone's attention the silly stereotypes of women versus men that companies use to attract a certain gender. I love the lightheartedness she brings to a more serious issue.

Gender Still Used to Recruit in China

Reasons for having jobs that are only open to males:

1. Positions for managers are only open to males because managers have to travel and secretaries have to travel with them. It is "inconvenient" for the secretaries, who are typically female, to do their job if their managers are males.

2. Men are better at handling pressure.

3. Employees will be required to work at night, which would be unsafe for women.

4. Men and women are different physically and mentally so it's only natural for employers to target different genders according to the job.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2013-02/25/content_28048871.htm

Fifty Shades of Gay

http://www.ted.com/talks/io_tillett_wright_fifty_shades_of_gay.html

TED Talk Summary: Artist iO Tillett Wright has photographed 2,000 people who consider themselves somewhere on the LBGTQ spectrum and asked many of them: Can you assign a percentage to how gay or straight you are? Most people, it turns out, consider themselves to exist in the gray areas of sexuality, not 100% gay or straight. Which presents a real problem when it comes to discrimination: Where do you draw the line?

Bechdel Test for Movies

http://bechdeltest.com

This test is used to evaluate how women are portrayed in movies.
In order for a women to "pass" the Bechdel Test, it must:
1. Have at least two [named] women in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something besides a man

Gender at CMC

As you know, The Forum has recently run several articles on the "gender gap" at CMC, including this one and this response.  The Claremont Portside ran this response.  Take a look at these articles, and be sure to read the comments too, and see what you think!  (Thanks to Annie for alerting me to these pieces.)

"MAKERS: Women Who Make America" documentary

Check out the trailer for the new documentary "MAKERS: Women Who Make America," premiering on PBS on February 26.  This three hour film tells the story of the modern women's movement through firsthand accounts.  It looks intriguing!

Why Gender Equality Stalled

In the New York Times this week, historian Stephanie Coontz argues that we need to adopt family-friendly work practices and social policies in order to achieve gender equity and greater opportunities for both women and men.  She explains that structural impediments limit women's labor force participation and prevent people from realizing their egalitarian values. She sees work-family policy as a human rights issue that affects everyone.  An interesting article!