New Girls' Network

A recent article in Slate (based on an article in the Guardian) reports that many young Japanese have lost interest in sex. The Japan Family Planning Association found that 45 percent of women aged 16-24, and 25 percent of the men, “were not interested in or despised sexual contact.” A 2011 survey found that 61% of unmarried men and 49% of […]

In the past, men demonstrated their manliness at work by mooning the trading floor (to quote one conversation I had recently) or pounding their chests à la Alpha-Ape (to quote someone I interviewed a few years back). “Come back with your shield or on it,” a partner used to joke in the 1980s whenever someone […]

Kudos to The New York Times for commissioning an article on why there are so few women in science. Author Eileen Pollack suggests two reasons. Citing her own experience as an undergraduate at Yale, she argues that women doubt themselves, and need to be encouraged more to pursue science careers: “The most powerful determinant of whether a woman goes […]

A decade ago, Lisa Belkin wrote “The Opt Out Revolution,” a New York Times Magazine piece that became instantly famous. It profiled women who had chosen to leave high-profile careers to stay home full-time, arguing that they had opted out because (to quote one) “women’s brains light up differently.” I subsequently wrote a report documenting […]

Co-written with Katherine Ullman. So you or your partner is pregnant. There are plenty of important decisions to consider: what will be the little one’s name? Will you share the name with friends and family or keep it a secret? What about gender? Do you want to know? Do you want others to know? Will […]

Expectant mothers risk losing their jobs, their babies, or both when employers deny them pregnancy accommodations at work – accommodations as modest as the right to carry a water bottle due to persistent pregnancy-related urinary tract infections or the right to take more frequent bathroom breaks due to nausea. “We don’t pay you to pee,” […]

Steve Tobak, a Silicon Valley consultant, reassured his Fox Business audience that “The Gender Pay Gap is a Myth,” recycling a 2009 report commissioned by the Bush Department of Labor arguing that women’s choices, not discrimination, account for the wage gap between men and women. Next week is the anniversary of the signing of the […]

Co-written by Katherine Ullman. It’s been a rough couple of weeks for women in STEM. Most shockingly, Adria Richards, former developer evangelist at SendGrid, was fired after she publicly reported two men (one of whom was also fired) for making lewd jokes in earshot at a PyCon Conference. Richards has since received nasty messages for speaking […]

Co-written by Katherine Ullman. An essay this month in The Wall Street Journal recycled a tired trope: “queen bees” in the office are making the lives of other women a living hell. We’ve heard this before. Powerful women are just grown up high-school “mean girls” chipping away at the self-confidence of the women who work with and for them. Suggesting […]

Co-written by Katherine Ullman. Recently, Katherine watched the three-part PBS series MAKERSin one sitting. (If you haven’t seen it yet, we highly recommend and encourage you to watch it online here). While some argue that the documentary misses the mark on feminism today, Katherine appreciated the film’s ability to move seamlessly between the different issues confronting women (sexual assault, […]