WMC Daily News Brief - Palin & Sexism, Poverty, India

September 25, 2008

Commentary: Sexist Treatment of Palin Must End
9/24/08
CNN: I have had enough of the sexist treatment of Sarah Palin. It has to end.
She was in New York on Tuesday meeting with world leaders at the U.N. And what did the McCain campaign do? They tried to ban reporters from covering those meetings. And they did ban reporters from asking Gov. Palin any questions.

Crisis Likely to Deepen Women's Poverty in New York
9/25/08
Women’s eNews: The woes of mega banks and U.N. proceedings dominated headlines this week while social-justice activists gathered in the nation's financial capital to discuss the intensifying pressures on low-income women struggling for survival.

A Feminist Revolution in India Skips the Liberation
9/25/08
International Herald Tribune: Two generations after a sexual revolution gusted through the West, a new generation of urban women in repressive societies like this one would appear to be riding that revolution's second wind. But appearances lie, and feminism, Indian-style, can be so accommodating that it is sometimes scarcely feminist at all.

Palin Pushes McCain as Market Reformer
9/25/08
Washington Post: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in her third interview since joining the Republican presidential ticket, licked her finger and stuck it in the air, saying that Sen. Barack Obama might wait and "see what way the political wind's blowing" on the Wall Street rescue package.

McCain's Naked Sexism
9/25/08
TaylorMarsh.com:The only reason the Republicans chose Palin had absolutely nothing to do with her competency or anything else remotely related to her political prowess. It was because of her gender, first hoping to win over gullible Hillary supporters, the unhinged fringe contingent, and also because of her hard right wing views that would seduce McCain's base.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, a Fresh Female Face among Cable Schoolboys
9/25/08
NY Times: MSNBC calls it “The Rachel Maddow Show,” but it’s less a show than an annex; Ms. Maddow’s new program is “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” for viewers who are down on Keith Olbermann.The set is different, and so is her motto, “Mind Over Chatter,” but the sensibility is the same.

Fox News Fires Producer Who Chyroned Michelle Obama Barack's "Baby Mama"
9/24/08
Huffington Post: Fox News has fired Jessica Herzberg, the freelance producer responsible for the "Obama's baby mama" chyron from June, according to Chickaboomer. In June, during a segment on Fox News' "America's Election HQ," a chyron read: "Outraged Liberals: Stop Picking On Obama's Baby Mama!"

Pinpoint Attacks Focus on Obama
9/23/08
NY Times: Hundreds of times in the past three weeks, cable television viewers here have been the exclusive audience for two of the roughest advertisements of the political season. One links Senator Barack Obama to the former mayor of Detroit, Kwame M. Kilpatrick, whose political career unraveled in scandal. The other features Mr. Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A Wright Jr.

Renowned Women Speak Out on Palin and the Election
9/23/08
Huffington Post: So many important themes and dialogues have been raised during this election season -- about identity politics, what we expect from a woman leader, sexism in the media, diversity in the feminist movement, what masculine and feminine values are, and about Sarah Palin and the "Palin effect." So, I decided to pose identical questions by e-mail to some dynamic women.

First Lady: Palin Lacks Foreign Policy Experience
9/24/08
Washington Post: First lady Laura Bush said today that while Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin does not have any significant foreign policy background, the GOP vice presidential candidate is "a very quick study" and can rely on Sen. John McCain.

Women Rule the Roost, and That's OK with Men
9/25/08
USA Today: Around the house, women rule. And men aren't putting up a fight about it, according to a study from the Pew Research Center that examines how gender and power play out at home and in the community. Of 1,260 individuals surveyed this women wield more decision-making power at home.

Benefits for Same-Sex Partners Focus of Senate Hearing
9/25/08
Washington Post: "This legislation would provide employee benefit programs to the same-sex domestic partners of federal employees," Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.). said yesterday at a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing.

Britain: Transportation Secretary Quits
9/24/08
NY Times: Ruth Kelly, the transportation secretary, resigned from the cabinet on Wednesday, saying that she wanted to spend more time with her husband and four children. Although Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC that he had known of her plans since May, the timing of her announcement was odd as it came in the middle of the Labor Party’s annual conference in Manchester.

Uganda: Female Clergy Demand for Women Bishops
9/25/08
AllAfrica.com: Female clergy in the country have demanded that the Church of Uganda starts ordaining women bishops. Under their association, the Church of Uganda Clergy Women Fellowship (CUCWF), they decried the low number of female clerics in the country.

Female Working Population over 45.4 Per Cent in China
9/25/08
People’s Daily Online: Female has made up of 45.4 per cent of the total working population in China, according to news from the Women's Union on September 24, 2008.

A Heroine from the Brothels
9/24/08
NY Times: Somaly Mam is a Cambodian who as a young teenager was sold to the brothels and now runs an organization that extricates girls from forced prostitution.
Now Somaly has published her inspiring memoir, “The Road of Lost Innocence,” in the United States, and it offers some lessons for tackling the broader problem.

Hormone Rx May Protect Women with Breast Cancer Gene
9/23/08
Washington Post: Postmenopausal women carrying breast cancer-linked BRCA gene mutations who took hormone replacement therapy actually reduced their risk for breast cancer, researchers report. The study's authors called the finding "reassuring."

Maybe Women's Sports Don't Hurt NCAA Men
9/24/08
WSJ: The Women's Sports Foundation released a study that claims that increases in the number of male and female athletes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association prove that the controversial Title IX legislation is not responsible for the elimination of men's collegiate teams.