Pen-Elayne on the Web

Celebrating Women - 31 March 2004

Hope you've enjoyed this series, which I'm wrapping up as Women's History Month ends today. (If you still want your fix, I'd like to again recommend bean's "On this day in women's history" posts over at Alas, A Blog.)

While looking through the news sites for mentions of women today, I discovered that the Guardian has a gender issues section. It doesn't include all op-eds, such as this one, but it looks to be a handy resource.

I wanted to conclude this series on happy notes, but the news seems to be full of stories that illustrate how far women still have to go to achieve true equality in our world. The venture capitalist story I mentioned last Friday still has legs. In the UK, the PM's wife talked today about the criminal justice system's failure to cater properly for women, and the pay gap between women who work part-time and men who work full-time is widening. Amnesty International reports a sharp increase in violence against women in Iraq, not surprisingly. A Bollywood actress doesn't feel safe on India's streets due to "Eve teasing."

A bit of positive news, then: According to Census Bureau statistics released this month, the number of women-owned businesses in the United States grew at double the rate for all businesses between 1992 and 2002. The International Women's Forum has been visiting Los Alamos and Santa Fe to give out their annual Women of Distinction awards. In Africa, more women are receiving antenatal care. And Elaina Rose, an associate professor at the University of Washington, says that highly educated women are more likely to marry now than they were in 1980, in response to MoDo and others who irresponsibly perpetuate certain "popular" myths. I love the last part of the article:

Rose, 43, also discovered her personal prospects for marriage weren't as bad as she thought they were. After being divorced for several years, she tried an online dating service.

"As the data were crunching away, literally, and I believed Maureen Dowd as well, I met the man of my dreams," she said. They got married last summer.

Rose, who has a doctoral degree in economics, said she has more education than her husband, based on the U.S. Census' measures.

"But the marriage is certainly hypergamous in a number of respects," she said.

And that's a wrap!