Orlando. good post. My ex commented to me that his family (mostly republican) were complaining about the election of Obama and whining that the 'sky was falling' and that America would be socialized, bombed, and basically ruined. He told them, (apparently) that it was sad that they just didn't get to feel the pride and hope that a decent majority felt about electing our first African-American for president.

I agree, these people are missing out because they would rather believe in lies and nonsense then in the majority of their neighbors. The hate and fear has been hard-wired into them, and they won't let it go. My hope is that after a few years of improvements in the economy and in our culture that they'll relax a little bit. (Maybe)

Until then, we're stuck with these people. I have little patience for them, but I try to remember to be kind...

Attending some corporate seminar I heard that improvement has to be the justification of any recommendation for change (even if the recommendation is a corner office for oneself). As any number of corporate self-help books will tell you, you have to be able to measure things, and you can only measure improvement by meeting goals. So it makes us feel good to claim that we've reached a goal like those you've described. Life sucks, but at least we're improving.

I apologize for the rant, but one of the things that really annoyed me this election season is the renunciation of feminist principles, even within the progressive community. I'd argue that many women have prematurely claimed victory and a post-feminist world because in their own lives they have not experienced blatant sexism or have easily overcome it. The reality is women further down the economic spectrum are more likely to face direct sexism and have it impact their lives, but there's lots of hidden sexism that we don't see.

In the simplest terms of hiring, I used to work for a company that was making products targeted to women. Long hours, young staff, high turnover, especially when people wanted to start families. The turnover was highest among women with less than 5 years with the company. Did we change our work-life policies? No, that would have been too simple. But I did notice that we started hiring more men. Was it an official policy? Of course not, but when managers start seeing more female talent go out on FMLA leave, or maternity leave, or quit because the hours don't provide enough work-life balance, they are subconsciously factoring in that into their hiring decision. In a nutshell, that is hidden sexism. No one's going to send you a reject letter saying I really didn't want to take a chance on you because my last hire just popped out a baby and quit because 12 hour days got to be too much to handle along with raising a family.

Now I work for a slightly commie non-profit where we have offer paid paternity leave equivalent to paid maternity leave. There's no longer a question of if we hire this woman, she may get pregnant and be out on paid leave because there's equal risk there for the man. And what a surprise, there is no significant difference between male and female hires or turnover.

There's plenty of room for men to gain in the fight for women's rights too - in terms of paid paternity leave, paid sick days that can be used to care for family member etc. But also additional responsibilities as well in the role of the family as well. A woman simply can't do 70 or 80 or 100% of the work at home with the family, and 100% at work as well. Superwomen do not exist (or they are wealthy enough to have nannies). So yes, more dads opting to stay at home or equal sharing of the family responsibilities (given that in this economy dual income households are by necessity rather than choice) will also open up greater equality for women in the work fields.

Women's rights are indeed human rights. Teaching children about equality within the family and having fairness in men/woemn's roles at home is going to help them identify inequalities in the wider world.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm late for the hand mirror party.