Posts Tagged History

Quick hit: Carl Sagan on why excluding women is a bad idea

From Letters of Note comes this missive on why excluding women from scientific organizations benefits no one, written by scientist Carl Sagan in 1981. Sagan was a member of The Explorers Club, an international society devoted to scientific exploration. Founded in 1904, the club still had not begun admitting women by the 1980s. Sagan penned a letter to the membership arguing that excluding women was not in the club’s interest, even if it was a tradition:

When our organization was formed in 1905, men were preventing women from voting and from pursuing many occupations for which they are clearly suited. In the popular mind, exploration was not what women did. Even so, women had played a significant but unheralded role ...

From Letters of Note comes this missive on why excluding women from scientific organizations benefits no one, written by scientist Carl Sagan in 1981. Sagan was a member of The Explorers Club, an international society devoted ...

Breaking: Mubarak ‘most likely’ to step down tonight.

UPDATE: Mubarak is not stepping down as of yet. Clearly, he didn’t get the hint.

According to several news sources, Hosni Mubarak may be stepping down tonight. The AP reports the military has made a national announcement that they are “stepping in to “safeguard the country,” and assured protesters that President Hosni Mubarak will meet their demands in the strongest indication yet that the longtime leader has lost power.”

Also, via NBC

Following an all-day meeting of the country’s supreme military council, state television reported that the military council had expressed its “support of the legitimate demands” of the people.

NBC News reported that a high-ranking source inside the president’s office said Mubarak would step down and the newly appointed vice president, Omar ...

UPDATE: Mubarak is not stepping down as of yet. Clearly, he didn’t get the hint.

According to several news sources, Hosni Mubarak may be stepping down tonight. The AP reports the military has made a national announcement ...

Not Oprah’s Book Club: A Strange Stirring

A book about a book. It’s a funny concept, but one that actually works quite powerfully in Stephanie Coontz’s new A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s. Coontz, the much-celebrated author of Marriage: A History, looks at the effect that Betty Friedan’s notorious tome had on a generation of women.

Coontz isn’t an evangelist for Friedan, which makes her a very trustworthy guide back in time to look at the indispensible ways in which The Feminine Mystique really did change so many women’s lives and so much of our cultural expectations about marriage, work, and fulfillment, and the ways in which its effect has sometimes been overstated. Did Betty Friedan literally ...

A book about a book. It’s a funny concept, but one that actually works quite powerfully in Stephanie Coontz’s new A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s. ...

Michele Bachman, “The US was founded on diversity.”

Michele Bachman proves to us that you don’t need to know a lot about American history to work in the American government. She typifies the “fake it till you make it,” ethos of young professionals, except when she fakes it she gets it all wrong, making you wonder if she really just believes the things she says. At a meeting in Iowa on tax relief Bachman went into why she loves the United States so damn much saying,

“How unique in all of the world, that one nation that was the resting point from people groups all across the world. It didn’t matter the color of their skin, it didn’t matter their language, it didn’t matter their economic status. Once you got ...

Michele Bachman proves to us that you don’t need to know a lot about American history to work in the American government. She typifies the “fake it till you make it,” ethos of young professionals, except when ...

Geraldine Doyle, inspiration for ‘We Can Do It’ poster, dies

Geraldine Doyle, the woman believed to be the inspiration for the ‘We Can Do It’ poster, passed away last Thursday at the age of 86.

Geraldine was working in a factory as a metal presser during World War II. The woman in the poster is now commonly assumed to be Rosie the Riveter (a symbol of female factory workers during the World Wars), although that was not the intent of the original designer.

The poster was embraced by the US feminist movement in the 1980s and remains an iconic symbol of our movement.

Geraldine Doyle, the woman believed to be the inspiration for the ‘We Can Do It’ poster, passed away last Thursday at the age of 86.

Geraldine was working in a factory as a metal presser ...

Remembering Ella Baker.

Today is the 24th anniversary of the passing of Ella Baker. Baker was a behind the scenes organizer in the civil rights movement who worked for almost 50 years in the field of justice mentoring some of the most widely known civil rights activists of our time. The Ella Baker Center mentions in their reason to name their organization after her was to honor the legacy of an “unsung hero.” Her work focused on building the power of leaders, some of the most important and overlooked work in activism. Take a minute today to honor her memory and read about her work and the amazing work of the Ella Baker Center.

Today is the 24th anniversary of the passing of Ella Baker. Baker was a behind the scenes organizer in the civil rights movement who worked for almost 50 years in the field of justice mentoring ...

Yesterday in Feminist History: Happy Birthday Hillary

Yesterday was the 63rd birthday of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton has been one of the most prominent women in politics in recent memory, with her Democratic bid for the Presidency most recently bringing her to the forefront of media attention. (And often negative sexist attention, as we might remember).

Now she’s working away in the State Department, arguably in a position that has allowed her more freedom to pursue her agenda (such as advancing the rights of folks in the LGBTQ community) than the Presidency would have allowed. She’s out of the spotlight, and most of the time doesn’t need an act of Congress to approve her changes. I’m not expert on foreign policy, so I ...

Yesterday was the 63rd birthday of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton has been one of the most prominent women in politics in recent memory, with her Democratic bid for the Presidency most recently bringing her ...

sexual revolution

What came of the sexual revolution?

I was at a very cool party of sorts the other night with a range of feminists of various generations, and we started dishing about the sexual revolution. I don’t know about you, but to me, the sexual revolution always brings about a sort of foggy cloud of confusion and longing in my head. On the one hand, I understand that it emerged from a perfect storm of societal shifts—the legalization of the birth control pill, the de-shaming (at least in part) of sex outside of wedlock and not for procreation, the feminist, gay, anti-war, and civil rights movements all flaring up in big and beautiful ways. On the other hand, I remain confused about what, exactly, it felt like ...

I was at a very cool party of sorts the other night with a range of feminists of various generations, and we started dishing about the sexual revolution. I don’t know about you, but to me, the ...

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