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Story Archives of 'Women'
Girldrive: Redefining Feminism
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, October 28, 2009.The American road trip – at least in the novels inspired by it – is a manly domain. Classics like On The Road, Travels with Charley, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas all feature men searching for themselves and their personal vision of America. It’s a tradition begun by the male trappers and traders, and Alexis de Tocqueville, who was sent by the French to study the fledgling American republic in the 1830s. He traveled the dusty roads to find his stories.
That’s what two young women did in the fall of 2007, except that most of the roads were paved. Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein were recent college grads interested in what feminism means to American women today. They interviewed more than two hundred women, along with a few men -- from their role models to strangers who don’t identify as feminists at all.
Their interviews, photographs, and personal impressions are compiled in the book Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism and we invited Nona Willis Aronowitz to tell us about their travels.
Girldrive trailer! from Girldrive on Vimeo.
Can You Raise A Gender-Neutral Child?
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, October 15, 2009.
Popular science loves to extol the differences between male and female brains. Remember the study that made headlines back in the '80s about women being better at holistic thinking? It was based on a single study suggesting that the fibers connecting womens' right and left brains are larger. More recent research suggests that boys’ brains are hard-wired for aggression and girls brains’ for communication.
Neuroscientist Lise Eliot took a long, hard look at these studies and hundreds of others. She found that there are, in fact, very few structural differences between the brains of boys and girls. Instead, she argues, it’s the way that parents and teachers respond to slight behavioral differences that encourage boys and girls to pursue different interests and develop different abilities.
Dr. Lise Eliot joins us now from Chicago where she’s a professor at Rosalind Franklin University. She’s also a mother of three and author of the new book Pink Brain, Blue Brain.
The Washington Post: The Tiny Differences in the Littlest Brains
Newsweek: Pink Brain, Blue Brain: Claims of sex differences fall apart.
Salon: Good luck raising that gender-neutral child
Scientific American: Girl Brain, Boy Brain?
(Photo by EraPhernalia Vintage via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Self Defense for Indian Women
By Peter Aronson on Monday, August 24, 2009.
They may not talk about it much, but Indian women know that violence against women is rampant in their country. The perpetrators are not just strangers on buses, streets and in fields, but also fathers, uncles, husbands and even sons. With hardly anyone to turn to, some women are learning how to stand up for themselves. Women are training other women in self defense — in secret, behind closed doors.
The Girls' Guide to Rocking
By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, July 28, 2009.
The band Care Bears On Fire and their hit "Everybody Else" might sound like any other New York pop-punk group, except these three girls from Brooklyn are 13 to 15 years old.
Bands like Care Bears On Fire are popping up everywhere now, as more girls pick up instruments and form bands. At last count there are 24 rock camps for girls across the U.S. and Canada, with at least seven started in the last year alone.
For girls looking to make some noise, music and culture critic Jessica Hopper is a rock star of a guide. She’s been involved in the music industry since high school, having started an influential ‘zine, "Hit It or Quit It" at 15, and was part of the Riot Grrl movement. Now 32, she's worked as a tour manager, band publicist, DJ, bass guitarist, rock critic, and the music consultant for PRI's This American Life.
She's compiled the advice she wishes she’d heard when she was younger and put it into a new book, The Girls' Guide to Rocking. She joins us from the offices of Drag City Records in Chicago.
Read an excerpt from The Girls' Guide to Rocking
(Photo by Sean Dreilinger via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Notes of a Teen Feminist
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, July 23, 2009.When I was growing up, there weren’t a lot of media sources to inspire a young, independent woman. There was Ms. Magazine – but it was targeted to the post-college set, not teen girls. Later on, children of the grunge era had Sassy.
Looking around now, there are plenty of websites that present a feminist approach to the news – but how many of them deal specifically with the kinds of issues high school girls are going through? That’s why Julie Zeilinger decided to start her own blog. Julie is 16 and from Pepper Pike, Ohio. She’s the founder and editor of The F-Bomb, which launched this month and has already gotten quite a bit of attention from other feminist blogs.
She joined us from New York, where she’s an intern this summer at the National Council for Research on Women. We discussed a teen's perspective on politics and sex, why feminism is more relevant than ever, her volunteer work with women's groups in India, and meeting feminist icon Gloria Steinem.
Salon's Broadsheet: Letter from a young feminist
Julie Zeilinger in The Huffington Post: Gloria Steinem: The Iconic Feminist Speaks to Our Generation
A Virtual Store's Downside
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, June 18, 2009.
Etsy.com has provided a virtual storefront for jewelers, knitters, and other handicrafters to sell their wares since 2005. Gross merchandise sales for 2009 are now at 68 million dollars. Aspiring Etsy vendors simply upload a picture of their handmade necklace or embroidered pillow, name a price and hope buyers from around the world will be tempted.
It’s an easy way to get paid for doing what you love, right? Sara Mosle says maybe not. She wrote about the false promise of Etsy for Slate.com’s new web magazine, “Double X.”
Double X: Etsy.com Peddles a False Feminist Fantasy
(Photo by ellievanhoutte via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Women and the Taliban
By Naheed Mustafa on Monday, June 15, 2009.
As protests continue in Iran, officials in Afghanistan are warning of impending violence there. In the face of US troop reinforcements and this August’s presidential elections, officials believe Taliban rebels may try to turn this summer into the bloodiest yet.
Women and the Economy
By Jon Greenberg on Friday, June 12, 2009.Women and the economy loom large in this week’s economic round-up. NHPR’s Jon Greenberg has the latest – it’s all part of our ongoing coverage of the economy that we call Working It Out.
New Hampshire Film Festivals
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, March 26, 2009.
Earlier this week, producer Avishay Artsy recapped some of the films that premiered at the South by Southwest festival in Austin. Today, we’re covering some events a little bit closer to home. Two new film festivals are scheduled to open this weekend in New Hampshire, celebrating and promoting diversity in the Granite State. The Jewish Film Festival of New Hampshire will take place at locations in Concord and Manchester in the coming week. The "Womanimation" film festival, featuring the work of women animators, premieres Saturday in Concord.
Here to fill us in on these events are Bobbie Brayer with the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire and Toni Penacchia, director of Merging Arts Productions and the coordinator for Womanimation.
"Womanimation" at Red River Theatres in Concord
(Still from "Sita Sings the Blues" courtesy SitaSingstheBlues.com via Creative Commons)
Town Meeting Minute - Women, the Vote and Schools
By Jon Greenberg on Monday, February 9, 2009.The right of women to vote in New Hampshire has a tight connection to running local schools.
I’m Jon Greenberg with this Town Meeting Minute.
