Regarding this story from yesterday, a study summarized in a science blog and printed in "Nature" shows that testosterone, contrary to popular belief, does not cause aggression, egocentric, nor risky behavior. A game was played by the test subjects whereby those administered a dose of testosterone actually played more fairly. The scientists think that testosterone might cause an increase in sensitivity to status.

Not that I think we should use science to create legal or corporate policies that discriminate based on gender... I just think this scientific study beautifully demonstrates the importance of carefully considering environment before calling observed behavior gender-specific. In relation to the recent financial blunders on Wall Street and how they have been blamed on typical "male behavior", this article reinforces that all we need is more regulation and accountability.

Story here. Excerpt:

'In opening a Women in Finance Symposium that brought together top female government figures such as Sheila Bair and Mary Schapiro, Geithner said he recently read an article asking what it would be like if women ran the hyper-competitive money hub of the United States.

"It's an excellent question. But kind of a low bar," Geithner joked, eliciting laughs from the gathering in the historic Treasury Cash Room. "How, you might ask, could women not have done better?"

The symposium featured the leading female figures working with Geithner to right the financial markets and economy, as well as craft new rules to police banks, Wall Street and the markets.

They touched on their awe at being in their positions of power, as well as the isolating feeling of being in the minority at major conferences and meetings.

Story here. Excerpt:

'It is not clear what some students at South Hadley High School expected to achieve by subjecting a freshman to the relentless taunting described by a prosecutor and classmates.

Certainly not her suicide. And certainly not the multiple felony indictments announced on Monday against several students at the Massachusetts school.

The prosecutor brought charges Monday against nine teenagers, saying their taunting and physical threats were beyond the pale and led the freshman, Phoebe Prince, to hang herself from a stairwell in January.
...
In the Prince case, two boys and four girls, ages 16 to 18, face a different mix of felony charges that include statutory rape, violation of civil rights with bodily injury, harassment, stalking and disturbing a school assembly. Three younger girls have been charged in juvenile court, Elizabeth D. Scheibel, the Northwestern district attorney, said at a news conference in Northampton, Mass.

Story here. Excerpt:

'The Belgian state has stuck the father of five children who were murdered by their mother in 2007 with the bill for convicting her of the crime, the Le Soir daily reported.

A Belgian court sentenced Genvieve Lhermitte to life in prison in December 2009 for killing her son and four daughters, aged three to 14, while her husband was on a trip to Morocco.

As Lhermitte is incarcerated and insolvent, the Belgian state has sought to recover court expenses and collect fines from her then husband, Bouchaib Moqadem.'

Alert here. Excerpt:

'California AB 2416 will help protect the loving bonds that servicemembers share with their children–to email and fax a letter in support of the bill, click here. Please send your letter whether you are a California resident or not.

Fathers & Families has worked closely with the American Retirees Association, Assemblyman Paul Cook, and others on AB 2416, which will be heard in committee on Tuesday, April 6.

At Fathers & Families we receive many letters from divorced or separated military servicemembers with painful but preventable family law problems.

Op-ed here. Excerpt:

'Around the globe, it’s mostly girls who lack educational opportunities. Even in the United States, many people still associate the educational “gender gap” with girls left behind in math.

Yet these days, the opposite problem has sneaked up on us: In the United States and other Western countries alike, it is mostly boys who are faltering in school. The latest surveys show that American girls on average have roughly achieved parity with boys in math. Meanwhile, girls are well ahead of boys in verbal skills, and they just seem to try harder.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Boys will be boys. Girls are easier to teach. Boys can't pay attention. Girls listen. We might like to think that access to education has nothing to do with gender any more but these perceptions linger.

Like it or not, there are some accepted differences about educating boys and girls and these become apparent as early as kindergarten.

Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology Centre for Learning Innovation have found significant gender differences in the quality of the teacher-child relationship present in the first year of school.

They found that teachers - even in the earliest years of school - generally found girls to be more compliant and to display more positive behaviour and approaches to learning than boys.
...
A simple answer is not to separate boys and girls, says Lingard, even though research has shown that boys tend to behave better in a classes where girls are present and that girls do better in same-sex schools.

Article here. Excerpt:

'BOSTON, March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- A bill calling for prison time and fines for those who perform circumcision on any male under the age of 18 was rejected by the Judiciary Committee of the Massachusetts state legislature.

The text of the proposed measure specifically mandated that no exception be given, even though the law would obstruct religious observance of the commandment of circumcision.

The measure also called upon the Department of Public Health to implement an educational program to discourage religious groups from carrying out the commandment of circumcision.

A goal of the legislation, according to an advocate group's website, included enforcement by local police.

Article here. Excerpt:

'NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A wrestling coach sees Title IX being used to discriminate against men. The man who wrote the original legislation thinks it's working well with the numbers of both men and women playing college sports up greatly over the past four decades.

The head of an athletic department in the mighty Southeastern Conference says the biggest problem with meeting gender equity is what he calls the elephant in the room: College football.

"We have 330 varsity athletes, 110 are on the football team," Vanderbilt vice chancellor David Williams said Tuesday night. "So if you want me to get to 50-50, that means I have slots for 55 men other than football."
...
He cited men forced to play club level sports because of cuts in wrestling, track and field, swimming and other sports. He noted Division I has only 17 men's gymnastics programs left, and he gave examples of programs like a wrestling program at Carson-Newman College in Tennessee that recently lost its team despite a $1 million endowment offer.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'The Long Island, N.Y., woman accused of hiring a supposed hit man for $20,000 to kill her estranged husband has been released from jail after an appeals court reduced her bail last week.

The decision came on the heels of prosecutors' releasing more details about Susan Williams' alleged attempt to have her husband, Peter Williams, killed. Williams has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy in the second-degree and criminal solicitation in the second-degree.

"She's obviously ecstatic to be at liberty today," her lawyer, John Carman, said Friday to reporters outside Nassau County Jail. "She looks forward to being at home to see her children."
...

Assistant District Attorney Jane Zwirn-Turkin argued at the March 10 hearing, and again Thursday, that Williams was a flight risk because of the calculation she is accused of exhibiting while allegedly planning her husband's killing.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The principles and precepts of the American Constitution are once again under attack, this time at the hand of groups that operate under the laudable façade of curbing partner abuse. Aptly taking the name from its signature legislation — the Violence Against Women Act – the self-proclaimed VAWA Mafia is relentlessly working to take us back to an era when persons could be accused, charged, and even convicted of a heinous act without evidence or proof.

These determined women have not only succeeded in passing a gaggle of federal and state domestic violence laws, they have erected a nearly unassailable moral authority that makes it difficult to pose even the most basic questions, like are these programs working? (The answer to that question is an unequivocal “no,” but that’s not the focus of this article.)

It’s well-known that federal domestic violence laws dole out $1 billion a year for programs that often escalate partner conflict and weaken families. But what does that have to do with ignoring the Constitution?

Article here. Excerpt:

'In case you haven’t noticed, America’s boys and young men are in trouble – not doing well in school, lacking ambition, often floundering. Not all of them, of course, but enough to take notice. There's more and more in the news lately about the trouble America's boys are in (“crisis” was the term used in a Newsweek cover story in 2006). As a psychologist with a longstanding interest in gender issues, I have been aware of and upset by this for many years. (And I will freely admit that an important motivator for me is the fact that I have three sons and three grandsons.) What has disturbed me even more has been the response I have often received when I’ve mentioned this issue to female friends over the years. Either they have been unaware of it, surprised to hear that males in college are a distinct minority – now down to 43 percent of college undergraduates -- or they have said something like, So what? You guys had your turn, now it's ours.

From Abusegate Bob:

A new "Abusegate, Investigate!" flyer is now available. The one-page flyer, titled “Distortions, Half-Truths, and Lies” challenges three major myths of the domestic violence industry:

Myth #1. Women are never prone to violence
Myth #2. Domestic violence is caused by sexism
Myth #3. The cure for domestic violence is to break up families

The flyer is suitable for community events, group presentations, to post on bulletin boards, and for other purposes. Groups can print the flyer with their organization's name and address in the lower right hand corner, if desired.

The flyer can be downloaded here (.doc file).

Commercial here.

Let's see if we can get an e-mail campaign against the marketing firm that produced this commercial. How can we find out who made this for Pepto-Bismol?

Kate McCormack

From an IA email:

ACT NOW

No professional medical association in the world has ever recommended infant circumcision. But the Centers for Disease Control is still considering recommending routine circumcision of all infant boys – and they may be doing this very soon.

More than 20,000 intactivists have already added their names to our petition urging the CDC not to endanger our baby boys. Now we're just 3,152 signatures shy of our 25,000-signature goal!

Our plan is to deliver the petitions to the CDC in April to make sure they hear our message. Will you help us reach 25,000 signatures by March 31? Tell your friends, and be sure to share the campaign on Twitter or Facebook.