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'Oh, is it April of 2013 already? I must have missed the banshee call that signals politicians to prepare for the 2016 presidential campaign. And how do we know the time for endless speculative punditry and partisan PR bonanzas — heralded by constant media coverage, all to decide who will be president 40 months from now — is nigh? Democratic dreamboat, former secretary of state, and all-around "I'm-In-It-To-Win-It" (version 2.0) go-getter Hilary Clinton delivered a fiery speech at the fourth Women in the World Summit in Washington D.C., wherein she coupled national security and women's rights.

Now, before the comments section is doused with Betty Friedan quotes, and lit with the match of Susan Patton-gate, I'd like to make clear that I am all for gender equality. I'm a woman, and a minority, and would very much appreciate, in my lifetime, to see countries all over the world change their cultural, social and legal attitudes toward women's rights.

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'Today is what feminist groups have dubbed “Equal-Pay Day,” their day to raise awareness of how women are regularly paid less than men for the same work. Women, they claim, have had to work this long into 2013 to make up for last year’s wage gap.

The problem for “Equal-Pay Day” fans is that the premise of this pseudo holiday is bogus.

Women actually aren’t paid 77 percent for doing the same job. Take three minutes to watch this video just released by the Independent Women’s Forum which explains the statistics behind the wage gap and tells women the good news that they aren’t doomed to be victims of the patriarchy: It’s the choices that we make that will primarily determine how much we earn.'

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'At Tuesday’s bake sale on Widener’s Harrisburg Campus, there will be cupcakes, muffins, cookies and more. Each treat will be sold at two different prices.

For men, it’s $1. For women, 75 cents.

Call that unfair and you’ll be in for a lesson.

The bake sale is intended to draw attention to National Equal Pay Day – an event that reflects how far into the year women must work to match what men doing the same job earned in the previous year.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In honor of Equal Pay Day, which marks the fact that women still make 77 cents on the dollar compared to men who do the same work, CREDO Mobile is offering a new deal– a 23% discount on voice plans to represent the 23 cents less on the dollar women earn compared to men.

“The politicians in Washington have had an opportunity to end the wage disparity, but have taken no action. We felt we should do something about it. If women get paid less than men, why should we charge them the same amount?” says political director Becky Bond.'

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Article here. Excerpt:

'DETROIT (CBS Detroit) “How much do you think he makes?” That question could come out of dirty corners around the office water cooler and get out in the sunshine if Michigan women’s groups have their way.
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Specifically, they’re asking for the passage of four bills, including a wage transparency act that would allow people to know the pay of everyone else in their workplace, which they believe would keep the boss honest about whether men are earning more than women doing the same job.'

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'While not all men’s sports are profitable on their own, virtually none of women’s programs turn a stand-alone profit. At The Business of College Sports website, Kristi Dosh of ESPN notes that Title IX views college athletics not as a business but as a vehicle toward collegiate success. This view hampers discussions about the equitable treatment of student-athletes whose on-field and on-court success adds value to the school.

Dosh points out that Title IX was cited by the NCAA as a roadblock to monetary stipends for student-athletes. Even though men’s football and basketball programs are much more likely to be profitable, there is no room under Title IX to pay the players of those particular sports. Schools would have to pay female athletes too despite the fact that they’re already a drain on school budgets. Essentially, paying Louisville’s Kevin Ware or the Rutgers kids would require the school to pay the women who play on those schools' teams.

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'So it seems natural that IT would be a leader in closing the gap in compensation between the sexes. And the latest salary survey from Dice, a career site for technology and engineering professionals, confirms and reaffirms a truth that has been constant in Dice analyses since 2009: With tech workers, the compensation gender gap has disappeared. Average salaries are equal for male and female tech pros, provided the comparison is between men and women with equal levels of experience and education and parallel job titles.

According to the 2013-2012 Dice salary survey, while men out-earned women overall by an average annual income of $95,929 to $87,527, the difference is driven by the fact that the two groups tend to hold different positions. Among the key findings of the survey was job title. It was reported that female IT workers were more prevalent in project manager positions, with males were more often employed as software engineers.

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'President Obama issued a declaration of “National Equal Pay Day” for Thursday, in a gesture aimed at highlighting what he described as a disparity between men and women in the workforce.

In a statement issued Monday, Mr. Obama decried a statistic showing women comprise roughly half of America’s workforce but earn an average 23 percent less than men, The Daily Caller reported.
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Deeper analysis has found that much of the pay disparity between men and women are due to factors other than bias. The Independent Women’s Forum, for instance, said the tenure and job description were often left out of the calculating process, and those two factors often explain the pay difference, The Daily Caller reported.'

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'Even though there's often more social pressure on women to have kids, men may actually feel more depressed and lonely over not having children, according to the results of a small British survey.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the British Sociological Association in London Wednesday (April 3) by Robin Hadley, of the United Kingdom's Keele University, who polled 27 men and 81 women who didn't have kids.

About the same proportions of men and women said they wanted kids (59 percent of men and 63 percent of women). Among that group, half of the men said they experienced isolation because they weren't parents, while just over a quarter of women said the same.

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'Lost potential especially abounds in the asymmetrical landscape of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). In 2009, 57 percent of college students were women -- an explosion few could have imagined in 1970, when less than 27 percent of female high school graduates enrolled in college. And while we make up almost half of the American workforce, we hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs.

Indeed, even as women have advanced in the humanities, social sciences and professional fields like law, progress in STEM subjects remains elusive. And in some areas, girls and women are even losing ground. In the mid-1980s, for example, women in the U.S. earned 36 percent of bachelor's degrees awarded in computer science, but that figure dropped to only 20 percent in 2006. Today, women also hold a disproportionately small share of the degrees in majors that strongly correlate to post-college STEM jobs such as math and engineering.'

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'The men who play baseball and soccer at Towson University, run track at the University of Delaware and wrestle, swim or golf at any number of other colleges all heard the same reason when their teams were cut: Title IX.

To meet the federal law's goal of providing equal opportunities for athletes of both genders, schools have eliminated men's teams to keep their overall rosters in line with the number of women playing sports. But a growing chorus is crying foul.

"People are really upset that they're dragging Title IX through the mud to cut sports teams," said Towson University graduate Scott Hargest. He was a member of the task force that recommended, over his dissenting vote, cutting men's baseball and soccer to resolve what administrators said were budgetary and Title IX compliance issues.

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'Starting on April 8, a Taylor fitness club will be open exclusively for ladies while dozens of its male members will be shown the door.

“We are members here, we signed contracts and it’s just not right,” said member Jermaine Banks.

“They haven’t given us a valid explanation about the reason they are doing it,” said member Rey Balmaceda.

The gym will turn into an oasis for ladies,offering fitness and special programs unique to women’s needs. Another one of its gyms in South Bend, Indiana will also transform, according to owners.

Currently, male members alternate workout days with female members at the gym, which the men tell 7 Action News allows them to have access to the club three days a week.
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Dozens of male members say the gym is discriminating against them based on their gender.

They will be fighting back with a protest on April 9.'

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'Two Brooklyn infants have contracted herpes through a controversial religious circumcision ritual in the past three months, according to the city’s Health Department.

The unidentified baby boys became sick after the centuries-old, ultra-Orthodox ritual associated with the bris known as metzizah b’peh.

Under the practice, the rabbi or mohel removes blood from the wound on the baby’s penis with his mouth — a practice city Health Department officials have slammed, saying it carries “inherent risks” for babies.

The Bloomberg administration has moved to require mohels who perform the ritual to provide parents with a document informing them of the health risks involved. The parents must then sign a consent form.

But several influential religious Jewish organizations have sued, arguing the policy violates the First Amendment.

In January, a federal judge ruled against the group’s initial legal maneuver to block the new city policy.

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Teri Stoddard
Email: tstoddard-at-saveservices.org

As Bogus Rape Claims Grow, SAVE Calls for Repeal of Federal Sex Assault Directive

WASHINGTON / April 4, 2013 – Exactly two years after the U.S. Department of Education (DED) issued its directive on campus sexual assault, the federal mandate continues to stoke controversy. SAVE reiterates its call for the federal agency to remove the policy, first issued on April 4, 2011, which it believes is unconstitutional.

Civil rights expert Wendy Kaminer has described the policy as a concession to an “authoritarian impulse.” To date, 110 editorials have scored the DED mandate for imposing a preponderance-of-evidence standard, stripping the accused of the presumption of innocence, and allowing students to be expelled without the benefit of legal counsel: http://www.saveservices.org/camp/ded-directive/ded-editorials/

The directive has given rise to a growing number of false allegations of sexual assault, many say.