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The Female Perspective on the Campaign Trail

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The Female Perspective on the Campaign Trail

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This article talks about the social and political changes that have come about with the higher rates of representation in our current presidential race. I plan to use this article in order to exemplify the power of diversity and how society at large benefits from it. I will also use it to discuss the dismantling of the patriarchy.

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Four female moderators. Four female candidates. That's more women on a presidential debate stage than ever before. So what will listeners hear?

Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Elizabeth Warren in the October Democratic presidential debate. Credit... Hilary Swift for The New York Times

Carole Simpson, a longtime television newscaster, was told early in her career that she could not be an anchor because "women don't like to hear other women on the air."

"Women's voices are shrill and not authoritative enough," one boss told her, noting that news coming out of their mouths "sounds like gossip."

Ms. Simpson worked to make her voice deeper, "pitching it to a lower register" to project the sound from her diaphragm. "I was lucky, I had taken theater in school," she said. "It was great preparation."

By the time she was tapped, in 1992, to moderate a presidential debate between George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot - only the third woman, and the first woman of color, to have done so at the time - she said her voice was the last thing she was worried about. By then a correspondent at ABC, she'd had just five days to prepare. She was told they wanted an "Oprah-style town hall." (Is this why they'd given a black woman a chance, she wondered?) She said it felt as if everyone was saying to her: You're the first (insert woman, or person of color). Don't screw this up.

Ms. Simpson, now retired, reflected on that moment by phone this week as she prepared to tune in to the fifth Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday - in which eight women will speak on camera as both candidates and moderators. The moderator lineup is the second all-female panel for a major debate, and will feature the MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, the veteran NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell, the NBC reporter Kristen Welker and Ashley Parker of The Washington Post, which is co-hosting the event with MSNBC.

The visual optics of that lineup are important, said Pat Mitchell, the former president of PBS and CNN who is co-chair of the Women's Media Center. "Stereotypes still continue about what authority looks like, what power looks like, what credibility looks like," she said. But the sound is important too.

The assessment that someone "sounds presidential" is typically used to describe the substance of what a candidate is saying. But how they say it - the micro-nuances of their speech patterns, and how voters, and viewers, hear them - can also provide a fascinating window into how we perceive authority and who occupies it.

Women and men tend to have different speech patterns, linguists will tell you. Women, especially young women, tend to have more versatile intonation. They place more emphasis on certain words; they are playful with language and have shorter and thinner vocal cords, which produce a higher pitch. That isn't absolute, nor is it necessarily a bad thing - unless, of course, you are a person with a higher pitch trying to present yourself with some kind of authority. This basic contradiction has kept speech coaches in business for decades.

Margaret Thatcher famously trained to deepen her voice in an attempt to give herself more authority. Claims of being too "shrill" - a word that, according to a 2016 linguistic analysis, was used twice as often to refer to women than men in media articles during that era - dogged Hillary Clinton in both of her campaigns for the presidency, despite one analysis showing that her voice was average in pitch and loudness for her age and gender.

Last year, when Vicki Sparks, a sports journalist, became the first woman to announce a men's World Cup match live on British television, she was criticized for being too " high pitched " by a former player who noted that he simply preferred "a male voice when watching football."

"I don't have a problem with the idea that your voice is important if you're a broadcaster or a politician. It's part of the reason I have this job," said Lulu Garcia-Navarro, the host of "Weekend Edition Sunday" on NPR. "My problem is when people come up and say, 'I don't want to hear you, because your voice annoys me.' It automatically disqualifies a whole swath of people. Because what are they comparing you to? They're comparing you to a white man."

(In a recent article, NPR's public editor noted that when it comes to listener complaints about its newscasters' voices, the "vast majority" are directed at women and reporters of color.)

In a course called "Sounding American," at the University of California at Berkeley, Tom McEnaney, a professor of comparative literature and Portuguese and Spanish, teaches that there is in fact a sound that people associate with authority in this country - and, while it is constantly evolving, it has its roots in many things, one of which is early broadcast technology. Dating back to the phonograph, he said, engineers had created a device that was designed for the male voice - newscasters, presidents, public figures - to the extent that if a woman spoke into it, her voice would sound distorted, thin or scrambled.

"The mic wouldn't pick up certain ranges of voice," Professor McEnaney said. "If a woman wanted to speak and get her voice recorded, she had to produce more volume and more energy to make the same marks. She could try to speak lower, or she could shout. But she'd have to change her voice."

Over time, that technology improved - but he thinks the deep-rooted association between female voices and sonic distortion leads to the seemingly strong (albeit frequently subconscious) reaction that many people have to the higher pitch.

"So there was a bias in the engineering. That bias in the engineering produced distortion, which was mistakenly associated with women's voices, and then listeners, even after that correction, used that association as the justification for their ongoing prejudice against women's voices," Professor McEnaney said. "And those carry up to the present day."

Indeed, a 2012 study published in PLoS ONE found that both men and women prefer male and female leaders who have lower-pitched voices, while a 2015 report in a journal called Political Psychology determined, in a sample of U.S. adults, that Americans prefer political candidates with lower voices as well.

Lower voices do carry better, so that's not entirely without basis, said the linguist Deborah Tannen. That would help explain why those with higher voices, of any gender - but particularly those who speak in public - tend to adopt all sorts of tricks to project: slowing down their pace, lowering their tone, adjusting their cadence.

"Women come into training sessions more aware of what they need to work on because they have been dealing with the tone police all of their lives," said Christine Jahnke, a speech coach who has worked with a number of Democratic politicians.

She noted how, in the first debate in the Democratic primary, Senator Kamala Harris's carefully measured tone as she confronted former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was widely praised.

"Her pace was the delivery technique that enabled her to command the stage," said Ms. Jahnke. "If you listen carefully, you will notice how slowly she is speaking and how she uses pauses to add drama."

In the heyday of television broadcasting there was a style of delivery known as the "voice of God" that was used to refer to the "almost exaggerated authority" of newscasters like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, said Jane Hall, a communication professor at American University. It was "presenting the news from on high."

"And guess what?" Professor Hall said. "God" is no longer male.

"I think we are past the point of questioning whether women have the 'gravitas' or the 'authority' to moderate these debates," she said.

And with that out of the way, perhaps viewers can focus on what they - and the candidates - actually say.

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Four female moderators. Four female candidates. That's more women on a presidential debate stage than ever before. So what will listeners hear? Carole Simpson, a longtime television newscaster, was told early in her career that she could not be an anchor because "women don't like to hear other women on the air."

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Women are Statistically Less likely to Vote in Favor of Trump

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Women are Statistically Less likely to Vote in Favor of Trump

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This article discusses how women and minorities are proportionally less likely to vote for a second Trump presidency term. I will use this article to discuss how educated and informed women vote for candidates that will support their well being. I will also discuss how it is important for women to support other women and not vouch for male figures who claim to have their best interest in mind.

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To the editor: The handwriting is on the wall. Anyone who thinks that half of America, which is what women are, are going to reelect a man who grossly dishonors any woman who crosses his path is in his dotage. (" Trump has turned the suburbs into a GOP disaster zone. Does that doom his reelection? " Nov. 29)

My great aunt was a suffragette 100 years ago, and here women are being dishonored by a man once more - and a president at that.

Hillary Clinton stood alone among Democrats in the last election, but now several women are running. And they will continue to come. We are on a march to truly make America great for all its citizens.
Jo Caldwell, San Diego
..

To the editor: Defeating Trump, which onceappeared as a slam dunk for Democrats, doesn't look like a sure thing now.

Why? Because the increasing cattle show of presidential candidates for the party's presidential nomination is becoming ridiculous. The candidates need to rethink what they are attempting to do and put national interest before personal ego lest they be part of a losing cause.
A. Marco Turk, Santa Monica

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There's no way women -- half of America -- will vote to re-elect Trump

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To the editor: The handwriting is on the wall. Anyone who thinks that half of America, which is what women are, are going to reelect a man who grossly dishonors any woman who crosses his path is in his dotage. (" Trump has turned the suburbs into a GOP disaster zone.

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This article discusses how conscious/unconscious biases made U.K. voters judge female candidates based on gender rather than qualification. I will use this article to exemplify how women are often times held to a higher standard then their male counterparts. I will also expand on how women are judged more so on outwards characteristics and behavioral patterns as opposed to men.

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This is politics in a climate of fear and intimidation: Inconspicuous offices with no campaign posters and multiple security cameras. No canvassing after dark. Death threats.

Rachel Reeves, a Labour candidate, right, campaigns with volunteers in the Bramley area of Leeds, England. Credit... Andrew Testa for The New York Times

LEEDS, England - The campaign office is deliberately inconspicuous - tucked above a salon through an unmarked doorway in a 1970s-era shopping center. There are no campaign posters in the windows. Two cameras are trained on the entrance. The door frame was recently reinforced.

They are necessary precautions, said Rachel Reeves, the Labour candidate who has represented this area of Leeds in Parliament since 2010 and uses the space as both her constituency office and now as her campaign headquarters.

The death threats, abuse on social media and graffiti calling for "traitor" lawmakers to be hanged have changed her approach ahead of Britain's upcoming general election.This is the new reality, she and other lawmakers say, in a campaign environment that has become remarkably nasty, particularly for women, who face a torrent of abuse and threats often laced with misogyny. And it is happening across the political spectrum.

"I do think it's a very different atmosphere and environment now compared to the first two times I stood," Ms. Reeves said. "People are a lot angrier and there's a lot more polarization, particularly around the Brexit issue."

In the dwindling days before Britain heads to the polls, candidates, particularly women, are finding themselves campaigning in a climate where they say abuse, threats and a culture of intimidation have become the norm. With the Labour and Conservative parties hurling blame and allegations of racism and wrongdoing at each other, and anger and exhaustion over the still unresolved issue of Brexit, the country is divided like never before.

Where once candidates might have tried to be as visible as possible, many are now proceeding with caution, heeding warnings from the police. The abuse is not directed entirely at women. Men have come in for their share as well.

But a study conducted during the most recent election showed that female lawmakers received disproportionately more abuse on social media, with women of color receiving an even larger share.

And when more than a dozen female lawmakers cited threats and online abuse last month as part of their rationale for not running in the upcoming election, a discomforting spotlight was again thrust on the treatment of women in British politics.

In a system where women are already underrepresented, making up just 32 percent of Parliament, some feared the abuse would drive away potential new candidates.

Despite the charged atmosphere heading into the campaign, a record number of women - 1,124 of 3,322 registered candidates - are running in the election,the BBC reported. But many say they are having to adjust to a new reality where threats and intimidation are the norm.

"I think that we are a little bit more reticent in advertising where we are going to be," Ms. Reeves said, so she instead shares photos of campaign appearances after the fact. It is a precaution the police have suggested since the murder of her close friend Jo Cox, she said.

In Leeds, the 2016 murder of Ms. Cox, a Labour lawmaker who represented the nearby area of Batley and Spen, is never far from people's minds.

Ms. Cox was shot by a man shouting "Britain first" and "death to traitors" while she campaigned for Britain to remain in the European Union ahead of the Brexit referendum.

"We really needed to learn the lessons from that, and yet here we are, three and a half years later, and I think the environment is much more toxic," Ms. Reeves said.

She believes Brexit divisions and language used by leaders in Parliament have fueled the anger.

"The language of betrayal, of traitor, of treachery, of surrender," she said, repeating words that she and many of her female Labour colleagues have criticized Prime Minister Boris Johnsonfor using against his opponents in the past. But, she said, the misogyny is not limited to one side of the political spectrum.

A man was jailed last month for sending a threatening letter to Anna Soubry, a onetime Conservative who now heads an upstart party, Change UK. Two Labour activists were injured in separate attacks last week while canvassing door to door.

Six people have been convicted recently of criminal offenses for abuse and threats directed at Luciana Berger, a former Labour lawmaker and now Liberal Democrat candidate. Both the far right and far left went after her for her Jewish religion or her stance on Brexit.

Andrea Jenkyns, a Conservative lawmaker who is running to retain her seat in the constituency of Morley and Outwood, five miles south of Ms. Reeves's area in Leeds, detailed a barrage of abuse after she won her district in the 2015 election, ending an 85-year reign by Labour.

Ms. Jenkyns - ardently pro-Brexit and an outspoken supporter of Mr. Johnson's withdrawal deal - has received emails at her office threatening sexual violence, and detractors on social media have called her a bad mother.

Six weeks ago, her staff arrived at their office on Morley's main street to find graffiti scrawled in the entryway: "Andrea just kill yourself pls."

Many of her campaign signs, which depict a smiling Ms. Jenkyns standing alongside Mr. Johnson, have been defaced. In one, a hole was punched through her face.

Ms. Jenkyns believes the current climate is a departure from the "grown-up politics" of her first two campaigns, and she blames the heightened tensions on Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, for driving that party further to the left. But, she conceded, Brexit has also played a role.

"The sad thing is, you deal with it on a daily basis so you are probably not shocked anymore and you accept it," Ms. Jenkyns said. "And what kind of society is that?"

For the first time, Britain's National Police Chiefs' Council, which coordinates law enforcement across the country, and the Electoral Commission have issued a nationwide set of safety guidelines for candidates and activists. It advises canvassing in groups and encourages candidates and their supporters to report threats, including those made online.

The decision to hold an election in December, when daylight is in short supply across Britain, has also forced many candidates to rethink their strategies, with some, including Ms. Jenkyns, swearing off knocking on doors in the dark because of safety concerns.

Before previous elections, much of Ms. Reeves's canvassing would take place after the workday ended. Now, it's dark by 4:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, she set out at 4 p.m., knocking on doors with a small team of volunteers who put leaflets through mail slots in the Fairfield Estate, a mixture of public housing projects and privately owned homes spread out over a steep hillside.

The streetlights came on as she made her way along the densely packed terraced houses, her red Labour candidate badge visible in the darkness. Few answered the door.

But those who happened to be home were mostly positive, mixed with a few curt responses from those not supporting Labour.

"I think we are certainly a little more vigilant," Ms. Reeves said, describing a few confrontations. "We would never have someone go door-knocking by themselves."

Ms. Cox's younger sister, Kim Leadbetter, believes that the conversation around Brexit has grown increasingly vitriolic in the years since her sister's death. She worries it could prove damaging to the democratic process and discourage young people, particularly women, from politics.

"When Jo was murdered, there was a short period of time when politicians said all the right things about how politics needed to take a step back," she said.

But it didn't last. Instead, she said, anger, frustration, and violent language seem to dominate the conversation. Ms. Leadbetter, an ambassador for the Jo Cox Foundation, a nonpartisan, community-building charity that was created after her sister's death, said that while her sister was an advocate of robust debate, "we have to be able to disagree agreeably."

While there is undoubtedly an issue with threats of violence on social media - due in part to the anonymity the platforms can provide - Ms. Leadbetter warned against dismissing them as just an online problem.

"It only takes one individual who cannot see the difference between violent, aggressive and abusive language and an act of violence that can change people's lives forever," she said.

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Threats and Abuse on Campaign Trail: A Grim Reality for U.K. Female Candidates

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This is politics in a climate of fear and intimidation: Inconspicuous offices with no campaign posters and multiple security cameras. No canvassing after dark. Death threats. LEEDS, England - The campaign office is deliberately inconspicuous - tucked above a salon through an unmarked doorway in a 1970s-era shopping center.

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This article discusses how it has been decades since the proclamation of Human Rights which outlined the core of what humans are entitled to. This article will help me outline how society has failed women in allowing them basic human rights. I will further expand on that idea by exemplifying the amount of cis-gendered white men who represent the majority of world leaders.

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December 10 marks the Human Rights Day, a day designed by the U.N. to commemorate the U.N. General Assembly adopting, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the UDHR). The UDHR is a milestone human rights declaration affirming human dignity and inalienable rights of everyone. The UDHR inspired other international treaties, constitutions and human rights laws worldwide. It also continues to be the most translated international legal document in the world.

The UDHR was a direct response to the Nazi atrocities that soaked the soil with blood across Europe and beyond. The historic document is a direct affirmation that the human rights identified in the UDHR are the rights of everyone everywhere and cannot be curtailed by dictatorships spreading propaganda and ordering annihilation of people they deem as not worthy of protection. The UDHR must be celebrated and implemented to ensure that universal human rights it affirms are truly universal.

At age 11, Malala began her campaign for the rights of girls to receive an education, blogging about ... [+]
Getty Images for The Growth Faculty

This year's theme for the Human Rights Day is " Youth Standing Up for Human Rights." It aims to "celebrate the potential of youth as constructive agents of change, amplify their voices, and engage a broad range of global audiences in the promotion and protection of rights" and "encourage, galvanize, and showcase how youth all over the world stand up for rights and against racism, hate speech, bullying, discrimination, and climate change, to name a few." It is crucial to ensure that the next generation, and subsequent generations who do not have memories of the atrocities that led to the UDHR, the Nazi atrocities and the loss of life they caused, are fully engaged in protecting human rights for all. Indeed, in recent years we have witnessed the emergence of more and more young people speaking out about the issues they are passionate about. Examples include Malala, even as a teenager, standing up for the right to education for girls and working to "break down the barriers preventing more than 130 million girls around the world from going to school" or the Genocide80Twenty, a project run by pupils at Hampton School, London, UK, raising awareness, educating and engaging others on genocide. Their voices should be an inspiration to the next generation that you are never too young to change the world, the power comes from within.

This year's commemoration of the Human Rights Day is the last one of this decade, leaving a single decade before the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should be achieved. The SDGs include several human rights-related goals. As the new decade (and the last for the achievement of the 2030 goals) begins in January, it is crucial to critically assess how we are doing in making the goals a reality. More importantly, it is also paramount to consider what needs to change to ensure that the SDGs will be achieved by 2030.

Among others, ending poverty in all its forms ( SDG 1) will not happen if families struggle to make ends meet, despite working full-time jobs or sometimes multiple jobs. Ending hunger ( SDG 2) means nothing if food is being wasted every day while children have to go to sleep hungry. Ensuring healthy lives ( SDG 3) will not be achieved if medical care is reserved for the rich only. Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education ( SDG 4) means little if children must go to work rather than school. Achieving gender equality and empowerment for all women and girls ( SDG 5) will not happen if physical and/or sexual partner violence continues unopposed. Promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development ( SDG 16) will never be achievable if we do not treat others with the human dignity we all deserve.

Whatever our past failings, they must be addressed to ensure that the SDGs contribute for a better and more sustainable future for all. SDGs must be used to strengthen protection of human rights for all, and so affirm and protect human dignity for everyone everywhere. This is a project that requires everyone to engage with, including youth standing up for human rights.

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Ewelina U. Ochab is a legal researcher and human rights advocate, and author of the book "Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East." Ochab wor...

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Standing Up For Human Rights For Everyone

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Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin December 10 marks the Human Rights Day, a day designed by the U.N. to commemorate the U.N. General Assembly adopting, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the UDHR). The UDHR is a milestone human rights declaration affirming human dignity and inalienable rights of everyone.

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This article tells of how minority women in U.S. politics are judged more and held to a greater degree of liability then their male and or white counterparts. I will expand on these ideas by demonstrating how black women in America encompass two marginalized groups and are therefore at a greater disadvantage. Additionally I will discuss how these sort of expectations transverse politics and feed into societal expectations at large.

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After Kamala Harris's departure from the presidential race, the people who saw their own paths reflected in hers are thinking about what comes next.

Supporters acknowledge that Senator Kamala Harris's presidential campaign made missteps but also say she was held to a different standard than her white opponents. Credit... Logan R. Cyrus for The New York Times

WASHINGTON - The first black woman to be elected mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, considers Senator Kamala Harris something of a political soul mate. When Ms. Harris announced her White House bid in Oakland, Calif., in January, Ms. Breed was one of the 20,000 supporters there loudly celebrating, and she endorsed the campaign from the beginning.

But in the days since Ms. Harris dropped out of the race last week, Ms. Breed has been reflecting on the moments that were less celebratory, like the questions that continually dogged Ms. Harris about whether a black woman could win.

They are questions Ms. Breed has heard herself. When she first considered making her first bid for elected office at age 37, with a run for the San Francisco board of supervisors in 2012, several people urged her to go for a lower position or move to another district, one with a larger African-American population.

The message then - and now - was clear to her: Limit your sights. There's only so much a black woman in politics can do.

"I keep going back to a lot of people telling me there's no way I can win in my district, they thought I could never get elected to my seat," she said. "Why is it more natural for a white man to be electable than an African-American woman?"

Ms. Breed is far from alone in wondering what Ms. Harris's aborted run means for the political standing of black women in Democratic politics. The California senator's decision to exit the race before the first round of voting has sparked an emotional reckoning, as the small sorority of prominent elected black female officials, strategists and candidates find themselves grappling with how Ms. Harris fell from a top contender to near the bottom of the pack, why she failed to attract black supporters and wondering what it will take for one of them to not only run, but also win, the White House.

For the first time in their political lives, many saw their own identity reflected in Ms. Harris's bid, in the photos of her as a young girl in braids, her membership in the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, her stories of being bused into a white school district and her drum line dance moves.

They also saw in her effort a Democratic Party establishment unwilling to fully back their candidacies, even as black women remain the party's most loyal supporters. And they saw confirmation of how much more difficult it can be for a black woman to raise money from people who like her but just aren't convinced she should be - or could be elected - president.

Representative Barbara Lee, who represents Oakland, said the possibility of an all-white slate of top-tier candidates - and the likelihood of an entirely white roster at this month's presidential debate - after Ms. Harris's exit from the race demonstrates a lack of respect for black women at the highest levels.

"The issues that will be brought up will not be brought up from a black woman's perspective," said Ms. Lee, who was one of Ms. Harris' campaign co-chairs. "We've elected everyone to office, so why shouldn't we be the commander in chief?"

While Ms. Harris's bid wasn't a historic first, her candidacy was groundbreaking for how seriously her effort was taken by the political establishment. The third black woman to run for the White House, she cast her campaign in the direct shadow of the first, opening her effort with a red-and-yellow logo that was a nod to Shirley Chisholm's bid.

"She broke a glass ceiling for women of color," said Representative Karen Bass, a Democrat from California and the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. "There will be more African-American women running in the next presidential race. Maybe it will even be Kamala herself."

Supporters acknowledge that many of the problems faced by Ms. Harris's presidential campaign were self-inflicted, having little to do with her race or gender. They list failings like strategic miscalculations that had her ignoring Iowa and New Hampshire for the first months of the race, a lack of leadership within her operation and an inability to articulate a consistent rationale for her candidacy. Her critics argue that those missteps suggested to voters that Ms. Harris was unprepared for the presidency, lending credence to arguments questioning her electability.

But her supporters note that she faced a level of scrutiny that unsuccessful white male candidates, like former Representative Beto O'Rourke of Texas, seemed to escape.

"There was a particular focus on her, which just speaks to the double standard that all women candidates and candidates of color face," said Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of BlackPAC, a super PAC focused on African-American Democrats, who is unaffiliated in the race. "That scrutinizing of missteps in the campaign isn't applied equally."

While record-breaking numbers of black women were elected to Congress last year, they have struggled to break into higher positions. A black woman has never served as governor, and only two have served in the Senate, Ms. Harris and Carol Moseley Braun, of Illinois.

Last year, Stacey Abrams, of Georgia, became the first black woman to win her party's nomination for governor in United States history.

Within the limited academic research detailing the barriers black women face, there is a broad consensus that there are additional obstacles. Their efforts can become a circle of self-defeat: Political strategists, party leaders and donors doubt whether they can win majority-white areas, so they don't support their bid. Because they don't have early support, it creates more skepticism of their candidacy from the political establishment.

Aides who worked on Ms. Abrams's campaign said they waged a "concurrent campaign of belief." They needed to win voters the way any candidate would, by meeting people and putting forward appealing policies. And they needed to convince skeptics that just because a black woman had never won in a Southern state, that didn't mean she couldn't.

Those problems were supersized for Ms. Harris, who ran in a campaign cycle in which Democratic voters are intensely focused on their ideas of who can defeat President Trump.

"This whole electability conversation I think is super tone deaf," said Representative Lauren Underwood, who became the first woman and first person of color to represent her majority-white Illinois district last year. "We can win, and we do all across the country."

Ms. Harris tried to tackle that concern directly, bringing up what she called the "donkey in the room" at town hall meetings and rallies. When she addressed her race and gender, she cast her candidacy in aspirational terms, urging voters to "believe in what can be unburdened by what has been."

She also argued that the path to winning back the Midwest could run through black voters in places like Detroit as easily as the white suburbs. Yet risk-averse older black voters worried that Ms. Harris's race would be a difficult sell to white voters in key swing states.

Still others argue that Ms. Harris's bid shows that the real risk is not leaning enough into identity, something future candidates will have to do to succeed.

"The advice for black women who are running is to lean into the fact that fellow black women are the most powerful Democrats, we have a unique position and strength," said Aimee Allison, the founder of She the People, a group focused on increasing political power among women of color.

Yet perhaps the most significant challenge facing black female candidates, according to strategists, is one that eventually undid Ms. Harris's effort: money.

As her campaign dropped in the polls, aides to Ms. Harris frequently pointed to former Senator John Kerry's primary campaign as an example of how a candidacy can rebound. During his 2003 primary effort, Mr. Kerry fell in the polls throughout the fall before rebounding to win the Iowa caucuses. At the lowest point, Mr. Kerry lent his effort $6.4 million of his family fortune to keep his campaign afloat, a financial infusion Ms. Harris was unable to supply or raise from donors.

"There's a huge racial wealth gap, so you don't have a level playing field," Ms. Lee said, pointing to Mayor Pete Buttigieg 's ability to raise money from wealthy gay donors. "You look at the wealth gap and you look at the donor base and you look at who has the money and who doesn't have the money, these are some very deep questions that we should be talking about."

Now with clear evidence on how much this limits politicians at even the highest levels, Ms. Lee said, donors and politicians have to confront it directly.

Ms. Bass said that when she raises money for her re-election in Los Angeles, she often faces skepticism. She imagines that Ms. Harris faced similar difficulties.

"People question why I need money, but they don't bat an eye when a white man from a very similar district" makes a similar request, Ms. Bass said. "Typically there's just an assumption that a man needs the money. Usually if I point that out they immediately recognize the discrepancy, but that doesn't mean I always get the check."

Many saw clear challenges in Ms. Harris's run, but they also remain hopeful. The third black woman to run for the White House will not be the last, they say confidently.

There are clear signs of progress in recruitment and the public discussion about diverse leadership, for example. Others see different signs of advancement.

As Ms. Moseley Braun, the second black woman to run for president, watched Ms. Harris campaign, she couldn't help thinking how much less uncomfortable, at least physically, the whole ordeal seemed.

When Ms. Moseley Braun ran, candidates sat on stools at campaign events that were so tall that they left her legs dangling off the side, she recalled. And then there was the practice of the candidates locking hands and raising them over their heads at the end of each debate, like a human chain of rivals.

"As the only girl in the race at that time, it made my boobs look crooked on television," recalled Ms. Braun, who is backing former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the primary race. "It seems there has been progress."

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What Does This Country Demand of Black Women in Politics?

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After Kamala Harris's departure from the presidential race, the people who saw their own paths reflected in hers are thinking about what comes next. WASHINGTON - The first black woman to be elected mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, considers Senator Kamala Harris something of a political soul mate.

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Finland Elects 34 Year old Female Prime Minister

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Finland Elects 34 Year old Female Prime Minister

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Article discusses the strides Finland has made in their recent election as youthful female socialist candidate becomes the youngest prime minister ever in office. I will be using this article in order to exemplify how strong leadership qualities are not always related to the gender or age of an individual. I will also be exemplifying the importance and societal impact o having such a young leader.

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Finland's next government is breaking the mold in multiple ways.

Sanna Marin, the 34-year-old transport minister, was tapped over the weekend by the ruling Social Democratic Party to be Finland's new prime minister. When she takes the reins of the country, most likely on Tuesday, she will become the world's youngest sitting head of government.

In another unusual development, Marin will head a coalition with four other parties that are all led by women - three of whom are in their early 30s. Her own biography also breaks the mold: Raised by a single mother, she has described feeling discriminated against in Finland when her mother was in a relationship with another woman.

Elina Penttinen, a lecturer in gender studies at the University of Helsinki, said the rise of so many women is "exceptional" not only by the standards of the wider world, where older men hold most power, but even by the standards of Finland, which regularly ranks as one of the best countries in the world for gender equality.

"Here it seems pretty amazing too," she said.

The Social Democrats emerged as the strongest party after Finland's election in April. Antti Rinne, the incumbent prime minister whom Marin is replacing, stepped down last week amid political turmoil caused by a strike of postal workers. Rinne says he plans to continue as the Social Democrats' leader until a party congress next summer.

Penttinen described Marin as a talented politician known for her leadership skills whose progressive program emphasizes combating climate change, protecting the country's famous social protections like healthcare, and reaching out to young people.

Finland, like much of the West, has seen a rise in right-wing populists, and the nationalist Finns Party did well in the April election, though centrist and left-wing parties won most votes and together could govern in the multiparty coalition.

"I hope it's a sign of more change to come against populists, especially in the age of Trump and populism," Penttinen said.

A tweet by a journalist for Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat with photos of the quintet drew attention online by visually underscoring the idea of rising female power in politics.

Marin will become the youngest-serving leader of a government in the world, beating out Ukraine's 35-year-old prime minister, Oleksiy Honcharuk. She might not hold that title for long, however. Sebastian Kurz, the 33-year-old former Austrian chancellor who rose to that position when he was 31, won an election in September and is in talks to form a new governing coalition that would put him back in the job.

Marin joins a small group of female leaders who have sought to counteract the rise of populism. That group includes Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova, 46, a progressive whose election this year bucked the trend of populism and nationalism in Central Europe.

And like New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who is 39, Marin is a new mother, having given birth to a daughter last year.

A lawmaker since 2015, Marin is the party's vice chairwoman and was minister for transport and communications in the outgoing government.

Lawmakers are likely to approve the new government this week so Marin can represent Finland at a summit of European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. Finland holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of the year.

Beside Marin, the coalition's other party leaders are 32-year-old Katri Kulmuni of the Center Party; the Left Alliance's Li Andersson, 32; Maria Ohisalo, the 34-year-old leader of the Greens; and the head of the Swedish People's Party, Anna-Maja Henriksson, who at 55 is the oldest.

The coalition will have a comfortable majority of 117 seats in the 200-seat Eduskunta, or Parliament.

The Center Party announced Monday that Kulmuni will be the finance minister in the new government.

Marin will be Finland's third female government leader. Women have been present in politics in the Nordic region for decades and today represent half of the party leaders in Sweden. Four of Denmark's nine parties are headed by women.

Mette Frederiksen became Denmark's prime minister in June, and Erna Solberg has been Norway's head of government since 2013.

Iceland's Vigdis Finnbogadottir was the first woman to be democratically elected as head of state by voters when she defeated three men for the presidency in 1980.

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Finland's new 34-year-old female prime minister breaks the mold

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Finland's next government is breaking the mold in multiple ways. Sanna Marin, the 34-year-old transport minister, was tapped over the weekend by the ruling Social Democratic Party to be Finland's new prime minister. When she takes the reins of the country, most likely on Tuesday, she will become the world's youngest sitting head of government.

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Trend of Joining Bandwagon on Female Empowerment

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Trend of Joining Bandwagon on Female Empowerment

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Article discusses how it has become mainstream to promote feminism and activist principles in order to sell goods and services. I will use the article to exemplify the difference between activism for personal gain, and activism for the betterment of society. Furthermore, I'll note how negative intent can still hold a positive outcome and how (vice versa) positive intentions do not always translate to a positive end result.

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Controversial British retail mogul Sir Philip Green (in 2014 he took £580m/$761m in dividends from British brand BHS before selling it for £1/$1.3, igniting the self-destruct button just a year later) has bought himself both some new column inches and a premium ticket into extremely hazardous brand territory by briskly nixing a pop-up store focused on feminist writing in fashion giant Topshop's London flagship.

Devised in collaboration with U.K. publisher Penguin, the installation had been created to champion the launch of the book Feminists Don't Wear Pink (And Other Lies) - a series of essays mining personal, modern relationships with feminism. It's curated by British journalist and activist Scarlett Curtis and features a cavalcade of outspoken celebrity contributors including actors Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan and Jameela Jamil. Following the shutdown - the installation was dismantled just hours before its official launch - the brand issued an awkwardly indeterminate apology citing "a production and creative standpoint," swiftly followed by the language Green is famous for liking best: cold hard cash. In this instance that equated to an atonement donation of £25k ($33k) to the book's charity partner Girl Up, a United Nations organisation established to help girls all over the world prepare for leadership roles.

Aside from the donation sending extraordinarily mixed messages regarding the brand's stance (it's a little hard to still claim the supportive high ground when jettisoning a project from the store that's commonly considered the jewel in the retailer's crown) the commotion flags a potentially major misstep for Topshop whose competitors are actively aligning themselves with a narrative of female empowerment (more on these shortly). As Filmmaker, Comedian, Activist and one of the book's essayists, Grace Campbell says: "I think it's potentially suicidal for the brand. All people but especially young people are moving towards more conscious, sustainable vision of fashion and it [Topshop] is essentially saying they only want to endorse feminism when it's convenient for them. What makes me particularly sad is that it's a man deciding what young women see and consume, or in this case what they don't. Topshop is arguably the most important brand for young girls in this country and should understand that reach and influence far better."

Consumption is key to this story. For context, considering that Green's Arcadia Group retail empire took a nosedive to the tune of -79% in 2017with Topshop itself registering a £10.9m loss on the previous year, it's a particularly dangerous time to be toying with a youth market exhibiting increasingly activist appetites, including the expectation that brands demonstrably play a role in shaping a more positive, enlightened society. For instance, 79% say they would engage with a brand that would help them make a difference while even Teen Vogue now considers itself a young persons' mouthpiece for social reform. Politics and mental health now rub shoulders quite comfortably with beauty tips and dating.

Other brands, as aforementioned, have been savvier in cultivating a dialogue with these emerging appetites and assuring fans that their money is not only well spent but in socially responsible hands. In Summer 2017 luxury American fashion brand Coach partnered with cult British style magazine Dazed & Confused and online feminist community Gurls Talk (founded by Brit Activist Adwoa Aboah, incidentally also Vogue's international model of the year 2017) on a one-day festival style forum. The programme tabled discussions including female-friendly porn and mental health and speakers such as New Statesman journalist and feminist columnist Laurie Perry as well as acclaimed model Hanne Gaby Odiele who had recently revealed her intersex status. Coach largely stuck to a host role, retaining visibility via a soft sell; giveaways and product customization workshops. It's worth noting that Coach's parent company posted a 33% sales rise in 2018, which is largely attributed to Coach's performance.

Closer to Topshop's commercial playground and spotlighting the relevance of the physical store space, British teen-targeting fast fashion brand Missguided is using its flagship in the East London edition of Mall to showcase its solidarity with the sisterhood. Hosting collaborations with female-owned businesss it's featured a pop-up by WAH Nails (founded by British-Jamaican stylist turned entrepreneur Sharmadean Reid MBE) and hair-braiding studio Keash, both native London labels. Another of Topshop's sparring partners, e-tail powerhouse is also notable for using it's ASOS Supports Talent initiative (a programme that funds and mentors emerging artists to deliver otherwise unassailable projects) to support feminism; see the Gal-dem project - a magazine/collective of 70 UK-based women of colour. It used the brand's backing to create an audio-visual poetry exhibition exploring what 'home' means to 10 women of color in Britain.

In the US, look to lingerie label Aerie, which has been hosting a year-long pop-up space that hosts events including monthly seminars by female entrepreneurs in a bid to establish a community network- and GRRRL, the swiftly rising athleisure brand built entirely on female empowerment (product, seminars, considerable social media discussion) that's bringing home year on year sales increases of 200%, 30k consumers in 60 global territories. 50+ women have tattooed the brand's name on their bodies in an extreme but not isolated testament to the depth of feeling the movement has put in motion.

In a climate where brands are increasingly expected to be enablers - role models, connectors, conduits for social support - the financial fallout from Green's last-minute intervention could leave Topshop's bottom line far worse off than the cost of coughing up for a charitable payout.

Penguin is currently rumored to be looking for new venues to restage the promotional pop-up, while at the time of writing the book itself has already hit #4 on Amazon's best selling books list.

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Tone Deaf Topshop Bins Feminist Book Collab As Other Brands Bank On Female Empowerment

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British retail mogul Sir Phillip Green's nixing of a feminist literary collaboration between flagship fashion brand Topshop and U.K. publisher Penguin demonstrates a dangerous misunderstanding of his audience at a time when other retailers are actively capitalizing on empowering female fans.

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The Problem With "Purity" and Overbearing Parents

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The Problem With "Purity" and Overbearing Parents

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This article discusses how rapper T.I. forced his teenage daughter to partake in a virginity test in order to verify that she had not in fact had sex. I plan on using this article to demonstrate the problem our society has with maintaining the "innocence" and "purity" of women. It should be the woman's choice and hers' only when she chooses to partake in sexual intercourse. Additionally the concept of virginity is a social construct and is in no way verifiable.

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There is no exam to verify virginity, medical experts say, and the attempt violates a woman's rights.

The rapper and actor T.I. said in a podcast interview that he made "yearly trips" to the gynecologist with his daughter to evaluate her hymen. Credit... Matt Winkelmeyer/Contour by Getty Images

The rapper and actor T.I. prompted widespread outrage after revealing on a podcast that he has accompanied his daughter, now 18, to a yearly doctor's appointment to ensure that her hymen is still intact.

Scientists have long condemned so-called virginity testing as a violation of a woman's rights, as well as a sham procedure unsupported by evidence.

"A virginity exam does not exist," said Dr. Maura Quinlan, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University in Chicago. "If someone brought me a girl for a virginity exam, I would tell them, 'I can't say either way.'"

In a podcast interview that aired on Tuesday, T.I. - whose full name is Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. - said he made "yearly trips" to the gynecologist with his daughter, even though she is now 18 years old and in her first year of college.

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In the United States, parents no longer have the right to see a child's medical records after age 18, and need permission to discuss diagnoses and treatments with a doctor or medical provider.

In the interview, T.I. recalled that during the appointment a doctor said he needed such permission to learn about his daughter's hymen and that he told her to provide it.

The trend in adolescent medicine, however, is for doctors to see young patients alone, so that they may discuss such sensitive topics as sexuality or drug use.

"There's good research that teens will forgo care if they think their confidentiality is not protected," said Dr. Julia Potter, associate medical director of the adolescent center at Boston Medical Center.

An adolescent without confidential access to a doctor may be sexually active, for example, but unwilling to seek birth control. After her patients turn 12, Dr. Potter encourages parents to leave the room during the exam and subsequent conversation; a third person remains as a chaperone.

The hymen is a thin membrane that partly covers the entrance to the vagina. It can sometimes be torn or stretched during sexual intercourse, physical activity, tampon use or medical procedures.

The hymen is a "rim of tissue" that may be more prominent in some women than in others, Dr. Quinlan said: "People who don't do this for a living don't understand the anatomy. It's like earlobes - there are tons of different appearances."

"You can tell if someone has had a vaginal delivery, but to tell if someone has had vaginal intercourse is not possible," she added.

Not every girl is born with a hymen, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and "the presence or absence of a hymen does not indicate 'virginity.'"

The organization does not offer guidance on so-called virginity testing, because it is not medically indicated and is not a valid medical procedure.

According to the World Health Organization, virginity testing is unethical and should be banned, as it has no scientific or clinical basis.

Sometimes seen in developing countries as a qualification for marriage, the sham procedure violates girls' and women's human rights, according to the W.H.O. It is an unnecessary and often humiliating and painful exam that can be traumatic and detrimental to psychological well-being, the W.H.O. has found.

Parents who want virginity tests are generally those who are deeply uncomfortable about their adolescent having sex, Dr. Potter said: "It probably comes from a place of love and care, but a better strategy would be to create an open dialogue."

Dr. Quinlan agreed. "The easiest way to find out if someone is a virgin is to ask," she said. "Talk to your children, develop a relationship of trust with them, and trust them. Teach them from an early age about a healthy sex-positive way to live, and hopefully it will work out."

Dr. Quinlan added that she was "appalled" by the entire episode. "I thought this double standard, of virginity being the value of a woman, was in the past," she said.

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Rapper T.I.'s Daughter Should Never Have Had a 'Virginity Test'

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There is no exam to verify virginity, medical experts say, and the attempt violates a woman's rights. The rapper and actor T.I. prompted widespread outrage after revealing on a podcast that he has accompanied his daughter, now 18, to a yearly doctor's appointment to ensure that her hymen is still intact.

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A Step Toward Female Empowerment in the Middle East

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A Step Toward Female Empowerment in the Middle East

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The article talked about the recent lift in laws regarding the movement of unaccompanied women through airports and on flights. Using this article, I will discuss how men perceive women as something of an inferior and feel the constant need to protect them. Adding to this I will note how many social conflicts have actually been a result of the patriarchy arguing over how to best protect the women.

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Saudi Arabian women finally allowed to hold passports and travel independently | CNN

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Women in Saudi Arabia will finally be allowed to hold passports and travel abroad without the consent of a male guardian, a significant loosening of the Kingdom's notorious restrictions on women.

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In college, Gillian Meek was a self-described introvert, "a quiet, studious young lady." Her first job, working in hospitality, was a pivotal experience that pulled her out of her shell and taught her how to interact with others and solve for customers' needs. And in 2016, after working in the footwear industry for 20 years, she became the president of Keds just as the brand turned 100.

At the time, the iconic brand was repositioning around its history in women's footwear, while also looking to innovate and keeping in mind the modern consumer's demand for meaningful brands.

"It's such an honor to work for a brand that's literally part of the fabric of the American consumer," says Meek. "But it's also the challenge that you have to be new and innovative. The stakes are higher. The expectations of the modern or millennial consumer are even higher than they were historically."

So in celebration of its platform, "Ladies First Since 1916," the brand launched a new campaign that's seeking to reclaim the term "lady" and redefine what it actually means to the modern woman. Today, "acting like a lady," doesn't mean being refined, polite, and soft-spoken. It's about speaking up and being bold-it's about joining important conversations.

As Meek explains, "For us, being a lady has so much less to do with a traditional definition about being dainty or well-spoken. The modern interpretation of that is being part of the conversation, willing to take your voice and use it for positive change. To be a role model, both in your professional life, but more importantly in your personal life and the world around you."

The new campaign is not just a nod to the brand's history as the first tennis shoe for women, but also a contribution to the larger, global conversation around female empowerment. Most important, says Meek, is that the brand is able to not just play lip service to its values but actually "walk the walk." Everything Keds does, from its all-female executive team to who it chooses to partner with, ladders up to the broader mission. That's why the brand has collaborated with like-minded female founders and women-led businesses on product and brand partnerships.

Activations like these ensure that there's meaningful action from the brand. In a world where more emphasis is being put on brand purpose, and in which we're seeing a major trend toward focusing on female leadership, it's easy for a brand to just jump on the bandwagon. In order to join that conversation meaningfully, it has to come from an organic, authentic place.

As Meek points out, if a brand misses the mark, consumers will be sure to let them know. And thanks to the speed of content creation today, it's easier than ever for brands to test and learn. With expectations from consumers set so high, in order to successfully enter important conversations, brands must continuously find fresh ways to connect.

In her work with Keds, Meek has found that focusing on conversations and experiences with smaller groups of women-who will then share that brand experience with their friends-has been most effective. One of the brand's more recent activations is a great example: In honor of International Women's Day, Keds hosted an event at The Wing in New York with influencers and activists that was centered around the idea of helping women find their voice.

And now, more than ever, we need women's voices. As Meek says, "We want to inspire people to get involved in the conversation because if you can't have the conversation, you can't make progress."

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How Brands Can Authentically Talk About Female Empowerment

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In college, Gillian Meek was a self-described introvert, "a quiet, studious young lady." Her first job, working in hospitality, was a pivotal experience that pulled her out of her shell and taught her how to interact with others and solve for customers' needs.

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Chinese' Discrimination Against Mothers/ Pregnant Women 

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Chinese' Discrimination Against Mothers/ Pregnant Women 

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This article discussed how Chinese industries were discriminating against women who went on maternal leave and the women who recently came back from said leave. I will be using this article to discuss how society at large does not allow women the support system and social benefits they well deserve. Emphasis will be placed on lack of maternity paid leave, discrimination against mothers and our sexist views of seeing the mother as a household paternal guardian.

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Women who become pregnant say that employers discriminate against them in defiance of labor laws, and go largely unpunished.

In China, working mothers say employers discriminate against them in defiance of labor laws, and go largely unpunished. Credit... Giulia Marchi for The New York Times

The women's accusations briefly lit up the Chinese internet. Three employees of a big Chinese logistics company said their bosses had fired them or cut their pay after they became pregnant.

In onecase, the company, China Railway Logistics, did not send a representative to an arbitration proceeding. The company then went to court to challenge the award the woman received. But it backed off as media attention intensified and because the stakes were so small: The award was less than $5,000.

"It isn't worth it to waste time on this little money," the company's lawyer told a local reporter for a state-controlled newspaper.

China's leaders are encouraging women to have it all: a career and more babies. In reality, Chinese women are filing lawsuits and pursuing arbitration against employers who they claim are ignoring laws meant to keep mothers in the workplace.

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China has laws against gender and pregnancy discrimination and a maternity policy that ensures 98 days of paid leave, but enforcement is scant. Women who seek a legal remedy for mistreatment often win a pittance in compensation. They worry that a fight - any fight - will ruin their chances to find other work. And they fear retribution if they speak publicly.

In the case of China Railway Logistics, a company based in Beijing that operates 5,000 warehouses, the three women said they had were either expecting or nursing when they lost their jobs. They turned their cases into a rare coordinatedaction and were identified in court papers by their first initials and last names. None of them want to talk about it now.

But other women, like Li Xiaoping, want to speak up. She was fired by an electronics company, she said, after disclosing that she was pregnant. "Should a woman just go back to fulfilling her traditional role as a wife and be shut out of society after giving birth?" she said.

Ms. Li, 33, said that her former employer, Qingdao Keyrin Electronics, billed her $18,430, the equivalent of 52 months of pay for what it said was "great economic loss." She said that the company had locked her out.

Ms. Li prevailed in arbitration but lost when the company appealed in court. She is fighting that and another legal dispute: the company has sued Ms. Li, her husband, a Chinese reporter and a newspaper that wrote about her case for defamation, seeking $1 million in damages.

Li Wei, the chief executive of Keyrin, disputed Ms. Li's story, saying that it was "completely inconsistent with the facts" and that she did not show up for work. "In the last three years, 11 female employees have had babies," Mr. Li said. "This is the best evidence that we treat our female employees well."

It might look like the time has never been better for working mothers in China. Faced with an aging population, officials have abolished the country's one-child policy. Some local authorities have extended maternity leaves or considered tax breaks to encourage women to have a second child.

But experts see a paradox in China's approach. The country, the world's second-largest economy after the United States, needs more children because of its shrinking population and says it wants women to work, but it offers few incentives for working mothers. Female participation in the labor force has fallen since the 1990s, and the pay gap between women and men has widened.

China, like the United States, does not subsidize maternity leave. Companies tend to equate leave with lost revenue: They get nothing when mothers take time off. Legal complaints filed by mothers show that local authorities did not investigate reports of bias or firings, although the country itself seems to be rethinking some workplace standards.

This year, the Supreme People's Court created a legal category called employment equality that allowed women to report gender bias. A small number of pregnant women are using that to make claims.

"There are laws but there is no enforcement," said Yaqiu Wang, who has researched pregnancy bias for Human Rights Watch. "If you go to labor arbitration, and you look at the composition of the committee: One is a representative from the company, one is a representative from the labor union, the third is someone from the government."

The discrimination often begins with the job application.

It is illegal in China for employers to ask a woman about her marital status or family plans, but many companies still do. Some even force new employee s to sign agreements not to get pregnant. Some women, like Liu Yang, are reconsidering the fairness of earlier demotions.

Ms. Liu, 42, worked for eight years selling sanitary napkins and maternity products for Beishute, a company in Jinan. She was a deputy manager when she had her first child, in 2014, and she was demoted when she returned, she said. Her monthly pay was cut from $1,120 to $980.

Ms. Liu did not view it as discrimination at the time.

"I just internalized it," she said. "I realize now that the company treated me unfairly, but I didn't know much about the law."

She said that other pregnant women were demoted, and that one was fired. When she got pregnant again, Beishute cut her pay to $630, she said. She did not receive maternity pay. She was fired within a week of returning, with the company citing unsatisfactory work.

"I felt helpless and mistreated," Ms. Liu said. She and her husband support two children and two grandparents.

She pursued arbitration, seeking $105,000 in unpaid wages, lost overtime and damages. She was awarded $25,000. She is appealing in court. Her husband, Wang Guanghui, is as determined as Ms. Liu to make the company do what they think is right.

"Society has laws and rules, and they cannot bully us like that," Mr. Wang said.

Beishute would not respond to questions about the case. Emails to the company went unanswered. A representative of the legal department said in a brief phone interview that the company had not fired Ms. Liu. He declined to elaborate and gave only a last name, Peng.

In the 2017 case involving China Railway Logistics, a customer service manager said that her pay had been cut after she had a baby. Identified as Y.W. Wu in court filings, she sought $5,600 in compensation. She won by default after no one from the company attended arbitration. China Railway Logistics appealed in court, citing financial losses and restructuring as the reason her pay had been cut. The company, which employs 50,000 people, did not respond to requests for comment.

The three women won about $17,000 in total compensation. Huang Sha, their lawyer, said that such small payouts gave companies little incentive to obey the law.

"Women's rights should not just be propaganda," he said. "The government wants to protect the company, but it also wants to encourage women to have more kids. There is a contradiction here."

Fan Huiling, a school security guard, was excited when she discovered, at 41, that she was pregnant for a second time. But when she asked her employer, Zhuhai Yingli Property Management, for a few days off based on a doctor's recommendation, she was told not to return. Her belongings were left in a pile outside the school.

She panicked. "Without this job," she said, "I don't have any life security."

Ms. Fan sought advice online and visited one government office after another looking for help. She eventually filed for arbitration. The next day her doctor told her she had had a miscarriage. She sued, citing the new employment equality law category.

In a brief phone interview, a Zhuhai Yingli manager disputed Ms. Fan's accusations, saying that the company had other pregnant employees. "We don't want to comment on this anymore," the manager said, declining to give her full name.

In October, a court ruled in Ms. Fan's favor, requiring the company to pay her $2,000 - the equivalent of four months' pay - and issue a formal apology.

For all of the women seeking help for pregnancy bias, there are some who stay silent at work. They share their stories on the internet, and keep looking for employers who follow the law.

When Li Ronghua returned to Suning Consumer Finance, an arm of the online retailer, after giving birth, she said she was criticized after leaving her desk to pump milk twice a day. In a meeting, executives cited her as an example of a bad employee for leaving without permission. The head of human resources later told her that she should quit, Ms. Li said.The company did not respond to emails and phone calls.

Ms. Li, 36, has since found a job at a small financial leasing company. But in job interviews, she said, she was routinely asked if she planned to have a second child.

"The weak cannot win against the strong," she said. "I just accept it, gradually."

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In China, Working Mothers Say They Are Fired or Sidelined

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Women who become pregnant say that employers discriminate against them in defiance of labor laws, and go largely unpunished. The women's accusations briefly lit up the Chinese internet. Three employees of a big Chinese logistics company said their bosses had fired them or cut their pay after they became pregnant.

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Men are Uncomfortable With Female Leaders

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Men are Uncomfortable With Female Leaders

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The article addresses how statistical evidence suggest that nearly half of all males in the U.S. are uncomfortable with the concept of females in high positions of power. I will use this article to address how unbiased sexism still permeates society despite arguments for the contrary. Furthermore I will explore how these sort of biases perpetuate into feelings of resentment and judgement for women who are just as if not more qualified then males counterparts.

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The White House and Lafayette Square.
Getty

With six women running for president this election cycle, a record number of women have run for the 2020 presidential nomination. This follows the momentum from last year when a record breaking number of women were elected to the U.S. House and Senate. It seems like a promising time for women in politics, yet a survey published Tuesday found that just 49% of men and 59% of women in the U.S. would feel "very comfortable" with a woman as the head of government.

That's one of the findings from the second Reykjavik Index for Leadership, published by the global network of female politicians Women Political Leaders and the data consultancy Kantar. The index measures how women and men are viewed in terms of their suitability for leadership across 22 sectors, including government and politics, media and entertainment, banking and finance, education, engineering, technology and artificial intelligence and childcare. This year's report covered the G7 nations - the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan - as well as Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Chart: Forbes, Data from Reykjavik Index for Leadership by Women Political Leaders and Kantar
Forbes

The researchers surveyed 22,000 working-age adults and ranked each country on an index, with 100 meaning that there is "complete agreement that men and women are equally suited to leadership in all sectors." The lower the index score, the greater the prejudice.

None of the 11 countries scored a 100. Canada and France tied for first place with an index score of 77 and the U.S. came in third place with an index score of 75. In every country, women were more likely to perceive men and women as equally suitable for leadership.

Percentage of men and women who are "very comfortable" with a woman as the head of the government in ... [+]
Forbes

Canada and the U.K. were the only countries in which a majority of men were "very comfortable" with a woman as the head of the government: 56% of men in the U.K. and 53% of men in Canada. Unfortunately, the data shows that women are also skeptical, though less so than men: 65% of women in Canada and 61% of women in the U.K. said they'd be "very comfortable." The three countries with people with the lowest faith in female leaders were Germany, Japan and Russia. In Russia, just 7% of men and 9% of women would be comfortable with a woman in the top political position. (The report did not include the data for China.)

Percentage of men and women who are "very comfortable" with a woman as the CEO of a major company in ... [+]
Forbes

The outlook on women as the CEO of major companies is a bit more optimistic. In Canada, 57% of men and 67% of women said they'd be "very comfortable" with a woman as the CEO of a major country. In the U.S., 56% of men and 66% of women said they'd be "very comfortable."

There are some interesting differences across industries. Americans are most comfortable with female leaders in the media and entertainment, natural sciences and banking and finance ― the index score reached 82 for each, the highest for all sectors. On the contrary, Americans are least comfortable with female leaders in gaming, automotive manufacturers and defense and policing ― the index score was 70 for each. In all countries, childcare, education, fashion, beauty and healthcare were seen as more suited to women. Men were seen as a better fit for the auto industry, law enforcement, gaming and aerospace and engineering.

"Evidence is a crucial tool to measure our social norms. Without evidence we cannot hold ourselves, our leaders or our actions to account," Michelle Harrison, the global CEO of the public division of Kantar said in a statement. "This year's study reveals that in every country studied, there are significant prejudices against women and we have a long way to go until equality is the social norm."

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Almost Half Of Men In The U.S. Are Uncomfortable With A Female President

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That's one of the findings from the second Reykjavik Index for Leadership, published by the global network of female politicians Women Political Leaders and the data consultancy Kantar. The index measures how women and men are viewed in terms of their suitability for leadership across 22 sectors.

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Article discusses the history of Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trumps interactions, often with empathizes of his submissive yet stubborn respect for her. Through this article I will discuss how women in high positions of power are seen as less than males of the same level. Furthermore I will discuss how society at large feels challenged by these women and often will make excuses to disregard their progress.

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Pelosi's impeachment decision puts her on track for epic clash with Trump | CNN Politics

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's announcement Thursday that the House has "no choice" but to move forward with articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump puts the speaker and the President once again on a collision course -- a battle that will most likely be settled next year at the ballot box when voters decide whether he should stay in the White House and whether she deserves to keep the majority.

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Fueling Female Engagement in S.T.E.M. Fields

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Fueling Female Engagement in S.T.E.M. Fields

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This article discusses how females are disproportionate less likely to participate or major in STEM based fields. I will discuss this article by addressing the systematic devaluing of women's interest in the math and sciences. Additionally I'll discuss the social stigma that women face and how they are actively discouraged to enter these fields by society, loved ones and education staff.

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Companies across a spectrum of industries, from healthcare to retail to banking, face a common issue: building a skilled workforce ready to handle the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This technological movement will drive new discoveries in artificial intelligence (AI), rapidly changing how we learn and work. A 2017 study found that the number of patents filed related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution increased by 54% over three years. This will inevitably create more jobs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. More so, nonprofit leaders play a powerful role by supporting female engagement through hands-on learning and after-school workshops to help improve workplace diversification and inclusion in STEM careers.

Although many nonprofits are empowering student innovators, it's imperative that more nonprofits join the mission to ensure our future workforce can compete in a global economy. Our workforce is already lacking the necessary skilled workers. According to a 2018 Deloitte study, the manufacturing skills gap "may leave an estimated 2.4 million positions unfilled between 2018 and 2028, with a potential economic impact of 2.5 trillion."

Compounding this issue is a lack of women in STEM-related industries. A 2017 report found that women made up 47% of the U.S. workforce, but only 24% of them were STEM workers. Globally, less than 30% of today's research and development workforce is female.

To prepare for these rapid changes and future workforce challenges, we need to engage a wide-ranging, diversified set of learners. We need to rethink how we teach students so they can learn the technical skills for our industries and the soft skills, such as collaboration and critical thinking, that are already in high demand in the workforce.

In my conversations with tech and business leaders, it's clear they will continue to rely on our country's education system to produce future workers who are prepared and ready to handle the complex needs of our workforce. Nonprofits should support critical development points through a student's academic career.

Girl Powered, a global movement created by my nonprofit and VEX Robotics with support from Google offers free workshops that encourage girls to seek more STEM opportunities. Over two days, girls learn how to code and build robots alongside educators and engineers in a fun environment.

And, in my recent discussions with students at the 2019 VEX Robotics World Championship, I know that they, too, are eager to engage in the type of experiential education that will prepare them for prosperous careers. I watched their eyes light up and their passion go into overdrive as they modified their robots based on the lessons from the previous matches and were eager to return to competition fields with their latest robot iteration. It is a real-world example of problem-solving and engineering design process at work.

So, let's teach these students -- our future leaders -- how to think differently so they can solve complex problems by connecting project-based classroom lessons to hands-on career development training. This requires more businesses and nonprofits to work more closely with educators. Here are a few approaches to consider:
1. Help schools retool STEM curriculum.
Research shows that children should be engaged in STEM learning as early as possible. Yet, data supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) says only 20% of K-3 students and 35% of students in grades 4-6 have access to daily science instruction.

Nonprofits that are engaging with students in classrooms through educators make a difference. Toyota is addressing this issue, in partnership with the nonprofit organization Project Lead The Way, by providing a K-12 STEM curriculum paired with hands-on lessons in classrooms nationwide. To emulate these efforts, STEM nonprofits should offer fun, interactive learning and a direct pathway to exploring jobs, like Project Lead the Way did with the automaker, and include professional development for teachers.
2. Create hands-on, skills-based challenges in and out of the classroom.
Students learn through their senses, and giving them opportunities to use their hands can help enhance engagement, problem-solving skills and creativity. Research shows that "hands-on learning better engages both sides of the brain."

Nonprofits can create dynamic hands-on learning and skills-based opportunities by providing tools, programming and resources in and outside of the classroom. The added benefit is that many kids enjoy being immersed in the learning experience through their hands and other senses.

For instance, nonprofits can support schools by providing the necessary equipment and curriculum to establish gardens that offer multisensory learning and give students a strong foundation in basic STEM concepts. For urban schools that don't have an outdoor space for a garden, the same lessons can be easily adapted and brought inside along windowsills or using lights on top of a glass tank.
3. Widen access to STEM education in underserved communities.
To fill the technology jobs of the future, it's imperative that students have access to STEM education and hands-on learning. Often, rural and underserved communities can be at a disadvantage since they can't always attract skilled educators to teach more advanced STEM courses. Over the years, nonprofits have risen to the challenge by bridging this gap of access by connecting students with STEM education and programming.

STEM nonprofits looking to determine what areas that may need urgent attention can leverage a time-tested approach by simply calling superintendents or principals to gauge interest, identify lack of resources and implement solutions. Many schools are willing to receive outside support to enhance their STEM curriculum in and out of the classroom. After all, schools and STEM nonprofits have the same goal in mind: to help the next generation of students have unlimited potential for their academic and professional careers.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will drive our economic future and business growth along with offering students a plethora of job opportunities. Nonprofits have a critical position to prepare today's students for future industry opportunities by enabling an environment where they have the support and resources to flourish. Nonprofit leaders need to continue being proactive role models by offering innovative STEM learning experiences to ensure our success.

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Expanding Female Engagement In STEM Can Prepare Industries For The Fourth Industrial Revolution

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Companies across a spectrum of industries, from healthcare to retail to banking, face a common issue: building a skilled workforce ready to handle the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This technological movement will drive new discoveries in artificial intelligence (AI), rapidly changing how we learn and work.

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Gender Disparity at Japan's Elite University

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Gender Disparity at Japan's Elite University

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This article speaks about how top universities in Japan are disproportionately filled with men. I will use this article to extenuate how Asian culture seems to value the education of men over that of women. Further expanding on that topic, i will empathize how education of women in general is not held to as high as a standard as it is in western countries.

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For two decades, women have accounted for about 20 percent of enrollment at the University of Tokyo. The gender disparity extends across many top schools. Credit... Andrea DiCenzo for The New York Times

TOKYO - From a young age, Satomi Hayashi studied hard and excelled academically. It seemed only natural that she would follow in her father's footsteps and attend the University of Tokyo, Japan's most prestigious institution.

As soon as she was admitted, her friends warned that she was spoiling her marriage prospects. Men, they said, would be intimidated by a diploma from Todai, as the university is known in Japan. Spooked, she searched Google for "Can Todai women get married?" and discovered it was a well-trod stereotype.

The admonitions didn't stop her. But Ms. Hayashi, 21, wondered if other women were scared off.

When she arrived three years ago, fewer than one in five undergraduates at the university were women.

The dearth of women at Todai is a byproduct of deep-seated gender inequality in Japan, where women are still not expected to achieve as much as men and sometimes hold themselves back from educational opportunities.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promoted an agenda of female empowerment, boasting that Japan's labor force participation rate among women outranks even the United States. Yet few women make it to the executive suite or the highest levels of government.

The disconnect starts at school. Although women make up nearly half the nation's undergraduate population, the oldest and most elite universities reflect - and magnify - a lackluster record in elevating women to the most powerful reaches of society.

For nearly two decades, enrollment of women at the University of Tokyo has hovered around 20 percent, an imparity that extends across many top colleges. Among seven publicly funded national institutions, women make up just over one quarter of undergraduates. At the exclusive private universities Keio and Waseda, women are a little over a third.

They lag other selective institutions across Asia. Women are close to half of the student body at Peking University in China, 40 percent of Seoul National in South Korea and 51 percent of the National University of Singapore.

At Todai, "you can see right away there is something completely out of balance," said Ms. Hayashi, a literature major. "Because women are half of society, there is something strange about a university that is only 20 percent women."

In status-conscious Japan, a diploma from Todai is the ultimate pedigree - the equivalent of Harvard, Stanford and M.I.T. all rolled into one. It opens doors in politics, business, law and science.

More prime ministers have graduated from Todai than any other universities, while more than half of the country's Supreme Court justices are alumni. The university boasts the highest number of graduates to go on to Parliament or win Nobel Prizes.

"We have the most powerful education that we can dangle" in front of anyone, said Nobuko Kobayashi, a 1996 Todai graduate and a partner at EY Japan, where less than 10 percent of partners are women.

"We were branded with it," she said. "We almost bask in its glory unconsciously."

Speaking this year to freshmen at Todai, Chizuko Ueno, a retired professor of gender studies, suggested the imbalance was a symptom of inequality that extended beyond higher education.

"Even before students enter the university, there is already hidden sexism," Ms. Ueno said. "Unfortunately," she added, "the University of Tokyo is an example of this."

Her sentiments touched a nerve in the audience. On Twitter, male students complained of being harangued. "Why is she not celebrating us, the male students?" one wrote. Another called it "feminist propaganda."

In the speech, Ms. Ueno referred to a scandal exposing deliberate discrimination at Tokyo Medical University, where officials acknowledged suppressing the entrance-exam scores of female applicants for years.

Administrators wanted to limit the proportion of women to 30 percent, claiming that female doctors were likely to stop working after getting married or giving birth. A year after the scandal was revealed, women passed at a higher rate than men.

There is no evidence that the University of Tokyo manipulates exam results. Rather, officials say, women's admissions are consistent with the applicant pool.

"We are just like stores that don't have enough customers," said Akiko Kumada, one of the few female engineering professors at Todai and a member of its gender equality committee.

"Right now," she said, "we are not getting enough female customers."

Ms. Kumada has a few theories. Young girls, she said, are repeatedly fed the idea that academic achievement is not feminine. She cited lyrics by AKB48, a female pop band, like "While I'm still in school/It's O.K. to be stupid."

Some women, she said, might fear that a Todai degree inevitably leads to a high-powered career in a brutal working culture. One graduate committed suicide after telling friends she had endured harassment and grueling hours at an advertising agency.

To recruit women, the university has mostly tried small-bore measures.

Todai sends female students back to their high schools to encourage younger women to take the entrance exam. In a recruitment brochure, "we try to balance the photos we run," said Ms. Kumada, "and make sure we have women in them."

A more substantial policy provides dormitory subsidies to women from outside Greater Tokyo, an effort to mollify parents who might worry about safety in the big city. The university pays 30,000 yen a month - roughly $275 - for about 100 female students. Critics have attacked the policy as discriminatory against men.

Outright quotas for women have been a nonstarter: Todai administrators reject affirmative action as inequitable.

"Do we really want to create a special quota for female students whose academic achievement may be much lower?" Ms. Kumada said.

Staunchly traditional, Todai draws from the same high schools year after year. More than a quarter of students who enrolled in 2019 came from just 10 high schools, seven of which are all male.

Unconsciously or not, high school and college administrators say, parents are more likely to push sons to achieve.

"With sons, parents really expect a lot and want their boys to perform to the maximum level and aim as high as they can go," said Hiroshi Ono, principal of Tokyo Gakugei University High School, which sent 45 students to Todai this year, 11 of them women.

Parents, Mr. Ono said, "feel bad about pushing girls to work that hard - they think it would be better for them to get married and be a housewife."

Even at Oin Girls School, which sends more women to Todai than any other high school, administrators said girls may feel ambivalent about pursuing an elite education.

"A woman's life is much more complicated," said Yukiko Saito, Oin's principal. "They have to decide who to marry, whether to marry, whether to have children or not."

For a vast majority of students, admission to Todai rests solely on one exam for which students spend years studying. High school grades and extracurriculars carry no weight.

Zkai, a cram school for university entrance exams, has a high acceptance rate to Todai. Wataru Miyahara, a director, said fewer girls study for the exam.

"It's hard to tell which is the chicken and which is the egg," he said. "But there are so few girls at Todai, so it's hard for girls to look at Todai and say, 'I want to go there.'"

Whatever the reason, he said, "They are not as ambitious as boys."

Three years ago, Todai invited high schools to recommend one male and one female student who could forgo the exam in exchange for an essay or group interview. Fewer than 70 students a year are admitted this way, out of a freshman class of more than 3,000.

Aine Adachi, 21, who came to Todai three years ago through this system, said expanding the criteria to evaluate strengths not captured by one high-stakes test could bring more women into the university.

"Having one criteria to judge a person by doesn't make it fair," she said.

On campus, Ms. Adachi, who is studying law, said she feels scrutinized as a minority. Gender discrimination, she said, comes in subtle forms.

Once she and a male classmate were planning a club trip, huddled over laptops in a cafe near campus.

Another male classmate walked up and observed their conversation. "It looks like the boss and his secretary!" he quipped.

"Why do you assume I'm the secretary?" Ms. Adachi retorted. "Why can't I be the boss?"

Women at Todai often feel isolated. When a class gathered for a graduation photo, Kiri Sugimoto, 24, a law student, was the only woman.

"What irritated me was that the men made remarks like having me in the picture would look great because it wouldn't look like a boys prep school photo," she said. "I was treated as the decorative rose among stones. That irritated me to be treated like that."

Male students don't necessarily regard the campus demography as a problem.

Hiroaki Kitamura, 19, an engineering major, said he didn't think men would act differently with more women in class. "It's not like we have sexual conversations just because there are so few women," he said.

Although, he added, classes might be "more fashionable" if more women enrolled.

Some Todai men avoid socializing with female classmates, favoring activities where most of the women come from other universities.

At a Todai ballroom-dancing club, Erica Nakayama, 24, a masters student, said she and her classmates were outnumbered by women from other universities.

Todai men, she said, frequently typecast female peers as too serious. "They said we weren't cute enough," she said.

"A boy once said, 'Todai girls are a little scary,'" Ms. Nakayama recalled. "I just kind of laughed and let it go. But in a way it did kind of hurt my feelings."

Some clubs tacitly bar Todai women, although the university officially discourages outright exclusion. Of more than 30 social clubs focused on tennis, for example, only two actively recruit Todai women.

Masato Sagisaka, a 21-year-old sophomore, said a friend told him intercollegiate groups were "more fun."

He joined a tennis club that has a longstanding partnership with a Catholic women's college. No Todai women have joined.

Inviting female classmates, he said, might upset the group's harmony. "Todai women really don't get along with women from other universities," he said. "Todai women have pride."

Men have little incentive to change. Campus advocacy is minimal. Even an investigation by the student newspaper about clubs that exclude Todai women did not identify the exclusive groups.

Women hesitate to speak out. Ms. Nakayama said she avoided activism that might be construed as feminist.

"It might have some repercussions for me," she said. People "might think I'm acting too manly or too strong."

In and outside class, Ms. Hayashi said, women tolerate a culture in which men make jokes filled with sexual innuendo or comment on women's appearances.

"You are expected to understand or communicate with these sexual jokes," she said. "Otherwise you feel kind of left out."

"You just have to understand," she said, "and accept the male view."

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At Japan's Most Elite University, Just 1 in 5 Students Is a Woman

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TOKYO - From a young age, Satomi Hayashi studied hard and excelled academically. It seemed only natural that she would follow in her father's footsteps and attend the University of Tokyo, Japan's most prestigious institution. As soon as she was admitted, her friends warned that she was spoiling her marriage prospects.