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The Women and Gender Studies at NDSU, works on educating students of NDSU. Not a lot of university have this type of program but our very own campus does.

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The Women and Gender Studies program is an interdisciplinary academic program that focuses on women and gender issues in society and offers an undergraduate major and minor. Founded in 1978, the program is housed in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

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Planned Parenthood is a national organization that focuses on advocating for women's health and reproductive rights.

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A judge in Texas has just sided with anti-abortion groups in a lawsuit to take an abortion pill called mifepristone off the market. Learn more at bansoffourbodies.org.

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A judge in Texas has just sided with anti-abortion groups in a lawsuit to take an abortion pill called mifepristone off the market. Learn more at bansoffourbodies.org. Take a Stand Choose time commitment 2 MIN 10 MIN 1 HOUR Fight for laws and policies to protect your rights and health.

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The Nation Organization for Women, advocates for women in the United States in a political setting; they fight against some of the policies in the United States.

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As the grassroots arm of the women's movement, NOW's purpose is to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.

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The Instagram Page Feminist, advocates and educates on Instagram with post like this.

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This channel looks at pop culture and feminism, they talk about how it is doing good advocating for women and what can be worked on.

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"pop culture" movies "video games" feminist feminism "anita sarkeesian" "feminist frequency" "fem freq" "ebony aster" "ebony adams" "carolyn petit" "feminist...

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Feminist Frequency is an ongoing series of video commentaries exploring gender representations, myths, and messages in popular culture media. Created and hos...

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Purity Culture is a phenomenon that has been going around for years, but now people are starting to notice how bad it can be for girls.

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In the 1990s and 2000s, a Christian movement now known as "purity culture" reached its height. Purity culture was most significant in America, and since the noughties, it has gradually faded from cultural prominence. Its impact, though, is global and ongoing.

Purity culture was built on an established religious ethic: sexual abstinence until marriage. But it came to encompass a subculture in American evangelical Christianity centred around maintaining "sexual purity".

During this period, a prolific industry of purity-themed bibles, rallies and books emerged. Sales of purity rings increased, worn as a symbol of commitment to sexual purity. Purity pledges were signed by teenagers and young adults to demonstrate their vow of abstinence.
This article is part of Quarter Life, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life. You may be interested in: Birth control: what to expect if you choose to come off it Wagatha Christie: what the Vardy v Rooney case can teach you about avoiding libel on social media Cluttercore: Gen Z's revolt against millennial minimalism is grounded in Victorian excess
Beyond abstinence, young Christians were encouraged not to date. Romantic attachments not leading to marriage were discouraged due to a perceived risk of emotional and physical impurity. Young women and girls were instructed to be careful how they dressed and interacted with others to avoid "tempting" men, and strict gender roles were encouraged.

In recent years, it has been shown that purity culture is harmful. It taught women in particular to be suspicious and ashamed of their bodies, and resulted in anxiety, panic attacks and even PTSD.

Though purity culture is considered a US phenomenon, it had an international reach. My PhD research shows that purity culture was also influential in Britain. This was in part due to transatlantic transmission of American Christian purity ideals, but also due to a concurrent intensifying concern about sexual abstinence and gender roles in British Christianity. My research suggests that the effects of purity culture in Britain persist.

Rebranding a movement

The identifiable rituals of purity culture - such as purity rings and pledges - have receded. But key organisations are rebranding themselves and changing the way purity culture is presented.

True Love Waits was an organisation launched in 1993 that distributed purity pledge cards. Now, a new bible study promoting sexual purity is " reintroducing True Love Waits " to the next generation. The study is written by Sean McDowell, son of US purity culture patriarch Josh McDowell.

Purity ring organisation Silver Ring Thing has also recently remarketed as Unaltered Ministries, dropping its focus on purity rings but nonetheless holding on to its heritage.

Alongside this, new brands which recycle purity messaging are also emerging. Take, for example, GirlDefined - a YouTube channel run by two sisters promoting "biblical womanhood".

Both sisters waited until marriage to kiss their husbands and describe feminism as an " attack on God's design for womanhood ".

Though these brands are from the US, there is an important difference between them and those of the nineties and early noughties: they are all now predominantly online. They are therefore much more easily accessible around the world. Participants in my PhD research from Britain were invited to share what resources they use on the bible and Christian living. Many of them noted figures from the US, including Girl Defined.

Ongoing impact

My research with participants shows that purity culture endures in Britain in two ways: in its continuing influence over Christian teaching on gender and sexuality, and in the bodies of people who experienced it.

The permeation of purity culture into church teachings and cultures can be seen in anxieties around male-female friendships, relationship expectations, the Christian idolisation of marriage, the equation of virginity with value, and inferences that women are responsible for gatekeeping men's sexual behaviour.

Meanwhile, former purity culture adherents are grappling with its after-effects. Many have spent years analysing how purity teachings affected their view of their body and relationships with other people. Women have described feeling trapped in their own skin. Purity culture endures in the memories, bodies, relationships and trauma of those who were raised within it.

Without the noticeable rituals and well-known brands characteristic of purity culture, its persistence is much harder to spot. It therefore poses a greater risk. Purity culture in this form is less identifiable and more covert. Unaltered Ministries and GirlDefined are initially unrecognisable as purity culture. So too are the ways in which purity messages have been subsumed into Christian culture.

There is increasing critical reflection on purity culture. An apology from former purity culture poster boy Joshua Harris for the negative effect of his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye brought the reappraisal of this movement into the public eye. And campaigner Emily Joy Allison has written on the connection between purity culture and abuse.

But the normalised remnants of purity culture are yet to fully be acknowledged. The repackaging of purity culture into new formats, and its permeation into broader Christian culture means the movement persists - including in Britain.

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The impact of Christian purity culture is still being felt - including in Britain

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In the 1990s and 2000s, a Christian movement now known as "purity culture" reached its height. Purity culture was most significant in America, and since the noughties, it has gradually faded from cultural prominence. Its impact, though, is global and ongoing. Purity culture was built on an established religious ethic: sexual abstinence until marriage.

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There are a lot of stereotypes for pretty much everyone, but there are a lot of negative side effects for Asian Women.

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In "Full Metal Jacket," a critically acclaimed film about the Vietnam War, there's a two-minute long scene whose cultural legacy has endured far beyond its 1987 debut.

A Vietnamese woman, clad in a miniskirt and hot pink tank top, sashays up to a few American GIs. "Me so horny. Me love you long time," she says, running her hands over her body. For $10 each, the GIs can get "everything" they want.

Over 30 years later, six Asian women were killed and the suspect, a white man, reportedly told investigators that he had a sexual addiction and viewed their massage parlors as a "temptation" that he "wanted to eliminate." People condemned it as a shocking act of violence; they wondered how such a twisted worldview came to be. But Asian women - whether it's growing accustomed to negative portrayals of themselves in the media or stomaching offhand comments from friends and strangers alike - know that Robert Aaron Long's words are hardly new. And according to experts, the ingrained imagery of Asian women as sexual objects can easily spill over into tragedy. A recent report by Stop AAPI Hate found that over the past year, Asian women made up 68% of the victims of anti-Asian hate crimes.

"They're objectified, right? So if they're thought of as prostitutes and sex workers, then they're objects to be purchased, to be had, but not subjects to know and respect and understand," Nancy Wang Yuen, a sociologist who specializes in Hollywood's representation of Asian Americans, told TODAY during a phone call. "You're there for one purpose, and one purpose alone."

This conception of Asian women didn't emerge out of nowhere - instead, it's been continually established and re-established throughout the history of the United States. The Page Act of 1875, for example, technically prohibited the immigration of "Oriental" laborers brought against their will or for "lewd and immoral purposes." In practice, though, it only enforced the latter criteria, functionally banning all East Asian women from entering the country.

"They were characterized as potentially carrying sexual diseases. They were also characterized as being temptations for white men," said Yuen. In this way, the country's first ever restrictive federal immigration law cemented a double-edged trope of Asian women: not only as prostitutes, but also as forever foreigners, incompatible with America itself.

Moreover, America's endless military presence in Asia - from Japan to Vietnam to the Philippines - has resulted in the occupation of Asian women's bodies as much as the occupation of land. Around military bases are "camp towns," Yuen explained, where there's a high incidence of sex work. But the uneven power dynamic between American soldiers and Asian sex workers mean that these relationships are generally exploitative, premised on the idea of unlimited sexual access to Asian women.

Such histories have heavily influenced pop culture, which has, in turn, materially impacted Asian women in their everyday lives. According to Yuen, almost every East Asian and Southeast Asian woman she knows has been propositioned by men on the street - catcalls that often invoke the "exotic prostitute" trope displayed in "Full Metal Jacket."

After the attack in Atlanta, Asian women took to social media to share the reality of this phenomenon. "I've been cornered on the street as men say 'me love you long time.' I've been offered money for a 'happy ending massage.' I've been hit on because I'm Asian and told it's a 'compliment,'" wrote one Asian woman on Twitter, garnering over 48,000 retweets. Countless other women replied with their own experiences: They've been called "China doll" on the subway, or subjected to "five dollah sucky sucky" as a so-called joke.

"It's a sexual connotation that cannot be removed from race," Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Director of the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University, told TODAY over the phone, pointing out that Long targeted businesses commonly associated with Asian women. "And it's attributed to a particularly long history of the hypersexuality of Asian American women in our international consciousness, and in the fantasies that have been offered by the theater and film."

TODAY asked experts about what these harmful fantasies look like - and how some of society's most beloved pieces of pop culture might have perpetuated them.

The 'lotus blossom'

A perfect recipe of romance, violence and tragedy, the dramatic saga of "Miss Saigon" remains one of the most vivid representations of the Vietnam War in pop culture. Since its London opening in 1989, the musical has won thirty prestigious awards, reached eighteen countries, and enjoyed the largest advance ticket sale in Broadway history.

But when a national tour of the musical came to Madison, Wisconsin, in 2019, Lori Kido Lopez - a media and cultural studies professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison - protested outside of the theater. As she told TODAY over Zoom, "Miss Saigon" embodies "the classic story of the self-sacrificing Asian woman."

Kim, the protagonist, is a sex worker who falls passionately in love with an American GI - a romance that is, as Lopez pointed out, "already extremely uncomfortable because there's a power dynamic where he's paying her for sex." He promises to take her back to the states; she promptly becomes pregnant. But the plan fails, leaving her languishing in war-torn Vietnam with a child to raise on her own.

"So many times in the media, we see the romantic pairing of white men and Asian women," said Lopez, describing the trope of the "lotus blossom." "The Asian woman is very quiet and submissive and can't speak for herself. Oftentimes, the plot revolves around her literally needing to be saved... and needing the white man to both romance her and do things for her that she could never do for herself."

"Miss Saigon" ends with Kim shooting herself so her son can move to America with the GI's family and pursue a better life that she can't provide. Up until that point, Kim's character remains passive, lovesick to the point of despair. Self-destruction - and the implicit admission of helplessness - is her only real act of agency.

Where else in pop culture can I find this stereotype?

"The World of Suzie Wong," a 1960 romance film about a young British artist who falls in love with a Hong Kong prostitute

"Mean Girls," the infamous 2004 comedy in which two Asian high school girls who can't speak English are portrayed as promiscuous for hooking up with the football coach - even though they're the ones being taken advantage of

"Memoirs of a Geisha," a 2005 epic drama about a woman sold to a geisha house

The 'dragon lady'

The 1967 James Bond film "You Only Live Twice" features two Asian women as Bond girls - an impressive fact when you consider the rarity of Asian women on the big screen today. But the impressiveness certainly fades a bit when in bed, Sean Connery's Bond asks Ling (Tsai Chin), "Why do Chinese girls taste so different from the others?" Referencing the Chinese dish, Ling tells him, "Darling, I give you very best duck."

Then, suddenly, Ling pushes a button and mobilizes two armed Asian men into trying to kill him.

On the flip side of the submissive "lotus blossom" stereotype is that of the more dominant "dragon lady," said Yuen. "You're either an object that's for the taking or something that could be a temptation, a temptress."

Oftentimes as sexual as the lotus blossom, the dragon lady manipulates her sexuality toward deadly ends. Ling's sexuality, for example, was a disguise for her role as a spy. One moment, she was the epitome of submissiveness, playing into Bond's sexual pleasure; the next, she posed a threat to his life. She revealed herself as duplicitous, cold and morally bankrupt.

It's "servile yet dangerous... a double move," explained Shimizu. "What's fascinating about the figure of the Asian woman is this coexistence of the powerful forces of the sex drive and the death drive. She's a subordinated figure, but she also possesses a force of destruction through her actions."

The combination of sexuality and danger has been inscribed onto Asian women throughout history - another version of "yellow peril," which pits a scheming, malevolent Asia against the innocence of the West. And while it might appear to push back against the lotus blossom trope, Lopez argues that Hollywood's dragon ladies are similarly flattened into racialized caricatures.

"I'm sure people think, 'Oh, it's so great that they're so powerful,' but they're also violent and hyper-sexualized," she said. "As well as being side characters who we don't get to learn a lot about, or villains, so they have to be removed by the end."

In other words, Asian women are rarely given a personality beyond this extreme, sexualized form of aggression. They're mysterious and unknowable and, necessarily, less deserving of empathy.

It places the burden on Asian women to constantly prove their humanity, said Shimizu. "Like, I can be a normal kid, someone who has a job, and a different kind of person that isn't subsumed by this sexuality that's fearsome."

Where else in pop culture can I find this stereotype?

"Daughter of the Dragon," the 1931 crime drama about the daughter of Chinese crime lord Fu Manchu who carries out his murderous biddings

"Kill Bill," the 2003 Quentin Tarantino film that, while featuring a host of female assassins, shows Lucy Liu's character committing her murders in traditional Japanese costume

"Ally McBeal," the '90s legal-comedy drama in which the one Asian female character is defined by being both ruthlessly mean and sexually adventurous

Positive representations

Few Asian actresses have accrued cultural capital - and the ones who managed to do so have long been subjected to criticism, with members of their own communities asking why they've willingly embodied racial and gendered stereotypes. But it's important to remember that those stereotypes were, until very recently, the only roles that Hollywood offered: Either Asian women played into them or couldn't be on-screen at all.

"When you have very limited media representations... it has more power to impact the way that other people see them, and the boxes that they put them into," said Lopez.

The problem isn't necessarily Asian women playing, say, sexy murderers, but the fact that the media neglects to show them as anything else.

Moreover, characters that appear to conform to a stereotype - or storylines that surround stereotypical topics - might, under closer examination, be worthy of celebrating.

"That's the challenging thing about stereotypes... You can't just point to a stereotype and name it and say, 'Therefore, that's a bad media representation,'" Lopez explained. "Because all of these stereotypes can be recuperated in some way if the movie focuses on them, or the TV show allows that character to grow and change and have interesting plot lines."

As slow as the change may be, experts hope that the entertainment industry is beginning to move in that direction. Lopez pointed to Melinda May from Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" - while viewers might initially perceive her as a classic dragon lady, her character's evolution and emotional depth defies that categorization.

Netflix content, such as "To All the Boys I've Loved Before," "Never Have I Ever" and "The Half of It,"was a source of uplift for Shimizu throughout quarantine, she said. In these coming-of-age stories, Asian teenage girls certainly don't shy away from exploring sex and sexuality. But unlike the lotus blossom trope, those topics aren't "overdetermined by this strange perversity."

Instead, the characters exercise agency over their sexuality and set the terms of it. Whether it's Lara Jean navigating her first-ever boyfriend or Devi on a mission to lose her virginity, these movies and shows allow young Asian girls to see people who look like them just growing up, having fun, and ultimately, embodying full and complex characters.

"It's really important to... assert that the need to define ourselves, as sexual and racial figures beyond what they say we are, is an ongoing project that we continue to have the space for," said Shimizu. "We can unsay what they say about us when we make our own stories."

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Here's how pop culture has perpetuated harmful stereotypes of Asian women

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In "Full Metal Jacket," a critically acclaimed film about the Vietnam War, there's a two-minute long scene whose cultural legacy has endured far beyond its 1987 debut. A Vietnamese woman, clad in a miniskirt and hot pink tank top, sashays up to a few American GIs. "Me so horny.

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Indigenous Women are going missing and there is not much the FBI and Criminal Officers are doing.

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When 18-year-old Kaysera Stops Pretty Places, of the Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations, disappeared after filming a tense situation between her 15-year-old brother and law enforcement in 2019, her friends and family immediately knew something was wrong.

The social media-savvy teen was always communicative, and was looking forward to a family trip to North Dakota to visit relatives - so when she wasn't seen from or heard from by her family after August 24, 2019, her silence was deafening.

Several days after she was reported missing, Kaysera's remains were found locally by a jogger - but her family wasn't notified that a body matching Kaysera's description was discovered until September 11, 2019. By that time, the County Coroner had already independently identified that this was Kaysera, and said that Kaysera's remains had to be cremated in order to be returned to the family.

The exact circumstances surrounding her disappearance and the suspicious death investigation remain ongoing, but experts note that " asphyxia through strangulation by assault " has not been ruled out.

Unfortunately, Kaysera's story and untimely death as a Native woman could be one of thousands - but the data and tracking of missing and murdered indigenous peoples (MMIP) cases is so scarce, the real number of MMIP cases is nearly impossible to estimate.

"There are so many missing and murdered Indigenous women it has its own acronym: MMIW," the USA Today notes, highlighting that Thursday May 5th, is a day for awareness about the "crisis ignored."

Yet, while the real number of cases is nearly impossible to estimate, the statistics that are available are staggering.

Looking at the Numbers

The FBI's National Crime Information Center reported 5,203 missing Indigenous girls and women in 2021 - disappearing at a rate equal to more than two and a half times their estimated share of the U.S. population. Indigenous women are also two times more likely to be victims of rape compared to white women.

Alarmingly, the Centers for Disease Control notes that murder is the 3rd leading cause of death for Indigenous women - often perpetrated by non-native people.

More than half of Indigenous women experience sexual violence (56.1 percent), and more than half have also been physically abused by their intimate partners (55.5 percent), the Native Women's Wilderness Organization details.

Cheryl Horn, a resident of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana, spoke with USA Today reporters about the lessons her granddaughter and friends had absorbed by an early age, internalizing the notion that at any moment, they could be in danger.

"She sells keychains with whistles and pepper spray for self-defense," Horn told USA Today. "She and her 11-year-old friends took those keychains when they went to a Walmart in Billings."

Horn concluded: "They're very, very aware of the dangers that face them."

Making Space, and Making Change

With growing awareness of the MMIP crisis, native and non-native organizations are doing the work to help center indigenous voices, and combat the missing and murdered indigenous peoples crisis.

Kristin Welch of the Waking Women's Healing Institute, an MMIW survivor-led organization, recently spoke with Uncovered, a software platform that combines data, analytics, and crowdsourced information to help solve the cold cases of murdered or missing people.

While on the panel with Uncovered, Welch shared that in her experience, "There's not one Indigenous woman, girl, that I know or have in my life that has not been touched by some sort of violence or sexual violence - and that's intergenerationally."

Also on the panel was Marianne Flynn Statz, former law enforcement and an expert in No Body Homicide and Sensitive Crimes Investigations, who shared that "missing persons continue to be a black hole."

The lack of data and lack of awareness Statz noted to be incredibly troubling and contributing to this darkness.

Starla Thompson, an Indigenous educator, scholar, and advocate shared with Uncovered that colonial trauma, prejudicial law enforcement agencies, and the media have all shifted the spotlight away from this crisis for decades.

She says it's time we shift the spotlight back.

Thompson knows the gut-wrenching statistics by heart, emphasizing that Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit individuals need their stories ethically shared in the media to bring awareness to this ongoing crisis.

"We're really seeing that tribal communities are breeding grounds for predators," Thompson shared with Uncovered. "This is part of the problem."

Indigenous advocates and non-native allies alike are grateful that policy is making a change.

In 2020, Savanna's Act was passed, requiring the Department of Justice to review, revise and develop policies and protocols to address MMIP cases.

Moreover, last year in 2021, Secretary of the Interior Deb Halland (Laguna Pueblo) announced the formation of the Missing and Murdered Unit that will focus on analyzing and solving MMIP cases.

Thompson concludes: "It's going to take a lot of work for the system to change, but individually...we can make change - now and today."

Additional Reading: 'Don't Let Our People Die in Silence': Indigenous Crime Victims Still Uncounted
The full Uncovered panel can be viewed here. Andrea Cipriano is the Associate Editor of TCR.

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'A Crisis Ignored': Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

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When 18-year-old Kaysera Stops Pretty Places, of the Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations, disappeared after filming a tense situation between her 15-year-old brother and law enforcement in 2019, her friends and family immediately knew something was wrong.

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This is a video of Disabled POC playing soccer. They all play together and support each other; this shows that there is some good happening involving intersectionality.

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Football league helps amputees score on and off the pitch

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Pastor Mambud Samai co-founded the Single Leg Amputee Sports Association (SLASA) to create opportunities for Sierra Leone civil war survivors.

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This Infographic shows that women of color earn even less than men of color and white women.

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This article talks about that African American with Disabilities have more difficulty find jobs compared to Caucasians with Disabilities.

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7,500 African Americans with Disabilities Lost Jobs - RespectAbility

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Even as the rest of the disability community experienced job gains in 2017, African Americans with disabilities are being left behind in the workforce.

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For most mothers, they have two jobs, Mothering their child with almost no help, and there paying job. In this article, it talks about the difficulties some mothers may have to go through.

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Feminine Riles: Cartoons to Promote Thought

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Every woman's dream is that a man will take her in his arms, throw her into bed, and clean the house while she sleeps.
- The Internet

The working mom is a modern-day superhero in every sense of the word. While holding down a full-time job, women spend twice as much time doing housework vs men, and four times as much time raising children.

Given this double burden that women experience, it's no wonder that women are angry, frustrated, and exhausted, or that a significant gender pay gap exists.

What is the double burden of housework vs career for working mothers?

No matter what country you're in, women and girls take on the majority of unpaid domestic labor. Women work far longer hours than men when both paid and unpaid work is accounted for. While they've made leaps and bounds on labor force participation, they still carry the bulk of the work at home:

They work a full time job, contributing nearly 40% of World GDP.

When their paid job ends, their next job is just beginning ... they cook, they clean, and they raise our children among countless other unpaid domestic labor duties.

The results of a study released by Welch's looked at 2,000 American moms of kids between 5 and 12 years old. When they added it up, they found that moms work 98 hours per week - the equivalent of 2.5 jobs!

According to the results, mom clocks in at 6.23am on average - and she doesn't stop doing career or parent-related tasks until 8.31pm on a typical day - a 14-hour shift that equates to a 98-hour work week.

GDP, which is based almost entirely on measuring the value of goods and services that were bought and sold for cash, calculates that women do under half of society's work ... but, that's only because unpaid domestic labor - house-care, child-care, hubby-care, all of a woman's other cares - are not factored into national production figures. If economists factored-in domestic work, you'd find that women produce a lot more than half of the world's GDP.
- The Conversation

But " Women clean; men fix the car "? None of the reports we've found back up this argument that different gender roles in the home mean that household chores are split up evenly.

Our cartoon series, "The Invisible Woman" takes a seriously funny poke at this inequity.

Gender pay gap Implications of double duty

The gender pay gap in the United States is the ratio of female-to-male median or average (depending on the source) yearly earnings among full-time, year-round workers.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, women's pay was 80 to 83% compared to men in the same role. (17 - 20% lower). A study by Statscan found that women aged 15/16 years and older earned from $0.69 to $0.89 for every dollar earned by men in 2017.

As you'll see in the following image, there are very few jobs where women earn more than men:

The discrepancy between men and women's pay isn't always out of malicious intent, women are systematically disadvantaged in their career for a number of reasons ranging from centuries of cultural norms to women's outsized share of domestic labor at home.

Why does double burden contribute to gender pay gaps?

There are many reasons that support how the double burden holds women back in their careers, contributing to the gender pay gap.

Maternity leave

Women are much more likely to take maternity leave. Because of this, women take off a significant amount of time at the highest point of growth in their career. While they're at home caring for their newborn, their male counterparts are rising through the ranks and progressing in their careers.

The "Motherhood Penalty"

The Motherhood Penalty suggests that working mothers "experience systematic disadvantages in pay, perceived competence, and benefits compared to childless women". Mothers may also experience poorer performance evaluations, which indicate that they are less committed to their jobs, less dependable, and less authoritative than non-mothers.

Adverse health outcomes from higher workloads

A study found that the higher work-family burden leads to higher sickness absence compared to men because increased work strain leads to adverse health outcomes.

Wage discrimination

Wage discrimination or compensation discrimination against women is illegal, but it's no secret that it still happens, and many employers get away with it.

What would be the salary of a mother?

Salary.com selected a handful of jobs that reflect "a day in the life" of mom.

They found that if you put a salary on the many types of roles that moms perform at home, the medium annual salary of a mother would be $162,581. (I wonder if they factored in overtime!?)

Where do we go from here?

Well, wealthier families can hire cleaners, nannies, and meal prep services to allow both parents to work. That's not an economic reality for most women on earth.

The key to solving this inequity, both at home, and in the workplace, is to challenge gender roles within the household, and split up the duties evenly ... For men and women alike to be conscious of this burden that so many women face.

More reading on "The Second Shift" that working moms face

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The Double Burden of Working Moms - Feminine Riles: Cartoons to Promote Thought

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Every woman's dream is that a man will take her in his arms, throw her into bed, and clean the house while she sleeps. - The Internet The working mom is a modern-day superhero in every sense of the word.

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For Women in countries like Afghanistan, they are married off young, denied education and freedom. They are seen as just objects for the men and held back by their way too old husbands.

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Poverty, lack of education hampers women's rights in Afghanistan | Taliban | WION | World News

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By looking at the pie graphs you can see that there is a lack of representation of women in politics and even less representation of LGBTQ+ and POC members.

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The wage gap is most often thought of when asked about Women and Men in the workforce. This has been a common problem for most of history.

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This image shows the difference of toys given to boys and girls at a young age. This can go to show how gender is forced at a young age.

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Girls can be just like everyone else, and Dove Cameron Shows this in her song Breakfast. She symbolizes the power that women have over men.

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Dove Cameron - Breakfast (Official Video)

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We started off with just having Black Widow as our female hero. But now we are seeing Shuri, Kate Bishop, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel and Scarlet Witch, etc.

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In its early phases, the MCU's leads were almost always male, raising the question why it took so long for a woman-led movie to happen.

Women have always been a necessary part of pop culture and entertainment media, regardless of the form that it takes. Their inclusion goes beyond the illusion of gender diversity but instead argues that gender does not define the capabilities or success in media. The comic book market has been attempting to overcome the objectified stereotypes that women characters have been written into and undo its internalized sexism. There has been a notable absence of feminine comics being included for the sake of femininity alone. These notable women in comics may embrace their femininity while escaping its limitations. Niche forms of entertainment media have provided spaces for fans to celebrate their favorite forms of pop culture, and the popularity of female superheroes trending have encouraged them to become more appreciated.

Marvel Comics may still subscribe to some stereotypical portrayals of women in their comics, but they have made an effort to slowly unlearn the habits that they have become comfortable with over the early decades of publishing. Just as their publication team has been questioned over the objectification of women throughout their prestigious pages, Marvel Studios is backpedaling on their underutilization of women characters as the cinematic giant's brand ebbs away from the male-dominated Infinity War Saga. The Infinity War Saga was composed of 23 films that overarched multiple phases, but only two were dedicated to women leads. There are women-led projects in development, such as Olivia Wilde's Spider-Woman movie and the upcoming Captain Marvel sequel, though the question still stands: Why did it take so long for a woman-led Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to happen?

Related: Explained: What is the Scarlet Witch's Chaos Magic?

Why Did Marvel Take So Long to Make a Woman-Led Superhero Movie?

For a long time, Marvel Studios seemingly felt little urgency to produce women-led superhero movies that would connect to the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. Women have been present throughout the expedited growth of Marvel films and the rapid rate they consumed the box office, though the studios prioritized that other stories were to be told before acknowledging the demand for a women-led superhero film. Women, of course, weren't erased from Marvel Studios altogether. Rather, they were displaced onto other projects or series where they could support and supplement the omnipotence of the Infinity Saga from afar. Marvel women found themselves leading adjunct television shows and miniseries before earning films of their own. Agent Carter and Jessica Jones paved the way for Marvel-centric programming dedicated to women's storytelling, though Agents of SHIELD highlighted the importance of including powerful women outside the Avengers. Marvel Studios didn't exactly overlook the importance of women in their wealth of cinematic and televised media, though continued to look past the opportunity to canonize full-length feature films about them until the outcry for them drowned out the excuses made in defense of their decision otherwise.

Did Marvel Studios Think Women Couldn't Lead Solo Films?

Suspicions around Marvel Studio's doubt in women-led solo films were proved to be true after an email exchange in 2015 exposed Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter's true attitudes towards the success of women in comic book media. His comments were uprooted following the announcement of Captain Marvel, which would later screen in 2019, and expressed his skepticism over how the film would play out over box office revenue. His email was sent to Sony executive Michael Lynton and exclusively detailed the failure of past women-led superhero movies. The context of the message still remains to be undisclosed as Marvel Studios declined to comment on the situation. The email reads:

"Michael,As we discussed on the phone, below are just a few examples. There are more.Thanks,Ike."

Perlmutter then provides Lyton with a list of women-led superhero films, their allegedly lackluster box office results, and additional comments made about each title. In the email, Perlmutter shares examples of both Marvel and DC Comics properties that were not received as well as they were anticipated to be. He finds himself repeating "most important female," and "disaster" throughout his message to the Sony executive, though fails to elaborate as to why besides a monetary perspective.

"1. Electra (Marvel) - Very bad idea and the end result was very, very bad. 2. Catwoman (WB/DC) - Catwoman was one of the most important female character within the Batmanfranchise. This film was a disaster. 3. Supergirl - (DC) Supergirl was one of the most important female super hero in Superman franchise. This Movie came out in 1984 and did $14 million total domestic with opening weekend of $5.5 million. Again, another disaster.Best,Ike."

The leaked conversation resulted in Marvel Studios being accused of sexist behavior by its creative teams. In 2014, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was questioned over his decision to not green-light a woman-led MCU movie after a reporter for Comic Book Resources pressed him on his declination to take action. "I think it comes down to timing, which is what I've sort of always said, and it comes down to us being able to tell the right story," Feige said, "I very much believe in doing it. I very much believe that it's unfair to say, 'People don't want to see movies with female heroes,' then list five movies that were not very good, therefore, people didn't go to the movies because they weren't good movies, versus [because] they were female leads. And they don't mention Hunger Games, Frozen, Divergent. You can go back to Kill Bill or Aliens. These are all female-led movies. It can certainly be done."

He then expressed his hopes that Marvel Studios would consider releasing a women-led film before admitting that the high volume of individual franchises would have to be sidetracked in order for a women-led project to enter development. The studio fears that men will refuse to see films that star women and that women-led films will drive away a majority of the fanbase. Masculinity has dominated pop culture and entertainment media fan spaces though it should not dictate the risk-taking that should be done by blockbuster studios. Surprisingly, these fears are only projected on films. Marvel has created women-focused and -led content for television and print without notable hesitation, which can imply that the "safety net" of guaranteed revenue permits for more diversity in new releases.

Related: Explained: Is Wanda Maximoff Stronger Than Doctor Strange?

There Are Only 2 Women-Led, Solo MCU Movies - Are There More Planned?

Captain Marvel was the first woman-led solo film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its 2019 release was considered to be divisive among fans. The criticism arose from concerns around cinematic quality to the distaste of the character herself. Captain Marvel reignited the debate about the merit of women-led superhero films and their place in the MCU moving forward. Black Widowwas the second woman-led cinematic feature that hit big screens, though its 2021 release date was viewed as a move of appeasement to fans who pleaded for the original Avenger's solo film to reach broader audiences. The discussion around the quality of the film itself compared to Marvel's eventual caving to the excess of unrelenting fans' requests.

Despite the uncensored pushback from (male) Marvel fans who were not in favor of Captain Marvel or Black Widow, Marvel Studios plans to proceed with its women-led films and television series in Phase 4. Captain Marvel warranted a sequel, The Marvels, that will heavily prioritize a women-dominant cast. The upcoming wave of Marvel-inspired media has been shifting its focus towards women-led branding, though that transition has been more through its Disney+ series. Thor: Love and Thunder teases that Natalie Portman is claiming the leading role as Mighty Thor, though it still belongs to Chris Hemsworth at the moment. The gradual turning point from male-led comic book media to women-led leaves more opportunities for new MCU movies to put women in the foreground. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever could jump on the opportunity to set the Dora Milaje as the film's main protagonists while dually operating as a bridge into the Ironheart and Black Panther spinoff series on Disney+.

The Marvels is the only currently slated upcoming woman-led film at the moment, but that doesn't mean that plans are subject to change when Phase 4 must pass the torch on to Phase 5. In fact, Elizabeth Olsen recently extended her Marvel contract, prompting rumors of a solo Scarlet Witch movie in the future. Indeed, more women characters are being established with higher prominence as the MCU explores its new chapter, and their stories are beyond one-dimensional. The high volume of women characters making overlapping appearances through televised and cinematic releases means that more women-led films are absolutely in Marvel Studios' future, even if they haven't been announced quite yet.

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Explained: Why Did It Take So Long for a Woman-Led MCU Movie to Happen?

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In its early phases, the MCU's leads were almost always male, raising the question why it took so long for a woman-led movie to happen. Women have always been a necessary part of pop culture and entertainment media, regardless of the form that it takes.

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Hailee Steinfeld's song Most Girls tells us all about true women. This goes over about how she sees all these girls standing up for themselves and going against Society. That is what she means by Most Girls.

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Hailee Steinfeld's hit song "Most Girls" celebrates all sorts of women. The empowering track calls for girls to support and admire one another through lyrics like, "Most girls are smart and strong and beautiful / Most girls work hard, go far, we are unstoppable," and "Our fight to make every day, no two are the same / I wanna be like, I wanna be like most girls" (via Genius).

In an interview with The Guardian, Steinfeld explained, "I felt that we've been accepting the compliment 'You're not like most girls' for a very long time. I have. I feel like there's been this golden standard or rule that in order to be special you have to be different to other women."

The singer added that the track is "empowerment pop" that encourages self-love over basing your worth on other people's opinions. In closing, Steinfeld said, "I think this generation of women is more than ever banding together and really lifting each other up, and I think girls and guys are really starting to think that way as well." We don't know about you, but we'll certainly be listening to this bop in a whole new way.

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The Meaning Behind Hailee Steinfeld's Song Most Girls - The List

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Hailee Steinfeld's hit song "Most Girls" celebrates all sorts of women. The empowering track calls for girls to support and admire one another through lyrics like, "Most girls are smart and strong and beautiful / Most girls work hard, go far, we are unstoppable," and "Our fight to make every day, no two are the same / I wanna be like, I wanna be like most girls" (via Genius).

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This article talks about a group of highs schoolboys 'praising' Andrew Tates Misogynistic ideas, and how they first discovered this through TikTok. This is forcing younger men to view themselves are superior and turning back to the older ways of society.

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When Abbie Marsh (not her real name) overheard a 15-year-old boy in the West Midlands school she works in praising Andrew Tate, the social influencer known as the "king of misogyny", she asked him if he understood Tate's views on women. The boy replied: "Well, men are better than women, so he's right." His friends all nodded in agreement.

Marsh reported the conversation to her school's head of safeguarding. She says misogyny is rife, even among students as young as 12, and is convinced Tate's videos are fuelling it. "I heard one student in the playground introduce his girlfriend and as soon as she was out of earshot he was asked by several friends if they could 'have a go' with her," she says.

"I don't think the staff are fully aware who Tate is and what he stands for," she adds. "I worry for these boys' girlfriends."

The 36-year-old British American is in custody in Romania after being arrested with his brother, Tristan, on 29 December as part of an investigation into human trafficking, rape and organised crime. But while the spotlight has switched to his activities in eastern Europe, schools in the UK are fearful Tate's boosted media profile in the last few weeks could make his influence stronger than ever.

Many parents may be hearing about Tate for the first time, but schools across the country say he is already a hugely familiar figure to many of their pupils. Many are giving teachers training on how to talk to students about him. Some are holding special assemblies, or using personal social and health education lessons to encourage students to question the content he puts out.

Teachers say boys are often sucked into his "glamorous" ultra-macho world by more benign content on fast cars or fitness. But in his videos he also says women are a man's property, cannot do jobs as well as men, and belong at home. He thinks rape victims should "bear responsibility" for their attacks and boasts about seeking out 18-year-old girls because they are "fresh".

Michael Conroy, whose company Men at Work trains school staff on talking to boys about these issues, says: "Algorithms make it possible for someone like Tate to be hugely well known to 14- to 18-year-old boys"

Conroy has run sessions in 50 schools on online misogyny. Teachers have raised Tate's influence in every one. One teacher talked about a lesson on sexual consent in which a boy quoted Tate, saying if a woman went out alone at night and was attacked it was her fault. Conroy says teenagers also mention Tate as a form of "micro-aggression" towards female teachers.

In one session Conroy discussed the sexist meme "make me a sandwich", used by some men on social media to belittle women. "A female teacher said: 'I've got a lad in year 10 who always writes MMAS at the bottom of my homework,'" he says. "She hadn't known what it meant until then. But he was trying to humiliate her."

Conroy believes Tate is "grooming" young men in a similar way to terrorist groups or gangs, and his image of "conspicuous success" woos boys desperate for a connection.

A teacher at a primary school in north London agrees. "It's the most vulnerable and socially awkward boys that are drawn in and given a sense of belonging to something that is very dangerous." She describes an "extremely vulnerable" 10-year-old "praising Tate and parroting his vile ideas" as "terrifying". The school's lessons on respect "can't compete with the tidal wave of misogyny online", she adds.

Helen Hinde, assistant head at Meols Cop high school in Southport, has shared training resources on Tate with other schools, and asked her staff to be alert to any mention of him. "Boys are attracted to him because he tells them he is successful and rich. He is selling a lifestyle," she says. "When we mention his hatefulness towards women, some excuse it as simply creating a successful life for yourself."

But she is "determined" to educate her pupils about the darker implications of what he is saying. "We don't want to blame young people. We want them to learn to question the attitudes they encounter online."

Ben Karlin, who advises teachers on Twitter about how to counter Tate's influence, says: "It's important to try to explain what he's doing and why. Yes, he's successful and rich, but he made his money off you. Acknowledge that not everything he says is hateful: that's his whole tactic."

Karlin describes Tate's influence as "grooming on a massive scale" and insists schools must talk about him, as well as explaining how he has "gamed" the social media platforms and exploited their algorithms. "He may go to prison, but there will be another one playing the same game," he adds.

Thomas Michael, deputy safeguarding lead at a school in the West Midlands, says schools must have open conversations with boys about the issues Tate champions. "I told our year 9 boys that I grew up in a male-dominated family where aggression was celebrated. I got into fights. Then I realised I had to change. I asked them 'Does that make me less of a man?'"

But he warns that some well-meaning schools are only boosting Tate's popularity. "There are lots of videos on TikTok of kids recording assemblies on Andrew Tate and they are loving making fun of it," he says. "He tells them teachers don't want them to hear the truth. Schools are doing his job for him."

This article was amended on 8 January 2023. An earlier version misnamed Michael Conroy as "Michael Conway".

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'Vulnerable boys are drawn in': schools fear spread of Andrew Tate's misogyny

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When Abbie Marsh (not her real name) overheard a 15-year-old boy in the West Midlands school she works in praising Andrew Tate, the social influencer known as the "king of misogyny", she asked him if he understood Tate's views on women. The boy replied: "Well, men are better than women, so he's right."