Three International Women’s Day items

Last updated on: March 8, 2018 at 10:23 pm by Jane the Actuary

Three International Women’s Day items 2018-03-08T22:23:31-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It’s International Women’s Day today – an occasion that Americans were pretty indifferent to, in our pre-social media days. But now Facebook wanted to be danged sure we knew about the day, so here are three observations.

One.

In my twitter feed earlier today, a comment that in, in recognition of International Women’s Day, we Americans need to step up, via the federal government, our subsidies of child daycare, so that mothers of young children boost their labor force participation rates. Which is not a new line of argumentation; back last summer, for instance, the Center for American Progress put out what the called the “child care calculator,” which purported to show the cumulative financial cost of women sacrificing some number of years of their working lifetime to caring for their children.

But here’s something else what we’re missing, a different sort of stepping up: women are disadvantaged as a result of some number of years of stay-at-home parenting not because it’s the natural order of things, but because employers are unwilling to hire nontraditional workers, preferring fresh college graduates, for white collar jobs, to mothers returning to the workforce, or middle-age job changers, or even aging, but not yet retired workers — or, worse, refusing to consider nontraditional workers, then complaining that there is a shortage of qualified workers.

Two.

An Iranian woman who publicly removed her veil in protest against Iran’s compulsory headscarf law has been sentenced to two years in prison, the judiciary said on Wednesday.

according to a report in The Guardian, and elsewhere.

This is, it seems to me, much more the point of the IWD commemorations.

Three.

Back in my early blogging days, well before the Trump vs. Clinton face-off, I speculated that it wasn’t just coincidence that the two female leaders of large economically powerful countries, thus far, were from their countries’ conservative parties. In one respect, the post doesn’t appear to have aged well: Margaret Thatcher was unmistakably conservative, but Angela Merkel’s fiscal conservatism at the time has been forgotten in view of her welcome of Arab/Muslim migrants.

Was my theory that a future female American president would be conservative, disproven by Hillary Clinton’s near miss? Consider the fact that lots of women were excited about Clinton’s nomination, but I didn’t really hear of women reporting, “I usually vote Republican, but for the sake of electing a woman, I’ll change” — though, of course, the very fact that Clinton’s opponent was Trump means that it’s difficult to read much of anything into it.

But what if the female candidate were a Republican — say, Nikki Haley, for instance? It seems to me that Democratic women, or Democrats in general, are more likely to be excited by women’s officeholding gains. Are they more likely to cross party lines to vote for a candidate, because that candidate is a woman, than their Republican counterparts are, giving female Republican candidates a boost? Or, as I wrote back in 2014, does the abortion litmus test mean that a Republican female candidate will be viewed by Democrats as a “traitor to her sex”?

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHOUSEWIFE_IN_THE_KITCHEN_OF_HER_MOBILE_HOME_IN_ONE_OF_THE_TRAILER_PARKS._THE_TWO_PARKS_WERE_CREATED_IN_RESPONSE_TO…_-_NARA_-_558298.jpg; By Villalobos, Horacio, Photographer (NARA record: 8464479) (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Uncategorized

gender equity

International Women's Day

Previous Post

March 7, 2018

A few words on Trump's tariffs

Next Post

March 9, 2018 Farewell, Toys R Us

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which prophet did King Manasseh supposedly put to death by sawing?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Zephaniah Jeremiah Isaiah Micah