Why I'm Rooting for Whitney Houston

I was 10 years old when "How Will I Know?" by Whitney Houston was all over the radio. I loved that song, I could relate to it. How would I know if that boy I was mooning over during recess really loved me? My best friend and I felt that Houston understood our fifth grade plight. I remember us singing the second verse to Whitney herself, as if confiding a secret, "Oh Whitney, I'm shaking..." instead of the correct lyrics ("Oh wake me..."). That's the Whitney Houston of my childhood. She was a star, a beautiful woman with an amazing voice.

Fast forward to the Whitney Houston of my adulthood. This is is the "crack is whack," Whitney Houston. The Being Bobby Brown TV show version of Houston. I don't think it's out of line to use the words train wreck. I couldn't help but watch, even though it was awful.

Now Whitney Houston is trying to make a comeback. She's releasing a new album and doing a two-day sit down interview with Oprah. Her story is a Hollywood cliche: Pop diva marries bad boy, goes out of control and seeks public redemption. But I'm still rooting for her. And I'm not alone. That newly released album holds the number one spot on the Billboard Top 200 Chart.

The reviews I've read of the album so far and the performance I saw on Good Morning America indicate that Houston is not the singer she once was. Her voice is lower, more husky than the powerhouse of the 80s and early 90s. I doubt she could even sing some of those songs now. But she's no longer the same woman who belted out "I Will Always Love You." Her voice parallels her situation. The snippets I saw of the Oprah interview show a very humble Whitney Houston. She seems grateful to be where she is, to have a second chance. She isn't blaming anyone for where she ended up, but she's talking openly about how she got there and what happened along the way.

I give her credit for finally realizing for herself something that people probably told her for years; that most of the problems in her marriage stemmed from the fact that she had an amazingly successful career, and a husband who couldn't deal with it. And that those things took over her entire life. She said today, "I think somewhere inside something happens to a man when a woman has that much control or has that much fame. ... If he doesn't have his own." And she finally walked away. I admired Whitney Houston when I sang along to her songs in the 80s. I admire her now for taking her life and her career back.

Who's Wearing the Trousers? Not Women in Sudan

Just Jeans
Originally uploaded by The Hidden Collection

I didn't see much publicity on this story about women in the Sudan being lashed for wearing pants in public. It didn't even come to my attention until a few weeks after the event. But better late than never, I want to give this incident more attention. I want to remind women that there are many places in the world where they don't have the kind of freedom that women in the US have worked so hard for.

Several of the women in this incident were punished on the spot with lashings after pleading guilty. Under the Sudan's Islamic Sharia Law, the charge against them was indecency. The laws, however, are not supposed to apply to non-Muslims, and the women in question are Christians. Lubna al-Hussein, one of the women charged, is currently awaiting trial for the incident. She was arrested rather than lashed by the police. The punishment if al-Hussein is found guilty of indecency is 40 lashes. For wearings pants. Although the trial documentation indicates that the issue is not that she was wearing pants, but that the pants were too tight.

I admire Lubna al-Hussein for publicizing this situation and going to trial with the intent of having the law declared unconstitutional. She even sent out 500 invitations to witness her lashing if it does take place. So tomorrow when you get dressed, whether you put on pants or something else, enjoy your freedom to wear what you want, when you want.

Image by The Hidden Collection.

The Rapidly Approaching Era of No Choice

reedstricted area
Originally uploaded by THEE ELECTRIC MILKSHAKE!

The murder of abortion doctor George Tiller at his church late last month was a grisly reminder of the polarizing abortion debate in this country. Thirty-six years after the Roe v. Wade case legalized abortion, women in many areas of the country still do not have access to clinics that perform the controversial procedure. Even the clinic that Tiller operated in Kansas, Women Health Care Center, has closed; the rest of the staff is either unable or unwilling to carry on without him.

I can't really blame them. Tiller and his clinic were a target for all things anti-abortion, due to the fact that he was willing to perform late-term abortions. The clinic was bombed in 1986 and vandalized a few weeks before Tiller's death. Tiller was shot outside of it in 1993. Maybe there just isn't anyone left there who wants to continue to take that kind of risk on a daily basis. The Kansas clinic is the poster child for why doctors don't want to get into the abortion business.

The future of abortion is in serious jeopardy. If you don't believe me, read this chilling article on Salon.com or watch this PBS special. Some information I found especially disturbing: The training and information related to abortions provided in many medical schools is either non-existent or extremely limited. And most of the doctors who will currently perform late-stage abortions are over the age of 50. The number of abortion providers is steadily declining.

The Salon article brings up an interesting point, which is that women my age and younger were born after abortion was legalized. Is that why there is no sense of urgency to make sure abortion is available, because it always has been?

That may be about to change. A May 2009 Gallup Poll indicates that about as many Americans now say abortion should be illegal in all circumstances (23%) as say it should be legal under any circumstances (22%). This is the first time in the last four years that Gallup has found public opinion has been higher against abortion than for abortion. The same survey indicates that the majority of Americans identify themselves as Pro-Life, rather than Pro-Choice.

We have seen more outspoken support of once extremely personal topics like rape, breast and colon cancer. But abortion will never be one of those things that it's ok to just talk about. Maybe that's part of the reason why there are less and less practitioners. In a world where many people define you by what you do, who wants to be known (by some people) as "baby killer"?

It's terrible that Dr. Tiller was murdered based on what he did for a living. But in the past few weeks, I have learned a lot about the current state of freedom of choice. I can only hope that people who can actually change the situation have been paying attention.

image by The Electric Milkshake

Just Say No - to that Promotion?

A woman's work is never done
Originally uploaded by Evil Erin

I'm intrigued and yet disturbed by the premise of this new book: Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success. There's a great article about the book and a short interview with the writers at Salon.com. The article shares some of my issues with the ideas in the book (though I admit I haven't read it yet, I'm just going by excerpts and reviews). For example, writers Claire Shipman and Katty Kay are high-level broadcast journalists, and their husbands also have high-powered jobs. That gives them quite a financial cushion should all this push back they encourage other women to be doing at work backfire in their faces. Single gals and primary breadwinners may not feel they have as many options as these two women do.

"Women don't usually want that promotion," according to Womenomics. Now, hang on a second. In this economy, a promotion usually means taking over work from someone else who just got laid off, in addition to your existing responsibilities, with little or no extra compensation. So, no one really wants that promotion. I think it's fair to say that no one wants to work 60 hours a week. That's not a feminist issue, it's an everyone issue. Everyone should be pushing back against unreasonable work hours, not just women who want to be at the bus stop every afternoon picking up their kids. Is refusing a promotion the only way to do that?

I also feel that some of their "rules" are just not applicable for most regular working folks; demanding fewer hours at the office, checking e-mail only twice a day and avoiding meetings whenever possible. Honestly, I think there's a very fine line there between looking like someone who really doesn't feel like working and someone who is a great worker and wants to downsize all that stuff to get more family time. If your employer has any doubts about which side of the line you fall on, these kinds of requests could downsize you right out of your job.

It could just be that the timing of this book is lousy. Not too many people are feeling empowered at work these days. Or maybe I am just too cynical to appreciate the message. Maybe going into your boss's office and saying "I will now be avoiding meetings whenever possible," isn't career suicide after all. Maybe, but I definitely won't be trying it.

Image by Evil Erin

Women on Top - at Work

Business woman
Originally uploaded by mirimcfly

I'm intrigued by this article saying that putting women in charge seems to make great business sense. Some of this is pure speculation, like the part about how having more women in the financial industry might have helped to avoid the current economic crisis. I'm not so sure about that. But it's about time that people are looking into what affect women have in the workforce.

All these findings make sense to me. With the exception of my grandmother, who never even opened the checkbook in the house until my grandfather passed away, women have always had financial and management skills. Think about running a household and caring for children back in the days before frozen meals, microwaves and washing machines. If you didn't figure out how to get your house in order and dinner on the table, you were likely to be replaced by another woman who could. Talk about incentive! Women are the original masters of multitasking.

Men may have been the breadwinners, but it's always been women who buy the groceries and keep the kids in clothes and school supplies. My grandmother may have never written a check, but as a mother of five, she was a master at doing a lot with a little. She also told stories from her childhood of women in her neighborhood who would go to the mills and factories on Friday afternoons to intercept their husbands and grab their paychecks. The women claimed it was the only way to keep food on the table and stop the men from going out and spending all their hard earned money. Women entering the workforce may be a fairly modern phenomenon, but women taking care of business and keeping things running is nothing new.

I wouldn't exactly print this article out and bring it with you to your next job interview or yearly review. But definitely check it out if you are looking for an ego boost. With the way my life has been going lately, I think I might just bookmark it.

Image by mirimcfly

The Gender Gap has Disappeared! Oh, Nevermind

Telephone operators, 1952
Originally uploaded by Seattle Municipal Archives

The past week or so has taught me a bit about instant gratification. It's not so bad. Frequently, I find an interesting article or something else I want use for my blog. I put that thing aside for a while and eventually I write about it. I need to stop doing that. You'll see why in a minute.

Last week, the April report from Dice, a technology jobs site, proclaimed that the gender gap has officially closed. Their report shows that salaries in several tech related fields are currently better for women than men at almost every experience level. Take a look at the report here. That's great news, especially since many tech jobs have long been considered to be dominated by men. I was going to write an entire blog post about it.

But today, I saw another article from Time magazine about how it takes a woman an average of two years longer than a man to attain the rank of full-time professor at many universities. This is despite the fact that there are more women with doctorate degrees and more women teaching at the associate professor level. And this study was done for language-based teaching positions, which are traditionally considered to be "female friendly" according to the article. That's not great news.

I wish I had a chance to celebrate the good news in writing before I saw the not so good news. But I only have so much blogging time. I can't pretend it's all fairy dust and higher salaries out there, even though sometimes I wish I could. If only for one blog post, anyway.

Image from the Seattle Muncipal Archives

Women's History Month?

Women's Lib
Originally uploaded by muddled mind

Did you know that March is Women's History Month? I didn't. Apparently, March has been Women's History Month since 1987. There are two days left in March as I write this, so I guess that's better than missing it entirely.

The only reason I even caught on to this was because I was switching channels and caught part of a biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton on PBS. At the end of the show, they mentioned Women's History Month. Thanks for cluing me in, PBS. I know about Black History Month. I know about Earth Day. We used to celebrate these things in school. We never made collages or wrote a report about a famous woman in March. And I was still in school in 1987. And most of my teachers were women! But I have never heard of Women's History Month until right now. Am I alone on this one?

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to learn there is a Women's History Month. I think we deserve one. But it's a little sad that I never knew about it. Here are some things worth celebrating for the last few days of Women's History Month:

- There are almost 6.5 million businesses in the US owned by women, creating more than $939 billion in revenue. Ka-ching, ladies!

- In the US, 65% of women 18 and older vote, as opposed to 62% of men. I'm waiting for my thank you note, Barack.

-There are currently more women than men in the US (154.7 million women to 150.6 men). Tell your Mom that statistic next time she wonders why you don't have a date/aren't married yet.

Image by muddled mind