Free Republic

or the first time in 50 years, the educational balance among married couples has tipped towards women. Wives are more likely to be the better educated partner than the other way around. The trend is particularly sharp among newlyweds; in 2012 almost 40% of college educated women were married to a guy without a degree. This is a big reversal from the 30 year trend between 1960 and 1990, when it was the men who were marrying down, educationally speaking. The difference is not yet huge; Pew researchers, using data from the American Community Survey and the Decennial Census, found...

While some American women have fallen victim to the idea that the government will take care of them from the cradle to the grave there are others who have learned how to use firearms to protect themselves and their families.

“Life’s greatest happiness,” Victor Hugo wrote, “is to be convinced we are loved.” As most experienced couples know, love-induced happiness is a year-round triumph, not the outcome of a singular, mass-marketed Valentine’s celebration — the one Jay Leno calls “Extortion Day.” But men ignore this expectation-filled Hallmark holiday at their peril, which is why it’s become a $16 billion industry. More than heart-shaped bling, women savor attention — a lesson noted by politicians. Just as women beware of transient Romeos, they must Think Again about politicians who whisper sweet nothings into their ears, over-promising before an election and under-delivering after...

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is marking the 20th anniversary of its Becoming an Outdoors Woman program this year. The DNR has just released its 2014 catalog of events for the program, which offers a wide range of hands-on learning opportunities for women and their families who want to learn how to hunt, fish or develop other outdoor skills.

The next time there is the need for a plumber don’t be surprised if the person carrying a tool box is a woman. That is because American women are getting the message that a degree in Women’s Studies can be worthless while a plumber’s certification provides a good paying job.

For the firearms industry, women are the next big opportunity. They are a desirable demographic and the number of female gun owners is growing, CNN Money reported. Sometimes the appeal may include a fashion statement. Glock offers both sub-compact and slim line handguns for women. Smith & Wesson offers a model called the “Lady Smith.” Mossberg markets shotguns and rifles with a pink camouflage pattern, and one shooting range in Las Vegas offers pink AK-47s with the bachelorette parties that it caters to. "When you are aiming at your target and you're executing a safe shot, you're not thinking about...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - While stroke is common in both men and women, guidelines released on Thursday for the first time address factors such as pregnancy, birth control pills and menopause that put women at particular risk for the deadly condition. Issued by the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association, the guidelines are designed to help doctors and patients recognize stroke risk factors early, when there is time to act. "If you are a woman, you share many of the same risk factors for stroke with men, but your risk is also influenced by hormones, reproductive health, pregnancy, childbirth...

Libya’s female prisoners have appealed to the country’s spiritual leaders to allow them to commit suicide as endless abuse and humiliation make life unbearable for them ... Women suffer horrible torture in Libyan jails. They are burned, subject to electric shocks and placed in solitary cells for weeks or months on end. Women have long been complaining to us about that. We’ve been receiving letters revealing absolutely appalling episodes. Prison wards sell female inmates, letting men rape any woman they choose for a certain pay. Rape victims say that once important people from Qatar came and the prison was turned...

Turns out progressive views of equality aren't an aphrodisiac...The New York Times has come to a surprising conclusion. This:isn’t sexy. Really. It took a feature-length article in the magazine to explain to readers that when men act less like men, heterosexual women want to have sex with them less. Despite women being told that they want men more involved in traditionally female household tasks like cooking, cleaning and childcare, when men actually do so, wives find their husbands considerably less sexy. Another “surprising” revelation: equality in a marriage, especially in the bedroom, was a major turn-off for women. A desire...

It’s young men and teenage boys who do nearly all the shooting and dying on the streets of Boston. But more and more it’s young women and teenage girls who hold, hide and even buy the guns that enable such killing. Often they do it out of fear: of an abusive boyfriend, of a pimp who puts them on the street. Or they do it out of desperation: A drug dealer gives them more drugs, or money, for the guns. That was the sobering message of yesterday’s packed Grove Hall meeting of LIPSTICK, or Ladies Involved in Putting a Stop...

In his State-of-the-Union speech, President Obama denounced pay inequities between men and women. Critics expressing doubts about his sincerity cited the fact that on the President's own staff men are paid more than women. Among White House employees the 228 women pull down a median annual salary of $65,000 while 231 male staffers receive nearly $75,000. White House chief of staff Denis McDonough denied any hypocrisy on the part of the President. “Salaries at the White House are based on factors that consider skills, experience, level of education, and performance on the job,” McDonough said. “To use the raw data...

Do American young women deserve a sacred, federally-protected right to engage in reckless, irresponsible and even illegal behavior with no fear of consequences? Vice President Biden seems to think so. After a White House meeting in January to announce a new task force to curb sexual assaults on campus, the ever-effusive VEEP declared that every woman should expect such federal protection “no matter what she’s wearing, no matter whether she’s in a bar, in a dormitory, in the back seat of a car, on a street, drunk or sober.” His remarks accompanied the release of a new report by the...

What is it about women that causes leading Republicans to grow clumsy, if not stupid? When even savvy, fluent, attractively populist Mike Huckabee stumbles, you know you’ve got trouble. Having already thrown away eminently winnable Senate seats in Missouri and Indiana because of moronic talk about rape, the GOP might have learned. You’d think ... Huckabee wasn’t quite as egregious, just puzzling and a bit weird. Trying to make a point about Obamacare mandating free contraceptives, he inexplicably began speculating that the reason behind the freebie was the Democrats’ belief that women need the federal government to protect them from...

WASHINGTON -- What is it about women that causes leading Republicans to grow clumsy, if not stupid? When even savvy, fluent, attractively populist Mike Huckabee stumbles, you know you've got trouble. Having already thrown away eminently winnable Senate seats in Missouri and Indiana because of moronic talk about rape, the GOP might have learned. You'd think. Huckabee wasn't quite as egregious, just puzzling and a bit weird. Trying to make a point about Obamacare mandating free contraceptives, he inexplicably began speculating that the reason behind the freebie was the Democrats' belief that women need the federal government to protect them...

As we prepare for the Feast of the Presentation (Sunday, February 2), I though it might be appropriate to describe a liturgy of the Church that is largely lost to most today, “The Churching of Women.” To some extent it is subsumed in the modern Rite of Baptism with the blessing of the Mother, but it is not what it used to be. We CAN still celebrate this for women who ask, and I often do celebrate it especially when I do extraordinary form Baptisms.The Churching of Women is very rooted int he feast of the Presentation. Biblically this feast...

Hot, cheesy and fresh out of the oven — exactly how a girl wants to smell, right? Demeter’s new Pizza perfume re-creates the sensation of diving into a slice of ’za, with a strong scent of dough mixed with notes of tomato sauce, mozzarella and oregano. In testing, Daily News olfactory workers deemed it “intoxicating and a little off-putting,”“as romantic as a cheese slice at 2 a.m.” and “great, if you want to smell like garlic.” The most dangerous side effect for your diet: “It makes you constantly think about pizza,” said one tester. The good news: The fragrance isn’t...

Minutes after President Obama ripped America's gender “wage gap” during the State of the Union of Address, House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told Breitbart News "of course" he thinks the White House should pay its female staffers equally to any equal work done by male White House personnel. "Well, of course," Hoyer responded when asked by Breitbart News.

Women should be allowed to carry concealed firearms on college campuses. Instead, President Obama favors Gun Free Zones, which endanger women’s health. One in five female college students are sexually assaulted or raped according to a new report issued last week by the White House Council on Women and Girls. Declaring that sexual assault “affects every one of us,” Obama picked up his pen and signed a piece of paper (a “memorandum”) calling for the creation of a campus rape response task force. Sure, this token effort could help Obama’s party appeal to female voters during a midterm election year....

This morning I followed a link on Facebook that took me to this post. It's written by a "feminist" and the point she wants to make is that being a wife and mother is not a valid choice, or even a difficult one. Let me first say, Ms. Glass, that I have been both sides of this feminine coin. I have owned my own business. I have managed a company of over 20 employees. I worked my way through college, and I'm now a mother of two and very proud of it. When my kids were very young, I stayed...

Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" was released in 1972. The year before the Roe vs. Wade decision. The song was played at the National Organization for Women's national convention in 1973. "I Am Woman" has been the organization's anthem for almost 50 years. Others may have noted before but I never knew one of the lines in the song was, "But I'm still an embryo With a long, long way to go." I guess they didn't view embryos as lifeless tissue at the time? At one time the feminist movement was about women being treated with respect and equality in...