Free Republic

Every girl’s life matters to Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett only so long as those lives can be exploited for publicity Are first lady Michelle Obama and her mentor Valerie Jarrett, who is her husband’s senior advisor, complicit in a publicity stunt making it appear that they champion women’s rights? While Michelle Obama seized the spotlight by not wearing a head scarf when meeting with Saudi officials in Riyadh yesterday, Jarrett was sending out this message on Twitter: “Every girl’s life matters. Every woman should be able to go about her day and be safe and treated with respect.” The...

Heavier women are more likely to be lighter in the wallet, reports a new study that says obese females tend to occupy lower-paying, more-strenuous jobs in less-visible corners of the U.S. workforce when compared to average-sized women and men. In fact, the link between extra pounds and leaner paychecks is distinct: When a woman “becomes overweight,” she already is less likely to land a public-facing role in better-paying white-collar jobs, according to research released Tuesday by Vanderbilt University. And women who are considered obese or morbidly obese — based on their body mass indexes — are more likely to forced...

I am trying to purchase new original Sacred Sisterhood Of Wonderful Wacky Women Mugs and they seem to have gone off the radar - just since Christmas. The inscription on the inside reads, "Forever Friends Kindred Spirits." Everything seems to be out-of-stock on-line, with caveats that they may no longer be available. So, I a wondering if anyone on FR knows of a Mom-And-Pop specialty shop that carries them. Any help is appreciated.

I have come as a beggar, says PM as he pleads to save girl child Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches the Sukanya Samridhi Account Scheme at the launch of the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ Programme, at Panipat, in Haryana along with actress Madhuri Dixit. Photograph: Press Information Bureau  Denouncing the practice of female foeticide, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the discrimination against girls reflects "mental illness" and displays a mindset worse than that in the 18th century.Launching 'beti bachao beti padhao (save daughter, educate daughter)' scheme in this district of Haryana, a state with one of the poorest...

As part of President Barack Obama’s annual effort to provoke Republicans and cheer up disheartened Democrats, the president touched on a theme that he has deployed effectively in the past that is designed to inflame tensions between the genders: The idea that women are systematically discriminated against in the workplace. “Of course, nothing helps families make ends meet like higher wages. That’s why this Congress still needs to pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work,” Obama said during his State of the Union address. “It’s 2015....

President Barack Obama shamed Congress in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night to pass legislation that already exists. Apparently not briefed by his secretary of labor and attorney general, Obama announced: "That's why this Congress still needs to pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work. Really. It's 2015. It's time." But it was June 10, 1963 when Congress passed “The Equal Pay Act of 1963,” which can be found at 29 U.S.C. § 206(d). It says: (d) Prohibition of sex discrimination (1) No employer...

Manspreading and manslamming are just the beginning! By now, you may have heard of “manspreading” – when a guy sits with his legs apart on the subway to assert his dominance — and “manslamming” – when a man doesn’t get out of the way of a woman on the street and they run into each other. While these are definitely very important women’s issues, there are still so many more we need to be talking about. Here are ten words for even more ways men are constantly oppressing women: 1. Broplimenting This is when a guy says something nice to...

A while back I brought up that my daughter had mentioned she was researching and thinking about joining the military. About 80% of the people that responded said "not in this environment". Which I completely understand. She brought it up again tonight. I asked her why. She is a very intelligent girl and would probably get in to many colleges with scholarship money. Before when she brought it up, she didn't say why, just that she was looking. Today was different. She told me how much of her high school has turned anti-military and talk about today's soldiers and marines...

There’s a widening gap between the baby-having of married women, who tend to be more educated and more affluent, and their less-educated, less-financially-secure, unmarried peers. A growing body of research, including work by Johns Hopkins University sociologist Andrew Cherlin, raises the possibility that because people like to feel financially secure before taking the marriage plunge, the rise of income inequality has divided Americans into those who marry and those who don’t. Now this could be playing out with childbearing, too. America’s recessionary “baby bust” has clearly leveled off now, but we’ve yet to see the birth recovery one would expect...

Blake Vaught and Alex Williamson, buddies in their late 20s, were having a cognitive dissonance moment. “This place is like a country club,” Vaught said, looking at a concierge desk, granite countertops and sleek black couches. “Or like a really nice steakhouse,” Williamson said. They were not at a country club. They were not at a steakhouse. They were at Elite Shooting Sports, a new gun range in Manassas, Va., that, like a wave of other new ranges around the country, is targeting a new breed of shooter — younger, more affluent, style-focused, increasingly female and even environmentally conscious. The...

Very long... suggest reading at the link. Basically he seems to blame women and feminization for the ills of the church, for loss of manliness, and even for homosexuality!

To quote a friend of mine, “Trying to understand Church issues through mainstream secular media is like trying to understand global economics through a 13-year-old girl’s Instagram account.” In short, it just won’t happen. The personnel aren’t equipped, and likely don’t want to take the time to become equipped, to speak well and foster understanding about nuanced issues in the Church. They’re only after eyes, likes, and shares, (and I don’t know that they deny it) so why, OH WHY do we fall for this every. single. time? A bit of background: Cardinal Raymond Burke, former bishop of the Dioceses...

Cardinal Raymond Burke at the extraordinary Synod on the Family in Rome in October 2014 (CNS photo) Kaya Oakes, a revert to Catholicism after spending time as a self-described pro-choice liberal, has penned a little screed—a veritable bundle of befuddlement!—aimed at the recent New Emangelization interview with Cardinal Raymond Burke (which I posted about on Monday). I've not read Oakes' book about her spiritual, uh, arc, which is titled, Radical Reinvention: An Unlikely Return to the Catholic Church, but my impression is that she has some—nay, numerous—issues with orthodoxy, or what she apparently calls "Catholic conservatism", which is in...

My "Aha Moment" happened because of a package of hamburger meat. I asked my husband to stop by the store to pick up a few things for dinner, and when he got home, he plopped the bag on the counter. I started pulling things out of the bag, and realized he'd gotten the 70/30 hamburger meat - which means it's 70% lean and 30% fat. Read more at http://www.sunnyskyz.com/blog/610/I-Wasn-t-Treating-My-Husband-Fairly-And-It-Wasn-t-Fair#EY4FIxGCmr92Qrb1.99

From an article titled "8 Quirky Ways Epiphany Is Celebrated Around the World": 1) “Women’s Christmas” Also known as “Little Christmas,” in Ireland Epiphany is a day that women take off from work to rest and celebrate for themselves after all the work of the Christmas holidays. Women gather together in pubs without men for special meals and wine (in commemoration of the Wedding at Cana miracle, of course!). Women also receive gifts from their children and grandchildren. (How do we bring this tradition to more places??)

You might not think that it’s appropriate for the government to launch a campaign telling men how to sit on the subway. Well guess what? You’re wrong. If you “manspread” on the subway (which, by the way, means to sit with your legs apart, in case you are a fixture of the patriarchy who doesn’t educate himself on important women’s issues), you are doing so much more than taking up space. Here’s what’s really going on with manspreading, as explained by some of the bright, forward-thinking minds on the Feminist Internet: 1. Manspreading is saying, “Who gives a f*** if...

An ancient law of the sea says that, when at risk of shipwreck, women and children must be helped into the lifeboats first. This is what was done on the Titanic, in the most notorious shipwreck in history. On that famous ship the orchestra continued to play to buoy the courage of those who were doomed to drown, including the musicians themselves. And a Catholic priest gave confession and absolution to all those who asked for them, himself going down with the ship. Old-fashioned gentlemen? Nope, Christians. Because the unwritten rule of «women and children first» dates back to...

We asked some brave women to try on old-time bras and corsets. This is what happened.

Making it to the White House will shift prejudices not only in America, but far beyond. Hillary Clinton was on my mind even before word came of the death of Mario Cuomo. The former governor of New York will be remembered by those who have long forgotten, or never knew, his record running that state chiefly for his oratory and his knack for an enduring phrase. Eight minutes spent on YouTube watching his 1984 rebuttal of Ronald Reagan’s depiction of the US as a “shining city on a hill” will not be wasted. It was Cuomo who memorably told us:...

WATERTOWN, N.Y.— Elise Stefanik, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, has never held elected office, but her résumé looks more like that of a Beltway insider than a political newcomer. By the time she won her seat representing a swath of upstate New York in the November election, she had served as a domestic policy aide for former President George W. Bush , a policy director for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty ’s 2012 presidential campaign and head of debate preparation for vice-presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan .