Free Republic

The ridiculous “equal pay” debate about the WNBA coming from some Democrats raises an awkward question when it comes to their view of transgenderism: If men and women are indistinguishable and the WNBA doesn’t pay enough, why don’t women’s basketball players join the NBA instead? ..... The issue here, of course, is that neither Biden, members of his Cabinet, nor his judicial nominees can answer what they think a woman is. In the view of Biden and Democratic politicians, there are no differences between men and women, and men can be women or women can be men just by saying...

Teachers unions and associations have become woke. That's true even in the hard sciences. Instead of "mother," "father," or "biological parent," use terms created by students like "gene-givers," "biological life transmitters," or "storks," urges the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) in a new "gender-inclusive" guide. In the guide, the world's largest science teachers association urges teachers to "Show students that myriad, naturally occurring families exist, such as same-sex swan couples ...On our website, we have compiled a Queer Species Database with hundreds of instances of diverse sexual behavior, sex, and gender." Also warned against are the terms "mother," "father," "male,"...

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is requiring all schools in the district to adopt new signage in an effort to make restrooms gender-neutral. The initiative, which CPS is referring to as a "big step forward for gender equity," requires the schools to display language outside of restrooms informing students, whether they are male or female, that they may use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity. "We’re requiring all schools to adopt new signage to make our restrooms more inclusive," CPS wrote in a tweet announcing the change. "This is a big step forward for gender equity for our students...

oe Biden and Kamala Harris have no clue how to deal with the many crises their administration has created, exacerbated, or failed to get under control, but as of last Friday they now have a 42-page gender strategy. Gender strategy? Yes, the “National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality,” the first-ever such declaration because in the near-quarter millennium of this country’s existence no one ever thought we needed one, lays out a list of goals and aspirations and solutions to alleged problems whose existence keeps being asserted without evidence. “Health care,” for instance, is a strange action item to list...

Fresh from deciding to punish the majority black city of Atlanta, Georgia for its State Legislature's election reform law, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced "it has been brought to my attention that we do not have gender equality among our players. I looked over the rosters of all our teams and noted that there isn't a single woman or transgender individual to be found. I was shocked. Half the population of this country is female. We need to field teams that look like America. We've made great progress on the racial front. Blacks, Latinos, and Asians can be...

[Barf Alert] Gender equality must guide 2015 climate deal, U.N. envoy says By Megan Rowling, Reuters LIMA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Gender equality must be a key part of a new global climate change deal due to be reached in Paris next year even though achieving it will be a struggle, U.N. climate envoy Mary Robinson said on Tuesday. The former Irish president said the 2015 agreement should drive climate policies that take both women's and men's needs into account and must include gender equality as a guiding principle. [excerpt. hurl here]

- In Sweden that is. All the same, if various experts are right, the Nordic countries are not only the richest part of the world, but also global leaders in the domain of QUALITY of life. Therefore, living in this part of Stockholm is probably as good as life gets, or? The article: "The Stockholm suburb of Danderyd is the best municipality in which to live, according to a new ranking by the magazine Fokus. Lund and nearby Lomma in southern Sweden follow closely behind. Ljusnarsberg municipality in the Bergslagen region of central Sweden ended up in last place. The...

UCSF's Center for Gender Equity hosts its annual "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day" on Thursday -- but judging from the list of activities being offered, the gender equity program is anything but equal. For example, the 9- and 10-year-old daughters are being invited to participate in 17 hands-on activities such as working with microscopes, slicing brains, doing skull comparisons, seeing what goes on in the operating room, playing surgeon, dentist or nurse for a day, and visiting the intensive care unit nursery, where they can set up blood pressure cuffs and operate the monitors. They can learn...

It's about time we had a serious discussion about Martha Burk. Come on, you know who she is. She's the woman that, in 2002, inanely tried to compare Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters with racial segregation because it is a male-only private club. Never satisfied with the publicity, Martha exploited everything newsworthy to reintroduce her plight to the world via the Op-Ed pages. She tried to marry her cause to other issues in a vain attempt to remain relevant. She lost many supporters when she requested that The Masters be cancelled out of solidarity for the war in...

It's about time we had a serious discussion about Martha Burk. Come on, you know who she is. She's the woman that, in 2002, inanely tried to compare Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters with racial segregation because it is a male-only sports club. If you really can't remember or just don't have all the details, here's a timeline of the Burk vs. Augusta dispute. For an in-depth review, read this issue of the Capital Research Center's Foundation Watch. For an entertaining read, try this article from Failure Magazine; Martha Burk and the controversy won 'Failure of the Year'...

As head coach of girls' basketball at Ensley High School in Birmingham, Roderick Jackson felt that his squad had less access to the gym and training equipment than the boys' team did. He thought that might violate Title IX, the landmark 1972 federal law barring gender discrimination at federally funded educational institutions, and he told school administrators. In May 2001, he was informed that his services as coach were no longer required. Now, the question before the Supreme Court is whether that alleged retaliation makes Jackson a victim of illegal gender discrimination under Title IX, with the same right to...

<p>Don't blame girls, women By Jacqueline E. Woods The American Association of University Women (AAUW) is troubled by recent suggestions that girls and women are somehow to blame for the fact that boys are not excelling in certain academic areas. Is there a "gender war" being waged against boys, as some have claimed? Gender inequity in education is a complex issue. Two years ago, AAUW published "Beyond the 'Gender Wars,' " a summary of the views of some of America's foremost researchers of boys and girls regarding a range of gender-equity questions. One of the major conclusions shared by these researchers was that we do not need to "fix the boys" or "fix the girls."</p>

Bird's Eye By Christina Hoff Sommers Men—It’s in Their Nature This past spring, my son spent a month in Israel with his senior class. Only one activity disappointed him. While camping in the Negev Desert, special counselors from a progressive-socialist kibbutz paid a visit and led the students through a sensitivity exercise. The students were told to walk out into the desert until they were completely alone. The counselors (mostly American-born) supplied them with a pencil, paper, matches, and a candle and instructed them to absorb the quiet calm of the desert, to record their feelings, and to “find themselves.”...

This past spring, my son spent a month in Israel with his senior class. Only one activity disappointed him. While camping in the Negev Desert, special counselors from a progressive-socialist kibbutz paid a visit and led the students through a sensitivity exercise. The students were told to walk out into the desert until they were completely alone. The counselors (mostly American-born) supplied them with a pencil, paper, matches, and a candle and instructed them to absorb the quiet calm of the desert, to record their feelings, and to “find themselves.” The girls happily complied. Most of the boys did not....

LPGA player Annika Sorenstam will be teeing off shortly in a men's PGA event at the Colonial Country Club [the first time in 60 years this has happened]Live shot for shot coverage as long as she is in contention to make the cut on USA Networks, PGA Radio is free today for those cubicle bound and wanting live update (link included)

Pfc. Jessica Lynch will be flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., soon. She has been isolated from media coverage of her rescue and has no idea what awaits her when she regains her health. Private Lynch survived the ambush in Iraq of the Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, but can she survive the ambush of the feminine forces of political correctness that placed her in harm's way. These people want to use her to promote their theory that men and women soldiers are the same. This thesis is, of course, unprovable. While women may be just...

<p>THE REGULATIONS SAY "THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF SCHOLARSHIP AID MADE AVAILABLE TO MEN AND WOMEN MUST BE SUBSTANTIALLY PROPORTIONATE TO THEIR PARTICIPATION RATES."</p> <p>Sarah Stowe is swimming her way through the University of Missouri at Columbia -- literally. The senior-to-be and distance-event specialist from Englewood, Colo., gets about $7,000 a year to swim on the women's team, ranked 25th in the nation.</p>

One of my first columns dealt with a 1989 report accusing Wellesley College of racial discrimination. The report contained no evidence of anything remotely close to real bias. Instead it focused on discomfort among non-white students -- some cafeteria food was unfamiliar, posters in the bookstore featured Bavarian castles but no Third World settings. All of this was said to add up to subtle, "unconsciously white" bias that hobbled minority students. This was my first exposure to the modern evidence-free, feelings-based bias report. Perhaps the most successful of these reports was the 1999 report on gender bias at the...