Independent Women's Forum - Allison Kasic http://www.iwf.org/staff info@iwf.org http://www.pjdoland.com/chai/?v=0.1 New Social Networking Site http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20734.html <p>Our friends over at Bureaucrash recently launched a new social networking website -- Bureaucrash Social -- to connect freedom-oriented activists so they can share their ideas and best-practices and work together to introduce others to freedom. <a href="http://bureaucrashsocial.ning.com/">Check it out.</a></p> 20734@http://www.iwf.org Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:24:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Global Reaction to America's Financial Crunch http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20733.html <p>Over at the <em>Wall Street Journal</em>, William Easterly worries about the international response to America's financial&nbsp; woes:</p> <blockquote> <p>Some countries are already taking the wrong prescriptions from recent events. Honduran President Manuel Zelaya told the U.N. General Assembly last month that the lesson of the crash was "the market's laws were demonic, satisfying only the few." Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo said the "market mechanism" and "immoral speculation" were a mistake. Brazilian President Luiz In&aacute;cio Lula da Silva Lula added that speculators have "spawned the anguish of entire peoples" and Brazilians needed "indispensable interventions by state authorities."</p> <p>We have been here before. Development economics -- the study of how poor countries can become rich -- was forever cursed by the timing of its birth after the Great Depression. That gave development economics a bias toward relying on governments, rather than markets, to create growth. The early development economists ignored a century and a half of European and North American development through individual enterprise, remembering only that their governments forcefully intervened to stimulate output during the 1930s.</p> </blockquote> <p>As Easterly points out, such an approach will stunt long-term growth:</p> <blockquote> <p>Development economics still bears the scars of the Depression. A prominent World Bank Growth Commission concluded in May that "fast, sustained growth does not happen spontaneously. It requires a long-term commitment by a country's political leaders," and "each country has specific characteristics and historical experiences that must be reflected" in the leaders' "growth strategy." Some at the U.N. still recommend the discredited Big Push strategy of state-planned investment.</p> <p>How much poverty has endured because individual entrepreneurs were shunned in favor of the likes of the $5 billion state-owned Ajaokuta Steel Mill in Nigeria, which never produced a bar of steel? Or because African governments spend their time preparing World Bank-required national Poverty Reduction Strategy Reports instead of freeing space for innovators?</p> <p>We will never know. But we do know that the free market has a long-run track record of creating prosperity -- even with the occasional crash. The Depression's deceptive intellectual legacy is that development flows from all-knowing states rather than creative individuals. Here's hoping that the backlash to today's crash will not spawn another round of bad economics for the poor.</p> </blockquote> <p>More <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122299032640300401.html">here.</a></p> 20733@http://www.iwf.org Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:40:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) IWF Podcast: Essay Contest 2008-2009 http://www.iwf.org/iwfmedia/show/20728.html <p>IWF Junior Fellow Anna Thiergartner and Director of the R. Gaull Silberman Center Allison Kasic discuss IWF's 2008-2009 College Essay Contest.</p> 20728@http://www.iwf.org Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:32:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Where in the world can we do the most good? http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20726.html <p>That's the question at the heart of the Copenhagen Consensus.&nbsp; Reason's Ronald Bailey got a chance to talk to Bjorn Lomborg about the CC recently about what our global priorities should be.&nbsp; The interview is pretty interesting -- I recommend checking it out <a href="http://www.reason.com/news/show/128896.html">here.</a></p> 20726@http://www.iwf.org Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:27:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Food for Thought http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20725.html <p>The National Center for Policy Analysis has an interesting new policy brief examining the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed new regulations regarding emissions.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba634/ba634.pdf">Check it out.</a></p> 20725@http://www.iwf.org Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:25:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Don't Title IX the Sciences http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20723.html <p>Over at the <em>Teachers College Record</em>, Christina Hoff Sommers has a good article arguing against the push to expand Title IX enforcement into academic science.&nbsp; Title IX supporters point to the fact the fact that men outnumber women in the sciences, claim discrimination, and say Title IX is the answer. However, as Sommers points out, there are reasons to believe that factors other than bias are at play in causing this discrepancy, and if that is true, Title IX is not the answer:</p> <blockquote> <p>The Title IX activists are persuaded that women are being held back because of bias and a "hostile environment." But there are other, more plausible, explanations. Perhaps the relative paucity of women in physics and engineering reflects women's preferences and aspirations. This is a controversial proposition, but the research on gender and vocation is robust and growing. In 2007, the American Psychological Association published a collection of papers by more than twenty scholars entitled, Why Aren't More Women in Science: Top Researchers Debate the Evidence. Several made a strong case for bias; but an equal number made an equally strong case that biologically based sex differences explained the math and science gap. Also in 2007, Joshua L. Rosenbloom of the University of Kansas and colleagues published a meticulous study demonstrating that men and women differ systematically in their interests and that these differences can account for a large share of the gender gap in information technology occupations.</p> </blockquote> <p>More <a href="http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.28694/pub_detail.asp">here.</a>&nbsp; IWF on the subject <a href="http://iwf.org/publications/show/20345.html">here</a> and <a href="http://iwf.org/publications/show/20586.html">here.</a></p> 20723@http://www.iwf.org Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:06:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Video of the Day http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20722.html <p>Carbon Busters:</p> <p></p> <p>Update: Video seems to be down at the moment.&nbsp; If it goes back up, I'll update the link so you all can watch.</p> <p>Update: It's working again.</p> 20722@http://www.iwf.org Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:02:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) What Caused Our Current Financial Troubles? http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20720.html <p>In the past few weeks many have pointed a finger at the "failure of capitalism and deregulation."&nbsp; Economist Steven Horwitz of St. Lawrence University takes on that argument head on <a href="http://myslu.stlawu.edu/~shorwitz/open_letter.htm">an open letter</a> to his friends on the Left:</p> <blockquote> <p>One of the biggest confusions in the current mess is the claim that it is the result of greed. The problem with that explanation is that greed is always a feature of human interaction. It always has been. Why, all of a sudden, has greed produced so much harm? And why only in one sector of the economy? After all, isn't there plenty of greed elsewhere? Firms are indeed profit seekers. And they will seek after profit where the institutional incentives are such that profit is available. In a free market, firms profit by providing the goods that consumers want at prices they are willing to pay. (My friends, don't stop reading there even if you disagree - now you know how I feel when you claim this mess is a failure of free markets - at least finish this paragraph.) However, regulations and policies and even the rhetoric of powerful political actors can change the incentives to profit. Regulations can make it harder for firms to minimize their risk by requiring that they make loans to marginal borrowers. Government institutions can encourage banks to take on extra risk by offering an implicit government guarantee if those risks fail. Policies can direct self-interest into activities that only serve corporate profits, not the public.</p> <p>Many of you have rightly criticized the ethanol mandate, which made it profitable for corn growers to switch from growing corn for food to corn for fuel, leading to higher food prices worldwide. What's interesting is that you rightly blamed the policy and did not blame greed and the profit motive! The current financial mess is precisely analogous.</p> <p>No free market economist thinks "greed is always good." What we think is good are institutions that play to the self-interest of private actors by rewarding them for serving the public, not just themselves. We believe that's what genuinely free markets do. Market exchanges are mutually beneficial. When the law messes up by either poorly defining the rules of the game or trying to override them through regulation, self-interested behavior is no longer economically mutually beneficial. The private sector then profits by serving narrow political ends rather than serving the public. In such cases, greed leads to bad consequences. But it's bad not because it's greed/self-interest rather because the institutional context within which it operates channels self-interest in socially unproductive ways.</p> <p>This, my friends, is exactly what has brought us to the mess we are now in.</p> </blockquote> <p>More <a href="http://myslu.stlawu.edu/~shorwitz/open_letter.htm">here.</a></p> 20720@http://www.iwf.org Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:28:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) In Case You Missed It http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20719.html <p>Check out the latest IWF commentaries:</p> <blockquote> <p>-Visiting fellow Donna Wiesner Keene <a href="http://iwf.org/news/show/20704.html">looks at the presidential debates</a><br />&nbsp;<br />-I take a look at <a href="http://iwf.org/news/show/20708.html">how school choice affects teachers.</a></p> </blockquote> 20719@http://www.iwf.org Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:25:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Energy Freedom Day http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20716.html <p>It's <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzU2N2ZhOGZhNGZmN2E0NTExODAzYmU4ODQ1ODE1MGE">right around the corner.</a></p> 20716@http://www.iwf.org Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:46:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Female Factor http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20715.html <p>Is Sarah Palin a feminist?&nbsp; Check out the latest installment of the Female Factor <a href="http://iwf.org/news/show/20703.html">here.</a></p> 20715@http://www.iwf.org Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:45:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Point of View with Carmen Pate: Feminism and Governor Palin http://www.iwf.org/iwfmedia/show/20712.html <p>IWF's Allison Kasic joined <em>Point of View with Carmen Pate</em> to discuss feminism and Governor Palin.</p> 20712@http://www.iwf.org Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:51:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Position Paper No. 610: Title IX and Athletics: A Primer http://www.iwf.org/publications/show/20710.html <p><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><em>Download the report below.</em></strong></p> <p><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Introduction</strong></p> <p>Title IX long ago ceased to be an effort to guarantee equal opportunities for all, and has instead become a crusade to impose quotas and gender preferences in schools.</p> <p>At issue is not the Title IX statute itself, which simply outlaws discrimination in educational institutions on the basis of gender.&nbsp; The problem is the way in which Title IX has been applied.&nbsp; Feminists have used Title IX as their all-purpose vehicle to advance a radical agenda in our schools, and have imposed this agenda on a willing bureaucracy and the federal courts.&nbsp; As a result, current Title IX enforcement has demeaned the legitimate athletic and academic accomplishments of women and institutionalized discrimination against boys and men in schools.</p> <p>Specifically regarding athletics, the Department of Education's policy of compliance through proportional participation rates is the crux of the problem.&nbsp; The government claims that if the percentage of female athletes is close to the percentage of all female students, a school has proved non-discrimination.&nbsp; If those numbers are not "proportional," schools may be out of compliance with Title IX.&nbsp; In simpler terms, under this view of Title IX, men can play sports only to the extent that women are interested in playing sports.</p> <p>By demanding that women participate in athletics at the same rate as men, Title IX policy ignores not only legitimate differences between men and women but legitimate differences among women.&nbsp; We are not all athletes, and we are not all scholars.&nbsp; We look to ourselves, not the government, to know the difference.</p> <p>Title IX policy also undermines equal opportunity by forcing colleges and universities to eliminate men's sports opportunities in order to provide few or no new opportunities for women.&nbsp; This is not fighting discrimination against women; this is enforcing quotas against men.</p> <p>It is fashionable to attribute much of the progress that women have achieved in recent decades to the enactment of Title IX.&nbsp; After all, women have made significant gains and crediting them to a federal law only boosts the case that further progress demands more federal laws.</p> <p>Yet this diminishes the real contribution of individual women and ignores the costs these policies have had on men. Therefore, policymakers should seek to return Title IX enforcement policy to what the statute was designed to do-end discrimination based on sex-for both sexes, and in doing so, guarantee equal opportunity for all.</p> 20710@http://www.iwf.org Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:24:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) info@iwf.org (Kimberly Schuld) It's Back to School Time for Teachers, Too http://www.iwf.org/news/show/20708.html <p>Back to school season is in full swing.&nbsp; Understandably, much of the attention this time of year is on students as they purchase school supplies, pick out a first-day-of-school outfit, and prepare to start a new grade level.&nbsp; But it's back to school time for teachers, too.&nbsp; And, unfortunately, our nation's education system constantly fails teachers.</p> <p>Education is the second largest industry in the United States, but unlike other professions, teachers have fewer options when it comes to their career track.&nbsp; Consider the choices that most people get to make in their careers:&nbsp; employees can choose to specialize in a certain area, to work for a large or small company, or perhaps weigh a higher salary vs. a more flexible schedule.&nbsp; That simply doesn't exist on a large scale for teachers.&nbsp; Just as most students attend an assigned, government-run school, most teachers are employed by those same public schools.</p> <p>Such a cookie-cutter system creates few choices for teachers.&nbsp; Within a given district, salaries, administrative set-up, and curriculum are mostly the same.&nbsp; Schools rarely compete to attract and retain the best teachers.&nbsp; Except for the minority of teachers that gain employment through a private or charter school, teachers are largely trapped within a one-size-fits-all system.</p> <p>Not surprisingly, this affects overall teacher satisfaction.&nbsp; A 2007 report from the Independent Women's Forum looked at teacher satisfaction rates across different school systems.&nbsp; Overall satisfaction rates among charter-school teachers were twice as high as private-school teachers and more than three times as high as teachers in traditional public schools.&nbsp; The same report revealed the alarming statistic that public-school teachers indicate that they are twice as likely as private-school teachers to sometimes feel that doing their best is a waste of time and more than four times as likely to worry about job security.</p> <p>Parents should take note.&nbsp; Having a good teacher has been widely documented to improve the results of students.&nbsp; Parents and students would be better much served by an education system that rewards good teaching (through policies such as merit pay), rather than a failing system that demoralizes and frustrates teachers.</p> <p>The key to such an improved system is more choice.&nbsp; Most of the debate about school choice has centered on the policy's impact on students, but teachers would benefit from greater freedom and a more diverse education marketplace as well.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Under the current system, failing schools face little threat of being shut down, it's nearly impossible to fire bad teachers if they get tenure, and schools have little incentive to improve their services for either students or teachers.&nbsp; But increased choice would change all of that.&nbsp; Just as schools would be held accountable for their results and thus forced to compete for students (since parents could easily withdraw their child from a failing school), schools would also be forced to compete over teachers.&nbsp; To attract the best teachers, schools would have to do what other professions already do - offer an attractive mix of salary, benefits, schedule, and assignments.&nbsp; With more options, teachers would be better able to find a situation that fits their individual needs and would encourage them to stay in the profession longer.&nbsp;</p> <p>Teachers have a significantly higher turnover rate than most professions.&nbsp; The current set-up simply is not designed to reward and retain good teachers.&nbsp; Despite the fact that a majority of teachers favor competitive salaries, less than 1% of all teacher pay is based on performance.&nbsp; A system of increased choice in education could do wonders to encourage more competitive salary structures, and hopefully recruit and retain outstanding teachers in the process.</p> <p>Teachers unions should recognize that a more robust education marketplace would be good for their members as well as students.&nbsp; Unfortunately, to date they have been on the wrong side of this issue.&nbsp;</p> <p>Last fall, teachers unions waged a war on school choice in Utah, helping to defeat a ballot initiative that would have implemented a state-wide voucher system.&nbsp; The program would have benefited thousands of students, parents, and teachers, but that didn't stop the National Education Association (NEA) from spending $3.3 million dollars to fight the referendum.&nbsp;</p> <p>The NEA will reportedly spend upwards of $40-50 million in the 2008 election cycle.&nbsp; Teachers would be wise to ask the NEA if they plan to spend any of that money to promote reforms that would improve the future of the teaching profession.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Allison Kasic is director of the R. Gaull Silberman Center for Collegiate Studies at the Independent Women's Forum.</em></p> 20708@http://www.iwf.org Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:05:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) As Alanis would Say, "Isn't It Ironic?" http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20706.html <p>Alex Adrianson at Heritage points to a study that says people who claim to lead eco-friendly lifestyles and who are more conscious of environmental issues take the longest flights.&nbsp; Details <a href="http://www.insideronline.org/blogarchive.cfm?month=9&amp;year=2008#9B542C0E-DD86-600E-B5D464981699A6B9">here.</a></p> 20706@http://www.iwf.org Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:46:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Quote of the Day http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20705.html <p>Courtesy of Mark Sanford in the <em><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/25/AR2008092503602.html">Washington Post</a></em>:</p> <blockquote> <p>An ever-expanding scope of federal commitment and power is not what made this country great. Expanded power in one place comes at a cost in other places. American cornerstones such as individual initiative and an entrepreneurial spirit -- born in free and open societies with private property rights and the rule of law -- have never fit particularly well within the context of an ever-growing federal government.</p> </blockquote> 20705@http://www.iwf.org Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:45:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Because It's Friday http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20701.html <p>I present <a href="http://thechillingeffect.org/2008/09/25/dilberts-director-of-green/">Dilbert's take</a> on companies going green.</p> 20701@http://www.iwf.org Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:49:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Equal Pay and the Election http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20700.html <p>Former IWF Women Who Make the World Better award recipient Karin Agness has a good piece over at Townhall.com looking at the push from the Obama camp to make equal pay a major issue in the 2008 election.&nbsp; Karin points out the misdirection that is too often goes along with politicians talking about "equal pay":</p> <blockquote> <p>The 1963 Equal Pay Act prohibits wage differentials based on sex. Obama, however, is still promoting the idea that women are not paid the same as men because of discrimination. What is he really talking about? While he prefers to talk in generalities instead of specifics as to how he will achieve equal pay, he seems to be advocating "comparable worth," a means to achieve pay equity by requiring employers to pay people in jobs "comparable" to each other the same. For example, a coal miner, a job traditionally fulfilled by men, might be judged "comparable" to a secretary, a job traditionally fulfilled by women, so employers would have to pay people in these jobs equal wages. Advocates for "comparable worth" lost the battle because of the feared consequences of trying to compare jobs. As a result, Obama is pursuing his quest for "comparable worth" under a different label, equal pay. He even cosponsored the Fair Pay Act, which refers to "equivalent jobs."</p> </blockquote> <p>Read more <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/KarinAgness/2008/09/24/obamas_plan_to_win_women_voters">here.</a>&nbsp; Check out the IWF Female Factor on this topic <a href="http://iwf.org/news/show/20694.html">here.</a></p> 20700@http://www.iwf.org Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:38:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Attention DC Residents: Films to Check Out http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20699.html <p>The 2008 American Film Renaissance film festival is hitting the nation's capital on Oct. 1st.&nbsp; The event will include four fun days of liberty-loving feature films, documentaries, and shorts.&nbsp; Highlights of the festival are sure to include:<br />&nbsp;<br />-The world premiere of <em><a href="http://www.doasisaymovie.com/">Do As I Say</a></em> on Oct. 2nd<br />&nbsp;<br />-The world premiere of <em><a href="http://www.thempi.org/cgi-local/film.cgi?f=25">U.N. Me</a></em> on Oct. 4th<br />&nbsp;<br />More information and tickets available <a href="http://www.afrfilm.org/ticket.cfm">here.</a>&nbsp; If you're in the area, I recommend checking the festival out.&nbsp; Last year I went to a few films at the festival, including <em><a href="http://www.calloftheentrepreneur.com/">The Call of the Entrepreneur</a></em> and <em><a href="http://www.indoctrinate-u.com/intro/">Indoctrinate U</a></em>, both of which were fabulous.</p> 20699@http://www.iwf.org Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:47:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) The Female Factor http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20697.html <p>Stay up to date on IWF's election coverage by checking out the latest installments of <em>The Female Factor:</em></p> <p><a href="http://iwf.org/iwfmedia/show/20665.html">#4 - An Erroneous Sex Education Debate</a></p> <p><a href="http://iwf.org/news/show/20694.html">#5 - Supporting Big Government Isn't Supporting Equal Pay</a></p> 20697@http://www.iwf.org Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:31:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) One News Now: Abstinence education not negated by one example http://www.iwf.org/iwfmedia/show/20695.html

One News Now

<p>The Independent Women's Forum says the pregnancy of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's daughter doesn't mean abstinence-only education has failed.</p> <p>National Organization for Women (NOW) president Kim Gandy recently stated that the unplanned pregnancy of Bristol Plain -- the 17-year-old daughter of the GOP vice-presidential candidate -- "highlights the right wing's foolish and dangerous abstinence-only education stance." But Alison Kasic of the&nbsp;<a href="/" target="_blank" title="Independent Women's Forum">Independent Women's Forum</a>&nbsp;(IWF) disagrees.<br />&nbsp;<br /><strong>"The most important thing to remember is that any single instance or any single example isn't proof of anything," Kasic points out. "It isn't proof that this was a horrible sex-education system, and it isn't proof that it was a great sex-education system."</strong><br />&nbsp;<img src="http://www.onenewsnow.com/uploadedImages/Media/Images/sexuality.jpg" border="1" alt="sexuality symbols" title="sexuality symbols" hspace="3" vspace="3" width="104" height="83" align="right" /><br />She also notes that it is not known what type of sex education was taught at Palin's daughter's school.<strong> "Regardless of what is taught, that doesn't guarantee behavior on the student's part," Kasic contends. "So there is [<em>sic</em>] just so many non sequiturs here that it's a little ridiculous that anyone can make those sorts of statements when it's just so far removed from the point of origin."<br /></strong>&nbsp;<br />According to Kasic, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to education, and the debate about the content of sex education is a great example for the need for school choice.</p> 20695@http://www.iwf.org Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:19:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Wildlife Management in Africa (Hint: Incentives Matter) http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20692.html <p>The latest EconTalk podcast&nbsp;features a fascinating discussion between Russ Roberts and Karol Boudreaux on community-based wildlife management in Namibia.&nbsp; Check it out <a href="http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2008/09/karol_boudreaux_1.html">here.</a></p> 20692@http://www.iwf.org Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:07:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Partisanship at UMass http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20691.html <p>From the <em>Boston Herald:</em></p> <blockquote> <p>University of Massachusetts officials yesterday quashed efforts by an Amherst campus chaplain to offer two college credits to any student willing to campaign in New Hampshire this fall for Democrat Barack Obama.</p> <p>Chaplain Ken Higgins told students in a Sept. 18 e-mail, "If you're scared about the prospects for this election, you're not alone. The most important way to make a difference in the outcome is to activate yourself. It would be just fine with McCain if Obama supporters just think about helping, then sleep in and stay home between now and Election Day."</p> <p>Higgins added that an unnamed "sponsor" in the university's History Department would offer a two-credit independent study for students willing to canvass or volunteer on behalf of the Democratic nominee.</p> <p>"It is relatively (easy) to do late add-ons," Higgins wrote.</p> <p>But university officials disavowed themselves of the effort after inquiries yesterday by the Associated Press. They said it could run afoul of state ethics laws banning on-the-job political activity, as well as university policy.</p> </blockquote> <p>More <a href="http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view/2008_09_23_UMass_chaplain_fails_in_effort_to_boost_Barack_Obama_s_chances/">here.</a></p> 20691@http://www.iwf.org Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:55:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) In Case You Missed It http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20690.html <p>IWF's Carrie Lukas had an article over at NRO on Friday about many feminist organization's decision to endorse the Obama/Biden ticket.&nbsp; As Carrie points out, a big reason behind their endorsement is "pay equity." This is an issue that Obama has tackled with a new ad.&nbsp; Unfortunately, the issue is more complicated than Obama or the feminist establishment make it out to be:</p> <blockquote> <p>[Obama] repeats the misleading statistic that women make "77 cents to the dollar a man makes," and charges that McCain opposes "equal pay for women" because he doesn't support giving the federal government the power to regulate private sector wages. <br />&nbsp;<br />One might think the recent news coverage of the gender breakdown of his own staff might cause Obama to consider the problem with these statistics. An analysis of the salaries paid to Obama's staff revealed that his female employees make just 83 cents for every dollar he pays a male staffer. In contrast, McCain's staff includes numerous women in senior management and his female employees actually earn more than their male counterparts. <br />&nbsp;<br />Does this statistics show that Obama, already suspect due to his "sweetie" and "lipstick" comments, is a closet sexist? No. Instead it reveals some of the problems with making these comparisons. The make-up of Obama's staff tells us nothing about the pool of candidates he interviewed or the work that they perform. I'd bet that Senator Obama simply chose the best of those who applied for jobs in his office and negotiated salaries with them, and it just happened that he ended up with more highly paid men. <br />&nbsp;<br />Yet if Obama recognizes the problems with the "83 cents on the dollar" statistic to assess his office, he should also recognize how misleading the feminists' "77 cents on the dollar" statistic is to the American economy. When producing that statistic, the Department of Labor doesn't take into account factors such as occupation, years of experience, hours worked, education, or the many other factors that we all know affect how much someone is paid. Analysis of this statistic have found that the individual decisions that women make - not discrimination - explain the majority of the so-called pay gap.</p> </blockquote> <p>More <a href="http://iwf.org/news/show/20687.html">here.</a></p> 20690@http://www.iwf.org Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:14:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) Looking Back on The Feminine Mystique http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/20689.html <p>Over at the <em>New York Sun</em>, Christina Hoff Sommers rereads <em>The Feminine Mystique</em> and provides some interesting commentary on the book.&nbsp; Check out the article <a href="http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.28647/pub_detail.asp">here.</a></p> 20689@http://www.iwf.org Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:12:00 EDTinfo@iwf.org (Allison Kasic)