Who's Family-Friendly?

The Mercury News says that the California legislature is getting more family-friendly, in part because more members have school-age children and, in the words of one woman lawmaker, "You have these guys who are like 'Wait a minute, this is an issue,' because they're seeing it up close." Not yet up to speed, according to Senator Tammy Duckworth on Cosmopolitan.com, are the nation's airports, which need to provide appropriate space for breast-feeding moms. Meanwhile, Detroit Metro Times tells us one Michigan state legislator found, when she brought her two-year-old to a meeting, that some constituents hadn't yet gotten the memo about being family friendly.

 

Where are the Women?

Not in appointed positions in the current administration, we learn from The Guardian. They tell us that President Trump has chosen men for 80% of nominations so far, making for the "most male-dominated government in decades."

 

Candidates, Present, Future and Absent

Two women in the U.S. House of Representatives have their eyes on U.S. Senate seats.  Rep. Marcia Blackburn (R-TN) is looking at the seat being vacated by Sen. Bob Corker, per The Hill, while Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) has joined Democrats challenging Sen. Jeff Flake, as reported by azcentral.com. In Boston, women of color have already started to reshape local politics, says WGBH.org. Looking ahead, The New York Times finds Democrats encouraging women to run for state attorney general posts, where women remain scarce. (Look up the numbers on CAWP's fact sheet, Women in Statewide Elective Executive Office 2017.) But ABC News says that Republican women are not rushing to run in the way that Democratic women have in the wake of the 2016 election, citing as one reason a paucity of support systems for Republican women candidates.

They're Already Leaders

 

Who Decides How Women Vote?

The Guardian fills us in on research by Oregon State University's Prof. Kelsy Kretschmer  confirming a theory espoused by Hillary Clinton--that straight white women are apt to take guidance from their fathers, husbands, boyfriends or male employers about how to vote. "The key distinction, according to Kretschmer's research, is that single women tend to cast votes with the fate of all women in mind, while women married to men vote on behalf of their husbands and families (the study was based on a poll of straight women conducted in 2012, before same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide, and draws no conclusions about marriages where neither partner is a man)."

 

No Comment

Sometimes the right comment is no comment at all, at least when it comes to sexist behavior. Examples: The New York Times on the delicate feelings of men in Silicon Valley with regard to women there; a report from CNN and a follow-up opinion piece on a Republican congressman's description of his female colleagues as "eye candy"; news from The Cut about how Senator Elizabeth Warren, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, is being treated in the media.