Category — 2 Cents

Here are four thoughts on how gender is playing out in this race:

• WomenForCoakley team member Dr. Nancy Hopkins on unconscious gender biases in voting.
• An e-mailer’s perspective on Joan Vennochi’s Globe column about the Massachusetts Old Boy’s Network and David Bernstein’s  Boston Phoenix‘ response about women benefiting from that network and yet still getting less than 15% of new elected slots.
• Howie Carr ’s Boston Herald column on henpecked husbands.
• Yours truly on the “babe” and “get a room” comments by Jim Braude and Margery Eagan on NECN

For details, keep reading. [Read more →]

One would think that after last night’s debate there would be plenty of fodder for today’s newspapers. Issues like Afghanistan, Health Care, Human Rights, and the Economy are the first that come to mind. With topics as important as these to be discussed and debated it would make sense for Boston’s leading newspaper to address each candidate’s position wouldn’t it? Well, it’s too bad that they were more preoccupied with Coakley’ shoes to find anything more substantive to write about.

I find this article by Alex Beam of the Boston Globe to be absolutely infuriating both as a woman and as a professional. Beam goes into alarming detail about Coakley’s chin positioning, the brown of her suit, and the youthfulness of her Mary Janes. It seems as though he is suggesting that if she wins she will be winning because, as he said, she is a “babe” and solely for that reason. Never mind the fact that she is an accomplished strong woman and public servant who will win the nomination because she is the most deserving. It seems that some men will never be able to see past a pretty face, and that truly is what saddens me the most about this deplorable article.

On December 8th let’s stand up to these men. It’s time to put substance over hemlines and show men like Beam that a woman truly is the best person to do a man’s job.

Go ahead, call me low brow.  There were many moments during the debate when Martha clearly outshone her opponents.  And yet, the debate moment that I will remember most came during a question about a second stimulus package, when Capuano said:

If you made me emperor, I would raise taxes on the wealthiest people in America… [Read more →]

Herald reporter Lauren Beckham Falcone today called Coakley an “ice queen” and a “mean girl” for declining to answer a campaign finance question during a press conference about her work as AG. I wish I could rant about how shocking it is for women to use gender-based slurs in order to demean other women, but sadly, it happens all too often. So, in commenting on this I’m going to skip over Falcone – about whom this incident reveals truth, and skip over Coakley – about whom this incident reveals nothing. Rather I’ll focus on the women whom this incident actually hurts: women who have no newspaper column, no press conferences, no voice. [Read more →]

Tomorrow morning Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress release a study on the status of women, and in today’s Time magazine (pictured here) Shriver writes about the “Unfinished Revolution”: [Read more →]

I have a legacy. I may not be from a prominent political family and I do not have a public platform to stand upon, but my legacy is important.  It is the legacy of the women who helped build our nation. [Read more →]

This is not an easy question for me to answer. It is not easy because it is hard for me to put into words what an incredible woman she genuinely is. Words like honest, ethical, caring, deserving, tough, inspirational all apply but they don’t seem to be enough. That is what sets her apart from all the other candidates that are currently in this race. She is the only truly qualified candidate and we would be lucky to have her representing our interests as the first woman Senator from Massachusetts. [Read more →]

We’ve got a great group of women at work supporting Martha Coakley.  One of our teammates, MIT biology professor Nancy Hopkins, has just been published at Huffington Post.  Please surf over to HuffPo, read the entire post, and send the link to a friend.  Meanwhile, here’s my favorite part:

Why is it that when someone suggests gender diversity as an asset of a job candidate, the reply is often “Oh no, I’m only interested in merit”. Yet name some other quality needed for the position, and the idea of merit is assumed, not questioned. [Read more →]

I’ve seen Martha Coakley speak twice.  Both times, she energeticly asserted that if she were a senator, she’d fight to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.  I haven’t been following Coakley’s career closely, but apparently, she’s no newcomer to the equality fight.  In Bay Windows today, state Representatives Sarah Peake and Carl Sciortino endore Coakley and explain: [Read more →]

In Hillary Clinton’s historic run for the Presidency, Massachusetts was the most telling primary. The three most powerful men in the state, Senators Kennedy, Kerry and Governor Deval Patrick endorsed Barack Obama yet Hillary still won the state by over 15 pts. The old boys club failed to fool the voters. They saw the best candidate and voted for her. [Read more →]