gender

Week in Review: Jan. 31 – Feb. 4

Joy BaconLeave a comment

*Week in Review is a weekly post that highlights some of the major stories related to gender issues this week. Some of these stories may have already appeared in our News Feed or in the week’s Gender Checks. We’ll at times include a longer analysis of stories as well as bring attention to stories that may have slipped through the cracks of the week’s news cycle.

Healthcare legislation

This week the GOP moved forward with its plan to dismantle Obama’s healthcare plan by focusing on portions of the legislation dealing with federal funds for abortions. On Monday H.R.3, named  the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” introduced language that would redefine the terms under which a woman could receive federal funds for an abortion after rape or incest. The proposed change aimed to limit funding to pregnancies resulting from “forcible” rape. After criticism from several groups, a spokesman for Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), one of the bill’s authors, said the word “forcible” would be dropped. He told the Washington Post Thursday that lawmakers decided to change the term because it was being “misconstrued.” The bill will now revert back to the language already in place through the Hyde Amendment.

The Hyde Amendment*, originally passed in 1976, governs the current uses and restrictions of federal funds used for abortions. Federal funds cannot be used except in cases of rape, incest, or when a mother’s life is in danger. It also bans abortion funding for women on Medicaid, women in the military or Peace Corps, and those who receive medical care from Indian Health Services. The bill proposed by Smith and other sponsors will make the restrictions set in place by the Hyde Amendment a permanent appropriations law. Currently it has to be recodfied in appropriations each year.

Planned Parenthood also took the spotlight later in this week’s news cycle after undercover videos showed employees giving medical advice to men posing as pimps of child prostitutes. One worker was fired as a result of the tapes. Some members of Congress are using the videos as momentum to remove all federal funding from the organization under H.R.614.  Live Action, the group responsible for the videos, claims staff turned a blind eye to sexual trafficking and exploitation of minors.

Thursday, 27 groups sent a letter to Congress in support of Planned Parenthood, including the NAACP and Sierra Club. “Right-wing groups are once again attempting to destroy an organization dedicated to providing crucial primary care services to Americans that need them most. Armed with heavily edited videos, countless lies, and a shameless echo chamber that repeats unfounded accusations ad nauseam, they’ve now turned their sights to Planned Parenthood, which offers a range of important health and reproductive services,” the letter reads (as taken from POLITICO excerpt).

According to its website, over 3 million men and women received health-related services from Planned Parenthood’s 820 health centers last year, including 1 million Pap tests and 4 million tests and treatment for STDs. Three percent of all Planned Parenthood health services are abortion services. Currently the organization does not receive federal money for any of its abortion services.

In Other News

A study released this week showed that after 10 years, Wikipedia’s contributor base consisted of less than 15 percent female authors.  The disparity also shows up in the emphasis of posts by male vs. female authors. Sue Gardner, the executive director of the foundation, has set a goal to raise the share of female contributors to 25 percent by 2015 (as reported in the New York Times).

*The link to the full text of the Hyde Amendment was taken from the National Right to Life website. The site provided the most easily accessible link to the original legislation, but is not in any way an endorsement of this group or its stance on this issue. Whenever possible the Gender Report tries to link to original sources and primary documents or otherwise fully cites any reprinted quotes or information.

Gender Check: 2/5/11 – South

Joy BaconLeave a comment
*Gender Checks are quick examinations of gender representation in individual news articles for the purpose of discovering trends over time. Click here to read more.

Website: The Miami Herald

On the Miami Herald, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3 p.m. (EST) on Saturday, Feb. 5 was titled “Florida: Did bank rob us?” Its subject was a pending lawsuit against a New York-based bank for allegedly defrauding the state’s pension fund.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Female – state attorney general (as quoted from a released statement)

2. unknown- spokesperson

3. male – lawyer (declined comment but still mentioned by name and title)

4. unknown- spokesperson

5. male – former executive director

6. male – governor of California

7. male – businessman

8. male – lawyer

Notes/analysis: This story was taken from the St. Petersburg Times, for which the reporter is a full-time writer. A large portion of the article’s information or statements came from officially released statements or other public statements. Few of the parties involved went on record for separate interviews.


Website: Patch (Seminole Heights)

On Patch of Seminole Heights, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3:15 p.m. (EST) on Saturday, Feb. 5 was titled “Point Guards Excel at Chamberlain and Tampa Catholic.” Its subject was a weekly feature on a male and female athlete from the area.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Female – coach of female athlete featured

2. Male – coach of male athlete featured

Notes/analysis: In a rare change of pace for a sports feature, the female athlete is highlighted first in this post. Of the three photos accompanying the story, one is of the female basketball player, but the male photo is the home image.

Gender check: 2/3/11 – Midwest

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

*Gender Checks are quick examinations of gender representation in individual news articles for the purpose of discovering trends over time. Click here to read more.

Website: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (stltoday.com)

On Stltoday.com, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 4:30 p.m. (MST) Thursday, Feb. 3, was titled “Metro seeks termination of bus driver in fatal St. Louis crash.” Its subject was an incident earlier in the day in which a 60-year-old woman died after being run over by a bus. The male bus driver did not realize it happened.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Female, metro spokeswoman

2. Male, witness (unnamed)

3. Male, police officer

Notes/analysis: This story is evolving and being constantly updated, but it’s interesting to note at this point that though the female source is the first referenced (in the lede), she’s not named until much later in the story, after the other two sources (both male) are mentioned.


Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 4:30 p.m. (MST) Thursday, Feb. 3, was titled “Companies, lawmakers battle ‘antidumping’ tariffs on magnesium.” Its subject was an anticipated U.S. International Trade Commission vote on continuing tariffs on imports of magnesium and its impacts.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, company vice-president of operations

2. Male, general manager of different die-casting company

3. Female and male, two U.S. Senators in a letter

4. Male, U.S. Senator

5.  Male, a company president

6. Female, marketing director

Notes/analysis: This article relied heavily on upper management sources within die-casting companies.

Gender Check: 2/2/11 – Northeast

Joy BaconLeave a comment
*Gender Checks are quick examinations of gender representation in individual news articles for the purpose of discovering trends over time. Click here to read more.

Website: The New York Times

On The New York Times, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 5 p.m. EST on Feb. 2 was titled “Clashes in Cairo between Mubarak’s Allies and Foes .” Its subject was the developing violence of protests in Egypt.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Males (three bylines)

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. female – unidentified Egyptian

2. male – president of Egypt (cited from television address)

3. male – president of United States (cited from pubic speech)

4. unknown –  unidentified Egyptian official

5. male – press secretary of United States

6. male – prime minister of Britain (cited from official statement)

7. male – opposition leader in Egypt (cited from official statement)

8. male – health minister of Egypt (cited from AP interview)

9. male – Egyptian who attended the protests

10. male – unidentified Egyptian who attended the protests

11. male – Egyptian

12. male – Egyptian demonstrator

13. male – Egyptian demonstrator

14. male – unidentified military spokesman

Notes/analysis: Previous posts and links have explored the joint roles both men and women are taking on in the Cairo demonstrations. Accompanying the lead story was a photo slide show of the demonstrations. Of the 18 images, one subject is female.

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 5 p.m. EST on Feb. 2 was titled “The Real CSI: How America’s Patchwork System of Death Investigations puts the Living at Risk.” Its subject was America’s mortuary and autopsy practices are raising concerns in the criminal justice system. The story was produced in conjunction with Frontline and NPR.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: 3 male, 1 female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. male – forensic science consultant

2. male – coroner

3. female – medical examiner, author of report used for basis of story

4. male – doctor performing an autopsy

5. male – doctor

6. male -doctor and colleague of earlier source

7. female – civil rights attorney

8. female – sibling of autopsy recipient

9. unknown – unidentified assistant district attorney

10. male – family member of victim of incomplete autopsy

11. male – coroner and former police chief

12. male – forensic pathologist

13. male – sibling of autopsy recipient

14. male – Undersecretary for Forensic Science and Technology

15. male – Arkansas chief medical examiner

16. female – Kentucky chief medical examiner

17. male – former chief medical examiner in a Texas county

18. male – investigator in Oklahoma

19. male – forensic pathologist

20. male – former homicide detective

21. female – family member of autopsy recipient

22. male – investigator in Los Angeles

Notes/analysis: Deceased recipients of the autopsies mentioned in the story were not included in the source breakdown of the story, as they are not directly quoted. One of the seven accompanying photos, taken from the Frontline documentary, has a female subject.

Week in Review: Jan. 24-28

Jasmine R. Linabary1 Comment

*Week in Review is a weekly post that highlights some of the major stories related to gender issues this week. Some of these stories may have already appeared in our News Feed or in the week’s Gender Checks. We’ll at times include a longer analysis of stories as well as bring attention to stories that may have slipped through the cracks of the week’s news cycle.

State of the Union

President Barack Obama gave his second State of the Union address Tuesday, discussing a plan to “win the future.” Media outlets focused in on key issues in the speech such as investing in education and infrastructure to stay competitive with other nations as well as working to reduce the deficit.

The blogosphere was a”twitter” with commentary, including some women who noted the absence of certain social issues. During their #sheparty discussion on Twitter on Wednesday, the Women’s Media Center asked what the take was on Obama’s speech. Commenters noticed missing issues such as equal pay, violence against women and abortion.

Also observed was the coverage of the speech. A post at Feministing provided a roundup of commentary on the address, noting at the end that it was “virtually impossible to find any female pundits commenting on the SOTU on the nation’s most notable progressive media outlets.”

At the same time, the Women’s Media Center released its report card for Obama on the state of the union for women and children, giving him an overall pass “with room for improvement.” Obama’s lowest grade on the report card, aside from some incompletes, was a C for appointing women. It cites the Center for American Women and Politics and notes that Obama appointed women to fill seven of 22 existing cabinet or sub-cabinet positions, or approximately 32 percent. The high for women was under President Bill Clinton at 42 percent. It also partly holds Obama responsible as a leader of the Democratic party for the lack of women running in recent elections. Quoting Katherine Kleeman with the CAWP, the report card notes, “the Democrats aren’t putting as much effort as the Republicans into grooming great women candidates at the local level.”

In other news

Also this week, women were part of the dialogue on the situations on Tunisia and Egypt. N’Dri Assie-Lumumba, a professor of Africana Studies at Cornell University, has noted that women are playing significant roles in these social movements. She says, “Even if African and Middle Eastern women don’t always have easy access to public platforms to express their ideas and voice their opinions,… they have consistently constituted a formidable and determining force in the struggle against any system of oppression.”

Here are a couple articles to check out if you’ve missed them.

-NPR: “In Tunisia, Women Play Equal Role In Revolution”

-AFP: “Tunisian women fear Islamist return”

-Guardian: “An eyewitness account (by a woman) of the Egypt protests”

-Daily Beast: “Egypt Revolution: the Purity Protests” (Women increasingly taking part in the politics of the street)