The online estrogen revolution

Sitting in her backyard in Tampa, FL., Angie Jackson is filming a YouTube video on her laptop. Looking directly into her webcam, she says, “I am having an abortion – right now.” Already the mother of a seven-year-old boy, Jackson’s first pregnancy was extremely difficult – she almost died during delivery. When Jackson, 27, found out she was pregnant in February, she automatically knew she wanted an abortion; her method of choice was an RU-486 pill which induces a miscarriage. An avid user of social media websites such as YouTube, Blogger and Twitter, which connect you with people virtually, it felt natural to want to share her abortion experience.

“I’m live Tweeting my abortion on Twitter. Not for some publicity stunt or attention or to justify this with myself, I am at peace with my decision,” continues Jackson. “I’m doing this to demystify abortion so that other women know, hey, it’s not nearly as terrifying as I had myself worked up thinking it was.” To date, the video has had over 149, 371 views on YouTube, a video-sharing website.

Jackson’s use of Twitter really caught mass attention, both positive and negative. Twitter is a website that lets you send 140-typed-character messages known as “Tweets” to people who subscribe to your profile. Jackson started the hashtag #livetweetingabortion which allows users to search and follow all messages mentioning the tag. Within two days of starting her live-Tweets, Jackson had 110 new followers and currently has 2,630. After posting messages such as “Cramping a bit. Feels more squirmy than painful if that makes sense. #livetweetingabortion #notsoscary” Jackson received numerous death threats from people who oppose abortion. She has also gotten an overwhelming amount of support and admiration. “I’ve had women e-mail who have never told anyone about having an abortion before and they literally had them 20 or 30 years ago. They’re not sorry it’s just not safe to talk about socially,” she says. For Jackson, knowing that her online abortion documentation is making positive effects on women makes it all worth while.

Like Jackson, all across Canada and the U.S. feminists are using social media to forge online-connections with other women, making a rapidly growing online feminist community. According to a 2008 study by comScore Media Metrix, community-based women’s websites were one of the fastest growing websites that year. Some have dubbed this the “online estrogen revolution.”

Hailing from New York City, Jill Filipovic, is a young lawyer who writes for Feministe, the oldest feminist blog, between the wee hours of one and four a.m. Filipovic is infamous in the blogosphere for her witty approach to news and pop culture. Harbouring the U.S. Midwest is Gina Crosley-Corcoran, a law student, mother and feminist blogger. Based in Chicago, she runs the Feminist Breeder, a blog dedicated to feminist moms, where she tackles issues like the right to breastfeed in public and the injustices of having forced C-sections. Down south in California is Feminist Fatale a pop culture blog by Santa Monica College women’s studies professor Melanie Klein. Jetting north to Toronto is Broadsides, a feminist blog by Toronto Star columnist Antonia Zerbisias who has a knack for news analysis and calling out politicians on their blatant sexism.

These are just a few of the women in the quickly-growing cyberfeminist pack. But these women aren’t just blogging about every day mundane things; they’re using social media as activist tools and are forging a new form of feminism that is distinctly different from past generations.

“When I was younger it was very difficult to find people who were like minded unless they were in your immediate circle. So there was a sense of being limited by the impact you can make,” says Klein. “But now we have a forum where we can publish our own voices, we can organize, we can protest, we can within minutes circulate flyers and newsletters and letter writing campaigns and that’s incredible. I think it’s really opened up the world of activism and community.”  

Entering the femisphere

What we know as feminism today was originally popularized in the late 1800s when women known as suffragettes fought to get the vote, with the movement ending in the 1920s. A resurgence happened in the late 1960s as the second wave of feminism was in full force with a focus on wage equity, equal access to jobs and reproductive rights. In the 1980s, feminism saw a focus on diversity and anti-racism work. This third wave had more creative types of activism with the inclusion of a punk-rock aesthetic through women identifying as riot grrrls.

Now, feminism is in a grey area. There is no single cause to rally under but by the click of a button and a simple Google search of “feminism,” you get the golden ticket into the “femisphere” where there are feminist blogs about everything from queer rights, to anti-racism, to disability activism, to pop culture criticism and more. I was first introduced to the femisphere from my work with McClung’s, a feminist magazine based out of Ryerson University where I am currently the co-Editor-in-Chief. As a young feminist, I found comfort in knowing that there are many of other like-minded women that I could have political debates with; something I don’t have in my off-line life. For Canice Leung, a former editor of McClung’s who also pens “Fourth Wave” a column for Metro where she is the web editor, feminist blogs are making the politics more accessible.
“When people say things like, ‘blogs are so apathetic and what are they really doing?’ that’s such a close minded view because the world is changing in the way we get our information. Everyone has to start somewhere whether it’s political activism or wanting to be a journalist – it all starts with one tiny thing,” Leung says.

The internet is changing feminism

Similar to the consciousness raising groups of feminism’s second wave where women would get together and talk about political issues and plan actions, feminist blogs act as a gateway for people not familiar with the movement. Most feminist blogs are written in everyday language making chalked-up theoretical rhetoric understandable for everyone. The concept of virtual feminist communities, however, is not a recent phenomena. The term “cyberfeminist” was coined by Australian art collective VNS Matrix in 1991 before the popularity of the internet grew like wildfire. Similarly, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, riot grrrls took to the web and created e-zines – websites like online magazines with more of an emphasis on artistic than professional. E-zines such as disgruntledhousewife.com – which published from 1996 to 2008 – featured sarcastic imagery of the 1950s housewife archetype and had diary-like written entries, sex advice, pictures of friends and more.

Feminists have been using the web for political purposes for over a decade now but it is only recently with the blogging explosion that this once relatively small niche has quickly expanded. In 2008, BlogHer – the largest female blogging community publishing 2,500 blogs by women – reported that every week, 36.2 million American women partake in the blogosphere. Up north, in 2005 Statistics Canada found that 68 per cent of Canadian women were using the internet.
For Judy Rebick, a pioneer Canadian feminist and former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, social media has changed traditional methods of activism.

“In the past, [we] had to rely on the mainstream media, and the filter of the mainstream media, to get to people. Or we put out our own newspapers which got to a very tiny group of people. So social media gets to way more people than any social movement’s ever been able to get to,” Rebick says. “If you put something up on Twitter or Facebook, it can go viral and get to way more people than you could’ve ever reached in old ways.”

In an attempt to show the cross-section of old-style feminism and social media, the first-ever conference about feminism and social media, Fem 2.0, was held in Washington, D.C. in 2009. For conference organizer Katie Stanton, this was a chance to show different feminists their similarities and how to work together.

“I think that organizations like NOW (National Organization of Women) and organizations like Feminist Majority have to understand that if they’re not online, the people they’re trying to reach out to are,” says Stanton. “They need to make an effort to connect with those people. There are millions of women who are online and who are talking and care about these issues.”

Some of the ways feminists are fostering online connections are by linking to each other’s blogs, having guest bloggers, leaving comments and hosting blog carnivals, which is when multiple blogs write about the same issue on a specified date, creating an online buzz and helps them share traffic. But the easiest way of creating an online connection is through Twitter.
“The most powerful thing on Twitter is a re-Tweet,” says Stanton. “When you post something interesting, you are posting it to your network. When someone in your network finds that interesting and re-Tweets it, they post it to their network. That’s potentially hundreds of people with a single re-Tweet. So that’s a very valuable tool in terms of spreading your message and getting people to be engaged in the conversation and then they’ll come back to you for more.”

Although social media has helped raise awareness about feminism and women’s issues, there’s still the concern of creating an echo chamber, says Nona Willis Aronowitz, author of Girl Drive: Criss-crossing America, Redefining Feminism. For an entire year, Aronowitz and her co-author Emma Bee Bernstein hit the roads of America and interviewed over 127 women asking them how they think and feel about feminism. The end result is over 200 pages of distinctly different voices trying to grapple with what feminism is. Along the way, they started the blog girl-drive.com and although the blog helped them garner attention and meet new interviewees, Aronowitz recognizes that social media isn’t necessarily the best way to have an intergenerational conversation about feminism or with conservative women.

Can re-Tweets beat protesting on the street?

“You can shut your laptop if you don’t want to hear this stuff,” she says. “You can never Google the word feminism or never read a feminist blog. I think social media, social networking is key to saving feminism but it can’t be the only way that feminists interact and have these discussions.”

Even Samhita Mukhopadhyay, the executive editor of Feministing, arguably the most popular feminist blog, recognizes the limitations of online feminism. Noting that not everyone has access to the web, she suggests that all feminists join campaigns for universal broadband. “Right now there’s so much internet legislation that’s so new, it’s a key time to voice your opinions,” she says.

For most online feminists, forging a connection between their online and offline work is important, as it is for Stanton. After the Fem 2.0 conference, their conversations continued on the blog and they recently wrapped up a campaign about women and work issues. They invited several different community workers to get a diverse collective of voices on hot topics like sick leaves and job accessibility. Even though the campaign was a success, online activism needs to be combined with on-the-ground initiatives.

“Being online and new media is about creating relationships with people and it’s a great opportunity to take the time and do it,” Stanton says. “We tend to forget the women who aren’t online – there is a digital divide – and I think that part of the feminist movement should be focused on reaching out to people face-to-face doing community work, doing international work,” she says.  “A lot of people are online but not everybody, not by a long shot.”

Cross-posted with permission from Tweeting Feminists by Ronak Ghorbani. Find her on Twitter.

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Fem2.0 is thrilled to announce that we have been given a grant to take the next step – to change the way work and families are discussed in our society, to shift it away from privileged "work/life balance" perspectives to one that better reflects the reality on the ground for millions of working families. We need this shift if we want policy makers to take working families seriously and act on legislation about such issues as paid sick days, healthcare, child and elder care, equal pay, etc.

As you know, Fem2.0 is about connecting today’s issues and women’s voices, using the Internet to promote better policies for our families and society. In February of 2009, we held our first conference, where bloggers, activists and many others gathered to discuss, dream and conspire about how to exercise the power of women on the Internet to change the world. To remind you about how much energy we generated, here are a few comments about the event:

"I was lucky enough to be part of the Inauguration – on the Mall with my newest 1.5 million friends watching history change in front of our eyes. Well, I didn’t realize that, just a few short days later, I would have the same sense of being part of history, of being part of a change that has the potential to impact millions. In this case, it is as I listen to speakers at the Fem2.0 conference on how women’s presence on the web is already affecting not just women’s issues, but everyone’s issues."

AAUW Dialog, 02.02.09

"To say the energy there was exciting is an understatement, the momentum began with the plenary and took off from there.  We are all deeply committed to the advancement of women’s rights in all areas."

Girls Just Wanna Have Funds, 02.03.09

"In Washington, DC, members of feminist organizations of long standing and feminist members of the blogospere met face to face for the first time. Now comes the hard part: to see what each group might offer the other… At the least, leaders of national women’s rights groups and the founders of fast-growing feminist blog sites gathered in the same room. That in itself was a first. And a major accomplishment, says Shireen Mitchell of Digital Sisters, one of the organizers of the Fem2.0 conference held in early February in Washington, DC… The mainstream women’s groups, aided by feminist policy groups and think-tanks, have a huge role in shaping legislation that affects women’s rights; the bloggers have far less of a direct role. Many of those at the Fem2.0 conference hadn’t realized that some of the women’s rights proposals they were backing had been drafted by the feminist women’s groups. That was one of the eye-openers at the conference, and bloggers sent in hundreds of requests for the list of top priority legislative initiatives that the mainstream groups had been working on."

truthout, 02.11.09

 The grant challenges the Fem2.0 community to demonstrate our commitment and our will to make a difference. Our job will be to disseminate commissioned research and guidelines on how to participate in the work narrative to get it where it needs to be, and to use the guidelines in a collective action that will flood the public space with opinions and real stories that shout: WAKE UP, THIS IS THE REALITY!

Over the next few weeks, Fem2.0 will be organizing and lining up our troops in preparation for the action, which will begin to unfold sometime in November. We’ll have more details later.

If you are interested in getting involved now, contact us at info@fem2pt0.com or Tweet us.

In the meantime, limber up, flex your muscles and get ready to kick some Internet ass!

Pumped up and ready, your organizers,

Joanne Bamberger

Heather Holdridge

Shireen Mitchell

Gloria Pan

Katie Stanton

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Meanwhile, Fair Pay Day came and went, and the commentary from the other side was…unbelievably infuriating.

Michael Tomlin of the Idaho Business Review said, "What these and other supporters of the ‘Equal Pay Day’ theory want is for underachievers to be paid the same as their achieving counterparts."

gotribe2007, commenting on an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, said, "If women want to make the same amount as men, then they should become escorts."

Fem2.0 says: Fair Day Day is longer than 24 hours, and WE NEED YOUR VOICES! We need women on these articles commenting back! See here for more details.

This Sunday, our Twittercast turns to something more uplifting. Women’s eNews is partnering with Fem2.0 on a conversation about leadership.

Fem2.0 Twittercast Topic: Leadership
May 3, 2009, 10 PM EST
To join twittercast, see here.

The Sunday night chat will be moderated by Women’s eNews Marketing Associate Charlotte Cooper, and Founder and Editor in Chief Rita Henley Jensen may join us as well.

In the conversation starter, Charlotte asks: "Where do we need leadership today? Which sectors of women’s lives – health, work, safety, etc  – need more representation? Who’s already amplifying women’s voices?"

If you have some ideas about what the Fem2.0 community should Twitter about, let us know!

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This piece is part of a blog carnival on women and work. Gloria Feldt blogs at Heartfeldt Politics.

There has been a marked change in the estimate of [women's] position as wealth producers. We have never been ‘supported’ by men; for if all men labored hard every hour of the twenty-four, they could not do all the work of the world. A few worthless women there are, but even they are not so much supported by the men of their family as by the overwork of the ‘sweated’ women at the other end of the social ladder. From creation’s dawn. our sex has done its full share of the world’s work; sometimes we have been paid for it, but oftener not.

 

 Any idea when this statement was made? OK, a clue: I recently ran across it in a speech given by Harriot Stanton Blatch at a suffragist convention–in 1898.

Blatch went on to raise issues much like what Ai-Jen Poo said at the "Unfinished Business" program 111 years later,  what Moms Rising has organized itself to organize the troops about now, and what dozens if not hundreds of bloggers will be talking about this weekend over at Fem 2.0:

 Unpaid work never commands respect; it is the paid worker who has brought to the public mind conviction of woman’s worth…If we would recognize the democratic side of our cause, and make an organized appeal to industrial women on the ground of their need of citizenship, and to the nation on the ground of its need that all wealth producers should form part of its body politic, the close of the century might witness the building up of a true republic in the United States.

Yep, don’t agonize: organize. Band together to make the workplace and worklife such that people of both genders can both earn a living and have a life. This is the necessary next wave of the feminist movement, one in which both men and women must participate. Because these days, men want to participate in their children’s lives as women have always done. Family-friendly policies benefit everyone. But many if not most men are afraid to take paternity leave or a sick day to take care of an ailing child. And those not in paid employment, as well as the growing number of freelancers and caregiving workers, often have no health care benefits or paid sick days.

As the workplace moves ever closer to gender parity because employers need the skills of both men and women; as the ailing economy moves ever closer to one in which both partners must work outside the home to make ends meet, and as the cultural power balance between partners becomes increasingly equalized because of growing parity in income generation, the work that both do at the office or at home–or in someone else’s home–must be valued and supported accordingly.

Let’s not still be having this debate another 100 years hence. Check out the campaigns over at MomsRising.com to find out how you can help make the needed changes.

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There was a curious divide that was palpable, but few people to bridge it.  Maybe that was the point, but it would be nice to find a few people who understand all sides of the equation.  Not sure who they are, to be honest.  The DC influence weighed heavy. I think there would be a very different feeling in another city, for what that’s worth.
 
I like that you’ve continued the conversation on Twitter after the conference and created the wiki. Let’s continue to do more things like this to stay connected.
 
More hands on deck and more $$$$$
 
I was surprised at the lack of media coverage and public relations. I was surprised that there was no list of feminist bloggers and/or websites handed out.
 
I think for a first time event, you rocked it. Thank you for letting me involved.
 
Earlier notification for planning purposes.
 
Here are my suggestions that I posted on my Kiamsha.com: That Which Awakens Me blog on February 8: A. Post 2009 Fem 2.0 Conference – What’s Next Suggestions   1) To continue the Fem 2.0 dialogue, I think we should host community calls on Talkshoe.com or Blogtalk Radio because it allows people with or without technology to participate by telephone or online. It also gives us documentation of our conversations which others can listen to when they want to. 2) Invite women’s magazines, social networking sites, sororities, service organizations, mother’s organizations etc. to participate in the community calls as speakers, panelists, and participants. B. Preparing for 2010 Fem 2.0 Conference Suggestions 1) Liberate ourselves from the traditional conference model by designing a meeting model that honors both the left and right brains and includes self-care and space for creative expression.  2) Offer a pre-conference day devoted to five core areas: – feminism, womanism, and women’s concerns – diversity in women’s community building,  – how women of color use social media tools in their lives and work,  – using self care in the work we do,  – using creative expression to tell and document our stories  3) Include some form of movement in all sessions . 4) Use circles and other room setups that promote community and open dialogue when meeting space can accommodate the changes.  5) Offer creative and healing space for expressive arts (collage, drawing, journaling etc.), Reiki healing touch, chair massage, and chair/eye/mouth yoga.   6) Limit the use of Twittering on a wide screen during sessions because it could cause distraction and information overload. 7) Simplify our conference agenda topics so that we invest more time on a few core areas that will generate deeper sharing and dialogue. Consider using the unconference model from She’s Geeky conference for some sessions. Text taken from She’s Geeky conference: What is an unconference? Beginning at 9am each day, we start with a blank wall and create a multi-track conference agenda that is relevant and inspiring to everyone. Rooms are assigned to each topic and participants attend sessions they are interested in. Notes from each session are collected and a book is compiled with all the notes from the conference and distributed to everyone who attends.

Creating space for movement, interaction and self care. More opportunities to address differences and connect cross them.  Room setup – circles instead of theatre style seating.
 
Great job and great diversity of people and ideas.
 
Next time there should not be a focus on just two organizations (Now and Feminist majority), they are a small part of the picture. Wasn’t sure whether Fem 2.0 was put on by them, but felt like big promotional thing for them. The heads of those groups represent the past not the future.
 
I feel there should have been more action involved at the end of the conference. Overall, it was very inspiring, uplifting and motivating but lacked the action to make a change. You all had about 250 feminists in one room and let them go without an action.
 
More understanding of search engine optimization – how do you build traffic? A clearer understanding of how people have learned this medium. More collaborations showcased…take an issue and show all the people in the ‘space’. Creating and distributing an actual directory of people there.
 
The panel talks were wonderful subjects- too wonderful! I felt as though I was missing out by choosing one session over another. Limiting the choices for attendees would be greatly appreciated.
 
I’m glad you’re doing the wiki and the tweetchats as extensions of the conference.  Conferences are good energizers, but what happens after is more important. Linking the conf. to after is always a challenge & we need to do it better, in our own way, not aping what has been done.  We actually have to reinvent the wheel in some areas of communication.
 
You all did a great job. There is just lots to do. The venue was great.
 
There really needs to be more women of color planning this conference…i felt that while there were plenty of women of color speaking in the conference, it was still from a middle class white perspective behind the scenes.
 
Great job to all you organizers – a totally inspiring day!
 
I thought it was well organized.  Maybe there could be an action plan to create more intergenerational opportunities on an ongoing basis.
 
Not being a new media person I was very pleasantly surprised by the efforts you made to bridge the gap between what many of us practice (not new media) and those on the cutting edge. Keep up the good work!
 
Keep it cheap and open. The twittering on the screen was clever yet distracting.
 
Provide a laptop volunteer note taker at each breakout to post notes for full access.
 
Keep the quality of presenters as high as you did. Keep the fun (energy) up.
 
Keep sharing your experience and web information. Thanks.
 
Cost will be a factor for me – and a lot of other folks – as to whether I can attend. Both my husband and I are out of work but I’m hoping that will change soon!
 
The ability to participate in more breakouts.
 
Online access was difficult. The wifi was fine, but plugs… not so much. I ended up in the back in every break out session & then the GWU people kicked me out of the auditorium when I tried to plug in in the back.
 
Great group of people. Maybe inviting some candidates and/or electeds would be inspiring and add to the pull for the event.  Low cost was extremely helpful for coming in from out of town.
 
Really really enjoyed the conference. A plus experience. Amazing ad hoc gathering. It had a more spontaneous alive, invigorating feel to it than a traditional conference. Worth giving up the tight ship, typed handouts, power point presentations for shooting from the hip, less hierarchical power tripping that can happen when we have too much time to plan things…. WELL DONE!!!!
 
Make clear that children would be welcome and figure out babysitting (GW education students?) ahead of time.  I know many activist moms who can’t make it w/out help with kids.  Thought lunch was great, thanks so much for voucher!  Wish we had a more organized way of sitting with other attendees to maximize lunchtime networking.
 
This conference did not meet my expectations. Calling a conference Fem 2.0 made me believe it would be about the future of the women’s movement and feminism, and using Web 2.0 and new medias and technologies to propel the movement, network, collaborate, and create activism. The women’s movement is behind the technological revolution and is not appropriately using Web 2.0 to its full advantage; we are already behind. I thought this conference would be about bringing the movement online and up to date. I was severely disappointed. This conference was largely off-topic, irrelevant, and dated, unfortunately. Many of the participants were completely unfamiliar with the offerings of technology today and how these mediums can be used by women to propel our collective activist efforts.
 
Specific plans for action would make the conference more effective and worthwhile.
 
Great diversity among the organizers led to great diversity of topics, attendees. How you start is how you end up.
 
Less use of twitter "Unconferences" aren’t really that new, and I’d think a wiki to support generating session ideas, logging who’s coming and why, and helping to produce a prototype of what the conference can extend would help. Maybe it was because I didn’t put in the commitment of travel for the Women Who Tech conference — but I didn’t end that day still wondering "what were we here for?"    But maybe I just wasn’t one of the folks who should have attended. Thanks for the prompt to go back and review some notes — it was a valuable day, I just haven’t figured it all out yet.
 
At times, the Twitter feed displayed behind the presenters during the plenary was somewhat obstructive to what was being presented.
 
I would have loved more time to meet and chat with attendees.
 
One less plenary, and one more breakout session
 
Engage student activists more–reach out to students (college, law, grad) not working at organizations but still doing important feminist activism within their schools or on their own.
 
The exact purpose/justification of Fem 2.0 is unclear to me, as is the intended relationship between the majority women’s groups and the bloggers they bring. It seemed to me that Feminist Majority and NOW got hours of free, excellent tech consulting out of the event (which I am very grateful for, because I got to listen in) but it’s unclear whether the event actually developed a stronger relationship or convinced those groups of the worthiness and usefulness of bloggers and the online world.  And it’s unclear whether bloggers and everyone else there are coming to educate those groups or for their own education. It was useful to me, but that felt like an ancillary function.
 
I thought it was great. Definitely not enough time for networking, especially given that some people traveled from outside of DC and it was hard to follow up. I also thought the breakouts were great but the moderators were more focused on speaking personally about themselves or their experiences than they were actually keeping a panel on track. I thought it was a great day though! Thank you.
 
Try not to cut breaks if there is technical difficulties. Is it possible to make parts of the opening shorter if this occurs? George Washington was a great place to have Fem 2.0!

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On February 19, the topic of the monthly Internet Advocacy Center Roundtable at the Center for American Progress was Feminism2.0. Organizers Shireen Mitchell, Heather Holdridge, Liza Sabater and Gloria Pan, and key participants Latifa Lyles of the National Organization for Women and Jessica Arons of the Center for American Profress Fund, were invited to share insights and lessons from the conference. With Dr. Alan Rosenblatt moderating, a good time was had by all.

Check out the video, here.

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While societal attitudes have certainly come a long way in the last 50 years and there are more opportunities than ever for women, gender parity has remained elusive. That’s because we’re still inhabiting a social infrastructure — the thinking and culture and standards of practice that dictate how things are done, especially in venerable old institutions like the government — bequeathed to us by the Founding Fathers. Since then, the infrastructure has grown into sprawl and strengthened into sclerosis, its heft allowing only so much adjustment to make room for women, the Feminist Revolution notwithstanding.

Consider American diplomacy. It has a distinctly masculine way of looking at the world, reinforced by the way the State Department, the military and other government services do research, produce reports, hold regular meetings, approach issues, etc., because that’s the way those things have always been done. Without the will to review and revise the way those things "have always been done," there could only be slow and painful evolution, not real change to enfranchise women, no matter how many of us joined those ranks.

According to the White House press release, the Council will "provide a coordinated federal response to the challenges confronted by women and girls and to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact women and families." Initial Council members will comprise the entire Cabinet, including the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense and Homeland Security, as well as the US Ambassador to the United Nations, the United States Trade Representative and the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. Wow.

The Council will be chaired by White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, with White House Office of Public Liaison Director Tina Tchen serving as executive director. Jarrett, of course, is the official Old Friend in the White House, which means she’s got Obama’s ear. Before practicing law in Chicago, Tchen was state vice president of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for Women and was one of the leaders in writing and lobbying successfully for the Illinois Criminal Sexual Assault Act. Tchen was apparently so effective a NOW officer that then-President Ellie Smeal begged her to put off law school. "She’s really one of our own," the political director of a major women’s advocacy organization told me.

The Council’s first order of business will be to ask each agency to analyze their current status and ensure that they are focused internally and externally on women. With such a direct, public, and point-blank approach, and the agencies answerable to two no-nonsense women exercising their power straight from the inner circles of the administration, there should be little wiggle room for foot-dragging or obfuscation, though we should expect the usual raft of excuses when we start seeing some results.

During its first year, again from the press release, the Council will also focus on the following areas:

Improving women’s economic security by ensuring that each of the agencies is working to directly improve the economic status of women.

Working with each agency to ensure that the administration evaluates and develops policies that establish a balance between work and family.

Working hand-in-hand with the Vice President, the Justice Department’s Office of Violence Against Women and other government officials to find new ways to prevent violence against women, at home and abroad.

Finally, the critical work of the Council will be to help build healthy families and improve women’s health care.

Again, wow. It’s like a fairy godmother found the feminists’ Christmas list and decided to grant all the big-ticket items.

We did not have the tools to begin dismantling an obsolete government infrastructure, erected by men to serve the ways of men. By establishing the White House Council for Women and Girls, it seems that President Obama has given us those tools. But the Council’s existence does not mean that women can finally relax; we know too well that only we can be our own best advocates. The President has exerted his will from above, and it’s up to women to continue to express our will from below, from the grassroots; there’s lots of ground to cover before the two sides can meet. And since the Internet has freed women’s voices from every cranny of society, we have no excuse to be absent as the Council carries out its work. More than ever, we must use our blogs, discussion lists, Facebook pages Twitter, and every other digital avenue to speak up, comment, challenge, suggest and scold. It’ll be our only guarantee that those tools from the President won’t get rusty with disuse.

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Read on for Marc’s explanation of his topic and what he wants to explore. Bring your questions, comments and thoughts to the Twittercast, where he’ll be guest-moderating! (Follow him on Twitter here.)

–

"I was born a poor black child…”

No, wait, that’s from “The Jerk”…

“I was a male mommy for thirteen years…”

Due to a quirk of capitalism, I had the good fortune to be a full-time, stay-at-home, single dad.

A Co-op parent, PTA President, prayers every night, shelved books at the school library, baked cookies for birthdays, soccer mom, mommy. Not quite a Mom Mafia mommy, but still.

My daughter’s an A’s & B’s junior at Sidwell now, a crew captain, a 2000 SAT fashionista, so it didn’t seem to ruin her any…

And now I want to talk about mommying and feminism.

I went to the “Moms Coming Together for Equality” break-out session. I had a lot to say. I didn’t say anything.

I listened, instead.

And I heard my opinions expressed. After the initial presentations, a very estimable leader of a well-respected “women’s” organization stood up and told the panel (I’m paraphrasing, but pretty closely):

“We don’t ever refer to any of our activities by gender. We never consider ourselves to be anything other than gender-neutral. Why would you characterize yourselves by child-rearing? In our society ‘mommy’ is considered a diminutive, slightly demeaning term. The only person who should call you a ‘mommy’ is your child…”

To which several of the panelists replied (I’m paraphrasing, but essentially),

 “Well, we are aware of that school of thought, but basically we believe that in our society ‘mommying’ has a certain cachet, like puppies and baby seals, and if we can use that to advance our causes, such as sick leave and ‘maternity’ leave, then we’ll use mommying to its best advantage.”

Now to me, that’s playing the gender card. I mean, it may be a useful short-term strategy, but ultimately, it’s gonna leave you segregated and separate but “equal.”

To me, it seems clear. If you define feminism as the proposition that there should be no broad-based societal roles defined by gender, then it seems to me that “mommying” is inherently a subversion of feminism.

I mean, really, isn’t our challenge to live each day as if the Equal Rights Amendment was the law of the land? And how can we do that if we insist on defining societal roles by gender – if we insist on defining ourselves by a set of actions and characteristics that we cling to as gender-specific and “special.” As in, “mommying — isn’t that special…”

Here’s what I think happens when we insist on defining our political or social roles using terms like “mommying” or “daddying”:

1. You ghetto-ize yourselves by setting up a notion that there is a domain that is “yours” by right of gender. Do we really want women to "go there," or, should I say, "stay there?"
2. You infantilize your arguments – literally. By stating that you are gender-based stewards of infants and not full-powered citizens acting on behalf of what’s best for all of society, you are treated as a “special” interest group.
3. Obviously, by setting out an area of human endeavor as “yours” by right or dint of gender, you are clearly stating that these issues and actions are not “theirs” – and giving men a pass and another chance to miss fully realizing and acting on their responsibilities. Why ward off men with Mommies Only drinking fountains?
4. Worst of all, this totally plays into a conceptual framework of patriarchalism that sets up women as “naturally” nurturing, eternally maternal, an "unspoiled" resource always available for exploitation. It reinforces the stereotype that female parents are mommies, and not fully in this "real" world.

Come on, hasn’t everyone struggling with the ‘Working Mom" dilemma had enough of this struggle? It’s vestigial. For the sake of everyone we’ve got to move past "mommying."

My daughter and her peers are uncomfortable with the term "feminist," in part because of the false dichotomies the "ideology" seems to present. Mommying is definitely one of them, in that ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t" sort of way. Her peers seem to have more faith in their ability to share opportunities and obligations without resorting to gender-based distinctions.

Leonard Cohen said “…the great struggles pass away like smoke, and then we are left with the real struggle that takes place in the living-room and in the bed-room… But you know it’s true when they say that there won’t be free men until there are free women.”

I’m waiting to be freed. Like Gov. McKeithen used to say… “won’t ya help me?”

Marc Chimes is a writer/producer. He came to DC in 1981 as a political consultant working with Matt Reese. Over the years he’s worked in grassroots lobbying, geodemographics, issues management, political and public affairs TV production, PR and Web 2.0 endeavors. He’s also been a PTA President, Room Parent, Parent Peer-to-Peer Chairman, Green Acres School Governance Task force member and Sidwell Parents Association participant.

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Survey

We’ve recently opened a survey about the Fem2.0 conference for anyone who participated, and we want to hear from you! The most important outcome of the conference was the energy and sincere desire among participants to stay connected and begin working together for change, so the most important question on that survey is whether or not we can share your contact information. So can we?

Please respond to the survey and at least give us permission to add your name to the Fem2.0 contact list, a list of contact information for participants. But of course we also ask you to complete the rest of the survey so we know how to do the conference better next time!

This Week’s Fem2.0 Twittercast

Topic: Power – What Is It? Who Has It?
March 1, 2009, 10 PM EST
To join Twittercast, see here.

What do people associate with power? How do they experience personal power, political power, sexual power, economic power or any kind of power they know from firsthand experience?

This is the first of two Twittercasts on this theme. In a subsequent discussion, we will look at the problems that arise when people think about women as a class taking power, or taking power individually. This has not been scheduled yet, so look out for details.

March 8 Twittercast: Mommyism, Daddyism and Feminism

Heads-up – Fem2.0 Wiki Is Almost Ready!

We’ve been hard at work setting up a wiki for the Fem2.0 community. This will be an online collaborative space where people can work together on various projects or even launch their own projects. We are very, very, very close to being ready for launch, so look out for more information AND your invitation!

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One could surmise that women continue to be evaluated as objects, evaluated by their sexual appearance and reproductive capabilities.

Really ladies when you think about it, have we ONLY come this far in the last 100 years?

This was just one of the questions discussed at the Feminism 2.0 conference where we came together to identify the various methods we can use to inject feminism into popular culture and combat the objectification of women. If we want to stop the continued objectification of women we need to:

1. Stop being our worst enemy. Women need to be cognizant of their public image and stop perpetuating negative stereotypes. Case and point, in just 30 seconds Danica Patrick, was reduced from a talented IndyCar driver to simply a sexual object in the GoDaddy Superbowl Ads.
   

2. Support women who are currently involved in the media and generate great content. Demonstrating support for our colleagues will help them remain in the media spotlight as well as boost their confidence. Show your support by sending positive feedback to the news station, publisher, newspaper, etc.,
   

3. Be a Mentor and introduce more women into the conversations. Let’s face it, the news is primarily generated and communicated by white males; by leveling out the gender ratio we can impact the social agenda and how women are represented in popular culture.
   

4. Don’t be a bystander. If a something is entertaining, we watch it. Unfortunately many images in the media reinforce the objectification of women, it’s subversive! Sitting back and watching simply reinforces the imagery and buys into the system. Affect change, where negative images exist, write a letter of protest, take it to the blogosphere, stop watching the show or using their products.

In the crowd of smart, talented professional women, all feminists, many of us were found guilty to some degree of perpetuating the objectification of women. I can tell you first-hand that there has been more than one weekend where I have glued myself to the television to watch the Rock of Love or Flavor of Love marathons and even the Duggar family specials on Discovery.

So knowing what I know now, what will I do to do my part and end these negative stereotypes?

I will continue to encourage women to be cognizant of their public image. I will continue supporting women making news in the media, featuring them on my blog and sending kudos to their employer. I will continue mentoring women in marketing and video games so that it increases women entering these fields. Last but not least, when I see strong female characters that I identify with, I will write to the television shows so that they are motivated to bring on more personalities like her.

About Tina Tyndal

Ever since I started bragging about working at a comic book store, my close friends dubbed me “Queen of the Nerds” and I wear the title proudly. I’ve been a gamer for life, starting with the Atari 2600 ending to the latest generation consoles. My favorite material possessions include my mint in box game and watch collection, consoles and various gamer shirts I’ve collected through the years.

The zombiepocalypse, comic books and the latest tech toys round out my list of obsessions.

XBLA/PSN/Steam: Bawdess
WOW: Prissywissy
 

Cross-posted with permission from Gaming Angels

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