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Flirting With Jail? 400 Egyptian Teens Arrested For Flirting

LibertySugar — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:30:13 -0800

A not-so-playful police sting in Cairo netted about 400 teenage boys accused of flirting with girls. Just yesterday, law enforcement rounded up the underage wannabe-seducers in front of schools, universities, or other public places where teens hang out. The teens will most likely face fines.

While a crackdown on innocent flirting seems oppressive, something beyond prudish attitudes motivated the sting. Egyptian women deal with an extraordinary amount of sexual harassment and assault in public. In Egypt, two-thirds of men admit to harassing women in public.

Last month, an Egyptian court handed down a sentence of hard labor and three years in jail for a man convicted of groping a woman in public. Now it looks like officials want to teach younger males a lesson before they graduate from flirting to groping. Do you think the Casanova roundup will work?

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5 Ways to Be More Productive at Work

SavvySugar — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:15:48 -0800

Thirty-five percent — that's how much productive work the average woman does in an eight-hour day! Women's Health broke down the typical work day in its December issue and found out what we are doing with the remaining 65 percent of our time: Email, 20.83 percent; looking for stuff, 18.75 percent; interruptions, 12.5 percent; Internet searches, 12.92 percent.

Most of you said that you never sign out of your personal email during the work day, and those who do sign out log back in a few times throughout the day. So, we're pretty much all guilty of that one, but what about the other time-sucks that detract from our productivity? Women's Health came up with 20 ways to avoid these traps, and I've selected their best ideas to share with you. Check them out when you

City of Love Issues Manual to Stop Forced Marriages

CitizenSugar — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:00:50 -0800

Paris, the universal capital of love and romance, created a manual on forced marriages this week to help officials spot and prevent cases of young women being forced into matrimony.

An estimated 70,000 young women in France are victims (or potential victims) of forced marriages, according to a government study. City officials who conduct weddings often don't know how to deal with their suspicion — clearly they haven't spent time in Vegas! — so the city created some guidelines.

What are telltale signs? The 32-page book lists clues like when "middlemen fill in the required documents ahead of the wedding, when the woman does not appear at the city hall at any point before the wedding day, or when there is a big age difference between the man and the woman". It also notes signs like bridal distress or submission to relatives, brides that can't answer questions clearly and brides that don't know their fiancé's personal history.

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Where the Ladies At? Fewer Girls Going Into Computer Science

CitizenSugar — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:30:15 -0800

The number of girls interested in computer science peaked in 1982. Yes, 26 years ago, before people even had computers at home. After a sharp decline, it held steady until 2000 and now it’s at an all-time low — back to where it began in the early ‘70s.

Why? That was the funny part of the New York Times article "What Has Driven Women Out of Computer Science." Nobody actually knows. But everybody speculates! Here’s what was said:

Before the male subculture of gaming, women felt more comfortable pursuing computer science.
The girls game movement of the '90s backfired: It made girls think computers were boy toys and girls didn’t play with computers.
Women went into web design so it all evens out. Nope. Web design and other “nontraditional” forms of computer science don't count to the people counting. The pay is less and the work is less influential on how computers are used.
The perception of being a “geek” or “nerd” that comes with majoring in computer science The theory? Girls don’t want to be that person. I know a geek who would disagree!

The one thing everyone can agree on is that the younger girls are when introduced to computers, the better. Expect to see video games for newborns soon!

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First Female Four-Star General For US

CitizenSugar — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 09:00:43 -0800

Ann E. Dunwoody became the first woman ever to achieve the rank of four-star general in the US Army on Friday, after 33 years of service. At the ceremony Dunwoody, 55, said she is shocked to make history in a male-dominated military. She said:

"Thirty-three years after I took the oath as a second lieutenant, I have to tell you this is not exactly how I envisioned my life unfolding. Even as a young kid, all I ever wanted to do was teach physical education and raise a family. It was clear to me that my Army experience was just going to be a two-year detour en route to my fitness profession. So when asked, 'Ann, did you ever think you were going to be a general officer, to say nothing about a four-star?' I say, 'Not in my wildest dreams.'"

To watch a clip of her touching acceptance speech,

Glamour Picks Its Women of the Year: Who Is Your Pick?

SavvySugar — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:30:33 -0800

Hillary Clinton, Nicole Kidman, Condoleezza Rice, and Jane Goodall were just some of the remarkable women honored at Glamour's 2008 Women of the Year awards Monday night. The rewarded ladies were recognized for their various accomplishments and contributions, from trailblazing opportunities to spreading environmental awareness.

Glamour asked its readers to nominate their own personal heroes for a Woman of Your Year contest, and the winner was 25-year old cancer survivor Rachel Lozano who battled the disease throughout her teenage years. Now she's studying art therapy so she can help sick children. Check out the video for highlights of the big event and then tell me, who is the woman of your year?

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Smart Cookies Make Money Issues More Manageable

SavvySugar — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:30:43 -0800

It may not feel natural to be transparent about your finances, but five Vancouver women have shown that being honest with others about your financial situation can make you feel more accountable for it. The Smart Cookies money club started as a group of women conversing about personal money issues and the lessons learned from their time together have been turned into a book, The Smart Cookies’ Guide to Making More Dough.

Andrea Baxter gathered four other women together to form the money club in 2006 after she'd accumulated $18,000 in debt beyond her mortgage, and in two and a half years the five members have helped get everyone on track and keep them there. As reported by The New York Times, the Smart Cookies' meeting agenda follows the same format every time: Good news from every member, a spending check-in, individual debt reports, brainstorming about how to make more money, a discussion topic that someone has researched, and goal setting.

Does a money club sound appealing to you, or is it too much sharing for your level of comfort?

Thank Your Uterus? Women Pay More For Health Insurance

LibertySugar — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:00:00 -0700

Affordable healthcare should be of particular importance to women this election season, as new insurance-company data dissected in today's New York Times reveals that women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies providing the same coverage.

When women (who have lost their jobs or do not receive employer-based insurance) shop for an individual plan, they are offered higher premiums than men. Insurance companies explain that this makes total sense because women 19-55 years old cost more, for reasons such as childbirth. However, even women without maternity coverage get charged higher rates. To see why,

Even in Human Resources, Men Make More

SavvySugar — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:00:40 -0700

Human Resources departments are dominated by women 70 percent of the time, yet men in the field dominate when it comes to salary. The pay gap between male and female HR executives trickles down to every level of the department: In 2007, the median salary for male HR managers was 47 percent more than female paychecks, while male rank-and-file employees took home 28 percent more than their female counterparts.

One HR consultant assumes the gap could be blamed at least partially on the fact that many men in HR were executives at other firms who were recruited to their roles and enticed with the hefty compensation they were already earning. It is interesting that the people in charge of our payroll and employment issues have their own very visible gender wage-gap.

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Hasselbeck Campaigns for Palin: Is the Clothes Issue "Sexist?"

CitizenSugar — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 07:39:46 -0700

Is it the metaphoric "Emperor's New Clothes" of the campaign or just blatant sexism in disguise? The seeming wardrobe malfunction of the McCain campaign, the $150,000 spent on outfitting Gov. Palin has been elevated from campaign curiosity to full-blown talking point. This weekend the View's Elisabeth Hasselbeck campaigned for Palin in Florida where she addressed the furor over the cash spent on costuming the family for the convention. Hasselbeck admonished the attention paid to the price saying, “Now, with everything going on in the world, seems a bit odd. But let me tell you, this is deliberately sexist.” Her point being more or less, 'Hey Joe! How much did your suit cost?'Either ironically or pointedly, Hasselbeck continued the gendered theme as she made her case for Palin saying, “Did I mention that this woman, she’s got a real knack for cleaning. She cleaned up house in Alaska. Yup. All that corruption went out with the trash.” Hasselbeck concluded, “It’s getting hot up here, and I promise you, when it gets hot in the kitchen, she may be from Alaska, but this woman can take the heat.”

Palin continued to address the sartorial snafu yesterday saying, "This whole thing with the wardrobe, I try to just ignore it because it's so ridiculous. Those clothes, they are not my property, just like the lighting and the staging and everything else the RNC purchased. I'm not taking them with me. I'm back to wearing my old clothes from my favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska."Is the very fact that the issue has to be addressed on the campaign trail, clear proof that it's sexist?

Hasselbeck Campaigns for Palin: Is the Clothes Issue "Sexist?"

Yes! She needed an appropriate wardrobe. She's not keeping it, and the men get a pass?

The whole issue is ridiculous: the amount spent, the attention paid to it — stop it!

No! The amount spent important as it's contradictory to her whole argument, not sexism.

Other. I'll outfit my opinion in the comments.