Jailing the victim

Op-Ed Columnist

The Wrong Target

By BOB HERBERT

Published: February 19, 2008

It is common in this country for under-age girls engaged in prostitution to be arrested, even though it is a serious crime for an adult to have sex with a minor.

America's future first spouse

Here are two interesting articles on the candidates' spouses. Maureen Dowd has been anti-Hillary from the start, but she makes a good point.

NY Times Op-Ed Columnist
A Flawed Feminist Test
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: February 13, 2008
As a possible first Madame President, Hillary Clinton is a flawed science experiment because you can’t take Bill Clinton out of the equation.

BBC News

The new breed of candidate's spouse

By Kathryn Westcott BBC News

As Americans choose their candidates for the 2008 presidential race, never before have so many spouses battled it out so publicly.

Mrs Obama has been articulate and passionate

The 2008 campaign has seen the role of the political spouse reshaped, with potential first ladies - and one possible first gentleman - more than ever acting as independent surrogates for their partners.

Women as Leaders

I'm backing Obama, but here's an interesting reflection on women in power, published today in the New York Times.

Op-Ed Columnist
When Women Rule
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: February 10, 2008
For women, but not for men, there is a tradeoff in qualities associated with top leadership. A woman can be perceived as competent or as likable, but not both.

Two thought-provoking opinion pieces by Judith Warner

NY Times Opinion

For Clinton and Obama, the Burden of Identity

Published: January 17, 2008

It might be too much to ask voters to look past issues of gender and race.


Emotion Without Thought in New Hampshire

Published: January 10, 2008

If Hillary Clinton's display of emotion did lead to her victory in New Hampshire, it raises issues about the state of American women.

"Bigger than Baseball or Football..."

Op-Ed Columnist

Politics and Misogyny

By BOB HERBERT

Published: January 15, 2008

With Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s win in New Hampshire, gender issues are suddenly in the news. Where has everybody been? If there was ever a story that deserved more coverage by the news media, it’s the dark persistence of misogyny in America. Sexism in its myriad destructive forms permeates nearly every aspect of American life. For many men, it’s the true national pastime, much bigger than baseball or football.

Read the rest here

A subtle form of resistance?

Saudi Girls Gone Wild
from Forbes.com

For all the entertainment value provided by so-called chick lit in the Western world--from Britain's Bridget Jones' Diary to the United States' Sex and the City--fiction detailing the shopping and dating habits of young women can hardly be called revolutionary. It's been around at least since Jane Austen's 1813 classic Pride and Prejudice.

But in a country where "driving while female" is illegal, as is checking into a hospital without a male guardian's signature, a gossipy romance can spark an explosion of political debate. That's what happened when a Beirut publishing house first released Girls of Riyadh in 2005, by 24-year-old Rajaa Alsanea. It was initially banned in her native Saudi Arabia, but young Saudis quickly got their hands on it anyway. They lauded it online, while writers and columnists debated the book's meaning and Saudi talking heads told the author she should disown it.

Read the rest here

Race vs. Gender in the US electoral process

New York Times Op-Ed Contributor
Women Are Never Front-Runners
By GLORIA STEINEM
Published: January 8, 2008
Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life, whether the question is who must be in the kitchen or who could be in the White House. This country is way down the list of countries electing women and, according to one study, it polarizes gender roles more than the average democracy.