21st Century Feminism

Earlier feminists have fought the hard battles against exclusion, against second class status and against common stereotypes.  What is oppressing women today can be encapsulated in the expression: "Give me a reason not to ...."  As in, give me a reason not to hire her, award her, recognize her, etc. 

In 2008, director Kathryn Bigelow's film The Hurt Locker received an Academy Award. Bigelow's ex-husband, James Cameron, a director who was also nominated that year, predicted early on that she would win because she had "such a great personal story."  He apparently couldn't face the fact that her movie was just better than his.  Ms. Bigelow's film Zero Dark Thirty is not expected to win this year due to the controversy over CIA methods.  In other words, there's a reason not to award her film.

Before the home mortgage bubble burst in 2008, a number of well-known women saw it coming and raised an alarm.  The women--Maria Cantwell in Congress, Mary Shapiro at the SEC, FDIC chawoman Sheila Bair and others--tried to stop the train wreck.  But, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who had the authority to address the looming crisis, declined to try to curb the 'froth' in the market.

Men in power simply do not listen to Cassandras or reward them for their foresight.  Remember Sherron Watkins of Enron, FBI agent Coleen Rowdey, and World.Com's Cynthia Cooper?  These three women were named Time Person(s) of the Year in 2002 for trying to stop their respective train wrecks.

In a recent issue of Forbes magazine, which is hardly a feminist tract, an editorial urged the appointment of Sheila Bair as Secretary of the Treasury.  Who did President Obama pick?  He picked Jack Lew, one of those risk-taking cowboys from Citibank who helped create the banking sector disaster and the subsequent worldwide recession.

The president also failed to name Elizabeth Warren to head of the Consumer Protection Agency, despite a clamor for her appointment.  The Republicans in the Senate would give her such a hard time in the confirmation process, don't you know.  He had a reason not to. 

Ditto Susan Rice.  Benghazi gave him a reason not to.

Here is some interesting news from an obscure sociological study.  Thomas W. Malone, who is director of the Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT's Sloan School of Management, spearheads research in the area of group decision making. Researchers are trying to measure the intelligence of groups using the same techniques as those employed to assess individual intelligence. 

Recently on Edge.org, +Malone reported on a study showing that groups including women are more intelligent.  Looking for factors that predict the intelligence of the group, the researchers discovered a significant factor correlated to group intelligence is the percentage of women included.  Malone says, "This seems to be a linear trend, more women are correlated with a more intelligent group...up to all women in the group."

Malone calls this finding "intriguing" and says it "has implications for the way we create groups in the real world."  Ya think?

Consider how much group decision-making occurs in a democratic state! Sisters, let's get the word out about this and start joining groups before someone finds a reason not to include us.