Smaller than Before: The Politics of Post-Partum Bodies

[Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Dr. Jessica Zucker,a licensed clinical psychologist in Los Angeles specializing in women's health with a focus on fertility, prenatal and postpartum adjustments, attachment, and transitions in motherhood. Learn more about Jessica at her website. 


This story is part of a new, ongoing series of guest posts about motherhood. Visit IMOW's new online exhibition MAMA: Motherhood Around the Globe at mama.imow.org ]

Flickr/ huberson

A close friend of mine from graduate school was in town over the weekend, someone I hadn’t seen since I was mid-way through my pregnancy. As we briskly walked toward each other, arms outstretched, brimming with wild enthusiasm about our long overdue rendezvous, Amalia blurts out from across the toddler trafficked park, “Oh my God, look at you, you don’t even look like you had a baby! You’re smaller than you were before.”

I wasn’t sure how I felt as we hugged, in the midst of awkwardly digesting her jubilant albeit off the cuff comment about the apparent erasure of my pregnancy. The embrace was cut short as she gently pushed me back to scan every inch of my postpartum body, unable to contain her energized description of how “little” I look, how “tiny” I am – spilling with words she defines as every woman’s dream. Or more to the point, every woman’s goal.

I want to be marked, in some way, by pregnancy, by the birth of my child. This is not to say that I would have wanted to maintain all the weight gained during pregnancy, but I do feel the body as well as the mind/psyche/heart go through a series of metamorphoses as life is being nourished inside and outside of the body.

Women are constantly shamed for their shape. Prepartum, postpartum, and never-partum. All but the smallest sizes are viewed as less than, not driven enough to surveil every morsel of food ingested, not vigilant enough to carve out time for daily workouts. Even women I know who do embody the cultural ideal – trotting around in the smallest sizes the jean manufacturers are producing these days- even they don’t feel at home in their bodies.

The droning laundry list of things that women say about how they “got their bodies back” include and sadly are not limited to: “breastfeeding is definitely what made the baby weight fly off”, “I got the food delivery service straight away. I was determined to return to my pre-baby wardrobe as quickly as possible and that way I didn’t have to think about what I was eating, it was done for me”, “I started counting calories while in the hospital. I was surprised by how long it took for the weight to come off but I feel like it’s the only thing I can control right now so my focus is sharp”, “not even a moment goes into thinking about my food intake. I guess I lost it all while running after my rambunctious toddler. He never gives me a break.”

Amalia is freshly married, 38, ambivalent about having kids. As she blithely puts it as she considers raising a family, “I could take it or leave it.” The ubiquity of psychological disconnection and body disenchantment is illuminated in Amalia’s detailing of my presence. My physicality is noticed first. My size is experienced and discussed in relationship to banishing pregnancy. The absence of body change is asserted as an enviable compliment. Meanwhile, my darling toddler is resting on my hip and I look into his eyes knowing that he grew inside of me and together we altered the feel and shape of my body. And then I think to myself, “Why would we want to erase that?”

Amalia provoked me to reflect on hundreds of fragmented interactions I’ve had with women since my baby was born. Women who are mothers themselves, women dying to get pregnant, women who share their horror of giving birth, “getting fat”, “staying fat”, women who asked me how much weight I gained while pregnant, my own mother reflecting on her speedy loss of “baby weight” and curious about why mine wasn’t slipping off as quickly. The dynamics of women and what we unwittingly do to each other is devastating. Paralyzing. A cultural vestige all too pervasive.

And then of course we are inundated with endless magazine images of emaciated post-pregnancy “stars” who “got their bodies back instantly.” They pontificate about the various ways women must expunge maternity. The pride taken in shrinking one’s body at any cost is emblematic of a cultural obsession with women not being real women.

The intimacy I experienced with my body and my developing baby during pregnancy was perhaps the most compelling transformation I have ever known. It became, in a way, a metaphor for how I feel about parenthood—a striking awareness of loss of control, simultaneity of surrendering to change on a moment-to-moment basis while experiencing more joy and more fear than the heart can contain. Pregnancy and parenthood invoke an unprecedented heightening of anxiety—excruciating awareness of vulnerability, altering one’s perspective on the fragility of life, as well as a depth of love that redefines the concept. Why would we erase all of this complexity– the physical and psychological makings and markings of pregnancy and parenthood?

I am not necessarily idealizing the experience of pregnancy. I’m not saying women should necessarily enjoy gaining weight, being tattooed with stretch marks, or relish the postpartum belly jiggle. I am attempting to call attention to cultures calamitous requirement that women erase the life giving process.

As Amelia and I make our way through the throngs of sweaty and spirited toddlers and exit the park, she turns to me and reiterates, “You’re so lucky, you look exactly like you did before.” There’s a pregnant pause. And I say, “Actually, my body’s changed from having a baby, and that is why I’m lucky.”


Dr. Jessica Zucker is a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles specializing in women’s health with a focus on transitions in motherhood, perinatal and postpartum mood disorders, and early parent-child attachment. Dr. Zucker received graduate degrees from Harvard and New York University. Jessica is an award-winning writer and is a contributor to The Huffington Post and PBS This Emotional Life. Dr. Zucker is currently writing her first book about mother-daughter relationships and issues surrounding the body (Routledge). Jessica consults on various projects pertaining to the motherhood continuum. www.drjessicazucker.com

Lactivists Across the US Fight to Breastfeed in Public

The Milk Truck of Pittsburgh (via Gizmodo)

Lactating mothers that feel breastfeeding is a public right seem to have been coming out of the woodworks and are more vocal than ever in recent days.

In August, a Utah woman blogged about a negative confrontation by Whole Foods staff after she had tried to feed her child there. One social media campaign led to another, and soon a “nurse-in,” or the lactating mother’s version of a “sit in,” was established at 20 stores across the country. Whole Foods has since issued a public apology.

And just last month, a woman shopping in a Texas Target location said employees harassed her after she had breastfed her screaming infant in a secluded corner of the store. This spurred more than 100 nurse-ins in at least 35 states; and after 250 or more national demonstrations, Target Corporation issued a statement welcoming breastfeeding. Especially in the fitting rooms: “…even if others are waiting to use the fitting rooms,” claimed the apologetic memo.

They call themselves “lactivists,” or, more memorably, “NIP (Nursing in Public),” and, in case you haven’t caught them at a big box chain or major grocer near you, you may soon find them on wheels.

At least in theory, that is. An ice cream truck with a giant erect breast on its roof has been roaming the streets of Pittsburgh, PA as a safe haven for the lactating mother in need. Jill Miller, an art instructor at Carnegie Mellon, designed what’s known as the “Milk Truck” to come to the rescue of mothers wishing to nurse whenever they feel shunned publicly. The Truck, while not exactly practical for every breastfeeding mom in Pittsburgh, was part of the Andy Warhol Museum’s 2011 Biennial exhibit, which ended January 8.

As symbolic as the Milk Truck may be, the community support was overwhelming: Miller’s kickstarter campaign to launch the truck racked in more than $15,000 to start up, and the Pittsburgh City Council named Sept. 13 "Milk Truck Day."

A city proclamation declared: "Whereas, the Milk Truck…believes babies should be able to eat anywhere and everywhere; and … be it further resolved."

On a national scale, the Surgeon General issued out a call to action to support breastfeeding in January of last year. Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin said: "Many barriers exist for mothers who want to breastfeed. They shouldn’t have to go it alone."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that while 75% of US babies start out breastfeeding, only 13% are exclusively breastfed at the end of 6 months. According to the call to action, breastfeeding protects babies from infections and illnesses like diarrhea, ear infections, and pneumonia. Breastfed babies are also less likely to develop asthma, and those who are breastfed for six months are less likely to become obese. Mothers themselves who breastfeed have a decreased risk of breast and ovarian cancers.

It wasn’t until 1999 that a US federal law was enacted to specifically address mothers wishing to breastfeed in public, but it only protects women wishing to feed in a federal building or a federal property. There are no stipulations for private organizations and properties that include retail stores and restaurants, although some states are passing laws for further protection.

In Canada, a 1989 Supreme Court case held that, since pregnancy was a condition unique to women, discrimination against women on the basis of pregnancy is a form of sex discrimination.

The most recent battleground for public breastfeeding? The streets of Sesame. That’s right, one of the nation’s most beloved children’s shows has now been targeted for failing to support breastfeeding women. So far, more than 30,000 people have signed a petition to bring breastfeeding back to Sesame Street.

Have women ever felt safe breastfeeding their babies in public? And if not, are these “lactivists” just the beginning of a new feminist movement?

The Artist, Top Golden Globe Winner

This past weekend, I finally watched The Artist, and was fascinated by the movie's themes; in particular, The Great Depression and the increasingly unstable nature of human "value" in modern culture. Set amidst the early 20th century box office shift to "talkies," the film examines the familiar romantic territory that characterized early cinematic narratives -- plaintive looks, ecstatic eye contact at unexpected moments -- overall, the film successfully recreates the optimism that Americans so desperately needed by the late-1920s.

Director Michel Hazanavicius must have aimed to recall a specific moment in American history, but this time may be repeating itself. His film is a nod, undoubtedly, to a new way of cultural conditioning, yet one that had been building up for years and continues. From the bank bail outs to the ongoing Occupying, money remains forefront in our minds. From unemployment rates to who we consider our presidential hopefuls, wealth and (self) image can evoke strong emotions and outcomes -- both then and now.

As my friends and I sat and watched the drama unfold, we secretly hoped that the male protagonist, George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), would finally "forgive" the female lead, Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), for her powerful position -- she rose to fame as his own career was fanning out. This was the only aspect of the film that I hoped would be more progressive. "Please don't let it become a film noir that warns that all women are evil," I thought to myself. (While fun to watch for their melodramatic content, we don't need to revamp that message!)

Without giving the end away, I can honestly say that The Artist's power dynamic is resolved in a satisfying way. In fact, I would say it's version of a silent film, and that's good. In addition, don't be scared away by its experimental silent film format -- it's a treat to watch, and there's just enough sound (including a charming ending note by George) to hold your attention.

As we exited the theater, my friend looked at me and sighed in relief. Without saying too much, we both agreed that right now is a great time for a happy ending. I'll even go a step further and say that this welcome story isn't "slight" by any means, as described previously in Slate magazine. Yes, it's a movie nerd's fantasy, complete with obvious nostalgic film references, but it's also progressive for the extremely vocal co-star standing up for her rights in the opening scene, the self-made and likeable female star that Bejo brings to life, and for the overt warning to avoid clinging to status symbols in modern society, especially because often the public is not right.

Ultimately, the film critiques social knee-jerk reactions, such as "trending," traditional pride in gender roles, and the Warholian nightmare that is celebritydom. Taking a few steps back isn't always pretty, yet Hazanavicius manages to make it so.

Women Cloth Dyers of Mali

Image credit

The Republic of Mali in Western Africa, with a population of roughly 14.5 million, is bordered by Algeria on the north, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire to the south, Niger on the east, Senegal and Mauritania to the west and Guinea on the southwest.

Internationally, Mali has established a reputation of being an exporter of high-quality fiber. However, despite being Africa's second largest cotton fiber producer (Egypt is the first), globalization and competition with players like China, the United States, Pakistan, India and Uzbekistan has made it difficult for the country to capitalize on its natural wealth both locally and internationally.

As a land-locked country, these obstacles are furthered complicated due to insecure roads, ports, and an inefficient rail system, all of which create high prices for air freight because it is the only means for delivering products.

Carving a Niche with Tradition

Mali's rich textile and leather heritage includes spinning and hand-weaving as well as dyeing, garment design, and tailoring along with embroidery.

In the early 1970's, a group of Malian women dyers re-ignited the hand-dyed cloth industry throughout West Africa with innovative designs and use of vibrant colors.

Tapping into their creative spirit and inspired by beauty and economic survival, these self-empowered African women turned traditional hand-dyed bazin, which is an imported polished cotton, into a lucrative economy.

Bjork's "Biophilia" Captures the Curious Wonders of Nature

Artwork for Biophilia. Image via Bjork's Facebook page

Bjork's latest album Biophilia is a celebration of nature's wondrous capacity to create, destroy, evolve, and adapt. At a time when the reality of life on planet earth is grim--the increasingly dramatic effects of climate change, food shortages in developing countries, destruction of wildlife habitats--Biophilia reminds us there is still much to appreciate about our planet, and sings about earth and its ecosystems with whimsy and wonder. The song 'Crystalline' is about crystals growing beneath the earth's surface, and invites the audience to "listen how they grow."

'Mutual Core' takes a more somber tone, as Bjork compares the movement of the planet's tectonic plates (an earthquake) to shifting one's sense of self in order to be compatible with a lover: "You gave it all/ tried to match continents to a seasonal shift"

Be Your Own Critic: Andrea Fraser & Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz

Recently, I was reading an article in ARTnews about the burgeoning trend in art circles that has been described as "poking fun at art-world inequities." Carolina A. Miranda pointed to the practice as a potentially enlightening process for both the artist and viewer, and cited Joe Sola. Sola's philosophy is multidisciplinary and borrows heavily from film history in order to animate his own perspective as a working artist. Through video, drawing, performance--even stuntman antics--his work is one of the many in a larger pool of cage rattlers. What is the perceived cage? You guessed it--the high art realm, which includes galleries, critiques, and even the less formal studio visit.

It's been done before (about twentysomething years ago) by Andrea Fraser, the New York-based artist who famously humped the interior of a museum. It's not any more graceful than it sounds, and this is the intention--as Frieze's Melissa Gronlund aptly summarized her contribution to a more honest art dialogue:

Andrea Fraser’s performances add gender and sexual dimensions to the critique of art institutions carried out by Hans Haacke, Daniel Buren, Carl Andre and others. Fraser’s approach is usually to assume the role of a museum volunteer or invited artist and then shift her position during the course of her performance to one of keen critic.

Gronlund proceeded to mention that Fraser's writings about high art society is less than "heartening" (and isn't this what we seek when we seek art out?) but do not despair. This can indeed induce what I'd say are tough art historical times. I mean, is EVERYTHING about money? At these moments, it is achingly common to resent the facile nature of commodification and the fading promise of social mobility within such an enclosed, precious space.

But don't worry--the good news is that it's not a real space. It's imaginary. Yes, everyone, it's all in our minds, which is the reason that Conceptual Art came to be. By participating, and carrying your experience away from institutions (galleries, museums, universities), the exchange is distorted and ultimately enriched. Artists are becoming more brave by the second, and nothing is off limits for examination. For example, it wasn't always common to use horror films as inspiration for performance art.

The ARTnews article mentioned a remarkably funny and intelligent young artist, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz. Her accessible version of an Art History lecture provides an additional version of a critical voice for the public. By means of a YouTube channel--a revolutionary step in inviting audiences to actively participate in creative dialogues--her character appears to be the stereotypical uneducated homegirl but quickly dismantles such a flimsy identity. Instead, she's the girl that might be sitting next to you in class or exhibiting at a gallery nearby. Watch this video, titled Critics.

CLIO TALKS BACK: The Christ Child and his Mother Mary

A 6^th century mosaic featuring Mary, Mother of Jesus, in the church in Ravenna

In the Christian world, the most important and festive holiday – Christmas - celebrates the birth of Jesus, the Christ child. His coming was foretold by the Jewish prophets, and his story and the founding of the Christian religion is well-known. Known as the “Son of God,”his mission was no less than to redeem humanity from sin.

His mother Mary also plays an important though curious role in the story of developing Christianity. As a virgin, conceiving “miraculously” thanks to God’s intervention, giving birth, it is told, in a manger in Bethlehem because there was no room in the Inn; fleeing to Egypt with Joseph and the baby to escape the child-murdering wrath of Herod the King, raising Jesus to manhood, and mourning his death. Celebrated in art throughout the ages, through painting and sculpture, we actually know very little about Mary the mother. We do know, though, that even though Mary is not included in the Christian trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), she is a central, highly attractive – even popular – figure in the religion as it spread across Europe and throughout the world, displacing but also merging with local pagan dieties.


One story has it that she died in Ephesus, where her identity as a sacred mother began to merge with that of Demeter or Artemis, the pagan goddess of fertility whose cult was celebrated there. Incarnated and worshipped variously throughout the centuries as the Black Madonna (in the Mediterranean regions), as Notre Dame or Our Lady (in France and throughout Europe), she became the object of a cult which became very important to women, especially those who were experiencing problems in conceiving a child or who were wracked by sorrow. Mary took on many aspects of the Great Goddess of pre-Christian antiquity and developed a huge following which continues today.

Michelangelo’s Pieta

In the mid-nineteenth century, the newly-elected pope, Pius IX, following his flight from Rome and the revolutionaries, drafted the encyclical letter Ubi Primum, in which he called on Roman Catholic bishops to support his intention of honoring the Virgin Mary, elevating her status in the Church by proclaiing her to be free of (sexual) sin thanks to the exceptional privilege of her Immaculate Conception (i.e. being conceived by her mother Anne without a sexual act). The debate over Mary’s purity had occupied Christian theologians since medieval times but had never received formal endorsement from the Church. It seemes more than coinciddental that Piou IX provoked this move only when the Church was suffering from the tumult of revolution – and secular disenchantment – and when the specter of war stalked the Italian peninsula and the rest of Europe and men were falling away from the Church. What an extraordinary coincidence that the Pope should attempt to rally support by invoking a principle of female purity to buttress the Church in its hour of need! SSome six hundred and twenty bishops responded to the encyclical, nearly all in the affirmative, and in December 1854, back in Rome, Puis IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Opponents, such as Johannes Ronge, who objected to popery in general, insisted in 1849 that what needed celebrating was not some supernatural idea of Mary, but rather “the majesty and dignity of womanliness” and the “redeeming power of love” in humanity. The “sanctifying image of Mary,” he insisted, should be found “only in humanity.” He denied “voicing so-called theories of emancipation” but rather “seeking the inner liberation and elevation of the female sex through a lofty ethical principle.” He called on German women to embody this idea and look to the needs of the oppressed classes and especially the plight of children.


Further reading and sources:

The papal encyclical Ubi Primum and the response of Johannes Ronge, in Women, the Family, and Freedom, ed. Susan Groag Bell & Karen Offen (1983), vol. 1, documents 79 & 80. Some of the above text is taken from the headnote to these documents.

Marina Warner, Alone of all her sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976).

Wikipedia has an excellent article on Mary, with many references and illustrations, at the following URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_(mother_of_Jesus).

What Razan Ghazzawi Can Teach Us about Taking Action

Razan during The 3rd Arab Bloggers Meeting Oct. 2011, in Tunis. (Photo: Flickr - Ibtihel Zaatouri)

If you haven't heard the story yet, Razan Ghazzawi is the latest among a dozen bloggers, activists, and journalists who have been detained since the nine month uprising calling for the ousting of President Bashar Assad erupted in March.

Ghazzawi was detained on Dec. 4 at the Jordanian border by Syrian immigration as she tried to cross into Jordan to attend a conference on press freedom in the Arab world. Currently, she is being held in Adra prison and faces a potential 3- to -15-year prison sentence.

On Monday, Syrian authorities charged Ghazzawi with membership to a secret organisation, which aims to change the economic and social status of the state, conveying within Syria false news that could debilitate the morale of the nation and weakening national sentiment, violating Article 335 of the Syrian penal code -- banning participation in a riotous demonstration -- and inciting sectarian strife.


Who is Razan?
Razan, 31, is a blogger, feminist and human rights activist who has campaigned for the release of political prisoners and documented human rights abuses.

Prominent Egyptian blogger Zeinobia praises Razan's revolutionary spirit:

Razan has been active and outspoken when it comes to injustice. She is among a few Syrian bloggers that blog with her real name. She is U.S. born yet she is an Arab leftist nationalist. I think Razan Ghazzawi is the second female Syrian blogger to be arrested after Tal Malhoi.

I remember once, during the revolution in Egypt, Razan tweeted about how she and her family were glued in front of the TV every afternoon till late night watching Tahrir square in those 18 days and how she cried when Mubarak was ousted. Razan is another Syrian, among thousands of Syrians, detained for no reason except they want freedom and democracy.

Since 2009, Razan has been maintaining Razaniyyat where she blogs, mainly in English, about human rights, women's and gay rights, as well as Arab and Syrian affairs. She is also the media coordinator for the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression.

Syrian Uprising
On Wednesday, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, urged the United Nations (UN) Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. The call comes as the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) prepares to release a report also calling for Syria's referral to the ICC.

According to recent UN statistics, the brutal crackdown has left more than five thousand dead while thousands more continue to languish in prison. Today alone, violence across Syria has killed at least twenty-five people and the death toll is rising by the minute.


Time to Take Action
Since Razan's arrest, more than four thousand people have joined the Facebook campaign Free Syrian Blogger & Activist Razan Ghazzawi and started an online petition to demand intervention by the Arab League and the US government.

Twitter users have also launched the hashtag #FreeRazan to show solidarity.

As you can see, Razan was a person of action. So here's a list of ways that you can also take action:

• Write an email or send a fax to your local politician, Foreign Minister, members of parliament of congress. Use the internet to find their contact details or see this list of emails. Razan is an American Citizen – here is a list of US Embassies to contact demanding they take urgent action.
• Use your profile photo to draw attention to Razan’s arrest and the plight of all prisoners in Syria via Twibbon or you can use this image, or make your own.
• Use the tag #FreeRazan to share links, videos, news from #Syria – keep attention levels UP, don’t let this important news be overpowered by other stories and fade from view.
• Post news and links to FaceBook, blog, forums, and in comments on videos and news posts about Syria. If you write, please write about this issue.
• Schedule tweets for when you can’t be online – use Dlvr IT for feeds or Buffer for individual tweets. Also, Razan’s twitter account is currently being managed by her friends and supporters. Follow her if you’re not already @RedRazan for important updates.
• Join the Free Razan FaceBook page and share the page with all your friends.

If you have more ideas, please share them here.

The Journey of "Miss Representation"

[Editor's Note: This post was written by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, founder and CEO of MissRepresentation.org; writer, director, and producer of Miss Representation; and honorary IMOW board member.]

Carol Jenkins of Women's Media Center (left) and Jennifer Siebel Newsom (Courtesy MissRepresentation)

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

As we approach the end of the year, I want to take this time to reflect on just how amazing 2011 has really been.

At this time a year ago we had just found out my film Miss Representation was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival, and that I was pregnant with my second child - a son. As you can imagine, we were all filled with much excitement, but also anxiety.

I didn’t really anticipate the kind of reaction the film would receive, or how my life would change within the next few months. But once I saw the lines outside Miss Representation screenings at Sundance, heard the audiences cheer, and Oprah Winfrey approached us to purchase the broadcast rights, I knew we were at the beginning of something bigger than just a documentary.

Fast forward to October and we had assembled a small full-time team, filed for non-profit status as MissRepresentation.org, and were gearing up for our US national broadcast premiere on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. We were also in the midst of igniting an international social action movement online – with our trailers going viral across the world, all the while sparking thousands of small actions through a brand new website.

The Miss Representation team

We watched in amazement as 400,000 people viewed a trailer in the span of a week, with hundreds of thousands more watching trailers on YouTube and Facebook in the days leading up to the TV premiere. Word spread to the major news outlets, and soon we were being mentioned everywhere from Vogue to Entertainment Weekly.

Over 1.3 million people ended up seeing Miss Representation on OWN in October, but countless more have been touched by the movement. And this has been spearheaded by the passion and commitment of our supporters. Individuals like yourself who have been moved by the trailer or the film, and have then taken it into their own hands to do something about it.

So many of you are calling out companies, writing letters or starting petitions against sexism and disrespect towards women in your local communities. Hundreds of independent blogs have been written about Miss Representation. Hundreds of thousands have shared content on Facebook, liked a post or sent a tweet out using #MissRep.

More than the numbers though, it’s the individual stories of action which are especially poignant. From the mother in New York who successfully lobbied Mayor Bloomberg to have a pornographic advertisement removed from her child’s bus stop, to the high school youth who started a ‘MissRep’ club to discuss sexism in the media with her classmates, we have been reminded again and again of the power of one individual having courage and using her or his voice to stand up to injustice.

Because of all your efforts, we are even more inspired to continue the work we started with Miss Representation a year ago.

The coming months promise exciting opportunities for this campaign to expand and continue to shift the cultural mindset around gender. In addition to continuing to partner with leading non-profits like the International Museum of Women, we will be launching new campaigns in 2012 to give women and girls further tools to combat sexism.

We will spread our Miss Representation educational curriculum - which is bringing a much needed gender focus to media literacy classes - to thousands of educational institutions across North America. We will host call-to-action town halls with government, business and community leaders as well as work with industry executives to improve the portrayal of women and girls in the media. We are actively supporting the Girl Scout’s Healthy Media Commission and are working with the private sector to establish best practices. And we will begin development on new films to expand on the message of Miss Representation. We’re not slowing down until sexism is eradicated and all women are allowed to realize their full potential. And we need your help!

Yet before we push ahead, it’s important that we pause to celebrate all that has been accomplished already. Because of this movement, more people are aware of the inequalities present in American media and leadership. More women feel empowered to focus on their careers and more girls feel capable to pursue their biggest dreams. Because of this movement, there are more men and women out there willing to challenge the status quo.

The movement really comes down to you. By taking the pledge at missrepresentation.org, you are exemplifying the very change we wish to see in the world.

From the bottom of my heart I want to thank everyone who has joined us thus far. In a few weeks, as the New Year approaches, many of us will make resolutions for what we’d like to be or see in 2012. For me, this year’s resolution is easy: I will not stop. I will do everything in my power to continue to make a difference for women and girls.

Will you join me?

A Changing Mindset on Childbirth in Western Africa

Americans are a bit fascinated with polygamy. Big Love, Sister Wives – it seems men with multiple spouses are getting quite the media foothold in the United States.

In Senegal, polygamy is a daily, accepted reality. But ask a Senegalese person why it’s so commonly practiced here, and the most common answer you’ll receive is that it’s done for one primary reason: for procreation.

Children are revered here in West Africa. Having a huge brood is smiled upon, regardless of the resources one has to provide for a plethora of offspring. If there isn’t enough food to go around, extended family members have no problem pitching in. In general, the more kids, the better.

That’s why I’m curious to see how Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade’s recent statements on family planning will resonate – if at all – with the public.

“We cannot impose on our people contraceptive methods, but should explain to convince them that they are responsible for the number of children they give birth to in terms of providing them with quality education, health, shelter and all the necessary basic needs in life,” President Wade said at a recent International Conference on Family Planning in Dakar.

My outsider’s viewpoint is that it’s going to take much more than just education and availability of contraceptives for family planning in Senegal to change or happen at all. It’s going to take a true cultural and mental shift, especially in rural places far outside the capital city.

The United Nations is determined to make it happen, though. The U.N.’s Population Fund is getting a grant-funded boost that will give underprivileged women in Africa contraceptive implants. The U.N. estimates the project will help prevent some two million unwanted pregnancies. But in Senegal, the pregnancies often aren’t unwanted (and despite the poverty, the quality of life isn’t nearly as bad here as in other African nations).

Do you think family-planning initiatives will have success in Africa? Why or why not?

CLIO TALKS BACK: Eleanor Rathbone and the Endowment of Motherhood in Britain

From 1908 on Eleanor Rathbone (1872-1946) served on the Liverpool City Council in England and later became one of the first women to be elected to the British Parliament. Throughout her life she concerned herself with the plight of the disadvantaged – be they British children, Indian women, African victims of female circumcision rites, or refugees from Nazi Germany. She clearly understood how dependent women had become in British society as well as elsewhere.

Rathbone opposed the idea of a “family wage” paid to employed men, advocating instead a plan for family allowances whereby the husband’s employer, or in case of his unemployment, the state, would pay a separate allowance for each child directly to his wife. By this means she hoped to enhance the oppressed and narrow lives of working-class wives and mothers. The notion that wives and children were necessarily men’s dependents seemed, to her, demeaning.

Eleanor Rathbone viewed this economic approach to empowering mothers as part of a “New Feminism,” by which she meant dealing with women’s needs in women’s terms. In 1924 she elaborated her views in a widely-read book, The Disinherited Family, in which she argued that the time had come to focus on the problems of women in the family. Not surprisingly, it was her controversial insistence that the family allowance be paid to the wife/mother that stirred up the most resistance.

Opponents of the plan included Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Rathbone’s predecessor as head of the National Union of Woman’s Suffrage Societies. Fawcett, herself an economic thinker, feared that such payments to the wife and mother would undermine the sense of responsibility of men – husbands and fathers – by degrading their hallowed role as economic providers. This, she feared, would destroy rather than stabilize the family. Eleanor Rathbone strongly disagreed.

In 1925 Rathbone responded to Fawcett’s concerns by rolling out a visionary agenda in which she suggested that merely clearing away the old laws or seeking equal pay for equal work did not go far enough. Finally the time had some, she argued, to “demand what we want for women, not because it is what men have got, but because it is what women need to fulfil the potentialities of their own natures and to adjust themselves to the circumstances of their own lives.” This, she claimed, was the agenda of the “New Feminism.”

Rathbone’s plan was ultimately incorporated into a “Family Endowment Act” by the British Labour Government in 1945, immediately after the end of the Second World War.

Clio wants to know what you think about the notion of employer-allocated or state-allocated family allowances as a means of empowering mothers. Is this still an attractive solution for women today? Your comments are, of course, welcome.


Sources:

1. Women, the Family, and Freedom: The Debate in Documents, vol. 2 (1880-1950), documents 88-91: Family Endowment and the “New Feminism.”
2. Susan Pedersen, Eleanor Rathbone and the Politics of Conscience (Yale University Press).

CLIO TALKS BACK: Why did so many young Irish women leave Ireland?

Early Irish Immigrants

In the years 1885-1920 nearly 700,000 mostly single women under the age of 24 left family farms in Ireland to seek a better life in the cities of North America. They travelled by themselves across the Atlantic Ocean. No family members – no fathers, mothers, husbands or brothers accompanied them. Single women emigrants from Ireland in these years outnumbered male emigrants – exceptional among European migrants to the New World.

Why did so many young Irish women emigrate? In those years of great deprivation following the famine years when Ireland’s potato crops collapsed, they simply sought a better life, one which would – according to Janet Nolan – allow them to reclaim their earlier status, to earn their keep, to marry as they chose, and – most of all – to create lives free of severe hardship. Many (well over two-thirds) first sought employment as domestic servants in the cities of the eastern United States. They generally married after a few years and often bore large numbers of children. Upwardly mobile, many of the offspring of the families these young women founded, obtained an education and became wildly successful by the standards of the land their mothers had abandoned.

What is striking in Nolan’s account of this emigration in her book, “Ourselves Alone,” was that, very unusual for the times, the young women’s travel was mostly financed by female relatives. Networks of older women helping younger women. Older women sending back money to help their little sisters and nieces emigrate as they had. In Nolan’s words (p. 95),“They were the first generation of Irish women to realize fully their own social and economic modernization as women.”

Then, when the emigrant women were settled in their new country, many of them sent money home to assist those who had remained behind – for example, to purchase a horse to replace the one that had died. Ironically, “the most expendable group in post-Famine Ireland – dependent daughters and sisters – became the saviors of a society that could not have remained intact save by their emigration and their remittances” (p. 71).

Some of these emigrant women and their daughters became prominent labor organizers in the U.S. Nolan names Kate Mullany, organizer of the laundry workers in Troy, New York; Leonora Barry, head of the women’s work committee for the Knights of Labor; Mary Kenny O’Sullivan, of the A. F. L. [American Federation of Labor]; Leonora O’Reilly, of the Women’s Trade Union League; and Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones) and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, respectively founder and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World. All these women activists supported equal pay for equal work and the rights of laboring women.

Clio celebrates the courage and initiative of these thousands of Irish emigrant women to bettering their condition by “packing up and leaving,” to create new lives in a new country.

Source: Janet Ann Nolan, Ourselves Alone: Women’s Emigration From Ireland, 1885-1920 (University of Kentucky Press, 1989).