OpinionWellesley Centers for Women (WCW) researchers, program staff, and guest authors draw on their experiences and scholarship to reflect on issues of particular importance to women, children, and families. Their opinions are occasionally expressed through letters to the editor and commentaries submitted to media outlets. Other opinion pieces have been published in the WCW Research & Action Report; some have been written specifically for publishing on this website. The selections below reflect the personal reflections and commentaries of the contributing authors.  A Meaningful Measure of Pay Gap for Men and Women by Sari Kerr, Ph.D. The Wall Street Journal May 6, 2012 Ms. Hymowitz concludes that no family policies exist that have created gender equality at the workplace. As evidence, she cites gender income gap figures from Sweden and Iceland. The article, however, confuses multiple related issues in its arguments: labor force participation, part-time work, occupational segregation and gender wage gap. For women convicts, state needs better alternatives to jail by Erika Kates, Ph.D. The Boston Globe April 10, 2012 Yvonne Abraham's column provides a succinct summary of the key arguments for reducing our prison population: saving money, reducing recidivism, and diverting people to appropriate mental health and substance abuse treatment programs (“Correcting corrections,’’ Metro, April 5). These arguments are especially compelling when it comes to incarcerated women. Almost two-thirds of the women sentenced to our state prison are diagnosed with mental illness (compared to a just over a quarter of male inmates) and many also have substance abuse diagnoses. The data show 85 percent of women’s offenses are non-violent and are predominantly related to their mental illnesses and addictions. The Power of Love by Judith V. Jordan, Ph.D. Today is February 14. Today we celebrate love. We utter the word love more today than at any other time. We represent it with bright red hearts and endearing words. Be mine. I love you. Pink and red and frills predominate. Of course we make money on it … chocolates, flowers, cards. It wouldn’t be an American holiday if we didn’t generate income from it. But also very American, we try to equalize it (if you’re going to send Valentine’s day cards in school these days, please send one to everyone in your homeroom … no need to create pain for the “unloved” on this day of generosity.) And I do remember well, sneaking looks at the piles of valentines on other kids’ desks. Did they get more cards? Who doesn’t like me? Ouch. That side of love. Expanded Learning: Opportunities for Partnerships with a New Twist and a New Name
by Ellen Gannett, M.Ed. The current debate on the virtues, definition, and efficacy of expanded learning opportunities (ELO) is familiar and welcome. With over 30 years in the field, I have watched the landscape of the out-of-school-time field twist and turn by the decade and I am seeing earlier ideas presented in new terminology. Back in 1982, when the inaugural director of the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST), Michelle Seligson, and her co-author, James Levine, wrote the first School Age Child Care: An Action Manual, their guiding premise was that “solutions are really to be found at the community level, and that they can best be developed by mobilizing people with similar interests to help one another.” The book emphasized a model of service delivery called “the partnership” between schools and other community groups and agencies. While it has taken decades to get here, there is promise in ELO if we can overcome previous barriers.  by Nan Stein, Ed.D. and Bruce Taylor, Ph.D. November 28, 2011 Sexual harassment in schools is still with us—its tenacity and persistence were evident in the results from a new national survey of nearly 2,000 students in grades 7-12 released recently by the American Association of University Women (AAUW). As previously documented in their surveys in 1993 and 2001 (eighth through eleventh graders), sexual harassment runs rampant in schools, too often seen by the students as no big deal, normalized through its continuing existence. Yet students are upset by the existence of sexual harassment and they document how it interferes with their concentration, attendance, achievement, course choices, and involvement in activities.  Research & Action Report Fall/Winter 2011 In its September 11, 2011, issue, the New York Times Magazine brought together a group of pundits for a roundtable discussion, moderated by reporter Scott Malcolmson, of the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: Michael Ignatieff, James Traub, David Rieff, Paul Berman, and Ian Buruma. Scott, Michael, James, David, Paul, and Ian: not a woman—nor a person of color—in the bunch. This particular group had been invited because each had published a significant article previously in the magazine about the issues under discussion—which doesn’t justify the choice; if anything, it makes it worse. Not only were women absent from the magazine’s 9/11 anniversary discussion, but we weren’t included in the debates of the past ten years!  Research & Action Report, Spring/Summer 2011 by Nan Stein, Ed.D. The recent tragic cases of Phoebe Prince and Carl Walker-Hoover, two Massachusetts students who took their own lives after being allegedly bullied by their peers, force us to look carefully at the ways in which school personnel are treating and framing student-to-student interactions. I want to propose that, in fact, both children were sexually harassed by their peers; and to call it "bullying" minimizes what they endured.  Commentary by Michelle Porche, Ed.D., Senior Research Scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women, and Lisa R. Fortuna, M.D., MPH., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School.  Commentary by Sumru Erkut, Ph.D., WCW associate director and senior research scientist |
- Current Press Releases
- Past Press Releases
- Recent Media Coverage
- WCW Expert List
- Editorial Calendar
- WCW Topics of Focus
- Opinions & Commentaries
- Upcoming Presentations
- Audio: Lunchtime Seminars
- Audio: 35th Symposium Presentations
- Video: Interviews & Special Events
- WCW History & Milestones
- Read recent eNews Updates
- 781.283.2552
- News-WCW@wellesley.edu