Commentary: So Sexy So Soon
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by Jean Kilbourne, WCW senior scholar
Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., senior scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Women, is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on alcohol and tobacco advertising and the image of women in advertising. Her newest book, So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids, co-authored with Diane E. Levin, was published in 2008. Her book, Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel, won the Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology in 2000. She is also known for her award-winning documentaries Killing Us Softly, Slim Hopes, and Calling the Shots.
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Mistresses of the Universe
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Letter to the Editor submitted by Sumru Erkut to The New York Times
in response to the article “Mistresses of the Universe" published February 8, 2008. (unpublished)
February 10, 2009
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Dual-Trauma Couples: Why Do We Need to Study Them?
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by Pamela Alexander, Ph.D.
From the Fall/Winter 2008 Research & Action Report
The notion of the intergenerational transmission of abuse has been accepted for some time. Both research and our own observations lead us to expect that having been abused or neglected or having witnessed violence between parents as a child will contribute to an individual’s increased risk to abuse or neglect one’s own child or to be involved in an abusive relationship as an adult. read more
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Op-Ed: Gender, the brain, and school segregation
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Op-Ed article in USA Today
by Lise Eliot, Ph.D. and Susan McGee Bailey, Ph.D.
August 20, 2008
As summer vacation draws to a close, a growing number of children will be entering public schools without their opposite-sex peers. Driven by widespread fears about a "boy crisis" in education, and exacerbated by claims of dramatic brain differences between boys and girls, K-12 educators are caught in a spreading fire for gender segregation — a fire fueled by misperceptions more than reality. read more
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Gender Equality Gets a Boost from an Unexpected Corner
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by Peggy Levitt
From the Spring/Summer 2008 Research & Action Report
One hot August afternoon in 1999, after the day’s cooking and cleaningwere done, I asked some of the young women of Miraflores, a Dominicanvillage I studied for my dissertation, to talk with me about how theirlives had changed since so many of their friends and neighbors beganmigrating to the United States. Mirafloreños have been moving to Bostonsince the early 1970s, settling in and around the neighborhoods ofDorchester, Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain. By the mid-1990s, nearlythree-quarters of its households had family members living inMassachusetts. Close to 60 percent received some monthly income supportfrom migrants. It seemed to me that the exchanges of people, money,goods, and what I call social remittancesor ideas, practices, social capital, and identities that circulateregularly between people who move and people who stay behind haddramatically transformed aspects of daily life. In particular, I wantedto know how women’s lives had changed. read more
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Teenage Girls and STDs
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Letter to the Editor submitted by Sumru Erkut to The Boston Globe in response to the CDC Press Release: “One in Four Female Adolescents Is Infected with At Least One Sexually Transmitted Infection, New CDC Study Finds" published
March 12, 2008. (unpublished)
March 13, 2008
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Teaching to the Testosterone
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Letter to the editor by Susan McGee Bailey to New York Times Magazine in response to the article "Teaching to the Testosterone" which ran March 2, 2008. (unpublished)
March 5, 2008
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Adolescent Literacy and Achievement: Widening the Path to Success
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by Michelle Porche and Stephanie Harris
From the Fall/Winter 2007 Research & Action Report
Is Literacy Enough?, which we co-authored with Catherine Snow and Patton Tabors, we explore the continuities and discontinuities of early literacy skills on adolescent achievement. In this book, we describe the original 83 low-income students who began participating in the Home-School Study of Language and Literacy Development at the age of 3, and we conclude with the outcomes for the 47 participants who continued in the study until they reached young adulthood. When this study began, Dr. Snow, the Principal Investigator, set a groundbreaking path into the importance of language as a foundation of early literacy. Results from this study have influenced conceptual and practical approaches to early reading instruction, helping to set national standards. At the end of the 16-year study many hypotheses were borne out, even as new questions were generated about our most vulnerable children. read more
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Extreme Makeover: Feminist Edition
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Letter to the Editor submitted by Sumru Erkut, Ph.D. to Ms. in response to the article "Extreme Makeover: Feminist Edition."
Fall 2007 issue
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Still Stuck in Low Wage Jobs: Is It Time That We Solve the Youth Worker Compensation Problem?
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by Ellen S. Gannett, M.Ed.
From the Spring/Summer 2007 Research & Action Report
Afterschool practitioners and youth workers play a critical role in today’s society, serving as positive adult role models, mentors, coaches, tutors and friends for young people, and a vital support for working parents. Too often, however, these practitioners do not receive the recognition or resources they need to feel valued in their work by the public and, more importantly, by their employers. While most youth workers are educated, satisfied and committed to making a difference in the lives of the children and youth they serve, too many report being underpaid, underappreciated, and at times overworked, often holding down multiple jobs just to make a living wage. Stress and burnout are all too real and recruitment of qualified administrators and staff remains challenging. For our most vulnerable youth who depend on quality out-of-school time programs, it is imperative that private and public policy makers understand the domino effect that results from underpaid youth workers. read more
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Critical Mass on Corporate Boards: Why Three or More Women Enhance Governance
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by Sumru Erkut, Ph.D.
From the Fall/Winter 2006 Research & Action Report
Does it matter to corporate governance whether women serve on a board? If so, does it make a difference how many women serve? That is, is there a critical mass that can bring significant change to the boardroom and improve corporate governance? My colleagues Vicki W. Kramer, Principal, V. Kramer Associates, and Alison M. Konrad, Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, and I set out to answer these important questions. Our findings shed light on a growing problem for organizations and society: not enough women are serving on corporate boards to the corporations’ detriment. read more
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The Complaint Gap
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Letter to the Editor submitted by Susan McGee Bailey, Ph.D. to The New York Times in response to "The Complaint Gap" op-ed which ran July 15, 2006. (unpublished)
July 17, 2007
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What About the Boys?
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Education Week
by Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D., Meda Chesney-Lind, Ph.D., and Nan Stein, Ed.D.
June 7, 2006 There are legitimate concerns about boys’ achievement, but there are also legitimate concerns about the way the current issue is being framed. Headlines repeatedly pit girls against boys, and accompanying photos show boys with hurt expressions, dejected, slumped over their desks. The girls who surround them are caught in mid-laugh, whispering to a friend, sitting atop the monkey bars, staring at the camera with defiant self-confidence.
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The Boy Crisis
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Letter to the Editor submitted by Susan McGee Bailey, Ph.D. to Newsweek magazine in response to "The Boy Crisis" article which ran January 29, 2006. (unpublished)
January 30, 2006
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Marriage as a Bogus Cure for Poverty: Keeping low-income women safe is in our hands
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By Jean Hardisty, WCW Senior Scholar
From the Fall/Winter 2005 Research & Action Report Story after story of former welfare recipients who now hold jobs have created the dominant media metaphor—women formerly leading hopeless, dead-end lives are required by welfare reform to become employed and now are thrilled with their independence and new sense of self-worth.
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Hurricane Katrina and Structural Racism: A letter to white people
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by Jean Hardisty, Ph.D., WCW Senior Scholar
From JeanHardisty.com, copyright by Jean Hardisty
October 2005
Senior Scholar Jean Hardisty shares her thinking on structural racism engrained in U.S. society that became front-page news during Hurricane Katrina coverage.
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Isn't it about the children?
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by Georgia Hall, Ph.D.
Letter to the Editor published in the Metrowest Daily News
September 14, 2005
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Ordinary people, extraordinary lives
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by Anne Noonan, Ph.D. and Michelle Porche, Ed.D.
Letter to the Editor published in the Boston Globe
August 27, 2005
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Reaffirming Rights in Our Nation's Schools
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by Nan Stein, Ed.D.
From the Spring/Summer 2005 Research & Action Report Why have school administrators been so quick to embrace the antibullying movement and to abandon the antiharassment focus? Find out what WCW Researcher Nan Stein has to say about schools' reaction to the pressure to address bullying in schools, and what implications this all has for students and teachers.
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Op-Ed: Workforce development & compensation critical to quality early childhood education
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Op-Ed submission to the Boston Globe (unpublished)
by Nancy Marshall, Ed.D. and Steve Barnett, Ed.D.
March 30, 2005 The creation of the Department of Early Education and Care, developed to administer the Massachusetts’ early education care system, puts the state at a critical juncture in advancing its historic commitment to young children. On July 1st, the new department becomes active, and its Board and Commissioner will have the tough task of deciding how to proceed. Well-trained, qualified teachers and providers are necessary for programs to promote children’s school readiness. The recently released Massachusetts Capacity Study Research Brief: Characteristics of the Current Early Education and Care Workforce provides research-based evidence of the magnitude of the task of workforce development.
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A Deadly Culture of Isolation
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Op-ed submission to the Boston Globe (unpublished)
by Pamela Seigel and James Vetter, Ed.M.
March 25, 2005 The recent shooting rampage at Red Lake High School was among the most violent episodes ever experienced in a school in the United States. Why are we not more shocked? Media reports seem more sparse and muted than with other school shootings in recent years. Could it be after the string of similar attacks by young people from Littleton, Colorado to Jonesboro, Arkansas, we have grown too accustomed to the violence and alienation this desperate act reflects? We may never know why Jeff Weise killed nine others and then himself that Monday afternoon, but we can see familiar patterns. According to press accounts, Weise was a troubled young person who reported being victimized at home and by other students. Neighbors claim that he had few friends and that few adults took the time to get to know him. In recent weeks, depression and teasing at school caused him to retreat to home tutoring. Reports of other school shootings often portray isolated loners with few social skills, excluded from the peer group. Many were targets of bullying and harassment.
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Recovered Memories of Child Sexual Abuse – It Is Possible
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by Linda M. Williams, Ph.D.
February 7, 2005 The conviction of Paul Shanley, a defrocked Catholic priest, on charges of rape and sexual abuse of a child, once again propelled the debate on recovered memory into the media. The jury appears to have understood that memories of child sexual abuse are not always continuous. Most people who were sexually abuse in childhood have all too vivid memories of their experiences. But dozens of credible scientific studies support the conclusion that some men and women who were sexually abused in childhood forget and then go on to recover their memories in adulthood. For example, studies of adults in treatment with mental health professionals have elicited reports of prior periods of no recall of the abuse suffered in childhood. Studies of college students as well as of adults in the wider community find that there are many who report that at some time in the past they forgot their victimization experiences.
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Helping to Fight AIDS in Africa
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by Margaret Lumpkin Keon, former WCW Overseer and longtime friend of the Centers
Spring 2004, Westover Magazine In June of 2003, I was privileged to travel to Malawi with four other members of the board of the Global Aids Interfaith Alliance, or GAIA. Although only three years old, GAIA has been amazingly effective in its work to reduce the incidence and stigma of AIDS, and to educate and train religious leaders and lay people. Having the opportunity to be in Malawi and see the beauty of the country and its people, as well as the devastation of poverty, hunger, and illness, was an important experience, one I shall never forget.
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Battered Women: What Goes Into the Stay-leave Decision?
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by Vera E. Mouradian, Ph.D.
From the Fall/Winter 2004 Research & Action Report The question most frequently asked of advocates and professionals who work with battered women is: “Why do women stay with men who abuse them?” The short answer is that they don’t: most women who are abused by an intimate partner do not stay with their abusers permanently. Most leave eventually, although the process of leaving may take months or years, with many starts and stops. Unfortunately, the end of the relationship does not necessarily mean the end of the abuse. For these reasons, a more fruitful question to ask is: “What goes into the decision to stay or leave?”
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Women Who Make a Difference Award Dinner Acceptance Remarks
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by Susan McGee Bailey, Ph.D., Executive Director
March 11, 2004, National Council for Research on Women The National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) chose the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) as an organizational honoree at its annual Women Who Make a Difference gala dinner. The award, accepted by WCW’s Executive Director Susan McGee Bailey, recognizes outstanding women leaders and organizations working in a variety of disciplines for their unique ability to project their visions for a better world onto local, national, and global landscapes. WCW was honored on March 11, 2004, for its outstanding work linking research, theory, and policy and the profound impact this work has had on policy both nationally and internationally.
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Is Child Care Bad for Kids?
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by Nancy L. Marshall, Ed.D.
From the Fall/Winter 2003 Research & Action Report
Recent headlines have once again raised the question of whether child care is bad for children. After decades of research, advocacy, program development, and policy, what do we really know about child care? Before addressing this question, it is important to talk about the larger question: what do we really know about women’s (and men’s) lives? The question of child care can only be answered as part of a discussion about how women and men meet the two challenges of both raising the next generation and providing economically for themselves and their families.
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Power: Envisioning an Alternate Paradigm
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by Maureen Walker, Ph.D.
From the Spring/Summer 2003 Research & Action Report Watching leaders around the world struggle to determine how power should be used to prevent terrorism has caused many of us to question our own assumptions about power. History books would have us believe that power is strictly a function of military strength, economic predominance, or political influence. Nevertheless, many of us recognize that there are alternative ways to conceptualize power. For example, there is probably not a more straightforward and elegant definition of power than that proposed by Jean Baker Miller: “Power is the capacity to produce change.” In this definition, power is a fundamental energy of everyday living.
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Supporting Healthy Adolescent Sexuality: Why Just Saying No Is Not Enough
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by Deborah L. Tolman, Ed.D.
From the Fall/Winter 2002 Research & Action Report For many years, I have been frustrated by discussions surrounding abstinence-only sex education. One has little choice but to enter these discussions by taking a for or against stance on abstinence, a term I dislike because it obscures the complexity of sexuality itself and the multidimensional reality of sexuality in adolescence. It limits sexuality to sexual intercourse and reduces decisions about sexual behavior to whether an adolescent will or will not engage in it.
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Back to School
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by Nan Stein, Ed.D.
August 2000 Going back to school this year is going to be unlike any other year; there are extra metal detectors, armed guards, extra security cameras, clipped on photo ids, missing lockers, and more restrictive dress codes. But, this school year also includes extra protection for students who have been sexually harassed by their peers.
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A Lasting Gift for All Mothers
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by Susan McGee Bailey, Ph.D.
May 2000 In 1914, Congress designated the second Sunday in May "as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country." These days, Mother’s Day often means children of all ages presenting flowers and cards to their moms. Originally, however, the early U.S. movements to found Mother’s Day focused not on individual women, but on the issues women have cared about and worked for throughout history. And, today, these issues still need attention. A lasting Mother’s Day gift goes beyond honoring one mother and speaks to the needs of all mothers and their children. The Million Mom March addresses one critical need, gun control, but violence against women and children is broader and deeper and gun control is only a partial solution.
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The Gender Wars in Education
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by Susan McGee Bailey, Ph.D. and Patricia B. Campbell, Ph.D.
February 1999 The gender wars in education are heating up again. Too much of the current dialog on the education of girls and boys has the sound of a prize fight. In one corner are those who say that boys, not girls are shortchanged in school. In fact, they say, the attention paid to girls has harmed boys. In the other corner are those who contend that boys are fine and that girls are the ones with the real problems. The bell rings and the two sides come out swinging, each with its own set of statistics to prove not only that their side is the truly shortchanged, but that it is the fault of the "other side."
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Asking Some Unasked Questions
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by Deborah Tolman, Ed.D.
October 1999 Experts, including Senior Research Scientist Deborah Tolman, who work with teens and families offered their perspectives on a FRONTLINE report (The Lost Children of Rockdale County), which aired on PBS on October 20, 1999. A syphilis outbreak in an affluent community uncovers the hidden lives of troubled teenagers. Is it Isolated, or Everywhere?
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