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Carolyn LaDelle Bennett, Women's Work and Words Altering World Order (iUniverse, 2008)

Women’s Work and Words Altering World Order: Alternative to Spin and Inhumanity of Men

In the introduction to her book Women’s Work and Words Altering World Order, author Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett recounts a conversation she had with Women’s Institute for the Freedom of the Press founder Dr. Donna Allen. “People who are wrongheaded or misguided in their actions are not bad people,” Dr. Allen told her, “They just don’t have ‘my information.’” With this piece of advice in mind, Dr. Bennett penned her most recent book in order to supply information that she felt had been neglected by the male-dominated mainstream media.

In order to ensure a “history void of willful error,” Dr. Bennett highlights within the pages of her book those women whose work and words have enormously impacted society, yet whose contributions have been overlooked. Granted, some are names that people have heard before: ranging from Madonna and h

er humanitarian efforts in Malawi to Cindy Sheehan, who has become the face of the present-day anti-war movement, to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

But as one might expect, this book exists mainly to discuss those whose names are not known and whose stories have not been told. Such is the case of Claudette Colvin, a young African American girl who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus long before Rosa Parks performed the same world-changing act of defiance. Or Rachel Corrie, who took a stand in front of a bulldozer in the Gaza Strip much the same as an unidentified man had done in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square less than two decades previously, except that Corrie was mowed down and killed. Or Wangari Maathai, who plants seeds of peace by planting the seeds of trees in her native Africa.

Seeing the good that these women have done through their work and words, in comparison to the “male dominance [that] increasingly has led with a belligerent foreign policy…leaving in its wake a domestic policy of neglect, class conflict, chasms among people…” has led Dr. Bennett to a single powerful conclusion. It is that, “The leader of the free world needs a woman head of state- but a particular woman- with the intellect and presence of mind to ponder action with an eye to the future; a human-centeredness capable of respecting difference and envisioning peaceful cooperation and coexistence with and among nations; a woman unconcerned with showing how tough she is, or how religious she is, or how fashion-setting her wardrobe.”

The women that Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett profiles in Women’s Work and Words Altering World Order demonstrate just how that certain woman could and should be.

Michael Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign, (W.W. Norton & Company, NY, 2007)

[In May 2008, Michael Honey received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Going Down Jericho Road.]

WIFP Associate Michael Honey, a professor at the University of Washington, Tacoma, recently published a new book, Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign, recounting the 1968 sanitation worker riots in Memphis, Tennessee. Amid the “plantation mentality” that defined southern politics at the time, black workers were kept in poverty by white supervisors and trade brotherhoods that were able to force them into the lowest-paying positions, with few options for social mobility. Anger reached a crescendo on February 1, 1968, when two sanitation workers were killed by a trash compacter after seeking shelter inside of a truck during a downpour. This horrendous event, on top of years of meager pay and no benefits, led to a strike, beginning on February 12, of almost 1,300 workers. The strikers faced great obstacles, one of which was the inherent danger in arguing for workers’ rights and organized labor amid the anti-communist sentiment of the 1960s and 70s. The reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., working on his Poor People’s Campaign throughout the American south, adopted the Memphis conflict as his own, eventually giving his life for the cause, which would prove instrumental in turning the tide of white supremacy.

Honey’s work is extremely engaging, addressing the sequence of events while seamlessly incorporating the histories of key players in the struggle as well as the social and cultural environment of the time. Honey’s fluid prose will not disappoint those seeking an eloquently-written piece of non-fiction, but the book’s greatest strength is its ability to draw attention to the lesser-known actors who truly fueled the Memphis strike and who brought the cause into the national spotlight. Going Down Jericho Road is an important book for anyone who wishes to understand more fully the complexity of the civil rights movement and how it affected all levels of American society.

Michael Honey's earlier books include Black Workers Remember, An Oral History of Segregation, Unionism, and the Freedom Struggle, (University of California Press, 1999) and Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights, Organizing Memphis Workers, (University of Illinois Press, 1993).

Michael Honey is Professor of African-American, Ethnic and Labor Studies and American History at the University of Washington, Tacoma, Washington.

Carolyn LaDelle Bennett, Missing News and Views in Paranoid Times (Xlibris, 2006)

Missing News and Views in Paranoid Times opens minds to new perspectives on current affairs and world events -- people, politics, peace and the press. This anthology features coverage of international issues, events, people and politics -- against the backdrop of Middle East war, and through a lens censored in mainstream news and current affairs coverage. The in-depth stories and analyses comprise three years of Bennett’s hard-hitting, sometimes humorous prose, sometimes a poet’s pain, never manipulative, never inspiring pity or cheap sentiment. Paranoid Times is a magazine of sources never quoted, faces never seen, voices rarely heard, analyses with irony and juxtaposition all tied to current affairs, politics and controversy. A wide audience of readers – including students, journalists, analysts, educators, politicians – will find Missing News and Views In Paranoid Times a deeply informative, compelling and striking read. In Paranoid Times invites readers to shed the paranoia and understand current events with this independently-voiced, thought-provoking exposé.
(www.xlibris.com/INPARANOIDTIMES.html or www.xlibris.com/bookstore)
ISBN: 1-59926-487-0 (Trade Paperback)
Pages: 336

Natalie Hopkinson. Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation (Cleis Press, October, 2006)

Reconstructing our Understanding: A Review of Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation
By Natalie Hopkinson and Natalie Y. Moore

In their new work Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation, journalists Natalie Hopkinson and Natalie Moore address a myriad of contemporary conceptions of the modern Black man through the lens of “Tyrone,” a “name that has come to speak to a unique form of black male identity” (xi). Throughout the text, Tyrone functions as a socially constructed understanding of the modern black male, a concept that is extremely troubling to the text’s two authors. Thus, they use the text in order to “deconstruct” Tyrone and bring to light both the misinformation and troubling truth behind our nation’s media-based understanding of modern black life. Though the title implies a post-modern exercise in academics, the book’s incredible energy prevents confusion or boredom every step of the way. Every page is as compelling as it is informative, a combination that might be surprising if it wasn’t for the author’s comprehensive experience as both academics and journalists.

The text’s deconstructive power lies in its inclusion of interviews and interactions regarding features of modern black life with an incredibly wide-ranging sector of contemporary society. Each chapter deals with one aspect of black masculinity that is problematized in the media, such as the state of black fatherhood, the impact of hip-hop culture on young black males, or the high crime rate among black males, to cite just a few examples. The chapters focus on both the realities and the assumptions and stereotypes behind the media’s portrayal of the way black males function in American society in a manner that is successfully un-biased. This lack of bias is evident in the respectful attention that the authors pay each perspective that they include, ranging from hip-hop artists to Supreme Court justices. In effect, they come straight from the source. Their attention to and respect for figures with wildly different experiences, yet who all exist under the umbrella title of “Black Man”, serves to affirm their introductory goal of a comprehensive, honest deconstruction.

Therefore, Hopkinson and Moore do not allow their readers to become overly comfortable with their own conceptions of the problems facing black men in today’s society. Every time they outline a story that seems tragically familiar to anyone remotely aware of the conditions in American cities, they succeed in challenging that familiarity with another story that is either harder to swallow or alternatively, incredibly different and inspiring. Their intent is not to shock or guilt readers into some sort of misplaced desire to help the afflicted Black Man, but instead to present the reality of life as a black man as something impossible to stereotype. While they discuss the prevalence of young black males in our nation’s prisons, they also highlight the achievements of those men who are successful in various aspects of business and entrepreneurship. They challenge widely held stereotypes regarding careers proliferated by black males, such as the arena of professional sports, by including depictions of famous athletes whose lifestyles, wardrobes, and general attitudes diverge from the norm. In the chapter entitled “Thomas, 36,” Hopkinson presents an in-depth study of Washington Wizards forward Etan Thomas, juxtaposing his political and civil rights activism with his persona as a player in the NBA. While she emphasizes the difference between media perceptions of Thomas and that of other high-profile basketball players, she does not present the “hip-hop” style embraced by other players as something wrong or morally reprehensible. Instead, she writes:

This emphasis on responsibility is repeated throughout the text. Both authors seem to understand it as something which society as a whole desperately needs to assume in order to stop a cycle of prejudice that continues to inform the opportunities presented to young black males. It is a responsibility both for the black men whose actions inform and uphold stereotypes, but also for the other members of society who are complacent and comfortable with their misinformed vision of modern blackness.

Thus, the text does not focus only on the ways in which black men themselves perpetuate or alter modern stereotypes. Instead, it also includes opinions and stories from those “other” groups in society whose close interaction or purposeful distance from aspects of black male life contributes to a common, detrimental understanding of it. In chapters like “The Pole Test,” and “Babydaddy,” the authors review conceptions of family among modern African-Americans, and the ways in which poverty, education, and one’s own background contributes to the role which black men play in the life of their children. An examination of the social conditions that contribute to a majority of young black women existing as single parents reveals the “problem” of black fatherhood as something deeply complex, without an immediately obvious remedy. Though it does not excuse young men from responsibility for their offspring, its comprehensive investigation of the multifaceted conditions affecting young black fathers does muddy the way the media often problematizes the same issue. The text does not diffuse blame; instead, it complicates one’s ability to easily place it.

On a similar note, in the chapter “Tyrones in Training,” Natalie Moore conducts group sharing sessions with a number of pre-teen African-American girls from urban Chicago, in which the youthful interactions described serve as a base of understanding for the ways in which black females affect and engage the behavior of their male contemporaries during developmental years. The girls pose their frustrations with the boys in their schools in way that is typical of their age, sharing their opinions on the importance of popularity, attractiveness, and attitude. However, they also demonstrate a profound dissatisfaction with a shared attitude possessed by the majority of boys in their schools and neighborhoods. They lament the lack of respect that boys their age show women, and even pinpoint some of the sources, such as the way women are represented in popular hip-hop videos. While Moore asks the girls questions, she does not urge them to affirm conceptions of black males that are constantly reasserted through depictions in the mainstream media. Instead, by allowing the girls to come to their own conclusions about the ways they feel about boys, she demonstrates how those media perceptions are maintained through real-life imitation. Therefore, though it is the corporate media that condemns the status of the modern black man, it is the very same institution that perpetuates images and understandings that continue to influence it.

The real accomplishment of the work is the way in which the authors remain unbiased while firmly entrenched in the phenomenon of “Tyrone.” Both authors provide circumstances in their own lives in which the “Tyrone” phenomenon has altered their surrounding worlds, ranging from the imprisonment of a childhood friend to a struggle with a city’s segregated school system. They are not anthropologists researching a distant or extinct society, but contributors, activists, and members of the society which, overall, judges black men at a cold arm’s length. Their closeness to their subject results in a sociological study that is remarkably readable and engaging. It reads almost like a novel, the reality of the modern black man a “plot” so compelling that one is desperate to reach its conclusion. However, as the text’s authors warn us, there is no conclusion regarding or resolving the societal “saga” of the modern black man. In writing Tyrone, Hopkinson and Moore present a media depiction of black men that, in it’s thoroughness and accountability, succeeds in deconstructing various stereotypes that have persisted for decades. It is a powerful attempt to alter the way all of us in American society, including black males, understand the reality behind our assumptions about ourselves and those that surround us.

Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation
Natalie Hopkinson and Natalie Y. Moore
San Francisco: Cleis Press, 2006

Natalie Hopkinson is a staff writer for the Washington Post (on leave) and a visiting professor of journalism at the University of Maryland–College Park.

Robin Morgan. FiGHTING WORDS: A ToolKit for Combating the Religious Right (Nation Books/Avalon Publishing, September, 2006)

Robin Morgan’s recent work Fighting Words: A Toolkit for Combating the Religious Right is aptly and appropriately named. In essence, it is an efficient, concise and valuable social and literary tool, useful to anyone disillusioned with our current political and social cultures’ steady progression toward a highly conservative ideal. Morgan believes that this basis of this progression (or, regression) lies in a well-organized media movement that has warped our nation’s understanding of our political history and heritage. Thus, while her work provides startling examples of the manipulative capacity of the media, it devotes equal, if not more attention to the reality of the secular values outlined in our constitution and our nation’s political history. Morgan is candid and uncompromising about her work’s message in a way that is highly refreshing. In my opinion, she successfully presents her readers with definitive, factual proof that our Founding Fathers were passionate about an inherent separation between America’s religious and political life, and thus, that the constant assertions to the contrary by the religious right are deeply flawed and insidiously motivated. Therefore, she successfully calls the persuasive power of the media into question, and consequently provides individual readers with methods of resistance against its unsubstantiated yet pervasive influence.

Fighting Words adheres to an almost completely fact-based structure, a technique which is rare in political literature and which heightens the work’s authenticity. Of course, Morgan inserts her own political opinion in her initial argument; however, she does not allow this opinion to cloud or influence her historical and cultural research. The text is made up almost entirely of quotes supporting an established distance between majority religion and democratic government in the United States. However, what keeps her work from becoming tedious is her entertaining inclusion of quotations from a variety of well-known Americans, some that are almost entirely unexpected. In her chapter entitled “Notable Americans,” she runs the gauntlet from abolitionists to actors, and politicos to poets, including words from figures ranging from Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Katharine Hepburn to Mark Twain. This strategy is wise, in that by highlighting the influence and opinion of a different type of media, she expands her argument into an equally important defense of our nation’s secular culture.

Morgan does not simply outline the position of the religious right and consequently attack it for its (at times, truly unbelievable) agenda regarding religion’s appropriate role in American society. Instead, she presents excerpts from historical documents that affirm the necessity of the separation of Church and State, establishing her defense and foundation well before turning on the offensive. Her chapter titles are simple and encompassing. Chapter one is entitled, “The Founders Own Fighting Words,” and it contains just that: words from the authors of our Constitution proclaiming the importance of maintaining a secular political nation. The following chapters are similarly titled and constructed, including “Fighting Words” from U.S. Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, and as aforementioned, various other notable Americans. She also includes direct quotations from the actual Constitution of the United States in its original form, highlighting portions that are not only devoid of any religious language, but that vociferously oppose any collusion between church and state in any aspect of our nation’s governance. Though she includes unofficial documents, such as various Presidents’ private correspondence and diaries as part of her textual support, she is careful not to rely too heavily on any of her notable American’s personal religious attitudes. She maintains a distance from her actual subjects, refusing to influence their words by an examination of their persons, even when that examination might ultimately benefit her argument.

Therefore, Morgan’s argument is well founded, intelligent and useful in combating core arguments that the religious right often uses to affirm religion’s position in the past and present functioning of our nation. After establishing her position, she presents a chapter devoted to the affirmations of the “enemy;” however, even within this context she maintains the same type of variance in and distance from her subjects. This section is particularly effective in the way that many of the quotations from conservative pundits, politicians, and religious figures call upon articles, laws, or historical figures that Morgan has already demonstrated as decidedly anti-religious. She includes some wildly entertaining and preposterous quotations - one example is televangelist Pat Robertson’s discourse on feminism in which he states: “The feminist movement is not about equal rights for women. It is about women promoting a socialist agenda, leaving their husbands, killing their children, practicing witchcraft, and becoming lesbians” (172). The ridiculous nature of these quotations serves only to draw attention back to her well-paced and thoroughly researched argument, therefore, negating their validity in their very format.

Essentially, Morgan alters the effect of the sound bite, an overwhelmingly effective media weapon consistently manipulated by the religious right. In a delightful turning of tactical tables, Morgan uses sound bites to factually affirm her own conclusions about the historical precedent for a political system free from religious influence or contamination. However, what distinguishes her from her corporate media counterparts is her exhaustive research affirming the validity of her quotations, as well as her ability to affirm her ideas in a manner that is rational, appropriate, and profound. In this way she not only challenges the contemporary media to apply similar methods, but also demonstrates the capacity for true discussion and consideration of our nation’s cultural and political direction outside the realm of the sensational or the shocking. In her introduction Morgan writes: “The sole purpose of Fighting Words is to reacquaint my countrymen and countrywomen with our secular roots – and to inspire us to honor them” (xxvii). However, Morgan serves an equally important purpose in her presentation of information and ideas in a way that is both educational and entertaining, and that serves to inspire comprehensive thought and realistic action in the citizens that make up our secular democracy.

Maurine H. Beasley. First Ladies and the Press: The Unfinished Partnership of the Media Age (Northwestern University Press, 2005)

"Misrepresentation: Mass Media's Depiction of the Historical and Contemporary First Lady", A review of Maurine H. Beasley's First Ladies and the Press: The Unfinished Partnership of the Media Age

In her work First Ladies and the Press: The Unfinished Partnership of the Media Age, Maurine H. Beasley paints a comprehensive picture of the media pressures, both historical and contemporary, that have affected and ostensibly defined the role of the presidential spouse. Beasley aims to provide her readers with an understanding of the media's success in dictating the appropriateness of the First Lady’s actions and how negative representations of First Ladies in the media is a phenomenon that extends back to our nation's founding. The text is thorough and accurate in its examination of how often the media successfully curtails the potential power of any given First Lady, usually by initially capitalizing on her femaleness, then subsequently demonizing her for it. Though the majority of the text isdevoted to exploring the frequency of this alarming practice, she also highlights the success of some First Ladies in using what are commonly regarded as specific feminine qualities to reach out to the media and effect change, most notably in her depiction of Lady Bird Johnson's beautification campaign and Hillary Clinton's publishing ofher chocolate chip cookie recipe. However, these examples primarily serve to reinforce Beasley's conviction that First Ladies have to act within the spheres of media-dictated femininity to effectively interact with the American public in a positive way. She provides a well-rounded and comprehensive vision of the symbiotic and often harmful relationship between the institution of the First Lady and the American media, while reflecting on how that relationship continues to influence and alter our "modern" understanding of the female role in society.

Beasley devotes most of her text to twentieth century First Ladies; namely those that she believes affected the most power both nationally and within their position. However, she also presents an interesting, fast-paced outline of the media pressures facing the First Ladies of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She reflects how, due to media scrutiny, the behavior and of early First Ladies upheld general associations of femaleness with weakness, infirmity, and vulnerability. She writes of Abigal Adams, wife of President John Adams: “Stung by criticism, she took as personal affronts anti-Federalist newspaper stories that attacked her family…midway through her husbands sole term, she experienced a four-month-long mental and physical collapse” (Beasley 31). She continues to cite many similar examples, presenting a vision of the early First Lady as a woman closeted in her own powerlessness, wholly removed from the public sphere, whose isolation was heightened by her alienation from a biased and influential early media. Her attention to these early women is helpful in that it provides a decisive example of the power that our mass media has always possessed in dictating the actions of those in positions of power. It also provides a stark contrast to the way that innovations in technology led to the depiction of the First Ladies of the twentieth century.

By moving through First Ladies chronologically, Beasley allows her reader to gain an understanding of how the position has developed and extended itself over time. She attributes whole chapters to those First Ladies that she believes have most profoundly impacted the nature of the position by working with positive or negative media representations of their femaleness: Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Laura Bush. The chapters highlight the way the media chose and chooses to portray the respective women, and how in most cases that portrayal, based on contemporary notions of "appropriate" femaleness, shaped itself into historical representation. Beasley is adept at classifying but not categorizing. With these four primary studies of the institution she presents various ways in which boundaries were extended through varying and conflicting representations of femaleness, refraining from condemning one particular tactic and lionizing another.

The depth of Beasley's research is extensive, particularly in the array of quotes she provides regarding impressions of each First Lady. However, her inclusion of so much information bolsters her ultimate argument. As readers we see each First Lady she examines as subject to an oscillating tide of media favor and disfavor, most often judged according to her adherence to certain standards of femininity. She collects quotes from a variety of scholarly sources as well as modern historians; in addition, she relies heavily on well regarded journalists like Helen Thomas to provide personal, impressions of not only the First Ladies themselves, but on the way they were represented during their husband's terms of office. Through the collection of a variety of sources, Beasley demonstrates themedia's power to shape a First Lady's offhand remark into a maelstrom of public outrage. She describes Hilary Rodham Clinton's defense of her career, quoting her remark: "I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas," reflecting on the media's subsequent representation of Clinton as power hungry. Beasley herself remains mostly impartial, however, her inclusion of various personal reflections adds to her clear depiction of how powerful the media is and was in influencing and canonizing public perception of the First Lady.

Beasley also maintains a level of impartiality regarding the media in general. She recognizes the obvious changes in technology and invention that propelled the twentieth century First Lady into a glaring media spotlight. However, she refrains from devoting too much time to media developments, choosing instead to focus of the ubiquitous nature of the media in any form, whether modern or antiquated. Because of this emphasis, her study is a successful one. She effectively points out the media conventions that unfairly characterize all women by providing examples rooted in the experiences of some of our nation's most visible females. In addition to exploring an institution that receives a surprising lack of scholarly attention, Beasley provides her readers with a firm understanding of the difficulties these women faced of functioning as something besides "figures standing with sweet smiles behind their husbands" (xvi). She also provides a valuable overview of the subtle and powerful ways in which our nation's corporate mass media reinforces harmful and antiquated notions of "proper" femininity, and the fallout to which our public female figures are subjected if they attempt to alter them.

Gertrude Robinson. Gender, Journalism & Equity: Canadian, US and Europen Perspectives (Hampton Press, NJ, 2005)

In light of today's shortage of widespread sociological documentation focusing on gender equity within the workforce, WIFP Associate Gertrude J. Robinson's work entitled Gender, Journalism, and Equity is revolutionary. Published in 2005, this ethnography provides a platform from which readers can more effectively analyze the influential role gender plays in the journalistic profession. Robinson carefully compares the differences that men and women encounter in journalistic practices across Canada, the US, and Europe while highlighting the corresponding "systemic biases" which affect women within this occupation. She elucidates the gender ideologies and subsequent gender segregated roles that pervade the profession, highlighting the fact that such culturally ascribed strictures of women are not biologically determined. Though inspiring amidst attempts to advance gender equality, Robinson points out that there remain many informal barriers which continue to leave women in disadvantaged positions with lesser opportunities for achieving the same success as their male counterparts. Robinson is a pioneer in many ways, most notably for her determination in providing readers with more accurate and up to date information about the additional challenges women face due to attitudes and discrimination based on perceptions of gender. Her work is crucial in understanding how male domination of the media continues to exist despite higher levels of education and training among female professionals today.

It is widely known that women of the 21st century are more greatly represented in the journalistic field than they were at any other time in history. In a sense, the "glass ceiling" which commonly refers to women's inability to occupy higher level professional positions, has been raised according to many, though it is very far from being completely shattered. According to Robinson, the oversimplified definition of "glass ceiling" remains unrepresentative of the numerous "social practices" which affect women in the workforce. As she explains, "there are barriers to advancement at every level of the hierarchy, not only at the top and there may also be differential speeds with which females and males are promoted, as well as the differential monetary benefits associated with promotion for the two genders (96)." In addition to these key factors, Robinson documents the substantially higher number of women who face the "dual-role strain" of balancing career and family life, and the toll this takes on their job evaluations. Not surprisingly, it seems that men are more likely to "have it all" as the expression goes, while women struggle to do the same, often compromising responsibilities at home and/or at work. Cultural expectations of women's responsibilities within the home and familial dynamics continue to shape Canadian, American and European frameworks in the journalistic profession as "masculinist career models" remain hegemonic and serve to "penalize females, but not males, for work interruptions (83-84). Despite their disproportionate contributions within the household, Canadian women are negatively evaluated for taking time off to raise children or tend to families, while men are positively evaluated for taking breaks such as vacations which are viewed to advance their careers. As discovered, there are both implicit and explicit mechanisms that continue to be used to discourage women from reaching the same positions in journalistic professions.

Instead of blaming women for their lack of participation and representation in this field (as many continue to do), Robinson realizes the underlying problems which perpetuate the difficulty women face in media related professions. It is especially noteworthy that women occupy a designated "minority status" within the occupation, though demographically, they account for 52% of the population (7). As such, women must fight harder than men to cover hot stories, have their ideas and concerns addressed, and influence what is delivered to the public.

Gertrude Robinson. Gender, Journalism & Equity: Canadian, US and Europen Perspectives (Hampton Press, NJ, 2005)

Elayne Clift, Editor. Women, Philanthropy and Social Change: Visions for a Just Society (Tufts University Press, 2005)

Editor Elayne Clift, in her quest to demystify and honor women's philanthropy, turns to an impressive array of the movement's current leaders. As these remarkable women share their stories, reections and knowledge on the women's funding movement, it becomes clear that "women and philanthropy"-not so long ago a seeming oxymoron-harbors the marvelous potential for global social change across gender, race, and age barriers.

With an introduction by Sunny Fischer on the power of women's giving, the chapters in the first of two sections address the history of the women's funding movement (Carol Mollner and Marie C. Wilson), focusing on key topics, including the difficult task of documenting women's contributions (Mary Ellen Capek), women as donors (Jo Moore and Mary Ann Philbin), volunteerism (Katherine Acey), partnering and stewardship (Kimberly Otis and Anne B. Mosle), the role of girls and young women (Stephanie Yang), educational and endowment strategies (Tracy Gary), and an insider's critical look at the state of the movement (Marsha S. Rose).

Part 2 takes an intimate look at women and social change: achievements, challenges, and future directions. An overview (Chris Grumm, Emily Katz Kishawi, and Deborah Puntenney) sets the stage for chapters on the model of the Ford Foundation (Barbara Y. Phillips), international giving (Patty Chang and Kavita Ramdas), inherited wealth (Cynthia Ryan), sharing earned income (Peg Talburtt, Judy Bloom, and Diane Horey Leonard), small-scale woman-to-woman support (Zainab Salbi), role models and inspiration (Helen Hunt and Kanyere Eaton), the future of funding (Christine Kwak, Gail McClure, and Anne C. Petersen), and "the next wave" (Kalpana Krishnamurthy). Jing Lyman sums up in a thoughtful afterward.

In this insightful collection, Clift and the contributors make the case for the passion and potential of women's giving. Women, Philanthropy, and Social Change celebrates women's power to influence priorities, social constructs, and political policies-ultimately changing the very foundations of society.

ELAYNE CLIFT is an independent scholar and award-winning writer and journalist. Her previous books include the edited collection Women's Encounters with the Mental Health Establishment: Escaping the Yellow Wallpaper (2002) and Sanity for All in the 21st Century: Reflections of a Fin de Siècle Feminist (2003). She has worked internationally on women's, health, communication, and development issues. A Vermont Humanities Scholar, she serves on the Governing Council of the Vermont Women's Fund.

Ramona R. Rush, Carol E. Oukrop, Pamela J. Creedon, editors, Seeking Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Communicaiton Education, A 30-Year Update. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers (2004).

Seeking Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education: A 30-Year Update
Review by Jessica L. Chesnutt

Presented as an examination of how the struggle for equality evolved into a struggle for equity, Seeking Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education: A 30-Year Update is the latest offering from three of the top scholars on women in media. Edited by WIFP Associate Ramona R. Rush, Carol E. Oukrop, and Associate Pamela J. Creedon, the book is a collection of essays on women's struggle for equity within journalism.

"We've Come a Long Way, Maybe . . . ," by Creedon, of the University of Iowa, introduces the collection. Seeking Equity is an update of Rush and Oukrop's 1972 study on women's status in journalism and mass communication education. Women and minority men make up the other contributors, who write on topics ranging from the accredidation process to sexual harassment in journalism education.

Seeking Equity is divided into five parts: History and Context of Educational Equity, The Update: 30 Years of Equity Struggles, Update on the Equity in the Professions, Theoretical and International Perspectives on Equity, and Listening to Concerns About Equity. Also included is a thorough and touching tribute to Dr. Donna Allen, pioneer and founder of WIFP. The tribute includes pieces by WIFP Director Martha Leslie Allen, Rush, and Associate Sue Kaufman, although Rush positis that "each chapter in this book tells a Donna story one way or another, whether or not the author knew her."

Susan Henry's "'But Where Are All the Women?': Our History" is a simultaneously eye-opening and heartbreaking account of women's progress in journalism education in the past three decades. Honoring the work of those who opened door for contemporary scholars, Henry suggests that "today's young woman might ask why she can be much more hopeful about her future as a journalism professor than earlier generations of women were, [to] learn that she has many remarkable women to thank for the changes." This is a significant departure from the anecdote that opens the essay, the story of Marze Marvin, passed over for a position in the University of Washington's journalism department in 1916. "Her sex is her only drawback," the dean wrote at the time.

A provocative examination of the gender wars is presented in Billy Wooten's "Peering Through the Glass Ceiling of the Boy's Club: Examining How Masculinity Affects Journalism and Mass Communication Education." He argues that one of the major problems in journalism education is "how sexism is reified by not only those persons in positions of power, but also those who are subordinated by those in power." Wooten goes on to analyze current literature and the status of women in journalism education, as well as anticipating the future of the equity movement.
Marilyn Kern-Foxworth's "Women of Color on the Frontline in the Mass Communication Professions" is one of three essays specifically focusing on issues of race. She studies women of color in advertising, public relations, newspapers, electronic news services, and radio news. Perhaps most interesting is her examination of job satisfaction among women communicators of color. Kern-Foxworth finds that "the images of women of color are still blatantly stereotypical and this relegates them, whether directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, conversely or inversely, to a level that does not permit them to totally evolve into leadership and decision-making positions within mass media."

The epilogue, "We Ain't There Yet . . . ," by Oukrop, of Kansas State University, manages to successfully establish a common theme of each essay. "What progress we do see has come about largely through our own efforts as activists and as feminist and minority scholars-in journalism and mass communication education and in the related professions around the world," she writes. As a final call-to-arms, she states, "Feisty persons should apply, for all our sakes. We need you now."

A memorial tribute is included to White House news photographer Marion Carpenter. The only female member of the White House Photographer's Association during Harry Truman's presidency, she was the first woman to hold such a position. Until recently, her story ad not been told at all. With a brief obituary in a 2002 local newspaper, some began to search out the details of her life and work. The text of the original newspaper article is included.

In addition, the original 1972 study, "(More Than You Ever Wanted to Know) About Women and Journalism Education" appears as an appendix, as well as author biographies.

Fifty percent of profits from the sale of this book will go to WIFP. Additional Associate contributors include: Jo-Ann Huff Albers, Maurine H. Beasley, Ph.D., and Carolyn M. Byerly, Ph.D.

Seeking Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education: A Thirty Year Update
Edited by Ramona R. Rush, Carol E. Oukrop, and Pamela J. Creedon

It is hard to imagine what life was like for women thirty years ago. With little representation in government, only a few women in the workplace, and much lower wages, women were second-class citizens and little was being done to change it. Not only has the social perception of women changed, but the laws and official rules have also adapted with time. One important field in determining the status of women is education. Seeking Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education edited by Ramona R. Rush, Carol E. Oukrop and Pamela J. Creedon is an investigation of what has happened in the field of journalism education over the past thirty years. With a variety of studies, the book shows the inequities of women's representation in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Education (AEJMC), wages, job rank, representation in doctorate programs, minority representation, and publishing rates. Thirty years before this book was published, Ramona R. Rush and Carol E. Oukrop presented a study at the Association for Education in Journalism's (now the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Education) annual conference. The study, "(More than You Ever Wanted to Know) About Women and Journalism Education," was the first of its kind, outlining the membership of women in AEJ, academic rank in journalism programs, number of women in doctorate programs and the opinion of the women in education on sexual discrimination. Through analyzing the membership of AEJ and questionnaires sent to women in doctorate programs in journalism, the authors of the study placed the problems for women in a public discourse. This study sparked a variety of changes for women in journalism education, including new commissions to make sure women's place in journalism is kept, a resolution to make the representation of women equal to men's, and a new standard in the accreditation process for journalism programs. The standard, standard 12, made it necessary for journalism departments to provide programs to advise women and to keep women on the faculty.

Although the study seemed to spark many changes, thirty years later we are still not there. The thirty-year update to the original study, entitled "Where Are the Old Broads? Been There Done That30 Years Ago," looks at the same problems from before, and also looks at new problems that existed thirty years ago, but were left out in the original study. The questionnaires were done through e-mail and the pool of women was much larger, but the findings were very similar. Although there were more women in the field of journalism, the percentage of women was not even close to the 50% resolution. But we cannot ignore the progress that was made. Women went from 11% to 38% of the members of AEJMC. Women also have held many high-ranking positions in the association, including president and head of commissions. The percentage of women enrolled in journalism programs all over the country has increased to more than 50%, making the majority of students in journalism women.

But where are all the women teachers, or as the authors put it, where are the old broads? The administrative positions are still overwhelmingly men and the women cannot seem to rise to the top. The line from professor to administrator, the glass ceiling keeping women from getting to the roof is what Ramona R. Rush calls the Ratio of Recurrent and Reinforced Residuum Hypothesis. This hypothesis basically says that women get whatever is left over after men get what they need. Thirty years ago, it meant the women only get the associate professor job, now it means the women get the job only if the men are less qualified and get the money only after the men have their salary. According to Rush, this hypothesis can describe why the advancement of women in the field of journalism has been such a struggle.

Some aspects of this struggle were not included in the original study, but were included in the update. One such aspect is salary. Thirty years ago, women were more worried about getting their foot in the door than the size of the step. Now, with more women in the programs, the focus of the struggle has shifted. Another aspect is race. The update of the study includes a section on minority women, understanding the importance of not just women representing women, but women representing races as well.
Seeking Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education is more than just the new study, updating the old. There are also a variety of other essays focusing on certain aspects of the study. One important section of the book is a history of the AEJMC, outlining the presidents, the number of women, the number of minorities, and the different commissions and standards that have passed through since 1972. The AEJMC is the root of the journalism in our country because it supplies the accreditation of the journalism programs in universities. Standard 12, making it necessary to create programs to keep women and minorities in journalism, is a part of this accreditation. Another study analyzes the way masculinity affects the profession of journalism. Through a series of questionnaires sent out to men and women in journalism and mass communication education, the study sees how these men and women react to the subject of sexual discrimination and how their reactions explain the environment for women in journalism.

The book also includes studies on the professions of journalism, or as I like to call it, life after college. The women in newspapers and television news face the same lack of representation as the women in journalism education. With a majority of men in the profession, a "masculine" identity is given to the career forcing the women to adapt to this identity in order to survive in journalism. The women in Public Relations have a much different representation problem. In the essay, "From Making PR Macho to Making PR Feminist: The Battle Over Values in a Female-Dominated Field," author Pamela Creedon writes of the reverse discrimination in public relations. In 1987 a paper was presented at the AEJMC convention calling for more men in the field, and even suggests a quota system for public relations classes to include masculine clients and activities to attract men. Does that sound familiar? But the men in the field of Public Relations are not entirely discriminated against; the Ratio of Recurrent and Reinforced Residuum Hypothesis still applies. The women in public relations receive less of a salary than the men, despite their dominance in the field.

One series of essay in the books discusses the theoretical and international ideas on the equality of women in journalism and mass communication education. In this series, Ramona R. Rush does an in-depth explanation of her Ratio of Recurrent and Reinforced Residuum Hypothesis, connecting it to international ideas. The other essays discuss the trends and theories in journalism in the United States and all over the world. Feminist groups have different views on journalism education, whether women need representation in the current system or whether the entire system needs to be changed to a more democratic expression, but they all agree that change is necessary. Without women in the media, our ideas are not told and we are not represented as we should be. Stereotypes, poor salaries, and sexual harassment are just a few effects of the marginalization of women in the media.

The last section of the book includes essays on women's concerns about the status of women in journalism education in the present. Katherine C. McAdams, Maurine H. Beasley, and Izabella Zandberg write of their concerns for women graduating with journalism degrees. The female dominated environment in journalism schools does not mirror the world that graduates will enter into. These women express reservations about the journalism education programs and the way that they prepare men and women for their upcoming career. Other essays express concerns about sexual harassment and mentoring programs in journalism education. Mentoring is such an important part of the journalism education because the women need to see someone who has accomplished what they are trying to do. With just a little encouragement, women studying journalism will be able to keep the struggle for media democracy moving.

But we have come a long way since the 1970s. It is the women that stand up and represent others that we have to thank for that. Whether it is the authors of this study that forced people to rethink the education system or the women who have served as president of the AEJMC or the women who have taught the women journalism students, all of these strong women have brought us through the thirty years. One such woman is Donna Allen, founder of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, leader of the struggle for women's media democracy, and the person to whom this book is dedicated. Her passionate work has changed the face of journalism and mass communication education. Seeking Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education not only is dedicated to the life and work of Donna Allen, but it also contains three tributes to her in the back of the book. Women like Donna Allen have gotten us this far, but as Carol E. Oukrop writes in the Epilogue, "We ain't there yet" There is still a lot of work to be done, but the thirty years that have passed are not completely futile. For future struggles, one-third of the money raised by Seeking Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Communication is donated to the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press.

2. Timeline and Vignettes Exploring the Status of Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education. Editors: Kathleen Endres, Pamela J. Creedon and Susan Henry. Contributors: Jo-Ann Huff Albers, Carolyn S. Dyer, Sue A. Lafky, Ramona R. Rush and JoAnn M. Valenti

3. The Role of Minority Women in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication from 1968 to 2001, by Lionel C. Barrow, Jr.

4. The Struggle for Racial and Gender Equity: Standard 12 History and the Accrediting Process, by Evonne Whitmore

5. "Where are the Old Broads?" Been There, Done That . . . 30 Years Ago: An Update of the Original Study of Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education, 1972 and 2002, by Ramona R. Rush, Carol E. Oukrop, Lori Bergen and Julie L. Andsage

6. Peering through the Glass Ceiling of the Boy's Club: Examining How Masculinity Affects Journalism and Mass Communication Education, by Billy Wooten

8. The Status of Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education Administration: No Longer So Lonely, by Jo-Ann Huff Albers

9. Whose News? Progress and Status of Women in Newspapers (Mostly) and Television News, by Christy C. Bulkeley

10. Women of Color on the Frontline in the Mass Communications Professions, by Marilyn Kern-Foxworth

11. From Making PR Macho to Making PR Feminist: The Battle over Values in a Female-Dominated Field, by Pamela J. Creedon

13. Three Decades of Women and Mass Communications Research: The Ratio of Recurrent and Reinforced Residuum Hypothesis Revisited, by Ramona R. Rush

15. Trends in Feminist Scholarship in Journalism and Communications: Finding Common Ground Between Scholars and Activists Globally, by H. Leslie Steeves

16. Women Graduates (and Men Too) Express Reservations about Journalism Education, by Katherine C. McAdams, Maurine H. Beasley and Izabella Zandberg

17. Communications Research Students: Tomorrow's Academics in Obsolete Worlds?: An International Perspective, by Katharine Sarikakis

19. Reaching Up, Reaching Out: Mentoring Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education, by Judith Cramer, Kandice Salmone and Emily Walshe

Appendix: Original 1972 Research Report: (More Than You Ever Wanted to Know) About Women in Journalism Education, by Ramona R. Rush, Carol E. Oukrop and Sandra Ernst

Dr. Carolyn Byerly, University of Maryland, and Karen Ross, Coventry University, editors, Women and Media: International Perspectives. Blackwell Publishing (2004).

"We believe there is considerable wisdom in this collection of writings about where women are today in their relationship with both
traditional and new media," write Carolyn M. Byerly and Karen Ross, editors of Women and Media: International Perspectives, in their
introduction. Indeed, the book incorporates unique and thought-provoking analysis of women in media from eight authors, including specific
examinations of conditions in Israel, India, Australia, and Ireland, as well as in Britain and the Unites States.

The book is divided into two sections, which the first focusing on Representing and Consuming Women, and the second examining Women's Agency in Media Production. Designed for academic study, each essay is accompanied by a list of key words and discussion questions.

Dafna Lemish notes that gender inequality is significant in Israel due to the low level of discussion on the topic in her "Exclusion and Marginality: Portrayals of Women in Israeli Media." She finds that "exposing the ideological ties between social-economic-political
reality and media images representing it is but one step toward cracking the walls of hegemony."

Ross's piece, "Women Framed: The Gendered Turn in Mediated Politics" raises the interesting relationship between women, politics,
and media. She weaves personal testimonies of women parliamentarians and first-hand interviews with women from Westminster, Canberra, and Cape Town, into the thorough analysis of literature. Byerly, a WIFP Associate, offers a historical look at women in newsrooms between 1970 and 2000 in her "Feminist Interventions in Newsrooms." She "[explores] masculine newsroom hegemony, [reviews] the feminist critique of news, [summarizes] numerous examples of feminist news interventions, and [explores] why these matter in relation to women's
right to communicate." In "Cyberspace: The New Feminist Frontier?," Gillian Youngs suggests that the advantages of modern technology to women in media can only be truly assumed if due regard is given to the "historically created gendered conditions of inequality and the policy imperatives they generate." She goes on to study the politics of the Internet as a means for "cyberfeminism," as well as articulating the possibilities for empowerment via networking "and beyond" online.

Published by Blackwell Publishing, Women and Media is sure to become an important text on the state of women in communication at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Dr. Maurine H. Beasley and Sheila J. Gibbons, Taking Their Place, A Documentary History of Women and Journalism. Strata Publishing, Inc. (2003)

The first edition of this book was named an Outstanding Title by Choice (a publication of the Association of College & Research Libraries).

The second edition received the Texty Award for textbook excellence from the Text and Academic Authors Association.

More than sixty historical documents illustrate women's vital role in U.S. journalism. Among these are:

First-person articles by some of the best-known and most fearless women in journalism history.

First-hand accounts of struggles against gender and racial discrimination.

Women journalists' reports of major events around the world.

Documents illustrating the evolution of traditional women's magazines and the rise of a feminist press.

Materials on alternative women's media and women's challenges to mainstream media.

Reports on recent efforts to change media coverage of women.

New, five-part division and revised organization highlight historical progression of women in journalism.

An introduction to each major part of the book and expanded commentary throughout the text enhance readers' understanding of historical contexts and connections.

Expanded selection of documents illustrates more issues of women in journalism-among them, women and public affairs, women war correspondents, women and racial issues, minority women in the press, and career issues in the media industry and professional organizations.

Illustrations-drawings and photographs of 18 women journalists-provide visual stimulation and help bring history alive.

Timeline helps students grasp the overall progress and context of women's advancement in journalism.

Expanded "Additional Resources" section, including an array of books, essays, and web sites, guides further research.

Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett, Talking Back to Today's News, An Editorial Writer's Journal 1998-2003.
www.PublishAmerica.com, 2003

The Nobel Peace Prize celebrated its one hundredth anniversary a couple of years ago and I wanted to know why so few women had received the prize. Major news outlets covered the basic facts of Nobel's one hundredth, but they neither asked nor answered my question: Why so few women?

I knew and believed one thing: There should have been more women recipients of this prestigious prize. I also knew there were more women in the world than men. What I didn't know was the exact number of women in the world. So I began my search for numbers of women recipient

s and their backgrounds and numbers of women in the U.S. and world populations. My point of view, logical conclusion, and my recommendations were these: There have not been enough women recipients of the prize, there ought to be more women recipients and, by the way, here are a few names and profile sketches. This December 14, 2001, article from the Delaware Valley became "Women and Nobel 100 years Later."

On another occasion, all the world seemed headed to war. We were in the wake of the September 11 disaster at the World Trade Center and other places. The government was snatching civil liberties right and left. One member of the U.S. Congress stood up-- risking her tenure in office-- and said, No. I knew I agreed with this woman, but I wanted to make my case on the basis of her profile and her legislative record. If I had simply "come off the top" and said I agree, I would have failed myself as a writer and thinker. I would have failed my subject and failed my audience. I went in search of her. I used primary and secondary sources to ferret out her point of view, the full context of her statement, her Congressional record, and her career. The September 23, 2001, article, also from the Delaware Valley, became "My Kind of Patriot."

My first-ever published editorial essay was "Fine Arts Cry for Aid." I was an undergraduate senior at a parochial school in the South. After the article was published in the campus newspaper, the dean of women told me that had she seen the article before my graduation she might not have signed my exit papers. I rarely write opinion pieces agreeing with the majority opinion or conventional view. If everybody is saying the same thing and in the same way-- why write?

What fires your ire? I ask my students. That's the start of your editorial essay.

My job as an editorial writer is to present an original point of view, originallyin my own style, in my own voice (also in the active voice "I believe", not "it is believed by me"), and in my own view.

I want to educate and enlighten, stir and sway public debate and opinion. I want someone to say: Aha, I hadn't thought of it that way. Aha, I think she's got a point there. Aha, I think we really should do something about that. Yes, I think the president got it wrong this time. Yes, I am concerned about our democracy, too, but I haven't heard anybody in the mass media talking about it in the way this writer is talking about it. Yes, I agree, the press and government are failing to address our issues.

Talking Back to Today's News: An Editorial Writer's Journal, is a reader, a chronicle, a history in well over a hundred angles and viewpoints on everything from war and peace to women and the Nobel to tofu turkey.

My journal contains essays and reviews, opinion and think pieces all well-researched, all pegged to news of the day--whatever has happened within this or that week of my weekly public affairs column, whatever anniversary is coming or has come, whatever historic event or milestone has occurred.

Arkansas Civil rights leader and newspaper publisher Daisy Bates died, and my January 6, 1999, article from Maine was "A Daisy to Remember." A gay man, Matthew Shepard, died, the victim of a hate crime, in Laramie, Wyoming, and my October 16, 1998, article from Maine was "We've Been to Laramie." Poet Gwendolyn Brooks died in Chicago and my December 13, 2000, article from Maine became "Sandburg had Lincoln, Brooks had Bronzeville." Not all titles I give my articles are used by publisherseditors change titles to create headlines of their choosing. But my titles give me a focused head from which to focus my lead and the rest of the articlethese content and structural parts also change during the creative process.

Everything interests me. Everything presents possible material for a coming article. Everything I see, hear, read (I read a lot), or ponder is possible content or prompt for an article.

When I arrived in South Carolina, I had a week before the start of meetings at the university, so I drove to Charleston, the historic city some 70 miles southeast. I had booked a hotel room in Mt. Pleasant on Highway 17 North across the bridge from Charleston and, as I drove that route, I discovered sweetgrass basket makers and their baskets, the oldest African American art form (craft). I went to several basket makers' stands, observed closely, took photographs, talked with some of the basket makers, read a book and brochure on the baskets and makers, ate at the Gullah restaurant on 17 North. Returned to Orangeburg and wrote my July 20, 2002, article "Sweetgrass, Gullah in the Carolina Lowcountry, History Catches Up."

I hope Talking Back to Today's News achieves high ideals in form and content and appeals to writers, students and journalists employed within news organizations, to school teachers and college professors, and to all readers and thinkers interested in and concerned about social issues, human relations and the human condition, education, democracy and the press, world, national and local politics and public affairs.

I have been talking back sporadically for four decades. For about two of the four I've been a regularly published public affairs columnist. Talking Back is my fourth collection. It contains 130 uncut versions of essays first published as features, commentary, and opinion articles in periodicals from coast to coast: About Time Magazine and AIM Quarterly magazine, The Chicago Defender, The Connection and City News in New Jersey, The Philadelphia Observer and Philadelphia Tribune, the Miami Herald, the Dallas Examiner, the San Diego Voice and Viewpoint.

The pieces speak my passion for peace by peaceful means, responsibilities of a free press, education first, women's rights and responsibilities, African American life and history, remembrances of great originals such as poet Gwendolyn Brooks, journalist Carl Rowan, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun.

I hope Talking Back presents powerful points of view that resonate with people regardless to the degree of their power. Talking Back is due out this year from PublishAmerica.

Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press
1940 Calvert Street, NW
Washinton, DC 20009-1502
email: mediademocracy@wifp.org
phone: 202-265-6707
www.wifp.org