The Lipstick LobbyList 2.23.2011 - Born this way

Woo hoo! In a pretty spectacular decision, President Obama reverses his DOJ's position defending DOMA by declaring it "unconstitutional".  From the Attorney General's statement:

"After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny.   The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional.   Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases.   I fully concur with the President’s determination."

Lady Gaga gives me a reason to love capitalism when she agreed this week to a deal with Target to sell a special edition of her new gay anthem single "Born This Way" - only if the retailer "made amends" for past corporate donations to anti-gay groups by donating to gay rights groups.  Take a bow, Gaga.

Really love these stichin' bitches who graffiti knit in Boston.  I've admired their handiwork in my neighborhood all year, and love knowing the women behind the art. (The photo at the left is from sister-knitter Olek in NYC who graffiti knit the Wall Street bull this December.  Love her!)

The Lipstick LobbyList 2.22.2011

A truly horrifying fax received by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.).  The level of hate, racism and misogyny in one document baffles the mind.  What caused the stir?  Her introduction of bill to eliminate U.S. military sponsorships at NASCAR.

The Gender Pay Gap by Industry (left)
(h/t BB)

More fun in Italy. Prime Minister Berlusconi's case has been assigned to a panel of three women judges. His lawyer's reaction?

"Noting that Mr. Berlusconi would be tried before a panel of three judges, all of them women, [Berlusconi's lawyer] said: 'Great. Women are always appreciated, sometimes even agreeable,' the center-left daily La Repubblica reported."

Who wins in book publishing?  The male or female author? Want to take a wild guess?

One of the few women CEO's in Boston, Ellen Zane of Tufts Medical Center, announced her retirement last week.  I loved this quote from one of her female colleagues: “Her heel print is very deep on the Massachusetts health care landscape,’’ said Lynn Nicholas, the state hospital association’s chief executive. (#backwardsinheels)

Fun list of the top ten things women invented.  Some things you'd expect (chocolate chip cookies, the dishwasher, Liquid Paper), but others are truly incredible - circular saw and windshield wipers!

Sarah Palin continues to lay the groundwork for a presidential campaign announcement:

"Gosh, nobody’s more qualified [for the] multitasking than a woman, a mom… who’s administered locally, state, with energy issues, so maybe a mayor, a governor maybe," she joked, adding that "vice presidential candidate" was also a good precursor.

Badass Broad of the Week - February 21

Much has been written about Rep. Jackie Speier's incredibly personal story offered on the House floor during debate last week on the Republican proposal to defund Planned Parenthood.  But I nominate Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) for my inaugural LL award of "Badass Broad of the Week," for her stirring floor speech on the value of Planned Parenthood in her life and the lives of other young, poor women with lack of access to health care.  The Daily Beast explained more about Moore's own biography, when she found herself 18 and and with an unplanned pregnacy:

Though she didn’t say so on Thursday, Moore had been bound for Radcliffe, then the women’s counterpart to Harvard, when she found herself pregnant. Instead, she ended up on welfare. She was eventually able to go to college and build a life for herself, but as she points out, even the meager programs that helped her have since been gutted or eliminated. “It is important for women to have a choice, to have an opportunity to plan their families,” she said. “Because if they don’t, the Republicans have said this is an ownership society. You are on your own, and they’re going to begrudge that child everything, from WIC”—the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program—“to a Pell Grant to health insurance.”

Watch and be inspired.

Why women's voices matter

Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) took to the floor yesterday to speak against the Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) amendment “Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act” (H.R. 217), which would strip federal family planning funding from health care providers that also provide abortion care with private funds, by telling her own story of having an abortion.  It's thoughtful, powerful, and to the point.  She concludes:

"You may not like Planned Parenthood.  So be it.

"There's many on our side of aisle who don't like Halliburton....

"Do you see us over here filing an amendment to wipe out funding to Halliburton?  No, because frankly that would be irresponsible.

"I would suggest to you that it would serve us all very if we moved on with this process and started focusing on creating jobs for Americans who so desperately want them."

Sadly, the House passed the amendment this afternoon.

The Lipstick LobbyList 2.16.2011 - Let's Talk About Sex

Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley is rocking it out on teen pregnancy and better access to sex ed for Boston girls:

"[P]eople told her not to speak about her history as a 'survivor of sexual abuse or sexual assault' because it 'makes men uncomfortable.'

"She says she was told not to talk about her commitment to girls because 'that’s not a city-wide issue that will resonate.'

"Instead, Pressley developed her own philosophy. She gave the same stump speech, no matter what side of town she was on. Everyone heard how she was raised by a single mom, that her father was in prison most of her childhood, how she dropped out of college to work full-time and support her mother, who had been laid-off."

Loving the Italian women these days.  Self-described as "neither desperate, nor housewives", these protesters have made the courts and the Parliament take the allegations that Prime Minister Berlusconi paid for an underage prostitute seriously. 

South Dakota.....wow.  A state legislator introduced a bill to make it "justifiable homicide" for killing an abortion doctor.

Santorum's ongoing "google problem".  He he.

One woman's name continues to get play in the field of Sen. Brown challengers: Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll.

Former Cantabrigian and President of Lesley University Margaret McKenna is making impressive strides in the world of corporate philanthropy.....at Walmart.

The Lipstick LobbyList 2.10.2011

Happy early Valentine's Day from the GOP.  I know I'm not supposed to love these cards as much as I do, but they get me every year.  If we can't laugh at ourselves, then what's the point of being in this business?

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on HuffPost - Urgent Call to Action: GOP House Pushing Anti-Woman Agenda

The failed challenger to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now onto the next thing: giving makeup tips.  You can't make this up if you tried.  (h/t JM)

Senate women's 'civility' pact

It’s something you almost never see in Senate politics: one female senator attacking another, even when they’re on opposite sides of an issue.

Among the 17 female senators, it amounts to an informal nonaggression pact. In the male-dominated, tradition-bound Senate chamber, their desire to recapture a long lost sense of civility trumps the constant pressure to score partisan points. It’s a bond forged by their common experience as women in the highest level of American politics, reinforced during a regular dinner meeting led by the longest-serving female senator, Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.).

Mikulski set the rules for the dinner group when she launched it years ago: no staff, no memos, no leaks and no men.

NYT editorial supporting the bad ass claim brought by Efrosini Katanakis, a New York woman who was discriminated against in hiring for a job......painting NY bridges and towers.  Yes.  She's that bad ass.

I can't wait to dig into Tina Fey's column on work/life balance in this week's New Yorker: Confessions of a Juggler.

I thought we had a great system for training female candidates through Emerge, but I obviously failed to consider the power of Hooters (yes, Hooters) as a women candidates pipeline.  (another great find by JM)

Rick Santorum hits below the belt at Sarah Palin on missing CPAC:  "Santorum — the father of seven children — also said that Palin has 'other responsibilities,' such as raising her children, that he doesn’t." (h/t BB)

The Lipstick LobbyList 2.4.2011

Boston magazine's Most Powerful Women list includes some of my favorite women in Massachusetts: State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, Sheriff Andrea Cabral, GLAD legal powerhouse Mary Bonauto,  Boston Public Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson, and on and on.

Boston is losing a fantastic federal judge, Judge Gertner.  I can't wait to check out her memoir this summer.

Congrats to Sen. Gillibrand, who is now serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Her leadership on the Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal and the 9/11 First Responders bill passage make her an incredible asset to the work on this committee.

Love Attorney General Coakley's quip at last week's Government Affairs Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast: "twice now in the past year, the voters have said they want me to stay as attorney general."  On a more substantive note, I was so impressed to hear her use the opportunity to call on the business community to join in signing an amicus brief supporting her case challenging DOMA.

A $17,000 gender pay gap with starting salaries among doctors?  Sigh. 

"Her"story continues to be excluded - this time with Wikipedia and the predominance of male contributors.


So many interesting things being said about this article over the past week: Black? White? Asian? More Young Americans Choose All of the Above  I loved this part:

Starting with the 2000 census, Americans were allowed to mark one or more races.
The multiracial option came after years of complaints and lobbying, mostly by the white mothers of biracial children who objected to their children being allowed to check only one race.

I would have loved to have seen this dual: Larry Summers vs. the Tiger Mother at Davos.