A couple of interesting news items today about women and the slumping economy. Women in Iceland are not focused on "stimulating" their economy to rise again, but rather on restructuring it to work better for society. This is extremely refreshing and reminds me again how I wish Obama would include more women in his economic team. I wouldn't mind either if he would ditch the sexist Larry Summers who doesn't seem to have any great new ideas.
Here's the article in Guardian. The singer Björk is involved in setting up a green investment fund as part of the recovery effort. Here's what the fund manager, Halla Tómasdóttir, said:
"Our Björk fund is to focus on sustainable growth. Iceland was the first in the world into the crisis, but we could be the first out, and women have a big role to play in that. It goes back to our Viking women. While the men were out there raping and pillaging, the women were running the show at home... We have five core feminine values. First, risk awareness: we will not invest in things we don't understand. Second, profit with principles - we like a wider definition so it is not just economic profit, but a positive social and environmental impact. Third, emotional capital. When we invest, we do an emotional due diligence - or check on the company - we look at the people, at whether the corporate culture is an asset or a liability. Fourth, straight talking. We believe the language of finance should be accessible, and not part of the alienating nature of banking culture. Fifth, independence. We would like to see women increasingly financially independent, because with that comes the greatest freedom to be who you want to be, but also unbiased advice."
Then there was this item from US News and World Report:
Lost Your Health Insurance? Consider Planned Parenthood Clinics
It's no surprise that as the economy falters, many women are praying that their birth control doesn't fail, and some women have consciously decided to postpone having a baby in this recession. Many of those without insurance have been swarming into Planned Parenthood clinics to get free or subsidized contraception, Deborah Kotz reports. In fact, a spokesperson from Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania says it has seen a 10 percent increase in the number of women coming into its local centers in the past three months, and many of them are recently unemployed. The Yuma Planned Parenthood in Arizona saw 260 new patients from November 2008 to January 2009, up from 171 new patients during the same period a year earlier. And the affiliate in east-central Iowa now adds about five or six women each day to its patient roster where it used to add about that many a week.
Well, with Planned Parenthood laying off workers, they are not going to be well-equipped to handle the rush for their services. The "gender stimulus gap" means that new federally funding for women's reproductive health is not on the way... yet.
I found the bit about postponing babies due to the bad economy very interesting. This is at the root, I believe of the extreme negative reaction to "Octo-mom," Nadya Suleman. Sensible people don't see this as a good time to add more economic burden to their own families, so they are outraged that someone would add such a burden to taxpayers.
Comments