This week, the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) named its 2011 picks for the 50 best companies for executive women–not be confused, mind you, with regular women. This distinction is evinced by the fact that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. made the list, even though a pending lawsuit alleges the company systemically paid women less and offered them fewer opportunities for advancement than their male counterparts. According to Forbes, this particular list was allegedly based on “female representation, hiring, attrition and promotion rates; access and use of retention and advancement programs, like mentoring and executive coaching; and manager training and accountability.” Or, they just picked 50 publicly traded companies out of a hat.
Speaking of Wal-Mart and how it’s weird that they were picked as a top company for women, the suit against them may become the largest class-action lawsuit in U.S. history if the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to let it proceed. Leading the suit is plaintiff Betty Dukes, a greeter at a Pittsburg, CA, Wal-Mart. You can send her a personal note of encouragement and thanks here. Read more detail about the case in the next issue of Ms.
Two GOP Senators, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Ala.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) broke party lines this week to oppose anti-woman legislation. According to Politico, Sen. Collins has announced her opposition to H.R. 1, which cuts Title X funding, and Sen. Murkowski came out against the Pence Amendment, making her the first Republican to officially support Planned Parenthood.
It’s the law of the land that all children born on U.S. soil are citizens. So why did Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents refuse to allow 4-year-old Emily Samantha Ruiz, who was born in the U.S., back into the country after visiting relatives in Guatemala with her grandfather? Read the full story at Latina Lista.
If there’s one thing Republicans hate, it’s taxes. Also bureaucracy. And intrusive federal government. But they’ve made an exception to all that for their pending bill H.R. 3, which would force the IRS to police how Americans get pregnant and how they pay for their abortions. According to Mother Jones:
To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?
From Feministing: The first cover of WIRED magazine to feature a woman engineer gets mixed reviews.
Finally, students at a Canadian Catholic high school were suspended for sporting pro-choice messages in a counter-protest of the school’s annual “Day of Silent Solidarity” in protest of abortion rights. As someone who went to an all-girls Catholic high school, I can’t imagine what would have happened if a student openly declared a pro-choice stance, but it wouldn’t have been good. But then again my high school banned Amnesty International for being too radical.
Above, clockwise: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), from Wikimedia Commons; Protest of Wal-Mart’s gender discrimination, from Wikimedia Commons; Death and Taxes book cover, from Flickr user numberstumper, under CC 2.0; Internal Revenue Building, from Wikimedia Commons; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) SWAT officers, from Wikimedia Commons; Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Ala.), from Wikimedia Commons; Cover of April Issue of WIRED; Catholic anti-abortion protest, from Flickr user DrewbieDoo, under CC 2.0; WalMart store, from Wikimedia Commons; U.S. Border Patrol agents, from Flickr user jim.greenhill, under CC 2.0.
