Monday Linkage: targeting mothers, uteruses, and the key to ending congressional deadlock

21 October 2013, 0110 EDT

  • According to economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett, “gender smarts” were key to ending the recent congressional deadlock. She argues: “Unlocking gridlock in government, it turns out, depends on precisely the mechanism that unlocks competitive strength in the private sector: a diverse team (laden with gender smarts and cultural fluency) managed by leaders whose aggregate of experience motivates them to manage inclusively.”
  • A new “ism”: motherism, or prejudice against stay-at-home-moms.The Guardian reports that- according to Dr Aric Sigman, a biologist and psychologist- “stay-at-home mothers are increasingly facing a damaging but unspoken prejudice that assumes they are stupid, lazy and unattractive.”
  • Medical staff working in Syria are reporting that snipers appear to be targeting pregnant women– with several cases of heavily pregnant women being shot in the uterus.
  • In a great post entitled “Why so few women in Nobel science?” Debasish Mitra laments the lack of gender equality amongst the past winners and lists six women who deserved to win the Nobel prize for science.