If women ruled the world ... Watching other women leaders in action inspires, encourages and strengthens me. As a wise woman once told me, the problem is that women tend to underestimate their abilities - whereas too many men overestimate theirs.
- Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the British Trades Union Congress
Source: The Guardian
Big loss for Minnesota women
The Office on the Economic Status of Women (OESW) no longer exists because the 2017 Minnesota legislative session eliminated its funding. The nonpartisan office's work included:
• Reviewing every piece of state legislation that was introduced and providing key legislators with facts on the potential impact on women.
• Informing the community of important proposed legislation on women's economic issues.
• Providing legislators and the community with a summary of all new state legislation every year that affected women's economic security.
• Meeting each year with women throughout Greater Minnesota to learn of issues important to them, and bringing this information back to legislators.
• Producing reports and fact sheets about Minnesota women, such as "Minnesota's Women-Owned Businesses," statistics about women in Minnesota's elected offices, and the economic status of Minnesota's older women.
Source: OESW

Female order in the court
For the first time in Minnesota history, half of the state's 10 judicial districts are headed by women judges. Today, 43 percent of the state's district court judges are female, 53 percent of the judges on the Minnesota Court of Appeals are female, and 57 percent of the justices of the Minnesota Supreme Court are female. Since 2011, the racial diversity of Minnesota's judges has also increased by 70 percent, but only to a total of 10.2 percent overall.
Source: Star-Tribune

Adult-ification of black girls
American adults think black girls are less innocent than white girls, according to the new study, "Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls' Childhood," by Georgetown Law's Center on Poverty and Inequality. The report reveals that adults perceive black girls older than white girls of the same age and that respondents believe black girls need less nurturing, protection, support and comfort than white girls.

Although black girls account for 16 percent of girls in K-12 education, they comprise 28 percent of referrals to juvenile justice and 37 percent of arrests. The study concludes that stereotypes about black girls cause them to be treated more harshly.
Source: Ms. Magazine

Red-faced blue states?
A study of 45,000 executives suggests that political ideology is a poor indicator of management-level diversity. Montana has women in 40.9 percent of senior executive positions, the highest in the nation. Alabama is also in the Top 10. Progressive states like California (21.4 percent) and Massachusetts (20.7) are below the national average of 24.8 percent.
Source: Ozy

Bigly pay gap
According to a report from the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, the gender pay gap in the Trump White House is three times larger (37 percent) than it was in the last year of the Obama Administration (11 percent). At the median level, the typical woman in the Trump White House earns 63.2 cents per $1 earned by a typical male staffer - a salary of $72,648 compared to $115,000.
Source: Washington Post


The relationship between women voters and marriage
Single and divorced white and Latina women - and black women regardless of marital status - are more likely to see their futures tied to other women, and to identify as liberals. A team of researchers examined data on 2,000 voters from an American National Election Study, exploring the research that suggests married women become more conservative on gender-related issues, and perceive themselves as having less in common with other women. As they noted, "Someone could reasonably ask, why does marriage make married women more conservative, rather than making men more feminist?" They suggest one answer: "Women consistently earn less money and hold less power, which fosters women's economic dependency on men."
Source: The Conversation