Mother Jones' Editor Clara Jeffrey shows how far women still have to go (sigh!)

I saw this in the now-current Mother Jones mag and fortunately it was online. I'm going to reprint it below. It's said to note that for all of our "progress" much has not changed. I wonder how much of this is because we as a society-- men and women -- just can't seem to embrace real equality, and so the nation slows progress in this area. I think there have been advances, but we really need to start a national dialog on this issue. We need to review where we are, and why.

Limited Ambitions

News: Why Women Can't Win for Trying

By Clara Jeffery (editor)
January/February 2006 Issue of Mother Jones

Women make 80¢ on the male dollar, even accounting for time off to raise kids. If that factor is not accounted for, women make 56¢.

Over her career, the average working woman loses $1.2 million to wage inequity.

Since 1963, when the Equal Pay Act was signed, the wage gap has closed by less than half a cent per year.

In 1963, RFK withdrew his nomination to a club that had spurned a black official and formed a club that did not admit women.

3 board members of Catalyst--a workplace-equity advocacy group--belong to Augusta National Golf Club, which bans women.

One is the CEO of GE, which won a 2004 Catalyst Award, although the company has a below-average rate of female executives.

Companies with women in top jobs see 35 percent higher returns than those without.

74 percent of female executives have a spouse who’s employed full time. 75 percent of male execs have a spouse who is not employed.

42 percent of female execs over 40 don't have kids.

For full-time working fathers, each child correlates to a 2.1 percent earnings increase. For working moms, it is a 2.5 percent loss.

Every industrialized country except the U.S. and Australia has paid parental leave with a guaranteed job on return to work.

86 percent of guests on Sunday-morning political talk shows are men. So are 80 percent of the guests on The Daily Show.

Only 5 of 20-odd "thought-leader" magazines have ever had a woman as editor-in-chief. Two of those jobs were held by Tina Brown.

Only 24 percent of recent works in The New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times Magazine were written by women, according to WomenTK.com.

1/3 of those were articles on gender or family or were short stories or memoirs.

41 percent of Mother Jones' writers during the same period were women. This issue only 11 percent are.

Magazines that run lists of the best firms for women to work for often accept pay-to-play advertising or use self-reported data. Working Mother lists firms facing class-action suits for sex harassment and pregnancy discrimination. (Wow. This means most PR on this matter may be fixed!)

Working Mother recently found Allstate, American Express, and General Mills among the 8 best firms for women of color. At each, 30% of new hourly hires are women of color, but 0% of newly hired executives are.

Women over 65 are almost twice as likely to be poor as men.

Actresses over 40 account for 9 percent of movie roles. Actors over 40 account for 30 percent.

Anne Bancroft was 36 when she played Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. Dustin Hoffman was 30.

Chances that a Best Actress winner portrayed a prostitute, a nun, or a mute: 1 in 8.

Since orchestras started requiring musicians to audition behind screens, the number of women hired has increased 20%.

40% of married professional women feel their husbands do less work around the house than they create.

Each teenage girl increases a mom's weekly housework by 1.5 hours, but leaves a dad's unchanged. A teenage boy adds 3 hours to mom's chores, and an hour to dad's.

Heavyset women get fewer promotions and face more job discrimination. Heavyset men do not.

Models weigh 23% less than average women. In 1986 it was only 8 percent less.

The above statistics were quoted in a press release for a Dove product whose adcampaign uses full-figured models but the use of which is claimed to reduce cellulite.

Asked to pick a partner for a relationship, college men tend to choose women in subordinate jobs. College women show no preference, nor, for a one-night stand, do men.

Men only earn 3/4 as many B.A.s as women. Some colleges now admit to practicing affirmative action for male applicants.

Only 1/3 of female Ph.D.s who get on the tenure track before having a baby ever do so.

31.5 percent of Iraq's parliament are women. Only 15 percent of the U.S. Congress are women.

15 African nations have a higher percentage of female legislators than does the U.S.

69 percent of men believe America would be better off if women occupied more top political jobs. Only 61 percent of women agree.

Among Republicans, that split is 52 percent to 34 percent.

Under Bush , the Labor Dept. has eliminated 25 publications on pay inequity and child care.

After a woman filed a sexual-harassment complaint against her Merrill Lynch superior, she circulated an article titled "Stop Whining," which warned that "constant complaining can cost you your job."

Packers Hire 49ers' Mike McCarthy - The Alarming Pattern of Avoidance of "The Rooney Rule" by some NFL Organizations

The "Rooney Rule" was established to cause NFL organizations to at least interview and in more cases hire minority -- and more specfically black, coaches. After a review of the current pattern of hiring by many NFL teams over the course of the last month, I must sadly report that the Rooney Rule has failed.

What spurred me to write this entry -- as I attempt to hold back the tears that come from the news that The Green Bay Packers have hired San Francisco 49ers Offensive Coordinator Mike McCarthy as their new head coach -- is a wonderful trip I had to Seattle to visit a friend and attend the Seattle Seahawks game against the San Francisco 49ers last November. I really enjoyed the experience,and as a momentary aside, Qwest Field is an excellent place to watch a football game.

There was one thing -- and just one -- that was disturbing to me. The way San Francisco 49ers Offensive Coordinator Mike McCarthy called the plays during that contest.

I said this to my friend there, I've said it before, and now I'm putting it in writing. I can't see how he got his job considering that his game plans are 1) inflexible and 2) illogical. Let me provide some examples:

1) Against the Indianapolis Colts, Mc Carthy devises plays based on the Utah Spread Offense that then-head coach Urban Meyer developed and Alex Smith played in. The trouble is that McCarthy installed running plays and not passing plays for Smith. One play gained 2 yards; the other lost 2 yards, and I was flabergasted -- Smith isn't Michael Vick. It was as if he had installed a gimic rather than actually using plays that could help Smith.

2) Creating rollout pass plays that don't call for the quarterback to roll to a point and set his feet. This is really bothersome to watch. The most successful rollout plays were devised by Bill Walsh, and Al Davis before him; they call for the quarterback to rollout to a spot, then pass the football. The idea is to move the launch point of the pass first, not make the QB run. This is a common error in rollout design, even with run-pass options. It's no wonder Smith's success here is spotty, even though his ability to throw on the run makes up for terrible play design.

3) Not providing his quarterbacks with even a simple audible to take advantage of the most obvious defensive weakness. This was completely evident in the Seattle game, where the Seahawks called defenses stacked against the run on first down, what did the 49ers do? They ran. Seattle cornerbacks were lined up "bump and run" against the Niners Flanker and Split End. What did the 49ers do? Call a pass with "up" patterns to get a quick gain? No. What did they do? They ran.

On second down, the Seahawks defense "loosened" -- the cornerbacks were yards off the receivers, the safeties were back in obvious "two deep" positions, and the defensive line posised to rush the passer. What did the 49ers do? Pass.

It was enough to make me yell at McCarthy through the glass wall of the club section. I know someone got what I was saying -- it wasn't McCarthy.

4) Calling 30 runs against Seattle when they were giving the 49ers the pass. Especially on first down.

5) Calling four-wide receiver plays where there are three receivers on one side, and one pass catcher on the other, and then having the QB throw to the strong side where the three catchers are and ignoring the lone, single-covered receiver on the other side. This has happened way too often.

I could go on and on. McCarthy's early success with the Niners came because he was new to the team, and thus there was no "book" on what he would do with the 49ers offensive personel. Once NFL teams developed an analysis, they quickly bottled his offense during the year.

So all year long I'm stewing about McCarthy as the weak coaching link on the Niners, and what happens? The Green Bay Packers make this guy their coach -- without even seriously considering a black candidate. They talked to two, but selected someone not even as accomplished as Tim Lewis and Maurice Carthon.

What the heck is going on?

You can't tell me that out of over 100 black assistant coaches there aren't 20 that can be considered for head coaching positions. Look, I'm not a coach. But I'll tell you that I could take any NFL team's third string offense and develop schames to consistently beat that organization's first string defense. And I'm itching for some one to challenge me.

Why? Simple. Because -- more so that college and even high school coaches -- NFL coaches think in a consistent "box" of offensive approaches. Only once in every other decade does one person -- like Coach Walsh -- come along and get the chance to install an offensive system that really is a true shift in thinking. But with the Internet, offensive revolutions are starting at the high school and college level and not at the NFL.

Many of the people who know these are not white; they're black. Hue Jackson's a good example. Jackson has been an offensive coordinator at Cal, USC, and with the Washington Redskins. He's learned the most successful and advanced offensive concepts from Steve Spurrier and Steve Marriucci, to name some of them. Yet, he's litterally been banished to the place of receivers coach with the Bengals, forced to work with the tempermental personality of wide receiver Chad Johnson, while Offensive Coordinator Bob Bratkowski calls a set of predictable pass plays devoid of rollouts or sprint out passes, leaving his quarterbacks as sitting ducks when the pass is needed the most.

Meanwhile, the Houston Texans talk to Gary Kubiak, hire Dan Reeves as a consultant, and make a list of coaches that has contained no African American names until recently and if I'm a betting man and on this (and I am) that person will be "the token one."

Why? And why McCarthy? What is the deal? It seems that to some teams having white coaches is more important that winning. Black coaches? Just window dressing for "The Rooney Rule."

Yesterday at MacWorld San Francisco

I had the pleasure of attending my first Steve Jobs keynote speech at MacWorld, San Francisco yesterday. Well, it went like this: two plus hours of standing in line within Moscone Convention Center only to be ushered into an "overflow" crowd room to see his presentation on a couple of large screens.

I must admit to some disappointment. Especially since the dude next to me couldn't seem to keep to his own personal space, causing me to lean away from him and partway into the next seat, which was to my good fortune, empty. After a time, I got up and stood at the back of the room. That was better.

Once at my place at the back of this large room, I was able to comfortably enjoy Jobs' introduction of some hot new Apple products: the Intel-based IMacs, the new GarageBand for Podcasting, and other new devices.

This is not my first MacWorld, but it was my first Keynote speech. I'm going back for the Podcast seminars and lectures, but my advice for the future is this: skip the keynote unless you know you're going to get a front row seat and don't have to wake up at 4 AM to do it.

"King Kong" Director Peter Jackson Snubbed by Directors Guild of America (DGA)'s Awards -- Jackson Battled to Have Collegues Recognized

Read about it at the SBS Entertainment Business Blog with a click on this sentence.

"King Kong" Director Peter Jackson Snubbed by Directors Guild of America (DGA)'s Awards -- Jackson Battled to Have Collegues Recognized

The DGA -- Director's Guild of America's -- awards nominations were annouced. They are:

George Clooney (Good Night and Good Luck), Paul Haggis (Crash), Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), Bennett Miller (Capote) and Steven Spielberg (Munich).

I did some research and learned that King Kong Director Peter Jackon had requested two of his co-workers to be honored as "Assistant Directors" along with him, something the DGA has never done. He did this back in November of 2005. So, it seems his film's being "locked out" of the lower awards for reasons having nothing to do with how good it is.

Since King Kong is picked as an Oscar "Best Picture" candidate, Jackson should be nominated for Best Director as well. It's not as if Jackson was acting out of hubris, but the pure recognition that the movie's production was not "all about him." That's rare and should be rewarded.

Go to www.oscar.com and tell them how you feel about that, before this political game is allowed to continue.

NFL Playoff Tickets Exchange

With a click on the title post link above, you can either sell your NFL Playoff tickets (don't scalp, please), or buy them and for any game.

Vince Young Enters The NFL Draft - Young's Stats at Texas

Texas Longhorns' Junior QB Vince Young's annouced his intention to enter the NFL Draft. I think he should be the first round pick of the Houston Texans; they can offer Dave Carr for trade for more draft picks, and use backup QB Tony Banks as the "trainee" for Young.

You can read more about Young and his statistics and records at Texas with a click on this sentence.