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President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: A Woman Making History

March 8, 2010 By Jehmu Greene

30 Women Making History
In recognition of the 30th anniversary of Women’s History Month, Women’s Media Center is profiling 30 extraordinary women making history.  Our goal is to raise $10,000 to support WMC Exclusives — every dollar raised will go directly toward hiring women writers to comment on major news stories and report topics often neglected by the mainstream media. Will you contribute $30?
Click here to donate: https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/937/t/10343/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=5719 or text WOMEN to 50555 to make a $10 donation.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: A Woman Making History
by Jehmu Greene

In celebration of International Women’s Day, I want to highlight a woman living an ocean away who’s already made history on a massive scale, including a profound impact on my extended family living in Liberia. When she was elected President of Liberia in 2005, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first woman to elected to lead an African country.  As the daughter of Liberian immigrants, President Sirleaf’s political rise resonates strongly with me. I had the honor of meeting her in August 2008, while traveling with a Clinton Foundation delegation to explore Liberia’s work on malaria and health services. (Read more about the Foundation’s work in Liberia here, and read a staff blog post on the trip – including a photo of Bill Clinton in Monrovia, Liberia – here.)

Now campaigning for re-election, Sirleaf’s platform relies not only on her raw intelligence and charisma, but also substantial distance she’s brought her nation in her short time as head of state.

As Ruthie Ackerman pointed out in her WMC Exclusive last month, Sirleaf not only symbolizes women’s progress but fights for it with policy that impacts the daily lives of Liberian women. In the last four years alone, Sirleaf established a special rape court for victims of gender-based violence, passed the 2006 Rape Amendment Act imposing stricter penalties and denying bail for the worst violations, and created women and children protection units within communities.

Sirleaf’s faith in women, and her passion to empower them, comes in part from her traumatizing experiences during Liberia’s civil war. Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a documentary by Gini Reticker and The Daphne Foundation’s Abigail Disney, chronicles the courage and determination of Liberian women who, throughout the nation’s devastation in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, staged peaceful protests and successfully forced a resolution during stalled peace talks. Watch a trailer of this powerful film– or better yet see the whole thing – to get a rich and striking portrait of women who quite literally risked their lives in the name of peace.

When Sirleaf faced rebel soldiers who vowed to bury her alive, she remembers defending herself by saying: “You can’t do this. Think of your mother.” Sirleaf also worked to ensure that women become embedded in Liberia’s political life, with six women holding top cabinet positions in Foreign, Commerce, Justice, Agriculture, Sports and Gender ministries. “Women have stronger commitment. They work harder,” she said. “They’re honest, and the experience justifies it.”

Sirleaf’s own experience is one of determination, pain, grit, and endurance. Her bid for re-election, she says, is grounded in a desire to maintain leadership during her nation’s long and difficult transition out of war – and into a peace that she has already helped to create not just for former combatants, but also for women. As we highlight her work, we also celebrate the women worldwide who are currently serving the highest office in their nations, and look forward to the historic day that a woman from the United States is included on this list:

Michelle Bachelet, Chile
Laura Chinchilla (president-elect), Costa Rica
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina
Dalia Grybauskaitė, Lithuania
Tarja Kaarina Halonen, Finland
Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh
Jadranka Kosor, Croatia
Doris Leuthard, Switzerland
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Philippines
Mary McAleese, Ireland
Angela Merkel, Germany
Pratibha Patil, India
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Iceland

Tarja Kaarina Halonen
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And the Woman Is…

March 8, 2010 By Catherine Epstein

WMCOscarspic

In a little-noticed moment of female triumph, Kathryn Bigelow wasn’t the only upset at the Oscars. In the category for “Best Media Center in a Leading Role,” WMC took home the gold!  Woohoo!!! We just want to thank women!  And media! And all of the women in media!

J/K.  This priceless moment between WMC President Jehmu Greene, Program Coordinator Rachell Arteaga, and Program Director Rebekah Spicuglia was captured forever by the good folks at the Time Warner Center’s “Take your picture with a real Oscar!” event. Anybody can do it…but would anybody else look as classy?

And really: before more women can take the gold statue, the Academy has to do more to support women making films. Bigelow’s win is tremendous, but only 7% of the top 250 films in 2009 featured women directors. Sign WMC’s petition and tell the Academy it’s time for a change: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc

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WMC News Brief: Kathryn Bigelow, Utah Miscarriage Bill, International Women’s Day

March 8, 2010 By Rebekah Spicuglia

Bigelow Pioneers Oscars With `Hurt Locker’ Win
3/8/10
AP: Bigelow is the first woman ever to win the directing Oscar.

Utah Continues Reckless Efforts To Lock Up Pregnant Women
3/7/10
RH Reality Check: A Utah legislator withdrew a bill that would have allowed sentences of up to life in prison for a woman who experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth as a result of her “reckless” behavior.

World Marks International Women’s Day
3/8/10
CNN: The world marks International Women’s Day, an annual celebration that highlights their economic, political and social achievements.

Good Housekeeping Puts On A Show To Celebrate Women
3/8/10
NY Times: The show reflects efforts by media companies to go beyond traditional realms of the printed page.

Read More »

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Want Equal Rights? The Truth Is – Just Take Them!

March 8, 2010 By Gloria Feldt

“If women want any rights more than they’s got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it.” —Sojourner Truth, former slave, abolitionist, Methodist minister, and early U.S. women’s rights leader

International Women’s Day began 99 years ago. With so much progress accomplished since 1911, yet so much more remaining to be done, it seems to me that it’s time for women to change our approach to something closer Sojourner Truth’s.

Her advice to women as she stated it in the above quote to Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the influential anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, when they met in 1853, comes from a position of knowing her own power. Despite being been born into slavery and experiencing oppression, poverty, and discrimination far greater than most women reading this blog in 2010, Truth was way ahead of many of us in her perspective about how to advance equal rights.

Without question, in many places around the globe, women remain as oppressed as Sojourner Truth–born Isabella Baumfree in Ulster County, New York, and once sold for $100 and a herd of sheep–was before she “walked off” from her master.

But even in the most gender-repressive societies such as Yemen, there are Sojourner Truth-like women and girls such as ten-year-old Nujood Ali, who was married off to a man three times her age but had the idea of a different, more just life, the intention to get it, and the courage to divorce her husband despite male dominant customs.

In the U.S. as in many highly industrialized nations, women have become not just free to choose their mates and manage their own fertility, but we are the majority in the workplace and almost 60% of college graduates, we make over 80% of consumer purchasing decisions, and own over 50% of start-up businesses—just for starters.

Yet we hover around 15% of corporate board memberships and top executive positions, we earn 78 cents to a man’s dollar, and though we’re 52% of voters, we’re only 17% of Congress and around 25% of state legislatures. Why the disparity?

I have been researching the question for over a year now, and I keep coming up with the same answer as Sojourner Truth. We need to just take what we want.

All indicators are that our learned behavior has not yet allowed us to break free, or to see ourselves as fully powerful. So women don’t put ourselves forward for those top slots in numbers and with intention sufficient to break through to parity once and for all. We don’t assume equality at all levels as our perfect right, as boys and men are socialized to do from birth.

At See Jane Do’s Passion Into Action conference recently, a woman shared this story as an insight to how we might break the bounds that keep us from reaching equal rights and responsibilities: It seems that trainers of baby elephants tether them to a posts soon after birth. After a couple of weeks, the newborn stops trying to break free, for she has come to believe she lacks the ability to do so. Once grown, the elephant has plenty of strength to pull up the post or break the chains. But because she doesn’t realize she has the power to free herself, she remains tied to the post, held back by her own previously inculcated experience.

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth

Women can only be disempowered from reaching full equality if we stay tethered to old constraints of custom and behavior that remain in our thinking. We need to understand our own strength, embrace it, and have the intention and courage to use it, for our own good and the good of the world.

What IWD started in Copenhagen as a Socialist movement for better working conditions and voting rights for women at the turn of the 20th century has unquestionably helped to change the world for the better. Now it’s up to today’s women to finish the job—no excuses if we don’t.

In her most famous speech, delivered to a women’s rights convention in 1851, Sojourner Truth proffered another piece of advice that we would do well to heed: “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!”

Let us pledge to turn the world aright, with equal rights, by IWD’s 100th anniversary next year. All we need to do, after all, is “just take them.”

Xx

Originally posted at www.GloriaFeldt.com

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Tomorrow’s Journalism

March 8, 2010 By Mary Kay Blakely

Amelia Bloomers temperance and suffrange newspaper gained a national readership in the 19th century, but still was dismissed by the mainstream press.

Amelia Bloomer's temperance and suffrange newspaper gained a national readership in the 19th century, but still was dismissed by the mainstream press.

By Mary Kay Blakely

As the world recognizes International Women’s Day, essayist Mary Kay Blakely assesses the contribution of women’s media, not the least of which may well be charting a path to a healthy journalism that serves the public good.

Everyone I know is alarmed by the disappearance of city newspapers and the retreat of the “watchdog press” as media conglomerates collapse from coast to coast.  “Journalism is a public good that is no longer commercially viable,” Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols write in The Death and Life of American Journalism—The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again.  Longtime collaborators and cofounders of Free Press—a national nonprofit dedicated to media reform—they are “neither old-media stalwarts nor new-media fabulists.” They want to not only rescue journalism from its near death condition but also restore it to full health.  No sentient being could argue with their assertion that, decades ago, a corporate media abandoned the public good for greater profits.  (The authors describe today’s media firms as “capitalism on steroids.”)  Nor could anyone deny that the Internet and new digital technology hastened the collapse of journalism as we knew it.  But it was already terminal before bloggers and citizen reporters became ubiquitous.  If the primary obligation of a free press is “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” as 19th century Chicago humorist Finley Peter Dunne so memorably said, it hasn’t been operative in America for some time.

The book’s title promises immediate Life after journalism’s Death, and I want to believe it.  The authors ardently hope some of those bloggers and citizens replacing reporters will revolutionize the Fourth Estate, even if that means the watchdog press may have to function more like a mosquito press during the transition years.  Fortunately, an enduring women’s press has labored under precisely those conditions for 150 years, ever since Amelia Bloomer published The Lily in 1849, a temperance newspaper that eventually gained a national readership by covering issues and ideas of the suffrage movement with wit and intelligence.  Despite its prominence, the mainstream press still regarded The Lily as insignificant and annoying, a stereotype that held sway until recently among old media stalwarts.  At one prestigious Midwestern journalism school, women’s national monthlies were collectively referred to as “chiffon journalism.”  Some of the academic Good Ole Boys never saw a revolution coming.

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Academy Award Winner Kathryn Bigelow – First Female Best Director in 82 Year History

March 8, 2010 By Rebekah Spicuglia
Kathryn Bigelow isn’t even a trending topic on Twitter right now – where’s the love? We need to recognize #women in film #oscars
29 minutes ago via web
Voice your support for women in film – text WOMEN to 50555 to donate $10 to Women’s Media Center
39 minutes ago via web
Kathryn Bigelow is Queen of the World !!! #oscars – but #women comprised only 7% of directors last year: http:bit.ly/oscarwmc
39 minutes ago via web
heartofj
“May they come home safe” It is the women who speak to the real issues. thanks Kathryn @womensmediacntr #oscars
42 minutes ago via web
Retweeted by you and 5 others
The Hurt Locker has just taken BEST PICTURE – a total of 6 #Oscars! Go Kathryn:) #women rock
42 minutes ago via web
Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow!! Now, everyone who hasn’t, go see the Hurt Locker #oscars
43 minutes ago via web
“The moment of a lifetime” – Kathryn Bigelow #oscars
44 minutes ago via web
Kathryn Bigelow has broken through the glass ceiling – the first women director at the #oscars !! http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/
about 1 hours ago via web
UNTIL NOW – !!!!! #oscars #women ROCK
about 1 hours ago via web
81 Oscar years. Zero #women best directors. #oscars
about 1 hours ago via web
Congratulations to Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe, and Meryl Streep for Best Actress nominations – #oscars
about 1 hours ago via web
“Meryl, you know what I think of you, and you are such a good kisser.” Sandra Bullock recognizing her sister nominees #oscar
about 1 hours ago via web
Congratulations Sandra Bullock!! Best Actress win – #oscars
about 1 hours ago via web
“An actress with immense talent… and yes that tattoo.” RE: Helen Mirren #oscars
about 1 hours ago via web
Loved Hope Floats:) “Tangible magical quality that you can never miss in a Sandra Bullock performance” – Forest Whitaker #oscar
about 1 hours ago via web
As we honor 2010 nominees at the #oscars, we work to ensure that #women are recognized and given equal opportunities http://bit.ly/oscarwmc
about 1 hours ago via web
Voice your support for #women in film: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc #oscars
about 1 hours ago via web
Janefonda
RT @heartofj: @huffingtonpost Show Me the Women…Jane Fonda and the greatest moments in film this year http://bit.ly/aeme73
about 2 hours ago via Seesmic
Retweeted by you and 5 others
RT @heartofj 29% of actors are female, 83% of directors, writers & producers male. where are the women? bit.ly/aUNvlh #oscars
about 1 hours ago via web
Congrats to Claudia Llosa, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. #oscars
Congrats to Sally Menke for Oscar nomination in Film Editing! #oscars
about 2 hours ago via web
ShelbyKnox
They left out Bea Arthur AND Farah Fawcett? Both amazing #women who did amazing work. The Academy owes an explanation/apology. #oscars
about 2 hours ago via web
Retweeted by you and 15+ others
Congrats to Lise Lense-Møller, Judith Ehrlich, and Rebecca Cammisa for Oscar nominations in Best Documentary Feature. #oscars
about 2 hours ago via web
Text WOMEN to 50555 to voice your support for #women in film and donate $10 to Women’s Media Center! #oscars
about 2 hours ago via web
Woo-hoo!! WMC Board Chair Jodie Evans (@heartofj) producer for Oscar-nominated for “The Most Dangerous Man” #oscars
about 2 hours ago via web
@HuffPostEngage Thanks!! Folks can voice their support for #women in film here: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc #oscars
about 2 hours ago via web in reply to HuffPostEngage
Visual Effects – another all-male category at the #oscars… At least the 7th category missing #women tonight !!
about 2 hours ago via web
Another all-male category: Best Original Score. #oscars … #Women in film need your support: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc
about 2 hours ago via web
Another all-male category at the #oscars – Best cinematography. Show me the #women!! Sign on to voice your support: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc
about 2 hours ago via web
heartofj
Catherine and Hurt Locker have 3 now. Catherine showing Hollywood that women rock. Now they need to be supported. @womensmediacntr #oscars
about 2 hours ago via web
Retweeted by you and 5 others
Congrats to Anna Behlmer for her nomination in Sound Mixing for Star Trek! #oscars
about 2 hours ago via web
Congrats to Gwendolyn Yates Whittle for her Oscar nomination – Sound Editing, Avatar. #oscars
about 2 hours ago via web
Even as we celebrate #oscars, in 2009 #women comprised only 7% of directors, 8% of writers, 17% of exec producers: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc
about 2 hours ago via web
Congrats to Sandy Powell for Oscar WIN in Costume Design for “The Young Victoria” #oscars
about 2 hours ago via web
Congrats to nominees for costume: Janet Patterson, Catherine Leterrier, Monique Prudhomme, Colleen Atwood, and Sandy Powell. #oscars
about 2 hours ago via web
Costume design – an all #women category!! #oscars
about 2 hours ago via web
Congrats to Kim Sinclair, Caroline Smith, Katie Spencer, Maggie Gray, Anastasia Masaro, Sarah Greenwood, and Patrice Vermette! #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
There were 7 women and 5 men nominated for Art/Set Decoration… yet onstage 3 dudes taking home the statue. #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
Where’s Kim? #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
Congrats to KIM SINCLAIR for Oscar Win!! Set Decoration – Avatar… #oscars
heartofj
The show is emphasizing a new decade, new stars, new, new, new, let’s hope a new start for women in film @womensmediacntr #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
Retweeted by you
“It’s about the performance, not the politics.” Mo’Nique taking home Best Supporting Actress award #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
Congrats to Mo’Nique for Oscar WIN! Best Supporting Actress, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
Congrats: Penélope Cruz, Vera Farmiga, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Anna Kendrick, and Mo’Nique for supporting actress nominations! #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
Why did Precious take male screenwriters and a male director to bring it to Hollywood? Show me the #women… #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
Best Adapted Screenplay. Another all-male category… #Women comprised only 8% writers last year. Act now: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
Congrats to Mindy Hall for Oscar WIN in Makeup! #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
Congrats to Mindy Hall and Jenny Shircore for Academy Award nominations in Makeup! #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
Congrats to Juanita Wilson for her Oscar nomination – Short Film (Live Action) “The Door” #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
Congrats to ELINOR BURKETT for Best Documentary Short “Music by Prudence”!!! #oscars – can this be the first female winner of the night?
about 3 hours ago via web
Congrats to Julia Reichert, Anna Wydra, and Elinor Burkett – all nominated for Best Documentary Short!! http://bit.ly/oscarwmc #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
Best Animated Short – yet another all-male category at the #oscars after a moving explanation of how SHORTS are key for breaking through
about 3 hours ago via web
Is anyone noticing that we just had three all-male categories back to back? #oscars http://bit.ly/oscarwmc
about 3 hours ago via web
Best Original Screenplay – yet another all-male category? Where are #women in Hollywood? http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/ #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
“Great acting begins with great writing.” Yet in 2009 #women comprised only 8% of writers in Hollywood?! http://bit.ly/oscarwmc #oscars
about 3 hours ago via web
And Best Original Song – all men?! Where are the #women in film? http://bit.ly/oscarwmc #oscars
about 4 hours ago via web
Has animation locked out #women? Of all nominated films for best Animated Feature, none produced by women #oscars http://bit.ly/oscarwmc
about 4 hours ago via web
81 Oscar years. Zero #women best directors. Tell the Academy: it’s time for a change. http://bit.ly/oscarwmc #oscars
about 4 hours ago via web
how many men are suffering through this show in a pair of SPANX? @heartofj #oscars
about 4 hours ago via web
heartofj
Study by Stacy Smith-females continue to be a large minority on the screen and behind camera http://bit.ly/aUNvlh @womensmediacntr #oscars
about 4 hours ago via web
Love Neil, but add in showgirls in nude bodysuits and two male hosts… it’s a dudefest! #oscars
about 4 hours ago via web
It’s “prom night for Hollywood” with Gabourey Sidibe #oscars
about 4 hours ago via web
lisaguido
er, do u mean Bigelow? RT @womensmediacntr: Sandra Bullock: Why are we spending all this time talking about her relationship?! #oscars
about 5 hours ago via TweetDeck
Retweeted by you
Sandra Bullock has had an incredible year professionally. Why are we spending all this time talking about her relationship?! #oscars
about 5 hours ago via web

Sign on to voice your support for #women in film — go to http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/ #oscars

The Academy Awards was an evening to celebrate for women all over as Kathryn Bigelow shattered the glass ceiling and became the first woman to take home a Best Director award. Even as we celebrated Kathryn and all the Oscar nominees, however, we note the missing women in film. Multiple categories didn’t even have one woman represented, and recent studies has shown women losing ground – women directors sliding to a mere 7% in 2009 and a mere 8% of writers.

Women’s Media Center was covering the Academy Awards. Here are our tweets from our Oscar party!

  • Kathryn Bigelow isn’t even a trending topic on Twitter right now – where’s the love? We need to recognize #women in film #oscars
  • Voice your support for women in film – text WOMEN to 50555 to donate $10 to Women’s Media Center
  • Kathryn Bigelow is Queen of the World !!! #oscars – but #women comprised only 7% of directors last year: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/
  • RT @heartofj ”May they come home safe” It is the women who speak to the real issues. thanks Kathryn @womensmediacntr #oscars
  • The Hurt Locker has just taken BEST PICTURE – a total of 6 #Oscars! Go Kathryn:) #women rock
  • Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow!! Now, everyone who hasn’t, go see the Hurt Locker #oscars
  • “The moment of a lifetime” – Kathryn Bigelow #oscars
  • Kathryn Bigelow has broken through the glass ceiling – the first women director at the #oscars !! http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/
  • UNTIL NOW – !!!!! #oscars #women ROCK
  • 81 Oscar years. Zero #women best directors. #oscars
  • Congratulations to Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe, and Meryl Streep for Best Actress nominations – #oscars
  • “Meryl, you know what I think of you, and you are such a good kisser.” Sandra Bullock recognizing her sister nominees #oscar
  • Congratulations Sandra Bullock!! Best Actress win – #oscars
  • “An actress with immense talent… and yes that tattoo.” RE: Helen Mirren #oscars
  • Loved Hope Floats:) “Tangible magical quality that you can never miss in a Sandra Bullock performance” – Forest Whitaker #oscar
  • As we honor 2010 nominees at the #oscars, we work to ensure that #women are recognized and given equal opportunities http://bit.ly/oscarwmc
  • Voice your support for #women in film: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc #oscars
  • RT @Janefonda RT @heartofj: @huffingtonpost Show Me the Women…Jane Fonda and the greatest moments in film this year http://bit.ly/aeme73
  • RT @heartofj 29% of actors are female, 83% of directors, writers & producers male. where are the women? bit.ly/aUNvlh #oscars
  • Congrats to Claudia Llosa, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. #oscars
  • Congrats to Sally Menke for Oscar nomination in Film Editing! #oscars
  • RT @ShelbyKnox They left out Bea Arthur AND Farah Fawcett? Both amazing #women who did amazing work. The Academy owes an explanation/apology. #oscars
  • Congrats to Lise Lense-Møller, Judith Ehrlich, and Rebecca Cammisa for Oscar nominations in Best Documentary Feature. #oscars
  • Text WOMEN to 50555 to voice your support for #women in film and donate $10 to Women’s Media Center! #oscars
  • Woo-hoo!! WMC Board Chair Jodie Evans (@heartofj) producer for Oscar-nominated “The Most Dangerous Man” #oscars
  • @HuffPostEngage Thanks!! Folks can voice their support for #women in film here: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/ #oscars
  • Visual Effects – another all-male category at the #oscars… At least the 7th category missing #women tonight !!
  • Another all-male category: Best Original Score. #oscars … #Women in film need your support: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/
  • Another all-male category at the #oscars – Best cinematography. Show me the #women!! Sign on to voice your support: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/
  • RT @heartofj Catherine and Hurt Locker have 3 now. Catherine showing Hollywood that women rock. Now they need to be supported. @womensmediacntr #oscars
  • Congrats to Anna Behlmer for her nomination in Sound Mixing for Star Trek! #oscars
  • Congrats to Gwendolyn Yates Whittle for her Oscar nomination – Sound Editing, Avatar. #oscars
  • Even as we celebrate #oscars, in 2009 #women comprised only 7% of directors, 8% of writers, 17% of exec producers: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/
  • Congrats to Sandy Powell for Oscar WIN in Costume Design for “The Young Victoria” #oscars
  • Congrats to nominees for costume: Janet Patterson, Catherine Leterrier, Monique Prudhomme, Colleen Atwood, and Sandy Powell. #oscars
  • Costume design – an all #women category!! #oscars
  • Congrats to Kim Sinclair, Caroline Smith, Katie Spencer, Maggie Gray, Anastasia Masaro, Sarah Greenwood, and Patrice Vermette! #oscars
  • There were 7 women and 5 men nominated for Art/Set Decoration… yet onstage 3 dudes taking home the statue. #oscars
  • Where’s Kim? #oscars
  • Congrats to KIM SINCLAIR for Oscar Win!! Set Decoration – Avatar… #oscars
  • RT @heartofj The show is emphasizing a new decade, new stars, new, new, new, let’s hope a new start for women in film @womensmediacntr #oscars
  • “It’s about the performance, not the politics.” Mo’Nique taking home Best Supporting Actress award #oscars
  • Congrats to Mo’Nique for Oscar WIN! Best Supporting Actress, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire #oscars
  • Congrats: Penélope Cruz, Vera Farmiga, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Anna Kendrick, and Mo’Nique for supporting actress nominations! #oscars
  • Why did Precious take male screenwriters and a male director to bring it to Hollywood? Show me the #women… #oscars
  • Best Adapted Screenplay. Another all-male category… #Women comprised only 8% writers last year. Act now: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/ #oscars
  • Congrats to Mindy Hall for Oscar WIN in Makeup! #oscars
  • Congrats to Mindy Hall and Jenny Shircore for Academy Award nominations in Makeup! #oscars
  • Congrats to Juanita Wilson for her Oscar nomination – Short Film (Live Action) “The Door” #oscars
  • Congrats to ELINOR BURKETT for Best Documentary Short “Music by Prudence”!!! #oscars – can this be the first female winner of the night?
  • Congrats to Julia Reichert, Anna Wydra, and Elinor Burkett – all nominated for Best Documentary Short!! http://bit.ly/oscarwmc #oscars
  • Best Animated Short – yet another all-male category at the #oscars after a moving explanation of how SHORTS are key for breaking through
  • Is anyone noticing that we just had three all-male categories back to back? #oscars http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/
  • Best Original Screenplay – yet another all-male category? Where are #women in Hollywood? http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/ #oscars
  • “Great acting begins with great writing.” Yet in 2009 #women comprised only 8% of writers in Hollywood?! http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/#oscars
  • And Best Original Song – all men?! Where are the #women in film? http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/ #oscars
  • Has animation locked out #women? Of all nominated films for best Animated Feature, none produced by women #oscars http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/
  • 81 Oscar years. Zero #women best directors. Tell the Academy: it’s time for a change. http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/ #oscars
  • how many men are suffering through this show in a pair of SPANX? @heartofj #oscars
  • RT @heartofj Study by Stacy Smith-females continue to be a large minority on the screen and behind camera http://bit.ly/aUNvlh @womensmediacntr #oscars
  • Love Neil, but add in showgirls in nude bodysuits and two male hosts… it’s a dudefest! #oscars
  • It’s “prom night for Hollywood” with Gabourey Sidibe #oscars
  • RT @lisaguido er, do u mean Bigelow? RT @womensmediacntr: Sandra Bullock: Why are we spending all this time talking about her relationship?! #oscars
  • Sandra Bullock has had an incredible year professionally. Why are we spending all this time talking about her relationship?! #oscars
  • Sign on to voice your support for #women in film — go to http://bit.ly/oscarwmc/ #oscars
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OSCARS: Three All-Male Categories Back to Back

March 7, 2010 By admin

Where are women in Hollywood? Is anyone noticing that we just had three back to back all-male categories? All the nominees were male – meaning of course that all the winners were male. Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song, Best Original Screenplay. ALL MEN. This is unacceptable.

Women are 51% of the population but are losing ground in Hollywood. Even as we celebrate Kathryn Bigelow’s “Best Director” nomination, in 2009, women comprised only 7% of all directors, 8% of writers, 17% of all executive producers, and 35 percent of 2009’s top films had no female producers at all.

As Women’s Media Center honors the women who have been nominated for Oscars in 2010, we are working to ensure that women are both recognized for their work and given equal opportunities. Sign on to voice your support for women in film, and we will deliver your signature to the Academy and studio heads to ensure an even longer list of nominees next year!

Sign: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc

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Shelby Knox: A Woman Making History

March 7, 2010 By admin

30 Women Making History
In recognition of the 30th anniversary of Women’s History Month, Women’s Media Center is profiling 30 extraordinary women making history.  Our goal is to raise $10,000 to support WMC Exclusives — every dollar raised will go directly toward hiring women writers to comment on major news stories and report topics often neglected by the mainstream media. Will you contribute $30?
Click here to donate: https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/937/t/10343/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=5719 or text WOMEN to 50555 to make a $10 donation.


Shelby Knox: A Woman Making History
by Michaela Monahan

Shelby Knox first made a name for herself as the subject of the 2005 documentary “The Education of Shelby Knox.” The film, which won the Sundance Best Cinematography Award and the SXSW Audience Award, chronicles Shelby’s life as a high school student growing up in the ultra-conservative town of Lubbock, Texas, and her evolution from a Southern Baptist Republican to a passionate advocate for comprehensive sex education and gay rights.

Flash forward 5 years, and Shelby has established herself as a leading feminist voice in the national movement for fact-based sex ed in schools. A sought-after speaker, she travels across the U.S. to talk to young people about the importance of reality-based sex education and the power of youth activism.  In a 2008 interview, Shelby said “It’s the teen voices that count the most in issues that relate to them. All the adults in the world can tell a school board that they need sex education or that there needs to be gay-straight alliances to support high school students. But the students’ voices are the most important. In the end, if you win or lose, you made a difference just by making the problem known.” At the young age of 23, Shelby is a Huffington Post blogger (read the piece she co-wrote with Women’s Media Center president Jehmu Greene during WMC’s Super Bowl campaign: Super Bowl Sexism, by the Numbers) and was recently picked as one of the “20 Inspiring Women to Follow on Twitter” by Forbes.com. In February, Shelby was honored by NOW-NYC with a Susan B. Anthony Award for grassroots activism.

I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Shelby during my internship at the Women’s Media Center. As a recent college grad myself, I am amazed and inspired by how much Shelby has already accomplished. Women’s Media Center is amplifying the voices of women and girls – and I think Shelby’s is one voice we’ll be hearing loud and clear for years to come.

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Shira Tarrant: The Hurt Locker Blows Up More Than Bombs

March 7, 2010 By Rebekah Spicuglia

Oscars alert: Women’s Media Center is live-blogging and Tweeting during the Oscars tonight!  Stay tuned for our take on the year’s biggest night in entertainment.

Tonight’s Oscars are unique, not just because of the double-stuffed Best Picture nominees, or the outlandish outfits that sometimes make more news than actor wearing them, but because a woman – “The Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow – stands a very good chance of finally shattering one of the toughest ceilings in the industry – the Academy Award for Best Directing.  And as Shira Tarrant points out in The Huffington Post, discussion surrounding the film has actually expanded since the original buzz: “a woman’s making a war movie, and it might actually be pretty good.” Tarrant writes, citing an article in The Los Angeles Times:

“More than just a blow-’em-up extravaganza, journalist Reed Johnson suggests that Bigelow’s film ’shakes up traditional ideas of what men are and how they act.’ Bigelow likes the big bang in her movies — guns, explosions, a rough-punch to the gut…But Bigelow is more deeply interested in the warrior codes of masculinity that are intertwined with men’s fears and feelings, and their conflicted impulses around loyalty and leadership, posturing and parenthood.”

Tarrant also shouts-out Women’s Media Center co-founder Jane Fonda’s HuffPo piece on celebrating women in Hollywood! Sign WMC’s petition to support more women at the Oscars next year, and read Tarrant’s full piece here.

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Congratulations to Spirit Award Winners!

March 7, 2010 By admin
Best Feature – PRECIOUS
Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness, Gary Magness
Best First Feature – CRAZY HEART
Scott Cooper, Robert Duvall, Rob Carliner, Judy Cairo, T Bone Burnett
Best Female Lead – Gabourey Sidibe
PRECIOUS
Best Supporting Female – Mo’Nique
PRECIOUS
Best Foreign Film – AN EDUCATION
Lone Scheerfig
Best Documentary ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL – Best Documentary
Producer Rebecca Yeldham
Robert Altman Award
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Ellen Chenoweth, Rachel Tenner, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Jessica McManus, Fred Melamed, Michael Stuhlbarg, Aaron Wolff
A SERIOUS MAN
Piaget ConProducers Award Karin Chien
THE EXPLODING GIRL, SANTA MESA
John Cassavetes Award HUMPDAY
Lynn Shelton

Congratulations to 2010 Spirit Award winners!!  PRECIOUS stole the show, with five awards in Best Feature, Female Lead, Supporting Female Lead, Screenplay, and Director. Here is the list of women honored last night:

  • Sarah Siegel-Magness (Best Feature – PRECIOUS)
  • Lisa Cortés (Best Feature – PRECIOUS)
  • Gabourey Sidibe (Best Female Lead - PRECIOUS)
  • Mo’Nique (Best Supporting Female - PRECIOUS)
  • Judy Cairo (Best First Feature – CRAZY HEART)
  • Lone Scheerfig (Best Foreign Film – AN EDUCATION)
  • Rebecca Yeldham (Best Documentary ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL)
  • Ellen Chenoweth, Rachel Tenner, Sari Lennick, Jessica McManus  (Robert Altman Award - A SERIOUS MAN)
  • Karin Chien (Piaget Producers Award - THE EXPLODING GIRL, SANTA MESA)
  • Lynn Shelton (John Cassavetes Award HUMPDAY)

Tonight we’ll see who takes home an Oscar — click here to celebrate women nominated for Oscars and support women in film: http://bit.ly/oscarwmc

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