Rebecca Traister: Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women

The author was recently invoked in The Opinion Pages of The New York Times:

Now, John Boehner is blaming the Dream for making him howl like an abandoned puppy. It’s what my friend Rebecca Traister calls “Boehner doing Masterpiece Theater on the hard life of John Boehner.” Traister is the author of “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” a chronicle of the Clinton-Obama battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. One of the best-remembered moments in that campaign — Hillary Clinton cries in New Hampshire — is an excellent example of the difference between what men and women can get away with, tear-wise. “Hillary didn’t cry,” Traister pointed out. “Not a drop of liquid fell below her lower lash.” With her back to the wall and the presidency on the line, Clinton approached the edge of a sniffle and we are still talking about it. Boehner is driven to great, noisy sobs when he contemplates the fact that as a youth, he mopped the floor at his father’s tavern.

You can read that op-ed here.

Abby Johnson, Abortion, and Planned Parenthood

Recently, the Pro-life website, Life News, said this about Abby Johnson and her new book, "Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey across the Life Line:"

Former Planned Parenthood abortion facility director Abby Johnson was sitting at her desk when a co-worker at the center asked for some help with a woman getting an abortion. “I could not have imagined how the next ten minutes would shake the foundation of my values and change the course of my life,” she says in her new book “Unplanned,” an expose of the abortion business and the abortion industry. Johnson ran that abortion facility — a Planned Parenthood “clinic” in Bryan, Texas, the home of Texas A&M University. She spent ten minutes assisting with an ultrasound-guided abortion, and her reflection on it would change her life as she stepped down from her position. “Oh, dear God,” she writes, “what had I done?” In “UnPlanned,” Johnson tells the dramatic story of the journey that unfolded as a result of that fateful day in September 2009 and how she literally “crossed the fence” from Planned Parenthood leader to an advocate fighting for women in crisis – and the lives of their unborn babies.

See that plug here. See also: The Supreme Court Confronts Abortion: The Briefs, Argument, and Decision in Planned Parenthood V. Casey, The Planned Parenthood (R) Women's Health Encyclopedia, Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood, Sacred Work: Planned Parenthood and Its Clergy Alliances.

Jeffrey Pfeffer and Power

Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. This business school's magazine summed Pfeffer's thesis in an introduction of an article about the book and its topics: "Through three decades of teaching and writing about power, Jeffrey Pfeffer has emphasized a pithy but potent concept: Politics often trumps performance." See that article here. NPR's Forum (a KQED affiliate program) plugged the book. You can find the podcast of that show, here. The Harvard Business Review keeps a blog called "The Conversation," where Pfeffer posted an entry called, "Women and the Uneasy Embrace of Power." In the article, he writes that:

The evidence shows that women are less power-oriented than men. Women have more negative attitudes toward holding power, they are less likely to pursue power-based influence strategies, they are more bothered by and disfavor hierarchical relationships, they are less motivated to dominate others, and they are less likely to take actions to attain power. Moreover, in situations such as salary negotiations, studies show that women often believe that they deserve less than similarly qualified men and are, as a consequence, likely to demand less and to press their salary demands with less vigor.

See that HBR blog post here.

"Patti Smith's 'Just Kids' Wins Nonfiction Award" from NPR's Morning Edition by LYNN NEARY

Rock musician Patti Smith is now a literary star. Her memoir about life in New York City in the 1960s, Just Kids, won the National Book Award for nonfiction. The literary awards were handed out Wednesday night in New York City. Lord of Misrule author Jaimy Gordon won for fiction. NEARY: The most emotional moment of last night came when Patti Smith won the non fiction award for her memoir "Just Kids," about her lifelong friendship and early love affair with the late artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith said she promised Mapplethorpe she would write the book the day before he died of AIDS. Ms. PATTI SMITH (Author, "Just Kids"): I was the only one that could write it really, since we grew together, we evolved as artists together. And he could also trust that I would present him to the world as I knew him, which was as an artist, a loving friend; mischievous, generous, kind, funny and beautiful. So I did my best. NEARY: In accepting her award, Smith recalled the time when she was a young girl, new to the city, working at Scribner's Bookstore and dreaming of writing her own book one day.

Download the podcast here. See also: Patti Smith Complete 1975-2006: Lyrics, Reflections & Notes for the Future, Auguries of Innocence: Poems, Early Work: 1970-1979, Patti Smith: Dream of Life

War Is Not Over When It's Over from Lopate - Underreported by listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio)

Writer and photographer Ann Jones looks at the aftermath of wars and their impact on women. In 2007, the International Rescue Committee sent Jones to Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East, and she gave cameras to women to document how war had affected their lives. Her book War Is Not Over When It's Over: Women Speak Out from the Ruins of War, reveals the consequences of modern warfare for those most vulnerable.

Listen to the podcast here, or download the show here.