It was said that with a rib came the genesis of woman. Entire flesh made from bone. My wholeness pieced together by only a fraction of one. Perhaps this is why I never seem enough, and feel a burden of debt — a sense of existence to exist for another, the way Eve is only possible after the Sun sets, how daughters give rise to sons but they’re never permitted to shine quite as much.  → Read More

Women, by many accounts, have all the makings to be on top. More than 70 percent of high school valedictorians in 2012 were women. For decades, more female students than male students have graduated from college. Afterwards, more of them than their male counterparts—some 53 versus 47 percent—claim entry-level management jobs, according to a report by McKinsey Research But somewhere along the line, the numbers drop for women: to 37 percent for mid-managers, and even lower, to 26 percent, for vice presidents and up.  → Read More

Whenever I think about the word negotiation, I think about the often difficult and awkward discussions had with bosses, usually hashing out the details of a contract, salary or job. Even if the outcome of the discussion is exciting, the back-and-forth can lead to a knot in my stomach and endless worry. But how do we begin to embrace this skill? How do we get better at it? And how in the world do you get started?  → Read More

Since being overwhelmed by chronic oral pain last spring, I’ve done lots to cope, including things that would proved to be my downfall: I comforted myself with way too much ice cream (full-fat, every day, it was soothing and numbed the pain), and I put my scale away. Physicians prescribed an array of painkillers and novel approaches, and I even underwent a few nerve blocks. I learned to meditate and distract myself. But nothing kept the pain at bay as effectively as a huge bowl of ice cream, followed by just one more.  → Read More

Many soldiers returning from war suffer from invisible wounds. One of the common injuries seen today are traumatic brain injuries, which can be caused by a blow to the head. But are women soldiers affected differently than men by this trauma? One researcher with extensive background in brain trauma and neurosurgery led some research to find out.  → Read More

As a single mom with a blog, and what some have referred to as, a bold personality, I am used to being asked a lot of questions that border on brash. Everything from the older woman in the elevator looking at her watch, and then looking at my toddler, then me, and saying, “My, my, my…isn’t coming home from preschool at 5:30 a mighty long day for such a little girl?” to the well-intentioned yet always insulting, “Why are you still single?!?”  → Read More

But rather than pining for family structures of an earlier generation, we heard loud and clear from Americans in this study that government and businesses have failed to adapt to the needs of modern families. Men and women are ready and willing to work out the details of their stressful lives.  → Read More

We are balanced on the precipice of a whole new way of working and living, not just for women, but for everyone. If we can hold tight to our vision of what a more humane, healthy, and just America looks like, pull up our sleeves and do the hard work—side by side—that manifesting this vision will require, then the rewards could be breathtaking.  → Read More

Although there are many variations by racial and ethnic status, income, and occupation in the division of housework and the values that couples hold about both of them doing these chores, one of the biggest predictors of a wife’s marital satisfaction is whether she feels that the division of housework is fair.  → Read More