January 24, 2012

Media Advisory: Girls Sports Day

         DRAKE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS  |  MEDIA ADVISORY


CONTACTS
Paul Kirk, Drake Athletic Communications
(515) 271-3014 | paul.kirk@drake.edu
Heather Weems, Associate Athletic Director/Senior Women’s Administrator
(515) 271-2809 | heather.weems@drake.edu


**MEDIA ADVISORY**
Tuesday, January 24, 2012


Drake Athletics Hosts 2012 Girls Sports Day Friday

Attention Media: The Drake Athletic Department invites you to join in its celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day and shine a light on the positive effects of introducing sport to young women in our community.

WHO:        Student-athletes from Drake’s women’s sports teams and the Chrysalis After-School Program

WHAT:      Drake Athletics and the Bulldogs’ women’s sports student-athletes host young women from Chrysalis After-School at the 2012 Girls Sports Day. This inaugural event celebrates both the 40th Anniversary of Title IX and the 26th Annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

WHEN:      Friday, January 27, 2012 at 5 p.m.
                 5 p.m.—Welcome and Registration
                 5:10 p.m.—Bulldog Chalk Talk with Drake Women’s Basketball Coach Amy Stephens
                 5:25 p.m.—Rotations begin, by group, for Fitness Walk, Wellness Activity and Zumba (dancing)
                 6:10 p.m.—Closing Presentation
                 6:20 p.m.—Dinner
                 7:05 p.m.—Women’s basketball tipoff vs. Bradley

WHERE:    Bell Center and Knapp Center at Drake University

WHY:        Studies show that physical activity and sport are positive influences on the health and well-being of individuals and society. Girls Sports Day is intended to introduce 5th–8th grade girls to fun fitness activities and the benefits derived, as well as encourage them to learn about and consider the multiple aspects of personal wellness.

ABOUT CHRYSALIS:
We believe that the best investment Chrysalis can make for the future is to invest in girls. That's why we invest 2/3 of our annual grant-making budget in a program we developed in 1998: Chrysalis After-School.
Each year, hundreds of girls at dozens of community sites are part of Chrysalis After-School. From elementary through middle school, girls meet at school and community sites each week to learn life skills, career opportunities, healthy behaviors, and the importance of education. They meet role models who influence the way they think about their future. They develop the confidence and resilience they need to become independent, contributing women.

Chrysalis After-School ensures girls' physical, educational, and social well-being. When we invest in girls, we invest in their families, their community, and our future.
When learn about our Chrysalis After-School programs and partners, or when you read about the results of our investment, you'll believe it, too.


January 23, 2012

Women and Political Office

Here’s a startling statistic: Women are 50% less likely than men to seriously consider running for office, and 33% less likely to view themselves as qualified.

This is the finding of NAME IT. CHANGE IT., a non-partisan project of the Women’s Campaign Forum (WCF) Foundation, the Women’s Media Center, and Political Parity – all organized to end sexist coverage of women and women candidates by the press, from bloggers to television anchors.

As we know, widespread sexism in all media is likely one of the greatest problems facing women today.  For women in the polical world, this toxicity affects their campaigns, their lives, and occasionally, their very being.

Launched by Gloria Steinem in August of 2010, NAME IT. CHANGE IT. takes on all media platforms in an endeavor to erase the sexism women candidates face, regardless of the level of office or policital party.  NAME IT. CHANGE IT. believes that when you attack one women, you attack all women.

Here’s the litmus test for determining if journalists are being fair, which they refer to as “The Reversibility Test” -

“The most workable definition of equality for journalists is reversibility.  Don't mention her young children unless you would also mention his, or describe her clothes unless you would describe his, or say she's shrill or attractive unless the same adjectives would be applied to a man.

“Don't say she's had facial surgery unless you say he dyes his hair or has hair plugs.  Don't say she's just out of graduate school but he's a rising star.  Don't say she has no professional training but he worked his way up.  Don't ask her if she's running as a women's candidate unless you ask him if he's running as a men's candidate; ask both about the gender gap, the women's vote.

“By extension, don't say someone is a Muslim unless you also identify Christians and Jews, or identify only some people by race, ethnicity or sexuality and not others.  However, this does NOT mean being even-handedly positive or negative when only one person or side has done something positive or negative. Equality allows accuracy.”
WFC Foundation has collected a tremendous amount of research validating the work to eliminate sexism and its disastrous effects.  According to Rutgers’s University, 1/3 or women say that someone tried to discourage them from running for office – most often a political party official or an existing officeholder.  If a woman candidate isn’t married, both male and female voters perceive her as less likely to share their own family values.  And on the influential Sunday morning political talk shows, male guests outnumber female guests 4 to 1.

Women’s confidence also lags behind men’s.  “Research shows that among equally qualified men and women, men say, ‘Yes, I’d make a great Senator!’ while women say, ‘No, I couldn’t do that job,’” according to the director of Political Parity.

The work of organizations such as the Women’s Campaign Fund, the White House Project, the Women’s Media Center, and Political Parity all center around finding, training, and supporting women to run for elected office – any party, any office.  Their continuing efforts are working to double the number of women in Congress and in governorships in 10 years, and to advance women’s leadership in all sectors and all communities.  This work is to ensure that all institutions, businesses, and government is truly representative of our country.

This is why we so strongly believe that leadership development is a responsibility of Chrysalis.  And this is the theme in our upcoming Chrysalis Conversations series – that women’s leadership, and the wisdom it brings, can shape a more equitable culture.  Enhancing the confidence of women, and ensuring the confidence of the public in women’s leadership, can change everything.

If you’d like to know more about NAME IT. CHANGE IT.: http://www.nameitchangeit.org/

January 16, 2012

A November article in FORBES Magazine reported an interesting finding about young professional women (“Gen Y” or “Millennials”): a growing number are “burning out” at work before they reach age 30.

This is believed to be a major factor in reports on women in corporate leadership, and the statistics bear it out, as today, McKinsey research reports women hold:
×          53% of entry-level corporate jobs
×          37% of mid-level management jobs
×          26% of vice presidents and senior managers

In fact, continues the report, men are twice as likely to advance at every career transition change than women.  One theory is that men are more likely than women to do things supporting their personal well-being while they are at work.  Men are 25% more likely to take breaks throughout the day for personal activities, 7% more likely to go for a walk, 5% more likely to go out of the office for lunch, and 35% more likely to take breaks “just to relax.”

Why is it that women seem unable to relax?  Women work like crazy in school and college, and are exhausted by the time the get into the workforce, believes Melanie Shreffler of the youth marketing company Ypulse.  “They expected things to be better now that they’ve arrived and made it…instead they are starting over on the bottom rung and still striving.  It’s impossible to see what life will be like in 20 years these days.  (Young women ) don’t know what they are striving for, which makes it really hard to move forward.”

The upside of this issue may be promising, however, as many young professionals are leaping into entrepreneurship - Gen Y is reported to be the most entrepreneurial generation the world has seen, according to the Kauffman Foundation, which notes that 54% of America’s Millennials either want to start a business or have already.  Take a look at this information:  http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/millennials-want-to-start-companies-when-economy-rebounds-poll-says.aspx

For women, entrepreneurship matches the general sentiment of Millennial women worldwide: 96% consider being independent as the most important goal in their lives, and more than 87% define success as having the ability to shape their own future.

The Kauffman Foundation has declared the next ten years as “The Decade of the Woman Entrepreneur,” noting there are challenges to this goal.  “While the numbers of highly educated women who have the potential to start scalable ventures have reached record levels, these women are not pursuing entrepreneurship or being exposed to entrepreneurial possibilities through networking.  (We need to) inspire women to seek advisors, training, and networks that will help them unleash their potential and fundamentally change lives,” according to Kauffman Foundation Vice President, Lesa Mitchell (http://www.kauffman.org/entrepreneurship/the-decade-of-the-woman-entrepreneur.aspx).

Our work at Chrysalis involves just this – bringing women together for inspiration, education, and training.  Our educational programming and Women’s Alliance work offers not only time to meet and share ideas, but also to learn from other women, connect with mentors, and gain motivation for the future.  If you’ve not already registered for our upcoming Chrysalis Conversations Speaker Series, do it now: http://chrysalisconversations2012.eventbrite.com/

 
Thank you for being a leader in this continuing work.

PS – in case you need updating on “the generations” --


January 9, 2012

The Current Economy: Women Choosing to Invest in Education

If you’d not already shared the Chrysalis Conversations information with your friends,
please forward the information and registration link:

This week, Patrice Sayre sent an interesting article from The New York Times, which was about the fact that rather than taking jobs after college, many young women are postponing their careers to get more education.

An article printed on December 28 entitled “Instead of Work, Younger Women Head to School” notes that economists originally thought that the shrinking labor force was due to unemployed older workers giving up on the job hunt.  They were surprised to learn that the lower unemployment rate was, in fact, due to many students who had been projected to be in the job market staying in school, or entering post-secondary training programs including community colleges.

Interestingly, the view about the labor force is different between genders, as the article notes:

“Though young women in their late teens and early 20’s view today’s economic lull as an opportunity to upgrade their skills, their male counterparts are more likely to take whatever job they can find. The longer-term consequences, economists say, are that the next generation of women may have a significant advantage over their male counterparts, whose career options are already becoming constrained.”

Some studies suggest that women are more selective about their job choices than men, the article continues:

“Already earning lower pay, women are less willing to work when wages fall further, especially if they are able to rely on an employed (and these days, often newly re-employed) husband. Women are also more reluctant to work night or weekend shifts, according to government data on how Americans spend their time, partly because they have more family responsibilities.

“The jobs out there just aren’t very good, and men seem more willing to take them for whatever reason,” said Jonathan L. Willis, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. “The women are looking at those same jobs and saying, ‘I’ll be more productive elsewhere.’ ”

These factors are a major reason that community colleges are reporting skyrocketing enrollments.  Among all post-secondary options, the enrollment growth is markedly greater for women than men; since 2009, the number of women ages 18-24 increased by 130,000 nationally, compared with only 53,000 for young men.

News is good for women’s employment in the coming decade, however.  Not only are the growing occupation needs in the area of home health aides and dental hygienists (traditionally women), but today’s women have a greater sense they can do whatever occupation or career they choose, and often do.  And young men aren’t as likely to take jobs in occupations that are traditionally female – they may get teased and bullied for doing so.

The only downside to this trend is the increasing student loan debt, which has been hit by both state budget cuts and increasing inflation.  Institutions are increasing class sizes along with tuition, and often have waiting lists because they are unable to provide enough classes.

You may find the following information interesting – it’s an overview of labor force projections from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and it outlines jobs with the fastest growth in the coming decade:


Occupations
Percent change
Number
of
new jobs
(in thousands)
Wages (May 2008 median)
Education/training category
Biomedical engineers
72
11.6
$ 77,400
Bachelor's degree
Network systems and data communications analysts
53
155.8
71,100
Bachelor's degree
Home health aides
50
460.9
20,460
Short-term on-the-job training
Personal and home care aides
46
375.8
19,180
Short-term on-the-job training
Financial examiners
41
11.1
70,930
Bachelor's degree
Medical scientists, except epidemiologists
40
44.2
72,590
Doctoral degree
Physician assistants
39
29.2
81,230
Master's degree
Skin care specialists
38
14.7
28,730
Postsecondary vocational award
Biochemists and biophysicists
37
8.7
82,840
Doctoral degree
Athletic trainers
37
6.0
39,640
Bachelor's degree
Physical therapist aides
36
16.7
23,760
Short-term on-the-job training
Dental hygienists
36
62.9
66,570
Associate degree
Veterinary technologists and technicians
36
28.5
28,900
Associate degree
Dental assistants
36
105.6
32,380
Moderate-term on-the-job training
Computer software engineers, applications
34
175.1
85,430
Bachelor's degree
Medical assistants
34
163.9
28,300
Moderate-term on-the-job training
Physical therapist assistants
33
21.2
46,140
Associate degree
Veterinarians
33
19.7
79,050
First professional degree
Self-enrichment education teachers
32
81.3
35,720
Work experience in a related occupation
Compliance officers, except agriculture, construction, health and safety, and transportation
31
80.8
48,890
Long-term on-the-job training
SOURCE: BLS Occupational Employment Statistics and Division of Occupational Outlook


You’ll notice that the majority of these careers require at least some post-secondary education, and much more education required for the higher-salaried jobs.

The work of Chrysalis to ensure girls graduate high school and plan to continue their education; we can be proud of the results we’ve seen through our evaluations:
Participants report* increased:
-           intent to finish high school
-           ability to resist peer pressure
-           willingness to take responsibility for actions
-           understanding that working hard today makes life a success in the future
(*at a much higher rate than other Iowa school girls)

We’re proud of this work, and we continue to work with Chrysalis Women’s Alliance and grant partners to train and educate women for successful employment and (hopefully) higher-paying jobs.

And our policy and education work around workplace accommodations for working women and families continues to move stakeholders toward a better understanding of the capacity –and needs- of career women.


If you’d not already shared the Chrysalis Conversations information with your friends, please forward the information and registration link:  http://chrysalisconversations2012.eventbrite.com

January 3, 2012

Reflections for the New Year

Happy 2012!  This will be an exciting year for Chrysalis, with new educational events and new ways to invest in girls, women, and our community.  

Toward the end of last year, you saw the Person of the Year named by TIME Magazine:  "The Protester" - which could have easily been a woman or a man.  Sadly, the magazine's editors noted that only 2 women had been considered for this distinction - Gabrielle Gifford (the US Congresswoman who was shot and is making a remarkable recovery) and Kate Middleton, the new Princess of England.

Additionally, other women named to TIME's "People Who Mattered" included influential women who TIME noted had made an impact in human rights, medicine, politics, and technology:

- US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton
- German chancellor Angela Merkel (whose strength likely saved the gobal economy)
- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (fighting for human rights and polital reform)
- Director of the US Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson
- Senate candidate, former Harvard professor and force behind the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Elisabeth Warren
- Medical researcher Dr. Virginia A. Moyer (helped raise warnings about the dangers of overscreening for diseases such as prostate cancer)
- Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg
- Camila Vallejo, who was leader of student uprisings

There are many who believe that perhaps there could have been a more discerning process for the person selected to have made the greatest contributions to 2011, and believe that more women should have been considered.

Some of the "women to watch" were recently listed in FORBES Magazine in their ranking of the top 100 most powerful women.  Names range from First Lady Michelle Obama and billionaire and philanthropist Melinda Gates to performers Lady Gaga and Beyonce.  Take a look at the list:  



Many of these women, and the women we will present through our educational programs, are the types of women we all aspire to be.  This is our message to all girls and women: there are women who can serve as role models, teachers, and mentors to all of us, and Chrysalis is proud to share their knowledge and bring them to our community.