#Gender discrimination

[indigovigilance]

I think the most disappointing thing about TERF rhetoric is it limits cis women's potential. When a cis woman does something amazing, instead of saying, wow, look, women can do incredible things! They say, that's not a woman.

They're creating their own glass ceiling and that's sad.

[sanjiaholicreturns]

ONE PIECE 46. Panels that make me laugh, everytime.

Gender discrimination. LOL

Usopp indignantly accusing Sanji of gender discrimination is really funny, considering that he is the gender discriminated against, while Zoro, ignoring everything, keeps drinking, as if he's thinking: ‘say what you want, you idiots’.

This is what is called positive discrimination my poor Usopp.

[pannaginip]

Baby Hero was born with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a condition that affects the production of hormones in his body. Having CAH makes Hero intersex, and the type of CAH he has requires lifetime medication.

The couple is also able to secure some financial help from the Department of Social Welfare and Development. But explaining her son’s condition to the personnel handling her requests is always a pain, as they often don’t understand what CAH is.

The plight of the intersex community rarely comes into the national spotlight. But one time it did was when the Supreme Court (SC) sided with Jeff Cagandahan in a 2008 landmark ruling that paved the way for the community’s rights.

In 2003, at a regional trial court (RTC) in Laguna, Jeff filed for changes in his birth certificate, namely the change of his name from “Jennifer” to “Jeff,” and his gender from “female” to “male.”

The RTC sided with Jeff, though the Office of the Solicitor General tried to reverse the decision. In the end, the SC upheld it, saying that Jeff let nature take its course in allowing his body to reveal male characteristics. He was allowed to change his name and gender in his birth registry.

“Respondent is the one who has to live with his intersex anatomy. To him belongs the human right to the pursuit of happiness and of health. Thus, to him should belong the primordial choice of what courses of action to take along the path of his sexual development and maturation,” the decision read, penned by the late former associate justice Leonardo Quisumbing.

Jeff later on co-founded Intersex Philippines, and currently serves as a co-chair of Intersex Asia. Intersex Philippines has over 200 members.

Though it’s been more than a decade since Jeff’s legal victory, the lack of public awareness about intersex people and their concerns generally remained in the Philippines, even among medical professionals.

For instance, while there are plenty of endocrinologists across the Philippine health system, Jeff said that it is difficult to find “intersex-friendly” endocrinologists, who do not push intersex people to undergo procedures to conform with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Access to medicine remains the biggest challenge for intersex people in the Philippines, according to Jeff. Based on their group’s research, just one specialty compounding pharmacy, Apotheca, produces the medicines that most in their community need. It’s Metro Manila-based, which makes it even harder for those in the provinces to access them.

Jeff constantly receives reports of children with life-threatening intersex variations who succumb to their condition, as their parents were unable to acquire the medications that could have kept them alive.

According to Intersex Philippines, some intersex children undergo irreversible, unnecessary surgeries and treatment without their consent. Some also experience emotional harm from this treatment.

In November 2023, Bataan 1st District Representative Geraldine Roman filed the Cagandahan Bill in Congress, which seeks to make what Jeff achieved more accessible to intersex Filipinos.

While Republic Act No. 9048, enacted in 2001, allows Filipinos to correct clerical and typographical errors in their civil registry offices without judicial orders, the bill said that this does not “explicitly address the unique circumstances of intersex individuals.” Having their legal documents amended to align with their identities would acknowledge an intersex person’s right to self-determination, it said.

2024 Apr. 6

[allthegeopolitics]

Australia and three further countries are taking Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to the International Court of Justice for gender discrimination, over its oppressive laws against women.  The country, alongside Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, has taken legal action against Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and could see all four countries taking the militant group to court.  Three out of the four countries involved in the international legal action, Australia, Germany and Canada, have women as foreign ministers. The countries argue that the Taliban has violated the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and has systematically abused the rights of women and girls since the group seized power in August 2021.

Continue Reading

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The New Democratic Party and a group of labour unions are calling on the federal government to change Canada’s employment insurance rules so that new parents, especially new mothers, are not denied regular EI benefits if they get laid off. In a letter sent Thursday to Randy Boissonault, Canada’s employment minister, and NDP MP Daniel Blaikie, along with the Canadian Labour Congress, Unifor and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, are demanding an end to “gender discrimination” in the program. A copy of the letter shared with Global News stated: “Under the current EI Act, special and regular benefits can be combined up to a 50-week maximum. Using qualifying hours for regular benefits reduces what you can claim in maternity and parental benefits, and vice-versa. “This means that women who have a baby and access maternity benefits lose their protection in the event of a lay-off,” the letter to Boissonnault reads.

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada

[girltalkcollectives]

The Real Cost of Being a Woman: Let's Talk About the Pink Tax

I've had it. Absolutely had it. Last weekend, I was shopping for razors and there it was again – that infuriating price difference staring me in the face. The "men's" razor in basic black: $8.99. The virtually identical "women's" razor in pink packaging: $12.99. Four dollars more for what? A splash of pink dye and some flowery marketing?

This, my friends, is the pink tax in action, and it's bleeding us dry.

For those who haven't heard this term before, the pink tax isn't an actual tax – it's the premium we women pay for products marketed specifically to us. From personal care items to clothing, if it's marketed to women, chances are we're paying more for it. And I'm not talking pocket change here.

Let me break down what I've documented from my own shopping experiences:

Deodorant: Women's version costs 30% more than men's

Shampoo: "For her" costs about $2-3 more per bottle

Children's toys: The pink version of the exact same toy? Usually marked up 15%

Dry cleaning: Women's button-down shirts cost almost double what men pay

Personal care products: On average, we pay 13% more for everything from face cream to body wash

The most infuriating part? There's often zero difference in the actual product. We're literally paying more for pink packaging and "feminine" scents like "Sweet Rose Petal Dreams" instead of "MOUNTAIN SURGE" or whatever they're calling the men's version.

Some argue, "Just buy the men's version then!" Sure, I could. Sometimes I do. But that's not the point. Why should we have to navigate this ridiculous pricing maze just to avoid being ripped off? Why are we still accepting this systematic price discrimination in 2024?

Here's what really gets me: this isn't just about razors or shampoo. The pink tax is a symptom of a larger problem – the way society continues to exploit gender for profit. From the time we're little girls getting charged more for pink toys, to adults paying more for basic hygiene products, this unfair pricing follows us through our entire lives.

According to studies, women pay approximately $1,300 more per year for the same basic products as men. Think about that. That's $1,300 we could be investing, saving, or spending on something meaningful instead of padding corporate profits.

So what can we do about it?

Speak up! Share your pink tax findings on social media. Make noise about these unfair pricing practices.

Vote with your wallet. Support companies that practice gender-neutral pricing.

Write to retailers and manufacturers. Let them know we're watching and we're not okay with this.

Educate others. Many people don't even realize this is happening.

Support legislation that addresses gender-based price discrimination.

I'm done staying quiet about this. I'm done accepting that I should pay more "because I'm a woman." And I'm definitely done with the color pink being used as an excuse to empty my wallet.

The next time you're shopping, take a moment to compare prices between gendered products. Document the differences. Share them. Get angry. Because until we all start speaking up about this systematic price discrimination, nothing will change.

It's time to paint this issue in bold strokes – and none of them need to be pink.

[profeminist]

Bessie Stringfield the "Motorcycle Queen Of Miami"

"At the age of 16 Stringfield taught herself to ride her first motorcycle, a 1928 Indian Scout. In 1930, at the age of 19, she commenced traveling across the United States. She made seven more long-distance trips in the US, and eventually rode through the 48 lower states, Europe, Brazil and Haiti. During this time, she earned money from performing motorcycle stunts in carnival shows. Due to her skin color, Stringfield was often denied accommodation while traveling, so she would sleep on her motorcycle at filling stations. Due to her sex, she was refused prizes in flat track races she entered.

In the 1950s Stringfield moved to Miami, Florida, where at first she was told "n*gger women are not allowed to ride motorcycles" by the local police. After repeatedly being pulled over and harassed by officers, she visited the police captain. They went to a nearby park to prove her riding abilities. She gained the captain's approval to ride and did not have any more trouble with the police."

More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Stringfield

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: John Sailer

Published: Jul 5, 2024

In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), the Supreme Court held that colleges and universities couldn’t engage in racial discrimination in the name of diversity. The 45-year-old dispensation from civil-rights law that the court effectively overturned had never applied to employment decisions. But its end ought to provoke institutions to scale back “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives more broadly. Some appear to be doing so: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard said recently they would no longer require “diversity statements” from prospective hires.

Yet there is evidence that many universities have engaged in outright racial preferences under the aegis of DEI. Hundreds of documents that I acquired through public-records requests provide a rare paper trail of universities closely scrutinizing the race of faculty job applicants. The practice not only appears widespread; it is encouraged and funded by the federal government.

At Vanderbilt University Medical Center, a large hiring initiative targets specific racial groups—promising to hire 18 to 20 scientists “who are Black, Latinx, American Indian, and Pacific Islander.” Discussing a related University of New Mexico program, one professor quipped in an email, “I don’t want to hire white men for sure.”

Both initiatives are supported by the National Institutes of Health through its Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation program, or First. The program gives grants for DEI-focused “cluster hiring” at universities and medical schools, promising eventually to spend about a quarter-billion dollars.

A key requirement is that recipient institutions heavily value diversity statements while selecting faculty. The creators of the program reasoned that by heavily weighing commitment to DEI, they could prompt schools to hire more minorities but without direct racial preferences. That’s the rationale behind DEI-focused “cluster hiring,” an increasingly common practice in academia. The documents—which include emails, grant proposals, progress reports and hiring records—suggest that many NIH First grant recipients restrict hiring on the basis of race or “underrepresented” status, violating NIH’s stated policies and possibly civil-rights law.

In grant proposals, several recipients openly state their intention to restrict whom they hire by demographic category. Vanderbilt’s NIH First grant proposal states that it will “focus on the cluster hiring of faculty from minoritized racial and ethnic groups, specifically Black, Latinx, American Indian, and Pacific Islander scientists.” The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Texas at Dallas jointly proposed hiring 10 scholars “from underrepresented groups,” noting that the NIH First program specifically identifies racial minorities and women as underrepresented.

Emails reveal candid discussions about the perceived aim of the program. In April 2023, a professor running the University of New Mexico’s cluster hire emailed Jessica Calzola, the NIH program official overseeing the First program, to ask whether Asian-Americans count as underrepresented. The professor later wrote, “I really need a response at least by tomorrow, because it is now holding up our search teams.”

In reply, Ms. Calzola reiterated the program’s official policy: “My confusion is how this information can hold up search teams since candidates are to be evaluated and considered based on their credentials and not race/ethnicity/gender, etc.—all hiring decisions are to be made following the law and avoiding any type of bias (as you have stated and acknowledged).”

Ms. Calzola’s seemingly straightforward response confused her correspondent. “I am now wondering if I am missing something in terms of what we are supposed to be doing,” the professor emailed other members of the leadership team. She wondered if she placed too much emphasis on minority status.

Yet she hesitated to take Ms. Calzola’s word at face value, citing earlier remarks: “My first thought is that Jessica has to write about hires in this manner (she’s hinted at that before on zoom).” (Ms. Calzola referred my inquiry to an NIH spokeswoman, who said in a statement: “Consistent with NIH practice and U.S. federal law, funded programs may not use the race, ethnicity, or sex . . . of a prospective candidate as an eligibility or selection criteria.”)

A colleague responded: “For me as long as we are diversifying our departments and go with what we wrote in the proposal I am happy.” She then made clear her intention to keep one specific group out of consideration: “I don’t want to hire white men for sure, we did a very good job in the grant with the tables and numbers and that’s what we should follow in my opinion.”

Yet the confusion at UNM makes sense. Records show a repeated tension between the NIH First program’s official nondiscrimination policy and how the funded projects have played out—which at times looks a lot like discrimination.

At its inception, NIH First was widely understood not to involve racial preferences. In 2020, shortly after the program was announced, Science magazine published an explanation: “Not all of the 120 new hires would need to belong to groups now underrepresented in academic medicine, which include women, black people, Hispanics, Native Americans, and those with disabilities, says Hannah Valantine, NIH’s chief diversity officer. In fact, she told the Council of Councils at its 24 January meeting, any such restriction would be illegal and also run counter to the program’s goal of attracting world-class talent.”

Yet multiple programs have stated their intention to limit hires to those with “underrepresented” status. One job advertisement, for a First role at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, notes: “Successful candidates will be early stage investigators who are Black, Latinx, or from a disadvantaged background (as defined by NIH).”

Some grantees even admit such preferences in documents sent to and reviewed by the NIH. A joint proposal from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the university’s Baltimore County campus states that all scientists hired through the program will meet the NIH’s definition of “underrepresented populations in science.” Drexel University’s program, which focuses on nursing and public health, provides its evaluation rubric in a progress report. Among its four criteria: “Candidate is a member of a group that is underrepresented in health research.”

This raises questions about compliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race discrimination in employment. The First program’s website highlights regulations requiring that federal agencies ensure grant recipients comply with nondiscrimination law. The most basic implication is that universities can’t refuse to hire someone, or prefer one candidate over another, because of race or sex. But emails show that this has been happening.

At the University of New Mexico, the First leadership team heavily scrutinized the race and sex of applicants. “Just to be sure: what was the ethnicity of Speech and Hearing’s first-choice candidate?” a UNM team member asked in an email.

“She identified as URM in her application, right? I am confused, maybe I am misremembering,” a team member wrote of a different candidate. Another responded, “It looks like she said she was a ‘native New Mexican.’ We checked, and she said she’s white.”

Another team member wrote about a third candidate: “He is LGBTQ so should fit NIHs definition of URM. In my opinion, women are more underrepresented in our department when you consider demographics.”

The team had veto power over the program’s job searches, which it took seriously. In one email, a math-and-statistics search committee sent a list of proposed finalists. The first candidate, a woman, was recommended without qualification, while the second candidate, a South Asian man, was recommended if the leadership team decided he was a “good fit for the program.” A third candidate, a woman, was recommended as a backup.

One leadership team member emailed her colleagues about the South Asian candidate, citing the NIH’s priorities: “Is this a second look person that NIH would like?” UNM’s grant proposal explains that “at each point in which the applicant pool is narrowed, all applicants from underrepresented groups are given a ‘second-look’ before they are eliminated.” The question, in other words, was whether the South Asian candidate counted as underrepresented. (A UNM spokeswoman said “the second look procedure is a longstanding UNM hiring process.”)

The team agreed the answer was no and nixed him. As one pointed out, “We’ve said that Math is really low on women.” Another chimed in, excited to interview the two remaining candidates, noting “their DEI statements are strong.”

UNM appears to have violated NIH First policy, which states that programs “may not discriminate against any group in the hiring process.” The UNM spokeswoman said in a statement that “the email correspondence among members of the UNM FIRST Leadership Team do [sic] not represent the University of New Mexico’s values nor does it comport with the expectations we have of our faculty” and that “as a result of this unfortunate circumstance,” the university is instituting a required “faculty search training/workshop for all . . . faculty search committee members.”

Yet other universities signaled to NIH that they also intended to engage in race and sex preferences. Northwestern University’s program, which focuses on areas like cancer and cardiovascular health, promises to hire faculty from “underrepresented groups.” Its grant proposal suggests this excludes one particular group: “Our faculty development programming intentionally seeks to elevate URG”—underrepresented group—“faculty to equal privilege with white men in academia.”

Records repeatedly show NIH First grantees following through on their promises. In a letter of support for Florida State University’s project, that university’s associate vice president for human resources declared, “I firmly believe in and reaffirm this project’s mission to create an under-represented minority faculty cohort.”

Hiring documents show that special attention was paid to job candidates’ minority status. In a survey on job finalists, one Florida State faculty member wrote, “Is the applicant a URM, as defined by the NIH? Relatedly, I’m not saying this is happening, but I believe consideration of self-reported sexuality in the hiring process would go against official FSU nondiscrimination policy.” An FSU spokeswoman said in an email that “the Florida FIRST program followed the guidelines set forth by the NIH.”

That search took place as the Florida legislature was beginning to curtail DEI at public universities. Other programs raise similar red flags regarding state law. California’s Proposition 209 prohibits preferential treatment by race in admissions, hiring and “the operation of public employment.” A San Diego State University proposal says nonetheless that it will require shortlists “to include at least 25% of applications from historically underrepresented groups.” The San Diego program even divvies up certain faculty duties by race: “Whenever possible, the chair of the hiring committees should be a faculty member of color”; “the hiring committees will be required to have at least two (50% recommended) faculty of color”; and so on.

A university spokesman said in an email that “SDSU relies on the Building on Inclusive Excellence (BIE) faculty hiring program,” that “BIE is compliant with both civil rights law and California Proposition 209,” and that “it is incorrect to state that ‘the SDSU program . . . divides certain faculty duties by race.’ ”

Taken as a whole, these documents shed new light on the practice of cluster hiring. They explain why some in academia seem to treat the practice as a form of legal racial quotas. In addition to the responses already noted, representatives of the University of Maryland, UT Dallas and UT Southwestern said that their institutions comply with civil-rights laws and don’t discriminate on the basis of race. Drexel, Northwestern, Mount Sinai and Vanderbilt didn’t reply to inquiries.

The documents I reviewed point to a large-scale sleight-of-hand in the application of the NIH First program. They give all the more reason to reconsider one of the most controversial practices in higher education, mandatory diversity statements, which provide a convenient smokescreen for discrimination. Lawmakers would be wise to investigate this practice closely—especially the NIH First program.

In a comment on her decision to end mandatory diversity statements, MIT president Sally Kornbluth noted that such statements “impinge on freedom of expression.” That’s true, but fails to capture the full extent of the problem. Diversity statements mask racial discrimination. The NIH has ensured that they’re widely used in medicine, where excellence should matter most.

Mr. Sailer is a senior fellow at the National Association of Scholars.

[ Via: https://archive.today/nZ42W ]

==

This is amazingly unethical, not to mention illegal.

DEI is cancer.

[sak-writes]

Title : All The Papas Are Trans (Reason; I Said So)

Summary:

Growing up trans can be lonely, especially when you have to hide your true self from everyone around you. When a young Terzo (called Teresa and she/her) walks in on Primo (called Prim and she/her) while she is binding her chest and practicing her Papa makeup she is confused, because she and her sisters can never be Papa. Right?

Chapter 1: Prim

Perfect! This was how he wanted to look. Staring back at him was Papa Emeritus The First. Nihil had of course been Papa Emeritus Zero, and as his first born son he would be the next Papa, that was what he dreamed. But of course Nihil didn't know he had a son, Primo was a man but only in his own eyes.

[dyingroses]

Nursing and Teaching are two professions where you are expected to make sacrifices beyond the job description. For example, teachers work extra hours to prepare lessons and go to meetings and nurses work understaffed.

Both are predominately female professions.

[thoughtportal]

start writing you local law makers NOW!

[indigovigilance]

So what you're telling me is, all I gotta do is work on my upper body and then all the Republicans and TERFs will swear up and down that I'm really a man, regardless of my sex assigned at birth?

Well, why didn't you just say so???

[rewritingcanon]

now do i feel sad or proud hmmmm (article)

[vividdreamer]

"just get a job" i am going to eat your liver for dinner actually!

[allthecanadianpolitics]

More than half of non-binary youth in Canada are avoiding team sports due to discrimination, with only 11 per cent of non-binary youth currently participating, new research from Simon Fraser University has found. According to the first-of-its-kind 2023 Canadian Non-Binary Youth in Sport Report, 66 per cent of non-binary youth have avoided joining an organized team sport because they would have to play on a gendered men’s or women’s team, with four in five fearing locker room layouts. More than half the participants who currently play team sports have also witnessed discriminatory comments, and more than 16 per cent have witnessed physical harassment because of a person’s gender as well, the study found. “We see in our numbers that there is a lot of exclusion and discrimination occurring in sport,” lead author Martha Gumprich told Global News. “We know that physical activity is can improve someone’s mental and physical health, and this is especially important for the LGBTQ+ community. As we know, they have worse mental health outcomes than those who are heterosexual or cisgender. By making sport safer for everyone, everyone benefits.”

Continue Reading.

Tagging @politicsofcanada

[wolfgiselle]

Summary: The day the Commission found Keigo was the best day of his life. If he worked hard enough, one day Keigo could be like Endeavor and save everyone! After all, with a quirk like his, Keigo had to be a strong alpha.

Except then he wasn’t.

Hawks never wanted to be an omega, but he’d still do whatever it took to save people, even if it made him a villain.

Review: Review: I already have a thing for AlphaXBetaXOmega AUs - so let's go ahead and offer up one of my favorite pairings to this trope. This is one of my favorite DabiXHawks fics. It's an ABO AU not focused on sex but on politics and the steady build-up of the main couple's relationship. This is also a 'Villain Hawks AU,' and he certainly had good reason to become one. 

In this world, Hawks presents as an Omega, and Omegas aren't 'allowed' to become heroes. The reasoning is something along the lines of: 'They're too weak, and they're vulnerable to commands, so they could never manage it, anyway' (In this AU, an Alpha can command an Omega using their Alpha voice, and they'll be forced to obey); but it's really just sexism. I love fanfiction that use the AlphaXOmega universe to address or make commentary on gender or sex-based issues. 

Hawks was still taken in by the Commission in this story, but as soon as he presented, he was told he couldn't be a hero and given the boot - despite all the time and resources they'd already invested in him. Being kicked out obviously did not end well for Hawks, nor leave him with a good impression of omegas or how they were treated in society. He didn't live up to the stereotypes expected of him. Nor did he want to. He'd been training to become a hero and had no skills or goals beyond that. This eventually leads to him becoming a vigilante (or a villain, depending on your definition) and meeting Dabi. 

Kudos to this fic for the progression of Dabi and Hawks's relationship. Their healthy respect for each other (with Dabi also not living up to his Alpha stereotypes and refusing to, lest it make him too similar to Endeavor) was inspirational. It's so nice to find stories about these two with no toxicity. 

The League-of-Villains-as-family, or pack, in this case, was also enjoyable. I love when this group comes together and learns to genuinely care for each other. They all need somebody, and there's no reason it can't be each other. They all have their demons.

You get the feeling they're making their mark here as a group. Hawks, being a part of their group and having an actual good cause he's working towards, humanizes the group to the world. If an Omega is there of his own free will and seems to be treated better with them than he was out in regular society; If he's strong enough to not only hold his own but fight against trained pro-heroes; If he rescues kids and refuses to kill, despite being labeled as a villain; then it certainly makes people start to question. It certainly makes people more likely to listen to him. 

I also love Hawks' 'accidental' adoption of Shouto Todoroki and Shouto's mostly nonchalant attitude about it. It makes sense that it would drive Dabi crazy, though: them communicating. At least the Hawks in this story also hates Endeavor, so there never needed to be any fights over that.