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April 15, 2010
By Amanda Gross
THE SIMMONS VOICE, April 15, 2010 – Semans develops political consciousness for South African street children

Smith senior Vanessa Shea is traveling to South Africa this summer with Simmons College senior Maya Semans to help Semans run a three-week creative writing, art and music camp to enrich the lives of street children there..

April 5, 2010
By Tariq Malik
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Four intrepid women with the right stuff have sailed into the world record books as the most female astronauts ever to fly in space at the same time.

Discovery launched into space at 6:21 a.m. EDT (1021 GMT) in a pre-dawn launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center here carrying seven astronauts and vital supplies toward the International Space Station.

March 22, 2010
By Jennifer Epstein
CAPE Active recruiting and positive messaging can go a long way toward shrinking the gender gap in many science and engineering fields, an analysis released today by the American Association of University Women suggests.

March 21, 2010
By TAMAR LEWIN
Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences

A report on the underrepresentation of women in science and math by the American Association of University Women, to be released Monday, found that although women have made gains, stereotypes and cultural biases still impede their success.

March 15, 2010
By JERÉ LONGMAN
It has become fashionable to say that Connecticut’s 72-game winning streak is bad for women’s basketball, as if greatness can be as choking and stifling as weeds. At best, that growing suggestion is ignorant of college basketball history; at worst, it is a wearying, sexist attempt to diminish the achievement of women, who were too long excluded from sports and are still too often forced to apologize for sweating.

March 10, 2010
By ILENE H. LANG
Back in 2005, I received a flurry of interview requests concerning Laura Bush’s selection of Cristeta Comerford as White House executive chef—a first for a woman. Yes, it’s an achievement, I noted, but I was not surprised she got the job. I was amazed that it had taken more than 200 years for a woman to land this top culinary position! And what’s worse, the buzz surrounding Comerford’s appointment as head chef eclipsed news about George W. Bush’s plan to replace Sandra Day O’Connor with a male Supreme Court Justice. “Out of the courtroom and into the kitchen,” I thought at the time.

March 10, 2010
When there was a shortage of U.S. pilots (who were all male) during World War II, the country called on women to volunteer for an all-female pilot corps. Hundreds answered the call, and the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program was formed in 1942, in which women flew test runs on new aircraft, taxied planes to departure points and towed targets for training flights, among other services, freeing trained Air Force pilots for missions overseas.

March 10, 2010
By KIMBERLY HEFLING
They flew planes during World War II but weren't considered "real" military pilots. No flags were draped over their coffins when they died on duty. And when their service ended, they had to pay their own bus fare home. These aviators - all women - got long-overdue recognition on Wednesday. They received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor given by Congress, in a ceremony on Capitol Hill.

March 9, 2010
By Susan Stamberg
In 1942, the United States was faced with a severe shortage of pilots, and leaders gambled on an experimental program to help fill the void: Train women to fly military aircraft so male pilots could be released for combat duty overseas.

March 9, 2010

The University of Connecticut made women’s basketball history on Monday, clinching its 71st consecutive win in a game against Notre Dame. Judy Woodruff talks with Christine Brennan of ABC Sports and USA Today about the win and what it means for the sport.

March 8, 2010
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Op-Ed Columnist
Today is International Women’s Day, and in fact the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. It’s a date that is much better known abroad but is beginning to get more traction in the U.S. as well. So what interventions get the most bang for the buck in raising the status of women around the world? What is most helpful in overcoming injustices such as human trafficking and acid attacks? I’d welcome your ideas below, but let me toss out a few of my suggestions for most effective interventions:

Work/Life Balance Much Harder for Women
March 8, 2010
A new ITUC report examining how women take decisions on their working life confirms that deep-rooted inequalities in child care and household work are still restricting the opportunities for women to get the most out of paid employment. The report, released by the ITUC on International Women’s Day, 8 March, is entitled "Decisions for Work: An Examination of the Factors Influencing Women’s Decisions for Work" and is based on an internet survey from 43 countries and analysis of legislation in an initial group of seven countries under the ITUC’s “Decisions for Life” project .

March 8, 2010
By NICOLA CLARK
PARIS — Companies in the United States, Spain, Canada and Finland lead the world in employing the largest numbers of women from entry level to senior management, according to a report published Monday by the World Economic Forum. Yet the report also found that, despite increasing awareness of gender disparities in the workplace, women at many of the world’s top companies continued to lag behind their male peers in many areas, including pay and opportunities for professional advancement.

March 8, 2010
By NANCY FOLBRE
International Women’s Day seems like an appropriate occasion to ask which countries do best by women — and why. Obviously, the answer depends on how you define “best” — in absolute terms, relative to men, or some combination of the two? You can choose from at least four different published rankings that consider some aspect of gender inequality that include the United States. None of them places us among the top 10.

March 7, 2010
by LAURA BROWDER
The first time I heard a woman describe her deployment in glowing terms, I was taken aback. Marine Colonel Jenny Holbert told me that being in charge of public affairs for the second battle of Fallujah was "probably one of the biggest events of my life, other than birthing two children." I thought, cynically, that this enthusiasm was all part of her role as a public-affairs officer. It took me a while to understand how compelling the experiences of being in a combat zone could be for the women I talked with. Colonel Holbert's enthusiasm for deployment was only one of many surprises I encountered over the course of the 52 interviews I did with women soldiers, sailors, coasties, airmen, and marines across the eastern seaboard.

March 5, 2010
By KATRIN BENNHOLD
PARIS — Daniel Louvard does not believe in affirmative action. Time and again, the scientists in his Left Bank cancer laboratory have urged him to recruit with gender diversity in mind. But Mr. Louvard, research director at the Institut Curie and one of France’s top biochemists, just keeps hiring more women. “I take the best candidates, period,” Mr. Louvard said. There are 21 women and 4 men on his team.

March 2, 2010
BOSTON (March 2, 2010) — Simmons College graduate Ann Fudge, former CEO Young & Rubicam Brands, one of the world's leading global marketing communications groups, has been named to the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

March 1, 2010
Alice Rivlin ’52, a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington and visiting professor at Georgetown University, had been named by President Barack Obama to serve on the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Rivlin is one of two women’s college alumnae named to the Commission. The other is Ann Fudge.

Interest in business programs is growing at women's colleges, and a second one recently won AACSB accreditation. More are expected to follow

February 24, 2010
By Alison Damast
When Deborah Merrill-Sands became dean of Simmons College's School of Management in 2004, she quickly got to work on the school's effort to become accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Obtaining accreditation was a crucial step for the women's college, which competes with several other accredited business schools in the crowded Boston education market. She wanted to counteract any perception that the school didn't offer as rigorous a curriculum as its coed neighbors. "I was concerned that some people may perceive it as a soft MBA or an MBA-lite and imbue it with certain gender stereotypes," she says. "By having the accreditation, that question is off the table."

February 16, 2010
By TARA PARKER-POPE
Almost four decades after the federal education law called Title IX opened the door for girls to participate in high school and college athletics, a crucial question has remained unanswered: Do sports make a long-term difference in a woman’s life?

So where does Pat McGuire -- and the university she rebuilt -- go from here?
February 14, 2010
By Daniel de Vise
A dusting of snow had thinned the crowd that turned out to watch the Trinity Washington University women's basketball team play Valley Forge Military College on a gloomy Saturday afternoon. But one fan at the far end of the court made the most of the game, and followed the players patiently with her camera lens as she cheered a bit louder than everyone else.

February 12, 2010
The U.S. Senate has confirmed two Trinity alumnae, M. Patricia Smith '74 and Ellen Gloninger Murray '70, to serve in top posts in the administration of President Barack Obama. Smith was confirmed by the Senate on February 4 to serve as Solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor, the third highest position in the department. Murray was confirmed on February 11 by the Senate to serve as Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

February 12, 2010
Excerpted from SONIC BOOM: Globalization at Mach Speed Copyright 2009 by Gregg Easterbrook, Published by Random House

Home prices keep falling, but productivity is rising fast. GDP grew 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter, yet unemployment remains stubbornly high. Inflation is nonexistent, while the consumer confidence index just rose to 55.9 from 53.6—whatever that means. Can't make sense of these economic indicators? Don't worry, because nobody else can, either.

Here is what you really need to know: a Sonic Boom is coming. It will be caused by globalization. And while globalization may be driving you crazy, it's just getting started. Thirty years ago, Shenzhen, China, did not exist; today, it has nearly 9 million residents, roughly the same as New York City. In a single generation, it has grown from a village of tar-paper shacks into an important urban center. It has become the world's fourth-busiest port, busier than Los Angeles and Long Beach combined. Never before has a great city been built so fast, nor a productive economy established from so little.

by Patricia A. McGuire
Trusteeship Magazine, January/February 2010

Yvonne is a typical college student in 2010. She’s working on a paper due in her american Fiction course. She has to finish some reading for her gender communication course, and has a nagging worry about passing statistics. She turns away from her computer to help her son, a second-grader, with his spelling homework, and then is distracted by her pre-school daughter’s insistence that she give equal time to her crayon drawing. Yvonne also remembers that she promised her boss that she’d be at work early the next day to help prepare an important contract presentation. Yvonne, a single parent, knows that her collegiate studies are a good example for her children, but she feels stressed about balancing all of the many demands on her time and energy—being a good mother, successful student, and productive worker.

February 5, 2010
by JENNIFER EPSTEIN
When Carmen Twillie Ambar tells people about her job, they’re impressed. When she tells them about her kids, they’re impressed, too. So when they put the two together -- that she’s a college president and the mother of triplets who aren’t quite three years old -- they’re in awe.

“I get a lot of 'wow's,” says Ambar, 40, who’s been president of Cedar Crest College, in Allentown, Pa., since August 2008. “People just can’t believe that I’m the president of a college, the mother of young triplets and somehow put on shoes that match each other.”