IOWA STATE DAILY
NEWS
Friday, December 2, 2016
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GOOD GIRLS REVOLT Author discusses sex discrimination
Fighting for women’s rights By Emma.Hovick @iowastatedaily.com In a very male-dominated world, Lynn Povich, award-winning journalist and pioneer for women’s equality in the workplace, fights for women’s rights and educates thoroughly on what has changed for women and what hasn’t. Povich came to campus on Thursday to discuss the issues she has faced as a female journalist throughout her career. She also touched on the importance of educating people on such matters, which are all found in her book, “The Good Girls Revolt.” Tara Efobi, senior in apparel, merchandising and design, attended the lecture with friends. “Even though we’ve made a lot of progress, we’re still far from done,” Efobi said.“That seems to be lost between the generation of hers to ours.” Povich touched base on women’s rights in a political standpoint. Women will make up 21 percent of congress next year, and in corporate sweep, the numbers are about 17 to 19 percent. “What’s discouraging is it’s been 17-19 to 20-21 percent for the past 10 years,” Povich said. Povich then went on to speak about women in the workforce. When a man works overtime, no one thinks he is a bad father. When a women works overtime, people wonder what type of mother she is. Povich said only 4.8 percent of the fortune 500 CEOs are women, they comprise only 17 percent in the 200 largest law firms and make up 27 percent of federal and state judges and only 28 percent of full professors. “We read about sexual harassment, whether it’s in the media, whether it’s in the military, whether it’s in the presidential campaign,” Povich said. “We read about hostile work places on Wall Street, Silicon Valley. “We read about the pay gaps women are making 78 to 89 percent or less for women of color. We read about pregnancy discrimination. And on social media, we see the kind of angry misogynistic attack of threats on women who post including on women journalists.” Povich ended the lecture by saying how this generation didn’t have the benefit of the Civil Rights Movement that focused on inequality. She said it didn’t have the antiwar movement that questioned
By Alex.Connor @iowastatedaily.com
Chris Jorgensen/Iowa State Daily
Journalist and writer Lynn Povich speaks Thursday about her experiences with discrimination.
authority on why we were in Vietnam and it didn’t have the women’s movement that supported so many of us to challenge the assumptions about women’s roles in society that gave Povich’s generation a template for organizing and protesting. “Those of us who have children, who encouraged our children that they could do anything and be anything ... it got somehow distorted into saying you can have it all and that somehow if you don’t do it all, you fail, but that was never the message of feminism,” Povich said.
“That was the message of Helen Gurley Brown, Cosmo Magazine, who told women they could have it all.” The lecture had a turnout of about 400 to 500 people. After the lecture took place, a book signing followed, where people could get their books signed by Povich. The event was the Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics, which is hosted by the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics.
A. They really liked it. B. They knew they could do it. C. They could make it a career. And for these reasons, among many, many others, 46 women who served as researchers, clippers and mail girls for Newsweek banded together to fight for their right to, well, write. One of these women included Lynn Povich, fall 2016 Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics, who before her lecture at Iowa State on Thursday evening, discussed defining aspects of her more than 40 years in journalism. Sitting in her Des Moines hotel room, Povich, who is also the author of “The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace” focused on what the lawsuit meant for her, future generations and the industry itself. While Povich was just a bit different from her colleagues, as she was serving as a junior writer at the time the lawsuit was filed, Povich recollected on the moment she realized that Newsweek, and the system itself, was discriminatory. “For me, it was when I learned that it was illegal, because I actually had been promoted out of the research category to be a junior writer. And one or two other woman had been promoted to being reporters,” Povich said. “But I had been a researcher and I knew that the way the system was, that was what you were and very few women got promoted.” So because of this, in the ladies’ bathroom of the Newsweek offices, Povich and her colleagues discussed what was at once the unthinkable: filing a complaint and a lawsuit. The complaint, which was announced during a press conference on a Monday morning in March on the
WinterFest kicks off holidays By Ally.Frickel @iowastatedaily.com December at Iowa State brings WinterFest, an event kicking off the winter season, engaging students in winter’s festivities. WinterFest 2016 will kick off Friday with all-day events ranging from seasonal beverage tasting to visiting the Knoll for a show of the holiday decorations on display. One of the traditions of WinterFest is the treelighting ceremony, which will take place at 5:30 p.m. Friday outside of Beardshear Hall. Another historical part of WinterFest are the Campanile Tours from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday. The tours will give people the chance to see the inside of a Cyclone icon. Tourists will be able to hear stories and traditions of the Campanile from university carillonneur Tin Shi Tam. The events not only range in activity but also in history. Some of them date back to when the Campanile was constructed, while others are newer in time. In addition to the history WinterFest carries, the kickoff event highlights what students can do not just Friday night but all throughout the winter months. A featured event at WinterFest, ice skating at the Ames/ISU ice arena by Wallace and Wilson Halls, is open for more than just WinterFest. On Wednesday evenings, students can bring their ISU ID and
Emily Blobaum/Iowa State Daily
Iowa State students run toward the finish line during last year’s Jingle Jog. This year’s event will begin at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
skate between 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. for $3.25. But on Friday night, the first 1,000 participants will enter for free. Ice skating will take place between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Iowa State also wants to engage students and WinterFest-goers to make a difference. The Letter Writing Service Project will run from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Cardinal Room of Memorial Union. With Veteran’s Day recently passing, this part of WinterFest will allow anyone to write to those overseas and thank them for their service. In addition to the letter
writing, Jingle Jog will take place at 5:30 p.m. Friday in memory of Freshman Council member Andy Albright. Students can register for the fun run between 3:30 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. for $20. Any proceeds will be put toward a scholarship in Albright’s name, according to WinterFest advertisements. A portion of WinterFest activities revolve around food, all throughout the evening. Free chili, cookie decorating, seasonal beverage tasting, MU food court treats and the famous Knoll hot chocolate will be all around Winter-
same day that Newsweek released a cover story detailing the women’s movement, demanded equal opportunity. The “good girls” were revolting. “It had an effect and an impact beyond journalism. But the immediate impact I would say [that] was most visible to us was within our own profession,” Povich said. “And then we realized, as people kept coming forward, was that it was a ripple effect to other businesses as well.” Povich joked that if there was anything she would have done differently at the time, it would have been to sue for money too. “That was the system,” she said. “It was interesting to me when I started to write the book was what was the moment that sort of clicked on where each woman had realized, ‘Oh my god, this is crazy, this isn’t the way things should be. Why do we get held back?’” Povich, an award-winning journalist and the first female editor at Newsweek, is also a recipient of the Matrix Award for Magazines and serves on the advisory boards of the International Women’s Media Foundation, the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch and the CUNY Graduate Center Foundation. But Povich said the lawsuit may be one of the more notable aspects of her career. And for words of advice to anyone who may be feeling discrimination in the workplace, Povich recommends to first pinpoint what is happening and to document it. “Instead, what we realized was that it wasn’t us, it was the system we should be fighting, not each other,” Povich said. “And so, we really did come together, I mean, in the end, 46 of us signed the first complaint the day of the complaint, but then another 15 added their names because they just weren’t physically there.”
ISU DINING
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Fest. WinterFest fliers and the Iowa State website will state the times and locations for all treats. In addition to WinterFest, the ISU campus has been celebrating winter’s arrival all week long. From Nov. 28 until Dec. 2, there has been a clothing drive donating cold weather gear and other clothes to Youth and Shelter Services in Ames. Boxes collecting donations are located all around campus, including in Parks Library, Union Drive Community Center and Memorial Union. The Winter Savings Sale at the University Book Store, the Art Mart in the Campanile Room of Memorial Union to support local artists and a Cyclone Cinema screening of “Snowden” in 101 Carver Hall are some of the other events throughout the week.
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