February 08, 2006
Choice for Daughters
Thanks to TomPaine for posting about a working paper by Ebonya Washington from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Apparently, if congresspeople have daughters, they are more likely to vote in favor of reproductive choice. I've posted the abstract here, but, unfortunately, the working paper itself costs money.
ABSTRACT
Economists have long concerned themselves with environmental influences, such as neighborhood, peers and family on individuals' beliefs and behaviors. However, the impact of children on parents' behavior has been little studied. Parenting daughters, psychologists have shown, increases feminist sympathies. I test the hypothesis that children, much like neighbors or peers, can influence adult behavior. I demonstrate that the propensity to vote liberally on reproductive rights is significantly increasing in a congress person's proportion of daughters. The result demonstrates not only the relevance of child to parent behavioral influence, but also the importance of personal ideology in a legislator's voting decisions as it is not explained away by voter preferences.
Female Socialization: How Daughters Affect Their Legislator Fathers' Voting on Women's Issues
June 21, 2005
Liberadio in Nashville
Freddie "I knew him when he was this tall" O'Connell and Mary Mancini
Monday, 8 to 9 a.m., WRVU-FM, 91.1
Tuesday, 6 to 8 p.m., WRFN-LPFM, 98.9
Thursday, 8 to 10 a.m., WRVU-FM, 91.1
June 20, 2005
Article: The Meaningless Apology on Lynching
Glen Ford and Peter Gamble, co-publishers of the Black Commentator produced a scathing response to the Senate's recent apology for blocking anti-lynching laws through seven presidents. Ford and Gamble compose a long list of senatorial failings, including the hypocrisy of this apology, the genocidal nature of lynching, and the failure of America's government to address racial inequity and abuses both within and beyond its borders.
Lynch law was no law at all. It was pure white power – the right to declare oneself a higher form of being, and reduce the “other” to charcoal. The current rulers of the United States are spreading lynch law to the far reaches of the planet. They claim the right to “pre-emptive” warfare, and reject all other people’s rights to live under collectively accepted rules. They wage war against the concept of international law, just as they violated every law that did not enshrine white privilege.
The Meaningless Apology on Lynching