ACLU Blog- Women's Rights

I found a blog on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) website about women's rights. The main idea of this website is all about freedom and different rights in America, the site is divided up into sections regarding different topics such as women's rights. There are blogging sites for all topics but I have focused on the women's rights area and the blog that I read had to do with domestic violence. The woman and author of the blog, Jessica Lenahan, is a survivor of domestic violence and has quite the story to tell. She is from Castle Rock, Colorado and was once happily married to her husband and had three daughters. She and her husband got a divorce and due to domestic violence she had a restraining order put against him, in objection to the restraining order he abducted the three daughters. Jessica went to the police repeatedly and they proved to be of no help at all. Later that night her ex-husband showed up at the police station and opened fire, he was killed and the bodies of her three daughters were found murdered in the back of his truck. Jessica then sued the town for not enforcing the restraining order and not assisting her with her case. Jessica went through many different legal cases and hearings with no outcome, when she thought all was lost she heard of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and filed a petition with them. Through this commission she was able to speak her piece in a legal hearing and is hopefully going to see results.
This story, although very sad, speaks to how many domestic violence cases are handled and looked at in the United States. This is one of the biggest fears for women today and because there are more exciting news headlines it is not getting the attention needed to make a difference. I hope that Jessica is able to make a difference with her case and that this allows the American government to see that they dropped the ball and should have done more to help. Domestic violence should be so preventable and with the right programs and resources for women we can make it that way.
http://blog.aclu.org/category/womens-rights/

WNBA

Another area of work for women is sports, like many other things there have been obstacle after obstacle to be able to fairly participate in sporting events. In 1996 the idea was passed to create the WNBA for women to play basketball professionally. The WNBA began play in June of 1997 with Sheryl Swoopes as the first signed player to the league.
There were many steps in forming the WNBA to be successful such as finding networks to sponsor and air the games. Once this was established with NBC, ESPN, and Lifetime then the main concern was forming the teams and signing players. The first inaugural season was played with eight teams; it continued to expand to sixteen teams. Nearly 200 players take part in the WNBA and they are all pioneers for the organization.
The next task at hand was creating logos and uniforms. The WNBA logo was decided on after narrowing it down from about 50 choices and then the team names and uniforms needed to be finalized. Based on numerous factors such as a link to the NBA team, a link to a key characteristic of the city/state or creating a name fitting the city/state landscape. Finally after this was all sorted out designs were unveiled for team uniforms on May 21, 1997.
Once the league was up and running fans started to get connected and things soared from there. A website was created and made user friendly so that it was easy for fans to keep up to date with their favorite teams and players. In 1999 there was an inaugural All Star Game at Madison Square Garden where the Western Conference defeated the Eastern Conference 79-61.
The WNBA is a prime example of how far women have come not only in the office workforce but in areas such as sports. This league is very important to many women and proves that women are just as capable as men to play sports successfully and that people actually want to watch!

Women in NASCAR

This article talks about women in NASCAR. This is not a familiar sight to see a woman driver in this masculine world of race car driving. This takes place in South Boston, VA where race car driver Kristin Bumbera who is a 21 year old girl from Sealy, Texas is making heads turn as she claims title after title and brings home countless trophies. She has sponsors following her because she drives like a professional and someone that is the makeup exactly of what they look for, except the part that she is a woman. Although many think of this as a fully male world there are actually a surprising number or woman drivers in NASCAR. In this race she was participating in there were 16 female drivers and only 9 male drivers. They were all competing for a fully funded ride for 2009 but only 14 spots were available so there were going to be many cuts. This Drive for Diversity program has opened doors for many drivers and students. There have been major leaps in driving class after participating in this kind of event and the publicity alone is something to be cherished.
For many girls this is their lifelong dream because they have either grown up watching a family member participate or it has just been a family pastime to watch the races. Just because they are woman they have had a much harder time breaking into this business although it has been done successfully and people are definitely starting to take notice. It is becoming more and more common for women to be participating in major NASCAR events that were historically all male. Certain sponsors are even looking to just sponsor woman drivers. This is a major leap agreed many of the female drivers in South Boston but they also agree there is still a lot of work to be done and they will help that.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/motorsports/3010ap_car_nascar_diversity.html

Women in Hollywood

Women that work in show business have an interesting part in the workforce. Compared to low income women they have a much “better” life but this is all depending on the definition of what the ideal life is for women in the workforce. Although movie stars, singers, etc. have a lot of money and get to go to classy premiere events they also have every aspect of their lives put in the spotlight. This includes when they go grocery shopping, take their kids to school, or even just go for a walk with their dog. This is a very hard life to lead for anyone but when you are woman in this situation all the sudden there is so much attention put on your physical appearance. Tabloids are covered every week with pictures of celebrities that have gained weight or are anorexic, or what dress looked better on who at the awards ceremony, etc. There is more attention drawn to what the women look like as opposed to the actual work they are doing. Even if a woman has a stunning role in a movie there can never be a review covering just her pure talent and work on the film, there is always side comments about how she looks very tired after the film was over or she might be battling a drug addiction because she seems to look a little out of sorts. There have been more awards given to men regarding their role in movies or distinction for their record albums than there have been for women over the years and it is about time for a change. There should be much more focus on the actual talent of these women and not just how they look. Women are more than just sex idols, they have brains and have real talent and it is time this is recognized.