BMC Toys will be creating plastic army women in time for Christmas 2020.
So much news and research about women has emerged in the last few weeks. Here’s my roundup of the most intriguing of these recent stories impacting women.
First Female NHL Referees Women are continuing to break barriers within the National Hockey League. For the first time ever, four female officials have been approved to officiate at the upcoming NHL prospect showcases.
Hollywood Gender Gap Female actresses take home $1 million less per film than their male counterparts even after controlling for things like the financial success of their previous films, the genre of the film, the actor’s popularity, time spent shooting and the film’s production budget. Not surprisingly, the situation gets much worse for older actresses. For the over 50’s, the gender wage gap increases to an average of just under $4 million per film.
Little Green Toy Army Women BMC Toys has been selling little green plastic army men for years, and in response to the requests of a six-year-old girl, the company will be launching green women army figurines (but they won’t be available until Christmas 2020). The stances that will hit store shelves next year include a female captain holding a handgun and binoculars and a kneeling female solider holding a bazooka. Hopefully, these toys will help reinforce the message that girls can do anything when they grow up.
Female James Bond Former James Bond actors, Pierce Brosnan and George Lazenby think it’s time that a woman took over the role of 007, but not everyone agrees. In fact, one survey found 77% of us do not want to see a Ms. Bond. One entertainment columnist summed up the sentiment opposing a female Bond, “casually giving a sex change to the character novelist Ian Fleming created in 1953 makes about as much sense as reimagining Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet as a hipster dude.” On the other hand, seeing more women on screen in lead roles is always welcome.
#MeToo, Brett Kavanaugh and Harvey Weinstein #MeToo is back in the news (even more than usual). The Education of Brett Kavanaugh, a new book which delves into the allegations against the newest Supreme Court justice has reignited questions about his appointment. And at least four democratic presidential candidates, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Julian Castro have called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment. More reading material on #MeToo in She Said, the book written by the two New York Times reporters who broke the story on Harvey Weinstein, and in it, they describe their investigations.
More #MeToo A research study that delved into the repercussions of the #MeToo movement, found that as a result of #MeToo some employees are even reluctant to hire women. And, according to another depressing study, a shocking 1 in 16 women say their first sexual intercourse was rape.
Ms. Monopoly It may seem like it would be hard to add gender bias to a game as unbiased as Monopoly, but Hasbro figured it out. In their new Ms. Monopoly game, women earn $240 when they pass "Go," and men only earn $200.
Women On Corporate Boards And Male CEO Overconfidence A new study links women’s presence on corporate boards to a reduction in male CEO overconfidence. The researchers measured “overconfidence” by whether the male CEO chooses to hold on to or to exercise his in-the-money stock options in the company. Choosing to hold on to stock options that could be profitably exercised was seen as an overconfident bet on the company. Those male CEO’s with women on their corporate board were less likely to hold on to these options. The idea is that the same overconfidence that leads to holding on to the options may also be associated with making other risky decisions for the company. And having women around may temper that overconfidence.
Female Poop Shame Believe it or not, according to a New York Times report, women suffer from poop shame more than their male counterparts. And it seems it can impact their workday. Apparently, some women are going to great lengths to hide their pooping practices at work, even going off-site during the work day to take care of their business. And for good reason, one study cited in the article found that a woman who excused herself from work to go to the bathroom was evaluated more negatively than one who excused herself to tend to paperwork. The same was not true for men who apparently don’t take an evaluation hit for using the bathroom.
