GIRL ATTORNEY, LLC – Page 12 – Community, Networking, & Education for Women Attorneys in the U.S.

Facial Recognition Tech Comes to Schools and Summer Camps

From The Wall Street Journal authored by Julie Jargon:

“Facial recognition is no longer just being used to unlock iPhones, tag Facebook friends and scan crowds for security threats. It’s moving into summer camps, youth sports tournaments and schools.

Parents at summer camps across the country can opt into facial-recognition services to receive photos of their camper without having to sift through hundreds of group shots for proof that little Susie is having a good time climbing ropes. One facial-recognition software manufacturer has proposals in front of several K-12 public school districts to install the technology to help identify and track potential shooters on campus.

While commercial applications of facial-recognition software abound—and bear their own fair share of controversy—the fact that this latest wave is geared toward children has privacy experts and politicians urging parents and school districts to think twice.”

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Want To Feel Happier Today? Try Talking To A Stranger

From National Public Radio authored by Paul Nicolaus:

“The doors open wide, you enter, and they close behind you. As the elevator begins its ascent, you realize it’s just you and one other person taking this ride. The silence soon grows uncomfortable.

Pop quiz. What’s your go-to move?

A) Stare at your shoes.

B) Pull out your cellphone.

C) Make brief eye contact.

D) Initiate chitchat.

If your answer was B, you’re like far too many of us, eyes glued to our phones, attention focused on the digital world.

Many of us tend to do just about anything to avoid conversation or even eye contact with strangers. And smartphones make it easier than ever to do that. A recent study found that phones can keep us from even exchanging brief smiles with people we meet in public places. But a body of research has shown that we might just be short-changing our own happiness by ignoring opportunities to connect with the people around us.”

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My mother didn’t tell anyone at work that she had kids

From Fast Company authored by Emily Dishman:

“My mother has been working since I can remember. I grew up in a suburban town in the South and lived there until I was 18, when I moved to New York City for college. The majority of my friends’ mothers were PTA moms, who spent their days working on elementary school fundraisers, going to barre classes, and gossiping. This meant I didn’t have many other people to compare my mom with, because she was one of the few working mothers I knew. Although more than 70% of moms with kids under the age of 18 are part of the workforce, in a middle-class white suburb in South Carolina, stay-at-home moms are the norm.

These days she’s a regular freelancer for Fast Company, but while I was growing up, she wrote for a number of other publications, squeezing her work around our schedules. That meant she was doing interviews in our car in the school pick-up line or writing an article on her laptop on the bench outside of ballet class.

It wasn’t until I was 8 years old that I found out that her coworkers didn’t even know I existed. The first time I remember realizing this was when Mom took me with her to pick up a check from a local magazine where she was the business editor. One of the publishers, upon seeing my sister and me, said, “Whose kids are these?” It felt like a slap to the face. Learning that my mom didn’t acknowledge my existence felt like she didn’t want me to exist.”

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Those she/her/hers at the end of email messages are more than a passing trend

From Quartz authored by Lila MacLellan:

“At the end of May, TIAA, the financial services and investing giant, rolled out new gender-identity awareness guidelines for its client-facing consultants. The guidance included: “Never assume someone’s gender identity” and “Be aware that a person’s pronouns can change over time. They may also change based on context.”

More remarkably, it stated: “Create the space for gender inclusion by asking for a client’s preferred name and pronouns and/or by sharing yours (‘Hello, my name is Jane and my pronouns are she/her. It’s very nice to meet you.’)”

Corie Pauling (she/her/hers), TIAA’s chief inclusion and diversity officer, says this style of introduction is a way of indicating that the client should feel welcomed, that “your desire is to include them.”

Arguably, it’s also one of many signs that the corporate world is waking up to the power of inviting everyone—customers and employees of every gender identity—to explicitly state their pronouns and be seen for who they are.”

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Female inmates were forced to expose their genitals in a ‘training exercise.’ It was legal, court rules.

From The Washington Post authored by Meagan Flynn:

“Early one March morning inside an Illinois prison, a tactical unit armed with batons and shields stormed two women’s housing units to round up about 200 handcuffed inmates and march them to a gymnasium.

Once in the gym, they stood facing the wall for more than an hour, still unsure why, until the guards started taking groups of four to 10 into the adjoining bathroom and beauty shop. There, they were ordered to strip. Standing shoulder to shoulder, women on their periods were asked to remove their tampons and pads. Some stood bleeding on themselves or the floor. They were ordered to lift their breasts and hair, to cough and squat, and then, finally, to bend over and spread open their vaginal and anal cavities.

The bathroom had no doors and was visible from the gym, and the beauty shop’s door was open too, allowing male guards to see the naked prisoners whenever they walked past, or as they deliberately stared at them from afar, according to a federal complaint.

At the time, the women didn’t know why the Lincoln Correctional Center guards had ordered the humiliating mass strip search, but discovered the reason later: It was just a training exercise for incoming cadets.”

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When Stress at Work Creates Drama at Home

From The Wall Street Journal authored by Sue Shellenbarger:

“Work is seeping into weekends and other personal time, and women are logging more hours on the job.

Those trends are turning many couples’ after-work hours into a minefield.

People who put in long days on stressful jobs tend to carry the strain over into their lives at home. They start arguments or withdraw emotionally and neglect their partners after work—a pattern researchers call the spillover effect.

“You’re quicker to raise your voice at a child or spouse. You’re more easily antagonized,” says Dawn Carlson, a management professor at Baylor University.

This can trigger a downward cycle of stress if spouses carry the effects back to work the next day, hurting their ability to concentrate and be productive, according to a 2018 study of 389 couples led by Dr. Carlson.

Spillover is especially hazardous to relationships if the employee is both passionate about a job and obsessed with succeeding at it, another recent study shows.”

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Female Athletes Receive Only 4% of Sports Media Coverage—Adidas Wants to Change That

From Glamour authored by Macaela Mackenzie:

“Women make up 40% of all participants in sports—yet somehow receive only 4% of sports media coverage. It has a damning ripple effect: Without airtime, female athletes lose out on sponsors, fans, and coin.

This lack of coverage also tees up a shortage of role models for girls in sports—and if you can’t see it, you can’t be it. Girls drop out of sports at two times the rate of boys, according to the Women’s Sports Foundation, but not for lack of passion or skill; women’s and girls’ sports programs are underfunded and often underpromoted.

To give female athletes more leverage—and to give girls in sports more role models—a woman-led team at Adidas launched a global initiative called She Breaks Barriers. The campaign aims to provide better access to sports for women and girls, remove gender stereotypes, and create greater visibility for female athletes at all levels.”

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Here’s What It’s Like To Live In A Country That Actually Cares About Mothers

From The Huffington Post authored by Gaby Hinsliff:

“When Rina Mae Acosta’s daughter was born last winter, she knew she could count on the help of her fairy godmother.

Or to be more precise, her kraamverzorgster, the maternity nurse who visits every new mother in the Netherlands daily for the first eight days after giving birth. The nurses spend up to eight hours a day at the new mother’s home doing whatever it takes to help her rest and bond with the baby ― from taking care of laundry or grocery shopping to helping entertain older children ― as well as carrying out health checks.

“The Dutch believe in the pragmatic approach of ‘mothering the mother,’” explains Acosta, who has two older sons ages 7 and 3 and co-authored “The Happiest Kids in the World: How Dutch Parents Help Their Kids by Doing Less.” “She basically held my hand and instilled in me the philosophy of tending to my own health and needs so that I, in turn, can take wonderful care of my babies. My connection with my maternity nurse was so special that she became a friend and has nursed me and all three of my babies.”

All this comes either heavily subsidized, or completely covered, by a universal health insurance scheme and followed by four months of paid maternity leave. Compare that with the U.S., where women wait four to six weeks for a postpartum checkup and 40% then miss it, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ― possibly because they’re already back at work by then.”

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Man exposes the absurdity of sexist marketing by creating shirts that label men like we do women

From Upworthy authored by Tod Perry:

“Recently, Upworthy shared a tweet thread by author A.R. Moxon who created a brilliant metaphor to help men understand the constant anxiety that potential sexual abuse causes women.

He did so by equating sexual assault to something that men have a deep-seeded fear of: being kicked in the testicles.

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A woman’s greatest enemy? A lack of time to herself

From The Guardian authored by Brigid Schulte:

“A few months ago, as I struggled to carve out time in my crowded days for writing, a colleague suggested I read a book about the daily rituals of great artists. But instead of offering me the inspiration I’d hoped for, what struck me most about these creative geniuses – mostly men – was not their schedules and daily routines, but those of the women in their lives.

Their wives protected them from interruptions; their housekeepers and maids brought them breakfast and coffee at odd hours; their nannies kept their children out of their hair. Martha Freud not only laid out Sigmund’s clothes every morning, she even put the toothpaste on his toothbrush. Marcel Proust’s housekeeper, Celeste, not only brought him his daily coffee, croissants, newspapers and mail on a silver tray, but was always on hand whenever he wanted to chat, sometimes for hours. Some women are mentioned only for what they put up with, like Karl Marx’s wife – unnamed in the book – who lived in squalor with the surviving three of their six children while he spent his days writing at the British Museum.

Gustav Mahler married a promising young composer named Alma, then forbade her from composing, saying there could be only one in the family. Instead, she was expected to keep the house utterly silent for him. After his midday swim, he’d whistle for Alma to join him on long, silent walks while he composed in his head. She’d sit for hours on a branch or in the grass, not daring to disturb him. “There’s such a struggle going on in me!” Alma wrote in her diary. ‘And a miserable longing for someone who thinks OF ME, who helps me to find MYSELF! I’ve sunk to the level of a housekeeper!’”

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