Three women sat around a table last night in the New York Public Library and debated the hot and highly contested question: "Can women have it all?" These weren't three ordinary ladies whispering upstairs in the reading room. They were on stage before an audience of more than 500. And the library's auditorium was at maximum capacity with good reason. New Yorkers were there to see Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (the first woman on the Supreme Court) and Madeleine Albright (the first female secretary of state) in a conversation moderated by Anne Marie Slaughter (the first female director of policy planning at the State Department, but most recently famous for her controversial 2012 article in The Atlantic on the very question of having it all).

More »

Sheryl Sandberg

The question of the workplace and work-family balance is proving to be a particularly hot topic this week. Former Lehman Brothers CFO Erin Callan published a wistful essay in Sunday's New York Times, where she says she wishes she'd had more of a life beyond work. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's new book came out on Monday and tells ladies to "lean in" if they want to make it, and make strides, in corporate America. And today the results of a brand-new study on modern parenting by Pew Research Center were released, making the perfect punctuation to Sandberg's manifesto.

The Modern Parenthood Study shows a strikingly significant spike in the rates of working mothers (be it part-time or full-time) who say working full-time is preferable, up from 21 percent in 2007 to 37 percent today. And roughly 60 percent of two-parent households with children under age 18 have two working parents.

More »

James King

NOW-NYC President Sonia Ossorio urges JCOPE to get to the bottom of allegations of sexual misconduct against Assemblyman Vito Lopez -- and the Shelly Silver-driven coverup that followed.

Assemblyman Vito Lopez is a grade-A pervert. That much we know (for example, he would prefer you not wear a bra to work, ladies). But the lengths to which Assembly leaders -- most notably Lopez's former pal/current Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver -- went to coverup Lopez's multiple gropings of young, female staffers remains a mystery.

New York's Joint Commission On Public Ethics (JCOPE) is investigating multiple allegations of sexual misconduct by Lopez, and how those allegations were handled by legislative leaders. This morning, the National Organization for Women and Common Cause/NY explained what they expect of the Commission's investigation.

Additionally, NOW-NYC President Sonia Ossorio says it's absurd to prohibit women under 21 years old from working in Lopez's office -- a policy Silver implemented for the assemblyman when he was formally censured by the Legislature in August.

"Is that really one of Sheldon Silver's answers," Ossorio asks. "If a lawmaker harasses interns and 20-year-olds, don't hire interns and 20-year-olds?"

More »

The Brooklyn District Attorney's office will get $900,000 to beef up its program aimed at supporting domestically abused immigrant women.

The Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women awarded the grant to the borough in order to help Brooklyn better assist domestically abused women who face language and cultural barriers.

"This grant will help my office continue to break down the linguistic and cultural barriers that isolate domestic violence victims and protect their batterers," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said in a release. "I would like to thank [Sen. Chuck Schumer] for his work in securing this important funding."

More »

So there has apparently been a big leadership shakeup at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the country's best known breast cancer charity, after its stupid, stupid decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood in January resulted in public outrage.

The changes? As per Komen P.R.: "Founder and CEO Nancy G. Brinker announced plans to move to a new management role focusing on revenue creation, strategy and global growth as chair of the Komen Board Executive Committee when the search for a new senior executive has been completed. At the same time, Komen President Liz Thompson announced plans to leave the organization in September."

Also: "Board members Brenda Lauderback and Linda Law, who have served on the Komen board since 2008 and 2009 respectively, are leaving the board of directors."

This announcement comes, of course, after Karen Handel, Komen's vice president for public policy, stepped down in February.

For what it's worth (probably nothing), Komen spokespeople totally promise that these changes have nothing to do with the January mess.

All that said, we wonder: Can these changes make any difference?

More »

An example of a woman.

Let's say -- completely hypothetically, simply for the sake of argument, of course -- that you are running a Congressional campaign.

And let's also say -- again, completely hypothetically, simply for the sake of argument -- that your first campaign manager spokesman recently resigned after writing a Facebook wall post that said: "Let's hurl some acid at those female democratic Senators who won't abide the mandates they want to impose on the private sector."

It would seem -- once more, completely hypothetically, simply for the sake of argument -- that your next campaign staffer probably shouldn't also have a history of saying sketchy things about women, because that would be (A) dodgy and (B) just plain bad politics.

For Republican Rep. Nan Hayworth, of New York's 18th Congressional District, however, this (perplexingly) is not a hypothetical at all.

More »

Today, for the first time in history, women across the nation will receive contraceptives without cost

Today brings free contraception for all (as long as you're one of the millions insured and you don't work for a Catholic organization), under the Affordable Care Act. Effective today, these provisions cover most major preventive services without a co-pay.

According to data provided by Planned Parenthood, women spend nearly $600 annually on birth control. The organization says that 45 million women are already benefiting from the ACA and that these new provisions will provide 12.8 million women of reproductive age access to insurance coverage.

We spoke to Alice Berger, VP of Health Care Planning at Planned Parenthood NYC, to find out more about how these provisions will impact the women of New York City.

More »

Talk about timing!

Shortly after Centers for Disease Control stats indicated that 37 percent of U.S. births are unintended, a Conservative Christian group is trying to block the White House Policy which makes insurers cover birth control, set to go into effect Aug. 1.

More »

In 1982, 37 percent of U.S. births were unintended, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And guess what?

In 2010, 37 percent of U.S. births, the latest year for CDC stats, were ALSO unintended.

Meaning: Public health authorities have kindasortaTOTALLY failed at preventing unintended births.

So what's up?

More »

Yesterday, the Voice reported that a tourist was raped in her Bronx hotel room.

Cops say the perp talked to the victim on train departing from East 14th Street and Union Square. Around 4 a.m., after she had returned to her East Tremont hotel, the alleged assailant knocked on her door. When she opened it, he forced the door open and attacked her.

Obviously, this is awful and heinous, and we feel for the victim and hope she's OK. It's also scary as shit: if you're a woman, some stranger has probably tried to chat you up on the subway, so it's worrisome to think that that guy could be an attacker.

That said, we've assembled some safety tips for women in New York City.

More »