Introducing 51 Percent - an organizational antidote to hatred of women

      51 Percent

• hatred (the emotion of intense dislike; a feeling of dislike so strong that it demands action)
  
• misogyny, (hatred of women)

UPDATE - December 17, 2008: As of yesterday 51 Percent become a legal entity, incorporated in our nation's capital. This means that 51 Percent can now accept donations that are tax-deductible. The best method for that for now would be to remit a check payable to 51 Percent, and mail it to the organization's headquarters at 2118 Bancroft Place NW, Washington DC 20008. Your canceled check will serve as your receipt for tax purposes for now.

Due to the support this blog has received over the past few days, I have been able to retain a web designer, who is steeply discounting fees, to help create a website home for 51 Percent. Once the website is up and running, it will have a section just for Friends of 51 Percent.

The goal of being truly operational during January 2009 seems within range. When in January depends upon how much sleep I sacrifice, whether support for this blog continues, and of course factors beyond any of our control. 

Bookmark this post to check back for further updates on the organizational progress of 51 Percent. If you have even $5.10 to help with start-up expenses, supporting this blog will move the process along. (I'm trying to keep start up legal fees, publicity, and web site development to under ten thousand total; the blog has brought in about $3000 so far, enabling movement on all three fronts.)

___________________Original Introduction__________________

I have initiated a new project, 51 Percent. This will be a non-profit educational organization designed to teach people what misogyny is, why it is different from sexism, how it relates to hateful conduct. On the affirmative side 51 Percent will promote the aspiration of having women occupy 51 percent of all areas in civil society (not just politics, but the workplace (and not just high level or white collar jobs but all jobs), the arts, every media institution, etc.) I believe that 51 percent representation - proportional to the presence of women in the general population - is  the most expedient antidote to the prevalence of misogynist conduct and its current social acceptability.

Imagine a world where 51 percent of train conductors  were women and 49 percent were men; 51 percent of physicians were women and 49 per cent were men; 51 percent of sculptors women, 49 percent men. 51 percent of legislatures and judiciaries were composed of women, 49 percent men. 51 percent of school boards, 51 percent of little league coaches, 51 percent of knitting clubs women; 49 percent men. Just thinking this way begins to transform the way we see the world.

I will be writing a series of posts here on Heidi Li's Potpourri introducing and elaborating the ideas mentioned above. I intend to fully incorporate 51 Percent by January 1 at the latest. I intend work on this project for the next 51 years, at least, assuming I make it to my nineties.

Anybody who cares to help raise start-up funds - even five dollars at a time - can gift the money in support of this blog. Just use the button below. But please do not put yourself under financial pressure. Whenever I have raised funds I have tried to be straightforward as to how urgent the need is. Right now the urgency here is medium. I'd like to raise enough money via this blog to finance some of 51 Percent's start up costs - but I will finance those costs myself if necessary. It saves time if I can raise the money via blogging but my commitment to 51 Percent and to fifty-one percent and teaching people that misogyny is not funny or cute or charming is timeless.  Thank you, again, to those who are standing with me and with one another to work toward 51 Percent.

Hatred is not humorous.
Help 51 Percent start up.

Hatred is not humorous.

Comments

[camille]

Hi Heidi....this looks like a great project.

[Swannie]

Heidi Li I love the way you think and ACT !

I belong to a year old organisation called Support Women Artists Now or S.W.A.N.
( how could I NOT join ??)
and I just got this email from them

Tell the Golden Globe Awards Committee
To Recognize Women Directors!

Dear Swan,

The Golden Globe Award nominations have been announced by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and once again, no women have been nominated in the category of "Best Director."

This year the omission is worse than usual. Danny Boyle was nominated for an award as "Best Director" of "Slumdog Millionaire", but his female co-director, Loveleen Tandan, was not mentioned in the awards list. "Slumdog Millionaire" has been nominated for "Best Picture, Drama", "Best Screenplay", and "Best Score", in addition to "Best Director".

Chicago film critic Jan Lisa Huttner interviewed Danny Boyle as part of her review of "Slumdog Millionaire" for The Fund for Women Artists at: http://www.womenarts.org/reviews/SlumdogMillionaire.htm. Huttner specifically asked Boyle if Tandan was his co-director, and he said, "Yes, she deserves it! She's a proper director." (See http://www.womenarts.org/reviews/SlumdogMillionaire.htm#co_director )

In the 65 year history of the Golden Globe Awards, Barbra Streisand is the only woman to ever win in the Best Director category (for "Yentl" in 1983), and only two other women have ever been nominated - Jane Campion for "The Piano" in 1993, and Sofia Coppola for "Lost in Translation" in 2003. The people nominated for Golden Globe Awards are often nominated for Oscars as well. Only three women have ever been nominated for Oscars in the "Best Director" category and no women have ever won.

We think it is time to give women directors credit where credit is due. We are asking you to please send the letter below to Ms. Chantal Dinnage, the Managing Director of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to let them know that we think Loveleen Tandan should be recognized for her work on "Slumdog Millionaire."

You can cut and paste the letter below and send it to Ms. Dinnage at: [email protected] Please remember to sign the letter before you send it!!

You can send a snail mail to:
Ms. Chantal Dinnage
Managing Director
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association
646 N. Robertson Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069

You can also send a copy to Michael Russell, who has been the publicist for the Golden Globes for the past eleven years: [email protected]
Michael Russell, Publicist
The Michael Russell Group
1601 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 509
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

Thanks for your help with this. Please feel free to forward this message or include it in your blogs, Facebook pages, MySpace pages or elsewhere online. The people who make these nominations need to hear from us.

Martha Richards, Executive Director
The Fund for Women Arists

Jan Lisa Huttner, The Hot Pink Pen
The Fund for Women Artists

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Ms. Dinnage,

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has nominated Danny Boyle for a Golden Globe award as "Best Director" for his work on "Slumdog Millionaire." Why has the HFPA ignored Boyle's co-director, Loveleen Tandan? Since he acknowledges that she was his co-director, shouldn't she be a co-nominee for the "Best Director" award?

Boyle was recently interviewed by Chicago film critic Jan Lisa Huttner. She asked him if Loveleen Tandan was his co-director. He replied, "Yes, she deserves it! She's a proper director." (See http://www.womenarts.org/reviews/SlumdogMillionaire.htm#co_director ) Also, according to the Internet Movie Database, Danny Boyle is the director and Loveleen Tandan is the "co-director" of "Slumdog Millionaire." (See http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1010048)

In the 65 year history of the Golden Globe Awards, Barbra Streisand is the only woman to ever win in the "Best Director" category (for "Yentl" in 1983), and only two other women have ever been nominated - Jane Campion for "The Piano" in 1993, and Sofia Coppola for "Lost in Translation" in 2003.

It's time to give women directors credit where credit is due. Please include Loveleen Tandan as a co-nominee in the "Best Director" category for her work on the film "Slumdog Millionaire."

Thank you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Fund for Women Artists
3739 Balboa Street #181
San Francisco, CA 94121
Phone: (415) 751-2202
Website: www.womenarts.org
Email: [email protected]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Shtuey]

I'm putting my Frederic Douglass "hat" on. Name the place and the time...I'll be there.

[Mirlo]

This is the best idea of all. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am totally with you on this. Learning about the subject will highten our own awareness, give us the right arguments for dialogs on the subject, strengthen our own stance and enable us to spread the word of dignity for all.

[Swannie]

Heidi Li , as an RN , I already work in an environment where women are 51% or more, of the work force, and management, although at the very top you do find of course , male administrators and doctors . How do we get women to realise and to act as if they own their own power , and stop looking to men to run things and make decisions , even when they are already 51% or more ?
I feel we are closer than ever and that Hillary and Sarah helped create role models that pushed the envelope but never quite licked the stamp and mailed it . Every role model helps , and of course the damage done by the misogyny directed toward these women as a weapon of dominance has been noted by society at large and taken into our culture . I feel we need to fight the misogyny and the fear it creates , by calling it out and demonstrating a lack of fear and taking whatever action can be taken .
Thank you so much !

[Suzanne]

I think you are going to end up having to (wisely) get more specific, add some caveats.

I've been learning a lot about occupations in recent months and there are a lot of jobs that involve heavy lifting that most women simply cannot do. Men have more muscle mass and find it easy to bulk up their muscles (compared to how hard it is for a woman to build muscle). It seems men are possibly more willing to accept hazards and contaminants on the job (I think no worker should have to consider it). So it's not entirely down to unfair bias that the construction and extraction occupations are 0.2 percent female. Similarly the installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (4.4 percent female). These aren't jobs that can have robots help the worker: you have to walk or crawl into hard to reach areas and use some muscle to get done what needs to get done.

Here are some areas that women can gain share in:
Management occupations are 37 percent female.
Computer and Mathematical occupations are 28 percent female.
Architecture and Engineering occupations are 14 percent female.
Healthcare Practitioners (not techs): 5 pct female.

So where are some areas these new women could come from? (forgive me for taking up so much space, but someone did above, too :-p).
Community and Social services occupations: 61 percent female.
Education, Training, and Library occupations: 74 percent female.
Health Technologists/technicians: 72 percent female.
Healthcare Support occupations: 88 percent female!
Personal Care and Service Occupations: 78 percent female.
Office and Administrative Support occupations: 74 percent female.

I got these data via a census report, added the numbers myself. It's entirely possible there are errors, presumably small, if any. I hope it's useful.

(Sorry about the word percent, it's complaining of an error which I think may be down to the percent sign.)

[Suzanne]

Oh, I forgot, about the men knitting:
http://www.denverlibrary.org/assets/programs/november/knitting.jpg
(Old photo of a man knitting, and it is not a joke.)

[birdie]

Hi Heidi Li:

I signed your petition on behalf of naming Alice Palmer to US Senate, IL. [...]
Wishing you and your family well...Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

[Carol]

I am so on board with this idea. I would love to see more women (at least 51%) in business leadership roles. There are currently only 12 women CEOs running Fortune 500 companies. We can certainly do better than that.

[ainnj]

Saying women aren't physically strong enough or don't have enough "muscle mass" to do a job is just ridiculous. It's the same argument that used to be made against women being firefighters, active police officers, soldiers, etc. Women can "walk or crawl into hard to reach areas and use some muscle to get done what needs to get done". Hello, women HAVE MUSCLES! Women CAN WALK AND CRAWL INTO HARD TO REACH PLACES!! Do you think they are afraid of spiders or something? The problem is that many women don't bother to use their muscles and therefore they are convinced they are useless to them. They are not. Get off your butt and pump some iron, you will be amazed at the increased physical strength that you thought you never had. My 9 year old daughter absolutely DELIGHTS in her physical strength, she likes being as strong as the boys and NOBODY is going to tell her she is not!

[C Waltz]

The reason there aren't 51% female conductors on trains is because there are not alot of female applicants. Furthermore, the process requires that you be able to hold unto a train with a single arm while swinging a lantern with your other arm back and forth for 2 minutes on each arm(no rest between). The process requires upper body strength. While some females may indeed be capable of doing so, alot aren't(and I wouldn't support relaxing standards just to allow females a spot). I have contributed to the site but I do think that our arguments need to have validity. The truth is the railroad my husband works for as a conductor, would love to hire more women but until they get more applicants that can meet the standards required(FRA required training for safety)it isn't going to happen and no amount of calling it misogyny or sexism is gonna change it. Sexism does exist, as does misogyny(I spent 11 + years in the male dominated Navy so I am more than familiar) but we need to make sure that we are fair and analytical when we look at instances before hollering it and make sure we are applying the label accurately.

[dbs52]

I'm with you Heidi! As usual. Can I donate without using PayPal? With my proximity to Seneca Falls, I hope I can help out there. Thanks.

REPLY from Heidi Li: Soon it will be possible to donate via check directly to the organization; although I do not know now when these donations will be tax-deductible. Stay tuned for further information...

[InsightAnalytical-GRL]

I got wind of your new project just as I was putting the story of AIKO to bed...oh, yes, women are being robotized....this will blow your mind...I added a bit on the new 51 Percent project at the end, because it is an "antidote"...

Of Robots and Women and Our Current Life in the Village of Stepford (Antidote on the Way?)(A Double Post by kenosha Marge and InsightAnalytical-GRL)

http://tinyurl.com/697ykk

[scrubs57]

Hello Heidi,
In my field of medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, we are much more than 51% but I used to be a cargo aircraft mechanic in the Air Force and there weren't many women. We were strength tested to get in and I barely passed the physical component yet went on to be a fine mechanic (with big shoulders). I don't believe initial physical strength should keep a woman out of ANY field - just her own strength of desire.
I also wanted to add that you can always count on dineros from me because I'm so far away that I can't do much else. So, if you need me for any matching fund games, etc, give me a holler.

[truthisgold]

Heidi, as always, your ability to both conceive and execute brilliant ideas is inspiring. You know I'll do what I can!

Wishing everyone peace, love, and warmth in this holiday season.