In the late 1960s the US Army delineated hard skills (working with hardware) vs soft skills (working with people). At some point the delineation became a hierarchy. 'Soft' skills are hard...intangible, difficult to master, often unspoken & underappreciated. www.fastcompany.com/91547022/why...

"Women have to be strong, but not too much, have to have a job & intellectual background, but have to be ready to do the home chores...They have to care about their appearance, but not too much, or they will be considered as attention seekers." www.buzzfeed.com/lizmrichards...

To the extent that women should apologize less, men should apologize more. A study found that when looking at the same offenses, women viewed them as more severe compared with men. Women were more likely to say those warranted apologies. www.cnn.com/2026/06/02/h...

This quote: "Motherhood in the U.S. is revered. Actual mothers? Not so much." www.npr.org/2026/05/02/n...

Spanish study (N=30K) finds when a woman earned tenure, the university appointed 1.5 more women associate profs within 15 years than departments that did not gain a tenured woman. There were no effects on male promotions, suggesting the spillover is gender-specific. cepr.org/voxeu/column...

The Trump EEOC wants to stop collecting company demographic info (race and gender), believing only a company's lawyers & HR should have access to it. If that happens, the public lacks the ability to see inequities & the company has little incentive to fix them. www.npr.org/2026/06/01/n...

Due to Meta's legal action, Sarah Wynn-Williams cannot discuss her book, Careless People. She showed up on stage anyway but silenced. "Crisis comms would just be to ignore this & deprive it of oxygen. This is trolling-like behavior against [Meta's] enemies.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Study by Anthropic finds 22% of men social science researchers use AI coding agents (typically to analyze data) vs 9% of women. 81% of the men use AI generally vs 78% of women researchers. the-decoder.com/anthropic-st...

Gender criteria gap: Study (N=600) of experimental investment decisions finds ROI important to determining bonuses for both men & women, but men (but not women) also got bonuses for low ROI if they were perceived to have acted in the interest of the group. phys.org/news/2026-05...

Androcentric bias: Defaulting to the male experience as standard for what is normal, thus placing women as the "other". It lives comfortably in norms, rituals & unspoken rules for how meetings are run, what “executive presence" means & how performance is evaluated. www.forbes.com/sites/nicole...

Sexism behind women's back can derail their careers. A male manager noted that a female candidate had 'big breasts'. While a male ally called out his colleague, this women was "branded and devalued as a sex object even before the interview happened." www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/word...

I visited a convenience store today and these two pictures were posted on all their doors. The man as the supervisor and the woman as the subordinate only serve to reinforce stereotypes.

Study of top-grossing UK films (2023-2025) finds 6 had lead actor named Chris; only 5 had woman lead >60. Chris Pratt (3 movies), Chris Pine, Chris Hemsworth, Christian Friedel Jennifer Saunders, Nia Vardalos, Diane Keaton, Demi Moore, Jamie Lee Curtis www.thepersistent.com/top-movies-t...

70.5% of Starbucks baristas are women. Starbucks now requires baristas to perform additional emotion labor by writing a personal message on customers' cups. If not sufficiently nice, they are disciplined. They must perform friendliness but make it look spontaneous. qz.com/emotional-la...

AI is largely developed by men with uses that are biased against & predatory toward women. Faced with threats to their livelihoods, many admin assistants have felt forced to use it. Women make up 86% of those in jobs vulnerable to be replaced by [email protected] 19thnews.org/2026/05/wome...

Participation is voluntary, and all responses will remain confidential. Any woman aged 18 or older who lives in the United States is eligible to participate: shannonwatts.org/survey/

Parental leave should not be left to the whims of private employers. Without a federal policy that gives all parents access to paid leave, there’s little hope that the culture will shift. Even companies with paid leave discriminate against women & men who take it. www.fastcompany.com/91545980/the...

Study of 793K modeling records finds plus size female models are below the avg US body size & 4.5x more likely to be non-white. By hiring non-white, plus-size models, fashion institutions project a diverse image w/o broadening what counts as aspirational. www.psypost.org/new-research...

Reviewers in two groups were given identical resumes for Emily Clarke and James Clarke and told they had used AI. Emily's was 2x as likely to raise doubts about competence. "She can't even write a CV herself." But James "just needed a bit of help." fortune.com/2026/05/10/i...

Study finds conservative Americans experienced worse health outcomes & higher mortality than their liberal counterparts over past decade. Stems from demographic shifts within political coalitions & distrust in medical professionals among right-leaning individuals. www.psypost.org/declining-tr...

The Trump admin signed an order requiring banks to strength id verification. Marriage, divorce and name-changes after divorce are common life events for women. They all trigger documentation requirements that most men will not face. thehill.com/opinion/fina...

We think of the glass cliff as affecting women at the top of orgs in crisis. But women at any level may be setup to fail. A graphic designer was a scapegoat: "I've been hired for impossible situations, impossible clients, impossible roles that nobody wants." www.yourtango.com/career/worke...

Imaginary husbands can offer protection for women who travel alone. As Linda Ikechukwu said, "An imaginary husband offers more protection than my own two hands, my own loud voice, my own ability to say no. Every woman who travels alone knows this." www.fodors.com/news/news/wh...

The lack of govt support for summer care is a relic of encouraging “traditional” single-earner families. Why would the govt subsidize summer care if moms can watch kids? As of 2024, 78% of moms w/ kids ages 6 - 17 & 68% of moms w/ kids under 6 worked outside the home. www.thepurse.co/why-isnt-sum...

More than 2/3 of Americans oppose AI data centers; 55% of women vs 43% of men strongly oppose them. Women are disproportionately impacted by environmental concerns. Data centers can cause water scarcity, noise & air pollution, and high energy use = higher energy bills. 19thnews.org/2026/05/wome...

Pivoting completely on DEI opens companies to risk. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which drove DEI & created the EEOC, has not changed: “It will still guide the choices and the activities, and it’ll shape the way we manage and mitigate risk around talent." fortune.com/2026/05/19/d...

@Newsweek & @genderfair ranked best colleges for women by leadership, pay & policies, safety, and opportunity. The "women-friendly" schools are not the same schools that have dominated rankings. The Ivy's tied at 751st. Spelman ranked 1st. @josiecox.bsky.social www.thepersistent.com/women-colleg...

The solution to childcare isn't employer-sponsored centers which can be shuttered & in which your child loses their spot if you lose your job. The solution is taxes. Vermont's 0.44% payroll tax for childcare subsidies has already led to 1,200 more slots. www.fastcompany.com/91543609/sie...

There is still a housework/child care time gap, but many fathers see themselves as part of a team. Given that parenting has become much more time-intensive, dads also may not want more offspring than they can support monetarily or emotionally. @jessgrose.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/o...

Firing HR and all your problems disappearing is like removing the smoke alarm because the noise was bothering you. fortune.com/2026/05/19/b...

The number of unmarried women who gave birth (1.2M) declined by 15% in just over a decade. 9 states had higher than average births by unmarried women (AL, FL, KY, LA, MS, SC, TX, WV, NV). www.census.gov/library/stor...

Study of 550K LinkedIn recommendations finds women more likely to be described as 'detailed and exact'; men as 'visionary and farsighted.' LinkedIn recommendations can affect hiring, further relegating women to administrative, non-leadership roles. theconversation.com/why-being-ca...

52% of non-college-educated women born in 1980 were married at 45 vs 71% of college-educated. As less men go to college, college-educated women are marrying financially stable non-college men. Leaving a shrinking supply of economically stable men for working-class women. www.npr.org/sections/pla...

In older marital models, one partner—often the higher earner (ie-the man)— managed the checkbook & dictated spending. Today’s couples are more likely to rely on 2 incomes, which creates a different power structure. Money is navigated together, not controlled. www.huffpost.com/entry/women-...

It's the workplace--not the mothers--that needs to be fixed. One company has core hours of 9:30am-3pm in an employee’s time zone for everyone to be reachable and meetings to be scheduled. Outside these hours, employees structure their time around real life. www.fastcompany.com/91541720/cor...

Study finds vocal fry (creaky voice) more common in men, not women. It is likely perceived & socially stigmatized more in higher-pitched voices. Telling women to avoid vocal fry...puts the burden on speakers rather than challenging listeners’ biases. arstechnica.com/science/2026...

Cinderella Complex: When women outsource autonomy and make themselves wholly dependent on a man's goodwill, success, and faithfulness. It a risk and a trap, in which women may lose their identity, agency and freedom and who may be replaced. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/is-t...

In Q1 2026, women's board representation on Russell 3000 companies (26K board seats) fell to below 30%. Women gained 138 and lost 83; men gained 404 and lost 186. Women’s gains come from board expansion rather than from replacing men in existing positions. www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/new...

Study of AI videos finds 70% of high-paying roles are depicted as men & 60% of low-paying roles as women. As AI becomes more embedded in everyday tools, its influence on perception will only grow unless actively corrected. www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/male-doct...

The EEOC under Trump wants to end collecting race, sex, and national origin data from major US companies, a practice in place since 1960s. Eliminating data collection would make it impossible to determine if patterns of discrimination exist. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Dropbox has no RTO plans. @dropbox.com has quarterly in-person meetups to build teamwork and core collaboration hours (4 hour blocks) for meetings. Outside of those times, employees set their own schedules. All this helps Dropbox to retain talent. apnews.com/article/remo...

The US, China and the world would be better off if the delegations were all women instead of all men at the US-China bilateral meeting. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Masculinism: Belief in the overreach of feminism and the need for a return to traditional gender roles. It has united the American right, bringing together a pastors, posters, senators, preachers, influencers, podcasters, and fanboys. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Love these two women calling out Kevin O'Leary.

Study (N=944) finds 20% of respondents received judgmental, coercive, or intrusive messages about breastfeeding. Some described lack of concern for the mother: "The message never takes the mother's needs into account, whether physical or psychological." medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05...

The "beer test" for hiring is just a way to perpetuate the boy's club. fortune.com/2026/05/14/a...

Amy Lowell was a celebrity poet who lectured all over the US & worked w/ major publishers to make poetry accessible. But she was villainized bc she was a single, fat woman. After she died in 1925, men like Ezra Pound who wrote anthologies left her out. www.luc.edu/english/stor...

Study (N=3,500) finds 68% of researchers observed gift authorship (credit w/o contributing); 55% observed ghost authorship (no credit for contributing). Women researchers reported more conflicts over authorship & felt less comfortable raising concerns. theconversation.com/who-gets-cre...

Austrian study (N=268K) finds women's child wage penalty smaller when they were the more educated partner. Women in couples w/ matching ed levels saw slightly steeper declines in earnings. Largest drops were for women in relationships with more educated men. www.psypost.org/women-who-ou...

There's a backlash to paternity leave. Employers may ask if they are really planning to take the time or comment on the burden of his absence. During the leave, there may be pings & requests to join calls. Reinforcing the idea that caregiving is for women www.forbes.com/councils/for...