There’s a reason why women don’t earn as much as men, and discrimination isn’t the cause.  It stems from a female’s cultural role as a caregiver. In fact, 81 percent of people who tend to a family member in the home are women. Unsurprisingly, most of them are mothers and

Our president, Donald Trump, is doing a great job of alienating most of the world.  Certainly, he earned us no goodwill when he refused to shake hands with  Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, and, arguably, the real leader of the free world. Beyond insulting an ally, he p

In the last two years of my political life, I served with 4 other women as a county commissioner.  I was the fiscal conservative in the bunch but shared their liberal persuasion for social concerns.  About money, I saw it as a fickle friend, not to be relied upon as the answ

Appropriate to the season, a friend gave me a gift certificate to Powell’s bookstore.  Overjoyed, I hurried off to use it before it got lost in the midst of my move to the retirement center.  Choosing a book wasn’t hard.  I keep a list on my refrigerator door. 

A reader wrote to say she had some questions about Alice Munro’s short story, “Wenlock Edge,” and wondered if I had any insights.  Curious, I read the story then searched for reviewer’s remarks on the web.  I found few.  One commentator did point out that the tr

I’ve never read a book by John Updike, mainly because he was never required in college and I identified him with “the boys,” who included Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, and touching upon Ernest Hemmingway and Norman Mailer, writers whom I have read but whose world view I don’t much

A week ago, I sat down to lunch with two women who are notable because they’ve dedicated themselves to advancing gender equality. The two had never met, so I brought them together to see what synergism might evolve. The meeting went well, a perfect example of women reaching out to s

Many of us are shocked to read that in Muslim countries parents may coerce a daughter to marry the man who raped her. As her society blames the female for the shame done to her, she is obliged to save the family’s honor by marrying the man who violated her. In the west, we might con

The summer of my senior year in high school, I worked at a nearby Sears & Roebuck, selling lingerie. Often, my customers were men, and, over time, I came to pity those lost souls as they perused the counters in search of gifts for the women in their lives. As shoppers, they seemed

The new beautician at my mother’s retirement center has raised prices for a simple haircut. A clip that previously cost  $17 now costs $20 for a woman and $15.00 for a man. Discrimination of that kind raises my hackles, but, of course, we women aren’t new to it.   Some might arg