Feminism – Page 4 – Natalie Burg

December 11, 2013Feminism Michigan

GM has a female CEO; world’s brain falls out.

When General Motors announced that Mary Barra would be the first female CEO of a Big Three automaker this week, there was much excitement. But wait. No, there’s nothing to be excited about, right? We’re supposed to be not so excited, because boys and girls are the exact same so what’s the big deal? No big deal.
YOU GUYS, IT’S A BIG DEAL.

Yes, men and women should be entirely interchangeable in the halls of power in global corporations, but right now (and at no point in human history preceding it) that has not been the case. Despite the fact that companies with greater female representation on their executive leadership teams have quantifiably higher ROI, the percentage of female CEO is only 14% globally (up from 9%!). Reminder, women make up more than 50% of all humans, so that’s pretty abysmal.

Women in power means more diversity corporations, which means less groupthink and more sanity. It’s important for young girls to have these role models, and it’s important for a world that is controlled by an only slightly less homogenous class of rule makers and gatekeepers than it was a century ago.

As a woman, I appreciate that urge to pretend like it’s not a big deal that Mary Barra is a woman. I know it comes from a place of political correctness and the desire to be living in a genderless power utopia. But we’re not there yet. And until we are, Mary Barra’s new job is exciting. Marissa Mayer is exciting. Sheryl Sandberg is exciting. And come 2016, I think we all know who else is going to be exciting. So go ahead. Express some celebratory interjections. Count this as the progress that it is. And get used to it, because as we have every right to keep it going until all things are truly equal, it looks like this party is going to be raging awhile.

November 15, 2013November 15, 2013Feminism General Life Whatnot Possibly Sort of Ranty

Don’t Freak Out Friday

It’s rough caring about so much shit all the time, amiright? Life gives enough personal tough stuff, and then society comes along throws a bunch of other stuff at us.

For instance, as my husband can attest actually happened a few months ago, sometimes you’re having a fine day and then you find out the Right to Life of Michigan is using insane, backchannel legislative methods to push an extreme, anti-choice bill into law, even though our Republican governor already vetoed it, and you have a complete emotional meltdown. Other times, there’s another shooting in another public place and you can’t even. You can’t even. Sometimes you read a headline about another female celebrity bragging about how she’s not a feminist, and it takes over the rest of your day with rage posting. And other days you are so freaked out about the yelling and screaming over Obamacare that you can’t even yell back anymore, you just want walk into traffic, even though that would result in medical bills so high you would be financially ruined for life because everyone won’t stop yelling about making healthcare affordable and not stupid, OH MY GOD, HILLARYHURRYUPANDSAVEUSFROMTHISALREADY.

November 6, 2013Feminism Writing

Writing words that matter: “Everyone needs a god who looks like them”

I recently became the last person on the planet to read Sue Monk Kidd’s Secret Life of Bees, and fell in love with it in a way I haven’t fallen in love with a book in a long time. It was like discovering The Great Gatsby again for the first time, or To Kill a Mocking Bird, or A Prayer for Owen Meany. It became one of my favorite books, even before I’d read the last page.
As a writer, these experiences of falling in love with a book are particularly overwhelming. Not only is there excitement, infatuation and enjoyment, but also aspiration. I want to write like this. I want to make readers feel this way.