From New York Times

Don't get angry. But do take charge. Be nice. But not too nice. Speak up. But don't seem like you talk too much. Never, ever dress sexy. Make sure to inspire your colleagues unless you work in Norway, in which case, focus on delegating instead.

Writing about life and work means receiving a steady stream of research on how women in the workplace are viewed differently from men. These are academic and professional studies, not whimsical online polls, and each time I read one I feel deflated. What are women supposed to do with this information? Transform overnight? And if so, into what? How are we supposed to be assertive, but not, at the same time?

It's enough to make you dizzy, said Ilene H. Lang, the president of Catalyst, an organization that studies women in the workplace. Women are dizzy, men are dizzy, and we still don't have a simple straightforward answer as to why there just aren't enough women in positions of leadership.

From Women's E News

The modesty-fashion movement has come far in the past 10 years, but it can still be hard to find a prom dress that keeps cleavage, knees and arms covered. To address this, Modest by Design, a Murray, Utah, company that helped pioneer the modesty fashion push, plans to launch a line of dresses in time for the next prom season that includes a matching veil, or hijab, for Muslim customers.

Heather Gist, who launched the company in 1999 with her husband Eddie Gist, says the satin dress will come in two styles, one with long sleeves and one with short sleeves. The A-line skirt will have three layers, each with beading and embroidering along the hem. Since 2001 the company's involvement with prom fashion has taken the form of a yearly prom dress contest in which teens submit designs for the company to produce. Submissions are currently being accepted for the 2008 contest.

From New York Times

In the intensifying battle for the votes of Democratic women, Senator Barack Obama's campaign is trying to turn years of feminist thinking on its head and argue that the best candidate for women may, in fact, be a man.

The pitch for Mr. Obama, in a new video, speeches and talking points aimed at women, presents him as deeply sensitized to the needs and aspirations of women, raised by a single mother, "a man comfortable with strong women in his life," as his wife, Michelle Obama, puts it, and a man committed to the issues they care about.

The breakthrough nature of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential candidacy has a powerful appeal for many women - especially, perhaps, among the more liberal women who participate in Democratic primaries and caucuses. But even as he pursues a first of his own - a black president - Mr. Obama, like the rest of the field, has little choice but to compete for women's votes; 54 percent of Democratic caucusgoers in Iowa four years ago were women, as were 54 percent of Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire.

From New York Times

In 1982, John J. Mack, now the chief executive of Morgan Stanley, interviewed a fresh-faced Harvard Business School graduate named Zoe Cruz for an associate position in the firm's bond trading business. They connected over their immigrant roots - Mr. Mack's father was born in Lebanon, Ms. Cruz was born in Greece - and a shared hunger for advancement in one of Wall Street's most prestigious firms.

And advance they did: supported by Mr. Mack, Ms. Cruz assumed increasing levels of management responsibility in a firm and industry long dominated by men, eventually becoming co-president of the firm and the most senior woman executive on Wall Street. She was also among the highest paid, making $27 million last year and over $100 million since 2001.

But on Thursday morning, Mr. Mack gave Ms. Cruz the bad news. Her career at the firm was over, now that he and the board had decided to hold her responsible for what could be over $5 billion in trading losses from subprime-related investments. Ms. Cruz, according to people briefed on the meeting, was shocked - she never saw it coming. Polarizing to some, a role model to others, Ms. Cruz is a reminder of how tenuous the careers of women executives on Wall Street can be.

From Huffington Post

Judging by the collective age of the audience around me as I settled in for a Saturday evening showing of Disney's Enchanted, I wasn't the only person who was there for a dose of bizarre nostalgia. My childhood in the late 80s and early 90s had been happily punctuated every so often by the adventures of a series of warbling cartoon princesses, the last of whom was 1995's Pocahontas. After her eponymous film, I graduated from the genre, having moved on to Austen and Bronte novels and Anne Sexton's twisted fairy tales.

In high school and college, I began to truly understand just how much those magicians at Disney had cleaned up the detritus of fairyland. In the medieval folk versions of these tales, Cinderella's sisters get their toes chopped off and Sleeping Beauty's new mother in law, if I'm not mistaken, tries to boil her grandchildren for dinner. I also learned that according to standard feminist interpretation, when Snow White's virginal mother pricks her fingers and suddenly dies, only to be "replaced" by a wicked stepmother, they're actually the same woman. It's an allegory for how the onset of sexuality turns innocent women into competitive, murderous narcissists (damn that mirror on the wall!).

After these revelations, not even the supposedly empowering Mulan could tempt me back to Happy Princess land. But last weekend, my fellow theatergoers and I flocked to see Enchanted for its obviously mocking reference to Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, twirling around their cozy huts and innocently crooning in chorus with a host of furry creatures. And indeed, the early minutes of Enchanted lived up to expectations, offering a parade of visual in- references to woodsy cottages, romantic melodies, wishing wells and of course, vicious old hags. It managed to send up the absurdity of the genre without ruining its inherent sweetness.

From Women's E- News

Iraqi female journalists have one major advantage over their male and foreign counterparts when it comes to covering women's stories: access. As women, they can enter homes and break the silence on taboo subjects such as rape and domestic violence.

As journalists, they can publicize private pains of women in the hope of influencing policymakers. "Covering women is really hard and dangerous at the same time," says Huda Ahmed, one of six Iraqi women from the McClatchy Company's Baghdad news bureau to receive the International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism Award on Oct. 23. "We call to make an appointment and suddenly a male relative tells them not to talk to us."