Job Hunting? A career change may be in order

With unemployment figures skyrocketing and businesses biting the dust, the picture painted is of a long-term crisis and much hardship if not anxiety for many of us. The promise of at least a partial recovery with the incoming administration notwithstanding, there are even today bright patches in the darkened sky.

A closely watched media reveals that optimism, as reports emerge on careers and industries where jobs are largely available or even go begging. Securing them will likely require a change of career, maybe even some training, but there is no question that, yes indeed, there are growth industries today.

We've posted on our career page a helpful article published last week in the Wall Street Journal. And I recommend that you find WNYC's Brian Lehrer show of the 23rd, Dec., or the podcast (Where the Jobs Are).

One of Brian's guests, Dennis Demp, author of Health Care Job Explosion, reports informatively and optimistically on those specific industries that can't help but grow. Health care, insurance and working for the feds (especially in the areas of IT, public health, the census) are examples that he expands on. Demp also gives us the useful website: Federaljobs.net.

Check it out. Happy hunting! And may 2009 be brighter for us all.

You go, girls!

In the midst of financial scandal and meltdown, it has been two women regulators--are they but voices in the wilderness?--pressing to do the right thing. Dean Baker of TruthOut asks the thorny question, "...Are Women Regulators Different?" Now, wouldn't we like to think so!

For Women, It's Not Easy Getting Recognized at the Office

Here's a good piece from Alter Net's Tan Ganeva supporting Catalyst's findings (see below), exploring further the nagging lag in pay and advancement women face in the business world as well as the greater tendency for women's contributions on the job to go unrecognized.

Women Gained Little Ground Advancing to Business Leadership Positions

PRESS RELEASE

Blogger's note: is anyone surprised?

Women’s overall representation in senior leadership roles continues to stagnate at a time when shareholders and decision-makers demand innovative thinking to address the current business crisis

New York (December 10, 2008) – Women’s advancement in corporate leadership continues to stagnate, with virtually no growth seen in women’s share of top positions, according to the 2008 Catalyst Census of Women Board Directors of the Fortune 500 and the 2008 Catalyst Census of Corporate Officers and Top Earners of the Fortune 500. “Exceptional circumstances require exceptional leaders. Now more than ever, as companies examine how best to weather an economy in crisis, we need talented business leaders, and many of these leaders, yet untapped, are women,” said Ilene H. Lang, President and Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst.

The reports show little change in the number of women in the upper echelons of major corporations. Specifically among women’s share of board director positions in the F500:

· Women held 15.1 percent of board director positions, compared to 14.8 percent in 2007.
· Women of color held 3.2 percent of all board director positions.
· Little change occurred in the number of companies having zero, one, two, or three or more women directors, and the slight increase in companies with three or more women was offset by the slight increase in companies with zero women.
· The number of women audit and compensation committee chairs continued to lag behind the overall representation of women board directors, even as women’s share of nominating/governance committee chairs continued to keep pace with their share of all directorships.

Overall representation of women corporate officers and top earners in the F500 continued to stagnate as well:

· Women held 15.7 percent of corporate officer positions, compared to 15.4 percent in 2007.
· Women held 6.2 percent of top earner positions, compared to 6.7 percent in 2007.
· Little change occurred in the number of companies having zero, one, two, or three or more women corporate officers.

Catalyst continues its commitment to studying women of color in business, and this year’s Catalyst Census contains additional data on women of color board directors. The findings include:

· Black women comprised 63.4 percent, Latinas 24.4 percent, and Asian women 11.6 percent of all women of color board director positions.
· More than one woman of color serving on a board was rare, with only 4.0 percent of companies having two women of color directors serving together.

“No change in a year of change is unacceptable - for business, for investors, for policy makers and for the public which looks to business leadership for innovative solutions and accountability,” said Ms. Lang. “Smart organizations will seize this opportunity to create credible, 21st century leadership that looks like the future, and bring women, including women of color, front and center into their leadership – on boards and in senior management.”

Ernst & Young is the sponsor of the 2008 Catalyst Census of Women Board Directors of the Fortune 500 and the 2008 Catalyst Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners of the Fortune 500. Appendices to the reports are available at www.catalyst.org. For media inquiries please contact Serena Fong, at 646-388-7757, sfong@catalyst.org, or Jeff Barth at 646-388-7725, jbarth@catalyst.org.

Corporate Glass Ceiling for Women and Minorities is yet to be Shattered

It's same old, same old, says SocialFunds.com as they report on findings by the Calvert Group, a social investment fund, that found little advancement of women and minorities in corporate executive positions. Equally problematical, a second report finds, is that the corporate world is lax--perhaps better said, uncooperative--in disclosing Equal Opportunity information regarding diversity in their workplaces. You'd think they had something to hide, eh?
A possible remedy? Shareholder resolutions forcing the brass to get with it. Here's a perfect pitch for "spreading the wealth," no?

Obama's transition team lists impressive women

From the Guardian online comes an impressive line-up of women in key roles in Obama's transition team. I'm anxious to see whom he picks to fill top cabinet posts. Guess we'll all be staying tuned.

What's wrong with this picture?

Let us know on the Comments page.
Image thanks to Amsterdamize

Using the bully pulpit to expose Palin

Palin's rural adviser quits

Oct 13 22:01
By ANNE SUTTON
Associated Press Writer

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Gov. Sarah Palin's rural adviser resigned Monday amid criticism of the governor's record on hiring Alaska Natives.

Rhonda McBride, who is not an Alaska Native, made the announcement in an e-mail to several Native leaders, saying there needs to be more Native voices in Palin's administration.

``I definitely think it would help to have an Alaska Native in this position,'' McBride told The Associated Press.

Many Alaska Natives have said they felt neglected when Palin, now the Republican vice presidential nominee, made appointments to her administration, including the rural adviser post.

State Sen. Al Kookesh, a Democrat, said Palin left the position unfilled her first year in office and ignored Native leaders' suggestions on the selection process.

``We were really disappointed when an Alaska Native wasn't appointed,'' said Kookesh, a Tlingit Indian who held the job in a previous administration.

Natives bristled early in Palin's administration when she named a white woman to a game board seat held by a Native for more than 25 years. An Athabascan Indian eventually was named to the post after protests.

Relations worsened after Palin didn't remove a game board chairman who once suggested that Alaska Natives missed a meeting because they were drinking beer, seen as insensitive since the Alaska Native community has high rates of alcohol abuse.

Alaska Natives make up about 20 percent of the population.

Palin's husband, Todd, is part Yup'ik Eskimo, and her 13-member cabinet includes two Alaska Natives.

``In all honesty, I have never felt authentic in my role,'' McBride wrote in her e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by the AP.

McBride, who covered rural issues as a reporter before becoming rural adviser last year, said she would return to journalism to help bring attention to Native issues.

She said her last day would be Oct. 23.

The F-card won't wash

Jessica Valenti, founder of the popular blog, Feministing, has a provocative column in the Guardian.
Your not-so-most-humble Professional Women's Village blogger is behind Valenti all the way: Palin would throw women's rights, and self-image, back before the days even of Fred and Wilma (Flintstone, that is).
The F-card won't wash

MORE GRANT FUNDING FOR WOMEN IN 2009

Thanks to BlackPR.com for this heads up:

Columbus, OH - Grant-making organizations are gearing up to allocate more funding to women in the year 2009. Grants are often used by women to start or expand a business, attend college, pay off loans, and/or launch a non-profit organization to help other women.

Big organizations, such as the American Association of University Women (www.aauw.org), are already making their 2009 applications available for interested ones to apply for fellowships, career development grants, and community action grants.

Others include the Association For Women In Mathematics (www.awm-math.org) - who are giving away thousands in travel grants for women to do research; the Moms In Business Network (www.mibn.org) - who are giving away grants for women to start businesses; and WebMomz (www.webmomz.com), who also are giving away business grants.

Even the Verizon Foundation (foundation.verizon.com) is looking to donate more grant money to women who are victims of domestic violence.

However it's allocated, the millions of dollars in grant money available each year for women are investments in the talent, creativity, intellect and determination shown by them in various industries and fields of study. Women are huge contributors to the economy, the workforce, entrepreneurship, and to the development and management of non-profit organizations.

Such grants empower women in many different ways, and have proven to be extremely successful. As a result, every year, more and more opportunities appear for women from new organizations, government agencies, and corporations wanting to get involved.

For more information about grant opportunities available to women, visit:
www.GrantsForWomen.org

Palin turns the Mommy Wars inside out

The imbroglio over John McCain's choice of a running mate became even more tangled this morning when the Times elaborated on reservations many women have expressed over Sarah Palin's candidacy: can a mother with a Down syndrome infant and 17 year-old pregnant daughter do justice to her role by running?
A New Twist in the Debate on Mothers is provocative.

Read here:
And, let's have your comments. And your vote.

Sarah Palin and Feminists for Life

As if her stands on the environment were not enough, Sarah Palin damages her credentials to be vice president with her membership in the anti-choice pressure group, Feminists for Life.
Here:

Re Sarah Palin: For those concerned about the environment

There will be more about what I feel is John McCain's dismal choice for a running mate. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 29, 2008 Shocking Choice by John McCain WASHINGTON-- Senator John McCain just announced his choice for running mate: Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. To follow is a statement by Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. “Senator McCain’s choice for a running mate is beyond belief. By choosing Sarah Palin, McCain has clearly made a decision to continue the Bush legacy of destructive environmental policies. “Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP (formerly British Petroleum), has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska’s coasts, and put special interests above science. Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration. “This is Senator McCain’s first significant choice in building his executive team and it’s a bad one. It has to raise serious doubts in the minds of voters about John McCain’s commitment to conservation, to addressing the impacts of global warming and to ensuring our country ends its dependency on oil.” ### The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund (www.defendersactionfund.org) provides a powerful voice in Washington to Americans who value our conservation heritage. Through grassroots lobbying, issue advocacy and political campaigns, the Action Fund champions those laws and lawmakers that protect wildlife and wild places while working against those that do them harm.

© Copyright 2008, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund

McCain Picks Alaska Gov. Palin As Running Mate

NPR Report: By Scott Horsley
Listen Now [3 min 6 sec]

All Things Considered, August 29, 2008 · Republican presidential candidate John McCain has named Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin, 44, is the first woman named to a spot on the GOP ticket. She has been Alaska's governor since 2006.

Home from the Military

Colorlines interviews women vets who graphically relate what we really do know but have placed way off the front page: that women, especially women of color, have a rough, dehumanizing time of it, usually returning with goals unmet and dreams of betterment trashed.

Read and listen up.

Do women build their own glass ceiling?

Ruth Marcus, a Washington Post columnist, makes the case that it is the lack of political ambition that keeps women from participating more fully in our nation's political life. J. Goodrich, AlterNet contributor, addresses the issue with much and well-founded skepticism.
A provocative read.

Do you want to climb the corporate ladder? Check out the number of women on your company's board first.

A new Catalyst study finds a correlation in corporations between women board directors and the number of women executives

NEW YORK (July 23, 2008) – There’s a new way to look into the future and predict the number of women in senior management ranks – just count the current number of women on corporate boards. That’s according to Catalyst’s Advancing Women Leaders: The Connection Between Women Board Directors and Women Corporate Officers, which found that the number of women on a company’s board is directly connected to the future number of women in its senior management ranks. This compelling predictor shows a way to increase the number of women in leadership, and further supports the findings of Catalyst’s research on the financial implications of gender diversity at the top. That analysis revealed that Fortune 500 companies with the largest representation of women board directors and corporate officers achieve, on average, higher financial performance.

Women in corporate leadership can also send a critical message to people entering the workforce. “Women leaders are role models to early- and mid-career women and, simply by being there at the top, encourage pipeline women to aspire to senior positions. They see that their skills will be valued and rewarded,” said Ilene H. Lang, President of Catalyst.

Catalyst’s latest research shows a clear and positive link between the percentage of women board directors in the past and the percentage of women corporate officers in the future:

• Companies with 30 percent women board directors in 2001 had, on average, 45 percent more women corporate officers by 2006, compared to companies with no women board members.

• Companies with the lowest percentages of women board directors in 2001 had, on average, 26 percent fewer corporate officers than those with the highest five years later.

• Companies with two or more women members on a company’s board in 2001 had 25 percent more women corporate officers by 2006 than companies with one woman board member in 2001.

Furthermore, the presence of women on boards had a stronger impact on the growth of women in line positions than in staff positions. Line experience is necessary for advancement into CEO and top leadership positions, and Catalyst’s annual Censuses show that women are historically underrepresented in these roles. This research demonstrates the important contribution that women board directors play in making sure women get this critical experience.

“A gender diverse board signals the right tone at the top and the importance that a company places on creating a successful work environment for all employees,” said Ms. Lang. “Moreover, this study shows that what’s good for women is good for business. Simply put, more women on corporate boards correlate with more women in the C-suite and better financial performance – a real win/win for companies, shareholders, and talented women seeking companies that support their advancement.”

The Chubb Corporation is the lead sponsor of Advancing Women Leaders: The Connection Between Women Board Directors and Women Corporate Officers, with contributing sponsors Citizens Communications and IBM Corporation. To learn more about this study and other research by Catalyst, please visit www.catalyst.org, or contact Serena Fong at 646-388-7757, sfong@catalyst.org, or Jeff Barth at 646-388-7725, jbarth@catalyst.org.

Same old, same old...Some dire predictions for women's advancement in the workplace

The average 25-year-old woman who works until age 65 will earn $523,000 less over her lifetime than the average working male.

Jennifer Waldref explores the various "pillars" holding up the glass ceiling for Women's eNews, including the persistence of sexual harassment, pregnancy and motherhood bias, unequal pay for equal work and gender bias in promotions.
Read more.

Census Study Shows Women Veterans Earn More and Work Longer Hours

Release by the U.S. Census Bureau

Women veterans had higher salaries than nonveterans in 2005, but they also worked more hours in a week and more weeks out of the year, according to a new analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Women veterans earned $32,217 in 2005, compared with the $27,272 for women civilians with no military experience.

“Veteran status seems to offer an earnings advantage for women; however, female veterans are also more likely to work full-time hours,” says Census Bureau demographer Kelly Holder in the working paper, Exploring the Veteran-Nonveteran Earnings Differential in the 2005 American Community Survey. “Military education and work experience may translate into higher paying civilian jobs than women with a high school degree would normally expect.”

Male veterans also had higher salaries in 2005, averaging $42,128, compared with $39,880 for nonveterans. Holder says that even though the average may be higher, this gap can be deceiving. Unlike their female counterparts, when male veterans and nonveterans with comparable demographic characteristics (age, race, marital status, education) were compared side-by-side, the earnings advantage disappeared, and when male veterans and nonveterans who worked the same number of hours per week and weeks per year were also compared, the male veterans actually earned less than their nonveteran counterparts.

“Male veterans may have less job experience, and thus lower earnings, than similar nonveterans for their age because they enter the civilian labor force later,” Holder says in the report.

The report looked at veterans and nonveterans between ages 25 and 64 in the civilian labor force.

Women veterans were more likely to work 35 or more hours per week (84.3 percent vs. 77.7 percent), to work at least 50 weeks per year (73.1 percent vs. 71.6 percent) and to work in public administration (16 percent vs. 4.8 percent) than nonveterans.

Male veterans were less likely to have a bachelor’s degree (16.3 percent vs. 20.5 percent) and more likely to be divorced (15.2 percent vs. 9.7 percent) than nonveterans.



Note: This analysis is based on the 2005 American Community Survey data. More recent general data about veterans can be found on <http://factfinder.census.gov>. As part of the Census Bureau’s reengineered 2010 Census, the data collected by the ACS helps federal officials determine where to distribute more than $300 billion to state and local governments each year. Responses to the survey are strictly confidential and protected by law. The 2005 ACS estimates are based on an annual, nationwide sample of about 250,000 addresses per month and did not include group quarters. For more information go to <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/index.htm>.

Alice and Rebecca: Mother and daughter Walkers clash on feminism

Courtney L. Martin, one of my fave writer-thinkers on the gal scene (--hope that's PC--and see my blog entry below about Courtney's latest, Perfect Girls, Starving Bodies, 12th August, 2007), has written a kind of sad yet insightful piece for AlterNet on how a daughter's resentment over (for her) failed mothering signals the failures of feminism. Martin raises the question of whether we are to fault failed mothers for their decision to split their commitment between child-rearing and spearheading movements or the social system that encourages women to bear the burden of raising children inordinately or even alone.

High-Paying Jobs for Women

We borrow a page from Yahoo for this article of interest to you gals searching around for a new or first career where pay parity odds may not be as great.
So, if you're so inclined, Go for it!

LA Times: ‘Dancing With the Stars’: Kristi Yamaguchi fulfills her destiny : Show Tracker : Los Angeles Times

This hyperbolic from the L.A. Times:

‘Dancing With the Stars’: Kristi Yamaguchi fulfills her destiny : Show Tracker : Los
Angeles Times:

"After 10 weeks, we’re all tired here, so let’s cut to the chase: Kristi
Yamaguchi and her partner Mark Ballas, the highest scorers in the history of the
show (or at least the U.S. version) took home the trophy. Jason Taylor and Edyta
were the runners-up"

Well, seems that becoming one of the premiere figures and most widely recognized, early ambassadors for her sport might have ranked somewhere on the chart of 'fulfilling her destiny,' but there's no doubt that Yamaguchi's gracefulness translates easily off the ice. She's a great athlete and, we know, also a terrific dancer.

It Figures...

From Harper's Index, this month, May:

Number of nations that do not legally guarantee women any paid maternity leave: 4
Average annual per-capita income in the three other than the United States: $1,226

Hip, hip, Latinas!

Hispanic Business magazine lauds successful Latinas making an impact on America's workplace by naming 20 to their Winner's Circle of Elite Women. They include an astronaut (Ellen Ochoa), California State Senator (Gloria Romero), IT entrepreneur (Nina Vaca), and a university president (Dr. Elsa Murano, Texas A and M).
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?idx=94479

The Case for Women Leaders

Alternet has excerpted part of Madelin M. Kunin's Pearls, Politics, and Power (Chelsea Green, 2008), which states the case, not just for more women leaders, but leadership more in the recently-identified women's style of running things. It's provocative. A too-brief runthrough of the difference between transactional leadership, said to be clearly masculine, one of hierarchy and command, and transformational, a more feminized process that's shared and premised on common purpose, led to an obvious irony. Hillary Clinton's style seems nearly textbook transactional, while Barack Obama's is transformational.

I don't know whether she gets to those other women who've learned to act mega alpha because they think that's the only way they'll be heeded. And, I'm wondering, too, about those pearls.

The B**** is back

Just when you thought we were getting cozy with Women's History Month and other niceties, Ellen Snortland of AlterNet dug up for us our pet controversy: that over the B word. Snortland's is a powerful, provocative and convincing argument that if being called a Bitch means you're no more Mrs. Nice Guy, that's as it should be. She says, I would like to see the word "bitch" elevated to its proper place in the English language, transformed from sexist epithet to a word of adoration and awe.
Read the piece, "Is 'bitch' the new Black?", and let us know what you think.

Campus Lockdown: Women of Color Negotiating the Academic Industrial Complex

DATE: Saturday, March 15, 2008
TIME: 10:30 AM - 5:00 PM
LOCATION: Michigan Union, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
For more information & to register online: http://www.woclockdown.org/

Campus Lockdown: Women of Color Negotiating the Academic Industrial Complex The Campus Lockdown Conference is organized by undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Michigan. Its aim is to promote dialogue on the politics of women of color scholarship in a post-Proposal 2 (anti-Affirmative Action) environment. Women scholars of color from universities across the country will participate in critical discussions of a host of issues relating to politics, pedagogy, and campus climate for women devoted to pubic scholarship. The conference is intended as an organized community forum space and all attendees are encouraged to contribute to the day's ongoing conversations.

Statement of University of Michigan students and faculty in support of UM Native American Studies Director Andrea Smith's tenure case. | Action alert.

Speakers:
Piya Chatterjee, University of California, Riverside
Angela Davis, University of California, Santa Cruz (via teleconference)
Rosa Linda Fregoso, University of Southern California
Ruthie Gilmore, University of Southern California
Fred Moten, Duke University
Clarissa Rojas, San Francisco State University
Haunani-Kay Trask, University of Hawai'I

CO-SPONSORS: University of Michigan Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Program, Center for the Education of Women, Department of History of Art, Department of Women’s Studies, Division of Student Affairs, Michigan Student Assembly, Museum Studies Program, Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs, Students of Color of Rackham Native Caucus, William Monroe Trotter Multicultural Center, Women of Color in the Academy Project

March 8 is International Women's Day

Visit the official IWD site to learn more, support it, get a logo link to display on your site.

Also added this week at IMDiversity.com:

Women's History Month Profile 2008

Annual Census release paints statistical portrait of U.S. women at work, school, home, business and beyond

More readings will be added to our women's village news section and in other villages throughout the month, including updates to the annual Asian Pacific American Wall of Fame at the Women's History Month @ Asian American Village and the Women's History Month - Latina Wall of Fame at Hispanic American Village, and more...

BLACK COLLEGIAN Profiles NASA Astronaut Joan Higginbotham

Of interest at our sister publication, THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online, new features have been from the paper magazine's first semester edition, including its engaging cover interview with NASA Astronaut Joan Higginbotham, discussing her career path en route to becoming only the third African American woman astronaut.

The interview is part of the edition's theme section on Careers in Science, Engineering & Technology.

Incidentally, for flight buffs, the upcoming edition will include a Black History Month section feature commemorating Vernice Armour – The First African-American Woman Combat Pilot.

Addendum--The Steinem stew

Just minutes after posting my op-ed rejoinder to Gloria Steinem and the other second wave feminists for their blinkered view of America’s race-torn society—for those not caught up in the fray, Ms. Steinem posits that women are a more aggrieved minority than African-Americans in Why Women are Never Front-Runners —I received an email from a friend, a woman of “good politics.” With a subject line, “How it would feel if Hillary is elected president,” I opened to a video of a woman standing over a man on the floor; she is kicking him repeatedly in his private parts while he doubles up to shield himself from the assault, groaning in agony.
It gave me great pause. Although I still think Steinem’s argument skewed, divisive and inappropriate, the video made me realize that what many of us see as Senator Clinton’s unpleasant and aggressive personality has been used by Hillary haters of the Stone Age and the Right to evoke and legitimize deeply-held misogyny. What’s very often relegated to personal bad behaviour—and misogyny--in personal relationships has been projected onto Clinton as a very, very dangerous emblem of “all women” or all women who don’t know their place. Yep, along with the racists, this campaign is bringing them out of the woodwork.
So, heads upped, I’ll have to give Steinem’s victimization some wiggle room. But, I must still ask her to talk to women of color, not just from Smith or Smith-Barney, and to African-American men of all stripes, before she again sets back the cause of progress.

Weekend Focus: Race, Sex and Hillary Clinton

Starting this weekend, a couple of features on the Women's Village and elsewhere across the IMDiversity network attempt to look back at the week's hub-bub surrounding the race-gender split arising in the Democratic Presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

First, we track a series of Clinton-Obama analyses of from the Associated Press that provide different takes on the tit-for-tat between the campaigns, and looking at how race and gender, racism and mysogyny, play into the coverage. It also looks at the impact of women voters, as well as the importance to the campaigns of parsing out that vote by generation, class, race and philosohpy.

In another feature, Hispanic American Village Editor Carol Amoruso reflects on the (false?) dichotomy threatening to divide voters' loyalties in the party, in Race and Gender at Odds Again as Steinem Wades into the Clinton-Obama Fray.

On the African American Village, frequent contributor Kam Williams looks back at the N.H. results and seeks to put the focus elsewhere: on the Diebold Corporation. "For, while the punditocracy has been busy dubbing Hillary Clinton the Comeback Kid and attributing her surprise victory to women rallying to her support in the wake of her eyes welling up on camera, no one’s looking for a more plausible explanation than that overly-publicized Muskie moment.," Williams writes. Suspicious of dubious vote tallying, Williams concludes "we’re again in dire need of U.N. observers during the 2008 primary season, just to give an the democratic process a chance to unfold untainted by fraud."

Additional features will unfold, as our editors and visitors try to interpret the events in what is becoming an unhappily tense time in an otherwise historic election. One reader said that she liked Obama and Clinton "almost equally," and would support either in a general election, but "as a woman, I have to go with Clinton now."

Another wrote that she "resented having to choose" between candidates who each represented a historic political milestone she'd been "waiting for my whole life."

And, should it matter?

We ask in our blog poll for the week: Would you lay issues aside and vote for Hillary Clinton for president for the historic precedent of having a woman in the White House?

What do you think?