Fortune salutes Women Don't Ask in its 75 Most Smartest Books list: Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever (2003). The first book to adequately explain the dramatic differences in how men and women negotiate and why women so often fail to ask for what they want at work (starting with equal pay). Every male manager in America should read it. … [Read more...]

Stephen J. Ducat on W.'s Texan manhood in Buzzflash: "I think a complex combination of factors determines this. Not all cultures and all historical periods evidence this kind of femiphobia. But we’re seeing a number of factors, not the least of which is a kind of backlash against feminism and the ability of the Republicans to really define the words we use. There is no greater power than the power to define. If you can determine how people use language, you really are able to determine how they think. If you can fill the word liberal with the … [Read more...]

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: from SKL, on Mel Harris's WEST WING appearance: "Nobody in the U.S. Senate has hair like that..." DEPT. OF EX-SQUEEZE ME? I don't know when defending Albert Goldman became critical "chic," but it doesn't wash. His pop journalism is not "criminally underrated," it's idiotic on any level you care to go at it. While this quote about talent-free celebs sounds prescient in regards to figures like Paris Hilton, Goldman also felt Lennon, Presley, and many other rock stars were also talent free because they were untrained. It's the … [Read more...]