Bob CollinsCareers as fall-back if the man search doesn’t work out, the soldier saint, to the patios of Uptown, the case of the handcuffed kindergartener, and 30 days of biking.
1) STUDY: WHEN THE DATE DOESN’T WORK OUT, THERE’S ALWAYS THE CAREER
A study from the University of Minnesota says that the more scarce men are, the more high-powered a woman’s career choice is.
“Most women don’t realize it, but an important factor in a woman’s career choice is how easy or difficult it is to find a husband,” researcher Kristina Durante of the University of Texas San Antonio said, in a U of M news release. “When a woman’s dating prospects look bleak – as is the case when there are few available men – she is much more likely to delay starting a family and instead seek a career.”
The study says women invest in their careers more under the circumstances.
This research highlights a sexual paradox associated with women’s economic and educational advancement. “As women pursue more education and more lucrative careers when they can’t find a husband, the ironic effect is that it will only get harder to find a husband as women become more educated and earn higher salaries,” said Durante. “This is because a woman’s mating standards keep increasing as she becomes more educated and wealthy, which further decreases the number of suitable mates. More than ever before, modern women are increasingly forced to make tough choices such as choosing briefcase over baby.”
The release suggests careers for women are a fall-back if the quest for a man doesn’t work out.
Who wants to take that one?
Related: It’s Equal Pay Day. Women in Minnesota are paid 78 cents for every dollar paid to men, the National Partnership for Women & Families says. For women of color, it’s 62 cents. It’s 54 cents for Latinos.
“I can’t tell you the countless number of women (during college advising) that have said, ‘I need a job that’s flexible so I can support my family,’ ” emotionally and financially, Erienne Fawcett, a women’s studies instructor at North Dakota State University tells the Fargo Forum. “I’ve never had a guy sit down and say, ‘I need a job that’s flexible’ for those same reasons,” she says.
Fact-checking: Have women assumed the burden of job losses in the recession? The Washington Post looks at the data:
In fact, more than a third of female job losses have been in local government jobs; the number of female-held jobs in the federal government has also declined by about 51,000, while state government declines have been marginal. (Since the numbers in the local government section of the database are not seasonally adjusted, we compared figures for January 2009 with January 2012. Comparing figures of the same month is more accurate, especially in teaching.)
2) THE SOLDIER SAINT
A group of Kansas politicians is pushing Washington to honor Father Emil Kapaun with the Medal of Honor.
He sacrificed himself in the Korean War when he had a chance to escape with able-bodied soldiers. His capture and forced march northward with hundreds of other American prisoners ended in his death from starvation, cold and lack of basic medical care at a prison camp in North Korea six months later, the BBC reports in an extensive look at Kapaun’s life today.
In Kansas, he’s not a war hero, he’s a saint.
3) TO THE PATIOS!
A proposal at the Minneapolis City Council to restrict Uptown restaurant patios appears dead for now, Southwest Journal reports.
(City Council Member Meg) Tuthill had proposed cutting outdoor music at 10 p.m., requiring patio bars to serve wait staff, not customers, and enforcing stricter capacity limits. After backlash from her colleagues on the council, the Ward 10 councilwoman instead convened a taskforce of neighbors, city regulatory staff and restaurant owners to come up with solutions.
That group came up with a list of ideas for mitigating noise: a hush program that is already being used and reminds patrons they’re in a neighborhood and to keep their voices down; voluntarily reducing hours of amplified music; promoting the new parking facility at MoZaic and increased police patrols.
4) THE CASE OF THE HANDCUFFED KID
A Georgia police chief is making no apologies for handcuffing a kindergartener who was picked up for throwing a temper tantrum in school. “Our policy is that any detainee unreported to our station in a patrol vehicle is to be handcuffed int he back. There is no age discrimination on that rule,” said Milledgeville Chief of Police Dray Swicord.
5) 30 DAYS OF BIKING
It’s Day 17.
Bonus I: Twenty-three hours of Target Field:
Bonus II: Taxpayers, stop whining. You’ve got it good. (CBS)
Bonus III: “Is climate change fueling more killer storms?” Time.com asks today. And then fails to answer the question.
Bonus IV: Starting at 7:45 a.m. to 10 this morning, the space shuttle Discovery is flying around the landmarks of Washington. NASA TV is providing video.
TODAY’S QUESTION
Today’s the deadline for Americans to pay their income tax. Today’s Question: What changes to the federal income tax would you like to see?
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Daily Circuit (9-12 p.m.) – First hour: Anthony Shadid, foreign correspondent and the author of House of Stone, died in Syria in February. His widow, New York Times correspondent Nada Bakri, talks about the loss of her husband and their time as journalists in the Middle East.
Second hour: Why are we more addicted than ever to stupid digital games?
Third hour: Civil War historians.
MPR News Presents (12-1 pm): Ira Shapiro, author of “The Last Great Senate,” moderated by former U.S. Sen. Walter Mondale.
Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) – First hour: Eleven Secret Service agents have been placed on leave after allegations of misconduct involving prostitutes in Colombia. But this is hardly the first scandal where the “best of the best” embarrassed their boss, the President, and the American people.
All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) – Just after Pearl Harbor was attacked, President Roosevelt ordered a counter-punch. B-25 bombers, led by Jimmy Doolittle, took off from an aircraft carrier and launched a sneak-attack on Japan. Seventy years after their top-secret mission, the survivors known as Doolittle’s Raiders reunite. NPR will have the story.
There’s a flying B-25 based at Fleming Field in South St. Paul. Colleagues Julia Schrenkler and Michael Wells visited it a couple of years ago. Consider that Doolittle’s Raiders got these to take off, with bombs aboard, from an aircraft carrier.
