in the news

Wisconsin Women are Go-Getters

I’m always proud to be a Wisconsin woman. However, this month my heart swells even more as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Wisconsin’s ratification of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. On June 10, 1919, Wisconsin—movin’ people that we are— was the first state to take such action. We even beat the U.S. Congress, which didn’t ratify the amendment until the next year.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has a great exhibit on display in our beautiful State Capitol Rotunda all the way through November. My pictures don’t do it justice so definitely take time to see it for yourselves.

Certainly, a tip of the hat is due to those progressive thinkers of Wisconsin’s legislature. But the real heroes are the women who fought more than 70 years to bring the 19th amendment to fruition, women like these Wisconsin demigoddesses.

Women’s rights groups began forming in Wisconsin in the 1860s and they rallied for an array of social reforms such as anti-slavery, temperance, education, health, and married women’s property rights. The Wisconsin Women’s Suffrage Association (WWSA) was started in 1869. Besides campaigning for suffrage, these ladies fought to improve public schools. By 1869 they were running for school boards and by 1886 women could vote for issues “pertaining to school matters,” according to the Wisconsin Women Suffrage in School Matters Referendum.

Notice a whole lot of nurturing going on here?

“Bitches get stuff done.” — Tina Fey

When women rise up, they by nature don’t do so with self-serving ambitions. If we examine the motives behind what some label as “women being bitches,” we see they’re most often raising their voices for the welfare of others; family, children, the sick, the poor. Even 19th-century women’s quest for rights to their property was done with their children in mind; to prevent a drunken husband from taking a mother’s earnings or to will a woman’s inherited land to her own children rather than those of her husband’s second wife. Sometimes women being bitchy is the only way people listen.

Today I’m admiring…

These days inspiring Wisconsin women continue to stand up for the good of others. I’m thinking of several in my world alone, caring women who have dedicated time out of their busy lives to basically make things better in Wisconsin. Women like:

Be a Wisconsin Woman

Wisconsin women are gutsy go-getters. They get things done. But really, you don’t have to live in my beloved Badger state to be so emboldened. Just get up and go wherever you are.

And don’t forget to vote!

Journalism Takes Another Hit: With Many Angles

Etude Atlantis, by John Roloff: artwork on Atlantic City Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ

So what’s your take on this? Last week the Chicago Sun-Times caused an uproar when it laid off its 28 full-time, award-winning photojournalists. According to this Forbes article, the newspaper “plans to get by with freelance photographers, and rely on reporters to snap photographs with smart phones.”

My first thought: Really? Reporters covering the news with a snap of a phone? Obviously, journalism is going the route of every other industry, where staff is expected to be a jack-of-all trades.

My college degree is in journalism. I’ve never gone into newspaper work but I conduct interviews and shoot photography for the copywriting I do. Let’s just say it gets rather klutzy trying to manage it all. But who am I to be talking—copywriting and news journalism are completely different genres, and while my photography is good, I certainly don’t advertise myself as a professional. Knowing this, I can’t help wondering if someone with an iPhone can visually communicate a story the same way a professional photojournalist does?

Here’s an interesting article written not even two years ago about the craft of photojournalism. Coincidentally, it’s put out by the Sun-Times‘ leading rival, the Chicago Tribune (while the Sun-Times has a longer ongoing history, the Tribune is considered the city’s most widely read paper). Author Alex Garcia, a photojournalist himself, says the most important skill in his trade is anticipation. To truly tell the story, a photojournalist must anticipate positioning, anticipate the decisive moment, anticipate the emotion. Wouldn’t you imagine this foresight comes from skill, experience and an attributed focus to the visual aspect of the event at hand?

Apparently, I’m not the only one who wonders about professionalism. The layoffs have rallied protests and cancelled subscriptions almost as fast as a printing press roles off those newspapers. The Tribune’s Garcia calls it idiocy. And he speculates it’s a union-busting move.

Okay, let’s put aside any correlation between unions and firing 28 photojournalists, one of whom is Pulitzer Prize winner John White. Because, even though there’s a great probability the Sun-Times will rehire full time photojournalists in the future—you know, photographers whose experience justifies a much smaller salary—the point I’d like to discuss is that of changing times and the freelance economy.

According to the Forbes article the Sun-Times says “The Sun-Times business is changing rapidly and our audiences are consistently seeking more video content with their news” (I actually prefer still photography, but I suppose one person’s opinion doesn’t constitute a complete market segment). In truth, the whole newspaper industry is changing. Digital editions have replaced print editions. Advertising revenues have plummeted. And major newspapers, including the Sun-Times, have declared bankruptcy. Is it any wonder newspaper groups are looking for new directions in production and management?

And then there’s the freelancing. Maybe this nomadic work style is by choice, like it is for me; or maybe it’s because of seemingly unfortunate circumstances, as this photojournalist-blogger probably feels. In any event, freelancing is the fastest growing sector of our U.S. job economy and many prejudices that once accompanied it are now forced to the wayside. No longer is a freelancer’s work of lesser quality. No longer must we accept less pay. And safety comes with numbers, which means together we can improve the way we work. Maybe freelancing won’t be so bad for these 28 photojournalists?

Oh, there are many angles to this issue!

What do you think? Do you agree with the Sun-Time firing its photojournalists? Where is journalism headed and what about its quality? And lastly, is there life outside the traditional job market?

 

Why Nancy Pelosi and I are a Lot Alike

A couple weeks ago young Luke Russert brought up the idea to Nancy Pelosi that perhaps she’s too old for her continued position of House Minority Leader.

Whether Russert is the “poster boy of media nepotism,” to which he’s sometimes referred, is not something I’m going to debate. But one does have to wonder of his level of sadomasochism that he would ask such a question in the presence of Pelosi’s 40 female colleagues, many of whom were among the record number of women recently elected to the U.S. Congress.

Pelosi handled Russert’s twerpy question with class. While every other woman pounded him with boos, she, in all manner of calm, sweetness and smackdown, responded, “Let’s for a moment honor it as a legitimate question, although it’s quite offensive. You don’t realize that, I guess.”

No matter which way you lean politically, you have to admire Pelosi. Or, at least, you have to give her credit. A woman holding some of the highest political offices in our nation is guaranteed to be two things: 1) über intelligent, and 2) comeback queen to a lot of crap.

In those two respects, it’s best to say Pelosi and I are not alike. In fact, we’re not even sort of alike.

But in other ways, we are. Like how she was a stay-at-home mom for her children (yes, I can attest that managing a house full of kids requires diplomacy and interpersonal skills). And how she didn’t start her Congressional career until her youngest was ready for college (for me, a treasured motherhood memory is my youngest son’s “hi mom!” every day in passing at the university we both attended). And how she’s discriminated against because of her age (uh, I work in graphic design…I say no more).

This rather inimical incident (for Russert, that is) brings to mind the discussion of the eras of our lives. And ageism. And productivity. Because we’re living longer and because, comparatively speaking, the years of raising children have become a smaller portion of our total life, we have much more time to ourselves. Since I’m one of those career late bloomers who enthusiastically hopes to work forever, this topic really interests me. Hey, it should interest all of us. If we’re living longer, we need to provide for ourselves longer. As good ol’ Seth Godin says “Fifty is the new thirty.”

So what are your thoughts on this?

What about questions like “Am I too old to be a designer?” Or an engineer? Or a teacher? Or the House Minority Leader? Most people who responded to this question insisted creative thinking does, in fact, increase with age and, no, we’re not too old to produce great work.

Do our life experiences, as Pelosi says, contribute to—and even add to—our productivity as we age? Of course it does. Steve Jobs agreed back in the 1990s when he said, “A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”

Of course, design isn’t the only world in which we connect dots. There are dots in every aspect of life.

And then there are the Olderpreneurs. Or the Nevertirees. Whatever we call them, they’re the middle-age people and older who, like Dick Pyle, feel they still have much to contribute and “can’t really conceive doing nothing,” as he says on page 8 of Barclays Wealth. At age 60 he moved to France and started a truffle farm and wine retail/wholesale business.

What are your thoughts? Do you dream of being an Olderpreneur? What are your strategies for keeping the Russert biases at bay?