Slate reports on research by American economist Caitlin Kowles showing that women wait abot 20 seconds longer than men to be served at coffee shops. Check out the original paper here. Knowles has eliminated a few possible causes other than sexism - no surprise, it’s not because women order fancy drinks or flirt with the barristas.

Tyler Cowen, over on economics blog The Marginal Revolution suggests that women are more indecisive, but doesn’t really dispute Knowles’ main conclusion: “The simplest explanation, however, is that the staff feel more implicit psychological pressure to meet the needs of the male customers.”

Not a life-altering injustice, surely, but just another reminder that sexism lives in all of us, and intrudes on our lives almost constantly.

On the upside, it’s nice to see some feminist economics getting press coverage. I love feminist economics.

I’ve been catching up on documentaries lately, which is a mostly depressing activity. Most recently, I Jesus Camp, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s look at an evanglical Christian summer camp.

This is no ordinary camp, and it makes for pretty disturbing viewing. Camp director Becky Fischer berates the kids for being dirty hypocritical sinners until they’re sobbing and speaking in tongues. Then she brings in a children’s entertainer to teach them that abortion is wrong, giving everyone their own fetus doll to hold. And that’s just the beginning. Fischer freely admits that she is buliding an army of God.

Lots has been said about this doc (here’s a discussion with the filmmakers) so I won’t go into whether this is brainwashing, indoctrination, abuse, etc. (I think it pretty clealy is.) I took something different and sort of strange from the documentary.

Early in the film, we meet one of the campers in her room at home, where she’s dancing in her mirror and talking about her favourite music. She’s listening to Christian rock, which she likes because it isn’t always about sex - Britney Spears and friends, she tells us, don’t really share her values.

There’s an urge that feminists have in common with even the most radical arms of the Evangelical movement, I think, and it has to do with building an alternative culture. I see something poisonous in contemporary culture, just like that girl does. I wish I could build a universe for my loved ones without that poison. And there are other things we agree on. The kids in Jesus Camp are encouraged to give their own sermons, which seems kind of cool and empowering to me.

But most of the documentary is, obviously, not cool at all. So here’s my question for you, dear readers: What went wrong at Jesus Camp?

The New York Times reports that Girls Are Often Neglected Victims of Concussions, though they don’t really manage to explain why.

“Generally speaking, the medical profession does not do a very good job in recognizing that female athletes sustain concussions at an equal or even higher rate as males,” said Dr. Robert Cantu of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, one of the nation’s leading experts in concussion management. “It’s flying under the radar. And as a result, looking for concussions in women is not pursued with the same diligence, and it’s setting girls up for a worse result.”

The article also touches on some of the dilemmas posed by university sports scholarships - in this case, their lure can keep girls on the field even if they have already had a couple concussions and are at risk of post-concussion syndrome. Sports scholarships are relatively uncommon in Canada, but that doesn’t keep Canadian girls from competing for American scholarships.

The headline for this Guardian opinion piece (‘Feminism’s rape fallacy’) had me feeling a little nervous as I clicked over, but the stand first made me warm a little: “Imperfect though they may be, courts must retain presumption of innocence in rape cases.” Well yeah, of course.

Unfortunately, things deteriorate from there. There’s a bit in the middle that got to me in particular.

Yet, why shouldn’t women be encouraged to think twice before visiting footballers’ hotel rooms late at night? Why shouldn’t they be advised that to get themselves into a drunken stupor in the company of a frisky male could carry risks?

Do we really think women are not warned enough about protecting their personal safety? Where has this guy been? Just about all society does is remind us to be careful. CBC reports on the recent rape cases at York University were mostly interviews with other women in residence swearing up and down that they would lock their doors more carefully from now on. We’re not supposed to walk on our own, talk back to harassment, close the office door when we’re talking to a male teacher, leave our drinks unattended, or even drink. The message comes through, loud and clear.

With that out of the way, is it so preposterous to look into why rape conviction rates are so low? When I was in Scotland I kept hearing that the conviction rates there were nearly the lowest in the Western world. (And you can imagine what that sort of publicity does to the number of rapes reported to begin with.) Surely some of the gap could be closed.

For that matter, what are Canada’s rape conviction rates? In a half hour online I didn’t come up with any consistent numbers. Anyone know more about this than me?

Belatedly, from The Killing Train - Cindy Sheehan’s letter of resignation. I haven’t really been following Sheehan since, let’s face it, she stopped being mentioned on The Daily Show. But as Justin points out, this piece is pretty brilliant. Check it out.

There’s an interesting piece in The Guardian about sexist harassment online, especially as experienced by female bloggers. (It’s also by the editor of Feministing, which we link to regularly.)

I was reminded of the hate mail that I get for a site I built, about ad trucks. I put it up when I was probably seventeen, and unfortunately haven’t updated it much since. But instead of disappearing into internet obscurity, the site has steadily climbed Google rankings. One side of this is that I’ve gotten some interesting feedback, from people around the world who are writing and campaigning against mobile advertising. But the cool email has been overwhelmed by strangely intense hate mail.

I didn’t think ad trucks had many supporters. But somehow every couple months, someone finds the time to tell me that I run the stupidest website they’ve ever found; that I need to get a job; that I’m ruining the economy; that I’m a hippie; that I must be a Democrat. The sheer rage behind most of the messages scares me a little.

After reading this article, I’m wondering where the insults would go if it was obvious from the site that I was a woman.

Next up on Allison Reads The Guardian… Check out a critical take on International Women’s Day. Zoe Williams takes issue with the way it is celebrated:

What is not relevant is fun-packed dancing from around the world, spice workshops and fashion shows. Fashion is to international women’s rights as Agassi kitchen utensils are to gay rights. Yes, some women are interested in fashion; some gay men own more than one brightly coloured fish slice. But it is an outrage against people who take liberties seriously - who embody the core of feminism by interpreting it as a war that hasn’t been won until it’s been won for all women - to trivialise these matters.

What do you think? And what are you doing on International Women’s Day?

The Guardian reviews Lynne Segal’s memoir. It’s an interesting read on its own, especially if you’re interested in the history of feminism.

I will be blogging from Edinburgh, Scotland for the next eight months or so, while I attend school here. Generally Canada is ignored by the UK media (and that is fine with me) but after this week’s shootings in Montreal we are on front pages internationally.

I’m just posting to point out an article available online from The Guardian. It is mostly about the other Montreal school shooting, at L’Ecole Polytechnique, where Marc Lepine murdered fourteen women. The article is obviously intended for non-Canadians, but I think it’s worth checking out if (like me) you are too young to remember Lepine. It’s pretty tough reading, though.