Comments

Research: Women in the 2006 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games: An Analysis of Participation, Leadership and Media Coverage
Subject: Second Look at the Olympics
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 08 21:35:37 +0000

I especially appreciated this analysis of gender equity in the 2006 Olympic and Paralympic Games because it doesn't just stop at counting female participants. It goes on to take a critical look at the media coverage of female athletes and interestingly at the number of women in positions of leadership at the IOC and other Olympic institutions. Although the numbers overall are improving the situation is still pretty grim, especially in regards to gender equity in institutional leadership.

The report also takes a closer look at the intersections of gender, race, and disability, providing us with a much richer basis for policy recommendations. The report charts the number of women athletes who identify as women of color, (only 1 woman identified as African American out of 264 athletes who participated in the 2006 Olympic games!), and provides participation rates for disabled female athletes in the 2006 Paralympics (in which only 21% of the participants were women) in comparison to the 2006 Olympics.

Seeing so few women athletes in regular programming has always made me grateful for the Olympics. But this study rightfully points out that the Games are a rare opportunity to increase visibility for women athletes, leading to higher earnings, sponsorships, and scholarships - and simply put, what we've seen up until now just isn't enough!

This is a great report for anyone interested in gender equity, women athletes, and the organizational politics and power of Olympic committees and institutions.

Research: Short-term and Long-term Racial Disparities in VA and non-VA Hospital Outcomes
Subject: Interesting Data
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 08 16:20:23 +0000

This is a really interesting policy brief that takes a stab at explaining what seems to be a counterintuitive finding re: health outcomes for black veterans.

In my opinion, this is just the kind of research that nonprofits are best at. It's quick, it's direct, and it provides some really interesting data about the the short term outcomes for black veterans versus the longer term outcomes once they have returned to communities with fewer structural supports.

Totally connects the dots between some important - and related - issues, like economic and health disparities by race and how these disparities might play out for veterans.

Research: Power Skills: How Volunteerism Shapes Professional Success
Subject: Interesting
Posted on: Mon, 28 Apr 08 15:32:00 +0000

I found this to be a really interesting paper and in keeping with what social movement sociologists have been saying for years about the unintended consequences/impacts of participation.

A valuable piece for orgs looking to approach professional women as a potential volunteer pool.

Research: Media Multitasking Among American Youth: Prevalence, Predictors and Pairings
Subject: Evidence for the importance of integrated marketing
Posted on: Mon, 25 Feb 08 16:44:24 +0000

I am not so sure that multi-tasking by teens really means that we (nonprofit and social issue communicators) need to get more creative as much as we need to make sure that our brands and messaging are placed in multiple channels. If teens are chatting while watching TV, surfing the web, and listening to streaming radio, imagine the impact of hearing/seeing the same message from more than one of those channels within a given period of time. Brings up the old age question of message versus medium - or in this case message versus medium(s).