Since in my last post I made what I'm sure will be seen by some as a flippant remark about discrimination against women, that, as a woman, I had faced discrimination in the form of being thought of by some well-meaning folks in my life (!) as being basically put on earth only for the purpose of being a help-meet and a brood mare, etc., I thought I'd cite two significant examples of discrimination against women that I had come across over the weekend.
The first, widely broadcast over CNN, etc. cited a study, done by Catherine Hill that shows that despite the passage of the Equal Pay Law in the 1960's, women one year out of college are earning, for the same jobs, 80% of what males are, and ten years after college, they earn just 69% of males' salaries for comparable jobs. This is compared to 59% for male equivalent jobs in the 60's and 78% in the 80's. When Hill probed the reasoning she was told, and I'm paraphrasing here, as CNN flashed the quote for about 5 seconds, "Employers assume women are going to take time out for young children and not be available to work the hours required." And although in my last post I said the same thing in a roundabout, sardonic way, that kind of thinking is prevalent even now, and exactly why there's a wage gap and a glass ceiling.
Is there any way for women to win? In today's economy, it still is at best a real challenge to a family's finances, and at worst impossible for a woman not to work outside the home. If she does work, she won't make as much as her male counterparts for the same job, she'll probably encounter some kind of sexual harassment or glass ceiling; if she takes off time to have children, she will not only make less than her male counterparts, she won't even make as much as the women like me, who decided to ignore the words of the well-meaners and not have children. (And let me tell you, I'm rolling in dough). If she decides not to work, well, the average age of widowhood in this country is 50, and that doesn't even take into account the marriages that break up over domestic violence, substance abuse, and the ubiquitous skirt-chasing and irreconcilable differences. I don't know for sure what it's like to go back to an office/restaurant and work after 30 years of homemaking and child-rearing, but I'm guessing it ain't pretty.
And as bad as things are in the real world, the glamour-pusses in the reel world aren't having a picnic either. In the 4/22 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mimi Yahn writes in her story, "Hating Women" that in 2000 she conducted a six-week study to track hate speech and bias language on prime-time TV. To make a long story short, 416 times out of 590, when there was any language at all that was demeaning, objectifying, derogatory, or pejorative, it was directed at women, with the rest of it spread between straight men, gay men, ethnic groups (mostly Asians, Jews, Native Americans and Arabs), and those seen as having problems with weight and appearance. Violence against women was ramped up as well. Whereas rapes and murders were once sufficient to fill the time between commercials, now women were "tortured, dismembered, beaten to death, burned, hung from ceilings and subjected to a range of horrific and sadistic
hate crimes never before seen outside of snuff pornography." Lovely.
Interesting to me was Ms. Yahn's observation that when referring to a white woman, TV writers simply call her a whore, but when referring to a black or Hispanic woman, they'll call her a "crack whore". Reflecting on the coarsening of our culture, Ms. Yahn summarizes, "Dehumanization is at the heart of it all." I couldn't agree more.
On the lighter side, I do remember a rash promise that I made in my first post that I would at times include recipes. I know quite a few of you really enjoy baklava. It's not that hard to make, if you're patient and just do it a step at a time. So here's my recipe. It's especially good at Christmas, Easter, or any time you want to apologize, cheer someone up, or impress someone.
Baklava
The Pastry:
1/2 lb. phyllo pastry sheets
2 sticks butter, melted (1/2 pound)
Nut Mixture:
5 C. Walnuts, coarsely chopped (I use a Mouli)
1 C. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/3 t. cloves
Syrup:
2 C. sugar
2 C. water
1/3 lemon (I use 2 t. Minute Maid Frozen Lemon Juice, it = 1/3 lemon)
1/3 C. honey
1 t. vanilla
Make the syrup first. Combine the sugar, water and lemon in an 8" pot. Bring to a boil; boil 10 minutes. I put it in the fridge until I pull the baklava out of the oven. It should thicken up during its time in the fridge to the consistency of good honey or maple syrup. If it doesn't thicken noticeably by the time the baklava's been baking for a half-hour, put it in the freezer. When you take it out, stir in the vanilla and honey.
While your syrup's boiling chop the walnuts, mix the other ingredients for the nut mixture in a large bowl. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Next, spray a 13" x 9" pan with butter cooking spray. Melt the butter in the microwave in a small microwave-safe bowl. The phyllo sheets usually come frozen, in two half pound rolls of sheets. You just will need the one roll - 1/2 pound. Thaw it according to package instructions. Now I've heard some brave souls use paper towels, some waxed paper, etc. to keep the phyllo from drying out. I get two clean, clean dishtowels, wet them, wring them out thoroughly, put one down on the counter, the phyllo sheets on top of that, and the other clean towel on top to cover. Put a sheet of phyllo in pan, brush it evenly with butter (using pastry brush), repeat until there are 7 sheets of phyllo on bottom of pan. (Always cover unused phyllo while buttering). Put half of nut mixture on top of buttered phyllo, add 3 more sheets of buttered phyllo, then the rest of nut mixture. Butter and place the rest of the phyllo on top.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 1 hour or until golden. Check it after 45-50 minutes to make sure it's not getting too brown. Pour cold syrup over hot baklava. Cool. Cut into sqares, diamonds or rectangles, whatever suits your fancy. Enjoy! To serve these, I like to put them into cupcake foils because they look festive, they eat less messy, and most importantly, if they start to dry out a little, you can spoon a little honey on the top when you serve them and voila! Delicious!
Until next time, good vibes to all of you!
Claudia
