A quick note to readers of this blog:

You are invited to drop by my newest blog, The Retirement Monologues at http://retirementmonologues.com/ where I am focusing on the latest retirement issues that face many of us, as we march on through life. Not financial planning (everyone else worries about that), but fun stuff like what are you going to be doing as you retire. Travel? Go fishing? Write blogs that matter?

It would be particularly interesting to comments that relate to diversity and retirement... Any ideas??

I will be interviewing lots of people, commenting on related social and political issues, and trying to pass on some of the more unique and interesting aspects of retiring and staying engaged. If you know of someone who would make a good interviewee, please let me know.

Meanwhile, please drop by and say hello. I would love to have your comments on posts and I am always looking for contributed articles to post on this topic. I have targeted this blog  to women's issues, but hey, everyone is invited to drop by and share their thoughts.

Just finished a post, by the way, on women who are leaving the workforce to start up their own businesses because they are sick and tired of the discrimination wars. Any thoughts?

Thanks, Susan Klopfer

The Retirement Monologues

Remembring the Scarlet Letter; Fighting Discrimination

Young Women and The Scarlet Letter

Just learned that AOL became the eighth advertiser to pull their ads from Rush Limbaugh's show earlier this week in wake of the controversy over Limbaugh's characterization of Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke as a "slut" and a "prostitute."


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Shantelle Hicks, kicked out of middle school and then publicly humiliated at an assembly by the school director and another staff member because she was pregnant. 
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THE DETAILS OF THIS CONTROVERSY have exploded all over the Internet and you have probably read many posts condemning  Limbaugh and calling for a boycott of the companies that continue to advertise on his show. 

In the firestorm of responses to Limbaugh's comments and the "apologies" he has issued in the wake of sponsors fleeing the show, I have been impressed by the AOL response, quoted above and the response from another former advertiser on the show, Carbonite's CEO David Friend:

"No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Miss Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency. Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show. We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse."

It is always brave to stand up against discrimination. For a big company like AOL, the CEO has many forces behind him -- all the lawyers he could ever need, employees, suppliers and so many others. 


But what about a young person with few resources who chooses to fight a giant?


The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of New Mexico yesterday filed a lawsuit Tuesday  on behalf of a young Ntive American woman in our community, 15-year-old  Shantelle Hicks, after she was initially kicked out of middle school and then publicly humiliated at an assembly by the school director and another staff member because she was pregnant. 


The complaint alleges that school administrators violated Hicks’ constitutional right to equal protection under the law, Title IX’s prohibitions against sex and pregnancy discrimination and violations of her right to privacy. 


The story of what happened is sad, indeed. 


Do you remember the story of the Scarlet Letter? In my junior high school years, my classmates and I read this 1850 romantic work of fiction placed in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of a man who conceives a daughter through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.


It is almost impossible not to see comparisons between Hawthorne's character and this young teen, after you hear what took place when she decided she wanted to stay in school:


“It was so embarrassing to have all the other kids staring at me as I walked into the gymnasium,” said Hicks. “I didn’t want the whole school to know I was pregnant because it’s not their business, and it wasn’t right for my teachers to single me out.” 


Hicks attends Wingate Elementary School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school just outside of Gallup, New Mexico and is currently in the eighth grade. She discovered she was pregnant approximately three weeks before the assembly, and she and her mother told the director of the middle school and two other staff members. They initially responded by kicking her out of school. 


The ACLU of New Mexico sent a demand letter to the school, informing them that it is illegal to deny a student access to education because of pregnancy status. Wingate readmitted Hicks after four missed days of instruction. 


Approximately two weeks later the director of the middle school and another staff member had Hicks stand before the entire middle school at an assembly and announced that she was pregnant. Until that point, no one other than Hicks’ sister knew that she was pregnant.

“Too often, pregnant students face significant barriers or outright discrimination in school,” said Galen Sherwin, staff attorney with the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. “Instead, schools should give pregnant and parenting students the support they need to help them succeed, for both themselves and for their children.”  


“The ACLU’s lawsuit seeks damages and declaratory relief for violations of Hicks’ constitutional right to equal protection under the law and of Title IX prohibitions against sex and pregnancy discrimination in education.” 


“We believe that Wingate intentionally humiliated Shantelle in retaliation for her refusal to leave the school,” said ACLU of New Mexico cooperating attorney Barry Klopfer. 


“It is outrageous that educators would subject a young woman in their care to such cruelty. Adopting one’s moral convictions from the Scarlet Letter is completely inappropriate and fails to take into account a child’s educational needs.” 


Lawyers on this case include Klopfer, Alexandra Freedman Smith, Laura Schauer Ives and Maureen Sanders of the ACLU of New Mexico; and Sherwin and Lenora Lapidus of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. 


More information about this case can be found at: www.aclu.org/womens-rights/hicks-v-edsitty-beach

Hire Diversity, Make More Money (Retailers Learn From Profs)

A new business marketing study gives retailers a strong reason to hire with diversity in mind.

Yearly earnings are boosted by as much as $100,000 when they employ people who look like their customers, a new study suggests.

But this still involves more than simply playing ethnic mix-and-match, says one professor.

Temple University, Rutgers University and Davidson College profs studied 739 outlets of the U.S. department store J.C. Penney and found that where the pool of employees mirrored the ethnic makeup of the communities they served, this earned retailers an average of $94,000 more per year than stores in which staff wasn’t as representative of the wider community.

That figure averages out to $630 more per employee, and earned the company an extra $69 million last year, the study found.

The study was the first to establish such a strong link between diversity and profitability.

“In some ways the whole thing was sort of surprising,” says co-author Derek Avery, a professor of Human Resources Management at Temple’s Fox School of Management. “Even though the finding is somewhat intuitive based on social-psychological principles – similarity has got to sell. But when you look at all the literature that’s out there it really hadn’t worked. Evidence was very mixed.”

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But previous studies measured the financial effect of matching employees and customers of the same ethnic group, and Avery says his group’s study examined diversity and retail on a broader scale -- yielding a more comprehensive set of answers.

He cautions retailers and other companies not to misinterpret the study’s conclusions — setting quotas or numerical targets for employees of various ethnic groups misses the point.

Avery says customers at a mainstream retailer aren’t necessarily swayed by attempts to pander to ethnic solidarity. Instead, he says, a monochromatic sales team in an ethnically diverse area sends negative signals to shoppers of various backgrounds.

The study, titled “Is There Method to the Madness? Examining How Racioethnic Matching Influences Retail Store Productivity,” appears in the journal Process Psychology.

Too Few Black CPAs, Says Howard University Professor (Who Offers Solutions)

Listen to Frank Ross, CPA:

Most of the accounting profession recognizes the importance of attracting more Blacks to the field and helping them pass the CPA exam. Few, unfortunately, have a good track record in getting results. In 2002 and 2010, Blacks hired by CPA firms accounted for only 3 percent and 4 percent, respectively. Even slightly lower, the percentage of Black professional staff members of CPA firms was 2 percent in 2002 and 3 percent in 2010. As expected, this has resulted in the marginal representation of Blacks at the management level of CPA firms, with only 1 percent of Black partners in 2002 and less than 1 percent in 2010, according to the American Institute of CPAs.

Have can this problem be resolved?

Ross, director of the Howard University School of Business Center for Accounting Education and a visiting professor of accounting, teaching auditing and ethics, offers his opinion.

(In 1968, Ross was one of the nine cofounders and the first president of the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA). In December 2003, he retired from KPMG after providing more than 38 years of service. Prior to retiring, he was the Mid-Atlantic area managing partner for Audit and Risk Advisory Services and managing partner of the Washington, D.C., offices. Ross was also a member of KPMG’s board of directors and chairman of the KPMG Foundation board of directors.)

This article continued -- http://bit.ly/ApyZiL

Not just students bully...so do teachers, says Teaching Tolerance organization

When schools implement anti-bullying programs, the focus is usually centered on student-to-student bullying. However, students aren’t the only bullies in school. Teachers sometimes earn the label when they employ questionable disciplinary and management practices. Addressing Teacher Bullies is a presentation intended to help educators assess and reflect on their classroom management style and learn more about how inappropriate displays of teacher power can impact student learning.

Teaching Tolerance designed this presentation for teacher leaders, professional learning groups, staff development coordinators and other educators interested in engaging their colleagues around issues of teacher behavior and classroom climate.

Click here to learn more.