Lori Lightfoot Elected First Black Lesbian Mayor of Chicago

Lori Lightfoot is a 56-year-old former federal prosecutor and private attorney who just became the first Black lesbian to be elected mayor of Chicago. Lightfoot will become the highest ranking openly LGBT mayor in the country when she takes office and mayor of the largest city to be run by a Black woman, although not the only one. San Francisco (London Breed), Atlanta (Keisha Lance Bottoms), and Washington, D.C. (Muriel Bowser) are just a few.

Congratulations, Mayor Lightfoot!

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Maryam Mirzakhani, Only Female Fields Medalist, Has Died

Maryam Mirzakhani, Stanford mathematics full professor and Fields medalist, died last Friday July14 of breast cancer at the age of 40.  The Fields medal is the highest international honor in Mathematics (the equivalent of a Nobel prize) and Mirzakhani was the first (and only woman) to have received the award.

The loss of Mirzakhani (at such an early age) has stunned the mathematics community and resulted in a deluge of press. Here's an excerpt from the New York Times obituary:

Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian mathematician who was the only woman ever to win a Fields Medal, the most prestigious honor in mathematics, died on Friday. She was 40.

The cause was breast cancer, said Stanford University, where she was a professor. The university did not say where she died.

Her death is “a big loss and shock to the mathematical community worldwide,” said Peter C. Sarnak, a mathematician at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study.

The Fields Medal, established in 1936, is often described as the Nobel Prize of mathematics. But unlike the Nobels, the Fields are bestowed only on people aged 40 or younger, not just to honor their accomplishments but also to predict future mathematical triumphs. The Fields are awarded every four years, with up to four mathematicians chosen at a time.

She will be  missed!

WTA TOUR FINALS: The Elite Eight and the Draw

The Eight women who have qualified for the WTA Tour Finals to be held in Istanbul this week are (from left to right) Li Na, Angelique Kerber, Petra Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Agnieska Radwanska and Sara Errani.

The year end #1 ranking is (somewhat) at stake, with Azarenka able to clinch the spot if she wins just two round-robin matches. If Vika doesn't and Sharapova wins the entire tournament, then Masha could be World #1 for 2012. Of course, since Serena won not one but two Grand Slam titles (2012 Wimbledon, 2012 US Open) plus Olympic Gold medals in Singles and Doubles in 2012, the #1 ranking on the WTA Tour is not the same thing as saying who was the best player in 2012, since Serena's results speak for themselves, especially since she is so dominant against both Vika (the 2012 Australian Open champ) and Masha (the 2012 French Open champ), having not lost to either player all year.

The two groups for round-robin play at the Year-End Championships are:

Red Group• No. 1 Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
• No. 3 Serena Williams (USA)
• No. 5 Angelique Kerber (GER)
• No. 8 Li Na (CHN)
White Group• No. 2 Maria Sharapova (RUS)
• No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)
• No. 6 Petra Kvitova (CZE)
• No. 7 Sara Errani (ITA)

This means that Vika and Serena will play each other once in the round-robin and then maybe again in the final (since the top 2 from one group play elimination semifinals against the Top 2 in the other group, with #1 from one group playing #2 from the other group).

Clearly the red group is the tougher group, with all 4 players supreme bashers of the ball. In the White group (honestly, they couldn't have used the name "Blue" group?) Radwanksa and Errani are not exactly power players. However I would not be surprised if the Top 2 are not Sharapova and 2011 WTA Tour champion Kvitova. The White group surprisingly, does consist of only players who have reached a slam final before.

It would be great for the tournament (and the tour!) if Kvitova and Sharapova have to face Azarenka and Serena in the semis, then the final would feature some heavy hitting.

The tournament starts today and runs through the final on Sunday.

Analyzing The Pay Gap Between Men and Women

Kevin Drum analyzes the debate between Rachel Maddow and Bob Somerby over the accuracy of this sentence: “Women get paid 77 cents for every dollar that men get paid. For the same work, dudes get paid more.”


It is not really disputed that women earn less than men; the nexus of the debate is whether the source of this is discrimination.

Kevin says:

It's true that some of the gap goes away when you account for the fact that women tend to work in different jobs than men and take more time off to have children. But that's all part of the story. When all's said and done, women are punished financially in three different ways: because "women's jobs" have historically paid less than jobs dominated by men; because women are expected to take time off when they have children, which reduces their seniority; and because even when they're in the same job with the same amount of experience, they get paid less than men. All of these things are part of the pay gap. Whether you call all three of them "discrimination" is more a matter of taste than anything else.

I am not sure that one can just reduce this difference of opinion to a "matter of taste." The tendency of Republicans and conservatives to express disinterest and disbelief in a proven statistical disparate impact of the way society is  ordered on subaltern (marginalized) groups like women and people of color and LGBT folks is precisely a symptom of the problem. Do you think it's a coincidence that "women's jobs" (like teaching) has such low status and compensation in this country? There are real, serious and lasting impacts of gender-based discrimination.

Saturday Politics: DiFi's Low Poll Numbers, Cash Problem

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, no longer California's most popular politician?

Dianne Feinstein, long thought to be the most popular politician in California, has been running into some rough times lately. MadProfessah blogged about her poll numbers approaching the danger zone in June 2011 and now comes word of a more recent poll (September 16) confirming the conservadem's fall from grace.

Reuters reports:

The Field Research Corp poll estimated voters who do not want Feinstein to win reelection in 2012 to another six-year term at 44 percent, compared to 41 percent who favor her.

That is the first time the Field Poll has seen a larger share of voters say they are opposed to seeing Feinstein win reelection compared to the percentage who favor her election.

Feinstein is chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and has a reputation for being more conservative than California's other Senator, Barbara Boxer, also a Democrat.

In nearly every Field Poll over the past two decades, voters who approved of Feinstein outnumbered by double-digit margins those who disapproved, researchers said.

But the Field Poll showed only 41 percent said they approved of her job performance while 39 percent disapproved, representing the lowest rating of Feinstein's tenure.

Besides the low poll numbers, Sen. Feinstein is also caught up in the burgeoning Kinde Durkee accounting scandal. Apparently her $5 millon war chest for next November's re-election has been wiped out. Feinstein is responding by using $5 million of her (husband's) money to replace the amount stolen by the corrupt Democratic political accountant.

Politico reported about Feinstein's troubles last week:

Feinstein’s campaign already had a cloud hanging over it: This will be the first major race she navigates without her longtime strategist Kam Kuwata, whose death in April stunned political observers and left a gaping hole in her operation.

Those developments, coupled with Feinstein’s age — she’ll turn 79 next year — have fueled retirement speculation. While a formal announcement isn’t planned until 2012, Carrick told POLITICO that Feinstein will pursue a fourth term. But a volatile environment that continues to punish politicians with longtime ties to the establishment could still provide an opening for a robust Republican challenge.

While most see a weakened Feinstein still sailing to a comfortable victory, some believe a legitimate GOP challenger could be a boon to both sides. The scandal forced Feinstein to begin fundraising from scratch, and donors are hesitant to throw money at a campaign that so far faces no serious threats.

“There’s nothing more frustrating than shadow boxing,” said Carrick. “That’s a fundraising issue too. You get some people to say, ‘I’ll give when she has a serious opponent.’”

I know that I will most definitely not donating to or voting for Dianna Feinstein, for anything, ever again. She lost me when she carried water for President George W. Bush to get some of his conservative federal judicial appointments through the United States Senate, teaming up with her "good friend" Joe Lieberman to give aid and comfort to the Republicans.

I don't care that she voted against DOMA in 1996 and supports the Respect for Marriage Act and  marriage equality. She's bad on a whole lot of other progressive issues, something which can NOT be said for California's other U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, who I would walk 3 miles in the snow, barefoot to support. It's amazing that California has two Democratic female Senators who are so very different on the issues.d

Celebrity Friday: First African Miss Universe Fights HIV

Leila Luliana da Costa Vieira Lopes,
Miss Angola, was crowned Miss Universe

Leila Lopes, Miss Angola, became the first winner of the Miss Universe beauty pageant from Africa this week. I believe she is the first "dark-skinned" woman to win the most famous beauty pageant in the world.

Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper reports:

This is the first time a beauty queen from Angola has been crowned as Miss Universe. She is first black African to win the 60 year-old pageantry. Nigeria’s Agbani Darego won the 51st Miss World pageant in Sun City, South Africa, on 17 November, 2001.


[...]

The brand new Miss Universe, Leila Lopes said she wants to help her native Angola escape a history of war and impoverishment and work towards combating HIV.

Being crowned at the ceremony in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the 25-year-old said that “as Miss Angola, I’ve already done a lot to help my people.”

“I’ve worked with various social causes. I work with poor kids, I work in the fight against HIV. I work to protect the elderly and I have to do everything that my country needs,” she said. “I think now as Miss Universe I will be able to do much more.”

WATCH: Who Gets Abortions In America?

17 Women U.S. Senators and 6 Women Governors

There has been tremendous advances by female politicans in recent years and MSNBC's First Read has been running interesting facts about women and politics all week long. There are now 17 female U.S. Senators and 6 female Governors:

Governors
Jan Brewer of AZ
Jodi Rell of CT
Linda Lingle of HI
Jennifer Granholm of MI
Bev Perdue of NC
Chris Gregoire of WA

Senators
Lisa Murkowski of AK
Blanche Lincoln of AR
Barbara Boxer of CA
Dianne Feinstein of CA
Mary Landrieu of LA
Susan Collins of ME
Olympia Snowe of ME
Barbara Mikulski of MD
Debbie Stabenow of MI
Amy Klobuchar of MN
Claire McCaskill of MO
Kay Hagan of NC
Jeanne Shaheen of NH
Kirsten Gillibrand of NY
Kay Bailey Hutchison of TX
Patty Murray of WA
Maria Cantwell of WA

When do you think we will have a female President? The group She Should Run is trying to encourage women to consider running for public office.