by Amy-Willard Cross

Having grown up on an Iowa farm, journalist Andy Kopsa muses about lady farmers, the family farm and the tear-jerking Superbowl commercial, "God Made a Farmer". The Farmer's wife, is actually a farmer.

What is it with men and photos of their erect penises? Men and women are taught to deal with social situations differently. Men and boys are overwhelmingly taught to depend on themselves, to be direct, and to celebrate their physical strength. Women and girls, on the other hand, are taught the value of social coherence and politeness, and are often not encouraged to celebrate their bodies at all. Whether these are innate sex differences or acquired characteristics is an open question, but socially, for most people, and in varying degrees, the sciences agree that gender (i.e. learned norms), if not sex (i.e. biological distinctions), makes a difference.

Are the all-female wedding and baby showers a necessary evil to rack up on gifts? Or are they painful reminders of our inadequacies?

by Stephanie Hlywak

When  Katie Orenstein started The Op-Ed Project, some ten to

By Karestan C. Koenen

I. My rape

by Rebecca Sive

In my twenty-five years of ministry I have often been challenged about my pro-choice theological position. It happens during the Advent season especially, when those who oppose my position exclaim in loud and sometimes threatening tones, "What would have happened if Mary had had an abortion!" I am always stunned by such a remark, of course. How did that person get from the Advent story of the Annunciation to abortion? The Annunciation story, and for that matter, the remarkable story of God becoming human, says nothing about abortion. But it does say something about choice.

by Marie A. Failinger

Women continue to gain economic independence through business ownership in the United States and globally.  The U.S.