Barbara & Shannon Kelley

If rules were made to be broken, why are so many of us so afraid of breaking them?

They have their function, after all: If everyone took a red light as but a minor suggestion, driving -- or merely riding in -- a car would be a seriously risky endeavor....

In a meeting last week, another editor and I got to discussing the state of the food section of our paper. (Perhaps we were hungry.) He immediately went on a tangent (okay, we were hungry), talking about how he had recently become interested in the history of food criticism; how...

You know the saying, "the best defense is a good offense?" I'm thinking that instead of expending our energy on the war on women, why don't we wage a war for women? Right?

I sometimes wonder if we women -- roughly half the population and half the workforce, too --...

Between "Are You Mom Enough?" (a.k.a. the extremely controversial TIME magazine breastfeeding cover) and Elisabeth Badinter's extremely controversial book The Conflict, which cast a critical eye on the current trend (among some sets) toward attachment parenting, and the Daily Mail's latest offense about the "ambitious career women" who...

I came across an interesting study the other day that found that when it comes to independent work -- freelancing, consulting, you name it -- those indie workers are more likely to be women. According to MBO Partners' Independent Workforce Index, some 8.5 million women are choosing to fly...

Last week, I attended an alumni/student networking event at my alma mater, UC Santa Barbara. The event consisted of about 50 working professionals (I was in this camp) and 100 soon-to-be-grads, sniffing around for some intel on what the "real world" might have in store. The kids (umm -- ouch...

I don't know about you, but I am unbearably tired of phrases like "aging gracefully." Or worse yet: "Embracing your age." Can you define that, please? And while you're at it, please tell me why such phrases are often accompanied by a photo of a woman with white hair.

It...

Last Sunday, after a particularly wild out of town weekend with family and friends, a small group of us convened for brunch before going our separate ways. I looked at the menu, and while the chilaquiles softly called to me, I opted for my standby: huevos rancheros. But when the...

More than likely, you are too.

Give it a try: N-n-n-n-n-ooooooooooooo.

Can't say it, can you? Like me, you are probably over-extended, over-committed and over-booked. Which makes me wonder: Why is it that we can't give ourselves permission to ever respectfully decline? And, while we're at it: Why do men...

So, the Mommy Wars. They're back. Again. Or still.

A super quick recap: As you've undoubtedly heard by now, last week Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen said on CNN that Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's wife Ann, a stay at home mom, had "never worked a day in her life."...

I'll bet you do. That's right: you, over there. The one who just fished a shirt to wear to work out of the pile of dirty clothes on your bedroom floor. Trust me, I do not judge, having worn the same running clothes for three days straight. (Right. Ew.)

Seems...

One of the problems with decisions is that we sometimes make them before we're ready. Sometimes we've forced ourselves into a box, or perhaps we've made our choice freely and willingly. Sometimes it's been a full-court press to please the iconic self. But as the saying goes: Decide in...

Let's talk about sex. Everyone else seems to be. They're talking about women and sex and "Girls" and sex and feminism and sex and HBO and sex and the sexual revolution as failure and the sexual revolution as success.

It feels a little weird to be writing this,...

The other day, I ran across an interview with Susan Sarandon over there at ontheredcarpet.com that reminded me once again that good things are often born of chaos. Or, as we so often write: We are our failures, those blips in the road that can propel us forward.

But...

When, over the span of a little over a week, two huge studies find that women are viewed as better leaders than men -- and that, the higher the professional level, the wider the gap between the woman and her male counterpart (i.e., if you'll pardon the grammar, the higher...

Sure, there's been a lot of chat about everything that's wrong with Mad Men and why women in general and feminists in particular should hate its unrepentant misogynystic guts. And let's face it: This is a show that glorifies gin, Lucky Strikes and getting laid (by anyone but one's...

Bryce Covert's recent post on The Nation's website got me thinking today. Covert wrote about an Accenture survey that found that Gen Y working women have the most positive outlook for women in the workplace of any other generation, and yet they're less likely than their male counterparts...

As one more reminder why you still see more men than women in the corporate suites, there's this: women don't exaggerate nearly enough. According to a recent study out of Columbia University Business School, one reason why men are more likely to succeed in business is because they're much...

We've been hearing a lot about the ambition gap lately: the fact that, as Sheryl Sandberg notes, only a paltry 15 to 18 percent of women occupy the top spots. But there's a dirty little secret that impacts the number of women who ultimately become leaders, or who...

You run into feminists in the unlikeliest of places. To wit: The newest pitch for the rebirth of the F-word comes from none other than Louise Court, the editor of Cosmo's UK edition. In an interview with The Guardian, Court talked about the magazine's campaign to ride a new...