Blog Posts by ForbesWoman

By Maseena Ziegler

Is it ever okay for a woman to use her sexuality to get ahead in the workplace? According to a prominent British sociologist and expert on women's issues and employment, not only is it perfectly permissible, but it's also important for women to learn that "erotic capital" has genuine economic value and social benefits. We should cease feeling embarrassed or guilty about using our sexuality to achieve our career objectives . . . because men do so all the time.

Professor Catherine Hakim found the entire "moral" debate in my recent piece "Views Of An Alpha Male" to be "ludicrous," and the views of the Alpha Male quoted in the article "riddled with mauvaise foi"-intellectual dishonesty. She says, "Men use any asset they have to get ahead, including attractiveness, charm, good social skills, being well-dressed to display status, as well as intelligence and all the rest. However, men absolutely forbid women to do the same to create an even playing field, and will use any

By Tom Van Riper

Grand Rapids, Michigan doesn't boast a lot of affluence. The metro area population of 774,000 carries a median household of $47,040, good for just 65th place among America's 100 largest MSAs. The city's major claims to fame come from being a national leader in office furniture production, and for being the hometown of a U.S. president, Gerald Ford.

What Grand Rapids doses have: the distinction of being the best metro area in the country to raise a family in. Income may be relatively low, but the cost of living is even lower. The local school system ranks in the top third in the country. Commuting to work is a breeze. The housing foreclosure mess didn't leave Grand Rapids unscathed, chopping about 12% off area home values over the past few years. But that's still quite modest compared to many other places. Almost 90% of Grand Rapids' housing stock is affordable to a family at the median income level, the seventh-highest rate in the country. And the local crime rate

By Jenna Goudreau

Watch out, Mitt. Barbie has stepped onto the campaign trail and will officially announce her bid for President on Thursday.

The I Can Be…President Barbie doll by manufacturer Mattel and in partnership with The White House Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit that aims to involve more women in politics, will be in mass distribution. Presale begins tomorrow, but Mattel expects it to hit shelves everywhere in August in four different races: Caucasian, Hispanic, African-American and Asian.

Barbie's Careers Through The Years

Will you vote for Barbie in 2012?

As the only female candidate in the election, Presidential Barbie will literally stand on her own. For the first time in the doll's 53-year history, weighted wedge heels allow her to stand upright on any flat surface. The undisputed leader of the "B Party" wears pearls and a pink power suit with patriotic red, white and blue accents designed by Chris Benz, who has outfitted First Lady Michelle Obama.

By Meghan Casserly

The short-term and far-reaching economic effects of your $50 a month Ortho Tri Cyclen

A new working paper from the University of Michigan draws another heavy underline on the importance of access to birth control for women's long-term earning potential. After cross-examining wage and education data for women born between 1943 and 1954, economist Martha Bailey estimates that one third of women's wage gains since the 1960s were made possible by the Pill.

Economists, sociologists, and just plain women have long understood the correlation between contraception and career, but it's been difficult to put numbers to. "The difficulty of parsing the Pill's effect on women's careers relates to the timing of its appearance," said Bailey, the chief researcher of the working paper in a statement. "By cause or coincidence, the pill's diffusion coincided with important changes in norms and ideas about women's work and the end of the baby boom."

The Right To Choose And The Tyranny

By Meghan Casserly

Turn a weekend's worth of chores into a profitable endeavor by looking at your items with new (Read: money-hungry) eyes.

April's almost upon us, which for some means tax-time and for others means the start of gardening season. But for the more, April means Spring Cleaning, the time of year when we bravely enter the corners of our homes armed with dust-rags and trash-bins, clearing the cob-webs and clutter that have accumulated over the preceding three seasons.

It's a dirty job.

Top 10 Tricks To De-Clutter Your Office

It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it -- and get paid for it.

But with a little bit of creativity, web-savvy and a fresh pair of eyes, what can at first seem a bleak way to spend a weekend can, in fact, become quite a rewarding endeavor. Everyone who's seen an episode of Hoarders knows that you can't just keep consuming without getting rid of the surplus, and so for most of us the challenge is turning off the inclination to trash everything we don't want.

The typical American consumer throws

By Leah Bourne

Don't have time to head to a salon for a blowout or to the spa for a manicure (or don't want to spend the money)? A range of experts weigh in-including Oprah Winfrey's eyebrow guru and fashion week's favorite manicurist-on how to get the professional beauty look yourself, keeping in mind just how time-crunched most women are.

The 10-Minute Updo

Expert: Adir Abergel Ambassador for Frédéric Fekkai (hair guru behind Kristen Stewart's tousled chignon at right)

1. Start out using Fekkai Oceanique Tousled Wave Spray, which will add some texture into your hair, and give it more grab.

2. Then, using a curling iron, put a few waves into your hair.

3. Pull your hair into a very loose low-draped ponytail. Twist the ponytail, and start pinning with bobby pins.

4. Finish the look with Fekkai Sheer Hold Hairspray. Leave a few layers cascading around the face.

Abergel advises, "Texture is key. A day or two dirty hair is perfect for an updo. Blow dry

By Tara Tiger Brown

Lately I've been thinking a lot about what it was like for me being a geeky girl growing up and what it's like for geeky girls nowadays. It's a totally different world. Now, a geek is synonymous with anyone who has an Internet connection. When I was growing up being a geek wasn't something you wanted advertised but you felt pride in knowing that you were really good at something or were a subject matter expert on something obscure. I spent hours every night listening to Henry Rollins spoken word tapes when most people thought he was just in a band, I knew all the names of the Transformers characters and their backstories, I received all of my Girl Guides badges and I played every Sierra Online Quest game at least twice. I was not cool, I was a geek.

Back before computers, the term 'geek' was originally described as a freak that performed in circus acts and carnivals. The term morphed over time and in the 90′s was used interchangeably with 'nerd' to

By Meghan Casserly

Since the debut of AMC's hit Mad Men in 2007, the show has been ever-present in conversations of gender equality (or reflections of it) in the media.

Is it a feminist show? There are female writers! It has female characters in the workplace! There is open talk of contraception! Or is it more accurately a sexist show? The women are mostly secretaries! They only go on the pill so they can sleep with their bosses! Suburban housewives flounce around in girdles cooking dinner while their husbands booze it up in the city! Joan gets raped and doesn't talk about it.

The 10 Most Sexist Jobs In The U.S.

Is Mad Men sexist?

Yeah. It's not a feminist show, ladies. Its characters are smug sexists who treat women as little more than playthings and subordinates. But it's okay! We still love it.

Because there are costumes.

Gloria Steinem calls it the Mad Men Effect: wherein a show is so steeped in nostalgia and impeccable set pieces that the sanctioned workplace and cultural misogyny becomes just another part of the artistic rendering of the era. Are we so bewitched by the clothing, flagrant indoor smoking and brown-boozed cocktails that we overlook politics and behavior that we would in no way tolerate in contemporary programming or-god forbid-our own homes and offices?