• Cellphone networks in the UK have been asked to remove the numbers of pimps and prostitutes from their service before the 2012 Olympic games. Kit Malthouse, deputy mayor for policing, says the numbers can come to act as a kind of "switchboard," with multiple girls working from one number. • In other cellphone news, researchers have figured out a way to accurately track friendships using cellphones. Through implanting a number of their volunteers phones with software that logged their calls and recorded their proximity to other tracked phones, they managed to create a precise picture of the various friendships and acquaintances in their study group based upon their movements. • Katherine Nadal, the 28-year-old Houston woman who cut off her infant son's genitals in 2007, has been sentenced to 99 years in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. Police believe that Nadal was high at the time of the attack, and shortly afterward she tested positive for cocaine, methadone and Xanax. • The number of men taking child-care leave in Tokyo has decreased in the past several years, while the number of women taking leave has increased. The same survey found that men left the workplace for a much shorter time, with over half taking leave for less than a month. • While it's certainly a good thing that there are now more women in journalism school—in many programs, woman make up the majority of the students—this article, which claims ladies are more suited to "creative" careers like journalism, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. • A new study, to be published in the Harvard Business Review, indicates that there is no significant difference between the number of male M.B.A.s who were laid off during the first months of the recession and the number of female M.B.A.s. However, women have fared better overall, due to the relatively stable industries like health care and education, while male-dominated industries, including construction, have suffered. • Instead of hiring broke teenagers, thrifty parents are trading babysitting duties with their peers. Some parents are actually forming babysitting co-ops to widen the pool of free sitters. • Oprah's "power list" has been released in the latest issue of O magazine. The list, which is "heavy on politicos," features Lilly Ledbetter, Sheila Blair, Donna Brazile, and Melanie Sloan. •

NPR's Michelle Martin discusses the problems military moms face with a panel of three women who have dealt with them firsthand. She asks them about the recent case of Lisa Pagan, the mother who brought along her children when she reported for duty. Pagan received an honorable discharge after arguing that she was unable to be deployed abroad due to her responsibilities to her family. Surprisingly, all three of the women disapprove - to varying extents - of Pagan's choice.

"When you are a military parent, you have to have that a plan B of who is going to take care of my child when I deploy, because it's not a matter of if you will deploy, but when you will deploy," says Lt. Carey Lohrenz. She goes on to remind us that military dads face the same problems, and it is the job of both the parents and the military to figure out an adequate system of childcare: "Military parents need affordable, dependable childcare when children are young... All service members across the board require more family support services. It is not just the women."

Lt. Linda Maloney agrees that it is the responsibility of the military to "support [enlisted parents] and the family members that are left behind." While she believes that Pagan should have better planned for the possibility of being called for duty, she also would like to see the military rethink the way they deal with mothers on duty.

Pilar Arteaga, a petty officer first class in the Navy, is a single mother, which makes her situation somewhat different. Her pregnancy was unexpected, which only made it more difficult to deal with the challenges of military life. For her, the biggest issue of being a woman in the navy is the constant struggle to "prove yourself" to the men. She feels that the "single parent card" is played far too frequently, and that women like Pagan end up making military moms look bad.

Ultimately, Lt. Lohrenz calls for the military to educate continuously: "It goes back once again to being a leadership challenge...not just a one time, one lecture initiative, but ongoing training to help prevent unplanned pregnancies... I think it is leadership, leadership, leadership."

'For Family, For Country': Military Moms Do It All [NPR]
NC Mom Recalled To Army Duty Will Be Discharged [ABC]

In fact, the most reliable applause line of the night — from Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams to Sarah Palin — was any reference to abortion, or, in Republican terms, "respect for life." It is striking, in retrospect, how many times the speakers genuflected in the direction of embryos last night, as though there was any doubt that too many people in the room support reproductive rights.

Carly Fiorina has been stalking Hillary supporters for a while now trying to lure them with the false assertions that McCain is supportive of birth control coverage and not really all that opposed to abortion. In fact, one could even assert that she's the leading proponent in the McCainosphere pushing his "liberal" credentials on these issues, even as she's telling women they "aren't" — meaning, shouldn't be — one issue voters.

On the other hand, where is the women's agenda at the RNC? Pay equity is a Democratic issue, as is increased child care funding, as is universal health coverage. McCain's got increased child tax credits to go along with his insistence that he'll try to stop you from ever having an abortion and that your insurance company shouldn't have cover birth control, but I'd hardly say that's an agenda for women on a par with equal pay or equal rights. If I'm voting on more than "drill, baby, drill," the surge, McCain's torture-iffic past and letting businesses keep their tax breaks to keep prices low, what am I supposed to vote for when it comes to the daily issues in my life? The Dems may get my ear because of the Republican's insistence that abortion is as evil as "Islamic terrorism," but they keep it because they keep talking about things that I believe in. Women aren't one-issue voters, Carly, but John McCain is wrong on more than one issue.

Fiorina: Dems 'Hold Women Hostage' To Abortion Issue [The Hill]
Carly Fiorina's Fuzzy McCain-Speak [LA Times]

The poll also shows that 75 percent of women support increased government spending on child care and early childhood education compared to 59 percent of men — and fully 77 percent of women identified pay equity as a must-do issue after the Inauguration in January. These results could help explain the 49-39 percent lead Barack Obama has over John McCain at the moment (since only one of them supports increasing spending on child care and education or a pay equity bill), but it doesn't explain why that gap isn't larger.

In the meantime, some women are finding alternate ways of making ends meet — through egg donation. Of course, the article is filled with the appropriate amount of "concern" and approbation that women are (gasp) selling their eggs as opposed to subjecting themselves to weeks of difficult and painful procedures simply out of the kindness of their baby-loving hearts. I don't recall there being this kind of paternalism present when it was more common for men to jerk off in cups for money to "help" women get pregnant, but it wasn't that much money, either. Sperm are a dime a dozen, but eggs are are just half a cell away from being citizens if some people have their way.

Poll: Economic Anxiety Among Women [Politico]
Pay Gap Persists: Women Still Make Less, Study Says [USA Today]
Poll: Trouble Signs in Obama's Lead [Time]
Dim Economy Drives Women To Donate Eggs For Profit [CNN]

Child care professionals are responsible for the health, well-being and development of the fruit of other women's loins (not mine!) But in exchange for that, the median average salary in 2006 was $17,160. The government survey shows that other comparatively poorly remunerated jobs include bellhops, ($16,120), gaming dealers ($13,179), bartenders ($13,104), dishwashers ($16,012), maids ($16,640) and cashiers ($17,992). Of course, none of those people are responsible for your children on a daily basis, and, though I do love my cadre of bartenders it does seem like, if I had kids, I'd want the women in charge of making sure my kids grow up relatively normal to get paid more than the guy who helps gets me wasted on a Friday night. But I guess that's what happens when women start demanding money for what many of us are socially expected to do for free. At least child care workers, unlike stay-at-home mothers, will earn credit toward their Social Security even if they get paid so little they would barely be able to afford the child care if they had any children to take care of them in their dotage.

Diaper Genie [Slate]
National Compensation Survey: Occupational Wages in the United States, June 2006 [Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Nothing good! According to Business Week, " While [women are] getting more jobs, their pay is stagnant. Also, most share households — and bills — with the men who are losing jobs. And the 'female' economy can't stay strong for long if the 'male' economy weakens too much."

The reason men are losing such a disproportionate number of jobs is because the two sectors that are truly ailing, manufacturing and construction, are both over 70% male. The trend shows no sign of slowing because the next sector to be hit — securities — is 60% male. Finally, men have a much more difficult time getting back on the horse, so to speak, after losing a job. Claudia Goldin, a Harvard University labor historian, tells BW, "Men are having a harder time than women getting back on track after losing a job. "For a man to move from a $20- or $30-an-hour union job to being a Wal-Mart greeter is devastating."

So in summary, even though American women are gaining jobs, their economic stresses are still considerable. Bill McInturff, a pollster for John McCain, tells BW, "In focus groups they talk about how 'I'm taking care of my parents, his parents, buying groceries, taking kids to the doctor.' These women are tired."

The Slump: It's a Guy Thing [Businessweek]

Of course, that can also be a double-aged sword: "Those with two full-time nannies say that, since each is aware of what the other is doing, there are times when each one feels unfairly burdened with too much work and thinks the other is slacking. "You have to explain, 'You're here looking after the baby and the house, but she bought groceries and went to the post office to send a certified letter for me, and she got the kids to the tailor and playdate,' says Yael. "You wish they could figure it out on their own, but you have to intervene." Perhaps someone should get a team of McKinsey consultants in to optimize these work flows?

In other cases, too many nannies may mean that children don't learn to do things for themselves. "Sometimes nannies do things the child should be doing, like picking up toys," says Stacy Rosenthal, a West Village resident who works in product development.

Or um alternately like the recession could not arrive soon enough.

From a happy little Q&A on child-abusing baby sitters in Good Housekeeping:

Q: Is it riskier to hire a male babysitter?
A: Yes, as far as sexual abuse is concerned. Seventy-seven percent of reported sexual assaults by babysitters are committed by males.

Q: Does that mean it's safer to hire a girl?
A: Not necessarily. Females commit 64 percent of the reported physical assults - hitting, slapping - against kids by babysitters.

Hmmm. Do they still have wolves that suckle human babies?