Anne of Carversville

Anne is reading …

Author Amy Chua (second from left) sits with three of her subjects., Matthew Niederhauser for NewsweekNot only does China have more females than any other nation. The nation now hosts more self-made female billionaires than any other country in the world. Writing for The Daily Beast, Amy Chua profiles four female tycoons in China.

Four standouts among China’s intriguing new superwomen are Zhang Xin, the factory worker turned glamorous real-estate billionaire, with 3 million followers on Weibo (China’s Twitter); talk-show mogul Yang Lan, a blend of Audrey Hepburn and Oprah Winfrey; restaurant tycoon Zhang Lan, who as a girl slept between a pigsty and a chicken coop; and Peggy Yu Yu, cofounder and CEO of one of China’s biggest online retailers. None of these women inherited her money, and unlike many of the richest Chinese who are reluctant to draw public scrutiny to their path to wealth, they are proud to tell their stories.

Having spent much time working in China, Anne agrees with Yu’s argument that working women in China have advantages over American women. Domestic help is inexpensive and grandparents believe it’s their job to look after babies. “Sixty years of communism,” said Yu, “did one really good thing: bring true equality between the sexes. I think people in China are brought up believing that women are just as capable as men.”

All four Chinese female billionaires worry that as China emerges from communism, the young are focused not on Confucian values of selflessness, compassion, honor and righteousness. “When we were growing up,” says Yang, “we wanted to be nurses, doctors, astronauts, teachers. Today people are suspicious of anything noble or grand. Kids just want to be rich or powerful.”

The Genius of Cecile Richards Nation

In an excellent, in-depth profile on Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards, we quote the last paragraph in response to a query about whether she will eventually follow her mother Ann Richards as governor of Texas:

“Because we have so many supporters,” Richards says of her organization’s 2012 efforts, “we use every new technology for folks to take action from their homes, to contact their representatives, to do block walking. We have seen an explosion in social media for Planned Parenthood. Women are too busy to focus on politics. They are too busy particularly in this economy. They don’t have time to watch TV or follow politics. But they are on social media. Women listen to other women. And they listen to Planned Parenthood. And this will be the silent majority, but it will be the majority of voters in 2012, all of whom communicate with each other with less traditional means, but through a very powerful network.”

As for governor, the always poised woman under fire says: “Texas is not quite ready for me.”

War on Women Updates

98 Major Advertisers Dump Rush Limbaugh, Other Right-Wing Hosts Think Progress

Premiere Networks has shared a list of 98 advertisers who want to avoid “environments likely to stir negative sentiments.” Included on the list are Ford, GM, Toyota, Allstate, Geico, Prodential, State Farm, McDonald’s, Subway.

The list of shows ‘banned’ informally by the advertisers include Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity.

Are U.S Republicans waging a war on women? Toronto Star

“This is absolutely a war against women,” said Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, which advocates for women’s equality. “It’s deliberate, intentional and as serious as a heart attack.”

Toronto’s foreign affairs reporter Olivia Ward, runs down the big picture in Republican efforts to seize long held abortion, contraception and even rape law rights from American women.

Center stage in the article is Karen Teegarden who is organizing a national day of protest on April 28 after having her own defiant moment watching the Blunt Amendment spectacle.

What the Michigan marketing company owner did was open a Facebook account — her first — and give herself a crash course on how to start a protest. The morning after she posted help-wanted requests for organizers, she had 500 replies.

Two weeks later, more than 18,000 women and men have signed up. The protest, called Unite Against the War on Women, is scheduled for April 28 in major cities across the U.S. If it gains momentum, it may be the largest women’s rights demonstration in a generation.

Georgia Lawmaker compares women to cows and pigs The Raw Story

Republican Georgia state Rep. Terry England says that his experience with cows, pigs and chickens has proven to him that women should be forced to have their babies after 20 weeks of pregnancy — dead or alive.

“Life gives us many experiences,” he explained. “I’ve had the experience of delivering calves, dead and alive — delivering pigs, dead and alive. … It breaks our hearts to see those animals not make it.”

Only a man would make asinine statement like this — suggesting that a woman should be forced to carry a dead or nonviable fetus until it is expelled naturally.

Women are not animals. We have rights to live and breath with some freedom — at least for a bit of time in America.