Speakers Bureau | Job Listing | Marriage Gap| Pope's Message | Economic Well-Being | Japan - 11/21/07

[Smartmarriages]

- POSTCARDS AND BUMPER STICKERS
- NOW IS THE TIME TO PLAN MARRIAGE DAY AND BLACK MARRIAGE DAY SPEAKERS!!!
- JOBS: MARRIAGE EDUCATION SPECIALIST
- THE MARRIAGE GAP (MEDIA HAS IT WRONG )
- POPE BENEDICT'S MESSAGE: DEFEND MARRIAGE AT ALL COSTS
- ONE TO BOOKMARK: THE TOP TEN EFFECTS OF MARRIAGE ON ECONOMIC WELL-BEING
- JAPAN

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- POSTCARDS AND BUMPER STICKERS

> Diane---I would love to receive some of the postcards to distribute to
> friends, coworkers, church members, etc. This past summer (Denver) was our
> first conference and we have already made our reservations for San Francisco!
> I would also like to have another Smart Marriages bumper sticker. I put the
> one I got in Denver on my car, but just got a new car!  The old car went to
> Louisiana with my brother where it will continue to spread the news!  -
> Patty Murphy
> Kingwood, TX  

I'm going to share this with the list to remind you to let me know if you'd
like me to send bumper stickers along with your postcards. Bumper stickers
just list the website: "www.smartmarriages.com"  with the purpose of sending
people to all the FREE information. If you want either or both, email me
your postal mailing address and number you want.   - d

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- NOW IS THE TIME TO PLAN MARRIAGE DAY AND BLACK MARRIAGE DAY SPEAKERS!!!

I'm sharing this one to light a fire under you to be sure you book your
speakers for these two important marriage weeks, ASAP.  Also, just because
these two are each doing a day in Michigan, it doesn't mean they're booked
for the full week.  Many, especially Nisa, are on the road going from one
event to the next around Black Marriage Day (which usually stretches out to
a week) and definitely during Marriage Week in Feb.  If you need contact
info, check the Directory of Programs/SPEAKERS BUREAU where most Smart
Marriages conference speakers have a listing and their contact information.
- diane 

> Diane, Great News! The Marriage Resource Center has the privilege to announce
> that Dr. Scott Haltzman will be our keynote for National Marriage Day Dinner
> February 15, 2008 and Nisa Muhammad will be our keynote for Black Marriage Day
> Dinner March 22 and finally our Marriage Resource Center along with Diane
> Sollee are in a national magazine written by Dr. Sabrina Black titled,
> "Happily Ever After? The ABC's of Relationships" in the Precious Times
> magazine Fall 2007.
>   
> Good things are happening in Michigan!
> Pamela J. Hudson, M.A.
> Marriage Resource Center of Wayne County

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- JOB: MARRIAGE EDUCATION SPECIALIST
> Marriage Education Specialist
> 
> Project Management firm based in Oklahoma City is currently seeking a Marriage
> Education Specialist to join our Family Expectations Program. This position
> reports to the Marriage Education Supervisor, the Marriage Education
> Specialist will coordinate all activities of contract employees and serve as a
> liaison between the curriculum developer and the Family Expectations Program.
> The ideal candidate will have a Bachelors Degree in Sociology, Social Work,
> Psychology, Marriage and Family Studies, or equivalent. Interested candidates
> should have the ability to work the following hours: Monday through Friday
> 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with one day¹s schedule being 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
> or 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. to allow for observations and/or debriefing
> sessions. If observations occur on Saturdays, Friday¹s schedule will be 8:30
> a.m. ­ 12:30 p.m. to allow for four hours of observation during a Saturday
> workshop.
>  
> Please email karen.holeman at publicstrategies.com for more information and if
> interested please submit a resume and salary requirements
------------------------
- MARRIAGE SPECIALIST/HEALTHY MARRIAGE PROGRAM ANALYST IN WASHINGTON, DC
> Below is the vacancy announcement for the Office of Head Start Marriage
> Specialist.  This person will be primarily responsible for managing the 24
> new, just funded Head Start grants.  Please share this opportunity with
> individuals and groups you believe would have people interested in applying
> for this position. - Betty Mobley, betty.mobley at acf.hhs.gov



Program Analyst (Healthy Marriage)
Applications due by 12/14/07
Salary: $46,041.00 TO $86,801.00 plus all the great govt benefits
Hiring Agency: Administration for Children and Families
For more information, Contact:
Rockville Center HelpDesk, 888-478-4340 quickquestions at psc.gov

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See Job Listings at: http://www.smartmarriages.com/jobs.html
 
If you have a position listed that has been filled, please let me know so I
can remove it.  - diane

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- THE MARRIAGE GAP (MEDIA HAS IT WRONG )

Here is one to clip and save ­ a wonderful article though as I read I kept
waiting for Whelan to reference Kay Hymowitz and her book Marriage and Caste
in America that so beautifully makes this same case.  - diane

THE MARRIAGE GAP
MEDIA HYPE WRONG PERIL
The New York Post
November 16, 2007 
By CHRISTINE B. WHELAN

November 16, 2007 -- MAJOR news outlets are once again scaring smart,
accomplished women into believing that they're doomed to be old maids
because they intimidate men. This old saw makes great headlines - but it's
dead wrong. It also distracts from the real problems facing the American
family: Male or female, those with good educations and big paychecks do well
in the marriage market - while those without degrees or career success are
increasingly unlucky in love.

In 1970, women married around age 21; 68 women enrolled in college per 100
men - and the more education a woman had, the less likely she was to get
married. Academic articles of the time routinely reported that women were
more attracted to high-status men, whom they saw as "providers," whereas men
were attracted to pretty and docile women, whom they perceived as "motherly"
and fertile.

But then a historic shift began: Today, women marry around age 26, make up a
significant majority of college classes - about 135 women will graduate for
every 100 men - and a woman's educational achievements increase her chances
of marriage. Recent studies show that today's young men find a woman's
success to be an aphrodisiac.

This translates into positive marriage statistics for educated women. As
part of the Current Population Survey, the Census Bureau looked at this
issue in its March interviews of 50,000 U.S. households: Among 35- to
39-year-old women, some 88 percent with advanced degrees have married,
versus 81 percent of women without college degrees.

Despite these changes, the conventional wisdom remains that men are less
interested in educated or successful women - and the media fuel this concern
by publicizing small studies that support out-of-date gender norms.

A recent speed-dating study from Columbia University garnered national
attention for its finding that men prefer beautiful, smart women, but are
less interested in women that they believe to be smarter than themselves.
(Cue the old saw, "Men don't make passes/ At girls who wear glasses.")

Missing from all the attention was a key caveat: This research was conducted
on 400 graduate students. In other words, its significance pales in
comparison to the marriage data collected on the 50,000 Americans covered in
the Current Population Survey - data that tell very much the opposite story.

Times have changed, but the reporting on the Columbia study once again
played into the fears of ambitious women nationwide about their chances of
career and personal success. The New York Times' Maureen Dowd devoted a
column to it, perhaps because it confirms the (mistaken) thesis of her
recent book.

All this hype sends the wrong message about women's prospects. Young women
can pursue their education and career goals and stay confident in their odds
of marriage.

Equally bad: All this media focus on the odds of marriage for
college-educated women detracts from some real issues facing our families:
America is rapidly becoming a nation of marriage "haves" and "have-nots."

The "haves" are college graduates, who are marrying at higher rates and
divorcing at lower rates than the rest of the population. The "have-nots"
are those with a high-school degree or less, who are more likely to
cohabitate than marry, more likely to have children outside of wedlock - and
stand a higher risk of divorce if they do take their vows.

It's high time we stopped making accomplished women worry for no reason -
and focused our attention on educating the next generation about the value
of a college degree, the importance of marriage and the possibilities for
both men and women of a healthy combination of career and family life.

Christine B. Whelan is the author of "Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women" and a
visiting assistant professor in the sociology department at the University
of Iowa. 

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- POPE BENEDICT'S MESSAGE: DEFEND MARRIAGE AT ALL COSTS

> Defend marriage and family life at all costs, Benedict XVI tells Africans
> 
> Vatican City, Nov 19, 2007 / 10:40 am (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI had a special
> message for Africa in his meeting with the bishops of Kenya today. As the
> bishops completed their ³ad limina² visit, the Pope exhorted them to defend
> ³at all costs² the institutions of marriage and family life, which are under
> attack from the ³globalized secular culture².
> 
> Praising the esteem in which Africans hold marriage and family life, the Holy
> Father told the Kenyan bishops that ³[t]his precious treasure must be guarded
> at all costs.² The cause of ³the ills besetting some parts of African society,
> such as promiscuity, polygamy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases,
> can be directly related to disordered notions of marriage and family life,²
> Benedict noted.
> 
> "For this reason," he added, "it is important to assist parents in teaching
> their children how to live out a Christian vision of marriage, conceived as an
> indissoluble union between one man and one woman, essentially equal in their
> humanity and open to the generation of new life.²

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- ONE TO BOOKMARK: THE TOP TEN EFFECTS OF MARRIAGE ON ECONOMIC WELL-BEING

This is an invaluable service from Heritage - not only the top facts, but
the research citations on which it's all based right at your fingertips.
This one is on marriage impact on economics but they do them on all our hot
topics. - diane 

FamilyFacts for Nov 1007:  For Love and Money: The Impact of Marriage on
Economic Well-Being - the Top Ten Findings.
http://familyfacts.org/topten.cfm

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- JAPAN

Just goes to show it doesn't matter what culture/country you're in, Venus is
the same on any part of the planet.  - diane

> Japan Today 
> Wednesday, November 14, 2007
> 
>  Wives want to hear their husbands say three magic phrases more often:
> 'Thank you,' 'Sorry' and 'I love you.'
> Shuichi Amano, a 55-year-old magazine editor in Fukuoka and founder of the
> National Teishu-Kampaku Association, a group he started in 1999 to help save
> marriages. The association brings members together to exchange experiences
> about marriage. (AFP)

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