Progress Illinois

Hemlines, husbands and hairdos.

Despite this year being coined the "Year of the Woman" by some political pundits, those characteristics continue to define women seeking a run for public office or who are already in power, said Bev Perdue, former Democratic governor of North Carolina.

But as America's demographic profile continues to shift, and as today's young women enter the workforce, bias against female politicians will eventually dissipate, Perdue added.

"I think you're going to bring about all this change we've been fighting about," Purdue said at a Women In Politics panel discussion at the University of Chicago (U of C) Wednesday evening. "I'd like to live long enough to see a real year of the woman, and actually a year of the gay man and a year of people not worrying about sex or race."  Read more »

Female mortgage applicants are less likely to have their loans approved than their male counterparts, according to a new report by the Woodstock Institute, prompting researchers to call for further investigation into gender discrimination in lending practices.

After studying 2010 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data for the Chicago six county region, which includes Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties, the Woodstock Institute found than “female applicants overall were about 8 percent less likely to have purchase mortgages originated and about 21 percent less likely to have refinance mortgages originated than were male applicants.”

Read more »