U.S.News & World Report Tumblelog

Jon Hamm, the actor who plays a 1960s-era advertising executive on AMC’s Mad Men, got a lesson in 21st century marketing when he called Kim Kardashian an idiot last week. Hamm, who’s in the midst of promoting Mad Men’s fifth season, told a British magazine, “Whether it’s Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian or whoever, stupidity is certainly celebrated…. Being a [f—-ing] idiot is a valuable commodity in this culture because you’re rewarded significantly.”

Kardashian, who has more than 14 million followers on her Twitter account, quickly Tweeted, “Calling someone who runs their own businesses, is a part of a successful TV show, produces, writes, designs, and creates, ‘stupid,’ is in my opinion careless.”

5. No blonde jokes. Men here are very respectful of women, for the most part, in part because they know it’s a good rule that in politics, you should never burn a bridge. Today’s receptionist could be tomorrow’s legislative director. Men actually hold doors open for women around here, and I can’t tell you how many men apologize before they cuss when I’m around. Women love that.

“There’s no bright-line test on sexual harassment since the courts—including the U.S. Supreme Court—have made it clear that it will depend on the frequency and severity of the conduct, whether the conduct is physically threatening or humiliating and whether the conduct interferes with the employee’s job performance,” says Paul O. Lopez, director and chair of the litigation department at law firm Tripp Scott.

Some economists began to refer to the depths of the recession as a “mancession,” since the bulk of the jobs lost were among men in male-dominated industries such as construction and manufacturing. During the recession (defined as December 2007 to June 2009), the economy shed more than 7 million jobs. Men fared worse in the recession, suffering more than 70 percent of the job losses. But strikingly, in the midst of a slow recovery, women have lost 117,000 jobs while men gained 1,140,000—a staggering difference of about a million jobs.

U.S. News compiled these rankings by comparing male and female representation in the workforce, representation across industries, median annual earnings, and educational attainment in each city. The figures point to several trends. The data indicate a correlation between education and earnings, but also shows that wage gaps persist between men and women at all education levels.

The average starting salary for a female physician in 2008 was $16,819 less than a male physician, a huge increase from the $3,600 gap in 1999, finds a new U.S. study.

The reason for this large difference isn’t known because it isn’t explained by gender differences in choice of specialty, practice type or working hours, the researchers said.

New study of gender stereotypes finds that when people look at a gender-neutral face, they are more likely to judge it as male if they’re touching something hard and as female if they’re touching something soft.