It’s been called a conundrum. A mystery. A disgrace. A national crisis. But when you ask why black women in the United States die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth at three to four times the rate of other ethnic/racial groups, the answer is usually the same: “We simply don’t know.” Why not? The short [...]
While President Abraham Lincoln’s legacy looms large, his wife remains a maligned, one-dimensional figure and has been considered “one of the most detested public women in American history,” according to biographer Jean H. Baker. I recently became fascinated by Mary Todd Lincoln quite by accident, when a friend gave me a book about her. And [...]
Why do women visit the doctor more frequently than men do? Because we believe we are extraordinary, therefore our illnesses must be extraordinary too. So says “Sick is the New Black,” a report in the December issue of Marie Claire. Its startling finding is based on “Kate,” a former co-worker of the journalist, whose every [...]
Half of all American women have skipped health visits, follow-ups or treatments because they couldn’t afford to pay, according to a 2011 report by the Commonwealth Fund. Women have also been paying higher health insurance premiums, with 92 percent of U.S. health plans practicing gender rating, according to a 2010 report from the National Women’s [...]
While the world is only just coming to terms with saying the word vagina out loud, cunt remains a term that takes people’s breath away as they cringe at the sheer power it contains. Pushed underground, banished from conventional language, cunt has long since been appropriated by patriarchs and misogynists and used as an utterance [...]
Those who aren’t old enough to remember how scary it was to be a woman in the pre-Roe United States are wont to take reproductive rights for granted. Legal abortion has long been seen as a guarantee to a younger generation; tales of coat hangers and back-alley operations are just nightmarish visions in history books. [...]
All through October, we’ve been wagging our fingers at inane products that will pink up your life but do little to actually help those with breast cancer. For the final day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we decided to shine a light on some pampering items that are directly useful to people battling the disease. [...]
As breast cancer awareness campaigns have become more visible, and the color pink has become emblematic of survivors and those who support their struggle, I interpret the omnipresent October color as a way to mobilize social consciousness, action and hope. As a woman, I am incredibly grateful to see our national embrace of an initiative [...]
As of Tuesday, the state of Indiana cannot cut Medicaid funding from the the local Planned Parenthood affiliate. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a June 2011 injunction which blocked a law intended to restrict Planned Parenthood of Indiana from accessing the state’s Medicaid program. The law, initiated by Governor Mitch Daniels, was intended [...]
If PMS is a myth, then what on earth can we blame for all the lady-rage? You may have seen the article in The Star or The Globe and Mail or The Atlantic about the recently published research review by a team of medical researchers who assert that “clear evidence for a specific premenstrual phase-related [...]
