Come celebrate with us!
In celebration of International Women's Day, CT NOW is hosting a networking event on Thursday, March 8th, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. at
Barca Tapas, 1429 Park Street, Hartford.
For more information please visit our website.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Every day, as I approach the subway station near my home, they’re out there — two or three Planned Parenthood canvassers, asking people to donate money.
It’s not an unusual scene outside D.C.’s Metro stations. There are often representatives from a wide array of groups, from Greenpeace to churches and soup kitchens, seeking donations from those riding the subway.
But here’s what is unusual: Commuters have been milling about the Planned Parenthood canvassers, eager to donate. Well-heeled women on the way to the office, new immigrants pushing their babies in strollers, young college girls on their way to school, older women with the odd grandkid in tow. And not just women: some men, too, young and old, equally diverse.
All of them are eager to donate some money to a group that provides an array of health-care services to low-income women, from PAP smears to birth control and breast cancer screening.
"Does that Rick Santorum guy really think they should ban birth control?" I heard one college-age girl incredulously ask one of the Planned Parenthood canvassers the other day. An animated discussion broke out among the women gathered, the primary theme of the conversation being: "It’s 2012, and men are still telling us what to do with our bodies?"
Indeed, February 2012 may go down in history as the month when the Republican party and its supporters unwittingly roused the women of America, uniting them in outrage over issues like birth control, involuntary vaginal probing and pre-natal screening.
Who’s been at the forefront of the debate?
Rick Santorum, the sudden front-runner in the Republican presidential race who believes birth control poses a threat to America, that sex is only meant for procreation purposes, that federal health-care legislation must not pay for pre-natal screening since it only leads to an increase in abortions, and of course, that life begins at conception, and not even in cases of rape or incest should women be permitted to terminate pregnancies.
He’s also suggested radical feminists have brainwashed women into thinking they’re happier working, suggesting that, in fact, women should stay home with their children.
The Republican party was doing well on the abortion issue. An increasing number of Americans regard themselves as pro-life, although the country remains deeply divided on the issue. But contraception? The vast majority of American women, including 98 per cent of Catholics, have used it and support the Obama administration’s contraception policies.
Indeed, access to birth control hasn’t been an issue in the United States since the mid-1960s.
Santorum, however, says that states ought to have the right to outlaw the sale of contraception. It’s hard to imagine what state would go there. But it doesn’t matter — he’s touched off a firestorm in the aftermath of a series of startling developments on women’s issues in the U.S.
First the Susan G. Komen Foundation, a breast cancer group, yanked funding to Planned Parenthood at the urging of pro-life forces even though just three per cent of the organization’s services are related to abortion. A public outcry forced Komen to backtrack.
Then the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reacted with fury to President Barack Obama’s contraception policies. And so House Republicans invited a panel of five men — and not a single woman — to debate the issue. The optics were horrible, and simply served to anger American women even further.
And then the state of Virginia voted in favour of a new law that requires any woman seeking an abortion to be subjected to a "transvaginal ultrasound." Hundreds of women gathered outside the Virginia legislature earlier this week in protest.
It’s hard to imagine a dumber political strategy in a presidential election year than to undermine the hard-won rights near and dear to women.
Women outnumbered men by eight million voters in the last election, representing 54 per cent of the electorate. There are predictions of a similar turnout by women in November — in fact, some pollsters have suggested that number could increase given the events of the past few weeks.
Conservatives can argue all they like that the issues at hand are not about birth control or women’s health, but about protecting the U.S. Constitution and freedom of religion. That may technically be true — but it doesn’t matter. The PR battle was lost when Rick Santorum, a devout Catholic, started talking about the evils of birth control while in the same breath railing against abortion and working mothers. It all suggests a "barefoot and pregnant" throwback to another era that most women are happy no longer exists.
Indeed, to women from very diverse walks of life, the Republican party currently looks like it wants to return to the Dark Ages. There’s little doubt women will punish them for it come election day.
Lee-Anne Goodman is the White House correspondent for The Canadian Press.
But while the two sides may be battling over why women weren’t invited to the hearing and whether this is an issue about women’s rights or religious freedom, there is an even bigger issue at stake: the lack of women leaders in these institutions. The morning panel was composed of religious leaders and professors on ethics and religion: Rev. William Lori, Roman Catholic bishop of Bridgeport, Conn.; Rev. Matthew Harrison, the president of the Lutheran Church in Missouri; Ben Mitchell, a professor of moral philosophy at Union University; Rabbi Meir Solveichik, from Yeshiva University; and Craig Mitchell, a professor of ethics at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
It’s unfortunately not surprising that there weren’t many women invited to such a panel—Roman Catholic priests cannot be women, of course, and women cannot be ordained as Orthodox Jews and are a minority of rabbis in other movements. And while there are certainly female professors of ethics and philosophy, women continue to be a minority in the academic world as well. A 2011 Catalyst study found that just 24 percent of tenured full professors in U.S. higher educational institutions are women and that just 38 percent of associate professors are female.
I’m hardly arguing that there wasn’t a way for the committee to find notable female professors and even religious leaders to include on their panel. From Sister Carol Keehan, the CEO of the Catholic Health Association, who has been a pivotal figure in the birth control debate, to Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, there are notable women who hold positions of power in religious fields. Nor am I arguing that they shouldn’t have asked them: Even if the broader context of the discussion was about religious freedom, the hearing centered on an issue that is core to women’s lives, and it is painfully obvious that women should have been included on it.
But until more women reach positions of influence in academia and religious institutions, the real question won’t just be why there aren’t enough women on the panels, but how their absence in greater numbers at the top of our cultural organizations is influencing the very decisions being debated on the panels from which they’re missing. We need women on any formal national discussion on birth control and religion, of course. But even more important, we need more women making the decisions that influence women’s lives in the first place
With so much going on in the world around us, it is very easy to get lost in the news, daily on-goings, friendships, and work stress. When we come home at the end of the day with a headache and absolutely wiped out, we assume it's from all of the running around and chaos we had to get through in order to make it back to bed. While, yes, this may be so - your body are also screaming at you to STOP and LISTEN to yourself and not just those around you.
So start at the beginning, experience any of these?
A Few Important Vitamins to Start...
Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency that many women develop today. Menstruating women require almost twice as much iron as men, because blood loss during menstruation is sapping their iron stores.
Calcium deficiency among women is next after iron. Many women develop its shortage just because they do not eat enough foods that are rich in this mineral.
Folate is one of the most important vitamins for women and many do not get enough of this vitamin through their diet. Deficiency of folic acid (another name for this vitamin) increases the risk of cervical cancer, gum inflammation and anemia.
Vitamin E helps to relive premenstrual syndrome symptoms such as breast pain and hot flashes in menopausal women. As an antioxidant it necessary for the prevention of breast cancer. Vitamin E promotes healthy skin and hair and retards the aging process. Women who are on slimming diets risk developing vitamin E deficiency because the richest sources of this vitamin are foods rich in fats and those are usually avoided by slimmers. The easiest way to get enough of vitamin E for women on the diets is to take it in a supplement form.
Omega-3 fatty acids – nutrients most people do not get enough through their diets including women. Omega-3s play a key role in many body functions and may prevent many health disorders including heart diseases, breast cancer, high blood pressure, joint problems and many others.
Vitamins for Women and Birth Control Pills
Are you on the birth control pills? Then you need to think about extra intake of some vitamins, because birth control pills are causing serious depletion of many necessary vitamins for women. Especially vitamin C blood levels are very low in women on the “pills”, because of high excretion rate of vitamin in the urine. About one in twenty women that are taking pills suffer from depression and researches indicated that depression in those women is due to a deficiency of pyridoxine (B6). Trials revealed that depressions in pill takers might be prevented by supplementation of B6 vitamin. Women, who had vitamin B6 deficiency in their blood, lost all the symptoms of depression after the treatment with pyridoxine.Vitamins B12, riboflavin, thiamine and folic acid are also reduced in the women’s systems by the contraceptive pills. Serious depletion of vitamin E is caused by the “pills”. It has been suggested that prevalence of thrombosis in women, taking contraceptive pills, may be related to vitamin E deficiency.
Here are some tips on choosing the best vitamins for women:
(<-- WARNING: reflections in this mirror may be distorted by socially constructed ideas of 'beauty')I am sitting, cross legged, on the bathroom floor trimming my 5-year-old daughters' toenails. My 9-year-old son showers his muddy body as I lean against the tub. My 3-year-old daughter wrestles herself into pajamas in her bedroom. My 11-year-old son bursts in from football practice and hollers upstairs about reheating leftovers and having a sore throat. My husband is out dropping our minivan off for a tune up. The sun has set and we're putting another day to rest. In the confusion of this typical weeknight, I glance up from the floor at my 7-year-old daughter, standing on the step stool, completely undressed, brushing her teeth. I don't like the way she is looking at herself in the mirror. I don't like the way she pokes at her belly and frowns at her profile. I watch her for another minute and step in.
"What's up, girl?" I ask. "I'm fat," she responds without hesitation. I'm instantly weak. She continues, "My stomach jiggles when I run. I want to be skinny. I want my stomach to go flat down." I am silent. I have read the books, the blogs, the research. I have aced gender studies, mass media, society and culture courses in college. I have given advice to other mothers. I run workshops and programming for middle school girls. I have traveled across the world to empower women and children in poverty. I am over qualified to handle this comment. But in reality, my heart just breaks instead. I am mush. Not my girl.
I rally some composure and stay cool. "You are built just perfect -- strong and healthy." And she is. But this doesn't soothe.
I flounder. This child -- my first and wildly celebrated daughter -- was breastfed girl power. I read picture books with only central female characters, I insisted she wrestle her big brothers, demanded family call her words like smart and brave as much as cute and adorable. I tell her we are all different -- straight and thin to round and plump and millions of ways in between. I tell her it's what makes us all beautiful. Unconvinced.
I send all the other kids away. I shut the door and we sit face to face on the floor. There is more here and I need to see it through. I tell her I looked just like her when I was seven. I tell her she will grow to be tall and strong and fierce, like me. Not good enough. I reach and scramble. I tell her how fast she runs. Remind her of the goal she scored in soccer. What an expert she is on her bike and the amazing balance and tricks she does on her scooter. I remind her of her high level reading, her artwork, her mastery of math facts. "Fat."
I grow desperate. "Child! What is the first thing everyone tells you when they meet you?" She sighs, "I'm beautiful." Beauty is not helping me here. I'm failing. Pleading, I ask her why. Her blue eyes meet mine. She tells me on two different occasions friends have called her "kind of fat" when they were talking about bodies this summer in their bathing suits. And she felt sad. But she also felt good because finally she confirmed that what she thought about her body was "mostly true."
I think a few bad thoughts about her peers and their mothers and wonder what messages are being sent. I am out of tools. And now twenty minutes later, I'm out of patience too. I feel powerless to what seems certain to her. And I cannot understand how she does not see all of life's perfection in her reflection.
I stand her up on the step stool in front of the mirror. I strip off my yoga pants, my tee shirt, my bra and underwear. We are side by side completely naked together. She laughs. I start singing a song that I'm making up as I go. It's rap meets Raffi with lyrics like "We are perfect, just the way we are." It's wild and silly, but I cannot be stopped. We're shaking everything, and she's belly laughing and totally thrilled. I pick her up. We are a ridiculous and magnificent pair. The other kids hear the commotion and barge in. They are confused and horrified. I carry her to the bedroom raving about all the ways we are powerful and naked and women. We settle into comfy pajamas and read a story together. Fat is not mentioned again.
On this night, I have no idea if I have succeeded. I'm not sure if what I said and did had an impact, if I fixed anything, or even if I changed her mind. But I do know that I must continue to infuse myself and my children with bold confidence. I must check in, ask questions, take the time. I must build and undo. I must be open and genuine. I must but willing to dance naked in the mirror, resist the urge to see all the ways five babies have changed me, and stare straight into my reflection with love. Then together, with a twinkle in our eyes, we only see radiance shining back.
This essay originally appeared on rachelsimmons.com.
As with many others, the issue really hits close to home for me having dealt with breast cancer in my family. Even with this reversal, however, the fact that Komen even considered cutting this funding has left many, including myself, hesitant to trust that Komen really wants what is best for women’s health.
As has been the case in the last couple years, social media played a huge part in quickly riling up public fervor over the issue. Julie Stagis of the Hartford Courant referenced Netflix’s recent series of bungled business decisions on her Twitter page this morning, characterizing Komen's thought process as "Oh, wait, you're mad, we'll pretend this never happened!" In today's social media-oriented society, organizations like Komen need to take extra care to make sure that their "business" decisions are completely thought out, or else face harsh backlash.
Perhaps my favorite use of social media in the Komen/Planned Parenthood situation was from the Portland, Oregon indie rock band The Decemberists. One of their members, Jenny Conlee, has recently battled breast cancer; as a result, they have been selling "Team Jenny" t-shirts with proceeds going to Komen. However, when Komen announced their decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood, The Decemberists took to their Facebook page (over 460,000 followers strong) about the issue, saying:
"...it is unconscionable that Komen should politicize this very important issue by bowing to the fear campaign being waged against PP by the right. We've decided to redirect the proceeds of the Team Jenny t-shirts and buttons away from Komen for the Cure. 100% of the net profits of these items will be instead donated to Planned Parenthood's Breast Health Emergency Fund."
My favorite song by The Decemberists is "Sleepless," which was written for AIDS awareness, but I feel that it applies to this situation as well in multiple ways. It's really encouraging to me that in situations like this, public commotion through social media can be used for positive reasons to influence change and progress. But this victory for women's health is only a minor skirmish in what has become a massive war against women's health; once again, we cannot forget that women's issues are everybody's issues. We must never stop fighting. We must be sleepless.
References:
http://www.courant.com/la-he-planned-parenthood-komen-20120201,0,6858356.story
