The American Historical Association's Gutenberg-E competition this year will award six prizes for unpublished manuscripts on the history of gender or women's history.
Details at http://www.theaha.org/prizes/gutenberg
Kaylee Powers-Monteros is writing a book about women's periods called "Bloody Rites."
"I consider a woman's period her rite of passage. . . . My book is focusing on the language we use about periods and how that impacts our perceptions of it," she writes.
She has a chapter about men's first learning about menstruation and would like to hear from men in response to the question, "When was the first time you ever heard anything about a period and what was it?" I already sent her mine: when I was in sixth grade the kid next door said his sister had started bleeding from you-know-where. I didn't know anything about you-know-where, actually, having grown up in a prudish military household with two bothers, no sisters and a mother who must have felt very alone.
E-mail her at bloodyrites2003@aol.com
Researchers at the Emory University School of Nursing are conducting an Internet-based study looking at the experience of migraines in women between the ages of 40 and 55. The study includes completion of online questionnaires and participation in an online discussion group with other women who also have headaches. For more information, please visit the study Web site at http://www.sph.emory.edu/migraine, or call the research phone line at 404-712-8558.
Thanks so much.
Peggy Moloney
Seeking paper proposals that explore women's health in popular culture for possible presentation at the Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture/American Culture Association Conference in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A., November 7 to 9, 2003.
Popular culture offers a multitude of representations of women's health, women's relationship to healthcare products and to the healthcare industry, as well as of women's care of others, both formally and informally. What meanings are attached to print advertising, Internet ads, television commercials, television dramas, situation comedies, film, poetry, short stories, novels, or photography on the linkage between women's health and popular culture? Papers that explore the U.S. healthcare industry, women as medical professionals, and the medicalization of women's bodies in terms of race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality are particularly encouraged.
Send an email submission (NO ATTACHMENTS) with paper title, 250 word abstract, short CV, full address and audiovisual needs by June 15 to Dr. Katie Hogan, Area Chair, Women's Studies Panel, MAPACA, EMAIL: wsmapaca@aol.com
Hi,
I wonder if you could help me? I am trying to find out when the subject of menstruation became acceptable in 'polite' society in the UK. In particular when newspapers and television first started to carry adverts about sanitary towels (napkins).
Hope you can help,
[E-mail moi - that's "me" in the language called "Freedom" in America - if you can help.]
[A friend asked a Peace Corps friend of his in Senegal, a woman, to find out about menstrual huts in Africa. In certain cultures today, like the Dogon in Mali - and in the past - menstrual huts are huts women live in when they are menstruating. Here's part of her reply.]
Menstrual huts . . . I have never heard of them being used in any of the countries I've been to in Africa. In fact, as far as I know, that was always more of a Middle Eastern thing. I'll ask *** and some others and see if they have any ideas though, because there could be some ethnic groups that still do it, who don't have as much contact with Westerners so we just might not know about it.
Frankly, I don't see how the men in Africa would survive if all the women went into a hut for five or seven days and didn't come out. And the interesting thing is that in most countries that are not superdeveloped, where women just live their lives, women usually end up on the same cycle, and it usually follows the moon so they are all menstruating at once.
Interesting, huh? I think the women in most of Africa just plain have too much work for that practice to have ever really happened here. I'll do some digging though."
[Read the first scientific paper about women synchronizing their periods and see some menstrual huts.]
[An investment company asked me what I knew about women's customs in certain parts of the world. I told them what I knew and the company in turn sent me the following e-mail:]
Harry,
Just as a follow up, we finished our study of usage in Indonesia, of all places. It turns out that feminine hygiene pads are generally a luxury item, but transition to a necessity. it appears that personal disposable income of $20.00 per month in emerging markets will generally make budget share available for the lowest-price pads. Pad price should be about $0.50 per month at retail. Usage rate is about 13 pads per month on average.
Budget share can get to 12 percent for very low income users, but average budget share in low income countries in about 1/2 to 1 percent.
We have a great deal of information about consumer preferences, distribution, and other items of interest to those in the feminine hygiene pad market. Please feel free to simply pass it on or post it, so that anyone who is interested can contact us.
I appreciate all your help -- it put us on the right track for research.
Keep up the good work at MUM.
All the best,
Tom Tirone
Managing Director
Investor Risk Management, Inc.
[e-mail me if you would like to contact the company]
Hi,
I love your site and have learned a lot from it. I thought you might be interested in visiting this site, http://www.spiralingmoon.com/paintings/index.html
Best wishes
[See also some paintings using menstrual blood on this MUM site by Austrians E---, Petra Paul and American Tamara Wyndham]
Thank you for a great laugh and some grimaces as I remember the embarrassment of carrying monstrously large pads in my school bag in an inadequate brown paper bag, plus all the strings, safety pins, plastic insert pants and other contraptions we wore in the early 1960s. Add to that my mother's horror that my virginity would be irreparably compromised by my demand for 'Lillets' [o.b. tampon in the U.S.A and Germany] instead of the horror pads! I had already won the battle of the "tummy control corselet" and sensible shoes and 30-denier flesh coloured stockings! Sigh! The 60s - if only the kids knew what we suffered for them to get pads so thin and narrow they can fit g-strings (thongs - or whatever they are called as we are in different countries and the words we use are different!)
Anyway - thank you - and to think, I found your site by accident because I am researching fashion of the 1950s for a production of Little Shop of Horrors = your museum's 'cup dress' [a dress worn worn by the inventor of Instead menstrual cup and donated to MUM] - essential wear for a vampire? It's not quite what I wanted - but has broadened my life and made me laugh - and from the other side of menopause, I just thank the Goddess I no longer have to worry.
I am recommending this site to all my mates (here in Oz, and the UK). Thanks again, esp. to your Mum if she can hear us! [My mother - Mum - would have greatly mixed feelings about this MUM if she were alive.]
Regards,
Keep up the good work on our behalf
Rose in Western Australia
I would be interested to hear comments on the theory that psychological aspects of PMS are not common to all cultures; suggesting it is a social construct. This has been postulated, not by sexist men, but by women who wish to free us of it.
As I recall, it has been suggested that women, denied a forum to express their dissatisfaction with their circumstances, have found it necessary to allow themselves a space in which they can "safely" vocalise it. That is; for a few days they can scream at their partners, bosses, etc, then afterwards say, "It was the PMS". Men on the other hand are allowed, by cultural norms, to be opinionated and to loose tempers. Women who do this are more likely to be considered "pushy" or "unstable". (I wonder if it then follows that opinionated, expressive, free-thinking women are less likely to suffer PMS, than those who are suppressed, submissive and conciliatory?)
I thought that if this topic hasn't been discussed before it might be an interesting one to float onto the message boards?
Yours sincerely,
*** ***
Lancashire, UK
Age 40
I am glad that you have created the site which you did. I first learned about it from the New Scientist magazine article [February 2002, which used readers' mail to the Would you stop menstruating if you could? page on this site] on Seasonale [a hormone pill that is to suppress cycles three months at a time]. Now there is one significant aspect I'll discuss about menstruation which it seems virtually everyone ignores, and that includes your Web site.
I will admit to you that I have a fascination with the ladies' menstruation cycle, specifically the timing of it, and that is due, I believe, to both my math/scientific aptitude as well as my obsessive/compulsive disorder (OCD) in which repetitive patterns gain my attention. So I'll confess to you one of my behaviours of which I tell very few others about and that is that I like to keep track of their cycles when possible, particularly if she is desirable to me.
Some ladies, I don't think it is much more than one-third of them, do have a regular stain of extra red on her face at that certain time of their month which lets others know that she is menstruating. Most women with that facial problem don't have it too bad although a few are pretty obvious. And I have long noticed that only the friendly, easygoing ladies have this trait. It never seems to happen to those who can't handle this problem. I believe others have also noticed this peculiarity although I never hear anyone discuss this matter, so I can't say for sure. But this regular stain allows me to do what I enjoy even though most may consider it to be an unacceptable invasion of privacy. Anyway I virtually never hear this aspect of menstruation, that one can conceivably tell when a lady is having her period, mentioned by anybody. Likewise your Web site seems to be mum on this matter. [MUM's the word!]
Yes, it is normal to be polite and ignore these signs to respect her privacy, yet I feel less and less regretful of my curiosity controlling me as the years go by. In fact, I believe my curiosity to be a sign of respect. Ladies tend to be pretty secretive about their moon cycles and that retards our understanding of it. I don't believe we men would be quite that way. [Read Gloria Steinem's guess at how men would behave if they menstruated.]
Over the years I have collected my observations of their regular stains but have not had much time to put it all together. I am, however, particularly interested in determining the length of her cycle if she is pretty or otherwise desirable. So, lately, I gathered my records of one attractive young Cambodian worker at a cafe who stopped working there a couple of years ago. Yes, I believe that she knew what I was doing so it is important for me to be more discreet. Anyway, based on my 20 observations over a 2 1/2 year interval, I have determined that her period occurred pretty consistently during the week before full moon. Such knowledge does fascinate me, especially since I am involved in amateur astronomy, and makes me glad that I made my observations.
Maybe I would be more tactful of their privacy if I had had more success with ladies. But in the society in which we live in they seem to be pretty spoiled. Women have abused their cross-dressing privileges, are fussy, can be unforgiving and don't need men like they used to. Now they have Seasonale! [Not yet, but probably soon.] Being insular, busy and cheap does make me unattractive to most of them so I don't bother trying too hard to have a relationship. Only with my correspondence of overseas orientals, mostly Filipinas, do I have much interaction with women. And virtually none of them ever make any hint of menstruation.
In addition I notice that many people look at me out of the corner of their eyes. In fact I would consider this behaviour to be among the most rude of which is commonly practiced. I don't myself often look at people in that manner, partly because I wear glasses, but those who do secretly stare at me or others that way are being just as tactless as I am when I make my observations of young ladies' complexions.
Yes, it seems unfair that only the easygoing, friendly and open ladies have this regular stain problem. Never the ones who are nasty or can't handle the possibility of others noticing it. Maybe they are more likely to seek medication which prevents these signs, I don't know. But I don't believe this reason, or coincidence, can fully account for the paradox of those who can't handle others ever noticing these menstruation signs don't themselves ever have to deal with it. Do you happen to agree with me?
I can vaguely remember years ago when I noticed a lady's menstruation sign that a nearby female commented, "You have a scientific mind." Yes, that is true and that is the main reason why I track their cycles when I can. However, that requires seeing her often for a span of at least a few months. Hopefully when I am working again I will have more of these opportunities. I would say that my behaviour is an extension of undressing them with my eyes and that is also something which I do more of than most. Sometimes it is hard not to, at least in my opinion.
I last went to your Web site when visiting my mother near Oakland in January. And after leaving it, there were many references to the different pages of your site in the history margin and I did not know how to delete them. So one has to be careful even when in privacy. [Hey, I said MUM's the word! Be proud!]
Now it is back to my boring, monotonous and predictable lifestyle, a result of OCD. It would be more interesting if I had my own period to keep track of. But I don't, so that is that. I think that having OCD makes me a bit of a control freak but I always keep to myself. I don't stalk them although I'll admit that tracking their cycles when I can is a form of stalking. Anyway, my case of OCD is rather mild.
I will continue to visit your site, Mr. Finley, now and then. Tomorrow I turn 42 and wish you well in your plans.
Best wishes.
Hello Harry,
My name is Carinne Pickering, Vice-President of Diva International Inc. We are the manufacturer of a new menstrual cup called The DivaCup Menstrual Solution. I am very impressed with your detailed history of the menstrual cup, and have myself been a user of The Keeper for 11 years. The DivaCup is basically the same shape as The Keeper and is available in two sizes like The Keeper. However, the major difference is that it is made from medical grade silicone, and is 100 percent hypo-allergenic. From our experience with the Keeper, we felt there was a need for a hypo-allergenic version (since many women are allergic to natural latex rubber).
If you would like to read more information about The Divacup feel free to visit our Web site www.divacup.com. Also if you would like to add our product to your Web site you can use our DivaCup pictures from our site, or I can send you a higher resolution picture. If you are interested I can also send you a DivaCup for your collection. I would be happy to speak with you if you would like any more information.
Thank you, and keep up the good work!
Best regards,
Carinne Pickering
Vice-President
Diva International Inc.
Qualifications
** Excellent at multi-tasking
** Extremely well-organized
** Excellent communication skills, including good writing skills
** Knowledge base of women's health issues (expertise NOT required)
** Relevant project management experience; project management experience within the publishing industry especially useful
** Excellent facilitation skills; ability to negotiate discussions among those with different opinions
** Good E-mail/internet/computer skills
** At least a bachelor's degree
Duties:
** Overall coordination and oversight of the two-year project to produce the 8th revision of Our Bodies, Ourselves (OBOS). This involves implementation of a detailed OBOS plan, including a timeline, that will be available as the guiding document for this project. Major elements of this plan: delivery of a final OBOS manuscript, as described in the OBOS Book Plan to Simon and Schuster by July 2004; coordination of in-house outreach and planning for a year-long promotion campaign once the book is published; ongoing interaction/coordination with Simon and Schuster regarding production tasks AFTER the manuscript is delivered and before publication in 2005; establishing plans, along with input from the Executive Director and others, for OBOS "offshoots" - ie, stand-alone books that will expand upon topical units within OBOS and be marketed separately.
** Working with the three-person OBOS Book Team to make all major decisions regarding writers, reviewers, editors, resolution of content disagreements, changes in the budget, etc., as described in the OBOS Book Plan.
** Interacting with over 100 writers, readers, reviewers, editors, and others involved with the project.
** Financial management/oversight of project (keeping within the existing budget, revising the budget as agreed upon by the Book Team, providing financial reports to the Executive Director and Board).
** Monthly reports to the Executive Director and Board regarding the project, outlining problems as well as progress.
** Organizing and facilitating Book Team meetings and other meetings, as needed.
** Supervision of the .5FTE support staff person for this project.
APPLICANTS SHOULD SEND A COVER LETTER AND RESUME BY JUNE 20, 2003:
Address: Our Bodies Ourselves, 34 Plympton St, Boston, MA 02118
Email: office@bwhbc.org Fax: 617-451-3664
Judy Norsigian, Executive Director
Our Bodies Ourselves
34 Plympton St
Boston, MA 02118
ph: 617 451 3666 x11
fax: 617 451 3664
Web site: www.ourbodiesourselves.org
E-mail: judy@bwhbc.org
Dear Women [oh, let's add "men," too],
Here is an opportunity to honor two significant contributions to the women's health movement - The Women's Community Health Center in Massachusetts, and Jill Wolhandler, a member of the health center and a strong women's health advocate, who died in December 2002.
For the many of you who worked with Jill, I am including the remembrance from her memorial service.
Jill has many friends throughout the country.
In honor of Jill's vision and commitment to women's health, a fund in Jill's name has been established and we are asking for donations in order to catalogue and process the Women's Community Health Center files. There is a high level of interest in material from this period of the women's health movement, and your contribution would assure that information from that time is preserved. Donations are tax deductible.
Checks can be made to the Schlesinger Library - on the memo section of the check, please write "Processing WCHC."
Send checks to:
Paula Garbarino
Jill Wolhandler Fund
16 Ivaloo St.
Somerville, MA 02143
Thank you,
Catherine DeLorey
Women's Community Health Center Files Reside at the Schlesinger Library
At the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Women's Community Health Center [WCHC] in 1999, a group of former collective members announced that materials from the health center years had been donated to the archives at Radcliffe's Schlesinger Library. This material consisted of a variety of documents such as meeting minutes, articles written about or by WCHC members, clinic schedules, surveys and feedback forms, as well as other "herstorical" items.
Several boxes of documents were reviewed to ensure that no confidential material containing names or identifying information about women using the services would be shared with the Schlesinger.
Despite the fact that the material has not yet been organized or catalogued, there have been numerous requests from women's health scholars to review the material. It has become a rich trove of information and offers a unique perspective into the women's health movement of the 1970's and early 1980's.
In order to make the material widely available, the boxes of documents need to be "processed" or catalogued. To do this, personnel at the library will fully review the contents of the collection. Generally this involves preserving the original order of the material as it was donated according to either chronological or topical categories. If no original order exists, they will determine how to best logically sort and present it so that scholars can use the contents. The material will be subdivided into folders with guides to contents and clippings will be photocopied. An overall guide to the organization and listing of summaries will be generated. This guide will be available on the internet with worldwide circulation. Folders will be photocopied and sent out upon request for personal research purposes only. Publication permission usually rests with the library and the original authors of the material.
Other legal arrangements were made at the time the gift of the material was made to the Schlesinger; Cookie Avrin generously offered legal assistance in this process.
About 5 linear feet of material (the library's standard of measurement) was donated. Processing is expected to cost $600 per foot. The total estimated cost is approximately $3000.
On a related note, the library has about 40 feet of material from Our Bodies Ourselves and recently received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to process that collection.
A Remembrance of Jill
Written by Diane Willow for Jill's memorial service
Jill Wolhandler was born on January 22, 1949 in Scarsdale, New York. She died on December 6, 2002 in the home that she shared with her beloved partner, Janet Connors.
Jill moved to Dorchester to be with Janet and her children David, Shana and Joel, shortly after meeting Janet fifteen years ago. Jill felt great joy and pride in her chosen family.
Together they made a nurturing home that always welcomed their extended family of friends. Seth and Terrance remained dear members of Jill's extended family.
And, over the years Charlotte and Christopher came into her life at 26 Bearse Avenue.
Jill was the first child of her beloved mother Jean and her father Joe, and the older sister of Peter, Laurie and Steven. She later found enduring pleasure as Aunt Jill to Sara, Gina and Jacob. After excelling in the Scarsdale schools, she went to the International School in Geneva to complete high school. She continued her education at the University of Chicago before beginning graduate studies at Johns Perkins University. She utilized her deep knowledge of human physiology in teaching, writing and political work. Later in life she completed graduate studies in occupational therapy at Tufts University. She attributed her most significant learning to her ongoing work as a social activist.
After moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the mid nineteen-seventies, she became involved in the work of the local and national women's health movement. She contributed to an early publication of Our Bodies Ourselves (1976) as a freelance editor and co-authored a chapter in the New Our Bodies Ourselves (1984). She joined the Women's Community Health Center (1975), working first as a member of the collective and later as one of the four women on the guiding committee.
During her time as the most enduring member of the health center, Jill dedicated herself to the self-help philosophy with particular focus on the Pelvic Teaching program (the first of its kind in the nation) in collaboration with Harvard Medical School as well as the Fertility Consciousness project. Toxic shock syndrome and the related Tampon legislation was also a focal point for Jill's research and advocacy. She was also an early supporter on research related to daughters born to mothers who had used DES during their pregnancies.
Jill's political activism for women's health issues brought her to the Vermont Women's Health Center where she was able to learn abortion procedures legally. She spent a year in Vermont, developing these skills, believing that she would then be able to pass them on if abortions were to become illegal again.
Meanwhile, she did ongoing work as a bookkeeper. Her former clients included Red Sun Press and other activist organizations. Her most recent work was as the Business Manager of the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy. Although deadlines were often a cause for worry with Jill, she was meticulous in her accounting and her co-workers valued her conscientious approach.
A cello player in her youth, Jill revived her passion for music through her annual participation in the Early Music Week at Pinewoods, as a player of the bass viol in the Brandeis Early Music Ensemble, and as a member and the Treasurer of the New England Regional Chapter of the Viola de Gamba Society. She found peace in music and pleasure in sharing it with others.
Many of Jill's friends and acquaintances have often heard Jill express her love of words with her unique sense of humor. She was known to make up her own vocabulary, whether as terms of endearment for loved ones, alternative names for common places and landmarks or just her quirky way of describing things. Her love of nature and the natural world was a sustaining force in her life. She was especially fond of the ocean and felt at home walking the beaches of the Cape or staying in Provincetown.
She loved animals, was an avid bird watcher and lived for many years with cats and turtles. She raised small red-eared sliders. When these turtles came to her they were the size of a quarter. After decades of thriving, they now require two hands to hold and continue their lives in a plexi-pond at The Children's Museum in Boston.
A playful spirit at heart, Jill took delight in the mini-firework displays bursting from sparklers and the swirling rainbow colors in drifting soap bubbles.
Her pleasure in play and her curious mind made her an engaged companion of the children in her life and others who remain young at heart. A rather old soul who had her share of challenges, Jill found her joy in friendships and in the ways that she was able to contribute to a better quality of life through social activism.
Women's Universal Health Initiative
Women's Universal Health Initiative is by women for women - if you have ideas, events, information, or comments to share, send them to Info@wuhi.org
In these difficult times, all advocacy groups are struggling financially. WUHI is no exception. Please consider becoming a member to support the continuation of the web site and our work on universal health care.
You become a member of WUHI with a tax-deductible donation of any amount. Go to the WUHI website to join online, or send your donation to WUHI, Box 623, Boston, MA 02120.
Health Care Reform: a Women's Issue
Anne Kasper
Anne Kasper, a long time women's health activist, discusses why health care reform is a women's issue. Anne is an editor, with Susan J. Ferguson of Breast Cancer: Society Shapes an Epidemic, a powerful and informative book on the politics of breast cancer.
To read the complete article: http://www.wuhi.org/pages/articles.html <http://www.wuhi.org/pages/articles.html%A0>
Health care reform has long been a women's issue. Since the beginnings of the Women's Health Movement in the late 1960s, women have known that the health care system does not work in the best interests of women's health. When we think of the health care system and its component parts doctors, hospitals, clinics, and prescription drugs, for instance we are increasingly aware that the current system is not designed to promote and maintain our personal health or the health of others. Instead, we are aware of a medical system that delivers sporadic, interventionist, hi-tech, and curative care when what we need most often is continuous, primary, low-tech, and preventive care. Women are the majority of the uninsured and the under insured as well as the majority of health care providers. We are experts on our health, the health of our families, and the health of our communities. We know that we need a health care system that must be a part of changes in other social spheres -- such as wage work, housing, poverty, inequality, and education -- since good health care results from more than access to medical services.
Featured Site
UHCAN - Universal Health Care Action Network
http://www.uhcan.org/
UHCAN is a nationwide network of individuals and organizations, committed to achieving health care for all. It provides a national resource center, facilitates information sharing and the development of strategies for health care justice. UHCAN was formed to bring together diverse groups and activists working for comprehensive health care in state and national campaigns across the country.
Their annual conference, planned for October 24-26, 2003 in Baltimore, MD, is one of the best grass-roots action conferences available. They consider universal health care justice from many perspectives.
Visit UHCAN's website for resources, analyses of health reform issues, and more information on their campaigns for health care justice.
Proposals, Policies, Pending Legislation
Health Care Access Campaign - the Health Care Access Resolution
http://www.uhcan.org/HCAR/
Health care in America is unjust and inefficient. It costs too much, covers too little, and excludes too many. As the economy deteriorates, it is rapidly getting worse.
One in seven Americans, 80% of whom are from working families, lack health insurance and consequently suffer unnecessary illness and premature death. Tens of millions more are under insured, unable to afford needed services, particularly medications. Health care costs are a leading cause of personal bankruptcy. Communities of color endure major disparities in access and treatment. Double-digit medical inflation undermines employment-based insurance, as employers drop coverage or ask their employees to pay more for less. State budgets are in their worst shape in half a century. Medicare and Medicaid are caught between increases in need and a financial restraints.
In the 108th Congress, the Congressional Universal Health Care Task Force will introduce the Health Care Access Resolution, directing Congress to enact legislation by 2005 that provides access to comprehensive health care for all Americans. Legislators, reacting to the urgency for health care reform, will likely introduce several proposals in this Congress.
Check out the link to learn more about the resolution and how you can contribute to it.
Proposed Health Insurance Tax Credits Could Shortchange Women
http://www.cmwf.org/programs/insurance/collins_creditswomen_589.pdf
Commonwealth Fund report, reviews federal policies designed to help low-income adults buy health insurance, which have focused on tax credits for purchasing coverage in the individual insurance market. This analysis of premium and benefit quotes for individual health plans offered in 25 cities finds that tax credits at the level of those in recent proposals would not be enough to make health insurance affordable to women with low incomes.
Time for Change: the Hidden Cost of a Fragmented Health Insurance System
http://www.cmwf.org/programs/insurance/davis_
An excellent overview by Karen Davis, President of The Commonwealth Fund, of factors in the US health care system that lead to it being the most expensive health system in the world.
A Place at the Table: Women's Needs and Medicare Reform
By Marilyn Moon and Pamela Herd
http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Order.asp?ItemID=199
This book, published by the Century Foundation, shows that women have different retirement needs as a group than men. Women are more likely to require long-term care services because they live longer and are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases. Suggests guidelines that would make Medicare reforms work for women, including how to deal with comprehensiveness, affordability, access to quality care, and the availability of information.
Women in the Health Care System: Health Status, Insurance, and Access to Care
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/PrintProducts/PrintProd_Detail.asp?ID=78
Report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) focuses on women in the United States in 1996. Health insurance status is examined in terms of whether women are publicly insured, privately insured, or uninsured, and whether insured women are policyholders or dependents.
Health Insurance Coverage in America: 2001 Data Update
http://www.kff.org/content/2003/4070/
Although not specific to women, this resource contains valuable information about women and health insurance coverage and provides valuable information and facts for general presentations on universal health care. The chart book provides year 2001 data on health insurance coverage, with special attention to the uninsured. It includes trends and major shifts in coverage and a profile of the uninsured population.
Resources
Health Care Links
http://www.pnhp.org/links/
Links to state, national and international organizations working for single payer health care and universal health care. A resource of Physicians for a National Health Program - check out the site for many other resources and excellent factual information on a single payer health care system [ http://www.pnhp.org/links/ <http://www.pnhp.org/links/> ].
Universal Health Care Organizations in Your State
http://www.everybodyinnobodyout.org/index.htm#regnl
A list of state organizations working for universal health care. Resource of Everybody In, Nobody Out [EINO: http://www.everybodyinnobodyout.org ]. Not all states represented.
Families USA New Online Service
http://fusa.convio.net/site/R?i=6d26XZDs_24DRYvcWDDmjg .
Families USA online service to provide registered users with the following benefits:
Free bimonthly newsletters with articles on health policy issue.
Announcements about organization events.
Discounts on publications
Kaiser Network for Health Policy - Publications and Reports
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=links&hc=806&linkcat=61 <http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=links&hc=806&linkcat=61>
Reports and publications on health policy, access, uninsured and insurance. Supported by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Good source of information.
Calendar
May 8 - 9 2003
Health Policy and the Underserved
http://www.jcpr.org/conferences/event_description.cfm?conid=124
Sponsored by the Joint Center for Poverty Research, looks a social, economic, and outcomes of policies for the underserved.
May 14-16, 2003
2003 Managed Care Law Conference
Colorado Springs, CO
http://www.healthlawyers.org/programs/prog_03mc.cfm
Co-sponsored by American Health Lawyers Association and American Association of Health Plans. Presents legal issues facing health plans and providers.
October 24-26, 2003
National Universal Health Care Action Network [UHCAN] Conference
Baltimore, MD
http://www.uhcan.org/
One of the best grass-roots action conferences available. Considers universal health care from all its perspectives. Check out their website for an overview of their orientation.
November 15, 2003
Physicians for a National Health Program Fall Meeting
http://www.pnhp.org/action/?go=events
San Francisco, CA
November 15 - 19, 2003
American Public Health Association Annual Meeting
San Francisco, CA
http://www.apha.org/meetings/
Meeting of professionals in public health. Has many sessions on health care reform and women's health, including universal health care.
January 22-23, 2004
National Health Policy Conference
Washington, DC
http://www.academyhealth.org/nhpc/
Wide-ranging discussions of health policy, including health care reform and universal health care.
Women's Universal Health Initiative
PO Box 623
Boston, MA 02120-2822
617-739-2923 Ext 3
www.wuhi.org <http://www.wuhi.org>
info@wuhi.org
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY presents
THAT TIME OF MONTH
Four Female Artists Bridge the Personal and the Universal
MARCH 8 - MAY 4
Opening Reception, Saturday March 8, 2003, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue at 10th Street; call (212) 475-0108 for information
Gallery Hours M-Sat 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sun 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Diane Apostolacus
Born and raised on the Jersey Shore, Diane Apostolacus graduated from Alfred University with a B.F.A. in 1987, afterwards making her artistic life in Brooklyn, N.Y. Throughout many creative interests such as book carvings, box constructions, collages, printmaking and photography, Diane has remained most devoted to painting in encaustics. She was awarded a residency at Millay Colony for the Arts in Austerlitz, N.Y., in November of 1999 where she focused exclusively on her encaustics works. Since then, Diane has exhibited in various galleries and functions in Brooklyn and was accepted into "Encaustic Works 99," a juried International Biennial in Kingston, N.Y.
On exhibit will be four paintings by Diane, reflecting her unique perspective on everyday things.
Zenzele Browne
A native of Philadelphia, Zenzele Browne distinguished herself at the renowned Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. For the past 19 years, she has made New York City her home, particularly the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where she lives, loves, laughs and paints paints paints paints paints! Zenzele's work was recently featured in the traveling exhibit "The Politics of Racism" at ABC No Rio, Lowe Gallery at Hudson Guild and Fire Patrol #5 Gallery. Other recent exhibits include " Erotic Art of Black Women" at Satta Gallery in Brooklyn and "Mumia 911" at Rush Fine Arts Gallery. To view more of Zenzele Browne's artwork visit www.inthelightfinearts.com.
Five large-sized exuberant interior landscapes by Zenzele will be on exhibit.
Barbara Ann Slitkin
Barbara Ann Slitkin has won numerous awards and grants including memebership in the National Mural Society and art residency from the Friends of the Library in 1992. She has also been invited to exhibit numerous one-person shows at the Tompkins Square Gallery.
From 1992-2001, her work has been shown widely at many group exhibitions including "Wheel!" juried by A. Aiches, chief curator for the Bass Museum in Florida, and "Tool" juried by Ms. Bonnie Clearwater, chief curator for the Museum for Contemporary Art, also in Florida. The artist's work is in many private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Last year, she was archived by the Museum of American Folk Art as a 20th Century Folk Artist.
On exhibit are four paintings from Barbara's Paint My Flowers Black series.
Tamara Wyndham
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Tamara studied traditional drawing and painting at California State University, Long Beach; and more experimental drawing, book works, and performance at the University of California at Irvine. She moved to New York City in 1979, where she continued to explore different methods of art making. She became involved in the feminist movement, organizing consciousness-raising and study groups, and attending numerous demonstrations and actions. She also became involved in feminist spirituality, and has led meditations. She traveled through Mexico and Central America for one year in 1984-1985, painting and learning about the different cultures and languages. More recently Tamara has been influenced by her travel and work in Egypt, Morocco and Turkey.
She has been awarded artist residencies at the Henry Street Settlement, the Kate Millett Art Colony, the Vermont Studio Center, the Mariz Ceramic Workshop in the Czech Republic, and the Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain.
Tamara will give viewers a whole new way to look at bodily fluids with six mixed media pieces from her series Blood on My Hands. [See her performance and paper art here.]
Read more about it - it includes this museum (when it was in my house) and many interesting people associated publically with menstruation. Individual Americans can buy the video by contacting
Films for the Humanities
P.O. Box 2053
Princeton, NJ 08543-2053Tel: 609-275-1400
Fax: 609-275-3767
Toll free order line: 1-800-257-5126Canadians purchase it through the National Film Board of Canada.
If so, Lana Thompson wants to hear from you.
if I die before establishing the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health as a permanent public display in the United States (read more of my plans here). I have had coronary angioplasty; I have heart disease related to that which killed all six of my parents and grandparents (some when young), according to the foremost Johns Hopkins lipids specialist. The professor told me I would be a "very sick person" if I were not a vegetarian since I cannot tolerate any of the medications available. Almost two years ago I debated the concept of the museum on American national television ("Moral Court," Fox Network) and MUM board member Miki Walsh (see the board), who was in the audience at Warner Brothers studios in Hollywood, said I looked like a zombie - it was the insomnia-inducing effect of the cholesterol medication.
And almost two years ago Megan Hicks, curator of medicine at Australia's Powerhouse Museum, the country's largest, in Sydney, visited MUM (see her and read about the visit). She described her creation of an exhibit about the history of contraception that traveled Australia; because of the subject many people had objected to it before it started and predicted its failure. But it was a great success!
The museum would have a good home.
I'm trying to establish myself as a painter (see some of my paintings) in order to retire from my present job to give myself the time to get this museum into a public place and on display permanently (at least much of it); it's impossible to do now because of the time my present job requires.
An Australian e-mailed me about this:
Wow, the response to the museum, if it were set up in Australia, would be so varied. You'd have some people rejoicing about it and others totally opposing it (we have some yobbos here who think menstruation is "dirty" and all that other rubbish). I reckon it would be great to have it here. Imagine all the school projects! It might make a lot of younger women happier about menstruating, too. I'd go check it out (and take my boyfriend too) :)
Hey, are you related to Karen Finley, the performance artist?? [Not that I know of, and she hasn't claimed me!]
Don't eliminate the ten Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor
The Bush Administration is planning to propose, in next year's budget, to eliminate the ten Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. This decision signals the Administration's intent to dismantle the only federal agency specifically mandated to represent the needs of women in the paid work force.
Established in 1920, the Women's Bureau plays a critical function in helping women become aware of their legal rights in the workplace and guiding them to appropriate enforcement agencies for help. The Regional Offices take the lead on the issues that working women care about the most - training for higher paying jobs and non-traditional employment, enforcing laws against pay discrimination, and helping businesses create successful child-care and other family-friendly policies, to name only a few initiatives.
The Regional Offices have achieved real results for wage-earning women for eighty-one years, especially for those who have low incomes or language barriers. The one-on-one assistance provided at the Regional Offices cannot be replaced by a Web site or an electronic voice mail system maintained in Washington.
You can take action on this issue today! Go to http://capwiz.com/nwlc/home/ to write to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and tell her you care about keeping the Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau in operation. You can also let E. Mitchell Daniels, Jr., Director of the Office of Management and Budget, know how you feel about this. You can write a letter of your own or use one we've prepared for you.
If you find this information useful, be sure to forward this alert to your friends and colleagues and encourage them to sign up to receive Email Action Alerts from the National Women's Law Center at www.nwlc.org/email.
Thank you!
Book about menstruation published in Spain
The Spanish journalist who contributed some words for menstruation to this site last year and wrote about this museum (MUM) in the Madrid newspaper "El País" just co-authored with her daughter a book about menstruation (cover at left).
She writes, in part,
Dear Harry Finley,
As I told you, my daughter (Clara de Cominges) and I have written a book (called "El tabú") about menstruation, which is the first one to be published in Spain about that subject. The book - it talks about the MUM - is coming out at the end of March and I just said to the publisher, Editorial Planeta, to contact you and send you some pages from it and the cover as well. I'm sure that it will be interesting to you to have some information about the book that I hope has enough sense of humour to be understood anywhere. Thank you for your interest and help.
If you need anything else, please let me know.
Best wishes,
Margarita Rivière
Belen Lopez, the editor of nonfiction at Planeta, adds that "Margarita, more than 50 years old, and Clara, 20, expose their own experiences about menstruation with a sensational sense of humour." (publisher's site)
My guess is that Spaniards will regard the cover as risqué, as many Americans would. And the book, too. But, let's celebrate!
I earlier mentioned that Procter & Gamble was trying to change attitudes in the Spanish-speaking Americas to get more women to use tampons, specifically Tampax - a hard sell.
Compare this cover with the box cover for the Canadian television video about menstruation, Under Wraps, and the second The Curse.
An American network is now developing a program about menstruation for a popular cable channel; some folks from the network visited me recently to borrow material.
And this museum lent historical tampons and ads for a television program in Spain last year.
Now, if I could only read Spanish! (I'm a former German teacher.)
Irregular menses identify women at high risk for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which exists in 6-10% of women of reproductive age. PCOS is a major cause of infertility and is linked to diabetes.
