New this month (in addition to the letters, etc., below):
"Symmetric Patterns in the Female Genitals," by Dr. Nelson Soucasaux, Brazilian gynecologist - Humor
you have problems with your period but nevertheless would NOT stop it. She is writing an article for a major (and serious) Web site and wants to interview you for opinions. Contact me if you're interested.
In an article on suppressing menstruation with Seasonale, a hormone pill, the Times quoted from your e-mail answering the question Would you stop menstruating if you could? in the Science Times section on 14 October (here in the online edition).
Someone interviewing me over the weekend told me that your letters were also quoted in the recent book No More Periods? by Susan Rako, MD, who opposes menstrual suppression.
It pays to weigh in with your opinion in this important debate!
You are the only two artists (in the Art of Menstruation series) I have not located for an appearance in the Italian edition of an international women's fashion and service magazine.
An editor told me she will publish an article about menstruation and this museum in the November issue. She picked art from 11 of the Art of Menstruation artists on this MUM site for the article.
Some of these pictures are bold indeed - several use menstrual blood - and I congratulate the magazine, which is mainstream, for its open-mindedness.
The magazine, whose name I'll reveal when the article appears (things sometimes change at the last minute. Years ago the Rosanne television show contacted me about starting one of her shows with a live TV feed from the museum, but canceled the night before.), is the third Italian publication in the past few months to write something about this Web site (read about the other two, here and here).
"TREMIN's Contributions to Menstrual Cycle Research Over 70 Years"
Friday, October 17, 2003, 1- 5 PM
The Living Center, 110 Henderson Building
Penn State University, University Park Campus (U.S.A.)
More information at the bottom of this page
An Italian reader of the Il Manifesto article about this Web site writes,
Complimenti ho letto su Alias Manifesto Italia l'articolo sul suo museo, mi è piaciuta moltissimo l'idea che ha avuto e sa perchè? Ho sempre rifiutato in maniera inconsapevole di affrontare l'argomento con me stessa, il tabù sul mestruo è dentro di noi da secoli, per la prima volta mi sono ritrovata a riflettere sull'argomento che razionalmente mi è sembrato sempre del tutto irrilevante, invece no, se fosse stata una cosa appartenuta ai maschi sicuramente ne avrebbero fatto un'altare dedicato al dono della procreazione, noi donne ce ne vergogniamo senza neanche saperlo.
Ma gli escrementi di cui tutti (uomini e donne) ci liberiamo quotidianamente, sono meno disgustosi? Non mi sembra che defecare sia un tabù e neanche parlarne.
Cordiali saluti
****
Don't completely understand it? I didn't either, so I ran it through http://babelfish.altavista.com/, a Web translator, and here's what came out:
It compliments I have read on Manifest Alias [the supplement to the newspaper] Italy the article on its museum, me is piaciuta very many the idea that it has had and it knows why? I have always refused in unconscious way to face the argument with same me, the taboo on the menstruation is within of we from centuries, for before the time are found again to me to reflect on the argument that rationally me has seemed always of all the insignificant one, instead not, if what belonged to the males had been one sure of it would have made a dedicated altar the gift of procreazione, we women ce of vergogniamo without neanche knowing it.
But the excrements of which all (men and women) we get rid daily, are less disgustosi? Me it does not seem that to defecate it is a taboo and neanche to speak of.
Cordial salutes
****
Don't completely understand it? Me neither, but I believe, among other things, she thinks if men could bear children they would dedicate an altar to it - which is similar to the spirit of Gloria Steinem's "If Men Could Menstruate" (read it here).
The Associated Press wrote, in part
The contraceptive pills, approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday, aren't a new chemical. They contain the same combination of low-dose estrogen and progestin found in many oral contraceptives.
Nor is the idea of menstrual suppression new. For decades, many doctors have told women how to skip a period by continually taking the active birth-control pills in each month's supply and ignoring the week of dummy pills in each packet.
Seasonale promises to make the option a little more convenient, with packaging that gives women 12 straight weeks of active pills and then a week of dummy pills for their period. And the FDA's approval means menstrual suppression could become more common as Seasonale's advertising alerts women to the option.
Read more at these sites:
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/333/33000/369043?d=dmtICNNews
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/print_report.cfm?DR_ID=19730&dr_cat=2
The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research recommends more research into its safety; read its report here.
Using the test to check for suseptibility to the TSS toxic is disputed by, among others, Dr. Philip Tierno, Jr., at New York University, "who first uncovered the link between tampons and toxic shock syndrome," says the New Scientist report in the link below. Dr. Tierno is a board member of this museum.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994199
Read a series of articles in a tiny Rochester, New York, newspaper that first alerted the public to yet other dangers in Rely tampon (see it), which was only later associated with TSS. It was taken off the market in 1980. Tambrands, former maker of Tampax, donated the articles to this museum.
Tell me what you think of it, the good and the bad.
Perhaps you'd like a first-hand account.
My mother used, and had me use, old sheets, torn into foldable strips of some thickness, which were then pinned onto my underpants. These strips were then washed with the laundry, usually in a load by themselves, with bleach materials added. (1930+)
When sanitary belts were easily available, we switched to using them, but still using pins, fore and aft, to hold in place.
When Kotex, etc., first appeared [early 1920s; see first ad], they were eagerly used, but if chaffing occurred, both of us sometimes reverted to used those old soft sheet pieces, sometimes wrapping the scratchy pads inside, for greater depth-of-pad.
Very interesting site. I frequently wondered what my fore-mothers used. Since my grandmother immigrated from Germany, and, I presume, my mother learned from her mother, I would imagine that the use of washable or throw-away strips of old saved pieces of cloth were used? [Maybe. Germans saw ads for disposable pads as early as the 1890s - here - and Camelia, which German women can buy today, although now a part of Kotex, appeared in 1926; see an early ad. I think women used, and still use, all kinds of material at any one time. The stories I have heard!]
Sincerely,
***
Later she wrote:
First-hand accounts are always hard to find. I was very active for a while doing genealogy, so I know how rare!
If you have someone interested, nursing and retirement homes and such, to interview women now in their late 90's -100's might be a source? I would imagine, however, the questions would have to be done by women for women of that age to discuss such a "private" thing, but there might be a story of two there? And some might not only to be able to tell about themselves, but also memories of their older female kinfolk? [She's right; a male - at least ME - can't do this. A woman somewhere has to do this! Get busy! There are many stories to save!]
Speaking of genealogy, medical practices of the 19th century are hard to find, but some library archives have "plantation books," store accounts, and doctors' records, which, with diligence, might produce clues. And there are a few midwives' journals, accounts, etc., still extant, which might lead to a clue or two? Or wagon train accounts? Maybe a reference or two? [Some of the evidence for women's not using something special for menstruation comes from pioneer diaries that Laura Kidd examined for her dissertation on menstrual technology; read more here.]
Interesting.
Again, good luck, and my congratulations.
Sincerely,
What a relief to find your Museum of Menstruation, and much needed. I am doing some research so I can put together a short broadcasting piece for my Web page about my anger over the news of a new contraceptive pill that allows women to menstruate every quarter. I will be sure to put a Web link to your site.
Good luck with the museum.
Harry,
Thank you so much for MUM. I laughed until I cried when I found it. I can hardly wait to share your link with all of my friends. I occasionally teach women's studies, and I'm going to love sending my young women and men to your site.
Thanks to you, and to your mum, for creating the person who could and would do this.
Best,
****
Hello, Mr. Harry Finley,
I first discovered your work in a magazine article whose name and date I've forgotten except I know it was before I started "surfing the net" so it was many years ago. I saved it all that time and was so excited to find you online just by typing in "museum of menstruation" last year sometime I believe.
I have been working in the organic agriculture/health food/environmental education/alternative lifestyle "picture" and began my searching by wanting to explore all the 'alternative' new/old fashioned product information on your extensive and thorough website.
I have visited your sight twice now and I can't wait to be able to read every word! I will have to do that in pieces but I wanted to stop and say how much I appreciate all your effort! I have always had severe PMS compounded by chronic anxiety and stress but I have finally found some new pathways to help and am building a sense of hope. I am trying to work on alternative health solutions to the mysteries of PMS and its "pernicious" nature in my life.
Just to mention it as well, I am finding Cognitive Behavior Therapy to be the compassionate, pro-active, life-changing emotional help I was seeking. (I like to share this in case someone else may want to explore it.) I was deeply hurt by traditional psychiatry when I was a teenager and suffered crushingly low self-esteem all these years. I developed phobias towards all forms of medical "help" by not feeling I could trust the very professions that were supposed to heal.
I have discovered and am hoping to apply what is in a wonderful book "What your Doctor May Not Tell You about Premenopause," by John R. Lee, M.D., which I hope you may have in your resources. If not, please explore this and if you think you would like to add it to your Web site it would be so valuable to share! It discusses progesterone supplementation and how we (all humans) are being overexposed to estrogen.
I am 41 now and knew I wasn't going to have children and have had what I now like to call my "moontime" since I was 11. I want to learn to stop hating it. I think your Web site is such a wonderful gift and I can't thank you enough. You are very talented and I think you are very generous and kind to share yourself with us all so that we may all know and love ourselves and each other better.
Sincerely,
****
Greetings,
I happily stumbled upon your site - WOW! - and wanted to let you know about my book, PERIOD PIECES: STORIES FOR GIRLS, that came out from HarperCollins this year.
What you've done and your future hopes for the museum are terrific. Congratulations on the concept and your splendidly multi-layered site.
Erzsi Deak
www.erzsideak.com
PERIOD PIECES: Stories for Girls (2003 HarperCollins, ISBN 0066237963, for readers 8 to 108).
Have you fallen off the wall? Seen George lately? Had the painters in? Does Auntie pay you a visit? No matter what you call it, or what you say about it, getting your period is a big deal. And while it's easy enough to diagram our interior plumbing, it is a lot more difficult to diagram feelings. Editors Erzsi Deàk and Kristin Embry Litchman have put together a collection of stories that share the life-changing experience common to all of us girls. Includes stories by award-winning authors: April Halprin Wayland, Bobbi Katz, Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, Dian Curtis Regan, Erzsi Deak, Jane Kurtz, Johanna Hurwitz, Kristin Embry Litchman, Linda Sue Park, Rita Williams-Garcia, Uma Krishnaswami. PERIOD PIECES is available from on-line bookstores such as www.Powells.com or your local bookstore.
Erzsi Deàk has been a journalist for more than twenty years and has covered fashion and children's features from Alaska to San Francisco to Paris. She is on the board of advisors of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. Her story "Envelope Thief" is featured in the book, THEY ONLY LAUGHED LATER: Tales of Women on the Move. Most recently, her story, "Wild Strawberries" appeared in the anthology, LINES IN THE SAND: New Writing on War & Peace (Frances Lincoln, UK, June 2003 & The Disinformation Company, US, November 2003). She lives in Paris, France. Visit her at www.erzsideak.com.
Kristin Embry Litchman's books for young people include SECRETS! (OF A LOS ALAMOS KID, 1946-1953), ALL IS WELL, and THE WRONG SIDE OF THE PATTERN. She lives in New Mexico with her husband, with whom she teaches old-time square and folk dances at workshops and dance camps around the country and in Europe.
WIN A MOONCUP
More than 100 billion tampons have been sold since 1936, and if you're not concerned about the environment, you might be worried about your budget.
British women spend more than £215 million pounds a year on tampons, sanitary towels and pantyliners. The average UK woman spends £455 on tampons in 10 years! Fed up with buying tampons or towels? The Mooncup is a reusable alternative and it isn't associated with toxic shock syndrome.
www.raisingkids.co.uk has teamed up with www.mooncup.co.uk, which kindly donated two Mooncups for our members to win.
The two lucky winners will be the ones who come up with one of the best "101 Uses For A Mooncup." Eggcups? Waterproof ear muffs?
Enter the competition here:
http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/forum/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=26&TopicID=2419&PagePosition=1
To mark the one-year anniversary of the Women's Health Initiative Study, which highlighted possible health risks associated with long-term hormone therapy use for menopausal women, the Canadian Women's Health Network has now made the following documents available online and free of charge:
Frequently Asked Questions, answered in plain language:
What is Menopause?
What is Hormone Therapy (HT)?
What are the Alternatives to Hormone Therapy?
Menopause and Heart Disease; What are my Risks?
How do I Stop Taking Hormone Therapy?
In-depth articles:
*The Pros and Cons of Hormone Therapy: Making An Informed Decision
*Health Protection Measures from the Women's Health Initiative
*The Medicalization of Menopause
*HRT in the News: The Women's Health Initiative
*Challenges of Change: Midlife, Menopause and Disability
*Natural Hormones - Are They a Safe Alternative?
*Perimenopause Naturally: An Integrative Medicine Approach
*Thinking Straight: Oestrogen and Cognitive Function at Midlife
*The Truth About Hormone Replacement Therapy
*Menopause Home Test: Save Your $$$
*Recent Studies on Menopause and Pain
*What The Experts are Saying Now: A Round-Up of International Opinion
*Women and Healthy Aging
... and many more!
Check us out at www.cwhn.ca
The Canadian Women's Health Network
Women's Health Information You Can TrustMany thanks to the Women's Health Clinic, Winnipeg,
http://www.womenshealthclinic.org/ and A Friend Indeed newsletter, www.afriendindeed.ca for making many of these documents available to the general public.============================================
Kathleen O'Grady, Director of Communications
Canadian Women's Health Network/Le Réseau canadien pour la santé des femmes
Suite 203, 419 Graham Ave.
Winnipeg MB R3C 0M3
Tel (204) 942-5500, ext. 20E-mail news@cwhn.ca
www.cwhn.ca
"TREMIN's Contributions to Menstrual Cycle Research Over 70 Years"
Friday, October 17, 2003, 1-5 PM
The Living Center, 110 Henderson Building
Penn State University, University Park Campus
The public is invited - no charge
Phyllis Kernoff Mansfield, Ph.D. and Patricia Barthalow Koch, Ph.D.
Penn State University
Director and Assistant Director, TREMIN Program
Women's Health at Midlife: Influences of Age and Menopausal Stage
Data from the Midlife Women's Health Survey
Darryl J. Holman, Ph.D.
University of Washington
Biodemographic Models of Reproductive Aging
Sioban D. Harlow, Ph.D.
University of Michigan
The Nature and Variability of Menstrual Function: A Lifespan Perspective
Dale P. Sandler, Ph.D.
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH
Morbidity and Mortality Associated with Menstrual Cycle and Reproductive Characteristics: A Follow-up Study of Tremin Trust Participants
Discussants: Ann M. Voda, R.N., Ph.D. (Professor Emerita, University of Utah) and Joyce Damico (Research Scientist, Kimberly-Clark Corporation): TREMIN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO MENSTRUAL CYCLE RESEARCH OVER 70 YEARS
The TREMIN Research Program on Women's Health is one of the world's oldest ongoing research programs dedicated to studying women's health and menstruation. Initiated in 1934 by Dr. Alan E. Treloar at the University of Minnesota to study the question of menstrual regularity, this intergenerational study has followed several thousand women from menarche through old age. TREMIN has resided at Penn State since 1998 under the direction of Dr. Phyllis Kernoff Mansfield.
For more information contact Dr. Mansfield at pkm at psu.edu or by phone at (814) 863-0356. More information about the TREMIN Research Program on Women's Health is available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.pop.psu.edu/tremin/.
Co-sponsored by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, and the Social Science Research Institute, Women's Studies Program, and the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Health and Human Development, Penn State.
Sixteenth International Transpersonal Conference:
Mythic Imagination in Modern Society.
Riviera Resort in Palm Springs, CA, June 11-18, 2004.
Program Coordinators: Stanislav and Christina Grof
Conference Coordinator: Bob Duchmann
This conference will focus on the importance of myth in modern society. We will explore how the new understanding of the nature and function of myth revealed by the work of C. G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, James Hillman, Mircea Eliade, and their followers has revolutionized the thinking in many areas of modern life. Like previous ITA events, the format of this meeting will combine lectures, experiential sessions, rituals, music, dance, and visual arts. The conference coincides with the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Joseph Campbell, the greatest mythologist of the twentieth century.
Some Ideas for Themes to be Explored at the Conference:
Re-Visioning of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Psychotherapy
Mythic Imagination in Science
Visionary Anthropology
Shamanism and the Re-Enchantment of Nature
Archetypal Dynamics, Healing, and Transformation
The Gaia Theory and Deep Ecology
Feminism and Return of the Great Mother
Mythic Elements in Business and Economy
Archetypal Forces in the World of Politics
Art and the Imaginal World
Myth and New Perspectives in Entertainment
The Imaginal and Its Relation to Spirituality and Religion
Archetypal Psychology and Astrology
Ancient and Native Prophecies
Cosmology and the Creation Stories
Global Crisis and the Search for A New MythOrganizing Committee: Duncan Campbell, Cathy Coleman, Bob Duchmann, Christina Grof, Stanislav Grof, Sandra Harner, Bokara Legendre, Cary Sparks, Tav Sparks, Richard Tarnas (others to be added).
Cooperating Institutions:
The Joseph Campbell Foundation
California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS)
Association for Transpersonal Psychology (ATP) (unconfirmed)
Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP)
Institute for Noetic Sciences (IONS)
The John Fetzer Institute (unconfirmed)
Pacifica Graduate Institute
Green Earth Foundation
Spirit Rock Center
Esalen Institute
Foundation for Shamanic Studies
Kepler College of Astrological Arts and Sciences (KC)
C. G. Jung Institute in San Francisco (unconfirmed)Ideas for Cultural Programs (some unconfirmed):
Al Huang and Lorin Hollander
Multivocal Chanting of Tibetan Gyuto Monks
Wes Nisker's transpersonal stand-up
Ecstatic Chanting with Jai Uttal and Geoff Gordon
Lama Dances
Buffy St. Marie and Native American drummers and singersPresenters:
Steve Aizenstat, Angeles Arrien, Chris Bache, John Buchanan, Cathy Coleman, orge Ferrer, Christina Grof, Paul Grof, Stanislav Grof, Michael Grosso, Michael Harner, Sandra Harner, Martina Hofmann (whose art is on this MUM site), Lorin Hollander, Chungliang Al Huang, Rashna Imhasly, Sean Kelly, Jack Kornfield, Stanley Krippner, Robin Larsen, Stephen Larsen, Ervin Laszl, Bokara Legendre, Bernard Lietaer (unconfirmed), Albrecht Mahr, Vladimir Maikov, Robert McDermott, Ralph Metzner, Jane Middelton-Moz, Michael Murphy, Wes Nisker, Jill Purce, Ram Dass, Peter Russell, Rupert Sheldrake, Karan Singh, Brother David Steindl-Rast (unconfirmed), Richard Tarnas, Charles Tart, Robert Venosa, Frances Vaughan, Roger Walsh, Terra Wise
Book about periods needs your input, MEN!
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
Migrane study at Emory University needs online participants
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
Call for Papers
Diagnosing Women's Health in Popular Culture
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
Contribute to fund in honor of Jill Wolhandler and help The Women's Community Health Center in Massachusetts (U.S.A.)
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
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
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.
