Amid the inevitable comparisons with Hillary Clinton, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the 54-year-old wife of Argentina's president, Nestor Kirchner, has become the first woman to be elected president in Argentina's history.
Her election, with some 46 percent of the vote, makes her the second woman to be elected president in South America in recent years, following Michelle Bachelet of Chile.
Additional coverage at the International Herald Tribune.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Latinas are doin' it for themselves
New survey figures show that Latinas are starting up their own businesses at a rate 6 times that of the national average. Says the article published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Latina ownership (defined as over 51% of an enterprise) jumped by 121% between 1997 and 2006! And, in 2006, Latina-owned businesses generated almost $46 billion in sales.
You go, girl!
You go, girl!
Business booms: Latinas opening their own doors
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Is Cosmetic Surgery the 'New Feminism' or Just More "Self-effacement" of Women?
The death of Kanye West's mother, Donda, underscores the risks of undergoing the knife for a quick body fix. This piece, which I found reprinted from Ms. Magazine on AlterNet, explores the marketing of cosmetic surgery as pro-active "new feminism." Author Jennifer Cognard-Black argues against the surgery and against the new marketing, demurring convincingly:
Is Cosmetic Surgery the 'New Feminism' or Just More "Self-effacement" of Women?
...it's feminists who have led the fight against silicone breast implants when research suggested they were dangerous. It's feminists who have pointed out that a branch of medicine formed to fix or replace broken, burned and diseased body parts has since become an industry serving often-misogynistic interests.
Is Cosmetic Surgery the 'New Feminism' or Just More "Self-effacement" of Women?
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Alcohol and Breast Cancer in Women
"Women don't have to abstain from alcohol entirely, but they need to be aware of the risks they're taking when they have a few too many drinks." As if there weren't enough "don'ts" in our lives already, right? In any event, here's a story posted by the Associated Press that gives food, if not drink, for thought about the possible link between heavy drinking and breast cancer in women. I think the caveat is worth considering, but, like all supposedly scientific studies, there's always another side to the findings and debunking further research in the wings.
While we're at it, I'd like to recommend that all women investigate an alternative procedure in breast cancer examination--no hocus pocus, this is AMA doctor screened stuff--called breast thermography. It uses sensitive changes in the heat of the breast to detect areas of potential--can be up to 10 years in the future--cancerous mass formations. Breast thermography doesn't hurt, trust me, and it uses photographic imaging, not the harmful radiation of mammograms.
While we're at it, I'd like to recommend that all women investigate an alternative procedure in breast cancer examination--no hocus pocus, this is AMA doctor screened stuff--called breast thermography. It uses sensitive changes in the heat of the breast to detect areas of potential--can be up to 10 years in the future--cancerous mass formations. Breast thermography doesn't hurt, trust me, and it uses photographic imaging, not the harmful radiation of mammograms.
The Link Between Porn and War--a liberal--with a small 'l'--view
Riane Eisler asks if there a disconnect between "liberals" embracing "images of men chaining, whipping, torturing, and even killing women in the name of sexual pleasure" and their abhorrence to the violent acts of war. Her piece for AlterNet, Liberal Denial: the link between porno and war, is quite provocative. Makes you think and re-evaluate, as women, your own personal definition of womanism and women's ultimate relationship to that other gender.
If you're intrigued, there's also an AlterNet article, by Don Hazen, Pornography and the End of Masculinity, a man's view, also contrary, on the explosion of porn under the cloak of liberal views on sexuality and tolerance. Warning: in making his point about the degradation of women and exploring a recent book on porn by Robert Jensen, Hazen can be very graphic.
If you're intrigued, there's also an AlterNet article, by Don Hazen, Pornography and the End of Masculinity, a man's view, also contrary, on the explosion of porn under the cloak of liberal views on sexuality and tolerance. Warning: in making his point about the degradation of women and exploring a recent book on porn by Robert Jensen, Hazen can be very graphic.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Innovative Women’s Health Internship Program Launches
By Sarah Schmelling, at the NIH Record
"One conversation can sometimes lead to big things. Last year, after a lecture at a conference on skin and stress in New York, Dr. Esther Sternberg of NIMH started talking with Lynne Greene, global president of Clinique. When Greene said she would like to find a way to encourage young women and minority students to pursue careers in nursing and science, an idea for a new kind of internship was formed...
"The Women’s Health Summer Internship Program provided an 8- to 10-week intensive biomedical research experience here for three women who were selected through a “very competitive” process, Sternberg said. The selection committee included members of the Intramural Program on Research on Women’s Health, the National Institute of Nursing Research and the Office of Intramural Training and Education. The internships were funded by the Foundation for NIH through a grant from Clinique..."
Read more about the program and the experiences of the three interns.
"One conversation can sometimes lead to big things. Last year, after a lecture at a conference on skin and stress in New York, Dr. Esther Sternberg of NIMH started talking with Lynne Greene, global president of Clinique. When Greene said she would like to find a way to encourage young women and minority students to pursue careers in nursing and science, an idea for a new kind of internship was formed...
"The Women’s Health Summer Internship Program provided an 8- to 10-week intensive biomedical research experience here for three women who were selected through a “very competitive” process, Sternberg said. The selection committee included members of the Intramural Program on Research on Women’s Health, the National Institute of Nursing Research and the Office of Intramural Training and Education. The internships were funded by the Foundation for NIH through a grant from Clinique..."
Read more about the program and the experiences of the three interns.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Black Women's Roundtable Plans Katrina Anniversary Events
The following is from the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation’s women’s initiative, Black Women’s Roundtable (BWR), which is planning a series of its own events in N.O. this coming week to commemorate the anniversaries of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The group is also working in a broader coalition of organizations to promote a National Day of Presence on August 29, to call attention to the ongoing needs of the Gulf region 2 years after the storm.
The group has published a scheduled activities during the Second Anniversary of Katrina-Rita National Call to Action from August 27-29, 2007, and updated details may be posted there. We have additionally compiled their list events and actions with an extended schedule of Katrina events through September 1 on the blog of our sister site, http://blackcollegian.blogspot.com/.
On the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina the National Coalition on Black Civic articipation’s women’s initiative, Black Women’s Roundtable (BWR), hosted a Gulf Coast Hear Me Now Listening Sessions Bus Tour of regions hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The seven-city tour set out to learn how women directly impacted by the storms were surviving one year after enduring the life-altering affects of Katrina and Rita. The tour revealed that the storms exacerbated the already fragile social and economic existence of many African American women in the Gulf Coast region in three of the most economically depressed states in the nation—Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.
After listening to our sister’s voices about their experiences in the rebuilding process, the barriers they encountered and how they were affected by this natural disaster, the National Coalition was able to identify the most pressing issues thwarting recovery and rebuilding efforts in the Gulf Coast region----affordable housing, education, and mental/physical health topped the list.
As we approach the second anniversary of the worst storm in America’s history, sluggish rebuilding efforts have increased despair, frustration, and stress among people already emotionally traumatized. The never-ending struggle to secure a sense of dignity and stability has aggravated the severe mental stress and physical health problems survivors of these storms are facing on a daily basis in rural and urban communities in the Gulf Coast and all across the country where displaced survivors are attempting to rebuild their lives.
In 2006 the women of Black Women’s Roundtable heard the voices of our beloved sisters in the Gulf Coast. Further, to build upon what we learned from our Gulf Coast recovery & rebuilding work and from the women of the gulf coast over the past year, NCBCP will utilize the Black Women’s Roundtable Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Initiative to assist the women of the Gulf with their civic engagement and provide vehicles for their voices to be heard by policy and opinion makers across the country.
NCBCP will incorporate the mission of BWR – to promote healthy families – as we return to New Orleans to commemorate the second anniversary of Katrina through our 2007 BWR Celebrate Our Sisters of the Gulf Coast Wellness Journey. The journey will include a full day focused on health and wellness through exercise, volunteerism, pampering, dialogue, entertainment, spiritual upliftment, recognition, and information gathering. NCBCP will host a regional organizing briefing and conduct a scientific survey/poll of survivors to evaluate their recovery/rebuilding experiences over the past year, document their stories of success and the barriers Katrina-Rita survivors continue to encounter as well as stand in solidarity with the people of the Gulf Coast for a national call to action on August 27-29, 2007 in New Orleans, LA.
The tentative schedule of events is here.
The group has published a scheduled activities during the Second Anniversary of Katrina-Rita National Call to Action from August 27-29, 2007, and updated details may be posted there. We have additionally compiled their list events and actions with an extended schedule of Katrina events through September 1 on the blog of our sister site, http://blackcollegian.blogspot.com/.
On the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina the National Coalition on Black Civic articipation’s women’s initiative, Black Women’s Roundtable (BWR), hosted a Gulf Coast Hear Me Now Listening Sessions Bus Tour of regions hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The seven-city tour set out to learn how women directly impacted by the storms were surviving one year after enduring the life-altering affects of Katrina and Rita. The tour revealed that the storms exacerbated the already fragile social and economic existence of many African American women in the Gulf Coast region in three of the most economically depressed states in the nation—Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.
After listening to our sister’s voices about their experiences in the rebuilding process, the barriers they encountered and how they were affected by this natural disaster, the National Coalition was able to identify the most pressing issues thwarting recovery and rebuilding efforts in the Gulf Coast region----affordable housing, education, and mental/physical health topped the list.
As we approach the second anniversary of the worst storm in America’s history, sluggish rebuilding efforts have increased despair, frustration, and stress among people already emotionally traumatized. The never-ending struggle to secure a sense of dignity and stability has aggravated the severe mental stress and physical health problems survivors of these storms are facing on a daily basis in rural and urban communities in the Gulf Coast and all across the country where displaced survivors are attempting to rebuild their lives.
In 2006 the women of Black Women’s Roundtable heard the voices of our beloved sisters in the Gulf Coast. Further, to build upon what we learned from our Gulf Coast recovery & rebuilding work and from the women of the gulf coast over the past year, NCBCP will utilize the Black Women’s Roundtable Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Initiative to assist the women of the Gulf with their civic engagement and provide vehicles for their voices to be heard by policy and opinion makers across the country.
NCBCP will incorporate the mission of BWR – to promote healthy families – as we return to New Orleans to commemorate the second anniversary of Katrina through our 2007 BWR Celebrate Our Sisters of the Gulf Coast Wellness Journey. The journey will include a full day focused on health and wellness through exercise, volunteerism, pampering, dialogue, entertainment, spiritual upliftment, recognition, and information gathering. NCBCP will host a regional organizing briefing and conduct a scientific survey/poll of survivors to evaluate their recovery/rebuilding experiences over the past year, document their stories of success and the barriers Katrina-Rita survivors continue to encounter as well as stand in solidarity with the people of the Gulf Coast for a national call to action on August 27-29, 2007 in New Orleans, LA.
The tentative schedule of events is here.
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