As a caregiver who is no spring chicken myself, I’ve wondered if men or women have a more difficult time caring for themselves when they become the elderly elderly. It turns out, it’s men who have more difficulties!
There are two classes of activity that people need to live on their own, the ADLs or Activities of Daily Living; and the IADLs, or Instrumental Activities of Daily Living. The problems take place in the IADLs. About 11% of those over age 75 need help with ADLs, 18% with IADLs. ADLs are things necessary to life, such as eating (not cooking, but just using utensils), walking, and hygiene. These seem to impact men and women about equally. IADLs, on the other hand, allow people to continue to thrive and remain self reliant, known by the acronym SHAFT: Shopping, Housework, Accounting, Food preparation, and Transportation. Researchers found the women have the advantage, and believe that a lifetime of performing these activities allow women to continue to do so; even with mild cognitive impairment, most women have a functional reserve that many men lack.
So guys: Whilst you are young and healthy, do a full share of your IADLs! Make it second nature. Then you’ll be able to live on your own in extreme old age, if you need to do so, maintaining your independence.
I was wondering about this as I shoveled the driveway, shopped and carried heavy grocery items from store to car trunk to house to shelves, and otherwise physically extended myself, wishing I had “male” upper body strength. But I am somewhat reassured that at least I know what to make for healthy and tasty meals! And the minimum necessary chores that have to be done. And they’re right, most women can probably do these even with one brain tied behind our backs.
In Other News
International
A vicious anti-feminist backlash stuns South Korea:
The country, which placed 102nd in the world in terms of gender parity in a World Economic Forum ranking, has recorded the largest gender pay gap in the OECD for decades, currently standing at 32 per cent. Nearly 70 per cent of publicly listed companies have no female executive, and women account for 19 per cent of the seats in the National Assembly, almost on par with North Korea. Sexual harassment and misconduct are rife, especially the spycam porn crimes where women are secretly filmed, including at toilets, workplaces and schools. While the country, largely free from guns, is regarded as one of the safest places in the world, nearly 90 per cent of victims of violent crimes are women, with their abuse or killings by intimate partners making daily headlines. But women have pushed back.
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The backlash reached a fever pitch last year when men’s rights activists waged a war against the image of pinching fingers, often used to indicate something small, claiming it ridiculed the size of male genitalia. In a campaign many called a bizarre, McCarthyian witch-hunt, top companies and state institutions that used such images apologized for hurting the men’s feelings and removed the images from their promotional materials.
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The marriage of right-wing politics and anti-feminism is a familiar story worldwide, from Spain to the U.S., with feminist movements often marked by a step forward followed by two steps back, a modicum of progress followed by years of backlash. But the ferocity of the animosity against feminism – and the toxic political climate it created – has left many in South Korea stunned. They may be stunned, but they are not immobilized.
Human Rights Watch: Chile’s New President-Elect Sets out a Feminist Government: Promises Should Be Realized, and More:
Last Friday, Chile’s new president-elect, Gabriel Boric, who ran on a progressive feminist platform, announced his first cabinet. Fourteen of the 24 ministers are women. This is not the only sign of Boric keeping his promise. Key political posts such as ministers of the interior, justice, and defense are to be occupied by women and, for the first time, the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity will be part of the government’s core “political team.”
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There will certainly be challenges. A feminist government will first have to focus on the most marginalized women. Chile’s female workforce participation has lagged for years and with the Covid-19 pandemic it dropped to less than 50 percent. The number of women working in informal sectors, on the contrary, increased. Racism creates additional barriers for Indigenous and migrant women, and sex workers are mostly invisible in public policies, despite the violence and stigma they face. Boric’s program and cabinet are a good start. Next, they’ll need to take action to deliver on their feminist promises.
January 24: Pakistan’s first woman Supreme Court judge sworn in:
Pakistan has sworn in Ayesha Malik as its first female Supreme Court judge, a landmark occasion in a nation where activists say the law is often wielded against women.
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Last year, she outlawed a deeply invasive and medically discredited virginity test used on women who reported being raped or sexually assaulted.
Women in Pakistan struggle for justice in rape and sexual assault cases and the test was seen as a way for investigating authorities to discredit victims by casting aspersion on their character.
Afghanistan: Threatened and Beaten, Afghan Women Defy Taliban With Protests
The dismissal of female workers is one of many indignities that have prompted small bands of women like Ms. Elham to take to the streets in protest, risking beatings or arrest. Taliban gunmen have pointed weapons at the demonstrators, sprayed them with pepper spray and called them 'whores' and 'puppets of the West,' Human Rights Watch said. Bearing placards and raising their fists, the women have resisted persistent attempts to erase them from public life.
The protests rarely last for long. Taliban enforcers have roughed up women, beaten them and sprayed them with chemical irritants, activists say. Ms. Elham and others say they have received threatening phone calls from intelligence officers, warning them to stay silent or face unspecified 'consequences.'
'He asked me if I knew they had prisons for people like me,' Ms. Elham said of a Taliban intelligence officer who ordered her to end the demonstrations she has helped to organize.
(If you are one of the idiots wailing & moaning about "oppression" and "persecution" because of science-based public health measures like mask and vaccine mandates, you have absolutely no #$@!ing clue what REAL oppression and persecution is and you are pissing us off!)
Poland: Polish woman dies after being forced to carry dead fetus for a week. The Polish government “has blood on its hands”.
India: For a republic where women matter: Mrinal Pande writes: The state needs to take the first step towards examining women’s actual experiences in the contexts of unequal pay, allocation of inferior work and denial of rights over their minds and bodies:
When all is said and done, reality is not made of laws and data, but the actual experiences of human beings. Real-life stories of women surfacing from time to time in our republic reveal how despite constitutional guarantees of equality, the state has seldom, if ever, intervened systematically to ensure that women are treated equally. We have a very progressive Constitution on paper. Article 14 guarantees equality before law to all the country’s citizens. Article 15 prohibits discrimination on various grounds, including religion, caste, race and gender. Article 16 provides for equality of opportunity and equal pay for equal work to all in matters of public employment. But our laws have never seriously improved the unequal terms of male entitlement over women’s labour and/or their bodies.
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Did we, the women, ever give our consent to be ruled by a toxic brand of masculinity that would treat us as merely a vote bank and/or second-class citizens? We may occasionally be handed crumbs of progressive or revised legislation, but what do they matter? Like the native princes of Raja Gangadhar’s era, in the name of loyalty to the queen or Hindu Rashtra, we are still largely denied our essential status as independent and equal citizens. A feminist theory of state has barely been shaped much less articulated. But, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, every reform was once an opinion.
Honduras: Can the first female President usher in a new era for women?
International Cats:
Violence
After an extensive manhunt and $250,000 reward, a transient man with a lengthy criminal history was charged with murder for fatally stabbing 24-year-old Brianna Kupfer at her job in a Los Angeles furniture store on January 17. The story made national headlines, prompting Los Angeles Times columnist Erika Smith to ask why the January 7 fatal shooting of Tioni Theus — a 16-year-old Black girl and possible sex trafficking victim whose body was left at a 110-Freeway on-ramp — didn’t get similar levels of attention... On January 25, L.A. city & county will consider a combined $60,000 reward for information leading to the the arrest and prosecution of the killer.
The same day Kupfer was killed, in an unrelated homicide at a downtown Los Angeles bus stop, Sandra Shells, a 70-year-old Black nurse on her way to LA County-USC Medical Center's Emergency Department, where she'd worked for 38 years, was struck in the face by an allegedly unhoused man, knocked down, suffered a fracture skull and died 5 days later. The man, 48, arrested the same day, was charged with murder and is being held on $2 million bail.
The documentary We Need to Talk About Cosby grapples with the cognitive dissonance of "America's Dad" being a predator.
Trafficking
Schools across the US are learning to teach about the risks and warning signs of human trafficking, which includes being forced into domestic servitude, commercial labor or sex work. According to 2019 data gathered by the Polaris Project – a nonprofit that fights human trafficking, including sex trafficking – 24% of survivors reported that they were first trafficked before they turned 18.
In 2017, California became the first state to require human trafficking education for students and teachers. Tennessee, Florida and Virginia now require school staff to have formal training intended to stop human trafficking.
Recommended goals for schools:
- Create a safe haven.
- Pay attention to triggers.
- Be inclusive.
- Dispel misconceptions and stereotypes.
- Use appropriate touch and tone — don’t touch without permission!
Details at the link in bold above.
Banning Books
Book-banning In early February, Oklahoma state legislature will consider a bill to prohibit publicly funded schools and school libraries from having or promoting any books that "address the study of sex, sexual preferences, sexual activity, sexual perversion, sex-based classifications, sexual identity, gender identity, or books with sexual content that parents or guardians might want to vet "before their child is exposed to it." Parents or guardians could request the removal of any title they feel the provision covers, and employees failing to remove the book within 30 days risk being fired.
Oklahoma is not alone. Other states considering bans — on books discussing race in addition to gender — include Arkansas, Texas, and Virginia.
Physicians worry how these policies would affect both sex education and representation, particularly for LGBTQ+ youth. Some are calling on healthcare providers to fill in gaps in the sex education of their young patients. Good luck with that.
Maybe we should use these laws to ban books showing men and/or whites in power. That might make the discussions more interesting! Let children read only Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. And of course cat books. See how these “conservatives” like that.
Poverty
In America about 1 in 3 child care workers go hungry AND the sunsetting of the child tax credit expansion could leave more families without enough food on the table:
In Washington state and Texas, one study found 42% of child care workers experienced food insecurity, with 20% of child care workers experiencing very high food insecurity. High food insecurity is when a person reports reduced quality and variety of diet. Very high food insecurity occurs when a person reports disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.
Another study in Arkansas found that 40% of child care workers experienced food insecurity.
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Nearly all U.S. child care workers are women, and half are people of color. This workforce is central to providing high-quality early childhood education to children up to 5 years old.
Health (Or Not)
In a single medscape article three horrific reports of misogynistic gross medical negligence. One of the three involved multiple victims of an ob/gyn investigated by the state Medical Board multiple time across 22 years because of babies permanently harmed and deaths of patients and/or their babies during delivery, yet he was allowed to go on "practicing" medicine. Now, having surrendered his license, he won't be compelled to stand before a judge, and could be eligible to regain his license after 2 years, altho' his medical office said he's decided to retire. Nice for him, no justice for his victims & their families, it appears. The other 2 cases each involve trials, one won altho' the victim/plaintiff remains harmed, and one pending, but the latter victim/plaintiff may not win any justice if before then the cancer that the doctor & his staff neglected takes her life.
Reproduction/Abortion
Yes, those are related: To safely reproduce, we need abortion access.
California: Plans for California to become a national reproductive care "sanctuary" for those seeking reproductive care might include covering costs of travel, lodging, and procedures for people from other states. Anti-abortion organizations are fighting all pro-abortion legislation introduced in the nation's most populous state.
(And I’m betting they will try to anger Californians that “our” tax dollars would fund so much for “outsiders”. Of course, actually most of the money would go to CA healthcare workers and lodgers and such.)
Georgia: Republican House Speaker David Ralston of Blue Ridge stated disinterest in more abortion legislation until the SCOTUS rules on Mississippi’s challenge to Roe v. Wade, but State Sen. Bruce Thompson, of White, Georgia (an actual place there) — who’s running statewide for labor commissioner — has introduced a bill cosponsored by 23 other GOP senators, reacting to the recent FDA ruling by introducing a bill to outlaw by-mail delivery of abortion pills, require a doctor visit with ultrasound exams, a long consent form, and then coming back 24 hours afterward to receive the pills. It would also expand abortion reporting requirements, make physician noncompliance a state crime, allow civil fines of at least $100,000 per violation, threaten the physician’s license, and justify malpractice suits even when women suffer no physical harm. All for the sake of how risky abortion-by-mail is to "females".
At an abortion right news conference promoting a legislative resolution going the opposite direction, reaffirming abortion availability in Georgia, state Rep. Park Cannon, an Atlanta Democrat said “Access to abortion in Georgia is supported by 70% of voters and the elected officials are playing games with health care during a pandemic.”
Roula AbiSambra of the abortion rights group Amplify Georgia said the bill's requirements are “death by a thousand cuts” that could deter physicians from offering abortions altogether. If the bill were to pass, Georgia would join more than a dozen Republican-led states with similar measures, suggesting a well-coordinated nationwide effort by anti-abortion interests. (Regardless of what state populations actually want.)
Reporting abortions to the state? Misogynist Big Brother is watching you.
Illinois: More out of state women coming to Illinois for abortion.
According to the most recent Illinois Department of Public Health data available, nearly 9,700 out-of-state women terminated a pregnancy in Illinois in 2020 compared to just over 7,500 in 2019, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Advocates on both sides of the debate over abortion said the increase was expected, in large part because nearby states have been enacting new laws to make it more difficult to an abortion and put more regulations on clinics.
Those numbers could climb even higher, depending on what the U.S. Supreme Court decides on one of the most significant abortion case in years, that of Dobbs v. Jackson, a Mississippi law that prohibits abortion past 15 weeks gestation. If the court upholds the law, something many experts expect to happen, it could determine the fate of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that established the right to terminate a pregnancy nationwide.
Montana: “For the safety of Montana women,” state Attorney General Austin Knudsen filed a brief Jan 20 asking the state Supreme Court to overturn their 1999 opinion that the state constitution’s right to privacy guarantees a woman’s access to an abortion — the opinion Planned Parenthood is using to challenge three new abortion laws from Montana's 2021 legislative session.
The laws being challenged would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, restrict access to abortion pills, and require abortion providers to ask patients if they would like to view an ultrasound or hear the fetal heartbeat.
ERA
Christian Post (surprisingly even-handed, considering the source): Feminist groups push for ERA's addition to Constitution as pro-life groups insist it's dead:
In a statement Friday, the National Organization for Women announced that it was one of several feminist organizations participating in a virtual press conference on Thursday, which is the day they argue that the Equal Rights Amendment should take effect. Thursday marks the second anniversary of Virginia’s ratification of the ERA, which made it the 38th state to approve the amendment.
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
New research finds that the more women enter a given STEM field, the more likely people are to label it as a ‘soft science’.
rant
Amy Remeikis: Women’s anger is not dissipating – and politics as usual won’t solve it: Edited extract from her new book, On Reckoning:
The platitudes and the “that’s terrible, but what can we do” shrugs. The attempts to move on. The pushback and the patronising “when will these emotional women stop being so emotional” sighs.
There isn’t a woman alive who wouldn’t recognise the signs. In men, anger, no matter how unreasonable, is always reasonable. At least at first glance. In women, that same anger is irrational – spurred by emotion, not rationality.
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Anger can be destructive, but it can also be transformative. Used well, it can bring about a necessary clarity, stripping back all the frosting to what lies rotten underneath. In trying to appease without offering solutions, the government found that anger only grew. And for those feeling that anger, it was cleansing.
Media
Jesse Watters: Kamala’s VP Struggles Are ‘Typical Female Problem’:
Fox News host Jesse Watters derided Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday, saying she was having 'a typical female problem' as she struggles in Washington, D.C. and that 'every single article is about her feelings.
Even Watters’ Faux colleagues told him to stop it! Sounds to me more like the typical problem the media have with powerful women. That female problem.
What Responsible Governance Looks Like
From The Guardian: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that she had canceled her wedding as a strict lockdown meant to control the spread of Omicron approaches. The new lockdown includes an indoor mask mandate, restrictions on gatherings, and social distancing requirements. "I am no different to, dare I say it, thousands of other New Zealanders who have had much more devastating impacts felt by the pandemic, the most gutting of which is the inability to be with a loved one sometimes when they are gravely ill," Ardern said. She has been engaged to television host Clarke Gayford since 2019. In 2018, she gave birth to their daughter.
Good news
19-Year-Old Woman Completes Around-the-World Solo Flight: Zara Rutherford flew 28,000 nautical miles of five continents to become the youngest woman to finish a solo global flight
The young pilot undertook her global flight as part of an effort to encourage girls and women to consider aviation as a career. She also supported two charities during her flight: Girls Who Code, which helps young women with computer science, and Dreams Soar, a nonprofit assisting women and girls in STEM (science, technology, electronics and mathematics) fields established by pilot and previous record-holder Shaesta Waiz, per CNN Travel.
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In addition to becoming the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe, Rutherford is the first woman to do so in a microlight aircraft, per BBC News. The previous record for youngest woman was set by Waiz in 2017, who was 30 at the time.
Canary Media (as in canary-in-coal-mine): A large number of women recently are moving up into key exec positions in climate tech and sustainable commercial real estate. Please click for details! Each individual and business name is linked for further info. Some are very encouraging for potential greening of marginalized American communities:
As women join boards, organizations can expect to benefit.... Here are some key takeaways from the report:
- Adding just one additional woman to a company’s board, while keeping the board size unchanged, produces a return on investment of 8 to 13 basis points.
- When women hold at least three seats on a board, this appears to have positive outcomes for corporate governance.
- Of the 11 sectors studied, utilities showed the largest increase in percentage of companies (9%) with three or more women board directors, making it the sector most successful at reaching the level the report defines as a “critical mass” of women on boards.
A ray of good news: Biden signs order criminalizing military sexual harassment.
With more kids becoming eligible for COVID jabs, Nicole Peterson, PA-C, a mother of 2 sons and physician assistant at Carle Foundation Hospital's emergency department in Urbana, Illinois, has written, illustrated and published Francine and the Vaccine to answer the questions that youngsters like her own ask and empower them to help keep themselves and others safe. One link of many bolded above, for those of you who may like to buy!
January 29
On this date in 2008, Mary Margaret Truman Daniel passed away. The only child of Bess and President Harry Truman, she was a coloratura soprano, actress and writer, amongst many roles. I have one of the murder mysteries she wrote, it’s very enjoyable!
Then there was White House Pets, www.amazon.com/… My kind of author!
Humour
The Guardian: M&M’s have had a ‘progressive’ makeover – could this be feminism’s sweetest victory?:
No doubt I speak for every woman on Earth when I say this: thank you, Mars! When I was a little girl I felt as if I could never be my authentic self because of the way the green M&M mascot used to dress. Every time I saw her tottering around in advertisements wearing white go-go boots and fluttering her long eyelashes, a little part of me would die inside. Although young, I recognised something profound: women would only be free when multinationals allowed anthropomorphised chocolate to wear sensible shoes.
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Alas, Fox News is not quite so enthusiastic about the fact that chocolate characters that nobody with more than one brain cell gives a damn about are updating their footwear. “M&Ms will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally androgynous,” Fox host Tucker Carlson recently railed. “Until the moment you wouldn’t want to have a drink with any one of them. That’s the goal. When you’re totally turned off, we’ve achieved equity.”
(If Cucker Tarlson is turned on or off by chocolate cartoons, that doesn't sound to me like the source of his problem is feminism!)
Take Action
This Color Of Change petition to Michael Carvajal, the Director of The Federal Bureau of Prisons, addresses the atrocious conditions in women's prisons due to Covid:
We are writing to you with great concern about the treatment of women incarcerated in Federal Prison Facilities, especially FPC Alderson in West Virginia and FCI Danbury in Connecticut.
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Advocates at Color Of Change are being told that women at Alderson are being denied access to tests altogether. If people report symptoms, they are being thrown into an isolation unit without a positive test, likely to keep infection report numbers lower than they are. Women with active infections are still being forced to cook food in the kitchen due to a lack of staff. Staff is not wearing proper PPE, and women are being given 1 mask every few weeks and denied access to medications. We’ve even been told that a woman was denied treatment or admission to a hospital before she died.
And this inhumane treatment isn't unique to Alderson. Color Of Change has also heard from people at Danbury that ALL of the women in the Camp are currently infected, despite reports that say only half of the women are.
Another Color Of Change petition: President Biden, #KeepYourPromise and nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court!
Another item (accompanied by another petition!) Boycott Pepsi Calls Grow Over Alleged Donation to Texas GOP After Abortion Ban
And the petition to Pepsi (from UltraViolet): STOP FUNDING ABORTION BANS
Ray-Ban has teamed up with Facebook to create "Story glasses" which allow people to secretly photograph and record others. In addition to being creepy, it's a data privacy nightmare and will only continue to enrich the coffers of Mark Zuckerberg.
It’s a stalker’s dream product, and sounds like something out of a Black Mirror episode. But these problematic glasses are already for sale, with celebrities like Kylie Jenner advertising them on social media.
us@sumofus.org is circulating a petition to Luxottica, Ray-Ban's parent company, to ditch the creepy glasses.
This column is a group effort! Many thanks to mettle fatigue, SandraLLAP, officebss, and Tara (the Antisocial Social Worker) for items with links and discussion!
Please note: I have to take care of Mom at bedtime, but will join you after that. Please discuss amongst yourselves! Thank you all!