Health, Reproductive Rights & Sexuality

Full equality for women and girls can be attained only when they have the information and services they need to lead healthy lives and make informed and independent decisions about their health, reproductive health and sexuality. Health for women depends on many factors, including access to safe water and nutritious food; affordable care and insurance; disease prevention and access to comprehensive reproductive and maternal health services; and awareness and support for women with HIV/AIDS and other diseases and disabilities. Health is not limited to physical well-being but extends to sexuality, mental health and body image as well. Explore the resources listed below, including Related Categories links, or use the Keyword Search for more information.

Obesity affects job prospects for women, study finds

Teaser:

An Australian study finds that obese women are more likely to be discriminated against when applying for jobs and receive lower starting salaries than their non-overweight colleagues,

Editorial:

From EurekAlert:

The study, led by The University of Manchester and Monash University, Melbourne, and published in the International Journal of Obesity, examined whether a recently developed measure of anti-fat prejudice, the universal measure of bias (UMB), predicted actual obesity job discrimination. The researchers also assessed whether people's insecurity with their own bodies (body image) and conservative personalities such as, authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation were related to obesity discrimination, as they are related to homophobia and racism.

Psychologist and lead researcher Dr Kerry O'Brien said the nature of the study was initially concealed from the participants to avoid biased results, and simply advertised as a study on whether some people are better at personnel selection than others.

[...]

Source:

EurekAlert

URL:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-04/uom-oaj043012.php

Date:

May 1, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Breast-feeding hurts moms' earnings, study finds

Teaser:

Breast-feeding comes with an often-overlooked cost to new mothers, according to a new study by Phyllis L.F. Rippeyoung, an assistant professor at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, and published in the American Sociological Review.

Editorial:

From MSNBC:

Breast-feeding comes with a cost to new moms that is often overlooked, according to a new study published in the American Sociological Review. The study looked at data from 1,313 first-time mothers in the U.S. who were in their late 20s or 30s when they gave birth.

Women’s incomes dropped precipitously when they choose to breast-feed for six months or longer -- and they remained low some five years after the babies were born, says the study’s lead author, Phyllis L.F. Rippeyoung, an assistant professor of sociology and coordinator of women’s and gender studies at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

Rippeyoung’s interest in the hidden costs of breast-feeding was sparked by personal experience. When she became a mom, she was flooded with information about the benefits of breast-feeding -- including the suggestion that it would save her money.

“I thought that it was weird that they were saying it was free,” Rippeyoung remembers. “I was a grad student at the time driving back and forth between teaching and classes, and my milk was drying up since I couldn’t drive and pump at the same time. It was a very difficult thing, but I had to stop breast-feeding. If I’d continued I couldn’t have worked at the same time.”

The data for the new study came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which included information about the moms’ jobs and incomes, as well as stats on their family life, including the decision to give their babies formula or to breast-feed for a short duration (less than six months) or a long duration (six months or more).

[...]

Source:

MSNBC

URL:

http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/27/11415639-breast-feeding-hurts-moms-earnings-study-finds?lite?ocid=twitter

Date:

April 30, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS)

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 04/27/2012 - 10:20am

On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States, based on a survey conducted in 2010. Over the course of a year, that equals more than 12 million women and men. Those numbers only tell part of the story—more than 1 million women are raped in a year and over 6 million women and men are victims of stalking in a year. These findings emphasize that sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence are important and widespread public health problems in the United States.

URL:

http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nisvs/

Monthly State Update: Major Developments in 2012

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 11:04am

This monthly update provides information on legislation, as well as relevant executive branch actions and judicial decisions in states across the country. For each of the topics, the number of states in which legislation has been introduced is given, as are the names of the states in which subsequent action has been taken. Detailed summaries are provided for legislation that has been passed by at least one house of a legislature and for major court decisions; actions for the current month are in bold.

Abortion
Adolescents
Contraception & Prevention
Pregnancy & Birth
Refusal Clauses
Reproductive Health and Environmental Hazards

URL:

http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/updates/index.html

Unintended Pregnancy: Incidence and Outcomes Among Young Adult Unmarried Women in the United States, 2001 and 2008

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 10:56am

More than two-thirds of pregnancies among unmarried women aged 20–29 were unintended in 2008, according to "Unintended Pregnancy: Incidence and Outcomes Among Young Adult Unmarried Women in the United States, 2001 and 2008," by Mia Zolna and Laura Duberstein Lindberg of the Guttmacher Institute. By comparison, only half of pregnancies among all women of reproductive age were unintended. In 2008, nearly 10% of unmarried women aged 20-29 (95 per 1,000) experienced an unintended pregnancy.

URL:

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/unintended-pregnancy-US-2001-2008.pdf

Black Women, Sexual Assault and the Art of Resistance

Teaser:

Brooke Axtell examines the implications of the statistic that 60 percent of Black girls have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18.

Editorial:

From Forbes:

According to an ongoing study conducted by Black Women’s Blueprint, sixty percent of Black girls have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18. More than 300 Black women nationwide participated in the research project. A similar study conducted by The Black Women’s Health Imperative seven years ago found the rate of sexual assault was approximately 40%.

The pervasive nature of this trauma could translate into an increased risk for Black women and girls to experience depression, PTSD and addiction, common symptoms experienced by many survivors of rape.

The Department of Justice estimates that for every white woman that reports her rape, at least 5 white women do not report theirs; and yet, for every African-American woman that reports her rape, at least 15 African-American women do not report theirs.

There are many reasons why Black women may choose not to report incidences of sexual assault. Survivors of all races often fear that they will not be believed or will be blamed for their attack, but Black women face unique challenges.

[...]

Source:

Forbes

URL:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/shenegotiates/2012/04/25/black-women-sexual-assault-and-the-art-of-resistance/

Date:

April 25, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Shelters turn women away as domestic violence escalates

Teaser:

Slashed funding, strapped donors, underwater mortgages and high unemployment are all causing domestic violence victim's shelters in Florida to turn women away at a time when the need may is greater than usual.

Editorial:

From the Herald-Tribune:

Domestic violence has risen during the economic downturn, and services are eroding.

According to the National Center for Victims of Crime, 92 percent of victim service providers have seen an increased demand in the last year, while 84 percent reported that cutbacks in funding were directly affecting their work.

In Florida, the state’s 42 domestic violence shelters had to turn away 3,352 women in the last fiscal year, said Leisa Wiseman, director of communications and government affairs for the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

[...]

Source:

Herald-Tribune

URL:

http://health.heraldtribune.com/2012/04/23/shelters-turn-women-away-as-domestic-violence-escalates/

Date:

April 24, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Female Circumcision: Police Investigating Claims UK Doctors Advised On Illegal Practice

Teaser:

A report by the Sunday Times says that as many as 100,000 woman in the UK may have been victims of female genital mutilation.

Editorial:

From the Huffington Post UK:

Claims that UK doctors were secretly filmed offering to perform and facilitate female circumcision are being investigated by police.

A report by the Sunday Times said that as many as 100,000 woman in Britain may have been victims of the practice, which is illegal.

Female circumcision is performed on young women around the world, but particularly in Africa, on cultural and religious grounds.

The News International newspaper claims to have recorded a dentist in Birmingham, Omar Sheikh Mohamed Addow, describing how the operation could be performed, including details on how the clitoris could be pierced and clamped.

[...]

Source:

Huffington Post UK

URL:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/04/23/female-circumcision-police-investigation-uk-doctors_n_1444958.html

Date:

April 24, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Fewer Workouts, Greater Health Risks for Women

Teaser:

A nationwide study, conducted at Oregon State University in Corvallis, found that women get only about 18 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day, while men get 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise daily, on average.

Editorial:

From Everyday Health:

For objective results, the research team tracked the daily physical activity of more than 1,000 men and women across the country via accelerometers worn by the participants.

Published in the journal Preventative Medicine, their findings reveal women aren't even coming close to the recommended 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. Stats from this study line up with the results of a recent survey from the American Heart Association, which found that only 12 percent of Americans report regular practice of three key healthy habits (good nutrition, exercise, and oral care). The biggest excuse was lack of time.

But failing to get 30 minutes of physical activity per day hurts your health, according to the study authors.

"It's pretty striking what happens to you if you don't meet that 30 minutes a day of activity," says Bradley Cardinal, PhD, a OSU professor of social psychology of physical activity who co-led the study, in a release. "Women in our sample had better health behavior. They were much less likely to smoke, for instance, but the lack of activity still puts them at risk."

[...]

Source:

Everyday Health

URL:

http://www.everydayhealth.com/high-cholesterol/0412/fewer-workouts-greater-health-risks-for-women.aspx

Date:

April 15, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Women's Demand for Reproductive Control: Understanding and Addressing Gender Barriers

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 10:19am

Millions of women each year experience unintended pregnancies, and millions more have unmet need for family planning. One of the persistent gaps in knowledge is the role of gender barriers that women face in defining and achieving their reproductive intentions. This paper provides a gender analysis of women’s demand for reproductive control. This analysis illuminates how the social construction of gender affects fertility preferences, unmet need, and the barriers that women face to using contraception and safe abortion. It also helps to bridge important dichotomies in the population, family planning, and reproductive health fields.

Jennifer McCleary-Sills, Allison McGonagle, Anju Malhotra
2012

URL:

http://www.icrw.org/publications/womens-demand-reproductive-control

Member Organization:

International Center for Research on Women

GET INVOLVED

What We Do

NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

NCRW Blog

Health, Reproductive Rights & Sexuality

Search NCRW