Why Bush Opposes Dred Scott (It's code for Roe v. Wade)
In the Oct. 8 debate, President Bush baffled some people by saying he wouldn't appoint anyone to the Supreme Court who would condone the Dred Scott decision. Dred Scott was, of course, the famous 1857 Supreme Court decision that affirmed slaves remained the property of their owners even when taken to free territories and that prohibited even free African-Americans from becoming U.S. citizens.

Barnard Commencement 2004 (Speech by Barbara Ehrenreich)
It is a total thrill to share this day with you today. I really feel honored to participate. How many of you are parents of graduates? What I'm really curious about is how you managed to get here today, after paying all that money for tuition - Greyhound bus? I put two kids thru Ivy League myself, which meant I had to hitchhike to their commencement ceremonies.

U.S. Women Lack Health Insurance, Access to Care
Research by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that a significant number of U.S. women under 64 lack health insurance and that others face barriers to adequate care.

Bush Attacks Women's Rights
President Bush dealt a crippling blow to women around the world when he reinstated the Global Gag Rule. The Gag Rule condemns hundreds of thousands of women and girls to unsafe abortions and even death by denying crucial funding to any health care providers that provide information on abortion to their patients.

Good News for Women
There was plenty of gloomy news for women in 2003. American women make just under 80 cents on the male dollar for full-time, year-round work. Still, it's the end of the year, so let's break out the champagne for good news around the world for women in 2003--accomplishments, activism, bold deeds and grounds for hope.

US Contributes to the Marginalization of Women Worldwide
The face of war - hidden by administration officials and their media accomplices - is female. Ninety percent of war casualties are civilians; 80 percent of these are women and children.

Personal Voices: Revolution or Regression?
The continuing economic slide will make the split between poor women and rich women more pronounced, and cause deep anxiety for those of us somewhere in the middle.

Killing Them Softly
The Bush administration announced a few weeks ago that it was halting payments to the Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium because, it said, one of the seven charities in the consortium was linked to abortions in China. So I decided to do what the White House didn't — come out and see these programs we are slashing.

Area women to be honored by Michigan Hall of Fame
Former Michigan First Lady Helen Milliken, former Lt. Gov. Connie Binsfeld, aviation pioneer Bernice "Bea" Steadman and environmentalist Joan Luedders Wolfe will be among several area women - past and present - to be honored for their achievements Thursday by The Michigan Women's Historical Center and Hall of Fame.

Women Will Have to Save the World
From Iraq to Europe and the United States, cultural resistance by women is emerging against heavily militaristic solutions to political problems. Women may be the most important adversaries male leaders like George Bush have to face.

Naming Rape Victims
As the Kobe Bryant case makes clear, withholding the accuser's name in a rape crime only encourages the cruel search for dirt on her.

Study Finds New Risks in Hormone Therapy
One year after a major study linked postmenopausal hormone therapy to an increased risk of breast cancer, new findings from the same study paint an even more ominous picture of the hormones' role in the disease.

Nobody's Home
In 70 percent of U.S. households there is no full-time parent at home. Yet government policy is still based on the 1950s, when Mom was around.

Freedom of Choice Talking Points
Now, more than ever, it is essential to voice your opposition to the rollbacks of Roe v. Wade.

At Home, No Superpower
The well-being of mothers and children in this country is deteriorating rapidly.

Relevant lessons for today abound in women's history
It is now 35 years since a small group of women historians proclaimed that there was a history of women, that it deserved to be legitimized as an academic field and that it should be taught and studied at all levels of education. Their message spread with spectacular speed.

Code Pink, Women in Black say no to war
Thousands of women from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., and dozens of places in between took to the streets Saturday to honor International Women's Day by protesting against the possibility of war with Iraq.

Mighty in Pink
"It's not easy to be warm and fashionable at the same time," smiled Nina Human of Atlanta, who, ensconced in a billowing pink scarf, was succeeding admirably. It was a sunless late afternoon in January, and Human was at the Women's Peace Vigil in front of the White House, protesting the Bush Administration's impending war on Iraq. Human has never protested anything before, but she has spent many sleepless nights worrying about this war. She learned about the vigil, organized by the Code Pink Women's Pre-emptive Strike for Peace, on the web. "I told my husband and my boss: 'I'm going,'" she said.

The Attack on Women's Sports
The recommended changes to Title IX would create enough exceptions to significantly undermine the equality that this law has always stood for.

American Women Report from Baghdad
It becomes clear so quickly here that the Iraqis are not and cannot prepare for war. They wait for the terror to come as helpless as any people have ever been. They are totally unprepared. They are severely lacking medically and only have food to last three months. They have nowhere to go and if Team Bush does as they have threatened, and Baghdad is "leveled to the ground," they will have murdered five million helpless people. These people are sitting ducks. The US is the biggest military might in the world. The Iraqis are a depleted people, stripped of all economic support and without resources. The word genocide has been raised by some of the humanitarian workers here and as the days pass I see it also. It is the murder of a whole people.

Why We Need Women's Actions and Feminist Voices for Peace
Women are deeply impacted by war, racism and poverty--the three evils named by Martin Luther King. But when we stand for peace as women, it is not to make a case for our special victimhood, but to represent a different vision of strength. Women-initiated and women-led actions have a special energy and power. That power comes not from excluding menÐmost of these actions welcome men as participantsÐbut because of the joy and visionary potential that arise when we come together as women to defend the values of life and caring that we hold dear.

Menstrual Cups Begin to Make Up for Lost Time
Menstrual cups were first patented in this country in the 1930's. Use of them is now growing, especially at women's colleges.

Title IX Panel Acts
Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, said, "The commission has opened the barn door for the Bush administration to weaken Title IX. This gives the education secretary license to do pretty much anything he wants." Should the recommendations be adopted by the Bush administration, Lopiano said, female college athletes could lose $103 million to $122 million annually in scholarship money.

Anniversary reminds us that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
On this, the 30th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, which secured for women the fundamental civil and human right to make their own childbearing choices, today we stand face to face with the reality that reproductive rights could disappear completely.

A Ruling the G.O.P. Loves to Hate
Republicans may well chip away at Roe v. Wade. But if they overturn it, they do so at their peril.

A warning bell on Roe v. Wade
There was a moment last month when the Bush administration overturned Roe v. Wade. You may not have noticed because it happened in Bangkok - out of sight, out of media mind. From the outset, this administration gave the right wing domain over international family planning policy, as if the women of the world were their colony. And it paid no political price.

Fact Sheet: So-Called Abortion Non-Discrimination Act is Really an "Anti-Women's Health Care Access Act"
This legislation is one of the most dangerous and burdensome of all of the many anti-abortion and anti-contraception bills being promoted by extremist opponents of women's reproductive health care. An analysis of H.R. 4691/S.2008, sponsored by Michael Bilirakis (R-Fla.) in the House and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) in the Senate, details what would happen under this legislation.

The War Against Women
The Bush administration's anti-choice obsession is resulting in a steady march into the past, to a time when pregnancy was more a matter of fate than choice.

Women Activists, The White House And War
Thousands of women around the country seem to agree that women have special responsibilities to keep the peace.

Onward, Christian soldiers
With its allies now controlling Congress and the White House, the religious right launches a crusade to cleanse America of sin. The first battlefield: Women's bodies.

The American Burqa Industry
In many parts of the world, women wear burqas so that their true identity and features may be concealed. Today in the United States, this practice is seen as alien, even degrading of the person, a practice believed to be obsolete within the civilized realm. Nothing could be further from the truth. Actually, probably no other people on earth go to such extremes as Americans to conceal the true features of women, particularly when they go out in public. This concealment is a multibillion-dollar industry, and it deals not in cloth, but in cosmetics.

'Code Pink' White House Vigil Continues
In D.C. and Albany, women opposed to a U.S. war on Iraq have embarked on vigils, fasts and a 40-day hunger strike to draw attention to their views, which they say are being drowned out by "testosterone-poisoned rhetoric."

Rush Limbaugh Attacks Ms. Women of the Year
Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk show host known for his anti-feminist rants, devoted an entire show to the 2002 Ms. Women of the Year. The thirteen Women of the Year, a group of groundbreaking trailblazers and champions for justice, were recognized not for any “real accomplishments” but because they had “flipped the bird to men,” he said.

From WorldCom to the FBI, corporate America's women are laying bare its secrets
Never has the old boys' club been so out of style in America. Meanwhile it seems that American intelligence agencies were so dozy before September 11 that Osama bin Laden could have unveiled his plans in Times Square without the FBI connecting the dots. It's a picture of corruption and incompetence on a mammoth scale and it was only thanks to a succession of whistleblowers that it became known.

Breast Cancer: Genes Are Tied to Death Rates
Researchers have found a genetic signature in breast tumors that seems to be a powerful predictor of whether the cancer will spread and kill or whether it can easily be cured by surgery, causing no further harm.

Stop Drive-Through Mastectomies
You would think a diagnosis of breast cancer would be bad enough, but despite wide-ranging medical opinions that women who have undergone mastectomies need at least two to four days to recover from the surgery, insurance companies continue to refuse to cover hospital stays. If you agree that mastectomies require more than one night's hospital stay, here’s your chance to make your voice heard.

Wal-Mart's Female Trouble
Wal-Mart's business practices may be leading to a new kind of globally sanctioned gender discrimination.

What Would Mohammed Do?
Geraldine Brooks, an expert on the role of women in Islam, says the "haters of beauty" behind the Miss World riots misrepresent what is a "pro-sexuality" religion.

Legal Group Urges States to Update Their Family Law
An influential group of lawyers and judges has recommended sweeping changes in family law that would increase alimony and property rights for many divorced women.

Remedies: In Lieu of Hormones: Questions
A lternatives to hormone replacement therapy like herbal remedies and dietary supplements to fight the symptoms of menopause seem to have mixed effects, a study being published today in Annals of Internal Medicine says.

Menopause Without Pills: Rethinking Hot Flashes
For decades, women have been told that the symptoms of menopause — hot flashes and night sweats as well as vaginal dryness that could make sex a painful ordeal and libido a distant memory — were burdens they should not have to bear. With hormone therapy, they would feel like the clock was turned back. At the same time, they could protect themselves against osteoporosis, and probably even reduce their risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Woman to Bear a Clone, a Doctor Says
An Italian doctor who announced previously that he was trying to clone humans said yesterday that a woman would give birth to a clone in January.

F.D.A. Approves New Osteoporosis Therapy, a Bone-Growing Drug
The first drug created to stimulate the growth of new bone won Food and Drug Administration approval today to treat osteoporosis, the brittle-bone disease that affects 10 million Americans.

Perfumes linked to infertility, cancer
High levels of a chemical blamed for causing infertility in men have been found in some of the world's best-known perfumes and cosmetics. Chanel No5, Christian Dior's Poison, Eternity from Calvin Klein and Tresor by Lancome were among 34 toiletries found by a Swedish study to contain di-ethylhexyl phthalate or other phthalates.

Female workers claim sexual harassment at Water Reclamation District
More than a dozen women claim they are victims of racial discrimination and sexual harassment while on the job at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. The group says they are fed up, are considering a class action lawsuit.

States Consider Laws Against Paternity Fraud
Edward L. Mack was floored to learn just weeks after his divorce that two of the three children born during his 10-year marriage

11-November: Women Rise for Global Peace
It is time for women to come forward with these qualities that they know and live so well. Our world is in extreme crisis with all the wars and the philosophy of greed as a virtue. Let us consciously invest our power in that which will bring joy, peace, and prosperity to all. Let us all, women and men, join together on 11-11 in the streets and in spirit, to make the transformation we know in our hearts is needed for us to survive and thrive.

Why we Don't Lead the World on Women's Rights Issues: As Shown By An Unsigned Treaty, Not Cultural Imperialism
U.S. concern for the rights of women worldwide is unquestionably a good thing. Indeed, we waited too long in the case of the Taliban to act on behalf of women suffering a deplorable deprivation, by their ruthless leaders, of their rights to freedom of movement, and basic access to education, employment, and health care.

Addressing Gender Roils Governors' Debates
This could be a record year for women winning governorships, with one Republican and eight Democratic female candidates. But officials at Emily's List, the Democratic political action committee, say women still face bias when they run for executive positions.

Pro-Marriage Politicians Rely on Flawed Studies
Political leaders in the U.S. and Australia are promoting marriage as the cure for social ills, and cite statistics to prove their point. But for many women and their children, divorce is the best thing that could happen to them.

Women Can Fight an Almost Secret Syndrome
It may seem hard to believe that a disorder first identified nearly 70 years ago that affects as many as 10 percent of women would still be unrecognized by many doctors and in most of those who have it. But that is the case with a condition called polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS.

US should join the world in defining women's rights
ON JULY 30, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to send the international Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women to the Senate floor for a vote on ratification. If all goes well, the Senate will take up the matter this fall, more than 20 years after President Carter signed the treaty and recommended approval of the international convention on women's equality.

Feminism as Imperialism
"The repression of women [is] everywhere and always wrong!" Bush told the New York Times, warming to his theme that the west should attack Iraq for the sake of its women. At home, Bush is no feminist. On his very first day in the Oval office, he cut off funding to any international family-planning organizations...

Good for The Goose (And the Gander)
I know that educated women have always made some people nervous. In 1873, when less than 15 percent of college students were female, Harvard University's Edward Clarke explained scientifically how expanding a woman's brain would make her uterus shrink.

Bush Is Already at War - Against Women
President George W. Bush allies himself with countries that routinely and brutally repress women. Our new partners in the war against "reproductive health services" have included the likes of Algeria, Libya, Sudan - even Iran and Iraq, two designated members of the "axis of evil."

Women with children face blatant workplace bias
Women with children face discrimination on the job, the likes of which has long passed for others such as racial minorities and women overall, according to a new study that predicts parenthood will be behind the next big wave of gender-discrimination lawsuits.

Court Nominee Shedd Is Hostile to Women's Rights
The ultimate good ol' boys may be leaving the U.S. Senate, but Strom Thurmond is backing Dennis Shedd for a seat on the circuit court, part of a strategy to leave a legacy hostile to civil rights and gender equity.

Kits protect women from rape drug
Charlyne Cutler and Alissa Garcia of Las Vegas are the creators of Guardian Angel test kits, which are used to detect traces of GHB in beverages. Users are instructed to dip the test strips, which are FDA approved, into their beverage whenever they have left it unattended. After approximately 10 to 15 seconds, if the strip changes color then the beverage could be laced with GHB and should not be consumed.

Draining horses for all they're worth
The most widely used form of hormone therapy is made with the oestrogen of mares kept constantly pregnant and harnessed to urine collection bags, while their unwanted foals are slaughtered

Summer of the Over-Played Story
Relax. There's been no explosion in the numbers of children abducted and murdered by strangers. In fact, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports a slight decline over this same time last year. Your children are not at increased risk.

ACTION : Nigerian Islamic Court Decides Woman's Fate August 19, 2002: Prevent Stoning Sentence

ACTION : Oppose Restrictive Dress Code for US Servicewomen in Saudi Arabia

ACTION : Urge President Bush to Reinstate Funding for Afghan Reconstruction and Refugees

ACTION : Attn: Young People - Oppose Increased Funding for Abstinence-Only

Women's climbing group forms national network
A grassroots non-profit volunteer group, sheclimbs, Inc., started with 25 women in Portland, Ore., who were searching for women climbing partners. Today, the group is 300 members strong with 18 chapters nationwide. WEB SITE

Mich. Sex-Offender Registry to Open
The public will once again have access to Michigan's sex offender registry under a ruling issued Wednesday by a federal appeals court.

Drinking Green Tea Daily Can Cut Women's Risk of Ovarian Cancer in Half, Study Says
Women who drink green tea every day are almost 60% less likely to develop ovarian cancer than those who do not drink any type of tea on a regular basis, according to a study released yesterday and published in this month's issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, Agence France-Presse reports.

Vitamin E is important for early prevention of cardiovascular disease in middle-aged women
Atherosclerosis, or the formation of plaques and lesions in the coronary arteries, may signal the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) early in life, perhaps decades before any explicit clinical diagnosis of CVD is made. Adequate intakes of antioxidant vitamins are known to protect against plaque formation, and yet most research into the effects of these vitamins has focused on subjects who already had overt signs of heart disease such as myocardial infarction, angina, stroke, or heart attack.

Mother of Sunburned Kids Released
A woman who was jailed for allegedly letting her three children get severely sunburned was released Wednesday after the felony charges against her were dropped.

Stamps to Honor Women Journalists
The U.S. Postal Service plans to issue stamps Sept. 14 featuring Nellie Bly, Marguerite Higgins, Ethel L. Payne and Ida M. Tarbell.

Single-Sex Classes May Increase
Without a snicker, or even a whisper, the eighth-grade boys listened as each of their classmates stood and pledged to study hard and earn high marks to get ready for high school.

Mother Is Jailed After Children Are Sunburned
An Ohio woman has been jailed for allowing her three children to get severely sunburned at a county fair.

Number of never-married women is up
U.S. Census Bureau statistics indicate that the percentage of women who said they had never been married went up in every age category between 1990 and 2000, and increased the most among women ages 25 to 44.

Breast Cancer Gene May Carry Less Risk Than Thought
For women who carry genetic mutations that have been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer the risk may not be as high as first thought, a new report suggests.

Soy May Help Keep Postmenopausal Arteries Healthy
A Western diet rich in tofu and other soy products may help protect older women from artery disease, new study findings suggest.

Elderly women most likely to vote
They live longer than men, often subsist on a fixed income and show up at the polls en masse to protect their interest

Making Things Happen Through Conversations
Sometimes I have the opportunity to hear from both sides of the situation and more often than not, it comes down to this: typically, the original request was not fully understood. So, whose fault is that?

Programmed To Love
A new book adds to the gender wars by claiming girls' brains are hardwired for relationships, not math. Sigh, not that tired old nonsense again!

Bush Still Clueless on Welfare Reform:
"The Administration's my-way-or-the-highway approach to helping poor moms and kids won't help those who need help the most. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the way to end the vicious cycle of poverty and punishment is to make sure that education, child care, health care, transportation and decent housing are available to all struggling families," Gandy said. "Instead, Bush's welfare proposals siphon off funds to pay for the Dick Cheney Dating Game while perversely mandating stiffer work requirements without the supports necessary to hold down a good job."

Hormone Therapy Study Finds Risk for Some
H ormone replacement does not prevent heart attacks — or related problems — in older women with heart disease, researchers are reporting. In addition, the treatment increases the risks of blood clots and gallbladder disease, they say. But they report no link between

Women's Rights: Why Not?
We now have a window into what President Bush and America's senators think of the world's women: Not much. An international women's treaty banning discrimination has been ratified by 169 countries so far (without emasculating men in any of them!), yet it has languished in the United States Senate ... John Ashcroft's Justice Department found out about the treaty — and seems to be trying to defend America from the terrifying threat of global women's rights.

Unemployment Watch PDF
How are Women and Families Faring in the Recession?

Does Women's Representation in Elected Office Lead to Women-Friendly Policy?
Research-in-Brief

Why Privatizing Government Services Would Hurt Women Workers
Report

ACTION : Hands Off Title IX!
According to news reports, the Bush administration is planning to reopen long-standing Title IX athletics policies that have expanded opportunities on the playing field and in college scholarships for millions of female athletes. This action would threaten to reverse the principles of equality in educational opportunity that have been enforced by the Department of Education for more than two decades, including through the Ford, Reagan and Bush I administrations.While Title IX has made great strides in leveling the playing field for female athletes, gender equity in sports has not yet been achieved. Please contact President Bush today and urge him NOT to roll back Title IX protections.

Playing Politics With Women's Health
Real progress on women's health is within reach if the New York State Assembly Democrats would stop worrying about who gets the credit.

Outrage of the Week: 27-May-2002
A Washington, D.C. couple is unable to get a birth certificate for their infant son because they gave him his mother's last name. A local law requires that all children born in wedlock be given their father's surname.

Judiciary Committee Vote Insults Women 23-May-2002
The field of credible Democrats running for President was significantly narrowed today when two rumored candidates insulted every employed woman, every woman in business, and every woman who has been a victim of violence in this country.

A Quiet Attack on Women
Women's rights are suddenly at the center of the Congressional debate

Mom won't get higher pay for Mothers Day
Working mothers earn the lowest wages and have the least flexible work environment of any other population group, with single mothers faring worse than married mothers

Children and Welfare
How are children doing now that their parents have been moved, quickly and en masse, into the workforce?

Roe v. Wade v. Ashcroft
No politician has been more steadfastly anti-abortion than Attorney General John Ascroft. At every stage of his career, he's done everything to restrict and challenge Roe v. Wade.

Jesus Was a Feminist
According to the New Testament, women disciples followed Jesus and listened to his teachings, shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. Jesus raised one woman from the dead and saved another -- a woman dragged out of her lover's bed

The Antiabortion Fringe
It's a busy season for violent opponents of a woman's right to choose.

Backlash Babies
More equality and support, not lowered expectations is what women need at work and at home.

Support Compassionate Care for Sexual Assault Survivors Act
Rep. Connie Morella (D-MD) has just launched the Compassionate Care for Female Sexual Assault Survivors Act, which requires hospitals to provide access to emergency contraception (EC) for survivors of rape and incest. More than 300,000 women are sexually assaulted each year in the U.S., and about 25,000 of them become pregnant as a result. Started within 72 hours of an assault, emergency contraception can reduce the risk of pregnancy by as much as 89 percent. Yet many hospitals still deny EC to women who have survived a sexual assault. EC should be available to all women, but there is absolutely no excuse for denying it to women facing such a critical situation. Congress must step in now and ensure that emergency contraception is available to all those who need it, when they need it most. Urge your representative to cosponsor the Compassionate Care for Female Sexual Assault Survivors Act.

Cloning pregnancy claim prompts outrage
"One woman among thousands of infertile couples in the programme is eight weeks pregnant," Antinori is reported as saying at a meeting in the United Arab Emirates. If true, this would represent the first human cloning pregnancy.

Women Photography Exhibit Online
A marvelous, on-line exhibition of five of the noted women photographers for National Georgraphic may be found at: http://www.newseum.org/womenphotographers/ Adjust your sound systems because each of the featured women discuss each of the photographs chosen for the on- line exhibit. Women have been photographing and writing major pieces in National Geographic for almost a100 years.

A Frozen Sperm Riddle
In the ethical quagmire of assisted reproduction, many of the toughest questions eventually land in court: Who has the right to frozen embryos, frozen eggs, frozen sperm? Whose name should appear on the birth certificate, the genetic mother, who provided the egg, or the carrier, in whose womb the baby grew?

Bacterial Vaginosis: A Potentially Serious Problem for Women

1/7/2002 - A review in the November 2001 issue of Clinician Review emphasizes the risks to women associated with bacterial vaginosis (BV), a treatable sexually transmitted infection (STI) once thought to be benign. BV is connected to an increased risk of contracting HIV and other STIs including gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, and trichomoniasis. BV can also lead to miscarriage or premature delivery in pregnant women and is associated with low birth weight and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Among the symptoms connected to BV are increased vaginal discharge, an unusual vaginal odor, and mild vulvar burning. While these symptoms may be present, often BV is asymptomatic. BV occurs when the balance of bacteria in the vagina is disrupted. According to Planned Parenthood, most women will have BV at some point in their lives, most typically during their reproductive years. Risk factors associated with BV include multiple sexual partners, receiving oral sex, douching, IUD use, African-American ancestry, and cigarette smoking, among others. Many women are prone to recurrent BV infections and should avoid oral sex, swimming pools, hot tubs, and tampon use, according to the review of the literature. BV can be treated topically with antimicrobial creams.

Women Candidates Emerge for Election 2002

1/4/2002 - As the 2002 elections draw near, women throughout the nation are beginning to line up to run for seats in the Senate and House. The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) has identified 13 women who are considering bids for places in the Senate. Of these women, nine are challenging current seat holders and four are in the running for the North Carolina seat vacated by Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC). In addition, three women currently in the Senate are up for re-election in 2002, including Jean Carnahan (D-MO), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Mary Landrieu (D-LA). On the House side, 21 women are running for office in districts with no incumbent and 4 women may run for U.S. Delegate seats. In 2002, the House will also lose two female members, Congresswomen Eva Clayton (D-NC) and Marge Roukema (R-NJ) both of whom are retiring.

Women are also seeking gubernatorial seats in the 2002 elections. According to CAWP, this year, 32 women may run in 22 states. Currently, there are only 5 women governors in the nation.

Women May Not Recognize Breast Cancer Symptoms

1/4/2002 - A study published in the December issue of the British Journal of General Practice suggests that women who delay reporting of breast cancer symptoms to physicians may not recognize certain symptoms as potential indicators of cancer. The study’s lead author explains that, “Symptoms which fail to match expectations of breast cancer may contribute to the delay in seeking treatment.” Burgess’ solution: “The presenting symptoms of breast cancer may need to be broadened.”

The symptoms at issue are inverted nipples, puckering or dimpling of the breast, and discoloration of the breast that is red-orange peel like in appearance (see photos below). According to Feminist Majority Foundation Medical Director Beth Jordan, M.D., women presenting with these symptoms may have cancer that is already far developed and need to be treated immediately. While acknowledging that the benefits of breast self-exam are hotly debated, Jordan suggests that women perform monthly breast self-examinations in order to increase their chances of detecting breast cancer in its early stages.

For more information on breast cancer, visit the Breast Cancer Information Center.