Friday, October 26, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Is female engineering passion held in check?

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Or ‘The mysteries of the British education system’.

I went to Lego's facebook page the other day to protest their support for the Sun as part of the No More Page 3 campaign, and while thinking of what to write, remembered my early career as an engineer…

Designing railway tracks that could deal with height and terrain; devising and constructing buildings for rescue vehicles, attendant staff, checking the route, adjusting where needed.

Early flat-pack stuff too, as each night the plans and the reality had to be stored away in a fit state for continuation the next day.

Early environmental training too, as flora and fauna had to be taken into consideration.

Not for fear of espionage or banditry, but so that my father didn't break his neck on returning home from work.

Nor for fear of pollution and extinction, but so our dog, who always joined in, didn't hurt himself on or with anything.

Sandpits and sandy beaches and friend's ditches expanded my horizons to experiments and design for water flow, drainage, seepage, and then there were the wonderful results of dam-building.

Me. Female.

Age: Up until seven.

Then it all went underground.

My engineering and design skills I mean, not the water.

I am fascinated by this 'shortage of women in engineering' in the UK, and have been thinking about the point from which I was stopped, or discouraged, or both, from 'going in for it'.

We are told repeatedly that women can't cope with the science and design side, as if there is no mathematics, 'eye', flair and need for functional diagnostics in dressmaking, and a gallant attempt was made to teach me to do that.

And women are pushed to work with people, with caring. As if there is no caring in engineering.

You’d have thought if they could teach us dressmaking at school they could work out that engineering is the same thing – given the rate at which we got through sewing machines, we also had to learn how to fix them. And you work out how they really should be designed, how high the work surface really should be, all that stuff…

But then I changed schools and that was that as far as that path went.

We had had clockwork trains at home and Meccano and Lego and the only limits there were the time elements of packing it all away in the evening before bed and how much Lego or Meccano there actually was to hand.

It was obvious from using that how angles and weight and balance and suchlike affected your construction or design, so the mathematics side of it should have been logical. Except I was never taught the maths needed for the exams to get you to univeristy.

Not taught it.

Once I left the primary school I was at till I was six I don't recall being actually 'taught' maths. Repetitive abstract exercises were put in front of me, and I got yelled at for not seeing a pattern, or thrown out of class for asking why, and I blundered through CSE maths to get an O-level equivalent.

Nor was I taught Chemistry so that it made any sense; likewise Physics – until I was re-sitting O-level Physics alongside my A's, so deemed too late to follow up.

A whole range of career choices blocked.

Now I am chief ditch-digger, water diverter, designer of things made of paper, objects d'art, routes for exercising rabbits, and Heath Robinson devices for whatever may be needed on the home front.

Fun, but not a career.

I go and look at steam trains, ship's engines, major and not so major engineering projects on rivers and canals, and I pick up gems of information – 'sacrificial anodes' being my current favourite –  and try very, very, hard not to be wistful.

But I see no reason why British women shouldn't be engineers.

I cannot forget the Syrian woman I spent some hours talking to at Hanover railway station; covered from head to toe, 'modestly dressed' as befitted her religious beliefs.

An engineer.

And while I am on the subject: anyone with girls the right age prepared to try this out?

According to The Guardian, Debbie Sterling, a US engineer who became increasingly frustrated by the 89 per cent-male makeup of the profession and set about tackling the problem at its roots, has come up with GoldieBlox, a story book and construction kit series, aimed at girls between five and nine years old.

In it, the blonde heroine, Goldie, assisted by various trusty friends, meets a series of engineering challenges.

"The scary truth is that only 11 per cent of engineers are women and girls start losing interest in science as young as age eight,” Debbie Sterling says, on her Kickstarter page for the project. “This is our chance to change that statistic.”

I would suggest that girls don't 'start losing interest' in engineering and science.

In the UK at least, any interest was – and probably still is – simply or purposefully ignored.

Breastfeeding: Still a mother’s right to choose?

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 03:00 AM PDT

New findings suggest that increasing rates of breastfeeding among new mothers could save the NHS millions. But at what cost?

The Unicef UK report states that whilst 81% of new mothers in the UK start to breastfeed, the rate drops to less than 50% by the time the infant is 6 weeks old. This rapid discontinuation of breastfeeding has seen only marginal statistical increase since national surveys of breastfeeding began in the 1970s.

Researchers claim that this significant drop is evidence of the problems encountered by mothers, although they fail to account for whether these problems are socio-economic or clinical in nature.

By analysing research data for four acute diseases in infants thought to be dramatically reduced by breastfeeding, researchers estimated annual savings of over £17 million. We are told that if three-quarters of newborns were breastfed at discharge and just under half continued to be breastfed at 4 months, here would be 9,562 fewer babies hospitalised and 53,930 fewer GP consultations annually.

According to research, there are also maternal health benefits associated with breastfeeding, and the report suggests that if those mothers that elected not to breastfeed did so for 18 months of their lifetime then there would be 865 fewer cases of breast cancer, making an annual saving to the NHS of over £21 million.

The findings of this report, which suggest a welcome congruence between health benefits born out of health savings, are described as 'refreshing reading' by Professor Mike Kelly, Director of the Centre for Public Health Excellence at NICE.

However, these findings will likely be received with mixed feelings by new and expectant mothers.

Advisory literature has long extolled the health benefits of breastfeeding, and the pressure to do so often filters into the stereotype of the altruistic mother, not to mention her willingness to sacrifice herself for the benefit of her family. We are not only told that breastfeeding offers our baby greater protection from infection and disease, but also that mothers who breastfeed will develop a stronger emotional and physical bond with their infant. So, why stop?

Mastitis, cracked nipples and difficulties getting newborns to latch on properly are all painful problems which can become overwhelming when you have a hungry child demanding food every few hours. Similarly, caring for older children, doing school runs, not to mention returning to work all make prolonged breastfeeding a challenge.

And even though UK law protects women who breastfeed in public, 2 out of 3 women feel that the general public are opposed to it and who can blame them?

A woman was verbally abused for breastfeeding in a café in Bristol earlier this year, another mother was banned from council offices in Oldham, not to mention Facebook taking down photos of breastfeeding mothers from the site, the like of which would be done for pornographic images.

Despite this kind of testimony, however, a woman's right to choose to breastfeed is becoming increasingly restricted.

Unicef UK, responsible for last week's report, have fully accredited 89 healthcare establishments in the UK as part of their Baby Friendly Initiative, which demands that formula milk is no longer dispensed free of charge for women that give birth there – unless it is medically necessary.

Blogger Lorrie Hearts responded to this anti-choice initiative on feminist website The F-Word:

'In an era when many feminists are (in my opinion rightly) dismayed by the suggestion that a woman's right to an abortion should be subject to conditions, I have been shocked by the high level of acceptance when it comes to the notion that women who formula feed should be forced to justify their choice, not only to medical staff, but to pro-breastfeeding women. While I have never seen anyone claim that formula is better than – or even equal to – breast milk, a large number of women are vociferous and uncompromisingly against a woman's right to choose formula milk.'

For many then, it's not the judgements from healthcare professional which leave them damned if they don't, or the scorn from the public which leaves them damned if they do – but the judgement and condemnation from other mothers which causes the most upset.

Jessica Valenti, US blogger and author of Why Have Kids, wrote of her intention to breastfeed prior to the birth of her daughter and her harsh judgement of mothers that elected not to.

However, when circumstances made it nigh impossible for her to do so, she was left feeling depressed, as though she were failure as a mother. Instead of attacking one another, she urges that: 'We should reserve our motherly disdain for systemic issues that make parenting harder – workplace inequities and the maternal wage gap, the lack of paid maternity leave and affordable child-care options – not other women's personal decisions about how to feed their babies.'

The findings of this report will be welcome reading to a government in the midst of unpopular austerity cutbacks. However, with a Health Secretary who has already expressed a personal desire to restrict a woman's right to choose abortion beyond 12 weeks, these findings and their extrapolation into policy should, perhaps, be viewed with caution.

As a generation of children that were nursed on formula, the anti-choice rhetoric which permeates the media and equates formula milk with poison is a feminist issue whether we are parents or not.

India’s female politicians urged to join forces

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 02:02 AM PDT

India's female politicians have been urged to work together to increase women's political participation in the country.  

This recommendation came from a recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) round table.  

Politicians, activists and grassroots leaders said a caucus of female political leaders across party lines could put vital pressure on India's Parliament to finally pass the Women's Reservation Bill.

This would give a third of government seats to women.

Female representation in Parliament currently stands at 11 per cent, lower than the global average of 20 per cent.

Ranjana Kumari, President of Women Power Connect and Director of the Centre for Social Research said:

"Women must not only demand but take their legitimate space in the political arena as a matter of right – they are no longer waiting for hand-outs as they are capable of entering the political field and doing as well as men."

Suhasini Ali of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) added:

"Women of India are already empowered. All they need is a safe political environment which provides a level playing field for their participation."

The passage of the Women's Reservation Bill is currently at a standstill.

While the upper house of India's Parliament has voted in its favour, the lower house has still to vote.

Female quotas are already in place at the 'panchayat' (village) council level, with over one million women currently in office.

A recent UNDP report revealed that villages with a female representative are more likely to have improved water and sanitation systems.  

But there remains resistance to the introduction of quotas at the national government level, borne out of patriarchal attitudes that remain strong in India.

In an article for The Hindu, Professor Ratna Kapur said: "Sexism in Indian politics is rife."

She pointed out that even those women who do become leaders on the national stage, such as Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress, are still "cast in familial terms".

Kapur suggested that in light of Julia Gillard's upcoming visit to India, the Australian Prime Minister's now famous speech attacking sexism and misogyny in politics, "should serve as mandatory viewing by all (India's) parliamentarians."

On her first official visit to India earlier this month, Michelle Bachelet, UN Women Executive Director, also pressed India's Parliament to pass the Women's Reservation Bill.

"If enacted this law could potentially lead to one of the most significant changes in India since Independence in 1947.

"The world is waiting," she said.

Miracle bra detects cancer

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 01:00 AM PDT

Women have long been subjected to "miracle" bras that enhance their assets. Now a company in the US have invented a bra that really works wonders.

First Warning Systems, Inc. have produced a bra that is able to detect changes in breast tissue, which can indicate abnormal and potentially cancerous cells.

The high-tech device is inserted inside a bra and works by collecting data that is submitted to a computer for further analysis to determine if a tumour could be growing.

Breast cancer affects as many as one in eight women and current screening methods are not as effective as they could be. For example, mammograms are not always accurate for women under 40 because their breast tissue is denser and more difficult to scan and tumours can start growing up to six years before being detected by a mammogram.

The new bra will, reportedly, be able to detect changes in breast tissue immediately, enabling women to seek treatment sooner. Better still, unlike a mammogram, the bra does not emit radiation.

Scientists have reacted positively to the news. Deanna Pogoreic at MedCity News said, "What a godsend. This inconspicuous device would catch tumours before women even see a doctor".

Others, however, have questioned if it's just another money-spinner that is playing on women's fears.

In 2007, the BBC reported that having breast cancer can cost women “into the thousands” with women spending an average of £2000 on treatment and prescriptions, hospital parking fees, diet changes and other holistic treatments. Additionally the disease can result in a loss of income for the patient.

But as it is currently estimated to be on the market for $1000 per bra, it may still be well out of most people’s price range.

The bra is has undergone three successful trials and is undergoing a final trial before being released in Europe next year and in the US in 2014.

First Warning Systems, Inc. have said that their bra will be most suitable for women who are not optimal mammogram candidates – those under 40 with dense breast tissue.