WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE!

We discussed the struggles women still have in the workforce:

• Unequal pay for the same professions
• Women still make 73 cents to every dollar a man makes, which is 4 cents below the national average
• Maternity leave
• Childcare
• Balancing family or home life and work life
• The Equal pay act that was passed in 1963 still is not inforced or needs a final push

SAME-SEX marriage RIGHTS NOW!

13th de mayo:

Today, we discussed the rights that all persons no matter their gender have the rights to marry whomever they please.

We discussed the reasons why we should grant legal marriage unions to the LGBT communities:

• Legal guardianship for their children
• To be able to talk for their partners needs in hospital emergenciesIt's the right thing to do!
• Family togetherness
• Tax breaks, and son on.

The reasons that the same-sex issue is a feminist issue:

• Feminism is based on equal rights for all human beings so that would include marriage unions for everyone.
• The treatment of women, and men in the LGBT community can be linked to the same struggles that women have faced in a very white male dominated world we live in.

Women's Health: Beyond Contraceptives

While reproductive health and contraceptives are important issues, we wanted to take the time to stop and discuss other important health issues for women.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women. Did you know that?

Here are some statistics from the American Heart Association:

Heart Attack and Angina Statistics-

Final 2004 statistics for the United States show that coronary heart disease (CHD) is the single leading cause of death in America. CHD causes heart attack and angina.

Mortality — 451,326 deaths in the United States in 2004 (one of every five deaths).

Incidence — 1,200,000 new and recurrent coronary attacks per year. (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Atherosclerotic Risk in Communities [ARIC] Study and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). About 38 percent of people who experience a coronary attack in a given year die from it.

Prevalence — 16,000,000 victims of angina (chest pain due to coronary heart disease), heart attack and other forms of coronary heart disease are still living (8,700,000 males and 7,300,000 females).

From 1994 to 2004 the death rate from coronary heart disease declined 33 percent, but the actual number of deaths declined only 18 percent.

Estimates are that 9,100,000 people in the United States suffer from angina.

An estimated 500,000 new cases of stable angina occur each year. (Framingham Heart Study, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

The estimated age-adjusted prevalence of angina in women age 20 and older was 3.9 percent for non-Hispanic white women, 4.3 percent for non-Hispanic black women and 3.3 percent for Mexican-American women. Rates for men in these three groups were 4.8, 3.4 and 2.3 percent, respectively.*

Among adults in the United States age 20 and older, the estimated age-adjusted prevalence of coronary heart disease for non-Hispanic whites is 9.4 percent for men and 6.0 percent for women; for non-Hispanic blacks, 7.1 percent for men and 7.8 percent for women; and for Mexican-Americans, 5.6 percent for men and 5.3 percent for women.*

*Based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 1999–2004), National Center for Health Statistics and NHLBI.

Third Wave Feminism - April 22nd Meeting

Third Wave Feminism

• First-Wave: fought and gained the right for women to vote.
• Second-Wave: obtained the right for women to have access and equal opportunity to the workforce, as well as ending of legal sex discrimination.
• Third-Wave: lack of a single cause. It evolves from the Second Wave of independence to a model of interdependence.

Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the Second Wave's methodical definitions of femininity and feminism. These definitions over-emphasize the experiences of upper middle-class white women.

The Feminist Establishment has accumulated power, and they flex this power to mute younger generations of feminists.

Third Wave Activism

• Reproductive rights
• Race
• Social class
• Sexuality
• Workplace issues (glass ceiling, sexual harassment, unfair maternity leave policies, motherhood -support for single mothers and respect for working mothers and mothers who decide to leave their careers to raise their children full-time).
• Image (struggle for women to be seen as intelligent, political beings; acknowledging lack of diverse, positive female representatives and role models in pop culture).
• Draw attention to media’s unhealthy standards of women (glamorization of eating disorders; portrayal of women as sexualized objects catering to men’s needs; anti-intellectualism).
• Reclaiming derogatory terms (spinster, bitch, whore, and cunt are used in derogatory ways – by both men and women – to demean women. It is better to change the meaning of a sexist word than to censor it from speech).

• Feminism will lose relevance if it can’t embrace a wider view.
• Third Wave Feminism is about supporting the entire community (society), not just women.
• Promoting only one piece of feminism can oppress everything else.
• Third Wave Feminism allows people their own understanding of feminism instead of creating a status quo – it allows you to find your own place.
• Discussion content:

-Second wave feminist disliked the saty at home moms, because they wanted real career oportunities that was difficult to obtain as a result of the stay at home moms.

-it seems what men do is validated more then the choices made by women in the same situations.

-Cuba, and even Canada have maternity leave, while just recently in washington, state workers can now obtain 6-8 weeks of paid maternity leave.

-the outrageous bikini baristas in school zones

-that women are intelligent in the same subjects that are dubbed as men's fields.

-Partriarchal language demeans women through words that connect to our gender such as:

pussy, cunt, bitch, and even she throws like a girl. It is implying when used in those contents that having a vagina, and being a girl is somehow weak.

Self-Defense Workshop

During Winter Quarter 2008, EMPOWR put on a self-defense workshop taught by some great Hapkido instructors: Eddie and Angel.

The group who attended the event was the perfect size for this kind of workshop because it allowed the instructors to work with each of us.

We learned a lot about self-awareness, as well as practicing some of the physical aspects of self defense. It is definitely the kind of event that our group will probably put on again.

More pictures were taken of the event, but here are a couple for now!

DISCUSSION: WHAT EVERY GIRL SHOULD KNOW!

The ideas we all came up with based on the subject are:

-Women's history/ Women's rights around the world
-Personal History (your own accomplishments)
-How to be a leader
-Be aware that oppression exists ( thats it's not about "you", it is a societal problem)
-It is okay to "talk about it", It is worth it to make waves or ripples
-Every girl should know that it is okay to be an individual, and follow the beat of your own drum

Meeting topic: What is Feminism?

Here are a few ideas of what feminism meant to those attending the discussion:

-Women's demand not to be exploited and discriminated against.

-The right not to be viewed as property.

-The demand that all genders are treated equally, politically, socially, and economically.

-The belief that everyone deserves equal rights.

-All acts that disable and disrupt oppressive systems.

-Feminism is actively fighting for your rights instead of sitting idly for someone else to do it for you.