When I read about Angelina Jolie’s announcement this week, I cringed. I have greatly admired her willingness to speak out on important issues over the years. Her public announcement about her mastectomies will certainly reassure some women that losing a breast to breast cancer isn’t quite as frightening as it had once seemed. But Ms. [...]
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Breast implants as therapy? Not so much
Editor’s Note The Breast Implant Information Project is a project of the National Research Center for Women & Families. The project provides info that women need about breast implants, based on the latest research and talking to thousands of women with implants. Dr Diana Zuckerman, President of the National Reseach Center for Women & Families [...]
Then and Now: The impact of the ACA on women’s healthcare, three years later
March 23, 2013 marks the third anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and presents us with a great opportunity to look back at the YWCA’s involvement in its passage, what the law means now to millions of women and families throughout the U.S., and what is still needed to ensure equal access to affordable, [...]
Women and Mental Health
Over the past two weeks, the HBO show ‘Girls’ has focused on the mental health challenges of Hannah. We have been introduced to Hannah’s secret – her shameful struggle with anxiety characterized by obsessive tendencies, a necessity to repeat tasks 8 times, often until the point of embarrassment, injury (as we saw last week), and [...]
Even at the Catholic University of America, We Need Birth Control
As a reproductive justice advocate at one of the most conservative colleges in the country (that is The Catholic University of America) the last few years have been nothing short of challenging. Figuring out how to get around the no condoms policy, being slut-shamed by a doctor at my campus health center, getting my favorite [...]
Perfecting Bodies Through Chemistry?
Do you like your body? If there was a simple way to change it, with no risks, would you do it? If making that change meant you would put your health at risk and have multiple surgeries for the rest of your life, would you hesitate? Most women say they don’t like their bodies, and [...]
The Silent Multitudes: Eating Disorder Awareness Week
I have had the honour of helping to facilitate groups for university women with eating disorders and eating issues for the past 4 years. Each week, for a six-week period, we come together to discuss our stories; detailing our successes, our challenges, our joys, and our heartbreak. For a short moment in time we offer [...]
The Stigma of Being One in Four
I have been in therapy, off and on, for the past six years. In hindsight, I would describe the younger Kathleen as anxious, worried, and concerned about the future. As I got older, I became a perfectionist; one of those over-achieving kids who never felt as though they were ‘getting it right’. In university I [...]
“Special” Protections for “Special” Women: Why the Violence Against Women Act Expired
Nobody warned me. When I started to “come out” as a feminist activist – not just talking with friends, but sharing articles on Facebook, writing extensively about women’s rights, and participating in advocacy movements – nobody warned me. Nobody warned me that friends, friends of friends, acquaintances, and sometimes total strangers who’d come across my [...]
43 Million American Women Shouldn’t Be “At Risk”
There are 62 million women of childbearing age in the United States, 43 million of whom are “at risk” for unintended pregnancy. This costs us a minimum of $12 billion dollars a year, and that doesn’t include long-term costs. “At risk” implies an uncontrollable danger. An unavoidable event that happens to a person by accident or as the [...]