How to Make It to Top of Your Field (Even If You’re a Woman in Science)

This is a valuable video for any woman in SciTech to watch. Joy Hirsch really does a fine job of describing a still existing glass-ceiling in the sciences. I think this is going to be a really good series overall at Big Think, so be sure to click through to the original source cited at the bottom and keep up with Meg Erickson’s articles.

How to Make It to Top of Your Field (Even If You’re a Woman in Science)

Here, Hirsch gives her advice for climbing the ranks and becoming an expert in your domain. Watch:

http://bigthink.com/embeds/video_idea/40776?width=512&height=288&auto_play=0

via bigthink.com

MOROCCO: Arab Spring Brings Little for Women

A couple of nights ago, I watched an interview on NBC Nightly News about a woman in Sudan, who was teaching women to stand up for themselves. It was really quite amazing to see her tell a man what was what and how to treat women properly, especially in light of how much abuse there is and how accepted that behaviour is.

As amazing as Arab Spring was to watch from this end, I actually don’t recall seeing that much mention in the protests of women’s rights. There’s such a long way to go.

CASABLANCA, Aug 10, 2011 (IPS) – Since the beginning of protests in Morocco on Feb. 20 women have been at the
vanguard. Many of the spokespersons of the protest movement have been
women – observers and activists see this as a new phase of feminine
emancipation in this North African country.

“We have waited enough. Women now are out to say it is time for justice to be made,” Safaa Ferradi, a
local activist, told IPS.

“The great majority of women present in our movement are of a high cultural and academic level,”
Rabah Nouami, a local leader of the 20th February movement in Casablanca, told IPS. “It is so
honourable to see that most of the spokespersons on behalf of the movement are women. But women
are not still influential at the level of decisions within the movement.”

In spite of the efforts made by the State and by civil society, women remain victims of violence and
discrimination.

Original continues here: ipsnews.net

The Cost of Being Female: How Much the Average Woman Spends on a Lifetime of Basic Health Care – Health – GOOD

The Institute of Medicine has named eight preventive services that women should get for free under the new health care law. Exactly how much money are we talking about? GOOD took stock of the money spent by a “typical” American woman whose sexual health and life choices correlated with the national averages. Turns out being a woman is pretty pricey.

via good.is

Heart Attack Symptoms in Women – Warning Signs of a Heart Attack

RealAge Article

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Hidden Heart Attack Signs in Women

By RealAge

Page 1 of 2

As a woman, you may feel that a heart attack is not the greatest risk you face. But the threat is very real, especially in the years leading up to and following menopause, when hormonal changes can open the door to heart disease. Knowing the symptoms that women often experience during the early stages of cardiac troubles, as well as your risk factors for cardiovascular disease, can significantly increase your chances of survival.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading killer of women in America, accounting for over one-third of all deaths. That’s more than the combined death rates from breast, ovarian, and cervical cancers.

Heart Attack Warnings Can Be Subtle

Studies on cardiac events in women reveal that many women may experience prodromal — or early — symptoms of cardiac distress in the days, weeks, or even months leading up to a heart attack. Unfortunately, many of these signs may be dismissed as nothing out of the ordinary — by both women and their doctors. The most common early warning signs include:

Unusual fatigue — Fatigue is a common complaint and one that may indicate that you’re simply missing out on sleep, fighting a virus, overextending yourself, or experiencing a side effect to medication. But unusual or extreme fatigue may also be a warning sign of heart disease. In one study, more than 70% of the women surveyed experienced marked fatigue in the days or weeks prior to their heart attacks.

Sleep disturbances — Although it’s not unusual to feel tired due to a lack of sleep or a particularly demanding week or month, you should take special notice of any unusual or prolonged disturbance in your sleep patterns. A recent study revealed that almost half of the women who had recently suffered a heart attack also experienced sleep disturbances in the days or weeks leading up to their attacks.

Shortness of breath during normal daily activities, indigestion, and anxiety may also be early warning signs of cardiac distress in women.

So how do you know if your symptoms are serious? Getting into the habit of noting your typical aches and pains and your normal reactions to foods and activities may help you recognize when something is truly amiss. Also, remember that if you have risk factors for heart disease, you should be especially vigilant about monitoring how you feel. If you experience worrisome or unusual changes in your energy level, comfort, or sleep habits, you should discuss your concerns with your healthcare provider, particularly if you have heart disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, a smoking habit, or a sedentary lifestyle. (Here are 12 things you can do right now to help prevent a heart attack.)

How healthy is your heart? Check your vital statistics and reduce your risk of heart disease with these tips and tools.

1

2

Next Page

Go to Women’s Health Center

via realage.com

Heart Attack Symptoms in Women – Warning Signs of a Heart Attack

RealAge Article

84 comments

Rating

Hidden Heart Attack Signs in Women

By RealAge

Page 1 of 2

As a woman, you may feel that a heart attack is not the greatest risk you face. But the threat is very real, especially in the years leading up to and following menopause, when hormonal changes can open the door to heart disease. Knowing the symptoms that women often experience during the early stages of cardiac troubles, as well as your risk factors for cardiovascular disease, can significantly increase your chances of survival.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading killer of women in America, accounting for over one-third of all deaths. That’s more than the combined death rates from breast, ovarian, and cervical cancers.

Heart Attack Warnings Can Be Subtle

Studies on cardiac events in women reveal that many women may experience prodromal — or early — symptoms of cardiac distress in the days, weeks, or even months leading up to a heart attack. Unfortunately, many of these signs may be dismissed as nothing out of the ordinary — by both women and their doctors. The most common early warning signs include:

Unusual fatigue — Fatigue is a common complaint and one that may indicate that you’re simply missing out on sleep, fighting a virus, overextending yourself, or experiencing a side effect to medication. But unusual or extreme fatigue may also be a warning sign of heart disease. In one study, more than 70% of the women surveyed experienced marked fatigue in the days or weeks prior to their heart attacks.

Sleep disturbances — Although it’s not unusual to feel tired due to a lack of sleep or a particularly demanding week or month, you should take special notice of any unusual or prolonged disturbance in your sleep patterns. A recent study revealed that almost half of the women who had recently suffered a heart attack also experienced sleep disturbances in the days or weeks leading up to their attacks.

Shortness of breath during normal daily activities, indigestion, and anxiety may also be early warning signs of cardiac distress in women.

So how do you know if your symptoms are serious? Getting into the habit of noting your typical aches and pains and your normal reactions to foods and activities may help you recognize when something is truly amiss. Also, remember that if you have risk factors for heart disease, you should be especially vigilant about monitoring how you feel. If you experience worrisome or unusual changes in your energy level, comfort, or sleep habits, you should discuss your concerns with your healthcare provider, particularly if you have heart disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, a smoking habit, or a sedentary lifestyle. (Here are 12 things you can do right now to help prevent a heart attack.)

How healthy is your heart? Check your vital statistics and reduce your risk of heart disease with these tips and tools.

1

2

Next Page

Go to Women’s Health Center

via realage.com

African Village Uses Tech to Fight Off a Rape Cult | Danger Room

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=22096407&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

An old woman had died. Before burying the her, the residents of the village of Obo — in southern Central African Republic, just north of the Congolese border — gathered around a campfire to eat, drink, cry and sing in celebration of the woman’s long life. It was a night in March 2008, just another beat in the slow rhythm of existence in this farming community of 13,000 people.

Then the dreadlocked fighters from the Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group — tongo-tongo, the villagers call them — rose from their hiding places in the shadows and advanced toward the fire. Others blocked the paths leading from town. The rebels killed anyone who resisted, kidnapped 100 others and robbed everyone in sight. The LRA forced the captured men and women to carry stolen goods into the jungle before releasing them. Boys and girls, they kept. The boys would be brainwashed, trained as fighters and forced to kill. The girls would be given to LRA officers as trophies, raped and made to bear children who would represent the next generation of LRA foot soldiers.

The gang released the adults. Boys and girls, they kept.

It was a familiar tragedy, repeated countless times across Central Africa since firebrand Christian cultist Joseph Kony created the LRA in the mid-1980s, aiming to establish a sort of voodoo theocracy in northern Uganda. Defeated in its home country, in 2005 the LRA fled westward across Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic, looting, raping, killing and mutilating as it went.

Obo was just one of hundreds of communities terrorized by the LRA. Many simply wither and die afterwards.

But Obo didn’t.

Instead, Obo’s surviving villagers raised their own volunteer scout force (depicted above), armed it with homemade shotguns, and began disseminating intelligence on the LRA’s movements using the village’s sole, short-range FM radio transmitter.

The results of this Do-It-Yourself approach were encouraging. Since the attack three years ago, Obo has not suffered another major LRA invasion. Noting Obo’s successful strategy, Invisible Children, a California-based aid group, in March traveled into Central African Republic to help Dutch group Interactive Radio for Justice upgrade the town’s radio to a much longer-range model, further boosting the community’s self-defense capability.

Invisible Children’s goal: to increase by 30 times the area the town could keep on alert, while also plugging Obo into a radio-based “early warning network” that Invisible Children has been building in Congo since last year. The network of High Frequency and FM radios allows communities across the LRA-infested region to share intelligence and warn each other of impending rebel attacks.

How the people of Obo have guarded their town, and the role American humanitarians played in their success, represents a possible vision for grassroots security in a region that has long defied large-scale armed intervention.

But there’s a downside to DIY security. In arming itself and taking on intelligence tasks, Obo is essentially giving up on ever receiving help from Central African Republic’s impoverished government. That can only further undermine the government’s tenuous legitimacy — and could fuel wider instability in the future.

Article continues here: wired.com