Issues

"My biggest concern for women is what happens in retirement. Women have longer life expectancies than men, and married women tend to be several years younger than their husbands, so that the average married woman reaching retirement can expect to spend several years as a widow, and the average single women reaching retirement will spend all of her retirement years that way. In the shift away from defined benefit and toward defined contribution retirement plans, the financial security of women in retirement will depend very much on how the wealth accumulated for retirement is managed." more »

Traditional urban design tends to separate living spaces and commercial spaces into separate zones, which results in large distances between homes, markets, schools, and other urban spaces. Some urban designers have created housing and neighborhoods with on-site child-care and elder-care facilities, shops for basic everyday needs, and often primary-care medical facilities. "When we consider gender while designing communities, outcomes simply improve." more »

Ellen Leopold writes: It's easy to forget that women’s writing about breast cancer is of relatively recent vintage. The first women to portray the patient's perspective, to write about their own experience, were established writers and public figures before they took up the disease, with credentials persuasive enough to overcome their publishers' reluctance. Today's widespread use of breast-conserving surgery, for example, is at least partially attributable to the refusal by some of them to undergo radical mastectomies. more »

Thousands of people joined the farmers, ranchers, and tribal leaders of the Cowboy and Indian Alliance for a ceremonial procession along the National Mall to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. The procession was the largest event yet of the five-day Reject and Protect encampment. "Today, boots and moccasins showed President Obama an unlikely alliance has his back to reject Keystone XL to protect our land and water," said Jane Kleeb, Executive Director of Bold Nebraska. more »