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Subscribe to our newsletter Email* Sign Up You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Have a question? Contact us or review our privacy policy for more information. Series ARTS & CULTURE ARTS & CULTURE Support Independent and Factual Journalism Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Donate Now Author JASMIN THIEN Jasmin Thien lives in Seria, Brunei. She is feisty yet softhearted, impatient yet generous, impulsive yet self-aware, reserved yet friendly, and always ready to make anybody happy.

Subscribe to our newsletter Email* Sign Up You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Have a question? Contact us or review our privacy policy for more information. Series ARTS & CULTURE ARTS & CULTURE Support Independent and Factual Journalism Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Donate Now Author JENNIFER MERIN In addition to covering film for Women's eNews, Jennifer Merin writes the Cinema Citizen blog and is editor in chief for AWFJ.org, the website of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, a nonprofit organization of leading female film journalists in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. She is organization's president. She is also a member of the prestigious Broadcast Film Critics Association.

NICOLE LEBLANC How Mask Banning Harms High Risk Populations By NICOLE LEBLANC ARTS & CULTURE August 4, 2025 Author Related Articles View More By JENNIFER MARIN ARTS & CULTURE March 13, 2017 On the other end of the date movie spectrum, “Complete Unknown,” which also just opened, is a very watch-worthy psychological thriller that takes you to the dark side of a relationship as it evolves during the course of an evening. View More By JENNIFER MARIN ARTS & CULTURE March 13, 2017 On the other end of the date movie spectrum, “Complete Unknown,” which also just opened, is a very watch-worthy psychological thriller that takes you to the dark side of a relationship as it evolves during the course of an evening. View More By JENNIFER MARIN ARTS & CULTURE March 13, 2017 On the other end of the date movie spectrum, “Complete Unknown,” which also just opened, is a very watch-worthy psychological thriller that takes you to the dark side of a relationship as it evolves during the course of an evening. Subscribe to our newsletter Email* Sign Up You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Have a question? Contact us or review our privacy policy for more information. Series Loreen Arbus Accessibility is Fundamental Program Support Independent and Factual Journalism Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Donate Now

LAURA MERRIFIELD WILSON ASHLEY HUTSON GREGORY SHUFELDT Benefitting from Female Governors: Could Your State Be Next? Understanding how and when women run for office could be a useful exercise as voters consider future prospects for their political leaders. By GREGORY SHUFELDT & LAURA MERRIFIELD WILSON & ASHLEY HUTSON Commentary December 21, 2022 November’s midterm elections produced several landmark election outcomes worthy of celebration. For the first time in history, the United States has entered double-digits and broken its own record for the number of women governors. The 12 women elected or re-elected governor in November eclipse the previous (and current) record of nine . Importantly, three of these states—Arkansas, Massachusetts, and New York–elected a woman governor for the first time in their state history. Arkansas elected a Republican while Massachusetts and New York elected Democrats. Now, 60% of American states (30 out of 50) have elected a woman as governor at least once. While we might not agree with all of these candidates, this landmark moment is worth celebrating as more women in office is a step in the right direction. However, we can’t help wondering, what of the other 20 states? Are voters aware of whether their state has previously elected a woman governor? Does that knowledge correspond with whether they think they live in a state that might in the future? In other words, does it matter if the general public knows about this gender gap in state politics? We set off to find out. Our current research explores factors shaping voter’s confidence and optimism that their state could elect a woman governor soon. We surveyed more than 1,500 Americans on their views concerning women in office. Forty-four percent of Americans believe they live in a state that has elected a woman governor, compared to 56% who believe they do not. This knowledge, however, may not be rooted in reality. States some of us might assume have elected a woman governor, such as California or Illinois, have not, in fact, elected a woman governor in their state’s history. In contrast, states that some of us might assume have never elected a woman governor, like Alabama and Arizona, have most frequently elected a woman for this coveted position. In other words, states deemed “true blue” or “ruby red” may have a more complicated history with electing women governors than meets the eye. In our study, we found that only 24% of respondents correctly identified living in a state that previously elected a woman governor. However, 43% were able to correctly identify that they live in a state that has never elected a woman governor, at least prior to the 2022 midterms. In addition, 33% of respondents incorrectly answered this question (i.e., if a respondent lived in a state that has elected a woman governor, they reported that their state had never elected a woman governor, or vice versa). These findings are important as they relate to optimism toward electing a woman governor in the future. Our research suggests that believing your state has elected a woman in its history is a stronger predictor of optimism than knowledge of whether or not your state actually has elected a woman governor. Understanding how and when women run for office could be a useful exercise as voters consider future prospects for their political leaders. Therefore, it is worth exploring the circumstances and contexts of the women who won the November 2022 midterm elections. After all, your state could be next. All eight women who ran as incumbents were re-elected in November. This includes Republican incumbents in the historically Republican states of Alabama, Iowa, and South Dakota, as well as Democratic incumbents in the historically Democratic states of Maine, New Mexico, and New York. Even in swing states like Michigan and (historically-Republican) Kansas, women Democratic incumbents won. In addition, South Dakota Republican Kristi Noem and Michigan Democrat Gretchen Whitmer are also potential presidential candidates in 2024 or beyond. Four states elected women candidates in open races in Arkansas, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Oregon. The victors in Massachusetts and Oregon were also the first self-identified lesbians elected in their states’ histories. Taken together, women governors were elected in red, blue, and purple states. Women governors were elected both as Democrats (seven) and Republicans (five), covering a wide range of ideological and policy preferences. Some of them we agree with and some we do not, but electing more women will make it easier for voters in all states to elect the ones we do agree with in the future. The 2022 election also set a record for the number of races between two women candidates where both the Democratic and Republican parties nominated a woman. In Alabama, incumbent (R) Governor Kay Ivey defeated Yolanda Flowers (D). In Arizona, Katie Hobbs (D) narrowly defeated Kari Lake (R). Iowa incumbent Kim Reynolds (R) defeated Deidre DeJear (D). Likewise, Michigan incumbent Gretchen Whitmer (D) defeated Tudor Dixon (R). Perhaps most notably in Oregon, Tina Kotek (D) defeated Christine Drazen (R) while Betsy Johnson also won almost 9% of the vote as an independent candidate. If women run for office, they can win. Women candidates are not monolithic. Some are worth celebrating and others are worth fighting against tooth and nail. Like all political candidates, voters ought to consider a number of different factors when casting their vote, but regardless of the state you call home, the midterm elections have taught us that if you cast a vote for a woman governor, you might just help make history. ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Gregory Shufeldt is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Indianapolis and a Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project. His teaching and research interests include state and local government, political parties, and political inequality. Ashley Hutson is a lecturer at Butler University in the Department of Sociology & Criminology. Her research and teaching interests include racial, class, and gender inequalities in the areas of sexual violence and political sociology. Laura Merrifield Wilson is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Indianapolis and an alumna of the Public Voices Fellowship. Her specializations include gender politics, campaigns and elections, and state government. Author Related Articles Subscribe to our newsletter Email* Sign Up You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Have a question? Contact us or review our privacy policy for more information. Series Loreen Arbus Accessibility is Fundamental Program Support Independent and Factual Journalism Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Donate Now

JILLANA ENTEEN Dr. Jillana Enteen is an associate professor of gender and sexuality studies and Asian American studies at Northwestern University. She is the co-founder of NUDHL, the Kaplan Humanities Center Northwestern University Digital Humanities Lab, and a member of the OpEd Project Public Voices Fellowship at NU. ‘Likes’ and Live Streaming Rape: Let’s Talk About it with Our Kids Parents and teachers do not need to demonize apps like Periscope or Twitter. Instead, we must consistently remind kids to carry the same set of values between real life and social networking. By JILLANA ENTEEN Arts & Culture May 18, 2016 (WOMENSENEWS)— Marina Lonina, an 18-year-old in Ohio, was recently indicted for using the social media app Periscope to live stream her 17-year-old friend’s rape by 29-year-old Raymond Boyd Gates. How horrendous . But posting such vile and illegal behavior is, sadly, becoming commonplace. A few months ago, a video of an alleged rape was posted on a social media platform used by students at Florida A&M University. In 2014, Jada—whose last name has been withheld—was photographed unconscious after her sexual assault and became a cruel meme when other teens posted photos of themselves in what they called a “Jada pose.” Photos of the sexual assault victim in Steubenville, Ohio spread online in 2013 , and around that same time, several videos of a potential gang rape in Chicago were posted on Vine. Around 92 percent of teens go online every day, according to the Pew Research Center, and with so many images of sexual violence readily available, including on social media, it seems inevitable that every kid will see it at least once, especially as newer platforms allow for more live viewing. Last week, I went on Twitter and searched #Periscope. I ended up in four young men’s bedrooms. Two of them noticed me on the other end: a middle-aged, glasses-clad woman in pajamas. The other two had the Periscope focused on their penises. What if my 10-year-old children had been the ones to click instead of me? This was just days after we learned that the 18-year-old in Ohio could not be bothered to call in the rape of her friend because she was getting “likes” on her Periscope-enabled Twitter feed. This is not OK. Just like the school fire drill kids learn, we need to stop, drop and roll. Now is the time to discuss these issues. Teaching Kids to ‘Upstand’ Online Monitoring our kids’ social media habits is not enough; many parents do this already. Furthermore, research shows that monitoring online behaviors may contribute to the already stressful lives of teens . Perhaps, starting in middle school, kids should have discussions included in their “Healthy Living” programs that deal with social networking and consent. The university where I work implements online training courses teaching “ consistent consent ” that all freshmen must take before they move to campus. This, too, should encompass social networking. What else can we do? We need to remind kids, students and friends regularly that every social networking app may show things we do not expect or endorse. For example, Music.ly seems pretty harmless. It’s mostly lip-synching popular music clips and my kids plead daily to post silly videos. But when I looked this morning at some of the featured videos, there was an account without a video, just a list. This list included an amateur porn site. We need to teach kids what to look for and that if they don’t like what they see, to close the app. Kids need to be told to “upstand” when they see sexual violence in social networking apps. In the context of real-world bullying at school, an upstander prevents bullying on the playground. Upstanding online means they contact an adult or the police. While Lonina was streaming the rape via Twitter, her friend, from out of state, saw her live stream and called the police. That’s being an upstander. We also need to remind our teens that posting sends a permanent message to unanticipated audiences—including the police—and those consequences outweigh any “likes” or “hearts” they may receive. Parents as Models With so much alarming and disturbing content on every social media site, we need to be modeling how to parcel out, and refuse, the social media site allure. Parents and teachers do not need to demonize particular apps like Periscope or Twitter. Instead, we must repeatedly and consistently remind kids to carry the same set of values between real life and social networking. I, personally, have looked to the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for ways to have these conversations. Also, I use Apple’s iCloud free feature, Family Sharing , to discuss and approve every new app my kids want to download. Another tactic for dealing with inappropriate content on social media is to have our kids on social media less. We can model this in our own lives and show the value of non-distracted behavior as we spend time with others. Several studies reveal that children wish parents spent less time on their phones. We know brain patterns are altered by screen time, and much of the reports from neurologists are negative or hesitant . Frances Jensen’s popular book, The Teenage Brain , shows that even the light from reading on a Kindle disrupts sleep and harms kids’ brains during their crucial years of development. Further, if kids are having their social needs met offline, they may be less inclined to be online or post things just for the “likes.” It may be more work than you realize to put your phones down and spend more time with family and friends. I have had to work hard recently to keep my phone away during family dinners. As my kids become gadget participants, the sound of a text coming from my phone makes them want to run to see who is behind it. Resist. There are many benefits to keeping phones out of our family circle at times. Let’s all support each other in doing this. Author Related Articles Subscribe to our newsletter Email* Sign Up You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Have a question? Contact us or review our privacy policy for more information. Series Loreen Arbus Accessibility is Fundamental Program Support Independent and Factual Journalism Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Donate Now

IRIS GONZOLES Iris Gonzales is a journalist based in Manila, the Philippines, who writes about economics, development and humanitarian stories. Filipina in Hong Kong Makes a Call, Finds Rescue Her employer, a Chinese businesswoman, yelled at her, made death threats and cut her position without warning. In a haze of desperation she remembered a card in her wallet that another Filipina domestic helper had given her to call in an emergency. By IRIS GONZOLES Employment June 1, 2015 HONG KONG (WOMENSENEWS)–She was in the middle of this city’s streets, outside Hong Kong’s Central Station, with no money, no extra clothes and no idea where to go. All she had was her wallet, her mobile phone and an Oyster card, a pass for Hong Kong’s city train system. Alexa – not her real name– didn’t have any relatives or real friends in Hong Kong. As she walked around wondering what to do she remembered she had a card in her wallet, given to her by another Filipina domestic helper who said it had a number to call in case of emergency. She dialed and got through to the Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge. The voice on the other line quickly told her how to get to the shelter, a nondescript bungalow built in the backyard of a church with dormitory rooms that have double deck beds. She spoke with Women’s eNews in a small common space at the shelter, which is outfitted with clean, basic modern furniture. At the time at least 17 women – Indonesians, Bangladeshi and Alexa– were taking refuge there. Bethune House Executive Director Edwina Antonio says the shelter, established in 1986, helps about 500 abused female migrants a year. Common cases of abuse, she says, include breach of contract, rape and verbal abuse. Antonio, who spoke with Women’s eNews at the shelter one afternoon in April, says no one gets turned away. “We provide at least immediate and temporary accommodation even for just one night,” she says. If the shelter is full, Bethune House recommends the guest to another organization in its network the following day. Many guests need shelter because they have nowhere else to go after employers terminate their positions or they decide to escape. In addition to accommodation, the shelter provides counseling and legal and mediation services. Life skills trainings — foreign languages, swimming, handicrafts, self-defense and cooking –are also offered, in hopes of helping distressed women become overall more empowered as individuals. Bethune House, Antonio says, also gives these workers a chance to stay and work things out. “Before, when women were terminated they slept in public parks, abandoned buildings, while others were forced to go back to the Philippines without fighting for rights or pursuing cases against their employers.” September 2014 Arrival Alexa, now 31 years old, arrived in Hong Kong in September 2014, leaving the rainy days of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, to join at least 300,000 other Filipina domestic helpers in Hong Kong. Like many others she had plenty of reasons to want to come. In Hong Kong the minimum monthly wage of about $530 is roughly five times the average monthly salary of a domestic helper in the Philippines. However, while the government requires one rest day per week, it does not have maximum working hours for domestic helpers. Some helpers, according to Amnesty International , work for an average of 17 hours a day. The job market for domestic workers expanded in the former Crown Colony in the late 1970s when a booming economy drew more women into the paid workforce. “Women started going out of their homes to work so they needed helpers to watch over their children, their elders or to clean their homes,” Antonio says. In 1981, she says, Hong Kong opened the market to foreign domestic workers and stories of workers being terminated and abused in other ways started to emerge. In response, local churches founded the Mission for Migrant Workers, an ecumenical charity backed by the Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, Old Catholic and Roman Catholic Churches. Set up with a focus on helping Filipina domestics in Hong Kong it now also helps workers from Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and India. The Mission also decided to build a shelter–the Bethune House–for abused helpers. “It took the mission five years because it needed space and funding,” Antonio says. The most recent high profile case of domestic helper abuse in the city is that of 24-year-old Erwiana Sulistyaningsih. One of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2014, Sulistyaningsih arrived in Hong Kong in 2013 from Indonesia and endured eight months of torture at the hands of her Chinese employer, a mother of two children. While forced to work 21 hours a day, she never received a paycheck. Bethune’s Antonio says abuse could be curtailed if domestic helpers were not forced to live with their employers. Instead, they can be given common shelters, which they can share among themselves, she says. Yearning to Earn More Before she moved to Hong Kong Alexa longed to earn three-to-five times more than she would as a helper in Manila. Home is a makeshift detached house constructed out of a hodgepodge of scrap materials in the province of Bicol, a 12 hour drive from Manila. Her dream was to get her family out of poverty. She has four siblings; her youngest brother is an epileptic and her mother is a widower. With the help of a recruitment agency, she found a job with a Chinese couple, a businesswoman and her husband. Her responsibilities included taking care of the couple’s two sons, 10 and 14 years old. Alexa says her female employer turned her dreams into a nightmare. “She would shout at me often even if I did as instructed.” While payment was not a problem, she was also forced to work long hours and did not always get a rest day during the week. One evening, Alexa ate the family’s leftover fish for dinner. “There was barely anything left. Just fish bones. But she fumed at me. She said I should not eat just anything on the table unless I am permitted to.” Another time when she did not understand her employer’s instructions for a kitchen task Alexa says the woman hit her with a bunch of vegetables that were lying on the counter. The woman’s husband was kind to Alexa, often apologizing for his wife’s temper. This, Alexa suspects, might be part of the problem. “Some of the neighbors’ helpers say that maybe she’s jealous of me because [otherwise] I really don’t know why she’s always fuming at me even if I do what she tells me to.” Starting to Feel Unsafe One day, the woman threatened Alexa. “I want to kill you but I will not. I have friends who can do it for me,” she quotes her former employer as saying. Alexa started to feel unsafe and sought permission to leave and asked for her remaining salary, but her employer refused to give this to her. One day, in April, her employer told her to go with her to the market. Instead, they wound up at Hong Kong’s Labor office where her employer accused Alexa of breach-of-contract. Unable to reach a compromise at the Labor office, Alexa’s employer kicked her out. She told her not to go back home with her and that her job was over. As of early May, Alexa had been at the Bethune House for three weeks, waiting for the government to decide the case she has filed against her employer to claim her salary. Despite all this, Alexa says going home is not an option because there are no gainful opportunities in the Philippines. “I can’t afford to go home. I am still supporting my family.” She also holds out hope that other Hong Kong employers will treat her well. So for now she stays at the shelter, taking advantage of the chance to pull her life back together and prepare for whatever comes next. If the Bethune House hadn’t opened its doors, Alexa says she would have slept on the pavement or in the park. “I am just so thankful to them because I really had no place to go.” Would you like to Send Along a Link of This Story? https://womensenews.org/2015/06/filipina-in-hong-kong-makes-a-call-finds-rescue/ Author Related Articles Subscribe to our newsletter Email* Sign Up You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Have a question? Contact us or review our privacy policy for more information. Series Loreen Arbus Accessibility is Fundamental Program Support Independent and Factual Journalism Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Donate Now

LUCAS A TRAUTMAN Synthetic Captivity: America’s Hidden War Once the victim is hooked, the monetization begins. By LUCAS A TRAUTMAN Commentary January 18, 2026 Joy was seventeen when I met her. She had a smile that could light up a locked psych ward and a laugh too big for the walls around her. The first time we spoke, she burped right in my face, then broke into laughter. It was ridiculous, and it was hilarious. In that moment, I knew her. She was Joy—full of life, defiant in her humor, and absolutely unforgettable. But Joy was already marked. Groomed online. Hooked by synthetics. Trapped in a system that would use her body night after night—sometimes seventy men in a single shift, a gun shoved into her mouth if she resisted, and more pills waiting to keep her tethered. That is sex trafficking in America today. No chains in basements, nor whispers in alleys. It is industrial-scale captivity fueled by synthetic opioids, enforced with violence, and monetized through the bodies of American girls. The New Doctrine of Captivity Clandestine labs in China produce endless waves of synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, nitazenes, and compounds so novel they outpace our forensic libraries ( UNODC, 2020 ). Transnational criminal organizations move them across the southern border. Trap houses weaponize them in American neighborhoods. Synthetic opioids hijack the mu-opioid receptor with such potency that withdrawal becomes intolerable: bone pain, vomiting, dysphoria, autonomic chaos (Volkow, NEJM 2023). The body itself becomes the prison. Captivity no longer requires chains; it requires only supply. And once the victim is hooked, the monetization begins. Fifty, sixty, seventy men in a night. Bodies industrialized for profit. According to the International Labour Organization, sexual exploitation generates $99 billion annually — two-thirds of global trafficking revenue ( ILO, 2014 ). This is not vice. This is asymmetric warfare. The Battlespace We have found ourselves in a battle for which we were extremely unprepared. This new war is being waged in a new kind of battlespace with a tragically well-oiled machine made up of five distinct parts: Labs in China: weapons factories. Transnational criminal organizations: logistics and distribution lines. Trap houses: forward operating bases. Synthetic opioids: shackles. American girls: the commodity. The result is a perfected economy of enslavement worth more than the GDP of many nations. And it is hidden in plain sight. I am a physician, board-certified in psychiatry and addiction medicine. I can map the neurobiology of withdrawal receptor by receptor. But I am also trained to see the battlespace. And this is what I see: a hostile network using chemistry as shackles, sex as currency, and violence as enforcement. This is not scattered criminality. It is a coherent system of captivity. Why We’re Losing Our legal system is calibrated for slow-motion justice. Survivors are forced to testify for eighteen months or longer, seated across from the perpetrators who enslaved them. Associates sit in the gallery. The threat is implicit. Many victims refuse. Cases collapse. Predators walk. The Department of State notes that trafficking convictions globally remain in the single digits per hundred thousand victims ( TIP Report, 2024 ). That staggering gap between crime and consequence all but ensures impunity. I saw it with Summer. She was twenty when I sat with her on the porch of a treatment facility in rural Mississippi. Her cravings were quiet for the first time. She told me about the years stolen and about the possibility of living again. For a moment, there was peace. The very next day, she borrowed a phone, called her old trap house, and within hours a car pulled onto our land. She climbed in. Days later, she was dead of a synthetic overdose. That is how strong the leash is, how brazen the system has become. The Solution We must fight trafficking the way we fight terror. I propose a plan that treats human trafficking and opioid smuggling as terrorism. Recently, the US Military blew up a boat of 11 traffickers (now called narco-terrorists) coming to the US from Venezuela. These were Tren de Aguas members known to be traffickers in Venezuela. We are escalating the fight to protect Americans from illicit synthetic opioid analogues, and protecting south/central American women from sex slavery by going on the offensive against these terrorists. The plan entails: Intelligence mapping: Apply link-analysis tools used against insurgent networks. SIGINT, HUMINT, financial tracking. Map not just pimps, but suppliers, enforcers, and financiers. Trafficking behaves like a shadow economy (Cockayne, RAND 2016). Rapid prosecution: Build specialized trafficking tribunals. Shorten trial timelines. Protect survivor testimony through secure video or shielded formats. The drawn-out adversarial model retraumatizes survivors and undermines justice (Farrell & Dank, 2019). Offensive posture: Seize assets, dismantle trap houses, disrupt TCO pipelines with the urgency of counterterror operations. Waiting for local vice squads to “build a case” is equivalent to letting an IED factory run untouched. Medical integration: Addiction is not weakness; it is captivity. Survivors cannot be freed without medical detox, long-term recovery, and trauma-informed psychiatric care. The National Academies (2019) emphasize that treatment access is a public health necessity , not an accessory . We must nationally re-create the continuum of care network I built across the Southeast United States — integrating residential treatment, outpatient care, and acute psychiatric hospitalization — because that model is the gold standard. Neutralize withdrawal, and you cut the trafficker’s leash. The Call Joy is gone. Summer is gone. Both are casualties of a war America refuses to name. Synthetic captivity is here. It is engineered; it is global; and it is winning. If we are serious about ending it, we must stop fighting it as crime. We must fight it as the insurgency it is: with intelligence, speed, force, and law designed for war. Until then, the machine keeps running, and the body count keeps rising. About the Author: Lucas A. Trautman, M.D., M.P.H. is Medical Director of Oxford Treatment Center . He is board-certified in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and an M.P.H. in International Health and Transnational Operations from Tulane University’s School of Public Health. Author Related Articles Subscribe to our newsletter Email* Sign Up You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Have a question? Contact us or review our privacy policy for more information. Series Loreen Arbus Accessibility is Fundamental Program Support Independent and Factual Journalism Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Donate Now

ANNABEL THORPE Annabel Thorpe is the editor in chief for The Talon News and has interned for the Dallas Morning News. Teen’s Love of Illegal Tanning Booths Defies Risks On Oct. 1 New Hampshire will be the 13th state to ban indoor bed tanning for anyone under 18 because of heightened risks of developing early-onset skin cancer. More than 40 states, meanwhile, impose some kind of restriction. That might stop some teens, but not all. By ANNABEL THORPE Crime & Law September 15, 2015 DALLAS (WOMENSENEWS)– Teens are finding their way around laws in 12 states that make it illegal for anyone under 18 to use indoor tanning facilities. With or without their parents’ knowledge some teens are walking into salons and exposing themselves to ultraviolet radiation that can increase their risk of the skin cancer melanoma by 20 percent in just one visit, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. The increased reports on these dangers have called for the World Health Organization to classify indoor tanning as “carcinogenic to humans.” The Federal Drug Administration has required tanning machines to list specific warning for minors, but that doesn’t mean all salons are doing their part to keep teens out. Micki Hirschhorn, 17, visits Glow tanning salon near her home in Argyle, Texas, three to five times a week. In the two years she’s been going, she said she’s never been asked for identification, but does admit to putting on extra make-up to look older. A manager of Glow said she wasn’t aware of minors using the facility and expressed uneasiness that it could happen. “I feel like the tanning industry isn’t regulated enough,” she said in a phone interview. Salons that break the law risk losing their license or paying fines upwards to $25,000. Forty-three states impose some kind of age-based restriction. Hirschhorn still tans despite the risk because indoor tanning gives her the “confidence to wear a bathing suit at the lake or wear a short dress,” she told Teen Voices. Mood Boost Besides her interest in darkening her skin, Hirschhorn goes to the salon to relax. “Lying in the booth is beyond calming,” said the high school senior. “You just lie in the flowing LED lights, close your eyes and drift asleep for 12 minutes. I would go after school so I could unwind from a seven-hour day of stress and work.” The UV rays from indoor tanning do cause the release of endorphins in the body, Matthew Reynolds, a spokesperson for the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an email interview. This release explains why tanners often enjoy a sense of relaxation or a mood boost while indoor tanning, which creates a future incentive to tan. But there’s a big health risk for all users. And since researchers have found that adolescent exposure to tanning booths increases the likelihood of developing skin cancer at younger ages, they are trying to discourage teenage use. People who bed tan before they are 35 years old increase their chances of getting melanoma by 75 percent, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. More than 419,000 cases of skin cancer in the U.S. each year are linked to indoor tanning cases, reports the Skin Cancer Foundation. Cases in teens often go undetected because there are no set guidelines for examinations for minors, even though 2.3 million teens, mostly female, visit a tanning salon every year. While the number of teens going to tanning salons is decreasing, according to research published in JAMA Dermatology “about 20 percent of females engaged in indoor tanning at least once during 2013 and about 10 percent of girls frequently engaged in the practice by using an indoor tanning device 10 or more times during the year.” Good News The good news is that when laws restricting minors’ use of tanning salons are in place, teens are 30 percent less likely to use indoor beds, the CDC reports. New Hampshire’s ban on minors tanning goes into effect on Oct. 1, making it the 13th state in the country with such laws. Hirschhorn, however, is so far undeterred. “It’s weird to say that something that could possibly harm me gives me confidence but it’s the truth,” Hirschhorn said. “The health risks are there of course, and I’m not blind to it. I check my moles and freckles often to make sure nothing looks abnormal. But I’ve spent my life outside in the sun so I take the risk.” However, this isn’t a risk all teens are willing to take. Heather Lindemann, a high school senior in Dallas, began tanning at 15, but very recently decided to stop. She would bed tan whenever she visited relatives in Louisiana, which at the time allowed minors to tan as long as they had parental consent, which she had, Lindemann told Teen Voices in a phone interview. But once she hit 16, she wanted to tan more frequently so she began lying about her age to get around the law at home. Like Hirschhorn, her identification was never checked. Lindemann’s parents knew what she was doing and allowed it. But that didn’t mean the teen really understood the risks. After developing a 15-time a month habit for two years, Lindemann’s mother, at the beginning of this summer, prodded her to check the health research. “It’s not so much of if I get skin cancer from bed tanning as it is when,” Lindemann said. “Now I try and protect my skin so I don’t further the damage I have already done. I don’t think being tan is worth it.” Author Related Articles Subscribe to our newsletter Email* Sign Up You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Have a question? Contact us or review our privacy policy for more information. Series Loreen Arbus Accessibility is Fundamental Program Support Independent and Factual Journalism Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Donate Now

ELIZABETH ZWERLING Elizabeth Zwerling is a professor of journalism at the University of La Verne in Los Angeles County. ‘Sex Signals’ Turns Campus Laughter on Rape Culture In this rape-bystander training, audience members become part of the sketch. When they hesitate to speak up in the auditorium, for instance, they help dramatize real-world complicity with sexual harassment or assault. By ELIZABETH ZWERLING Arts & Culture November 9, 2015 LOS ANGELES (WOMENSENEWS)–For the first sketch of the hour-long program, the male actor, Chris Beier, asked the audience of roughly 250 University of Southern California students for a pickup line. "Do you go to USC? Wanna see my Trojan?" shouted by one audience member got some laughs, but Beier went with the next suggestion. "You look like my aunt," Beier said, adding, "that apparently turns me on" to open the improvised scene in Catharsis Productions‘ recent performance of "Sex Signals" for the college audience. The female actor, Jordan Puryear, asked the audience for input. "Should she play the scene ditsy or tough?" And both actors, who look like college students themselves, asked the audience to help develop their characters for the college party pick-up scene. "I chug beer and cry beer. And watch porn and watch football," Beier grunted, as he took on the characteristics suggested by the audience. "I will not poop, or fart, or sweat; just glisten (and) I’m a virgin," Puryear said. Flexing biceps, batting eyelashes, the performers comically acted out and exaggerated the character traits as quickly as audience members called out the familiar, if stereotypical, behaviors and attitudes associated with dating or hook-up situations. The program set a surprisingly humorous tone for a discussion of sexual assault on the campus of one of the 106 colleges under federal investigation since 2014 for under-reporting or mishandling sexual assault. One in five college women and 1-in-16 college men are sexually assaulted, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. "The first thing people generally want to do is distance themselves from a program on rape, but humor fosters intimacy," said Gail Stern, chief academic officer of Catharsis Productions, in a recent phone interview. Her Chicago-based company sends the "Sex Signals" program to between 250 and 300 college campuses each year and takes a similar program to military bases across the country. Stern co-created and first performed "Sex Signals" more than 15 years ago and now trains and supervises a staff of 30 performers, or "educators." She said laughter often arises for reasons that go beyond amusement. "Sometimes it’s because someone has said something so true that we didn’t want to admit it. Then we laugh because we see truth and find agreement. It’s simultaneously shocking and disruptive of our pattern of belief. And when we laugh we internalize the material differently." The performers gain the audience’s trust through "scaffolding concepts from easiest to most complex," said Stern, a former stand-up comedian, who holds a doctorate in education. "They start with: ‘Do you see this the way we do? Have you ever felt awkward when approached by someone, or as the approacher? Have you felt conflicted as to what to do?’ The audience can say ‘yup.’ They recognize it." It’s the structure of the observations joke, used by such comedians as Jerry Seinfeld, she said. "’Have you ever noticed this one thing?’ ‘It’s kind of like this other thing.’ ‘And this other thing.’ Then the punch line." The punch line, however lightly, conveys the final idea about acceptable behavior. "Rape is wrong" is the punch line in "Sex Signals," Stern said. Audience Starts Sensing Danger As "The Hookup" progressed in the crowded college auditorium, Beier’s character came on strong; Puryear’s character became obviously uncomfortable. Paper stop signs — which had been given to everyone in the audience to hold up if they sensed danger — began to go up. Initially just a few went up and the performers ignored them and went on with the scene. But as the tone turned from awkward to creepy to something else, about half of those in the audience held their signs high and the performers ended the sketch. Beier and Puryear spoke first about how their characters felt: trapped in expected gender stereotypes and behaviors, unsafe. Then they asked the audience how it felt to be bystanders to this scene and why some had not help up their stop signs. "Why are we reluctant to intervene when we see a similar scenario in real life?" the performers asked. "It’s not socially acceptable," offered one audience member. "You don’t want to be a cock block," said another. "There are some cocks that need to be blocked," Beier replied. The audience had become part of the program: the frat party goers, the bystanders who by hesitating to act in the auditorium – as in their real lives – allow such sexual harassment or worse, sexual assault, to persist. When Stern and Catharsis Productions Executive Director Christian Murphy first started performing "Sex Signals" they tried to create a male character with whom the audience could identify, Stern said. "Fifteen years ago, we thought these well-intentioned nice guys . . . once they learned that what they were doing was hurting others, they’d stop (because) they wanted to be nice," Stern said. "Then we learned of the serial nature of the individual rapist and we discovered that we (as a society) have a tolerance for sexual coercion by perpetrators." So today, the male character in "Sex Signals" more closely resembles that perpetrator, who knows what he’s doing is wrong and doesn’t care. And the show is more about "actively critiquing the social norms," Stern said. In addition to taking its unconventional rape-prevention programs to college campuses and military bases, Chicago-based Catharsis Productions, which is a private educational company, also works with schools and law-enforcement agencies. Stern affirmed what some researchers in the field find lacking from sexual-assault prevention programs that are based on "affirmative consent," a major component in California and New York’s college sexual-assault laws, and policy at universities across the country. Affirmative consent, or "yes means yes" programs are based on the idea that sexual assault is a result of miscommunication, its critics say. Related story from our archives Calif. Campus Rape Bill Goes Beyond ‘No Means No’ "No theory of sexual assault suggests that rape occurs because of a misunderstanding of consent," said Paul Schewe, director of the University of Illinois Interdisciplinary Center for Research on Violence, in a phone interview. "All theories of rape are one person exerting power and control over another," said Schewe, who helps schools and organizations evaluate their sexual-assault prevention programs and has worked with Catharsis Productions. "The consent theory … may have made sense in the 1950s, when wives and children were considered property of their husbands, (and) women didn’t want men to force sex on them. That’s when ‘no means no’ was timely. "Most men who commit sexual assault understand consent (but) knowledge is not enough to change behavior." Focus on Changing Norms Schewe said programs that focus on bystander intervention, as "Sex Signals" does, are more effective. "Teaching violence prevention is not about educating individuals. We need to change norms (and address) rape culture." The sketch that followed "The Hookup" on the USC stage, while performed by Beier and Puryear with some of the same comedic flair, cut more to the chase. "For the next scene, my opening line will be ‘I really didn’t rape that girl!’" Beier said. "Hello and welcome to ‘Not My Fault,’ the show that gives people the chance to prove they’re not responsible for hurting someone," Puryear began. "Today we meet a charming young student who was recently accused of rape." "I really didn’t rape that girl," Beier began, in character, and laid out the scenario for the "studio audience." Beier’s character and his accuser, "Amy," had met while working on a class project and he invited her to a party at his house. At the party, they chatted as Amy got drunk on punch. Then Amy suggested they go somewhere quieter to talk. Beier’s character took Amy to his room where Amy made the first move; she kissed him. But when he took her to his bed and started to undress her, she said stop. He stopped for an awkward moment, then he proceeded to have sex with her, during which she whispered stop again, Beier told the host and audience. "I fully admit that she said stop," Beier said. "But then she didn’t do much to back it up . . . If she didn’t want to have sex with me she should have kicked me or punched me or screamed in my face." Audience members asked questions about how drunk Amy had been, whether she’d been drugged, if Beier’s character was also drunk, how emphatic her "stop" really was. Most concurred that, "yes," a rape had occurred. But when Puryear’s host asked whose fault it was, many of the USC students said both were to blame. Following the show, students sometimes take the performers aside to share their personal stories, said Murphy, a former actor, whose partnership with Stern began shortly after they met at a 1998 one-act play festival, where each was performing a one-person piece about social justice. "We listen to them from a place of compassion, but if someone has had sex with someone else who was passed out; that is rape," Murphy said. He added that the performers will refer students to appropriate counselors or law enforcement as needed. "The notion of false accusations is such an easy place for people to go to," Murphy added. Only between 2 percent and 8 percent of reported rapes are falsely reported, which is the same rate of false reports for other felonies, according to FBI and Justice Department reports. "There is no other crime that brings up the kind of venom and hostility as sexual assault. Other crime doesn’t have the same discourse," Murphy said. "(And) there is a big difference between someone who has morally committed sexual assault, or rape, and whether they are legally guilty. There is a huge place between proof of guilt and innocence." While Murphy and Stern contend that their "Sex Signals" program may be a small part of the solution to the colossal problem of sexual assault on college campuses and in the military, they say they are continuously scrutinizing and reworking the show to make it more relevant. On the drawing board currently are changes to integrate LGBT concerns, they said. "I love being able to challenge people in their beliefs and still get that giant laugh," Stern said. Would you like to Send Along a Link of This Story? https://womensenews.org/2015/11/sex-signals-turns-campus-laughter-on-rape-culture/ Author Related Articles Subscribe to our newsletter Email* Sign Up You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Have a question? Contact us or review our privacy policy for more information. 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BROOKE STORY Worldwide President of Integrated Diagnostic Solutions at BD It’s Time We Close the Treatment Gap for Women Women’s health has been underfunded, under-researched, and underserved. By BROOKE STORY Commentary October 1, 2024 Women are the primary decision-makers of family health care decisions in the United States. Yet health inequity is still prevalent here and worldwide, potentially impacting the care for all women and particularly for women in underserved communities and among Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). From access to screening to the quality of health care women receive, these disparities can lead to potentially life-threatening delays in diagnosis and treatment of disease. The importance of focusing on improving health care access and strengthening the capacity of health systems to provide preventive care and routine diagnostic screening for all patients, especially the most vulnerable, cannot be overstated. There are, unfortunately, far too many examples of the ways in which women’s health has been underfunded , under-researched, and underserved . A recent Harris Poll conducted on behalf of BD has brought forward still more. While more than two-thirds of women report having had or thinking that they had a vaginal infection or yeast infection, only 37% said their health care provider was able to diagnose their symptoms and prescribe the appropriate treatment after one visit. And when we look at the data through the lens of ethnicity, the results are even more troubling. The study shows that that less than a third of Black women (29%) say their health care provider was able to diagnose their symptoms and prescribe appropriate treatment after one visit. The figure drops even more (23%) among Hispanic women. That disparity is particularly acute compared to white women, 42% of whom reported successful diagnosis and treatment after one visit—a figure which itself is still disappointingly low. A misdiagnosis means inappropriate treatment recommendations — either undertreatment or overtreatment. A person might be asked to make return visits to the doctor that aren’t necessary, and that can be a barrier to access if a woman is juggling multiple jobs, financial hardships, childcare demands, or if there isn’t a doctor or clinic conveniently located. Among women who have ever had or thought they had a vaginal infection, those disparities in getting health care appointments were shown to be more significant for Hispanic women, who were three times more likely than white women to say it took a long time to get an appointment (15% vs. 5%) and four times as likely to say that it took several visits to their healthcare provider to find an appropriate treatment (16% vs. 4%). And late last year, another BD-sponsored Harris Poll indicated a significant gap in women’s familiarity with the primary causes of cervical cancer (i.e. HPV) as well as the most effective means of prevention (i.e. vaccination and regular screening). That study highlighted a knowledge gap amongst Hispanic and Black women. Hispanic women are 2.5 times more likely than non-Hispanic white women to say they delayed getting a Pap test because they were afraid it would hurt, and Black women are almost three times more likely than white women to say they have no idea how often they are supposed to get a Pap test. The most recent poll indicated that about one in 10 Asian women (12%) have never had a gynecological exam, similar to Black (10%) and Hispanic (11%) women; figures which again are about three times less the rate reported by white women. If we consider convenience as a factor in health care access, self-collection becomes a viable and compelling option. Last year’s Harris Poll found that 79% of American women say they would be interested in using a self-collection kit for HPV or cervical cancer screening, an alternative form of screening that allows women to collect their own sample. Self-collection is already in use around the world and in the U.S. (for testing in physicians’ offices, specifically), including for the BD Vaginal Panel which can test for multiple common types of vaginitis using only one swab and the BD CTGCTV2 test which detects the three most prevalent non-viral sexually transmitted infections. And self-collection for HPV testing, including the BD Onclarity™ HPV test, is approved and available now in many countries. A report recently published by the Biden Administration’s Cancer Panel seeks to accelerate this effort in the United States by calling on developers to validate self-sampling and on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve those claims. Self-collection options are just one way the industry can do its part to improve access. Our diagnostic instruments and assays have been able to provide a direct impact on women’s health, from STI testing to cervical cancer screening. But our responsibility goes beyond developing meaningful health care technologies; we must help ensure these innovations are accessible to more people. We have a responsibility to address these issues head-on, using our scale and influence to drive continuous improvement across our society’s biggest challenges. Our industry can have a clear and meaningful societal impact, but as the saying goes, “If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’re going to keep getting what you’ve already got.” The health care industry needs to do more than put health equality at the top of its agenda; we need to take bold action together, now and every day. The findings of these polls deepen our understanding and serve to reinforce our commitment to change. We applaud the work of the recently formed Congressional Social Determinants of Health Caucus and look forward to working in partnership with this collection of lawmakers to enact real and effective change within our communities and actively reduce longstanding disparities in care. About the author: Brooke Story is Worldwide President of Integrated Diagnostic Solutions at BD. BD is one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world and is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. Twitter @BDandCo. Author Related Articles Subscribe to our newsletter Email* Sign Up You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Have a question? Contact us or review our privacy policy for more information. Series Loreen Arbus Accessibility is Fundamental Program Support Independent and Factual Journalism Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. 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MEGAN THIELE STRONG Gender Norms vs. Healthcare Needs How many women are shepherded toward the male’s ideal breast size rather than what’s best for our health? By MEGAN THIELE STRONG Commentary September 30, 2025 My relationship with bras was misaligned from the start. Victoria’s Secret didn’t carry my bra size and rather than letting me know this pertinent information, they crammed me into a bra they stocked. Unaware of chestbinding best practices, I relied on minimizers . Except when I didn’t. A friend’s grandmother rubbed my shoulder searching for straps. Finding none, she was horrified. Within days, I was ushered to a shop where they measured, and relayed, my actual size. This proper fit relieved the strain on my shoulders, by being snug around the ribs, but I still struggled with back pain and unwanted attention. I had been called “top heavy”. A coach had shared that people came to games to see my breasts move up and down as I ran. Bosses offered unsolicited advice that men’s uniform sizes were too small for my chest. I first considered breast reduction surgery, or a reductive mammoplasty, in my twenties. Back then, in 2000, they told me it might mean losing nipple sensation and the ability to breastfeed. That felt like too much. This past spring, in my mid-forties, I asked again and my primary care physician referred me to the plastic surgery department. This time technology had advanced, but patient autonomy had not. As a sociologist, I know that patriarchy and sexist gender norms are the status quo. I know that men in power define women’s lives in every area, from our unconsciously biased thoughts , to international policy such as burning birth control and removing vaginal rings from women who volunteered their bodies for science in the middle of a medical trial. So many times, too many times, there is a very large gap between what women need and what society wants for them and from them. They asked about my ideal size. I said, “AA.” The surgeon scoffed, “Not possible.” The smallest size they would offer was a C cup, ostensibly to preserve the blood supply to the nipple. According to men, this is the smallest preferable breast size . However, women prefer smaller . And, top surgery and mastectomies can preserve or reconstruct nipples. To convince me, the doctor let me know that my breasts were saggy, lopsided, and that my nipples were too low and that he could right these wrongs. He showed me a picture of the breasts he wanted to make. The plastic surgery C-cups stared back as a surgically enhanced vision that neither I, nor my back wanted. The doctor focused on what my breasts looked like and importantly, what he wanted them to look like. He wanted symmetry, I wanted healthcare. If removing a fraction of breast mass could help my back, couldn’t removing a bigger fraction help more? When I asked about going flat, the doctor said that wasn’t a reduction, it was a mastectomy, which was only available for cancer patients and those seeking gender-affirming care. He proceeded to tell me that a flat chest was a “man’s chest.” Having to either conform to traditional cishet gender norms where I should be happy to have big, buoyant breasts or misrepresent my gender identity should not be prerequisites for medical relief. What if the mental health risks of perkier, “more desirable” breasts are greater than the physical ease patients like me receive from this surgery? This gatekeeping felt extreme. And it exposed a larger truth: we are denied autonomy over our bodies when our choices do not align with patriarchal norms. This doctor reinforced a binary trap ; I either needed to be grateful for big, “desirable” breasts or I needed to claim a gender identity that justified their removal. Yet, as a sociologist, I know that both gender identity and chest size exist on a spectrum and that breast-carrying people, regardless of gender, can have and want small or no breasts. Data indicates that more than one hundred thousand women receive breast reduction consultations per year. How many of us encounter this binary trap disguised as healthcare? How many of us are shepherded towards a male ideal breast or questioned about our gender identity? To be clear, breast reductions and gender-affirming care are essential and should be more accessible. Breast reductions reduce back, neck and shoulder pain and are on the rise , providing both mental and physical health benefits for tens of thousands of people a year. Gender-affirming care improves and saves lives. And, still, in 2025 healthcare should not lack behind patient care. In that exam room, where being a breast carrier who wants less is considered a problem, it felt much like Project 2025 , where traditional and patriarchal gender norms have more value than patient needs. One in eight women will get breast cancer, with over 300,000 of us diagnosed each year. Breast reductions cut that rate, sometimes dramatically . With statistics like these, why shouldn’t women be able to determine the goals of this healthcare procedure? It’s time our healthcare was in our hands and our breasts. About the Author: Megan Thiele Strong (she/they) is a Professor of sociology at San José State University and a Public Voices Fellow at the The OpEd Project and a member of the Scholars Strategy Network . Author Related Articles Subscribe to our newsletter Email* Sign Up You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Have a question? Contact us or review our privacy policy for more information. 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CHRISTINA CHANG What is Women’s Health? It’s More Than You Think When we hear “women’s health,” we should picture everything from the food labels that warn us about the hidden, unhealthy ingredients in packaged food to the policies that ban smoking in public spaces to the birth certificates that grant girls access to education. By CHRISTINA CHANG Health & Science June 28, 2021 When you hear “women’s health,” your mind is likely drawn to maternal, sexual and reproductive health. But women’s health is shaped by so much more. It’s shaped by the environment they live in, the food they eat and the air they breathe. In short: women’s health is public health. A frequently overlooked public health threat is noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs. NCDS—such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes—are responsible for two in every three deaths among women each year, and present the greatest threat to their health and well-being. Women and girls often also shoulder the indirect burden of NCDs as caregivers of sick family members, limiting their ability to earn or learn. At the same time, NCDs and the behavioral and environmental factors that cause them—including tobacco, alcohol, poor diet and air pollution—are inextricably linked to maternal, sexual and reproductive health. For example, low-calcium diets, obesity, diabetes and hypertension increase the risk of developing pre-eclampsia and eclampsia— the second leading cause of maternal mortality . To truly improve women’s health and well-being, we must hold governments accountable for addressing NCDs and their risk factors. Here are some of the key issues. Cutting Tobacco. Every year, 2 million women die from tobacco use . While smoking rates among men are falling, those among women are rising . This should come as no surprise, given that the tobacco industry views women as an opportunity for market growth and targets them through advertisements that falsely link tobacco use to concepts of prestige, beauty and glamour—including as a method for weight control. Women account for about two-thirds of deaths from secondhand smoke , often because they lack the power to negotiate for smoke-free spaces, at work and even in their own homes. Curbing tobacco use is an urgent women’s health issue, and one with proven solutions. Governments have an arsenal of policy levers at their disposal to reduce use and improve health, including tax increases on tobacco products, restrictions on tobacco marketing and bans on smoking in public places. Curbing air pollution . Poor air quality claims an estimated 6.7 million lives each year, including 2.3 million lives lost due to household air pollution. Without access to clean fuels and technology for cooking, millions of households rely on traditional stoves and polluting fuels, and the smoke poses enormous risks to health for women, who are most often responsible for cooking, and their families. Emerging research also emphasizes how poor air quality has adverse effects on pregnancy and child development. In a recent study, researchers found that poor air quality contributes to an estimated 350,000 pregnancy losses in South Asia each year. Researchers at my organization, Vital Strategies, recently published a comprehensive review of global evidence showing that that both ambient and household air pollution can increase the risk of prenatal and postnatal stunting . The most impactful clean air solutions to promote women’s health will involve catalyzing government action to address leading sources of exposure for women, which includes efforts to promote clean household energy use. Improving Food Systems. We are witnessing a global nutrition transition where hunger and obesity often coexist, traditional diets have been displaced, and people are increasingly pushed toward cheap ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks that saturate the market. More often than not, the face of malnutrition is female. Women and girls make up 60% of the world’s food insecure and hungry people, and the majority of the world’s overweight and obese people—in 2016, 15% of women were obese compared to 11% of men . Obesity in turn puts people at higher risk for diseases, including cardiovascular diseases—the world’s leading killer. Risks are compounded during pregnancy; obesity is associated with almost all pregnancy-related complications including gestational diabetes and preeclampsia. There are tried and true steps that governments can take to address rising rates of obesity and accompanying levels of disease. Eliminating trans fat from the food supply is critical, as is helping people make informed and healthier choices by introducing front-of-package labels that warn shoppers–who are often women–against items high in salt, sugar and fat. Counting Every Person. Throughout our lives, civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems collect data on vital events, including births, deaths, marriages and divorces. On a national level, CRVS systems are crucial to helping governments identify and respond to the diseases that take the highest toll on a population. At an individual level, being counted means so much more. These legal documents can help women and girls claim the rights to which they are entitled. For example, where child marriage is still prevalent, birth certificates provide evidence of a girl’s age and can offer protection from early marriage and allow them to complete their education. And marriage certificates are crucial to defending women’s rights to child custody, property and inheritance. But gender inequality often renders women—and their children—invisible. Globally, some 40% of deaths are unregistered or listed without a clear cause, while a quarter of the births of children under 5 remain unregistered. Women are much less likely than men to have their deaths registered, particularly because they are less likely to leave behind financial or material inheritance. In addition, stigma toward non-married women has been found to impede birth registration. Investing in strengthening CRVS systems will have a significant effect on gender equality, particularly if the common barriers to registration that women face—including cost and distance—are identified and removed. When we hear “women’s health,” we should picture everything from the food labels that warn us about the hidden, unhealthy ingredients in packaged food to the policies that ban smoking in public spaces to the birth certificates that grant girls access to education. For healthier women, we must mobilize behind this more holistic concept of women’s health and address these rising challenges. About the Author: Christina Chang is the Executive Vice President and Deputy CEO of Vital Strategies, a global public healthorganization, working to address the inequities and challenges that exist in the global healthlandscape. Christina has significant experience advocating and expanding access to health care for women. Previously as Chief External Officer at Planned Parenthood New York, Christina oversaw the organization’s policy, and community organizing efforts to protect the sexual and reproductive services and information of all women. She also directed the advocacy and electoral activities of PPNYC’s Action Fund and PPNYC Votes PAC. Author Related Articles Subscribe to our newsletter Email* Sign Up You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Have a question? Contact us or review our privacy policy for more information. Series Loreen Arbus Accessibility is Fundamental Program Support Independent and Factual Journalism Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles. Donate Now