Inequality’s Death Toll: A New Calculation | OurFuture.org

Inequality’s Death Toll: A New Calculation | OurFuture.org

Sam Pizzigati has a great post today. He starts by asking, “What has the potential to save more lives, the insurance reforms in the House health care bill or the higher taxes on the rich the bill imposes to pay for those reforms?”

The answer to that question seems obvious but the research studies he puts forward are astounding.  Inequality turns out to be a predictor of health as well as life expectancy in the views of epidemiologists:

The first explanation suggests “that more unequal societies have worse health simply because they have more poor people.” If poor people had more money, they would likely spend more on “things that benefit health” — better food, for instance, or warmer housing.

But the problems inequality creates, other epidemiologists contend, go far beyond poverty. Income gaps, these scientists argue, corrode social bonds and create a chronic stress that wears away at the health of all people who live in deeply unequal societies, not just the poor.

Citing research done by Japan and American teams looking into the health disparities between these two countries, Pizzigati also sites research published in the British Journal of Medicine which offers “quantitative evaluations on the association between income inequality and health.”

How powerful an impact does inequality have on health? In the world’s top 30 industrial nations, the Japanese and American research team concludes, “upwards of 1.5 million deaths” — nearly 10 percent of total mortality in the age 15-to-60 age group — could be prevented by reducing income inequality.

The impact of inequality on the United States turns out to be even more stunning, not surprisingly since no developed nation sports wider gaps in income and wealth. Of the deaths the new BMJ study ties to inequality, almost 900,000 came in the United States.

That total, University of Washington epidemiologist Stephen Bezruchka pointed out last week, amounts to a sizeable share of America’s annual death toll.

“We can say,” he calculates, “that one in four deaths can be attributed to our high rates of income inequality.”

Such numbers have, of course, enormous political implications. An unequal society, as last week’s BMJ editorial noted, amounts to a “broken society.” Political leaders, the editorial continued, ought now endeavor to repair that break — “by undoing the widening of inequalities that has taken place since the 1970s.”

Read the entire post.

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American Association of University Women – Two Minute Activist

American Association of University Women – Two Minute Activist.

An Attack on Reproductive Health Care: The New Domestic Gag Rule

On Saturday night, the House passed the largest health care overhaul bill in 40 years.  Many of AAUW’s key priorities were included in the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962), including coverage for maternity care, preventive care, an end to gender rating, and other protections for women.  It’s a victory for millions of Americans who are one step closer to quality, affordable health care.

Unfortunately, this victory came at a price that is outrageous and unacceptable.  Anti-choice representatives also passed an amendment to the bill that will severely undermine women’s access to complete and safe reproductive health care services.  The amendment, offered by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), will eliminate coverage for abortion services in the public option.  Current law already bans the use of federal dollars to pay for abortion, but this amendment goes further by prohibiting women who receive federal subsidies from purchasing a comprehensive insurance plan that includes abortion services.

Private plans that offer abortion coverage would be banned from receiving funding. This type of restriction would force private insurance companies to choose between eliminating abortion coverage for all insured members and being eligible to serve patients by receiving federal subsidies. As a result, millions of women who have this coverage now would lose it, effectively ending coverage for abortion services and instituting what amounts to a domestic gag rule.  Women who could afford it could pay extra for a “rider” policy to cover such services, but the very nature of unplanned pregnancies makes this an illogical and impractical notion.

AAUW has long advocated for choice in the determination of one’s reproductive life and increased access to health care and family planning services.  There’s no doubt that health care reform is desperately needed, but it should not come on the backs of women.  A fundamental principle of health care has always been to “do no harm.”  Make no mistake; the Stupak amendment does just that–leaving millions of women worse off than they were before.  This is the biggest attempt to ban abortion services in years, and a similar amendment is already in the works in the Senate.

Take Action!

Contact your senators today and urge them to oppose any amendments that jeopardize women’s access to complete reproductive health care coverage.  Simply scroll down and follow the instructions to compose and send your messages. Then, take another minute to contact your representative about his or her vote on the Stupak amendment.

Contexts: Disney Princesses Deconstructed

Sociological Images has another fun post (remember the Supreme Court, “I’m not a doctor but I play one on the Supreme Court.)

Now they have taken a look at Disney princesses.

See the full post here : Contexts

Or see another blogger’s addition of the princes to this sociological study.

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Do Married Women Want Their Husbands to Cheat?

From the “some people have too much time on their hands” department.  Evolutionary Psychology.  Say what?

From the Psychology today blog

The Scientific Fundamentalist

A Look at the Hard Truths About Human Nature: Author  Satoshi Kanazawa is an evolutionary psychologist at LSE and the coauthor (with the late Alan S. Miller) of Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters.

Do Married Women Want Their Husbands to Cheat?

Married women face a dilemma.  It’s not that they want their husbands to cheat on them.  But then again it’s not that they don’t want their husbands to cheat on them either.

Once married to a man, it is in the reproductive interest of the woman to monopolize access to all of his resources (material or otherwise) so that he would invest them in her joint children with him.  Any sexual relationship he may have with other women might potentially jeopardize her exclusive access to his resources, so obviously it is in her interest to make sure that he does not have sexual relationships with other women.

The problem, however, is that, as I explain in a previous post, mating among all mammalian species (including humans) is a female choice; it happens whenever and with whomever the female wants, not whenever and with whomever the male wants.  The more desirable a man is (the more resourceful, the higher his social status, the physically more attractive), the larger the number of other women who would want to have sex with him regardless of whether he is married, either in an attempt to steal him away from his current mate (mate poaching) or in an attempt to be impregnated by him so that their child will have his superior genes but then to turn around and pass off the child as their current long-term mates’ genetic offspring (cuckoldry).

All women have a vested reproductive interest to marry a man who is as desirable and attractive (physically and otherwise) as possible, but the more desirable and attractive the husband is, the greater the chances that other women would want him as well and thus the greater the chances that he would be unfaithful.  There is a surefire way to guarantee that their husband will never cheat on them, and that is to marry the biggest loser that they can find so that nobody else would want him.  But obviously no woman would want to do that.

There is an additional complication in the matter.  Humans are naturally polygynous; humans have been mildly polygynous throughout evolutionary history.  So it is natural for resourceful men of high status to mate with multiple women simultaneously.  (But recall the dangers of naturalistic fallacy.  Natural means neither good nor desirable.  It just means is; it does not mean ought.)  So polygyny ­– marriage of one man to more than one woman – is a deeply embedded part of male and female human nature.  Men have always had multiple wives, and women have always been married to men who have had other wives.

It is true that, even under polygyny, many men still only have one wife while other men remain completely mateless.  But we are disproportionately descended from polygynous men, because polygynous men invariably have more children than monogamous men.  So most of us are descended from polygynous men (and, disproportionately, from highly successful polygynous men with a large number of wives), only a few of us are descended from monogamous men, and none of us are descended from mateless men.  So polygyny remains a significant part of human nature.

Such is the dilemma faced by women, especially highly desirable women who are more likely to marry highly desirable men.  The more desirable the woman is, the more desirable her husband is likely to be, and the more likely he is to cheat on her.  The more likely her husband is to remain sexually faithful to her, the less desirable he is (and the greater the probability that perhaps she could have done much better than him).

Read the post here

Margaret Breen’s new book — Narratives of queer desire : deserts of the heart

Margaret Sonser Breen has a new published work

Narratives of queer desire : deserts of the heart Book Description An interdisciplinary project that uses literary analysis, along with personal testimony and the applications of gender theory, as a means for identifying and exploring LGBTQ stories, the book considers queer yearnings for stories other than those conventionally available, that engage and resist norms in literature as well as culture and politics.

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Our copy is on order and will be available soon.

Women’s empowerment needs a people-centred economy

Recently linked in Siyanda, new thoughts from a group of researchers on how women can truly become empowered in our world — “a system where the well-being of people is the goal and commodity production the means – rather than vice versa.”

Here’s the short summary:

In 2006 the World Bank coined the slogan ‘Gender equality is smart economics’. The argument was that pushing women into paid employment or making it easier for them to establish a business leads to reduced poverty and faster growth.

But what has tended to get overlooked in this approach are the gender inequalities associated with the unpaid work of household maintenance and sustenance of society on which the market economy depends. This ‘Agenda for Change’ proposes an alternative vision; one in which the economy is shaped for people rather than people for the economy. In other words, it argues for a system where the well-being of people is the goal and commodity production the means – rather than vice versa.

Central to this is the question: what would a gender-equitable economic system look like?

For one, the inter-dependency of unpaid domestic and caring labour and market employment would be recognised, and unpaid labour in the home and in communities would be valued as much as earning an income through the market. Firms would not discriminate against employees on the basis of their domestic and care responsibilities. The public sector would play a greater role in investing in infrastructure and services to reduce and redistribute burdens of unpaid care work. And work of any kind would be equally shared between women and men, and be organised to support and nourish rather than oppress and exploit. The current financial crisis has given the State an important role in securing people’s material wellbeing; now is a pivotal moment of opportunity for creating a fairer world.

Title:    Women’s Empowerment Needs a People-Centred Economy
Author:   Fontana, M., with Eyben, R.
Publication Date:  March 2009
Publisher:  The Institute of Development Studies
Donor:  The UK Department for International Development (DFID), with additional funding from he Norwegian and Swedish Ministries of Foreign Affairs, and UNIFEM

From the publication, a chart created by UNIFEM.

NOW! UConn Metanoia 2009: Preventing Violence Against Women

UConn Metanoia 2009

For complete information: http://www.metanoia.uconn.edu/

Sunday, Oct. 4

Past (1979), Present (2009), and Future (?): Preventing VAW

This panel – featuring participants from the 1979 Metanoia as well as current students and professionals in the field – will kick off the week of the 2009 Metanoia. Audience questions and discussion by the panelists will conclude the session.

4:00pm – 5:15pm

Dodd Center, Konover Auditorium

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Monday, Oct. 5

What Will You Do?: Metanoia Rally

This student rally will include speakers, a capella groups, and a candle light vigil. This is your chance to show a united front as the UConn student body.

6:00pm

Student Union Mall (Rain location: SU Lobby)

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Monday, Oct. 5

Represent & Resist! A Metanoia Speakout by Long River Live!

Long River Live! presents an open mic, as well as an evening of literary, visual and performing arts that celebrate women while challenging oppression. If you’re interested in performing/displaying your work at this event, please contact amber.west@uconn.edu or itsjoewelch at gmail.com.

8:00pm – 10:00pm

Student Union Lobby

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Tuesday, Oct. 6

Why Women Stay

This interactive brown bag luncheon session for faculty and staff will provide participants with information on how to recognize abuse and reasons why women stay in abusive relationships. We will also let you know about resources that are available. Sponsored by the Something’s Happening Committee.

12:00pm

Student Union Theatre

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Wednesday, Oct. 7

Honoring Our Past, Present and Future: Working Together

to End Violence Against Women with Tonya Lovelace

This presentation will look at the violence against women’s movement and ways that prevention of violence work has evolved, with women as the pioneers and men as newer and exciting partners in the work. There will also be an exploration of the intersections of race, class, gender and other identities within the movement.

12:00pm – 1:00pm

Student Union Theatre

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Wednesday, Oct. 7

Film: The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo

The African American Cultural Center will be showing this film by Lisa Jackson. Don’t miss the shocking and riveting stories of these survivors as they give us an intimate portrayal of their lives.

5:30pm – 7pm

Student Union, Room 407

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Thursday, Oct. 8

A Call to Men: Breaking Out of the Man Box

with Tony Porter

This presentation will challenge many of the social norms that define manhood, particularly those that support a culture of violence against women. A gifted public speaker, Tony Porter is an educator and activist working in the social justice arena for over twenty years. He is nationally recognized for his effort to end men’s violence against women.

7:00pm – 9:00pm

Jorgensen Auditorium

Ireland’s Unbelievably Good Commercial for Marriage Equality (Gay Rights – Change.org)

Ireland’s Unbelievably Good Commercial for Marriage Equality (Gay Rights – Change.org)

The title says it all.

UConn Human Rights Conference and Film Series

October 22-24, 2009: Human Rights in the USA Conference sponsored by the Human Rights Institute and UConn School of Law

The “Human Rights in the USA.” Conference at the University of Connecticut in Fall 2009 will evaluate how international human rights laws and norms are presently applied in the USA and will suggest recommendations for the future. It will focus on human rights litigation and recent legal innovation, and contextualize the law by examining the wider impact of human rights campaigns on gender violence, racism, poverty and health care. Significantly, it will seek to integrate the perspectives offered by disparate social movements and connect law, politics and social policy in ways that can provide greater scope for the realization of human rights.

In conjunction with the conference:

2009-2010 Human Rights Film Series: Human Rights in the USA

Sponsored by the Human Rights Institute and the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center

Starting on September 8, here are the first few films in the series:

Tuesday, September 8, 2009
4:00 PM
Konover Auditorium
Thomas J. Dodd Research Center

Film: Living Broke in Boom Times: Lessons from the Movement to End Poverty (2008)

Followed by a Q & A and reception with filmmaker Peter Kinoy and poverty rights activist Willie Baptist

“… a wonderful documentary, heart-rending in its depiction of homelessness and desperation, yet inspiring in what it shows about the magnificence of people fighting back, organizing, refusing to accept their situation, trying to build a national movement.” — Howard Zinn, Professor and author of A People’s History of the United States

>>Check the website for time and place for the following:

Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Film: The Least of These (2009)

The Least of These explores one of the most controversial aspects of American immigration policy: family detention. As part of the Bush administration policy opened a former prison turned immigration facility to house children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings. The film explores the government rationale for family detention, conditions at the facility, collateral damage, and the role (and limits) of community activism in bringing change, while demonstrating how core American rights and values – due process, presumption of innocence, upholding the family structure as the basic unit of civil society, and America as a refuge of last resort – are currently being denied to immigrants, and particularly children.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Film: Ask Not (2008)

This documentary examines the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” military policy which was resulted in the dishonorable discharge of gay and lesbian members of the armed forces. The film portrays the personal stories of Americans willing to risk their lives for a country that criminalizes the act of coming out. Current and veteran gay soldiers reveal how “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” affects them during their tours of duty, as they struggle to maintain a double life.

India: The Sex Workers

This video and report are from 2004. Coming soon will be an update to this topic. –Kathy

FRONTLINE/World . Video | PBS

Mumbai

In the heart of Mumbai, India [also known as Bombay] lies Kamathipura, one of the country’s poorest districts and also its largest red light district, home to more than 60,000 sex workers. In the spring of 2004, FRONTLINE/World correspondent Raney Aronson traveled to Kamathipura to investigate what has quickly become the center of the AIDS epidemic in India, which affects more than four and a half million people.

On the streets of Kamathipura, it’s no challenge for Aronson to find sex workers to talk with. In a small gathering she asks them frankly about the core issues of their trade — economics and health. The women get the equivalent of US$1.50 for sex, $2 on a good night, less than a dollar on a bad night. To have sex without a condom, men will often pay more or, after a few visits, tell the women they love them. The women in the group laugh a bit about the men’s proclamations of love, but there’s a tragic fact behind their laughter: more than half of the sex workers here are HIV positive.