ThinkAboutIt 10/3/2007 ThinkAboutIt: A compendium of interesting items
Compiled by Sarah Stockholm and Natalie Parragué
Not good enough According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), even companies regarded as the best places for women to be employed are not meeting the needs of working mothers, especially in the areas of paid maternity, paternity and adoption leave. IWPR reported that 24 percent of Working Mother magazine's 100 Best Companies of 2006 offer four weeks or less of paid maternity leave, 7 percent provide no paid maternity leave, and another 7 percent offer just one to two weeks. Nearly half of the companies provide no paid adoption or paternity leave.
Martha Burk, director of the Corporate Accountability Project of the National Council of Women's Organizations, called it "disappointing ... that even those lauded as exemplary are offering such paltry maternity benefits."
... And it gets worse
Just 5 percent of women earning less than $15 per hour are eligible for paid family leave. And among the highest paid workers-managers and professionals-just 14 percent receive it. The federal government does not offer its employees paid family leave. But all of this may change if two bipartisan bills currently in Congress are enacted. S 1681 would provide partial paid leave for private-sector employees and HR 3158 would extend it to employees of the federal government.
California is the only state currently offering paid leave (up to six weeks partially paid), though Washington State will be on board in 2009. Several other states are considering similar legislation.
Source: Institute for Women's Policy Research
"Cats and dogs in the developed world have
more rights than Arab women." - Wajeha al-Huwaider, Saudi writer, human rights activist and co-founder of the League of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars in Saudi Arabia.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Women drivers On Sept. 23, a coalition of Saudi women presented King Abdullah with a petition containing more than 1,100 signatures, requesting that he overturn a ban on women drivers. Saudi Arabia is the world's only nation where woman are legally prohibited from driving. While the country's wealthy women can afford to hire drivers, poor women must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, shopping or doctors appointments.
Abdullah has been silent on the issue. The Saudi royal family rules under a power-sharing arrangement with an ultra-conservative Islamic sect. In 1990 a group of women tested the informal cultural ban by driving in a convoy; the protest backfired when the country's highest religious authority, responded by issuing an official edict banning women from taking the wheel.
Source: BBC Radio
Pink Viagra? Loss of sexual desire is common among women who have gone through either natural or surgical menopause. But European women who wish they had that old spark back have an ally in Procter & Gamble: In addition to the time-honored methods of mood lighting and romance, they can try the pharmaceutical giant's new transdermal testosterone patch, Intrinsa.
Intrinsa went on sale in European Union countries last spring, following its approval by the EU equivalent of the FDA. But don't look for it in your local pharmacy anytime soon: Here in the U.S., the FDA blocked its sale in the U.S. three years ago, stating that though the patch appears to be effective, its makers have not proven its safety. Unlike Viagra, which can produce an erection within an hour, Intrinsa patches must be applied twice weekly and may take several weeks to work.
Source: womensenews.org
Make mine lilac According to a new study by the University of Newcastle, UK, there may be evidence that color preference is biologically based. While both genders chose blue as their overall favorite color, further analysis showed that women have a considerable preference for blues with pink undertones, such as lilac, while men preferred undiluted blues. By including women who grew up in mainland China, where pink is not enculturated as a "feminine" color, researchers were able to rule out cultural influences as the sole determination of color preference. Findings backed up some biologists' theories that female primates, who were the gatherers of fruit, developed an advanced form of color vision that made it easier to spot ripe (reddish) fruit among green plants.
Source: University of Newcastle
