Women 's Leadership And Social Change Class

Chapter one focuses on the biological changes that have occurred over time regarding female maturation; most notably, the earlier onset of menarche, or a female’s first menstruation. Earlier ages of menarche have resulted from the higher living conditions that most American girls enjoy today. The chapter also covers the differing generational ways of talking, or not, about menstruation and the consequences of that. Chapter two continues

In the article “If men could menstruate,” Gloria Steinem explores the idea of how menstruation would be glorified if it would happen to men. Institutions would change their principles in order to benefit men. By benefiting men, institution would continue to maintain gender differences. As a result, society would use menstrual to justify women subordination.

Imagine then, if men could suddenly do the one thing that makes a woman a woman. This would be the ultimate insult to the opposite sex. Men can make simple aspect such as physical size and strength, positive factors of their superiority, what would their command of a menstrual cycle and the ability to bear children cause an already male dominated world. Women would be subjected to further suppression and neglect by the now ultimate dominant specie. These views are not circumstantial; they are based on the human behavioural tendency to supersede the competition, in this case the females by slandering their credibility and necessity as viable components within the society. The males as the dominant sex, now as a result of their new ability to menstruate would begin to study the cycle and its effects in dept. They would create new and more effective ways to menstruate, all because the need arose. The

Let’s begin with the obvious, all women have had their period. This process is as natural as eating, peeing, drinking and sleeping. Now have any of you ever walked into a bathroom and had to pay for the toilet paper? No, you haven’t. I’m sure that it also never occurred to anyone to carry around toilet paper in case they had to do their business away from home. For sanitary reasons we want people to wipe their behinds. For sexist reasons, we don’t offer the same concern for women who don’t want to bleed on furniture or their clothes. After years of women being shamed into not talking about periods more and more are speaking up.

“If Men Could Menstruate” by Gloria Steinem paints an image of what our society might be like if men, not women, menstruated. Steinem portrays males in a way that challenges patriarchal society in order to develop a commentary on the cultural paradigm and appeal to the female demographic.

There has always been a stigma surrounding the topic of women’s health, especially the reproductive kind, as the world has set standards for a how a woman’s body should be. The stigma begins where, unfortunately for the world, women’s bodies oftentimes do not comply with these standards. Because of the rifts between expectation and reality girls are shamed, oftentimes unconsciously or via systemic responses and interactions. It becomes an ingrained and understood conduct, teaching girls that their bodies exist for objective purposes, and it lays the foundation for developing insecurities. Bodily insecurities tend to run so deeply that even women in adulthood shy away from taking proper care of themselves. Because of how taboo discussing women’s

In our culture, girls become women at the average age of 12. The right of passage is bloody underwear and feminine products that never seem to fit right. This means, as children, women are given a heavy responsibility: the ability to create a human life. While straddling childhood and adulthood, we are meant to learn how powerful that responsibility is and how to protect our bodies from experiencing it too early. Yet, in our culture, girls are sent so many different messages on how to accomplish this. The message sent loud and clear today is, “your body does not belong to you.” Through all the blood, tears, and sacrifice . . .my body belongs to my government and will be treated however middle-aged white men see fit.

In this article the Author talks about how girls are often too embarrassed to even ask their moms for clean cloths and end up getting serious infections because of it. () She even mentions a case that led “to a 13-year-old having to undergo surgery to remove her uterus.” () In an interview author Chris Bobel talks about the need for menstrual activism and the negative way we (women and men) as a society are accustomed to talking about periods. She addresses the fact that girls are trained to hate their periods before they even have one, and men and women alike are conditioned to make jokes about raging PMS. In fact, sometimes it seems the only "OK" way to talk about periods is by making PMS jokes or going on and on about how horrible and painful periods

A menstrual cycle is a key element in a woman’s life, as each month it helps the recurring pregnancy process; that should be respected and normalized to all sexes. It is essential to the human race’s reproduction, despite the costs and taboos placed on periods.

In Gloria Steinem’s article from a publication of Ms. Magazine in 1979, she presents a curious scenario to the reader. In her piece, she asks the question: “What would happen, for instance, if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not?” Following this, Steinem explains how the phenomenon of menstruation would be viewed theoretically, if exclusive to males, based on social privileges and behaviors men have and exhibit. From the way men and society might perceive and express the essence of the menstrual cycle if only men had it, ideas of how men show biases in masculine concepts are made transparent.

During these last thirteen weeks, I have discovered a lot about myself, not only as a student, but as a feminist. Before taking this class, I knew that I wanted to be a feminist. I believed that women should stand up and exercise their rights to be equal to men on every level. Be that as it may, I lacked the education required to develop my own sense of feminism--my feminist manifesto, if you will. When approaching the topic of feminism, every person needs to ask themselves a list of questions: Who am I? Who do I want to be? What has influenced me as a person? How can I help? These are the beckoning questions we, as developing and purposeful human beings, ask ourselves every day, and these are the questions that will lead each and every person

The tips provided in the latter part of the pamphlet attempt to dispel earlier false, preconceived notions of menstruation yet they adhere to the dominant ideologies of femininity. This is emphasized through images which specifically place the female character in the home and ultimately illustrate that marriage and reproduction are necessary highlights in a successful lady’s timeline (or lifeline?). The booklet maintains menstruation as a “new set of problems” that young women must now learn to cope with and in order to do so, Kotex will lead the way. Much like learning how to properly curl your hair or learning to allow a gentleman to pay for the date, Kotex was now the answer for being “in the know” when it comes to menstrual

Women make up just slightly over half the U.S population (US Census Bureau, 2010) and should not be even considered a part of a minority group. The female population should acquire the same equal research attention as men do, especially when it comes to health issues. The unavoidable, yet quite simple realities of breastfeeding, menstruation, menopause, along with pregnancy require special scrutiny from medical experts. Those medical specialties are generally referred as gynecologists or obstetrics, who focus on the exclusive needs of a female’s reproductive health throughout their lifespan. Historically, the health needs of women have been disregarded as well as their fundamental rights. However, over the past few decades, it has grabbed the media and the government’s attention causing some major changes in support of women’s rights and health care.

A women's role has changed tremendously and is making its greatest impact in our society today. Many years ago, women's contribution to society was limited and controlled by men. Women are standing tall and are playing a major role in many important areas. Women's role has changed at an accelerating rate and have part in areas such as Politics, Professional Training Jobs, Medicine,Business and Law. Formerly they were not part of any political matter, but they have advanced in many aspects. For example, women have attained power and have been growing in political office.

The Women’s Health Issues course this semester have been interesting and informative. I gained great perspective on health topics affecting women’s health status and ways biological and social factors put women at a higher stake for health issues. One of the most important thing I am taking away from this class is the importances of understanding women’s health, as a Public Health student women’s health has been a topic of interest for a long time. Coming from a developing country where many women grapple with health issues from discrimination and prescribed roles, it has been important for me to take this class and to have better understanding on health disparities that exist globally between women and men. In the following paragraphs I