Women and the Olympics

Women outnumber men on the U.S. Olympic Team 269 to 261.

Not only has the number of women participants  increased, but also the number of sports in which women can compete have increased.  The Olympics started with 19 women competing in two sports — tennis and golf — in the 1900 Olympics in Paris.  The 1970′s (after Title IX) saw a big increase in the numbers of women competing in the Olympics.  Basketball became an event for women in 1976.  1984 was the first cycling event for women and Gymnastics came in 1952.  The first women’s Soccer game was played in 1996 and wrestling in 2004. Boxing was the last event added for women — in 1908.   In 1991, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that any new sport introduced for the Olympic program had to include both men’s and women’s events.

40th Anniversary of Title IX June 23

ESPN will air documentary Sporting Chance June 23 featuring interviews with trailblazers.

Earlier this month, ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz spoke with President Barack Obama about the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, Title IX and sports in general during a visit to the White House.
Below is a transcript of President Obama’s comments on the importance of Title IX and how sports play a vital role in his daughters’ lives.
Question from Andy Katz: Well, Mr. President, it is going to be the 40th anniversary of Title IX [on June 23]. What is the impact of that legislation on society in America?
Answer from President Obama: I am a huge believer that sports ends up being good for kids, and especially good for girls. It gives them confidence, it gives them a sense of what it means to compete. Studies show that girls who are involved in athletics often do better in school; they are more confident in terms of dealing with boys. And, so, for those of us who grew up just as Title IX was taking off, to see the development of women’s role models in sports, and for girls to know they excelled in something, there would be a spot for them in college where they weren’t second-class, I think has helped to make our society more equal in general.
I think the challenge is making sure that, in terms of implementation, schools continue to take Title IX seriously … and I think understanding that this is good, not just for a particular college, not just for the NCAA, [but that] it is good for our society; it will create stronger, more confident women. I think that is something that I just want to make sure everybody understands.
Q: How much do you think it has affected [girls’] view on sports when this legislation was put in 40 years ago?
A: I think they take it for granted that if they become interested in a sport, if they want to pursue it and if they get good enough, they can play it in college, and that is not something that was taken for granted when I was a young boy — and that is exactly attributable to the legislation. I also think what happened as a consequence of Title IX is that the media started paying more attention to women’s sports, women’s athletics; [women’s sports] started being shown on television, it got more widespread acceptance, and I think people’s recognition that women could be just as good at competing [and] just as fun to watch.
Q: Who are your favorite female athletes?
A: You know, somebody I have gotten to know lately, which has been a lot of fun because I grew up watching her, was Billie Jean King. I still remember that game with Bobby Riggs, and I was rooting for Billie Jean because Bobby Riggs made it easy to root against him. He was being so obnoxious about women, and that was really a big cultural moment for the country. And to see [Billie Jean] continue to excel, and now all the stuff she is doing to help her promote tennis and women sports around the world …
Lisa Leslie … I think she is a wonderful role model for my girls, somebody who is tall and beautiful and a great athlete. Part of what has happened to [women’s] athletics [is] to break down any stereotypes and what it is to be an athlete, and I think Lisa Leslie is a good example of that.
Q: Mr. President, when we were on that aircraft carrier way back in November in San Diego [for the men’s basketball Carrier Classic event], I remember that I asked you about coaching your daughters, and you saw a need to get out on the court. Why is that?
A: First of all, I am probably just a busybody; every once in a while Reggie and I would be watching the [girls’] game, my former assistant Reggie Love. We’d see somebody playing a zone, our girls wouldn’t know where to go, so I would go over and whisper to the coach, who is a wonderful young woman, but she has never played basketball and she works for the National Institute of Health; she is a parent, so we started offering up our services to her. On Sunday, we would have them over to the gym over here and we’d run drills and we’d run plays. It ended up being the most fun I have had doing anything over the past couple of years.
Q: What’s been your go-to drill, certainly at a younger age, for these girls?
A: With these girls … dribbling, passing, making sure that you are boxing out, making sure that they are not practicing shooting 3-pointers when they can barely get the ball to the basket. The whole theory was, don’t practice shots that you are not going to take in a game. … Over time, they continued to get better and they started doing all kinds of stuff — playing full court, working on 3-on-2s and 2-on-1s, running pick-and-rolls. It has been great fun watching them progress.
Q: How critical is it, when coaching younger girls, to find that balance so you are encouraging and coaching, but at the same time, not being too hard [on them] that we have seen sometimes in youth sports in general?
A: Well, the fact of the matter is, the girls wanted to be pushed. One thing that I noticed is, as long as I was always expressing love and appreciation for them when they did something right, they didn’t mind when you said, “You know what, you screwed up on that one,” particularly if you had a sense of humor about it. So there were times where I would pretend to do what they were doing and the balls would land on their heads, or this is how they would rebound without jumping or paying attention to who they are supposed to be boxing out, and they would start laughing.
Q: So, how do [your daughters] respond when, as busy as you are, you take your time out on the weekends to make sure you are there as a parent volunteer?
A: With the girls, they just think of it as dad, that is what dads are supposed to do. They take it for granted. And what was fun, this is now the third year that the team has played together, and to see them all develop at different paces, to get better and start thinking as a team and to feel good when the team does well, to pick each other up when something is not going well — you can’t beat it, you can’t beat the satisfaction.
Q: How much do you want to continue you this?
A: Well, you know, the truth to the matter is, as all of them get better, they’ll have more organized programs; they are going to want to get coaches who know a lot more than I do [about] how to coach basketball. So I suspect that pretty soon I will be retiring to the stands. But to have the chance on the weekends to go out and shoot with them and practice and snag some rebounds for them, that is something I hope to be able to do for a long time to come.

What did you read this summer?

I read The Housekeeper and the Professor
by Yoko Ogawa

From The Jacket: He is a brilliant math Professor with a peculiar problem–ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory. She is an astute young Housekeeper, with a ten-year-old son, who is hired to care for him. And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them. Though he cannot hold memories for long (his brain is like a tape that begins to erase itself every eighty minutes), the Professor’s mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. And the numbers, in all of their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her young son. The Professor is capable of discovering connections between the simplest of quantities–like the Housekeeper’s shoe size–and the universe at large, drawing their lives ever closer and more profoundly together, even as his memory slips away. The Housekeeper and the Professor is an enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family.

Senior Citizens Largest Growing-Age Group to Contract STDs

Thanks to modern-day medicine, more than 80 percent of senior citizens are having sex at least once a month.

The generation that brought free love into the world is now facing a growing problem. Studies show senior citizens are the fastest-growing age group contracting STDs.

“I do think the older generation is also a little less receptive to using devices like condoms,” said Dr. Daron Farris of GHS Medical Center.

There were more than 2,500 cases of syphilis among adults ages 45 to 65 in 2010 — that’s up from 900 a decade earlier.

Nearly 27 percent of people living with AIDS in America are 50 or older.
They are people like Sue Saunders, who at 73 is the new, more mature face of AIDS. She contracted HIV from her boyfriend when she was 56.  She’s appeared on talk shows and before senior groups in South Florida warning of the dangers of unprotected sex.

During the last decade, AIDS cases among the over-50 crowd soared from 16,000 in 1995 to 90,000 in 2003 — a 500 percent increase.  AIDS activists say that due to Viagra and similar drugs, older Americans are sexually active like never before. That’s a message Saunders says she has the toughest time getting across to older men.

But older women also share some responsibility. Many who’ve passed menopause don’t use protection because they won’t get pregnant.

“I have several patients, women in their late 50s who can’t tell their children,” said Sally L. Hodder, executive vice chair and director of HIV Programs at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School in Newark. “They wouldn’t know how to explain it.”

Consider a 76-year-old grandmother from Irvington. The man she dated for years tiptoed outside their relationship seven years ago and turned her life upside down. Our Irvington grandmother lost over 60 pounds in a year, dropping from 160 to 96 pounds before doctors at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark tested her for the HIV/AIDS virus. Her T-cells, the ones that protect the body from infection, are up. So is her weight at 146 pounds. Vegetables never tasted better. She hopes seniors use protection, something she doesn’t worry about anymore. She’s finished with intimacy.

“I’m 65 years old, a widow, a friend, a grandmother, and yes, I am HIV positive,” said Anna Fowlkes, an advocate for HIV/AIDS prevention and a motivational speaker.

When Fowlkes was 59, she began noticing unusual chronic fatigue and became worried that something was wrong. She decided to go to the doctor and was tested for HIV/AIDS.

“Getting infected as a senior citizen opened my eyes that HIV is still prevalent, and somebody needed to speak out,” Fowlkes said. “It looks like your grandmother, it’s your next door neighbor, the person sitting next to you in class. There is no look.”

Jane Fowler is a 68-year-old retired journalist in Kansas City, Mo. After her 23-year marriage ended in divorce, Fowler was nervous about dating until she started seeing a male friend she’d known for more than 30 years. During a romantic New Year’s Eve, she decided to brave more than their usual kisses and caresses. Fowler founded HIV Wisdom for Older Women, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Kansas City that reaches out to infected seniors.

Across the United States, as infection rates escalate, the network of senior female AIDS activists is also growing. In Austin, Texas, Mary Moreno serves as an advisor for Women Rising Project, an HIV program that she co-founded. In New York City, Brenda Lee Curry runs an HIV support group called Copasetic Women. In Baltimore, Marilyn Burnett speaks about AIDS at churches and community centers.

“We tell seniors that they may not have control over cancer, diabetes, arthritis and the other ailments that come with old age,” says Burnett, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1991. “But we tell them that this disease is one that is preventable.”

When they speak to other senior women, Burnett and her colleagues point out that women of a certain age are at especially high risk of contracting HIV and AIDS.

Menopause can lead to vaginal dryness, contributing to abrasions and small tears during sex that boost the chance of HIV transmission. With weight loss, fatigue, skin rashes and other HIV symptoms mimicking those of old age, many older women are not diagnosed until they have full-blown AIDS.

With their immune systems compromised by age, older women can have trouble fighting off pneumonia and other secondary infections. Since many have been socialized to think of sex as embarrassing or secretive, many are reticent about their condition. This puts them in greater jeopardy because they are less likely to be coaxed and prodded by friends and family into treatment.

Great Decisions 2012 Topic 8 Energy Geopolitics

Energy independence has been a U.S. theme since 1973. Two controversial pipeline projects received attention in 2011: the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, connecting Western European consumers to Russia and Central Asia; and Keystone XL which will take petroleum from Canadian oil sands in Alberta to refineries in Louisiana and Texas.

Should energy security or greenhouse gas reduction take priority?

Should U.S. discourage consumption by imposing taxes to increase energy prices?

To what extent is the security of Europe’s natural gas and oil supply from Russia a legitimate U.S. concern?

 

April Adelante Book Club Selection

Breaking Night: A Memoir By Liz Murray

When Liz Murray’s mother died of AIDS, she took control of her own destiny and went back to high school, often completing her assignments in the hallways and subway stations where she slept. While homeless, Murray squeezed four years of high school into two, won a New York Times scholarship, and made it into an Ivy League school. This is an unforgettable and beautifully written story of one young woman’s indomitable spirit to survive and prevail, against all odds.

Submitted by Nancy Ferer, AAUW Northwest Bergen (NJ) Branch

Wonder Women of Stem

Wonder Women of STEM!

Watch this archived replay starring women in STEM!

Original Broadcast: April 26, 2012, at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. EDT

Join the JASON Project and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) for a day of live webcasts featuring two women who exemplify excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Log on to any of the four live webcasts at jason.org/live.
Christianne Corbett’s passion to get more girls and women interested in engineering led her from a career in aerospace to authoring groundbreaking research for AAUW. She will be interviewed at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. EDT.
Lisa Lord protects our nation’s top secret information at Northrop Grumman, where she is an expert in one of the fastest growing professions today — cybersecurity! She will be interviewed at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. EDT.
This show is a pre-expo event of the USA Science and Engineering Festival, so if you’re in town for the festival you can view our show during the 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. programs at the Jack Morton Auditorium in the Media and Public Relations Building at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Inspire kids to get involved! Have them log on now to submit a video answering a challenge question through April 18 or let us know their questions for Christianne and Lisa.
For more information: STEM@aauw.org

live@jason.org

Great Decisions 2012 Topic Six: State of the Oceans

Great Decisions groups enable participants to develop a greater understanding of global affairs and to engage with the major foreign policy issues facing U.S. decisionmakers. Go to www.greatdecisions.org to order a copy of the 2012 discussion book and to access pdated uinformation since the publication was printed.

Rachel Carson, Jacques Cousteau, and Thor Hyerdahl published books in the 1950s and 1960s calling attention to the fact that the oceans are a “commons” area that is not exclusive to any one nation. UNCLOS III is a “constitution for the ocean” signed by 161 countries. The U.S. is one of 35 countries, including Libya and North Korea, that have not ratified UNCLOS III.

How is climate change affecting the oceans?

What are the U.S. interests in the Artic?

Where does the ocean fit into the national security and counterterror agenda?

Should the U.S. ratify UNCLOS?

How has plastic garbage inpacted the oceans?

 

September Adelante Book Selection

The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction by Linda Gordon

In 1904, New York nuns brought 40 Irish orphans to a remote Arizona mining camp to be placed with Catholic families. The Catholic families were Mexican, as was the majority of
the population. Soon the town’s Anglos, furious at this “interracial” transgression, formed a vigilante squad that kidnapped the children. The Roman Catholic Church sued to get its wards back, but all the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled in favor of the vigilantes. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction tells a disturbing and dramatic tale that illuminates the creation of racial boundaries along the Mexican border.

Book review on AAUW Dialog blog.