The Ladies – September 21, 2019
Welcome to The Ladies for September 21, 2019! It’s a snapshot of curated articles I have enjoyed reading on women and girls around the world — sprinkled with tidbits on things to do/see/read/buy. Subscribe using the link at right and post your comments below!
THE ENVIRONMENT
I am very concerned pretty much on a daily basis now about what is going on with climate change and the environment, so this is a topic that I am going to cover a lot here moving forward. I serve on the WCS Council at the Wildlife Conservation Society and I believe it is up to each of us to help spread awareness about what we are doing to the planet. This past week, Al Roker from the Today Show took a trip to Greenland to explore climate change. This summer, we had the hottest June and July on record and Greenland will have lost 440 billion tons of ice – scary. Click here to see the video report of his trip.
Another hot news item this week is that birds are vanishing from North America. The United States and Canada have lost 3 billion birds since 1970 – scientists are saying that nature is unraveling. The skies are emptying out. The number of birds in the United States and Canada has fallen by 29 percent since 1970, scientists reported on Thursday. There are 2.9 billion fewer birds taking wing now than there were 50 years ago. Read this article in the NY Times by Carl Zimmer and refer to the original article and study published this week in Science Magazine. Things we can do to help stem the tide of this include reducing the use of pesticides and plastics and other environmental agents that affect them. Please spread the word to friends and family so that everyone does their part to help improve things!
WOMEN
In the news…Women Can Now Legally Go Topless in Six States following a federal court ruling. Click here to read about it.
With Abortion Restrictions on the Rise, Some Women Induce Their Own – click here to read the full article.
PARENTING
What Should Young Children Drink? Mostly Milk and Water, Scientists Say in The NY Times – click here to read the full article
My kids are now 14, 13 and almost 11 – so a lot of what is in the article is not news to me, but I’m glad it’s being put out there and made official. The new guidelines were developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. One key takeaway – which both my pediatrician and pediatric dentist told me years ago when my kids were tiny, was that young children should drink less than a cup of 100% juice per day – and that none at all is a better choice. So lose the bottles of juice for your kids in the pantry! In addition, the guildelines say that most young children should not drink plant based milk such as rice, coconut, oats or other blends.
GIRLS
The Test Results That Best Explain The STEM Gender Gap Are Not the Math Scores
Now, a new study offers another intriguing explanation: Perhaps there are fewer women in STEM not because girls are worse than boys at math, but because they’re significantly better than boys at reading. (That article is worth a read)
Her Own Toy Story: How a 6-Year-Old Girl’s Letter Launched ‘Plastic Army Women”
This summer, a young girl from Arkansas wrote a Northeastern Pennsylvania toy company out of frustration. “My name is Vivian. I am six years old. Why do you not make girl army men?” wrote Vivian Lord to BMC Toys. To Jeff Imel, the president of BMC Toys, which makes the iconic Green Army Men figurines, it was a worthy question and one he had mulled over for years. “It was a heartfelt letter,” Imel told NPR. “And it reminded me of being a kid and always wanting that toy that you couldn’t get in the gumball machine,” he said. “So I really looked into it.” After conducting research into what kind of demand there might be for the little Green Army Women, he decided recently to answer Vivian Lord’s question with an announcement: “It’s happening.” Click here to read the full article.
The Scientific Debate Over Teens, Screens and Mental Health
More teens and young adults — particularly girls and young women — are reporting being depressed and anxious, compared with comparable numbers from the mid-2000s. Suicides are up too in that time period, most noticeably among girls ages 10 to 14. These trends are the basis of a scientific controversy. Click here to read the full article and all sides of this hot topic.
NIH Funded Study Suggests Teen Girls ‘Night Owls’ More Likely to Gain Weight
Teen girls — but not boys — who prefer to go to bed later are more likely to gain weight, compared to same-age girls who go to bed earlier, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings by researchers at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, and other institutions appear in JAMA Pediatrics. Click here to read the full article.
