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Women's Issues
Written and researched by Bob Murray, PhD
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Eating Disorders Linked to Abuse
January 23, 2002
Research has shown that more than half of college women have experienced eating disorder symptoms (although most do not have full-blown anorexia or bulimia).
While the cause of eating disorders is still unknown, new research suggests that depression and difficulty expressing one's feelings may be risk factors for disordered eating in young women with a history of family problems or abuse.
Psychologists Suzanne E Mazzeo, PhD, of Virginia Commonwealth University and Dorothy L Espelage, PhD, of the University of Illinois, studied 820 undergraduate female college students to see whether certain risk factors led to disordered eating. They found that family conflict, family cohesion, childhood physical and emotional abuse and early neglect did indirectly influence whether a college student would develop problem eating behaviors.
However, they found that depression and alexithymia -- difficulty in identifying and describing one's own feelings -- more directly influences whether women from this type of background develop eating problems.
In summary: Childhood abuse leads to depression and eating disorders, and the greater the abuse, the greater the disorder.
Once again research has emphasised the direct link, which we have always maintained, between childhood abuse, depression and eating disorders. BM
Read more in Uniscience
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Drink and Get Pregnant!
December 8, 2001
In a report published in the journal Human Reproduction, scientists found that women who do not drink at all can actually take longer to become pregnant than those who drink up to two alcoholic beverages a day. Previous studies have suggested that even low levels of alcohol intake can increase the time it takes for a woman to get pregnant. But the new study -- a major work based on research on nearly 40,000 women -- found that even high alcohol intake had no negative impact on women who had never given birth before.
However Mette Juhl, the Danish researcher from the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology who headed the study, sounded a cautionary note. She said: "Our research does not mean that consuming alcohol is better for fertility than not drinking alcohol at all. It is known from other studies that non-drinkers differ from moderate drinkers in many other aspects; for instance they may have a weaker constitution or other health problems which can influence fertility, directly or indirectly."
The researchers asked 39,612 women between 1997 and 2000 how much alcohol they had drunk weekly on average prior to conception and how long it had taken them to become pregnant.
Low levels of drinking were measured as being between a half and two drinks a week, moderate drinking was between two and a half and 14 drinks a week, and high was measured as over 14 drinks a week. Out of the 39,612 pregnancies, 29,844 were planned and did not have complicating factors such as endometriosis, ovarian or cervical cancer. Of these 29,844 women, roughly half became pregnant within two months of trying, but 15% had to wait more than a year.
Most women (79%) reported an alcohol intake of between a half and seven drinks a week, 12% reported no intake at all and 1% reported a high intake. Of the women with a high alcohol intake, 22% had to wait more than a year to become pregnant, while only 14% in the low-drinking group had to wait that long. In the group of women who drank no alcohol, 18% had to wait more than a year.
Ms Juhl said: "We do not expect alcohol to improve a woman's fertility, but a moderate intake may correlate with a higher frequency of intercourse, which may explain the longer waiting times in women who reported no intake.
"Small amounts of alcohol may have a positive impact on the female reproductive system, perhaps by helping women to feel more relaxed. However, it is important to underline that we only had information on average weekly intake of alcohol before pregnancy. Our results cannot rule out that alcohol intake on specific occasions around the time of ovulation may reduce the chance of becoming pregnant in that menstrual cycle."
Dr Peter Bowen-Simpkin, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said the study confirmed what he had long suspected. "I always advise women who want to get pregnant to take a glass of wine before they go to bed. They will more relaxed, happy and much more likely to have sex at the right time."
Dr Bowen-Simpkin said stress played a major role in preventing successful conception. The hormones released by the brain in response to stress can effect ovulation.
Read more in the BBC News
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Study Questions Reasonableness Of 'Reasonable Woman'
November 10, 2001
A new analysis of 62 studies that looked at how men and women define sexual harassment finds little difference in what both genders believe constitutes the more serious types of harassment, but did find gender-based disagreement about the more subtle forms of harassing behavior.
These findings call into question the "reasonable woman" standard still used by some US courts to decide harassment cases, especially in cases involving the less obvious forms of harassment, according to a study in the current issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology.
It is well known that men and women sometimes differ in their perceptions of what constitutes sexual harassment. Research indicates that women tend to perceive a broader range of behaviors as harassing than men do.
That prompted courts to adopt the reasonable woman standard, requiring judges and juries to adopt the perspective of the harassees, which often tend to be women, when evaluating the circumstances in a sexual harassment claim.
However, some say such a standard may be unfair to men because it does not consider their viewpoint when deciding if sexual harassment has occurred. In recent years, most courts, including the US Supreme Court, have gone back to consistently using the "reasonable person" standard, but the debate over which standard should be used continues.
In their meta-analysis involving 33,164 participants in 62 studies, the authors found evidence that women do perceive a broader range of social-sexual behaviors as harassing.
"Men and women agree that sexual coercion and sexual propositions constitute sexual harassment," say the authors. "However, they do not necessarily agree that sex-stereotyped jokes or repeated requests for dates after refusal do. Therefore, a woman may perceive that sexual harassment has occurred after a number of the latter types of social-sexual behaviors have taken place, whereas a man may be less inclined to do so." For example, men may interpret repeated requests for dates as flattery, whereas women may perceive it as something that may escalate to harassment.
The origin of these gender differences -- whether innate or a product of socialization and a person's value system -- is not clear, according to the researchers.
Men and women do agree on one thing -- sexual harassment depends on the status of the harasser. If the perceived harasser is a boss or supervisor then the harassment is real and serious even if the same actions by a peer or fellow-worker would not be.
Read more in the Journal of Applied Psychology online
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The Heavier White Women Are, The Less They Earn
October 26, 2001
Women who weighed 65 pounds more than other women in a sample of 1,442 white female workers earned an average 7 percent less than their slimmer colleagues, when other factors were controlled for statistically.
That difference in income is roughly equivalent to the wage effect of one year of education, two years of continuous employment at one job or three years of work experience.
However, the same relationship between weight and income did not hold true for Hispanic and African American working women, says John Cawley, a health policy scholar, economist and an assistant professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell.
Cawley also found no evidence that weight affects the probability of employment for white, black or Hispanic women, or the probability of holding a white-collar job.
Previous studies of this question also have found that some heavier women earn less. However, those studies were unable to determine whether the correlation was the result of weight lowering wages, low wages raising weight, or perhaps some unobserved third factor causing both high weight and low wages.
The innovation of Cawley's work is to use the econometric method known as instrumental variables to determine whether weight truly lowers wages; the results of this method suggest that weight does have such an effect, but only for white women.
"It should be stressed, however, that the finding that weight lowers wages is not conclusive evidence of workplace discrimination," Cawley points out. "Another hypothesis also consistent with these findings is that heavier workers are less productive at work. It has repeatedly been found, for example, that obese workers are more likely to miss work due to illness. However, this explanation is complicated by the fact that the analysis finds no evidence that weight lowers wages for black women."
Nevertheless, he points out that the finding that weight lowers certain women's wages has become increasingly important in the last two decades. The percentage of Americans who meet the clinical definition of obesity has risen from 15 percent in 1980 to 23 percent in 1990 to 26 percent in 1999.
There's more of a cultural acceptance of female obesity among black and hispanic Americans. Among whites, however obesity is not so culturally accepted and this, in itself, would lead to a lack of self-esteem among obese white women. Added to that obesity, in white society, is often the result of an abusive upbringing which leads to disempowerment and a fear of the kind of self-assertiveness which results in higher pay. BM
Reported in Uniscience
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Breast Cancer Link to Nightshifts
October 26, 2001
Research carried out in America found that women who regularly worked night shifts for up to three years were 40% more likely to develop breast cancer than those who did not work at night. And the risk increased to 60% for those who regularly worked nightshifts for more than three years.
The results of the study, carried out in Seattle, suggest that bright light at night diminishes the body's supply of melatonin -- a hormone involved in the control of the body's natural rhythms. This in turn may lead to an increase in levels of the female sex hormone oestrogen, which has been linked to breast cancer.
The theory that nightshifts could be linked to an increased risk of developing breast cancer is not a new one but it has never been definitively proven. In a study published last year, Danish scientists found that women who had worked predominantly at night for at least six months in their working life were 50% more likely to develop the disease.
The results of the latest study were based on the work history of 763 women with breast cancer and 741 without. Scott Davis, an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle the latest study was carried out, said: "The numbers in our study are small, but they are statistically significant."
Changes in melatonin levels in men doing nightshifts may increase the risk of some types of male cancer, according to Dr Davis.
Read more in BBC News Online
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Women Admit to Regular Lies
September 4, 2001
A survey by women's magazine That's Life!, found that many women are prepared to lie about almost any aspect of their life.
The Scruples and Lies survey was based on interviews with 5,000 women. It found that 94% confessed to telling fibs, with 48% lying on a daily basis. The vast majority (84%) said they could lie with a clear conscience - many said deceit was justified as a way of sparing other people's feelings.
Susan Quilliam, psychologist and That's Life! agony aunt, said: "Women's lives are changing very fast and the fact they lie is an indication they're under pressure at work, at home and in their relationships, so sometimes they feel they have to bend the truth just in order to survive. However, it greatly saddens me that 24% of women would have a baby without their partner's consent. The decision to have a baby is a very serious one and it's just not on to play Russian roulette with a baby's life."
The top ten lies that women tell, according to the survey are:
- These shoes were a real bargain
- No, your bum doesn't look big in those trousers
- I'm broke
- You're great in bed
- The cheque is in the post
- I've only had a couple of drinks
- I've got a headache
- I love you
- I could never have a one-night stand
- I don't smoke
Read more on the BBC News
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Most Women 'Want Plastic Surgery'
August 22, 2001
Two thirds of women are so unhappy with their body that they would undergo plastic surgery to achieve the perfect look, a survey suggests.
Of the 3,000 women questioned, 90% said their body made them feel "down." And almost three-quarters think about their size and shape every day, the survey by Top Sante magazine found.
The survey found that the top five most sought-after plastic surgery procedures were:
- Liposuction -- 55%
- Tummy tuck -- 47%
- Lines around the eyes/shape of the eyes -- 24%
- Breast enlargement -- 21%
- Face-lift -- 19%
The survey found women thought the perfect female body was made up of Catherine Zeta Jones' face, Jennifer Aniston's hair, Liz Hurley's bust, Elle Macpherson's legs and Jennifer Lopez's bottom.
The survey also found the top five most hated parts of women's bodies were, in order, hips and thighs, bottom, waist, legs and arms. Almost two-thirds said their sex lives would be better if they achieved their ideal shape.
Three-quarters of women who have had plastic surgery think it has improved their lives, and 71% would do it again -- but four out of 10 said the results from operations they had already had were not as good as they expected.
Julliette Kellow, editor of Top Sante, said: "British women are obsessed with their bodies, and it is spoiling their lives.
"For almost 40 years, being attractive has been equated with being thin. But women's desire for body perfection is no longer a weight issue -- the majority of normal and underweight women answering our survey are still unhappy with their bodies."
How dysfunctional is a society that creates an ideal that almost no one can live up to? AF
Read more in BBC News
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Seasonal Trend in Abortions Linked to Depression
August 22, 2001
Researchers in Italy have come up with the theory that a woman's decision to have an abortion may be influenced by the season. They found an annual peak in voluntary abortions in early May -- coinciding with an annual peak in female suicides.
This suggests that the same factors that push women to commit suicide might also make them more vulnerable to pressure to abort a pregnancy, they say.
"The almost complete similarity of the seasonal rhythm of female suicides and that of voluntary abortion furnishes valid support for a strong relationship between the two," say Angelo Cagnacci and Annibale Volpe at the University of Modena. Their findings were reported in the journal Human Reproduction.
"This is an interesting paper," says Anne Furedi of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. But she adds that there could be a number of other explanations for the annual peak, such as the rise in unplanned conceptions over holiday periods.
Cagnacci and Volpe studied data on Italian women dating between 1995 and 1998. They tried to rule out any seasonal effect of conception on the abortion rate by charting the ratio of abortions to pregnancies, rather than the absolute number of abortions, for each month of the year. They found a clear pattern in abortions over the year, peaking in May.
The team also found no difference in the pattern of female suicides in the years before abortion was legalised in Italy. This suggests that the annual peak in abortions is not driving the annual peak in suicides.
If depression and abortion are indeed linked, Cagnacci and Volpe say that the measures that help reduce depression, such as support from friends and family, might also apply to voluntary abortion.
Read more in New Scientist
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Has Pregnancy Lost Its 'Glow?'
August 8, 2001
Pregnancy is often depicted as a special time, with the expectant mother radiant and content. Emotional problems are expected later, in 'post-partum' depression. Yet women are more likely to become depressed while pregnant than after their babies are born, research suggests. Scientists found the peak for depression was 32 weeks into pregnancy, close to birth.
The unborn child may also be affected, as for example, a rise in stress hormones could lead to low birth weight. The researchers are calling for more recognition and treatment for antenatal depression.
Dr Jonathan Evans, who led the study, told BBC News Online: "The message is 'don't be surprised if someone is depressed during pregnancy.' There is an assumption that (the pregnant woman) just blooms and it's important to recognise that might not be the case."
Though it has long been realized that up to 10% of women -- and 10% of men -- suffer from post natal depression there has been little research done on prenatal depression.
However, this latest piece of research suggests the severity and nature of depression are the same whether it occurs before or after a woman has given birth.
The study looked at over 9,000 women in the Avon area of the UK, whose babies were due between April 1 1991 and December 31 1992. Clinically approved scales for measuring depression were used to asses women at 18 weeks and 32 weeks into pregnancy, and eight weeks and eight months after their child was born. The researchers found the average scores recorded were higher during pregnancy than after the births. The proportion of women with probable depression was 11.8% at 18 weeks, rising to 13.5% at 32 weeks. That fell to 9.1% at eight weeks after the birth, and 8.1% at eight months.
This shows that antenatal depression is clearly as important as, and possibly more so, than postnatal depression.
In the paper, published in the British Medical Journal, the authors admit the women's assessment of whether they were depressed was not the same as a clinical diagnosis. But they add: "The consequences of antenatal depression are not well understood."
They say there may be benefits in screening and treating depression during pregnancy, though admit there are concerns about the widespread use of antidepressants. And they call for more work to be done on the consequences of antenatal depression for both mother and baby.
This is especially interesting in light of the fact that women's depression is now seen as stemming from the lack of support and clarity around her roles (see our Depression Health News Special:
Why Women Are More Depressed). If she works outside the home, she will have to decide how soon, if ever, to wrench herself away from her baby and return to work. Staying at home with the baby, although emotionally and biologically fulfilling, involves for the most part isolation from other adults and giving up the social and financial benefits of status and earning an income. The encroaching birth will certainly disrupt a household, which is probably already beset by the stresses that affect most nuclear families. Many already precarious relationships crash on the shoals of pregnancy and the anticipated additional demands of children. The involvement of grandparents to ease the stresses can create just the opposite effect if their relationship with one or both members of the couple is strained. In an overcrowded world, pregnancy may not be seen by the community as the blessing it used to be perceived as. One further, and most important,!
factor is the lack of female company and support that many women have both during and after pregnancy.
How different all this is from the experience of a real hunter-gatherer woman, who brings a new life to the entire tribe, and looks forward to the celebration and support of all the other members! AF
Read more on BBC News
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Rape Often Leads to Pregnancy
July 10, 2001
Quite a few studies have shown that women are more likely to become pregnant through intercourse with someone who is not their normal partner. In fact one recent study concluded that about 25% of all babies born to married couples were fathered by someone other than the husband.
Now a new study shows that rape may have evolved from an evolutionarily successful reproductive strategy. In fact a single act of rape may be more than twice as likely to make a woman pregnant as a single act of consensual sex.
That statistic could help to explain why men raping women has been so common throughout history and across cultures, according to two US researchers who presented work at the Human Behaviour and Evolution Conference in London, UK.
Previous studies found that rates of pregnancy resulting from rape could be anything up to 30 percent, compared to a two to four percent chance of getting pregnant from a single act of consensual sex. This led some biologists, notably Randy Thornhill from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, to parade the figures as evidence that rape is a natural way for men to spread their genes.
Jon Gottschall, a researcher at St Lawrence University in Canton, New York, says the studies failed to answer the crucial question: "What is the evolutionary success of rapists?" To find out, he and his wife Tiffany Gottschall examined the results of National Violence Against Women Survey, a study by the US National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The women studied were phoned at random and interviewed about their experiences.
The Gottschalls focused on 405 women who had suffered a single incidence of penile-vaginal rape at some point between the ages of 12 and 45. Of these, 6.4 per cent became pregnant. But that figure jumped to nearly eight per cent when the researchers allowed for the women who'd been using birth control.
It really does seem, according to the study's authors, that rape really does result in more pregnancies.
One possibility is that women feel more attractive and sexy when ovulating, and unconsciously give off signals that rapists might pick up -- although it's unclear whether men do in fact notice these signals. Another, more likely, explanation is that rapists target attractive and healthy-looking women -- both characteristics that can indicate fertility. But whatever the reason, say the researchers, none of this absolves the rapist or means the victim is in some way to blame.
One other question remains unanswered. For this form of rape to be a successful evolutionary strategy, the benefits of the crime have to outweigh the costs for the rapist. And the costs are extremely hard to judge. However, some surveys suggest that less than one per cent of rapists are convicted in the US, says Jon Gottschall. Even in traditional societies, a high proportion of rapists may have never been punished because of the costs to the victim of reporting the crime.
Rape may have been a successful and, in a sense perhaps, necessary evolutionary strategy at a time when hunter-gatherer bands were small and the danger of inbreeding was high. Rape then was more likely a case of the capture of females from another band and forcing them to 'marry' one of the men. Personally I think that modern rape has more to do with the need of some men for a sense of empowerment in a very disempowering society. BM
Read more in New Scientist
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About the Author
Dr Bob Murray is a widely published psychologist and expert on emotional health and optimal relationships. Together with his wife and long-term collaborator Alicia Fortinberry, he is founder of the highly successful Uplift Program, and author of Raising an Optimistic Child (McGraw-Hill, 2006) and Creating Optimism (McGraw-Hill, 2004).
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