Herstory

While age segregation holds little appeal for me, I can appreciate that aging is a women’s issue and the value of an all-women’s space so that women’s voices can be truly heard.  After all, women live longer than men and thus make up the majority of older adults.  Compared with men, older women are three times more likely to be widowed or living alone, almost twice as likely to be nursing home residents, spend more years and a larger percentage of their lifetime disabled, and are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty.  Women experience higher rates of domestic violence than men, and like women who are the majority of caregivers, women in these situations report higher levels of stress, depression, and other chronic health conditions. (http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/Aging_Statistics/Profile/2011/2.aspx & http://www.globalaging.org/agingwatch/cedaw/cedaw.pdf)  

As one of 20 Community Health Workers selected to participate in this month’s Women’s Health Leadership Institute (WHLI), hosted by Region IX Office on Women’s Health (OWH) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I appeared to be the only participant focused on older adults’ health.  For FY 2013, OWH priorities include enhancing access to information and health care resources that promote the safety and health of older women (aged 50+) in the areas of prevention and behavioral health, abuse in older adults or caregiving.  Check out OWH's publications on Healthy Aging and A Lifetime of Good Health. (Note: California’s Office of Women’s Health was eliminated as of July 1, 2012.)

Kay A. Strawder, JD, MSW, Regional Women's Health Coordinator, welcomes our Region IX cohort.  Our facilitators, Jenifer Metz and Sali Butler, are seated in corner.  (Photo courtesy of Carmen Ferlan, MPH, MIS)

Our training emphasized a systemic or ecological approach to public health problem-solving, addressing the root causes of health disparities, to prepare for our Community Action Project.  Instead of a superficial “blame the victim” for not taking personal responsibility—like Sheryl Sandberg’s belief that men still rule the world because women lack self-confidence so they need to “lean in”—an in-depth analysis of the problem might identify systemic factors, like institutionalized sexism, lack of access to child care and flexible work arrangements; see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/magazine/the-opt-out-generation-wants-back-in.html.

We participated in several activities to understand the context of advances in women’s rights (I was surprised to learn that “Nebraska is the first state to pass a law making it illegal for a man to rape his wife,” actually took place in my lifetime, in 1976, the U.S. bicentennial year), and to analyze women’s biographies (Dolores Huerta, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama) for stones (obstacles) and shovels (leadership skills used to move obstacles).  My personal choices for inspiring public figure women biographies would be Frances Perkins (U.S. Secretary of Labor during FDR administration, died at 85 years in 1965) and Vandana Shiva (60-year-old environmentalist).

During breaks, classmates led activities like hula (Wilma from Lanai, pictured above in photo courtesy of Carmen Ferlan; note, one male Jose on far left), salsa and merengue (Arletha from Oakland), creating flowers from pipe cleaners (Monissa from Saipan), body fat measurement and aerobics (Phyllis from Santa Clara).

WHLI training took place in the Federal Building, where I bumped into former colleagues at U.S. Department of Labor.  I had been one of the few female investigators, but didn’t pay much attention to this gender imbalance because I was so busy conducting field investigations and keeping current with the ever-changing benefits law (for example, check out how the recent repeal of DOMA impacts ERISA plans).  As an ERISA geek, Labor Day weekend meant celebrating the September 2, 1974 enactment of ERISA! I also paid more attention to traveling and eating, so perhaps I had succumbed to gender neutrality disorder . . .that is, until I began full-time studies in nutrition and gerontology, which are dominated by women!  Nonetheless, where the WHLI application asked, “what cultural group do you most identify with?” I responded “permaculture” instead of “woman.”

Participating in WHLI reminded me of attending “not an all-girls school without men, but an all-women’s college without boys.”  At women’s colleges, women have all the opportunities to rule, which does wonders for building confidence, breaking barriers and making herstory! Ready to break out into Helen Reddy’s “I am Woman, hear me roar!”

 

At the right place and time:  I worked as a proofreader at the College Relations Office, which gave me easy access to interview visitors like Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Ellen Goodman.  A women’s college graduate herself, Goodman discussed how the "values gap" based on traditional roles for men (high-powered career) and women (home, family) resulted in the Superwoman myth (women can have it all, only if they do it all by themselves) as women have had more success in getting into the male world, than in changing that world.  Here I appear as an awestruck teenager in the presence of Goodman with College Relations Director Susan Shea and College President Mary Metz.  Following her retirement in 2010, Goodman founded The Conversation Project about communicating end-of-life wishes.

I pay more attention to women's leadership.  The idea for University Mound Ladies Home (UMLH) came from Mary Staples, a philanthropist and wife of the man who helped San Francisco businessman James Lick prepare his will.  Founded in 1884, with a bequest from Lick, UMLH is a nonprofit, 74-room assisted living residence for older women.  It hosted the 6-week Healthier Living-Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, attended by residents and the public, but this month’s graduates were all women :-).  I love that UMLH has management and staff trained in gerontology! Check out this interview with SFSU gerontology instructor Pat McGinnis who talks about how quality of care is compromised in the for-profit model in assisted living at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/life-and-death-in-assisted-living/patricia-mcginnis-get-the-for-profit-model-out-of-senior-care/.  

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the publication of The Feminine Mystique, Equal Pay Act, and March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  USF Diversity Scholar Visiting Professor Clarence B. Jones (pictured above) said as a 32-year-old lawyer who assisted MLK, Jr. in drafting “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at the March on August 28, 1963, he never thought he’d live to be 82 years old.  He credited Mahalia Jackson (Queen of Gospel, who was 51 years old at the time) for calling out, “Tell them about the dream, Martin!” which prompted 34-year-old MLK, Jr. to depart from reading his prepared text to describe his dreams for freedom and equality.  This dream was partly realized with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex or national origin.”

Sisters Rize! video screening at Intersection for the Arts.  In August 2010, Sisters Rize! formed as a women’s group, within Central City SRO Collaborative, to create strong community bonds amongst women, learn new skills and organize actions to address problems in their neighborhoods and SROs.  Over a 12-week period, ten women used a digital flip camera to make video shorts about their lives.  

District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim (seated at left in front row) and Brenda Washington (on stage) whose “Now the Sunshine” documented her bout with cancer.  Other insightful videos were Sandy Manning's "Trying to make it in the world" (preparing breakfast in SRO), Sherrie Taylor's "Been there done that" (domestic violence), and Diane Hawkins' "Pigeons of San Francisco."  Sisters Rize! next project is to learn self-defense.  In the Tenderloin Housing Clinic’s 16 SRO hotels, men outnumber women almost four to one.  

Women lead in the aging field, like Senior & Disability Action Executive Director Jessica Lehman.    

DAAS Executive Director Anne Hinton speaks at SDA reunion in Rosa Parks Senior Center for graduates of Senior Survival School & Senior University.  SDA, DAAS and Coalition partners won a 2013 Aging Achievement Award for SRO Housing Advocacy by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a).

Juicye arrived at SDA reunion, announcing, “Am I Bad? It’s Michael Jackson’s 55^th birthday!”    Had Jackson lived to age 55, he would be eligible for additional “senior” discounts!

Contestants from this month’s Dahlia Show