Category - No 5

Science and the Attack on Women: Girls, Boys and Math

Seen in this light, sex role research is most easily explained as a social and political phenomenon, not a scientific one. Once again the scientific community has come forth with an apology for the status quo (in this case, male domination), and once again, it has done so with great success. There is no deliberate...

International Meeting of Radical Science Journals

The journals started meeting four years ago, for a very simple reason: we knew of each other's existence; we (sometimes) read each other's issues (when the language was not a barrier) and we were at least in part aware of the similarities and differences in our approaches. However, we knew very little of the reasons...

Nicaragua: Disability, After the Revolution

The disabled of Nicaragua have a collective history of which they can be proud. Many of them became disabled while fighting the dictatorship. A good many blind people used their disability as a disguise of innocence while smuggling messages and arms to the Sandinistas during the insurrection. They now have a...

Opinion: Born Again Creationism

It would be easy, but desperately wrong, merely to dismiss the creationist revival as a form of unreasoned stupidity. One may have contempt—indeed I do—for the TV preachers who fill their coffers by upholding Genesis against the world. But the growing audience for such appeals must have a reason for their allegiance...

Book Review: Birth Control and Controlling Birth & The Custom-Made Child

The nine sessions of the conference were each devoted to one topic. Following the format of the conference, the two volumes are divided into nine sections, each of which consists of short formal papers, responses to those papers and discussions. The first volume, Birth Control and Controlling Birth, covers the...

Women’s Health Book Collective: Women Empowering Women

The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, authors of the book Our Bodies, Ourselves, is just such a model. The collective has, in the last ten years, helped to radically change the consciousness of women of all classes about their bodies and their health, and has empowered women to take action for their health in...

The Safety Factor: Tampons — Looking Beyond Toxic Shock

On October 20, 1980, the Food and Drug Administration proposed a regulation requiring warning labels on all tampon packages, and notices on shelves in the market place where tampons are sold. Unfortunately they have not made it mandatory. The voluntary efforts of the manufacturers in warning the public on the hazards...

Attitudes Towards the Disabled: “Disabled Doesn’t Mean Unable”

Although negative attitudes towards the disabled constitute ominous barriers, changing those attitudes is not easy, and is not enough. Those attitudes have a long history and they are the consequence of economic and political decisions. Eliminating requirements to make transportation systems and buildings accessible...