the digital giraffe

All About Women
Our Persons of the Month Award for July, 2024, goes to the women and men of the New York "hush money" jury, for their courage, and for reminding us that "law-abiding" in a democracy applies to everyone. To paraphrase, "One small step for a courtroom. One giant leap for democracy."

A clan of African women called zumumta mata was formed in 1930, known also as sisters in times of surplus and of scarcity. Translated from Hausa as "fellowship of married women", the group began after a woman almost died during childbirth. The membership now numbers millions of women across northern Nigeria and includes both Muslim and Christian faiths. The women meet weekly as tensions in their country have escalated. Farmers and herdsmen are in conflict, the economy is stumbling, the climate crisis has accelerated, and overpopulation has occurred. The result is that even neighbors who have existed in harmony together for years are fighting. The women's fellowship cooks, helps with newborns, and other family traumas like death and divorce. In some areas the women gather to listen to gospel lessons over cell phones. They share recipes and ways to survive the raging inflation sweeping their nation. One group offers low-interest loans; another gives small amounts of cash to those in need.

An engineer at Meta has filed a lawsuit against the company claiming that female employees are regularly mistreated. He also alleges that less qualified men are hired and promoted over better-qualified females. Jeffrey Smith says that instead of being promoted, he was told to resign after he made management aware of the misogynistic practices at the company.

A young British barrister has just been given a prestigious legal award, becoming the first Sikh woman to win the Young Pro-Bono Award of the year. Tinessa Kaur had been thrown out of her home as a teenager and left homeless. Using her Sikh support network, she attended classes and became a Barrister, using her free time to help underserved communities.

Under a new law, the State of New York now requires that new mothers returning to work get break time to pump breast milk while at their job. The new mothers must now get one half hour of paid break time for up to 3 years after giving birth. Employers must make the new law clear to their employees and the law applies to both public and private workers. The break time cannot be subtracted from other meal or other breaks.

Across the world, there appears to be a shortage of women researchers, ranging from a low of 22% in Japan to a high of 52% in Portugal. Not only are gender diverse teams more productive, but women's participation influences what subjects are studied and what new inventions take place. From 2018 to 2022, the highest percentage of female researchers was found in nations with Hispanic and Latin backgrounds - Portugal, Spain, Argentina and Brazil. Additionally, for more than 20 years, fewer papers are being published involving women than men, and 3/4 of patent applications were filed by men.

Last month we reported on the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that Switzertland had been "woefully inadequate" in meeting emission reduction goals. The ruling came after senior women in Switzerland filed a lawsuit protesting their nation's violation of the "right to respect for private and family life". The Court's ruling extended to laws in 46 nations in Europe, including the U.K. The Swiss Parliament, however, has decided not to comply with the ruling, claiming that it already had sufficient guardrails in place to effect climate change. The Swiss are apparently resistant to "foreign judges" telling them what to do. A final decision from the Swiss government is expected in August.

A 105-year-old woman has just received her Master's degree at Stanford University. Virginia Hislop had finished the necesssary classwork in 1941 when World War II broke out but had not yet submitted her master's thesis. She went on to raise 2 children and served on both school and college Boards. Since Stanford no longer demands a thesis for Master of Arts in the Graduate School of Education, they said she had more than satisfied the degree requirements.

52 women are planning to make their voices heard at the Paris 2024 Olympics. These Games call themselves "#GenderEqualOlympics", meaning there will be a 50 - 50 gender composition among the athletes for the first time. But the protesting women are looking at the gender makeup of coaches: in Tokyo 17%, this year 25% of the coaches will be female. A Female Coaching Network was founded by Vicky Huyton, who points to "systemic" problems keeping women out of major competitions. The "mostly male" performance staff tends to select coaches they want to spend the month with. Motherhood also arises as a factor, which female coaches are better able to understand and incorporate into training routines.

A 104-year-old lobsterwoman in Maine claims that hard work is what has led to her longevity. Virginia Oliver has been catching lobsters since the age of 8, currently rising at 3 a.m. three times a week to head to the waters. In addition to catching, she also pilots the boat and helps operate the winch. Her family, she says, knows better than to try and stop her.

Two female scientists in India were instrumental in the success of the worlds's first 3D printed rocket launched into space. The women mentioned the savings in time and expense achived by 3D printing: rockets that usually take 12 weeks to build can now be made in 75 hours

A new program in Baltimore called Neighborhood Nursing is bringing free health checks out of the office and into the community. Right now they are making weekly visits to 3 apartment buildings in a predominantly Black neighborhood. By next year they hope to visit over 4,000 people in the metropolitan area. What makes this project so radical is that the services are offered to everyone, whether or not they have insurance, are sick or healthy, old or young, poor or wealthy.

It has been found that women may be more resilient than men in the face of the stresses of space exploration. Women also appear to return faster than men to normal once back on earth. The studies are preliminary, since far fewer women than men have been chosen as astronauts, but it seems that gene activity was disrupted more in men as well as immune responses.

Be sure to email giraffe@giraffe.com with your suggestions, be they articles, videos, images, cartoons, music, or comments, so that we can share our celebrations and our concerns with each other.

Last updated July 1, 2024 - 30 years of monthly Web publication

Corinne Whitaker - Artist, Editor, Author, Poet, Sculptor, Publisher, Composer, Betaphysician, Chief of the Newanderthal Tribe

Best of Foster City 2016
Best of Palo Alto 2013

Golden Web Award, 2001 and 2000

Artist of the Month, Artisan Bazaar, 2000

Best in Cyberart Award, 1999

winner of BATech's "Catch of the Day"

winner of Fractal Design's "Artist of the Month"and "Image of the Day"

Featured Master Artist, Shadowart Galleries, 1997 and 1998

Guest Artist of the Month, Hampton Click Salon Online
Exhibit below from Virtual Gallery online