Women

Some kids spend their summers swimming and paddling. Others hammering and drilling.

Bella and Kaylee are two of the leaders of Girls at Work. It’s a program for girls based in Manchester that teaches girls how to build everything from shelves to picnic tables using power tools.

Ona Judge isn’t a household name. Perhaps, in part, because she exemplifies our nation’s shameful past. Judge was Martha Washington’s slave -- her personal handmaid. For most of the 1790s, the President and his family lived in the nation’s capital of Philadelphia. Ona Judge occupied a room over the kitchen. 

That is, until dinnertime on May 21st, 1796, when she stepped outside and never looked back. Two days later, an ad appeared in the Philadelphia Gazette offering a ten dollar reward for her return.  

Today on Word of Mouth, we're digging in to the fraught relationship between the gear industry and gender with Outside/In. When do women actually need something different and when are companies just looking to make more money by selling women a product that is essentially the same thing... but smaller and pink? And what do you do if the available products - pink or not -  don't fit your body at all?

Today, we're looking skyward to explore the life of geologist Ursula Marvin, who used her exceptional ability to identify minerals to study asteroids. Planetary geology wasn't a field that welcomed women but Marvin never let that stop her. In the 1970s, she became the first woman to travel to Antarctica to hunt for meteorites. 

Also, another story from our continuing series on vanity plates.

We talk with author Keith O'Brien, who lives in New Hampshire, about his new book, Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds And Made Aviation History. The book takes us back almost a century ago, when a cadre of female pilots compete in the nation's wildly popular air races. 

O'Brien will be at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, NH on Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m. to discuss his book. Find more information here. 

Women are one of the fastest-growing demographics for outdoor recreation in New Hampshire.

The state Department of Fish & Game has encouraged that for more than 20 years with its “Becoming an Outdoors-Woman” program, or BOW. It helps the department make money and cut down on preventable rescues.

NHPR’s Annie Ropeik attended the winter BOW last weekend in Holderness, and found out it’s also about women helping women learn to fend for themselves. 

The Trump administration has vowed to roll back Obama's laws, but what does that mean for Title IX? On today’s show, we'll consider the future for the amendment now linking college and university funding to how they respond to sexual harassment and assault on campus.

Then, it can take months, even years, to plan a wedding...now imagine you have to do everything twice. Later in the show, a look inside gender segregated weddings in Iran, and how the single sex parties are boosting opportunities for creative women in the workforce.

Plus our semi-regular segment Overheard introduces you to sounds we think you need to hear.

The day after Donald Trump's inauguration, hundreds of thousands of women are expected to protest in the Capitol and in cities around the country, including New Hampshire.  But about forty percent of female voters chose Trump, and so more widespread unity may be an elusive cause. 

From intrepid explorers to hearty pioneers to Jack Kerouac's drug addled odyssey, the road trip is a staple of American literature and folklore. Stories of crossing the nation are allegories for freedom, expanding opportunities, and often escape.

The little known story of an African American woman crossing the country eight times during the 1930s and 40s is remarkable enough. The fact that Bessie Stringfield did it—alone—on a motorcycle is downright astonishing.

Bach, Beethoven, and Haydn are familiar names, but what about Caccini, Strozzi, and Maconchy? Today, we hear sounds and stories from the forgotten female composers of classical music.

Then, one sales strategy has stood the test of time, making the transition from 1950s house parties to digital media - multilevel marketing, or direct sales. But what might seem like an awkward annoyance is actually changing social dynamics for hundreds of thousands of women. 

It's known on the street as Ecstasy, MDX, or Molly, but MDMA is now being tested as a way to treat the millions of Americans who suffer from chronic PTSD. Today, one of the premier drivers of MDMA research brings his mission to fund clinical trials to New England.

Then, fans of Downton Abbey know that it takes a well-oiled domestic staff to keep a British estate looking pristine. We’re taking deeper look into the history of British servitude...and cleaning.

A new study finds that while Americans overall are a religious bunch compared to people in other developed countries. Among U.S. women, that commitment is especially high, whether it's attending worship services or daily prayer.  We'll look at this gender-gap, what might be behind it, and what it means for organized religion.

This weekend, arm wrestlers from around the country will compete in the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio. Both men and women will be competing, but for women, competitive arm wrestling is relatively new, and not without its challenges. New Hampshire’s Debbie Banaian will be competing in Ohio tomorrow, and she’s made it her mission to grow the women’s arm wrestling community in the Granite State. NHPR’s Peter Biello reports on Banaian’s efforts to recruit more women to the sport.

Most beauty pageants test the mettle of contestants in categories like the evening gown and swimsuit competition, the Mrs. America pageant has a history of judging contestants a bit differently. On today's show we'll look at the long and strange history of the pageant.

Then, when a garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed, the public cried out against sweatshop conditions and the deadly price of fast fashion - but fashion, it turns out, has been costing people their lives for a very long time.

Also today, #WheresRey? A dubious decision to bet against female action figures leads to an online backlash against toy companies.

For the first time in its 100 year history, Planned Parenthood has endorsed a candidate in a presidential primary: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton officially accepted the endorsement yesterday afternoon in Manchester. NHPR’s Natasha Haverty reports.

Over the last decade, high schools and universities have adopted programs encouraging female students to pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering and math, and there’s been a lot of talk about closing the gap.  But now, this divide is changing, with women dominating in some stem fields and men in others.  We’re getting the latest picture.

Guests:

The 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago is remembered for protests and violence, but one radical decision that came out of that convention has changed the nature of debate in this country. Today, how the face-offs between liberal Gore Vidal and conservative William F. Buckley turned television debates into a blood sport. We’ll also speak with a speechwriter for Mark Sanford, the South Carolina governor who added “hiking the Appalachian trail” to our lexicon. 

While some women leave their job when making the choice to become full-time mothers, experts say there is a wide range of other reasons that women aren’t holding on to jobs at the same rates they used to. This, despite the overall economic improvement of the last few years. We’re looking at some of the social, economic, and political factors that are keeping fewer women are in the labor force today.

Male-only swimming pools, too few bathrooms, inappropriate sexual comments: On today’s show the secret--and not so honorable--history of women in the U.S. Senate.

Then, common wisdom tells us that half of marriages end in divorce. Turns out, the oft-quoted number is wrong. We’ll debunk the pervasive divorce rate myth. And, we’ll take an unfiltered look at the state of family and maternity leave in America.

Listen to the full show and click Read more for individual segments.

While just as many females as males play, the gaming world has a reputation as a less-than-welcoming community for women, with some extreme harassment in a recent controversy dubbed Gamergate. We’ll look at the conversation since Gamergate, from why gaming culture has these elements, to the challenges women face in the tech industry.

GUESTS:

In her new book, author Helen Thorpe tells the tales of three female National Guard members, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Thorpe traces their stories: from their expectations joining the Guard before 9/11, to their experiences going off to war, and then troubles on the home front.

GUEST:

• Helen Thorpe - journalist and author from Denver, CO. Her most recent book is "Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War."

LINKS:

Over the past 25 years, the percentage of people with no religious affiliation has more than doubled, at the same time, the internet has been widely embraced. Coincidence? Today on Word of Mouth: does the internet spell the fall of religion? Or is it more of a correlation than a cause? Plus, we peruse the new release section of the bookstore and notice a trend, Catastrophe 1914, 1914: History in an Hour, 1914: Fight the Good Fight. A look into the downside of treating years as celebrities.

Listen to the full show and click Read more for individual segments

Happy Monday, everyone! Halfway through April and the nice weather is finally here. There's a little bit of every subject on today's Word of Mouth. We start with science, move to a look into women's history, and even have lesson in physical fitness before concluding with poetry. Put on your headphones and listen today's show, then join the discussion on our Facebook page!

Listen to the full show and click Read more for individual segments

In 2004, the Center for Women in Government released a report about women in top appointed positions in all 50 state governments. NH ranked last in percentage of such appointments. After a back and forth with Gov. Craig Benson’s office, NHPR's Raquel Maria Dillon reports, an updated survey then placed NH seventh. 

With two stubborn, diametrically opposed sides, the country’s abortion debate has moved very little in either direction since Roe v. Wade 40 years ago. While polls indicate most Americans do not support overturning the landmark supreme court decision to allow abortions, many do support some limitations on the procedure. And it’s in this direction that many state legislatures have swung recently, with a record number of restrictions passed since 2010.  While this trend is changing the landscape for abortion access in some parts of the country, New England continues to be an exception.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama lamented that women make 77 cents to every dollar a man makes. A new bill in New Hampshire looks to narrow that gap. However, disagreement remains about what’s behind the difference, whether it’s the choices that women make, outright discrimination, or a combination of these and other factors.

GUESTS:

This year marks the 50th anniversary of poet Sylvia Plath’s death by suicide, the singular lens through which many readers and academics have viewed her life, writing, and marriage. Now, a new generation is re-discovering Plath from a fresh perspective, one not colored by her sad and macabre death.