Showing posts with label women. Show all posts
Showing posts with label women. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Smoking Causes Many Types Of Cancers In Women

The revelations about women smokers will give you a jolt. A woman loses, on an average, 15 years of her life whereas a man loses just over 13 years to a butt of cigarette. According to one study the number of male deaths due to smoking and related diseases like lung cancer is on the decrease, while in women it is on increase.

In the early 20th century, lung cancer in women was virtually unknown. Women rarely took to smoking. The Satan of tobacco industry began to target the women for their dirty profit game and they succeeded in their sinister campaigns. They picked up huge profits, by destroying the health of women.

In 1964, the Surgeon General woke up to tell you the startling facts in his report on Smoking and Health. By that time the smoking habit had engulfed over 45% of the women all over. The media campaign launched by the Health Authorities had the desired results, women began to beat the retreat in post haste and the profits of the industry began to fall. Men too gave up the smoking habit as a result of this campaign. But the marketing strategists of tobacco industry did not give up. Their marketing campaign was now directly addressed to women!

More suffering awaited women as the result of smoking. Lung cancer outdid breast cancer by 1987. As on date, more women die due to lung cancer, than the deaths due to uterine cancer and ovarian cancer put together! Women get lung cancer at young ages, and they are more prone to this malady than men!

What indeed are the sufferings the women have to undergo, before being cornered by the lung cancer finally? They will suffer chest pain, coughing up blood, weight loss and loss of appetite, frequent attacks of bronchitis or pneumonia, hoarseness, fever with unknown cause and breathing problems. The self-torture women have to undergo on account of the smoking habit is heart-breaking, before the actual heart attack.

It is unfortunate, the powers that are, mute to this ruthless killings, and the tobacco manufacturers are allowed to sell their deadly products by merely printing a warning on the package of the cigarettes, “Cigarette smoking is injurious to your health.”

There is another startling, and horrifying revelation by the researchers and scientists. Using birth control pills and smoking are the double tragedies for women- the risk of heart attacks in such women is very high.

It is safe to conclude with a general statement that smoking causes many types of cancers in women. Smoking is not only dangerous for women; it is more dangerous for the coming generation. The risks of stillbirths, premature births and miscarriages are high for the smoking woman. Smoking also hastens the aging process in women!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

What is Feminism?

Throughout history, women have always struggled to gain equality, respect, and the same rights as men. This has been difficult because of patriarchy, an ideology in which men are superior to women and have the right to rule women. This ideology has permeated the social structures of societies throughout the world and as a result, even in the new millennium, women are still struggling for rights that most men take for granted. The struggle was even more difficult for women of color because not only were they dealing with issues of sexism, but also racism. In order to fight patriarchy, feminism and feminist theory was born.

What is feminism? By general definition, feminism is a philosophy in which women and their contributions are valued. It is based on social, political and economical equality for women. Feminists can be anyone in the population, men, women, girl or boys.

Feminism can also be described as a movement or a revolution that includes women and men who wish the world to be equal without boundaries. These boundaries or blockades are better known as discrimination and biases against gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status and economic status. Everyone views the world with his or her own sense of gender and equality. Feminists view the world as being unequal. They wish to see the gender gap and the idea that men are superior to women decreased or even abolished. There are many different types of feminist theory and each has had a profound impact on women and gender studies.

The first is cultural feminism, which is the theory that there are fundamental personality differences between men and women, and those women’s differences are special. This theory supports the idea that there are biological differences between men and women and sexism can be overcome by embracing the “women’s way.”

The second type is individualist or libertarian feminist. This feminism is based upon libertarian philosophies, with the focus on autonomy, rights, liberty, independence, and diversity. Next, there is the radical feminism; this theory began during the Sixties. This ideology focuses on social change, and “attempts to draw lines between biologically – determined behavior and culturally- determined behavior” in order to free both men and women as much as possible from their previous narrow gender roles.

Finally, there is liberal feminism, a theory that focuses on the idea that all people are created equal and that education is the primary means to change discrimination.