BITS & PIECES

Protesters Endangered

(HerSay)-Women who joined an anti-nuclear. protest at California's Lawrence Livermore. Laboratory last June wound up being housed in a building once used for experiments on radioactivity An estimated 700 women were held for two to three days, depending on the time of, their arrests, in a.

I TAKE

IT I'M UNDER ARREST?

નાન

peg avenu/purple gang / LNS gymnasium used for radiation experiments in the.. 1940's and '50's.

The Livermore Action Group is now assembling's task force to find out if the women's health was endangered by being housed in the gym. A study by the, Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1981 revealed the presence of plutonium in the building's water supply. However, recent test results reportedly showed no radiation in a water sample from the facility: Tests may still be run on dust and soil samples from the

area.

Singing Women

(HerSay)-Olivia Records, the California-based women's recording company, is celebrating its tenth anniversary on a grand scale-with a concert in. Carnegie Hall. The November 26 concert will feature Meg Christian and Cris Williamson, both long-time artists on the Olivia label. The concert will also be recorded and sold as a live album by Olivia in 19833 Olivia spokesperson Miriam Abrams said that

concert represents a "coming of age for wo he

music. It's going to give us the credibility and nation: wide recognition that women's music deserves, it's a celebration of the whole women's music industry that has grown up".

.

VDT Birth Defects

(HerSay)-Fresh evidence from Canada is fueling fears that the use of office computers could be linked to infant abnormalities.

The Coalition for the Medical Rights of Women · reports that a hospital employees' union in Van-couver has discovered that six recent pregnancies among its office workers who use computers have produced only one healthy baby. Two of the six women suffered miscarriages; another experienced a premature birth; a fourth gave birth to a child with bronchitis; and a fifth woman's child was born with a deformed foot. All six mothers operate video display terminals at a Vancouver hospital.

Women Gain at Polls

(HerSay)-The Moral Majority's traditional views of women's roles are not likely to prevail in the coming elections, according to two recent national polls. The Harris Poll, which surveyed public opinion in mid-July on a number of key points held dear by the conservative.right, found that the public opposed a constitutional amendment to ban legal abortions by 62.10.31 percent, a two-to-one margin. Despite the fact that the Equal Rights Amendment failed to gain. ratification in June, the poll found that 59 percent of Americans still favor its passage.

On workplace issues, the poll found a high 69 percent of those surveyed support affirmative action programs for women and minorities, as long as there are. no employment quotas. And by 51 to 45 percent, a majority opposed federal laws preventing family

planning clinics from giving contraceptives to teens without their parents' consent.

Pollster Louis Harris reports that these overwhelming responses "cast serious doubt" on claims by the Moral Majority that America has grown more conservative in the 1980's.

And a recent poll taken by George Gallup found that although many women would still like to stay home and have babies, just as many would like to have babies and go back to work. The poll showed a full 40 percent of the women queried regarded having both children and a job as their ideal lifestyle. Only 39 percent of the women idealized staying at home as full-time mothers. The percentage of women favoring the motherhood-plus-work combination has risen even faster than the actual percentage of women entering the work force.. Gallup concludes that women are going to continue leaving home.for the workplace "perhaps at an even greater rate than at present".

At Last-A Feminist Voting Bloc!

(HerSay)The first batch of 1982 state primaries spelled good news for feminists seeking office in November, according to the National Women's Political. Caucus. Of 17 women candidates endorsed by the Caucus, 12 won their parties' endorsements in primaries around the country. Those 12 winners are aiming at offices above the level of state legislator, such as Governor or Congressmember.

Women scoring major wins include Congressional candidates Lynn Cutler of lowa, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Laryann Willis and Ruth McFarland of Oregon, and Barbara Boxer of California.

Other victorious candidates in the June 8 primaries included Millicent Fenwick of New Jersey, who is seeking a Senate seat; Roxanne Conlin, running for

A Better Boss

(HerSay) Recent studies are confirming what women have been saying all along-that women make better bosses. A new report from the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation in New York found that women make better managers because they excel at understanding abstract ideas, observe better, and write more quickly than men do. In their report entitled The Potential of Women," Foundation researchers contend the results of their study of 250,000 men and women suggest that "theoretically, at least, there ought to be more women in management than men

Nurses Gain in NY

4

(HerSay)-Nurses in New York may soon be doing a lot more than empty bed pans and take patients' temperatures. New York State lawmakers are pondering a proposal that would allow specially trained registered nurses to diagnose and treat illnesses independent of a physician's direct supervision. The nurses would also be able to prescribe certain medications. If the proposed measure passes, nurses certified as practitioners will be able to open private medical practices as well.

Governor of lowa; May Jane Odell, who seeks to be Iowa's Secretary of State; and Ann Richards, a candidate for State Treasurer of Texas...

The Caucus chose candidates to endorse by rating them on a list of key feminist issues. Topping that list are support for the Equal Rights Amendment and for women's right to abortions.

Vive La Difference

(HerSay)-French President Francois Mitterand apparently believes that woman's place is in the government. The Socialist President has so far named six women to top cabinet posts, twice the number in the previous administration. He has also urged his party to put up women candidates for. 30 percent of the available posts in the coming regional. elections. Only 8.4 percent of the candidates in the last election were women.

DES Suspected

".

(HerSay)-Puerto Rican girls, some four years old, others as young as eight months, are reportedly developing breasts and ovarian cysts. Doctors writing in the British medical journal Lancet say one cause of what is being termed an "epidemic" may be food' contamination brought on by the use of steroids în meat production. The doctors say the most likely. culprit is the steroid DES, although the use of DES for fattening livestock was officially halted in the United States and its territories as of 1979.

0

One doctor reports that in the last three years, her clinic has treated more than 300 children undergoing premature sexual development. A doctor. at another facility. reports he is treating two or three such patients each week. About 20 percent of the girls are also developing the ovarian cysts. ~~~

Doctors in the U.S. prescribed DES to women in the 1950's as a means of preventing miscarriages. DES has since been linked to cancer in the daughters of these, women and to genital abnormalities in their sons. Recent evidence suggests these effects may also carry on into the following generation.

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Page 4/What She Wants/September, 1982