In My Inbox

Here are brief summaries of a number of articles and reports in my inbox that are worth noting:

• Sex, Gender and Women's Health: Why Women Usually Come Last - while women live longer than men, they also spend more time in their lives in poor or compromised health. The Disease Control Priorities Project, funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently released this four-page summary of women's health issues globally.
• The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women on the Top 250 Films of 2007 - the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that in women were 15% of the individuals serving in key positions (like director, producer, writer, editor and cinematographer) on the top 250 films in 2007 (Spiderman 3, Shrek the 3rd, Knocked Up...) - a decline of 4 percentage points since 2001.
• The Financial Conditions of Women on Their Own - the Consumer Federation of American, in a report co-authored by OSU professor Catherine Montalto, recently reported that women on their own are often much worse off financially than Americans overall - the median household income of female-headed households, for example is $22,595 compared to $43,120 for all households (the report is based on 2004 data and doesn't even take into account the current economic condition). Women on their own are also tend to have less education, are less likely to own their own homes, and are less likely indicate that they "save regularly." CFA also reported previously that women were much more likely to be targets of subprime lending, even though women in general tend to have equal or higher credit scores when compared to men - as much as 41% more likely in fact. (Women Are Prime Targets for Subprime Lending, 2006).
  
• OSU researchers Randy Hodson and Lindsey Joyce Chamberlain were also co-authors (along with Martha Crowley, NC State and Daniel Tope, Florida State) of a study that examined the impact of organizational context on the levels and types of harassment women face in the workplace, and the results might surprise you. They found that women face the most harassment in workplaces where the proportion of men to women is fairly equal. (OSU Research News brief).