Category: English

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Ann Juliano, Professor of Law, Villanova University

Imagine you’re a server at a busy restaurant that requires you to wear a form-fitting, polyester shirt as part of the uniform. When a hot flash hits, you are a sweaty mess. You really wish your employer would let you wear a cotton T-shirt instead.

If you live in Philadelphia, relief is on the way.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, the city of Philadelphia will prohibit discrimination on the basis of menstruation, perimenopause and menopause, and it will require employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees for needs related to these conditions.

Perimenopause is the transitional period before menopause, marked by fluctuations in the hormones estrogen and progesterone. Menopause marks the end of the reproductive years, defined by not having a period for 12 consecutive months.

Both life stages are having a moment.

Social media is rife with influencers and life coaches selling supplements to relieve night sweats, clear brain fog and sustain libido. Many encourage strength training, walking with weighted vests, hormone replacement therapy and creatine, a compound that works to add muscle mass.

As a law professor at Villanova University, I teach and write about employment law and gender discrimination. I often focus on solutions to real-world problems for women and girls in the workplace.

Recently, I’ve taken up strength training, protein shakes and needlepoint. I’m clearly leaning into my identity as a woman over 50.

I believe the Philadelphia ordinance is a model for other cities and states to provide relief for workers suffering from symptoms of hormonal cycles and changes while balancing the needs of employers.

Following Rhode Island’s lead

Women’s health advocates have brought attention to the lack of training for medical professionals on the issues girls and women face resulting from menstruation, perimenopause and menopause.

In 2022, for example, a national survey of 145 OB-GYN residency program directors found that fewer than one-third of programs included curriculum on menopause. This is despite the fact that every single woman, if she lives long enough, will go through it.

While some progress has been made in the medical field, there has been even less when it comes to workplace protections.

To address this gap, in July 2025 Rhode Island became the first state to prohibit discrimination on the basis of menopause. Rhode Island also requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees experiencing menopause-related symptoms.

The Philadelphia City Council said: “Hold my weighted vest.”

In December 2025, the council amended the Philadelphia Code to prohibit discrimination on the basis of menstruation, perimenopause and menopause. For example, if an employer fires an employee because of heavy menstrual bleeding resulting in leaking, that would violate the new law.

In addition, the City Council amended Section 9-1128, which requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for needs related to pregnancy, childbirth or a related medical condition. That list now also includes “symptoms of menstruation, perimenopause or menopause” – provided the employee requests the accommodation and it does not cause an undue hardship for the employer.

Experts in medicine and public health and described the physical and emotional symptoms women and girls may face during these life stages. These symptoms include abdominal or pelvic cramping, fatigue, mood changes, headaches, irregular menstrual cycles, hot flashes, sleep disturbances and cognitive changes.

One expert noted that 23% of women who are experiencing perimenopause have symptoms severe enough to “.”

Employers will not have to accommodate every symptom, only those that “substantially interfere with an employee’s ability to perform one or more job functions.” Although the new ordinance does not define “susbtantially interfere,” the intent is to require accommodations when a worker cannot perform some part of her job – for instance, if period pain is so high that a retail worker cannot stand for their shift, or if hot flashes prevent a food service worker from staying in the kitchen.

Clear and explicit protections

In light of existing antidiscrimination laws, why is such a targeted law necessary?

Federal, state and local laws already prohibit employers in Philadelphia from discriminating because of sex. They also require employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions.

Federal, state and local laws also prohibit employers from discriminating against people with disabilities and require reasonable accommodations to allow them to perform the essential functions of the job.

But menopause and menstruation protections do not clearly fall within these protections.

There are a few cases across the country in which an employee successfully challenged their firing for a condition related to menstruation. But other employees have lost cases under federal law when courts ruled that menstruation is not covered by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act or Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

Further, people seeking protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act for menstruation complications such as endometriosis, which occurs when tissue grows outside of the uterus and often causes severe pain during menstrual cycles, face an uphill battle. Instead of requiring employees who experience these sorts of symptoms to fit their cases into other statutes, Philadelphia’s new ordinance makes protection clear and explicit.

Reasonable accommodations

During a hearing on the proposed legislation, council member Nina Ahmad, who introduced the bill, noted that the accommodations envisioned are not costly. She and other council members gave : access to bathrooms and drinking water, brief flexible breaks, breathable uniforms, temperature control to manage hot flashes, fans or ventilation, ability to layer clothing, stocked period products and brief scheduling flexibility.

The type of accommodations necessary will change depending on the employee’s industry. Many women who experience symptoms already can decide what they wear to work, when they take a bathroom break and maybe even whether to work remotely. However, for workers in retail and service, or other workplaces with strict break policies, the ability to request a bathroom break or to drink water during a shift could significantly ease symptoms.

Just as the accommodations required will differ by job and industry, the employer’s ability to demonstrate undue hardship will also differ. Under the Philadelphia Code, undue hardship is an individualized assessment that considers such factors as the cost of the accommodations, the size of the workforce and the employer’s financial resources.

The devil is in the details, of course, but come January 2027, relief should be on the way for workers who are just trying to do their jobs while suffering from symptoms caused by menstruation, perimenopause and menopause.

Read more of our stories about Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, or sign up for our Philadelphia newsletter on Substack.

Ann Juliano does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Workplace relief is coming for employees with symptoms of menstruation, perimenopause and menopause in Philly – https://theconversation.com/workplace-relief-is-coming-for-employees-with-symptoms-of-menstruation-perimenopause-and-menopause-in-philly-275189

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Jenna Vinson, Associate Professor of English, UMass Lowell

Bracket-busting upsets, Cinderella stories, OT buzzer beaters – March Madness is here! Or, as some urologists think of it, vasectomy promotion season.

Since 2004, urologists have been promoting vasectomies every March, promising patients who elect the procedure an excellent excuse to relax on the couch and watch college basketball.

There’s evidence that these “Vas Madness” promotional tactics – sometimes paired with food giveaways and cheeky swag – may be effective. At least one study has noted an increase in vasectomy rates in the U.S. during the month of March.

This spike in vasectomies illustrates how communication about this procedure – and its perceived relation to manhood – can make a substantive shift in public acceptance of contraceptive sterilization for men.

I am a scholar of rhetoric and gender studies, and I have been studying the language around vasectomies for years. In my forthcoming book, “Stop Saying Snip! The Rhetoric of Vasectomy,” which will be published in April 2026, I show that communication plays a significant role in prompting people to welcome, seek or avoid vasectomies. In fact, I’ve found that language about fertility and communication about contraception greatly influence all decision-making around preventing pregnancy, particularly who should bear the burden of it.

Gendered communication about contraception

For my book, I interviewed 17 people who rely on vasectomies to prevent pregnancies, and I asked them how they learned what a vasectomy was. Few knew for certain, and most did not remember at all.

This makes sense when you consider that information about this procedure is not routinely delivered to anyone. I have found that knowledge about vasectomies is not guaranteed to be covered through sex education in school, during annual doctor visits, through insurance coverage that encourages preventive health practices, or even in discussions with family and friends.

Rather, the rhetoric around preventing pregnancy places the onus of contraception on women. Throughout their lives, women receive messages from partners, parents, friends and medical providers that prompt them to think about their fertility and to take on the responsibility to manage that fertility. These messages subtly communicate that this is the most natural  or  normal way to prevent pregnancies.

In contrast, men do not often get this message that they should think about their fertility and take on the responsibility to manage that fertility. For example, men are rarely prompted to explain what they are doing to prevent pregnancies. One military father of two whom I interviewed for my book said that his primary care physician never discussed birth control with him at checkups. Yet each time his wife had a baby, her doctors would inquire whether she wanted to undergo tubal ligation, the sterilization procedure in which the fallopian tubes are cut.

Rhetoric, including questions providers do or don’t ask, plays a role in the unbalanced sterilization rates among men and women. According to a 2024 Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 25% of the women surveyed were sterilized, in contrast to just 11% of the men. And according to data from the National Survey of Family Growth, in 2022-2023, 6.8% of men age 18 to 49 had vasectomies, whereas during the same time period, 11.5% of women age 15 to 49 using contraception underwent sterilization.

In fact, female sterilization is the leading method of contraception used in the U.S., even though it is riskier and less cost-efficient than vasectomy.

Manhood in the English language of fertility

The very language that English speakers use to refer to men’s fertility can conflate reproductive capacity with a positive vision of being a man. This makes acceptance of vasectomy quite tricky.

In medical articles, men’s reproductive capacity is discussed as “fertility.” But more colloquially, English speakers often use very different terms, such as “potency” and “virility.”

Potency comes from the Latin word potentia, meaning “power.” In English, potency refers to “power,” the “ability to affect something,” “authority” and “influence.” It also refers to the “ability to achieve erection or ejaculation in sexual intercourse,” to which the Oxford English Dictionary adds, “Also: fertility (of a male or female).” I have yet to encounter literature or messaging involving a potent woman — other than, perhaps, to refer to her scent.

Men who can reproduce may also be referred to as “virile,” from the Latin vir, meaning “man”. This inscribes a sense of “manhood” into language about men’s fertility: The Oxford English Dictionary defines virility as “mature or fully developed manhood or masculine force,” and “the power of procreation; capacity for sexual intercourse.”

The multiple meanings of these words help to explain the misconception that vasectomy, in curtailing fertility, threatens a man’s ability to influence others, access power and perform sexually. In this way, rhetoric around men’s fertility can interfere with broad acceptance of vasectomy.

After all, undergoing a vasectomy does require a willingness to be vulnerable. It involves talking to a medical expert about your sexual and reproductive desires, allowing medical staff to see and touch your otherwise private parts, and following another’s orders for what to do. This includes returning to the doctor’s office with semen to be analyzed in order to determine if the procedure was a success – a step many men skip.

And vasectomy is a surgical procedure, so it also means facing some risk of harm, albeit small.

Taken altogether, undergoing a vasectomy means behaving in a way that may feel in direct opposition to dominant cultural understandings of being “a man” – someone potent, virile and always in control.

Broadening communication about vasectomies

“Vas Madness” promotional tactics are one of the few public campaigns about the procedure. Yet even after the “madness” is all said and done, women still tend to do the brunt of pregnancy prevention work, consuming pills, implanting intrauterine devices, receiving injections and undergoing tubal ligation surgery, while managing all the doctor’s appointments and side effects those methods entail.

In conducting my research, I found that women’s efforts to give their partners information about vasectomies and to share the burdens they bear in managing fertility are an important driving force in many men’s decisions to have the procedure.

One 35-year-old man I spoke with had been relying on his partner to use birth control methods to prevent pregnancy, including an IUD placement that went wrong and then a contraceptive implant. After research and discussion, they decided on a vasectomy to prevent pregnancies moving forward. The man told me that his partner is “very informed about medical things.” He continued: “Any sort of trepidation I had about it, it was very easy to talk to her about it and be like, ‘OK, this really isn’t that big of a deal at all.’”

But communication from more sources, beyond seasonal urologist campaigns and the individual efforts of romantic partners, could help inspire more people to see vasectomies as a normal, needed and helpful procedure to prevent pregnancy.

In the meantime, reproductive labor continues to be, overwhelmingly, women’s work.

Jenna Vinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. ‘Vas Madness’ shows the power of messaging on men’s contraceptive decisions – https://theconversation.com/vas-madness-shows-the-power-of-messaging-on-mens-contraceptive-decisions-278296

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Asian Studies, Penn State

I first heard the popular “Swasthani Vrata Katha” – a devotional text – recited in Sankhu, a village on the outskirts of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, some 25 years ago.

The text tells the story, or “katha,” of the ritual vow, or “vrata,” that women devotees perform to earn the favor of Swasthani, a local Nepali Hindu goddess.

Every day during the cold lunar month of January-February, 100 to 200 Hindu women, dressed all in red, carry out a ritual that requires them to bathe in the local river, eat only one meal per day, remain singularly focused and worship the Hindu god Shiva at midday. In the evening, they recite the devotional text or listen to it being recited.

This practice dates to the 16th century and continues today. Nepali families gather daily at their home or at a relative’s home to recite one of the 31 chapters of the text. The recitation is done even if no one in the family is participating in the ritual vow. Most devotees observe only a two-day ritual vow at the end of the month’s recitation, but some women perform the ritual vow for the whole month.

At the end of the month, devotees prepare a series of offerings to Swasthani for the concluding ritual. These include ritually specific cooked foods, fruit and flowers. After the ritual offerings are blessed by Swasthani, devotees give a portion to their husband. If there is no husband, then to their son. If there is no son, then to the son of a friend.

I have joined many families in their homes during my archival and ethnographic work over the past two decades. Like many Nepalis, I listened patiently to the Swasthani’s stories while waiting eagerly for the sweet treats that were given at the end of the nightly recitation.

As a scholar of gender and Hinduism in Nepal, I am aware of two readings of the text in Nepal: Some see it reinforcing patriarchal expectations, while many women find strength through the enduring hardships and perseverance of its female characters.

Stories in the text

The Swasthani text has a prominent place in Nepali culture. It is the only locally written work of Hindu literature that is actively read by lay Nepali Hindus. It is their primary source for key Hindu myths.

The first two-thirds of the text explain the creation of the universe and recount the most widely known myths associated with the supreme god Shiva. These are stories familiar to most Hindus.

For Nepalis, it is the last third of the text that is especially meaningful. Here, the focus shifts to the local and relatable stories of three mortals – Goma, Navaraj and Chandravati – and their devotion to the local Nepali Hindu goddess Swasthani.

Goma is married as a 7-year-old to a decrepit 70-year-old man. She dutifully endures marriage, motherhood and, too soon thereafter, widowhood. Her son, Navaraj, is obedient and dutiful. In contrast, his wife, Chandravati, is selfish as a daughter-in-law and disrespects Swasthani, leading to enormous misery for her.

Ultimately, all three experience social and economic transformation through devotion to Swasthani, which culminates in the crowning of Navaraj as a king and Chandravati and Goma becoming queen and queen mother, respectively.

Faithful wives – human and divine

Through its female characters, mortal and divine alike, the text highlights a woman’s principal role and identity as a faithful wife.

In addition to the pious, persevering Goma and flawed Chandravati in the mortal realm, in the divine realm there are the goddesses Sati and her reincarnation as Parvati. Both are known mainly for being devoted wives of Shiva. There are also wives of other lesser gods, semidivine beings and demons. They share in common unwavering devotion to their husbands but also regular subjection to the whims of their husbands or the gods.

Most notable of these other wives is Vrinda, the chaste wife of the demon Jalandhar. It is Vrinda’s chastity that protects her husband and prevents him from being killed by the gods for his brazen effort to seduce Shiva’s wife, Parvati.

To make Jalandhar vulnerable, the god Vishnu assumes Jalandhar’s form and debauches Vrinda. Her husband is immediately killed, and Vrinda is widowed through no fault of her own. She consequently commits sati, or self-immolation, on her husband’s funeral pyre – but curses Vishnu before doing so.

Patriarchy in Nepal

I have observed that in Nepal’s patriarchal culture, many women find strength in Goma’s plight and endurance. But that many Nepali feminists and youths question the treatment of women throughout the text.

Most Nepali women cannot inherit property and do not have equal citizenship rights. Child marriage remains a pervasive practice across Nepal and often results in girls dropping out of school to take on household responsibilities. According to the United Nations, one in three girls are married off before turning 18. Despite updates in Nepal’s 2015 constitution designed to remove gender discrimination, there remains a significant gap between the law and everyday lived experiences.

Marriage in Nepal is widely seen as “a woman’s destiny” and often gives the husband and his family “full authority to rule over a woman,” explains Luna KC, a scholar of global and international studies and gender studies. It is customary practice in Nepal and across South Asia for married couples to reside with the husband’s parents. As anthropologist Lynn Bennett and other researchers have demonstrated, this can be traumatic for the bride, who must leave her family and support system.

These dynamics play out in the Swasthani text and in current debates about its role in contemporary Nepali society.

Critics argue that the stories instill and normalize antiquated ideas and practices that reinforce gender inequality and impede women’s full participation in society and access to equal rights. “Our child marriage is based on this type of story,” according to a gender and human rights advocate I interviewed.

Rameshwori Pant, an independent researcher and journalist, echoes this when she describes how Goma’s story “haunted” her as a child because Pant’s own mother had also been married at age 7.

Finding hope in the text

Families often have centuries-old handwritten Swasthani manuscripts that are now family heirlooms. Increasingly, many also have a newly store-bought version. With their distinctive red wraparound cover, stacks of the printed Swasthani text stand out at local bookshops leading up to the annual recitation.

For many Nepali women, the Swasthani stories they learned as young girls linger and endure into their adulthood in complicated ways. As an adult, Pant was moved to write about the sociological, economic and gender aspects of the Swasthani practice. She asks, “Why is there violence against women and gender discrimination in a story written to celebrate women?”

Through my formal interviews and informal conversations over the years with Nepali women and devotees, it is also clear that many women find fortitude in the text’s description of familiar trials the women and goddesses face.

From this perspective, the Swasthani stories teach women that through perseverance, their hardships turn into triumphs and women’s suffering turns into strength. Goma is regularly invoked in popular discourse for her determination as a dutiful child bride, wife and mother who persists in the face of repeated adversity and ongoing lack of resources. These are the daily realities for many Nepali women living in a patriarchal society.

So while the text may not advocate for women’s social, economic or legal autonomy, it still offers encouragement: For some women, it provides a road map for working through life’s difficulties. This, too, can be empowering.

As a Nepali female lawyer explained to me: “The stories of the Swasthani have different life lessons to follow and apply. Just as the Buddha suffered and in the end found enlightenment, so, too, the Swasthani characters suffered but in the end found happiness.”

Staying power in modern times

I see and value both sides of the debates. They reflect the varied experiences, perspectives and concerns among Nepal’s diverse population. They also reflect the challenges of translating ancient and medieval beliefs and practices in the modern period.

What is striking is the text’s staying power. Its stories are centuries old – yet they are recited by many Nepalis every winter, even as the daily recitation now competes with many modern distractions, such as smartphones and social media.

The text remains an important piece of local Nepali heritage and culture. It offers a window into Nepal’s past, while also prompting reflections on Nepali values for the future.

Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. What an ancient devotional text means for the women of Nepal – https://theconversation.com/what-an-ancient-devotional-text-means-for-the-women-of-nepal-273901

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Anne P. DePrince, Professor of Psychology, University of Denver

Multiple women told The New York Times that Mexican American civil rights hero Cesar Chavez assaulted them decades ago, including when some were just girls, one as young as 13. Over their multiyear investigation, published on March 18, 2026, journalists at the paper found “extensive evidence” of that abuse by poring over historical records and conducting interviews with more than 60 people.

While yearslong investigations into abuse allegations are rare, silence about abuse is common.

As a clinical psychologist who studies interpersonal trauma, I’ve seen how the dynamics of abuse can lead to silence, even over decades.

This research can help answer the question many asked when they heard about the charges against Chavez: Why didn’t the women speak earlier?

Power and trust betrayed

Among the women who disclosed abuse by Chavez, Dolores Huerta described seeing him “as my boss, as my hero, as, you know, somebody that would do the impossible.” Debra Rojas said, “I had love for him … He did his grooming very well.”

When perpetrators abuse those who trust and depend on them, the betrayal adds to the harm of trauma. Betrayal trauma theory helps explain why.

Victims who depend on the people abusing them face extraordinary pressure to minimize what is happening. Disclosure can mean losing relationships or resources that are necessary for survival. Children abused by caregivers or community leaders risk relationships that they need to get their basic needs met. Adults who disclose abuse or harassment by employers risk losing their jobs and economic security.

Adding to the harm of abuse, perpetrators commonly twist reality to keep victims silent. They might directly instruct victims not to tell others what happened. They might also tell victims that they are actually the ones to blame for causing the abuse or that no one will believe them.

Victims must adapt to this untenable situation in which they depend on the very people causing harm.

For some people, betrayal results in dissociation symptoms and memory impairment for what happened. Dissociation is a common response to traumatic stress that can include amnesia, feelings that things are unreal or feeling disconnected from what is happening. Dissociation and memory impairment can help victims maintain necessary attachments in the short run.

Betrayal also contributes to more shame and self-blame, as well as more severe psychological and physical health problems.

Shame and self-blame can make it harder to disclose what happened. Not surprising, then, victims of high-betrayal traumas are less likely to disclose what happened relative to other kinds of traumas.

When betrayal-trauma survivors do speak up, delayed disclosures can be met with blame or disbelief, even from health providers. Survivors with more severe psychological symptoms are also met with more negative reactions to their disclosures.

Betrayal also makes escaping abusive relationships, including physically violent ones, difficult. Greater dependence on the perpetrator has been linked with a greater likelihood of staying with an abusive partner a year after a police report of domestic violence.

Cultural and institutional betrayal add to harm

Women told The New York Times that they stayed silent about their abuse, which for some began when they were girls, in part “for fear of tarnishing the image of a man who has become the face of the Latino civil rights movement.”

When people in marginalized groups are abused by someone from the same group, that constitutes an additional wound. Dr. Jennifer Gómez described this as “cultural betrayal trauma.”

With cultural betrayal trauma comes even greater pressure to stay silent as well as greater harm from the abuse.

When institutions such as churches, schools or unions fail to stop abuse or respond appropriately, that institutional betrayal can also add to the harm caused by the original abuse. In turn, institutional betrayal predicts greater dissociation and health problems, adding to the burden of abuse.

Anticipating disbelief and blame

Ana Murguia told The New York Times that she believed she would be blamed for the abuse.

Huerta, who was one of three co-founders, along with Chavez, of what ultimately became the United Farm Workers union, told the newspaper that she “feared that no one within the union would believe her.”

Anticipating disbelief and blame affects decisions to disclose. When researchers asked college women who were sexually victimized at some point in their lives why they kept what happened to themselves, they heard four common reasons. Women kept assaults private because they felt shame, guilt or embarrassment, minimized what happened, feared consequences of disclosing or wanted privacy.

Fears about negative reactions are unfortunately well founded. Research shows that when victims do disclose, victim blaming and other negative reactions are common. In turn, those negative social reactions add to psychological distress and the harm of abuse.

Connection and courage: Antidotes to betrayal

In the wake of the harm that betrayal trauma causes, healing is possible through connection and care.

Research shows that people can learn to respond in better ways to disclosures of abuse, such as connecting people to resources and expressing empathy. In addition, institutions that act with courage in the wake of abuse, such as by making it easy to report or taking actions to prevent future abuse, can help reduce harm to survivors.

When survivors disclose, avoiding blame, disbelief and other negative reactions can minimize additional harm. Taking steps to offer emotional support and resources can even help open doors.

That’s what my research team found when we asked sexual assault survivors about the reactions they received from service providers, such as counselors or victim advocates. When survivors received more tangible support, they were more likely to later disclose what happened in a formal report to the police.

Anne P. DePrince has received funding from the Department of Justice, National Institutes of Health, State of Colorado, and University of Denver. She has received honoraria for giving presentations and has been paid as a consultant. She has a book with Oxford University Press. She is an Advisory Group Member of the National Crime Victim Law Institute and a Senior Advisor to the Center for Institutional Courage.

– ref. Psychological toll of betrayal trauma may help explain why women kept silent for decades after alleged abuse by civil rights icon Cesar Chavez – https://theconversation.com/psychological-toll-of-betrayal-trauma-may-help-explain-why-women-kept-silent-for-decades-after-alleged-abuse-by-civil-rights-icon-cesar-chavez-278950