Notices by Amy Diehl, Ph.D. (amydiehl@mstdn.social)

Patriarchy in action: The Epstein files showcase the private behavior of a male ruling class. They network, joke & trade info. Women on the periphery do the office & sexual housework: organize the men's calendars, arrange food, grace a table & provide sex. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/07/sex-and-snacks-but-no-seat-at-the-table-the-role-of-women-in-epsteins-sordid-mens-club

In 1933, Nazis burned the contents of the Institute for Sexual Science. Women's & gender studies are under attack today. But knowledge is tricky to control. When research is defunded & classes canceled, "people find other ways to share & make new knowledge."https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2026/02/06/can-embattled-womens-and-gender-studies-programs

US women are more likely to be murdered during pregnancy or soon after than the 3 leading obstetric causes of death: hypertensive disorders, hemorrhage, sepsis. From 2018 to 2021, pregnant women had a 37% higher firearm homicide rate than nonpregnant women. https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2026/02/firearm-homicide-rates-higher-among-pregnant-women-than-nonpregnant-women-study-shows/

SAVE Act would require birth cert or passport that matches voters legal name. 69M women may have a legal name that doesn’t match their birth cert. An estimated 21M would be turned away at polls. This act is an attempt to disenfranchise women voters.
https://www.thepersistent.com/this-bill-in-the-senate-could-disenfranchise-millions-of-women-voters/

Many routine procedures were designed for male anatomy & are uncomfortable or take longer in women. Colonoscopy. Urinary cauterization. Lumbar puncture. Spinal procedures. Airway management. Venous cannulation. Difficulty is often blamed on anxiety, tension, low pain tolerance, or "one of those things.". https://theconversation.com/routine-medical-procedures-can-feel-harder-for-women-heres-why-274041

While most women in the US & UK take husband's last name:
- Quebec: requires women to keep maiden name
- Italy: difficult to change last name
- France: maiden names are social & legal norm
- China, Vietnam, Korea, Ethiopia & Senegal: maiden names are norm
https://www.thepersistent.com/feminism-change-last-name-after-marriage/

Study (N=3,000) finds women more likely than men to say they did not know what AI’s impact on society writ large and question its benefits, particularly by expressing doubt that the technology would deliver meaningful economic gains.
https://news.northeastern.edu/2026/01/22/gender-differences-ai-risk-research/

In survey (N=2,000) 30% of UK women coaches had experienced bullying vs 15% of men. Perpetrators of harassment towards women was mostly other coaches; men: parents. Men are 2x as likely to hold full‑time coaching roles, while women are more often unpaid. https://www.bbc.com/sport/articles/cx2p5j8d10do

The unemployment rate for Black women rose from 5.4% in Jan 2025 to 7.3% at the end of 2025. "If we saw an unemployment rate for white men at the current rate it is for Black women, we would have already declared a recession." https://www.forbes.com/sites/hollycorbett/2026/01/14/women-made-up-nearly-all-the-job-losses-last-month-heres-why/

AI-generated porn is new tax on women’s presence online and in the public sphere, a tax that women must pay with their dignity. These tools affect women’s civil rights by making the public sphere hostile and intimately degrading to women at a massive scale. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/09/grok-undressing-women-children-us-action

Study finds women use gen AI less than men not due to gaps in skill, but bc they view it as harmful to mental health, employment, privacy & the environment. This is not misplaced: AI has significant energy demands and risks of bias and misinformation.
https://www.unite.ai/research-finds-women-use-generative-ai-less-due-to-moral-concerns/

Tennessee--consistently in the top 10 states for domestic violence homicides--created the first US registry to track repeat DV offenders. Savanna's Law: named for Savanna Puckett, killed by her ex-bf, who suffocated her dog & had a history of DV & stalking. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/03/tennessee-actually-just-did-something-amazing-for-women

Women are 4x to 8x more likely than men to suffer non-contact knee injuries. It could be from asymmetries in flexibility and muscle or from less training and support. We don't know. Only 6% sports medicine studies focus on women exclusively
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/health/article/female-body-strength-flexibility

Study of men who embodied a young woman in VR finds they felt disgust & anger when catcalled. Even those who were not catcalled felt fear: the situation of being a young woman alone at night in a subway station being enough to generate the sense of fear.
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-men-embodying-women-vr-strong.html

Irritable male syndrome is a state of hypersensitivity, anxiety, frustration and anger that’s associated with biochemical changes, hormonal fluctuations, stress and loss of male identity. It accelerates after age 40 due to testosterone decline.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/irritable-male-syndrome-ims-is-an-actual-condition-and-it-could-explain-a-lot-goog_l_69441b2be4b0fd459ef0514f

Globally women work longer and earn just 32% of men's earnings per hour (paid and unpaid labor) Even when unpaid domestic labour is not included, women only earn 61% of what men make. Women aged 15 to 64 work 10 hours more a week than men.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/dec/10/women-workplace-equality-gender-world-un-report

Menopause is a major neurological event in which the brain rewires itself. It is a coordinated shift in brain metabolism, connectivity & cognition—on a scale comparable to puberty. https://www.zmescience.com/feature-post/pieces/weve-been-getting-menopause-wrong-science-shows-its-a-second-puberty-for-the-brain/

Earlier this year Jane Evans ran an informal LinkedIn experiment: 2 women & 2 men, posted identical content at the same time. The women had a combined 154K followers, the men had only 9,389. Guess who got the highest reach? Yep, the men.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/nov/22/bro-boost-women-find-linkedin-traffic-drives-if-they-pretend-to-be-men

The school system is still built around a 1950s fantasy where one parent (i.e. the mom) is home and is available for non-instructional days off, midday pick-ups, early dismissals, and weeklong winter breaks. Most families don’t live that reality anymore.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91436785/school-calendar-wasnt-built-for-working-parents?utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin

The FDA blocked Addyi (female Viagra) out of concern that women might take the drug at night, then fall asleep driving kids to school the next day. Pharma exec Cindi Eckert spent $1M on a study that showed women drove better after taking Addyi likely bc they slept better. https://www.fastcompany.com/91439618/a-new-film-reveals-just-how-hard-it-was-to-make-the-female-viagra