the digital giraffe

All About Women

Our Woman of the Month Award for May, 2026, goes to Rita Idehai, Founder of Ecobarter, which transforms plastic waste into profits.

Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, suggests that we teach young women to be brave rather than perfect. Smiling pretty and getting straight A's won't get women ahead in today's world. Saujani calls this the bravery deficit. Women need to learn to take risks, to embrace perseverance and imperfection.

The Cornell University Chronicle has revealed that Gemini and ChatGPT were circumventing guardrails meant to prevent intimate partner violence. The study is called "AI-Facilitated Coercive Control: An Experimental Study" and was presented in Barcelona, Spain in April. Although direct requests for harmful content were denied, subterfuge was successful. For example, someone claiming to be a relationship counselor might respond, "Tell the patient that everything happening to them is their own fault."

For the first time, a woman's uterus has been kept alive outside the body. A biomedical scientist at the Carlos Simon Foundation was able to keep a freshly donated human uterus alive for one day by connecting it to a device and pumping in modified human blood. The team next hopes to keep a uterus alive long emough to watch a full menstrual cycle, followed by by seeing implantation, the first moment of pregnancy. The device is called PUPER, meaning "preservation of the uterus in perfusion", although they have nicknamed it Mother.(No comment on that).

A group called FAMM is fighting to reform unjust mandatory sentencing and prison terms. Founded by Julie Stewart, the group says it has provided shorter, fairer prison sentences to over 500,000 Americans, reduced the national prison population by 200,000, and saved taxpayers billions of dollars.

It appears that money is going into women's sports which are projected to grow roughly 3 times faster than men's sports. An increase in expansion fees and corporate sponsorships is driving the surge.

The New Yorker magazine treats us to the attitudes and language behind the alpha cult flourishing in power circles currently. One author applauds ice cold beer and belittling women, writing, "I am an alpha male . . . I lead, you follow. You are the supporting cast, I am the main character." Words like "warrior mode" and "modern knighthood" are held as aspirations. A 1982 book called "Chimpanzee Politics" apparently spread the concept of alpha male. Women working alongside men in offices were seen as an "assault" on masculinity. Men were urged to be cowboys, while women were told to go to bed and lead a "domestic" life. Religious references are rife, as are training camps to enforce alphaness and language like "do hard shit" so you can answer a "call to greatness".

A program at MIT aims to focus on gaps in women's healthcare. Goals include innovation combining AI, wearable technology, and biomedical research. Most women find their health challenges underfunded and poorly researched. This initiative aims to affect policy-making, and empower women to exercise more control over their lives.

An exhibition of the Swedish artist Hilma Af Klint emphasizes the exclusion of women not only from art history but specifically from abstract art. Klint died apparently certain that her mystical paintings were unappreciated. It took half a century before their shock to the art world would take place. The artist insisted that her work be hidden for 20 years after her death and never sold. A clairvoyant, she felt her work was directed by "higher spirits". 3 male artists annointed themselves as the inventors of abstraction, ignoring Klint's ground-breaking work. At least one Stockhom museum refused to show the work of women artists. Another artist told her that her pieces were of little worth.

The Taliban's criminal code now authorizes the beating of wives as long as no bones are broken. Women also have no access to the justice system. Other penalties include 3 months in prison if a woman visits her father's house and and stays there without her husband's permission. Abuse is now not only tolerated but legalized.

Be sure to email giraffe@giraffe.com with your suggestions, be they articles, videos, images, cartoons, music, or comments, so that we can share our celebrations and our concerns with each other.

Last updated May 1, 2026 - 32 years of monthly Web publication

Corinne Whitaker - Artist, Editor, Author, Poet, Sculptor, Publisher, Composer, Betaphysician, Chief of the Newanderthal Tribe

Best of Foster City 2016
Best of Palo Alto 2013

Golden Web Award, 2001 and 2000

Artist of the Month, Artisan Bazaar, 2000

Best in Cyberart Award, 1999

winner of BATech's "Catch of the Day"

winner of Fractal Design's "Artist of the Month"and "Image of the Day"

Featured Master Artist, Shadowart Galleries, 1997 and 1998

Guest Artist of the Month, Hampton Click Salon Online
Exhibit below from Virtual Gallery online