the digital giraffe

All About Women

Our Woman of the Month Award for September, 2025, goes to Alice Walton, Founder of a new medical school based on whole body wellness. Walton was recently honored as "a Titan on the 2025 TIME 100 Health List, which recognizes the 100 most influential individuals in health". (Thanks to YA for this.)

Jen Pawol has been named the first female umpire to referee a Major League baseball game during the regular season. Pawol received a standing ovation at a game between the Miami Marlins and the Atlanta Braves. Signs from the fans read, "Pawol making HERstory," and "the time has come for one & all to play ball". In the final match of the 3-game series, she stood behind home plate calling balls and strikes. In her 30-year career, Pawol has umpired in more than 1,200 minor -league games. The National Football League (NFL) hired its first female official 10 years ago, the NBA welcomed its first female basketball referee 28 years ago. The National Hockey League has yet to hire a female official.

Ms. Magazine reports on how rising prices and policy cuts are placing an increased burden on mothers and families. A significant gap is taking place between macroeconomic policy and everyday survival. Tariffs, promoted as a way to keep American jobs, actually become taxes on low-income consumers for necessities like food and diapers. Women especially bear the weight of these increases. Rollbacks of programs like SNAP and Medicaid can tip the scale from survival to crisis. Both higher costs and fewer resources result in women shouldering the major burden. Some few communities are offering unconditional cash from pregnancy through the child's first years of life. On the other hand, fears of being aggressively targeted by ICE in places like grocery stores and restaurants are forcing women to stay indoors away from schools, families and healthcare.

104 women are currently trapped in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in a mental health center called Qala, or the fortress. The facility sits behind a steel gate topped with barbed wire, a place that few visit and fewer still talk about. Some of the women are victims of domestic violence. Even if they escape it is impossible for them to lead independent lives, since they encounter limited education and closed economic opportunities. Some of the women have no phone, while their infrequent visitors are monitored by the Taliban government. The centre has seen a 7-fold increase in patients during the past 4 years. Outside the centre, young women are sometimes shackled at the ankles to prevent their running away from abusive homes.

A question arises about whether male nurses tend to earn more than their female counterparts. According to the American Journal of Nurses, men tend to earn roughly $10,000. more annually than women. Some determining factors: males often work overtime more than women; men are more willing than women to work at inpatient facilities, which pay more; men more frequently negotiate their salaries than do women; more men work in urban areas where the pay is larger; and more men than women accept on-call jobs. Suggestions are offered for how women nurses can achieve salary equality. (Thanks to CK for this.)

Hypatia Magazine was founded to celebrate the accomplishments of women in ocean and marine sciences. Its current issue features Bahraini scientist Reem Al-Mealla doing research in Great Britain and Madagascar on Arabic environmental terminology.

A program to keep immigrant children away from their parents has been intensively reinforced during the current administration. According to Mary Giovagnoli, the first ombudsperson for unaccompanied children at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the children have become political pawns in the war on deportation. Giovagnoli was fired after 4 months. She reports that children are now held in custody for over 200 days, while in April only 45 were returned to their parents. The other parents are denied access to their children. Additionally a multimillion dollar legal services contract to represent the children was suddenly canceled, then reinstated due to a court order. By then the damage to the children was irreparable.

The Getty Museum has produced a book about Vigee Le Brun, who became a painter in the Court of Louis XVI and painted Queen Marie -Antoinette. LeBrun's portraits were celebrated throughout French Society in the 18th century, resulting in her invitation to portray the 23-year-old Queen. The artist painted 2 portraits, one showing the Queen in the new style of comfortable muslin clothes, the other in her more formal attire. The first was greeted with outrage, calling it an example of the Queen in her underwear. Painter and subject appeared to share a congenial friendship. When political turmoil erupted in France, LeBrun fled the country along with her daughter. Soon thereafter the Queen was beheaded by revolutionaries. The artist continued painting until her death in 1842.
The Santa Barbara, Californis, Maritime Museum holds an annual conference called Girls in Ocean Science. The event features hands -on projects, discussions, and field trips, as well as advice from women role models who have succeeded in STEM fields. Subjects covered include whale conservation, shark ecology, ocean literacy, oceanography, commercial diving, and coastal ecology.

Sensitivity to chemical smells has long been dismissed by the medical establishment. Health problems like migraines, asthma, exhaustion and mood swings have been seen as psychosomatic.In fact, about 1/4 of American adults reveal some kind of chemical sensitivity. A living contrast to the disbelief is the scientist Claudia Miller, professor emeritus at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Miller points out that during the last 100 years, the U.S. has undergone a "chemical revolution", resulting in foreign chemicals that are making people very sick. The condition is called TILT, toxicant-induced loss of tolerance. One can lose tolerance after just one exposure or several smaller exposures. Unfortunately many doctors are still unaware of the prevalence and severity of the condition.

Chanel has teamed up with the Pinacoteca de São Paulo to begin a new annual residency for women artists. The selected artist will be given studio space, mentoring, and resources to expand her capabilities. The artist will also have access to 40 cultural institutions in 15 countries on 5 continents. Chanel is also supporting a new high-tech arts center at California Institute of Arts.

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Last updated July 1, 2025 - 31 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