1. Bronfen, E. Over Her Dead Body: Death, Femininity and the Aesthetic. New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1992.Google Scholar

2. Paglia, C. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.Google Scholar

3. De Beauvoir, S. The Second Sex [Trans HM Parshley]. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.Google Scholar

4. The United Nations Inter Regional Crime and Justice (UNICRI) council reports that the traditional male attitude is to view women as children to be “punished by men and submitted to their wills.” Repression of women is considered by men as a way of “protecting” them. This tendency has led to justification of violent practices based on gender. It is reinforced by the text of the law where it is said that “a woman must obey her husband,” thus, condoning domestic violence.

5. Landsberg, M. Brutality against women is the world's hidden shame. Toronto Star 1995;07 9: A–2. Female genital mutilation, common in about 30 African countries, illustrates the subordinate position of women and their exploitation by men. This inhuman practice ensures woman's virginity and destroys all sexual pleasure. It is the ultimate in men's control over women and gender discrimination. An estimated 85–114 million girls and young women in the world have had their genitals mutilated, hacked off with crude knives, in religionlike ceremonies. “When men are persecuted it is political; when it happens to women, it is cultural. The point is that women's genital mutilation is not cultural, it is religion-inspired hatred of women.”

6. See the lyrics of rap groups such as Public Enemy and Ice T.

7. Smith, R. And an old tune: men look, women display. New York Times 1995;07 9Google Scholar: H-30 The recent international art exhibition on the human body held in Venice was described by Roberta Smith as discriminatory against women: “Even though there were actually no more images of naked women than of men … it almost seemed that in the hands of a male European curator, a show about the body was simply an excuse to cart out a lot of images of naked girls. When naked men were displayed, their depictions tend[ed] to communicate more power and control than those of women.”

8. Statue of Liberty by Frederic August Bartholdi in New York Harbor.

9. Delacroix, E. “Standing on the rubble of a barricade, Delacroix's bare-breasted Marianne of the People, wearing the red hat of the sans-culottes, urges workers and students towards the indeterminate destination of revolutionary arcadia. Notre Dame de la Liberte is framed against the background of Notre Dame de Paris, already conquered for Freedom, the tricolor flying from its tower.” In: Schama, S. Citizens. A Chronicle of the French Revolution. New York: Random House, 1989. But Freedom is only to be exercised by men.Google Scholar

10. Distortion, the 1993 Andre Kertesz' painting links woman to hysteria, the quintessential female malady of the late 19th century. See also Chesler, P. Women and Madness. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Pub., 1972.Google Scholar

11. Wolf, N. Are opinions males? The New Republic 1993; Nov 29Google Scholar. Naomi Wolf argued that women are being left out of the public discourse and opinions because of passive but institutionalized discrimination on the part of newspaper editors or talk-show producers. General interest magazines, newspapers, and electronic forums tend to view public affairs as if they can be clothed exclusively in gray flannel suits and rely on an insular Rolodex of white men.

12. Holmes, HB, Purdy, LM, Eds. Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1992.Google Scholar See also Mahowald, MB. Women and Children in Health Care. An Unequal Majority. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.Google Scholar

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17. Marching to a million drummers. New York Times 1995;10. 16.Google Scholar

18. West, C. Why I'm marching on Washington. New York Times 1995;10 16.Google Scholar

19. Bennett, JC. Inclusion of women in clinical trials policies for population subgroups. New England Journal of Medicine 1993;329:288–91. Other barriers to the full participation of women in clinical trials include the fear of legal liability if a woman suspects that damage to a fetus or gamete was due to participation in a study, the need for easy recruitment, the availability of “convenient” subjects, and women's hormonal status that affect the results of laboratory tests and inferences about treatments.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

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23. See note 12. Mahowald. 1993;vii–x. One major study on the preventive effects of aspirin in treating coronary disease involved 22,000 men and not a single woman, although heart disease is more prevalent among women than men, and stroke accounts for a higher percentage of deaths among women than men at all stages of life. Another study on the role of estrogen in preventing heart disease involved only men.

24. DHHS, Food and Drug Administration. Guideline for the Study and Evaluation of Gender Differences in the Clinical Evaluation of Drugs. Washington, DC; 1993:39406–15.Google ScholarPubMed Despite the FDA guidelines and the newly formed National Task Force on AIDS Drug Development that urged companies conducting clinical trials to stop automatically excluding women “of childbearing potential,” the FDA has done nothing to reinforce its policy of inclusion of women in clinical trials. See Cohen, J. Science 1996; 271:438–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25. US health study to involve 160,000 women at 16 centers. New York Times 1993;05 31:A-21.Google Scholar

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27. The conceptual complex of “women and minorities” has become one single concept, making gender differences similar to differences in skin color or ethnicity. Even though gender discrimination is often exacerbated by discrimination based on race, age, class, or ethnicity, it generates specific (and unique) problems that are not comparable with other forms of discrimination. There could be reasons to question the validity of a research policy that addresses discrimination against women and minorities as one and the same problem. I focus essentially on gender discrimination.

28. Angell, M. Caring for women's health -what is the problem? New England Journal of Medicine 1993;329:271–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

29. Committee on the Ethical and Legal Issues Relating to the Inclusion of Women in Clinical Studies, Division of Health Sciences Policy, Institute of Medicine. Women and Health Research: Ethical and Legal Issues of Including Women in Clinical Studies, Vol 1. Mastroianny, AC, Faden, R, Federman, D, Eds. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1994.Google Scholar

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32. There have been few reported cases of death of women due to cerebral infarction secondary to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) after in vitro fertilization (IVF). The paucity of fatal outcomes of OHSS complications after “ovulation induction” is due to the “difficulties of collecting and reporting complications.” Inadequate information about risks leads clinicians to present treatment options in an undeservedly positive light and women may agree to treatment that they would reject if given more accurate outcome probabilities. There may indeed be more cases of stroke after OHSS; but if the cause of death is simply given as stroke, the link with OHSS might not be explicit. This situation has not improved despite reports by the US Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) in 1978 that only 10–20% of IVF procedures had been shown to be effective by controlled trials and OTA recommendations that “improvements are critically needed in the information base regarding safety and efficacy and the processes for its generation.” US Congress Office of Technology Assessment. Assessing the Efficacy and Safety of Medical Technologies. Washington, DC; US Government Printing Office, 1978:7.Google ScholarPubMed See, Shanner, L. Informed consent and inadequate medical information. Lancet 1995;346:251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

33. Sauer, MV, Paulson, RJ, Lobo, RA. Pregnancy in women 50 or more years of age: outcomes of 22 consecutively established pregnancies from oocyte donation. Fertility and Sterility 1995;64:111–5. Oocyte and embryo donation has made pregnancy possible in virtually any woman regardless of age. Having demonstrated that pregnancy rates are not affected adversely by age, the study also indicates a “complication rate of 47%” that includes multiple gestations, gestational hypertension, and gestational diabetes. The authors concluded, however, “to date there do not appear to be any medical reasons to exclude these women from attempting pregnancy related to age alone.”Google ScholarPubMed

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36. Norplant complaints: legitimate or concocted? New York Times 1995;07 11: F–12. Studies have found that women in several countries have had trouble getting Norplant taken out when they no longer want to use it.Google Scholar

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39. In/fire ethics. Newsletter of the International Network of Feminists Interested in Reproductive Health. 1995;4:1. One of the major concerns of the vaccines is that it may trigger autoimmune diseases such as lupus, disorders that occur more often in women than men. If the immune system is directed against reproductive components such as hormones, egg, or sperm cells, other components of the human body may look similar to the immune system and could cause other immune reactions.Google Scholar

40. Critics of the vaccines argued that there are already signs of abuse. A film by a German filmmaker shows women at a recruiting center in India being told that the vaccine is just another form of contraception that is safe and effective. See Calgary Herald 1995;06 3.Google Scholar

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42. Several states and Congress are considering proposals to institute mandatory HIV testing of all newborn babies. Testing of newborns is in reality testing of mothers. The House Committee on Commerce just defeated one attempt to impose such testing, the Tom Coburn Amendment to the Ryan White Care Act, which provides funding for AIDS services. The Newborn HIV Testing Amendment to the Ryan White Care Act (Save Babies and Stop the Spread of AIDS) would have “required all states, in order to be eligible for Ryan White Care grants, to enact legislation that every newborn be tested for HIV if the mother did not undergo prenatal testing.” Congress of the United States, House of Representatives, Washington, DC, 07 23, 1995.Google Scholar On July 7, 1995, the CDC also issued new guidelines urging “voluntary HIV testing for all pregnant women.” The CDC report stated that “because specific services must be offered to HIV-infected women to prevent perinatal transmission, the Public Health Service (PHS) is recommending routine HIV counseling and voluntary testing of all pregnant women so that interventions to improve the woman's health and the health of her infant can be offered in a timely and effective manner “The guidelines were prompted by studies outcomes (Act g076) that indicated that HIV transmission from mothers to offspring could be significantly reduced if the mothers were treated with AZT during the last two-thirds of pregnancy and treatment was provided in the early weeks of a baby's life. Critics of the measure argued that “there are several other potential treatments that are probably safer and may be more effective. The wide range of possibilities include the anti-HIV drug neviparine, HIVIG (concentrated HIV antibodies extracted from other people), vitamin A, and vaginal cleansing (lavage) just prior to birth. There are also studies suggesting that only women with relatively high HIV levels transmit the virus to their offspring. Pregnant women with high viral loads may be the only ones in need of therapy to prevent HIV transmission. Moreover, excessive use of AZT increases the likelihood of needlessly breeding AZT-resistant virus, making the drug useless to women when they might need it later on to ameliorate their own medical condition.” The focus on women as carriers of babies illustrates concerns for the babies, not for the mothers. Women with HIV could be forced to take AZT, thus, could be subject to coercive medical care without any protection against abuse of power by medical practitioners. Gilden, D. CDC recommends HIV testing for all pregnant women. Treatment Issues 1995;9(7/8):22–3.Google ScholarPubMed

43. Kolata, G. Discovery that AIDS can be prevented in babies raises debate on mandatory testing. New York Times 1994;11 3:B–14.Google Scholar

44. Uganda to host AIDS vaccine therapy trials. Science 1992;257:174.Google ScholarPubMed

45. Thailand to test controversial vaccine. Science 1994;266:1631.Google ScholarPubMed See also: Moore, J, Anderson, R. The WHO and why of HIV vaccine trials. Nature 1994;372:313–4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; and Koff, WC. The next steps toward a global AIDS vaccine. Science 1994;266:1335–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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47. Young girls are falling victims to networks running a global traffic in women to work as prostitutes. In Thailand there could be as many as 2 million women working as sex slaves, including an increasing number of children. There are also new networks shipping poor or dispossessed women from the former communist bloc. Women-United Nations: tradition no excuse for violence. Inter Press Service 1995;06 13.Google Scholar

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