Amy Diehl, Ph.D.

Why do women live longer than men? A study offers clues to close the gap Women have an evolutionary advantage when it comes to living longer. They outlive men by about five years. This gender gap is true for many mammals, but a new study shows how human males could narrow ...

US life expectancy: men: 76; women: 81. Men tend to engage in riskier activities: smoking, drinking, drugs. They die at higher rates from melanoma as men's skin differs from women's, but also use less sunscreen. Only 12.3% of men always wear sunscreen.
www.npr.org/2025/10/06/n...

Americans remain wary of electing a female president, new poll reveals Four in 10 Americans say they know someone who would not vote for a woman president.

Poll (N=801) finds most voters support electing more women & say govt gets more done w/ women in office, but 1 in 5 say they or someone they are close to wouldn't elect a woman president. The old boys club & neg media portrayal were deterrents for women running. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Was prehistory a feminist paradise? Visions of matriarchal utopia may be wishful thinking, but there’s growing evidence of women wielding power

Gender power relations in prehistory is a matter of debate. If the female consort of a male ruler influenced his entourage through patronage and back channels, and his own policies through counselling, was she any less powerful than him?
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Why mothers are leaving the workforce The exodus translates to less income and financial stability for households.

The child care industry is 100K workers short of where it would be if fed funding continued. That's also driven up costs. When child care is too pricey or unavailable, mothers leave paying jobs to stay home.
www.axios.com/2025/10/02/w...

Why promising women's health companies die so often No matter how innovative, women’s health startups can’t overcome the system.

The fetal health monitor is based on 1960s tech. New tech fails to gain adoption due to low reimbursement for obstetrics (Medicaid pays $1K for 9 months prenatal care, labor & delivery; $1.6K for 1 HR of joint replacement)& regulatory rules favoring status quo. www.statnews.com/2025/10/02/w...

Nearly Half Of California’s AI Startups Still Have All-Male Boards A new study indicates that the power to steer the future of AI still remains predominantly in the hands of men.

Study of 141 AI companies finds 43% of private firms had all-male boards & women held 15% of board seats. 62% of smaller AI firms ($50M-$100M funding) had all-male boards. Only 3% of public AI companies had all-male boards & women held 29% of board seats.
www.forbes.com/sites/kimels...

Female vets fire back at Hegseth over claims of lowered military standards Federal law already prohibits gender-based standards for specific roles.

Federal law already prohibits separate physical standards for men and women in the same military role. "The women who serve — from pilots and logisticians to cyber experts and infantry officers — are the embodiment of this enhanced readiness."
www.axios.com/2025/10/01/h...

Opinion | American Women Are Leaving the Work Force. Why?

212,000 women left the work force between Jan and Aug 2025, while 44,000 men entered. The US govt is unconcerned, seeing men's employment as essential, but women’s employment as a nice to have, their job loss not constituting a serious obstacle.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...

Civil rights agency drops a key tool used to investigate workplace discrimination The U.S. civil rights agency responsible for enforcing worker rights will stop investigating complaints about company policies that don’t explicitly discriminate but may disproportionately harm certai...

Disparate impact: A policy can look fair but be discriminatory if it creates barriers for certain groups of people to succeed. Example: Amazon dropped an AI resume-scanning tool bc it favored men for tech roles. EEOC dropping enforcement. Not good.
apnews.com/article/trum...

Targeting Tylenol Is Just Another Excuse to Blame Women for Everything It's a longstanding tradition to blame all manner of social ills on women, without any basis in fact.

Women aren’t just blamed for everything, they’re conditioned to accept it. Poverty, crime (single moms), rape (short skirts, drinking), incels (women not dating unappealing men), divorce (women file the majority of cases) & anything w/ pregnancy & children. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Simple intervention significantly improved patent outcomes for women inventors While innovation is core to American identity, women inventors were named on only 13% of 2019 U.S. patents. In part, that's because women's patents are less likely to make it through the examination p...

Study (N=2,273) finds using senior patent examiners to give extra help & encouragement to female inventors who applied "pro se" (without help of an attorney) increased patent success by 12% and by 17% for first-time applicants.
phys.org/news/2025-09...

'Not a way to live': AI is fueling violent threats against women judges Florida judge Jennifer Johnson said that an AI video depicting her death terrified her children and highlighted security gaps for state judges.

AI has led to threats against public figures at all levels: “deepfake” images, videos, or audio manipulated to imitate a person’s likeness. Women are often targeted. Federal judges have legal & security protections but state judges often do not.
19thnews.org/2025/09/ai-w...

From the manosphere to tradwives - why are young women embracing traditional gender roles? New analysis of young Australians in 2010 and again in 2024 show women have become more supportive of stereotypical gender roles. Here’s what might be behind it.

Returning to traditional gender roles is mired in potential pitfalls for women, including lack of financial independence and vulnerability to abuse and control.
theconversation.com/from-the-man...

Bosses want people back in the office, but employees are finding a workaround—it's called 'coffee badging' Workers are showing up to the office when they're required, but that doesn't mean they're sticking around for the whole day.

Coffee badging: showing for required attendance but remote working the rest of the day. 58% of hybrid workers (N=2,000) do this; 62% men; 38% women. May benefit women w/ caretaking responsibilities as they can pick up kids at school & then work from home.
www.cnbc.com/2023/10/05/a...

Opinion | How Moms Got Caught in Trump’s Cross Hairs

There is a long history of blaming women who step out of their traditional role for creating many of the social problems of the day such as juvenile delinquency, the decline of the American home, and even child mortality and morbidity. And now autism.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/o...

How undermining and underfunding women directly affects men and boys - Alliance magazine A dangerous narrative is spreading across philanthropic and policy circles: that men and boys are being ‘left behind’ as women advance economically and politically. This zero-sum thinking has infected...

When women are underfunded, boys & men are hurt
- Boys grow up in trauma w/o DV shelters & mental health svcs
- Men face economic pressure when women lose income, healthcare, credit
- Economies contract when women can't get capital for business
www.alliancemagazine.org/blog/how-und...

Study tracking 700K Swedish students through age 30 finds girls who had more female peers in classrooms earned more and were more likely to enter higher-paying careers. Moving from a 45% to a 55% female cohort reduced the gender wage gap by 2.7%. www.durham.ac.uk/business/new...

From Nazi Germany to Trump’s America: why strongmen rely on women at home Fascist regimes pushed narratives of domestic bliss, yet relied on women’s unpaid labor. In the US today, ‘womanosphere’ influencers promote the same fantasies

In place of freedom, equality, power and choice, the Trump regime offers women flattery and a duplicitously simplistic worldview that denies their agency. Patriarchal politics hurt women, even those who participate.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Yes

Absolutely!!!

The Nightmare of Finding After-School Care in America ‘Am I going to have to quit my job? What am I going to do?’

In 2020, there were 7.8M kids in afterschool care & another 25M parents who wanted it. Many of these kids are on their own after school. The school schedule is not built for 2 working parents. Programs should be govt funded as the economy would benefit. time.com/7318911/afte...

Most men want a return to traditional gender roles, but women aren’t so sure A new 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll shows how men and women of every generation, including Gen Z, are divided over questions about who takes on which roles in the family.

Even though 6 in 10 men say they want a return to 'traditional gender roles', 2/3 of families can't afford it, needing two incomes for rent, utilities, food, kids, car, etc. And not to mention, many women enjoy contributing to society via paid employment. 19thnews.org/2025/09/poll...

Stop coaching women to 'lead like a man' Stop coaching women to 'lead like a man'. Here's what to do instead.

Have you ever been coached to be authoritative or master self-promotion or not be so emotional or avoid 'weak' language. If so you are being told to "lead like a man." Read my latest @fastcompany.com article on why this advice is misguided & what to do instead. www.fastcompany.com/91363032/sto...

Trump’s absurd Tylenol claims heighten the suffering of pregnant women in the US | Moira Donegan There is no evidence to support the president’s assertions about autism. But they exploit fears that already come with pregnancy

"Frightened women, scared both for the health of their pregnancies & for the ways they will be blamed if something goes awry…are met by charlatans, grifters & quacks who are happy to tell them lies in exchange for their attention & money"@moiradonegan.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

'Girls need to carry things too!': How women's pockets became so controversial Why do men's clothes have so many pockets, and women's so few? For centuries, the humble pocket has been a flashpoint in the gender divide of fashion. Is that finally set to change?

In 18th/19th century, tie-on pockets for women went away in favor of form-fitting clothes. Women lost autonomy, not being able to take valuables in public & depending on men. They began carrying small bags but still vulnerable w/o full use of their hands. www.bbc.com/culture/arti...

Unmasking Gender Disparities in Industry Payments to U.S. Surgeons: Royalty and Consulting Fees Across Surgical Subspecialties Research demonstrates persistent gender-based pay disparities among U.S. surgeons.We analyzed 2023 OpenPaymentsData.CMS.gov consulting and royalty (C/…

Study of 5,505 consulting & royalty payments by pharma & med device companies in 2023 to surgeons finds men received 87% of $23.9M in consulting fees. Median fees: $4,800 men vs $4,650 women. Only one woman received royalties vs 37 men ($299K vs. $6.66M).
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and ethnic minorities Large language models reflect biases that can lead to inferior healthcare advice to female, Black and Asian patients

Studies find medical AI tools powered by LLMs have a tendency to not reflect severity of symptoms for women patients & display less "empathy" toward Black and Asian patients. Many Drs are using LLMs & note taking apps to generate transcripts & summaries.
www.ft.com/content/128e...

AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and ethnic minorities Large language models reflect biases that can lead to inferior healthcare advice to female, Black and Asian patients

Studies find medical AI tools powered by LLMs have a tendency to not reflect severity of symptoms for women patients & display less "empathy" toward Black and Asian patients. Many Drs are using LLMs & note taking apps to generate transcripts & summaries.
www.ft.com/content/128e...

Impostor syndrome: the cost of being ‘superwoman’ at work and beyond Female leaders are under pressure to excel, professionally and personally, without showing weakness or strain. The emergence of neoliberal feminism helps explain why, and a milestone in psychology des...

For women “having it all” appears aspirational. But underneath is chronic exhaustion. Study finds women work late into the night not because it’s expected, but bc they feel they have to prove themselves. This self-imposed manager is a trick of the patriarchy. theconversation.com/impostor-syn...

4 decades after the landmark book ‘Alone in a Crowd,’ women in the trades still battle bias – a professor-turned-welder reflects Jean Reith Schroedel’s 1985 book captured the struggles and triumphs of tradeswomen. Forty years later, its lessons remain urgent.

Women are only 5% of skilled trades. Sexual harassment, stereotyping, ostracization & surveillance keep women from entering & staying. Sexual harassment is more likely when men see women as outsiders, women have less seniority & jobs are physically demanding. theconversation.com/4-decades-af...