3 Women 3 Ways

HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY – NOW FIGHT TILL YOU BLEED JUST TO SEE YOUR KIDS That’s what thousands of mothers will be doing this Sunday. Mothering is never easy, but for some moms, it means a gut wrenching battle with an ex-spouse, the courts, and child protective services, police, psychologists and guardians ad litem just to see their kids, even when the mother has done nothing wrong!  One law journal calls this tendency of the courts to give abusers custody “surprising” and an increasing trend (Saunders, 2010). But it happens. And even when abusers don’t get full custody, they routinely get visitation and moms have to worry about the safety of their kids. Joining us on this Mothers’ Day special program is Stacy Slaton, Owner of Divorce Planners, an organization that helps women divorcing domestic violence abusers. She not only helps other women facing custody and divorce battles with controlling men, but also fought her own battles with an ex and the courts for 15 years Join us as we find out what's going on with

Replay of 01/24/15 episode "AFTER PRISON: WHO'S THERE TO HELP?"

RAPE KITS BACKLOGGED ON SHELVES, RAPISTS FREE AS BIRDS. WHO’S DOING SOMETHING? We've all heard about the backlog of rape kits at crime facilities and police labs all across the country, and all the information locked in those kits that could be used to prosecute rapists and prevent them from raping again. The good news is that some states are actually tackling that backlog and making headway in those DNA tests - AND finding a lot of criminals. The bad news – huge backlogs still exist; it takes money to process this evidence; and some states are actually charging victims for processing and investigating via rape kits. Erika Teschke, Founder of RapeKitWA.org, started out as your everyday citizen until she read about the nationwide issue with untested rape kits.  Since then she has talked with leaders at all levels of the rape kit chain of custody in Wa State and with national organizations such as the Joyful Heart’s End The Backlog in order to help bring victim centered rape kit reform to her home state.  Rap

WHAT IS FETICIDE, WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH WOMEN’S HEALTH CARE, AND DID SOMEONE SET THE CLOCK BACK? Did you hear about the Indiana woman who had a miscarriage and was sent to jail for 40 years for “feticide?”  Or the woman, also in Indiana, who attempted to commit suicide while she was pregnant and spent a year in jail for harming the baby? These aren’t isolated cases, and they aren’t all happening in Indiana.  One study actually found hundreds of cases where women were arrested for doing something while pregnant that some official found harmful to their pregnancies.  So what does this mean for women around the country? And what about health care in general? Has health care reform and resultant hospital mergers have an impact on women, on pregnancies, on you? Join us Saturday as we talk with Rachel Berkson, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington Executive Director. Rachel has been Associate Director of Washington Community Action Network. the Executive Director of the SEIU Washington State Council, where her primary foc

WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD OF WOMEN? No one is better attuned to the situation of women in countries throughout the world than Rita Henley Jensen, founder and editor in chief of Women’s e-News, one of the most comprehensive and well-written publications covering women’s issues globally.  So if we want to get up-to-the-minute information about what’s happening, she is the one to talk with, and we are delighted to have Rita join us Saturday as we discuss the latest in women’s rights in general and specifically a growing phenomenon of the immigration of care givers, specifically mothers; what is becoming a universal challenge to abortion rights; and even the fuss in France over super thin models. Tune in Saturday at 11 am Pacific time to hear what she has to say and to ask questions about the problems for women in the world and what some people are doing about it.           Call-in with your comments to (646) 378-0430. And if you miss the live program, you can go to the website and listen to all our archiv

PARTY WITH CONSENT- A MOVEMENT TO HELP END CAMPUS SEXUAL ASSAULT Ever heard of “partying with consent?”  If you hang around a college campus, that’s the buzz phrase that means you don’t have sex without permission. Sounds easy, right?  But some people (like rapists) just aren’t getting it.  What’s the deal? Jonathan Kalin, founder of “Party with Consent,” started the movement to help end sexual assault on college campuses and health masculinities.  He admits that most of the efforts to help curb campus rape has led to confusion and a lot of frustration, and he’s identified three barriers to solving that problem. The idea that sexual assault is simply the result of miscommunication; the fact that there is a real communication problem surrounding sexual consent; and the contradiction of athletics. Jonathan travels the US to promote and explain the philosophy behind the Party with Consent movement. There’s no denying there is a serious sexual assault issue on campuses. Even the president launched a major cam

A PROTECTION ORDER FOR FIDO? THIS COULD BE BIG! People who know about domestic violence know how animals are often victims of abusers, and animals are often reasons women find it difficult to get away from an abusive situation.  If someone says they will kill the dog if you leave, you think twice about leaving. Rep. Liz Vazquez (R) of Alaska understands how domestic violence works. She knows abusers use every trick in the book, every controlling thing they can think of to keep their victims under their thumbs. That’s why she is sponsoring Alaska HB 147. The bill would allow courts to include animals in a protective order, which means that if the protection order is violated, there are consequences for the abuser just as if he violated a protection against the human being protected.  Think of the possibilities such a bill could have, not only for protecting pets, but also for helping victims and their children. Rep. Vazquez was born in New York, went to law school at Cornell, served as an administrative law

So is S &  M the new missionary position? With ity shades of Gray comfortably ensconced as mainstream do we think of handcuffs and riding crops with a nudge, nudge, wink, wink attitude? If a husand slaps a wife is it sexy or abusive? And when some religious folks say they have a spouse's permission to spank them in order to carry out God's direction for head of households, do we look at the hitting differently?  In other words, when is it abuse, when is it fun, and how do we tell the difference? Or do we need to? Two guests will join the show this week to "school" us in the fine art of telling the difference between hurting, loving, giving permission for pain, and how to tell whether we are all being hoodwinked into thinking we are stodgy and unsophisticated if we don’t associate pain with love. Monika Johnson Hostler is the Executive Director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NCCASA).  Monika worked at the local rape crisis center in Scotland County as the Crisis Intervention Coor

Join us as we talk with Margo Lindauer, author of "Damned if you do, damned if you don't: Why multi-court-involved battered mothers just can't win." As Lindauer states in her book, "Being a good mother is difficult. Being a good mother and a victim 1 of domestic violence 2 is even harder. The different and often competing expectations placed on battered mothers in the juvenile (child welfare), 3 civil/trial, 4 criminal, and family 5 court systems present a profound and befuddling problem. In this Article, I intend to identify the difficulty and uniqueness of being both a mother 6 and a victim of domestic violence, investigate the tension and conflict among different judicial systems, and proffer some suggestions for reform."    

What do animals do for us? Let's talk to the experts to find out.  Joining us is Dr. Kim Nicholas, a vet from Washington state, and Jenna Pringle, who specializes in pet adoption and placement.

WHERE HAS ALL THE HEALTH CARE GONE? Been to the doctor lately? Or was it a physician’s assistant? What about all those annual tests we were told we needed? Had any of those lately?  Been told you’re too old for a PAP test? What is going on in the world of doctors and patients and who makes all these decisions?  And how do these decisions affect women who have been traumatized or abused? So many changes, so many questions.  What can we expect in the new world of affordable care? If anyone can help us figure it out, it’s Lyle Larson, PhD, PA-C, Chief Physician Assistant, University of Washington Medical Center, and Teaching Associate, Division of Cardiology, Electrophysiology Section.  Lyle teaches, practices, and has worked with and edited several scholarly publications. He writes and lectures in the medical field, working with not only physicians and physicians’ assistants, but also with research and funding. With so much of the dialog about health care centering on cost and accessibility, it’s sometimes

POTATOE, POTAHTO- DOES IT REALLY MATTER HOW YOU SAY IT? Remember when we had firemen and man hole covers?  Think those days are over?  Well think again!  Language, words and what we say has all sorts of power; power that can influence social attitudes and even career expectations.  If you  thought the word war was won 30 years ago, think again. Rosalie Maggio is the award-winning author of over 20 books, including the 2-million-copy bestseller How to Say It; a French-language biography of daredevil Marie Marvingt; 2 children's books and hundreds of children's stories; one of the largest collections of women's quotations in print; how-to books like The Art of Talking to Anyone and The Art of Organizing Anything, and 4 books on biased language, including the just-published Unspinning the Spin: The Women's Media Center Guide to Fair and Accurate Language. Published by McGraw Hill, Prentice-Hall, Beacon, Morrow, and others, her books have been translated in Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Thai, Korean, and Arabic.

          You see red hearts, lace hearts, romantic messages and love in the air at this Valentines time of year. But after the lace and roses, most of us face the real every-day tasks of raising families and caring for our kids. Most governmental agencies have some focus on keeping people safe, and some focus exclusively on keeping children safe in our dangerous world. The coordinator for a Washington State coalition dedicated to educating folks about safety for children is our guest this Saturday. Kathleen Clary-Cooke is with Safe Kids Benton-Franklin Health District, an organization that provides staff, operation support and other resources to keeping kids safe. Based on the needs of the community, this coalition implements evidence-based programs, such as car-seat checkups, safety workshops and sports clinics, that help parents and caregivers prevent childhood injuries. Kathleen spent a number of years in the communications field before going to law school and keeping a private practice for a number of

AFTER PRISON: WHO’S THERE TO HELP? The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other nation, with a jail and prison population that increased from 200,000 to a staggering 2.3 million in the past 40 years.  But what happens to all those people after they serve their time and go back into their communities? Not surprisingly, the barriers to living after incarceration are staggering.  They face employment discrimination, denial of public benefits and food stamps for their families, exclusion from housing, and let’s not forget that even voting rights are taken away for some.  So what do we do to help make sure these folks don’t return to crime and are able to build their lives? An organization called “Root and Rebound” in California is helping former prisoners with social support, legal services, education, training, advocacy and litigation. Our guests this week are Katherine Katcher, founder and executive director of the program, who earned her law degree from UC Berkeley, and Sonja Tonnesen

You’ve seen the ads- a bruised and bloodied woman looks plaintively at the camera. Or a movie star plays the role of a battered woman being degraded and beaten. Or even a picture of a cemetery and mourners. All the images and audio are designed to let the watcher understand the seriousness of domestic violence. The ads can be shocking, even gut-wrenching. But what do those ads really do to help victims of domestic violence? Is the image being conveyed effective in either educating the public, or helping the victims? All good questions, and one academic has done studies to find out. Courtney Welton-Mitchell is the director of the Humanitarian Assistance Applied Research Group at the University of Denver. She earned her Ph.D. in Social Psychology in 2012, holds two M.A. degrees, in social psychology and mental health counseling, and is a licensed clinician . She will join us Saturday to talk about what her research showed when it comes to effective messages about DV. What is the message ads give about DV, wh

Court testimony from an “expert” hired by the Los Angeles School District, argued that a 9-year-old who was sexually assaulted at school didn’t experience any trauma from the event because she had a low IQ.  Really!  Does anyone really believe that?  Well, apparently some do.  What other misconceptions exist that minimize the damage done by trauma to people who are different from our ideal?  Can you imagine being a little girl who endured a horrible assault and then being told and treated as if it were no big deal? Well, we’re going to explore that topic and more with Brian D. Tallant, L.P.C., N.C.C.  Brian is a Program Director at Aurora Mental Health in Colorado and manages Intercept Center; a mental health outpatient and day treatment program for children who have a dual diagnosis of developmental disability and co-occurring mental health disorders.  He works with a number of disabled children who have experienced trauma of all sorts.  Join us Saturday at 11 am Pacific Time to learn more about childhood

A Missouri State Representative has proposed a bill that would require women to get a notarized signature (no forgeries, ladies!) from the father of the baby in order to get an abortion. Really- a permission slip!  And don't think you could wiggle your way out of the requirement for rape. A rape will only be exempted if it is a "legitimate" rape according to the representative.  His definition of legitimate?  It is reported to police and "proved." Otherwise, prepare to mother your attacker's child. And don't think domestic violence will excuse you from the proposed rules, either. the caring representative says that just because there is violence in the relationship doesn't mean the baby shouldn't be born. Well. Do you agree? Think this is reasonable legislation? Or are you outraged by this lattest attempt to chip away at abortion rights that have existed since the 1970's? Rev. Rebecca Turner, Executive Director of Faithaloud, join us to look at the Missouri legislation as well as other political attempts t

SUPERVISED VISITATION – THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UNREALISTIC If you’ve never known anyone who had some pretty rugged child custody battles, you may not know what supervised visitation is. In cases where the courts are reluctant to allow a parent to spend time with his or her children alone (maybe there are assault or domestic violence issues), the court will order the parent to use the services of a visitation supervisor. This person or organization arranges for the hand off of kids between one parent and another, or will go on the visit with the kids and the parent to be sure everything is all right. Sometimes the parent will have the visit right at a protective facility. Sounds like a great solution for situations where there could be some danger, right? Well, maybe. There are plenty of down sides, and like most things, there are consequences. Join us Saturday when Tracee Parker shares her knowledge about supervised visitation. She was the Program Director of the Safe Havens Visitation Center/Safe & So

Time to revisit a favorite past show.and this one is about tteatment programs for perpetrators of domestic vioence.  Does it really work? Listen and find out.

IS THIS WHAT WE CAN DO TO ELIMINATE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE? We are always asking ourselves what we can do to prevent or eliminate domestic violence (DV).  Could the Quincy Solution be the answer? It makes sense that ending DV requires a legal system that women can use readily to get help, and that takes full legal measures against abusers, right?  Seems reasonable, but for whatever reasons, it doesn’t often work that way.  The Quincy Solution comes from a 1987 study by a suburban Boston judicial district that actually researched what could help eliminate DV, and they based the Quincy Solution upon that research.  They found that in order to be effective against DV, the system had to empower victims and control abusers.  Easy to say, but how do we do that? Barry Goldstein, a nationally recognized domestic violence author, speaker and advocate will join us Saturday to talk about the Quincy Solution.  He has written several of the leading domestic violence books including Domestic Violence, Abuse and Child Custody