NEW: The Color of Health Care: Diagnosing Bias in Doctors

A recent study by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and other Harvard University affiliates reveals evidence that quality of health care is linked to deeply-rooted internalized racial stereotyping. The study showed that doctors with subconscious racial biases were less likely to prescribe aggressive heart attack treatment for black patients than for white patients.

Researchers used the Implicit Association Test to determine doctors’ biases. Doctors were then given a case study of a man who entered the emergency room with severe chest pain. The patient was described as “white” to some doctors and as “black” to others. Doctors who were told that the patient was white were more likely to believe that he was having a heart attack than doctors who were told that the patient was black.


Click here to download the published study.

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NEW: Salary, Gender and the Social Cost of Haggling

A new study by Linda C. Babcock and Lei Lai from Carnegie Mellon University and Hannah Riley Bowles from the Kennedy School of Government may explain why women’s salaries are still lower than those of their male counterparts. Traditionally, the gender gap in salaries is considered to be the result of men’s aggressivity and women’s passivity. Therefore, according to this theory, women could close the pay gap through assertiveness training.

Babcock, Lai, and Bowles, however, found that the gender gap stems from differences in the way men and women negotiate. Findings indicated that there is a social risk involved in negotiating. The study showed that both men and women perceived women who asked for more as being “less nice” and subtly penalized these women. Men tended to penalize women who asked for more money, but did not penalize other men for doing the same. Women tended to penalize both men and women who negotiated.

Results of this study explain that the social risk of negotiating is higher for women than men; therefore, women are less likely to negotiate salaries because they will be perceived less favorably by their superiors.

Read the full article.

UPDATE: Ex-Surgeon General Says White House Hushed Him & Surgeon General Sees 4-Year Term as Compromised

Yesterday, former Surgeon General, Richard H. Carmona, testified to a Congressional panel that top Bush administration officials tried to prevent him from speaking out on public health issues they deemed controversial, including abstinence-only sex education, the emergency contraceptive Plan B, and mental and global health issues. He stated that any health information that did not align with the administration’s ideological or political agendas was excluded from or pushed to the fringes of his reports. For example, when Carmona wanted to speak out about scientific research supporting the benefits of teaching about both abstinence and contraceptives in schools, he was silenced. David Satcher and C. Everett Koop, also former Surgeon Generals, attended the hearing, and claimed that although these practices had become worse during the Bush era, previous administrations had also suppressed scientific information that conflicted with political and personal interests. Satcher reported that under the Clinton administration, he was refused permission to publish a report about sexuality and public health due to sensitivities surrounding the Lewinsky scandal. Koop stated that under the Regan administration, he had been dissuaded from confronting the AIDS crisis. For similar reasons, former FDA commissioner, Susan F. Wood, resigned in 2005 because of the administration’s delay tactics surrounding the approval of over-the-counter sales of the emergency contraceptive, Plan B.

Full Articles:
Ex-Surgeon General Says White House Hushed Him
Surgeon General Sees 4-Year Term as Compromised

UPDATE: HHS Hatchet Job on Comprehensive Sexuality Education Deceptive and Politically Motivated

“Today, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report attacking comprehensive sex education programs.” Eight programs were evaluated—7 revealed the positive impact of condom usage, and 2 revealed the positive impact of delaying sexual initiation. Most importantly, the report revealed that the information presented in the comprehensive sex education curricula is nearly 100% scientifically accurate and effective, despite the report’s original intent to discredit comprehensive sex education programs. The report, however, claims that these curricula do not provide sufficient emphasis on abstinence because the word ‘abstinence’ is used fewer times throughout the report than words like ‘condom’ and ‘contraception’. Martha Kempner, Vice President for Information at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), pointed out that counting words is not a reliable measure of what messages the students are actually learning.

Full Article:
HHS Hatchet Job on Comprehensive Sexuality Education Deceptive and Politically Motivated

UPDATE: Women-owned small businesses victorious in U.S. District Court; Numbers are on the rise

A Census Bureau study released today found that women-owned businesses grew 20 percent from 1997 to 2002. During that period, women-owned businesses grew at twice the national rate for all private companies and also outpaced the growth of firms owned by men. The report comes as the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce (USWCC) is celebrating a victory for women-owned small businesses around the country. In a case we have been following, the U.S. District Court recently ruled that the Small Business Administration had been “unreasonably” delaying the implementation of the Women’s Procurement Program, resulting in the loss of “billions of dollars in opportunities every year” for women business owners, according to USWCC CEO Margot Dorfman.

Full Article:
Women-Owned Businesses Grew at Twice the National Average, Census Bureau Reports

NEW: Check out NCRW's Research*for*Action Clearinghouse for Information on Judge Alito Confirmation Hearings

This URGENT ACTION edition of the Clearinghouse features the important work of our member centers and other advocacy groups on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, providing you with the tools to get involved, learn the issues, and make your voice heard!

NEW: Check out NCRW's Research*for*Action Clearinghouse for Information on Judge Alito Confirmation Hearings

NEW: Timeline shows years of delay by FDA on Plan B

NCRW has been following the FDA's delay in announcing a decision on the over-the-counter status of the emergency contraceptive Plan B. Recently, the GAO released a report on the "unusual" nature of the FDA's past decisions on the drug. Earlier this week, Mother Jones released a timeline providing a comprehensive outline of years of delay in decisions regarding emergency contraception.
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