Phthalates are a class of ubiquitous environmental contaminants that cause health problems including reproductive disorders, asthma, and obesity. Advocacy against phthalates has been taking place in the US since the mid-1990s, and eight in-depth interviews were conducted with advocates and scientists in order to construct a history of this advocacy. There have been a variety of campaigns and victories; those around medical devices, children’s products, and personal care products are examined in detail. Phthalate exposure data for a representative sample of the US population indicates that exposure to DEP, DEHP, DnBP, and BBzP went down between 1999 and 2010. As these were the phthalates that had the largest volume of advocacy during the period researched, this decrease suggests that advocacy around specific phthalates is effective in reducing exposure and that more advocacy around phthalates, and potentially other harmful chemicals, could result in further decreased exposure and improved health in the US population. Additional research using more finely graded biomonitoring data would help deepen understanding about correlations between advocacy and phthalate exposure. In reviewing the health effects of phthalates, it was found that a disproportionate amount of the research is on male reproductive health effects, which is partially responsible for the fact that a disproportionate amount of phthalate advocacy is on heath effects relating to men, particularly male babies. Both phthalate science and advocacy sometimes treat women instrumentally, objectifying them or regarding them as incubators. To combat this, scientists could do more research on the health effects of phthalates on women and advocates could take more care not to neglect or instrumentalize women in their efforts to reduce phthalate exposure for all people.

<p>Sex chromosomes are useful for the study of how factors such as mutation, selection, recombination and effective population size affect diversity and divergence.</p><p>A comparison of gametologous introns in seven different bird species revealed a complete lack of diversity on the female-specific W chromosome. In contrast, Z had at least one segregating site in all examined species. This can be explained by the lower mutation rate and lower effective population size of W but also suggests that selection affects diversity levels on the non-recombining W chromosome.</p><p>In a diverse set of chicken breeds, the Z chromosome showed reduced diversity compared to autosomes and significant heterogeneity in levels of variation. High variance in male reproductive success, leading to a reduced Z chromosome effective population size, can partly explain this observation. In addition, we suggest that selective sweeps frequently act on the Z chromosome and are responsible for a significant part of the observed Z reduction. </p><p>Differences in the mutation rate of Z and W chromosome sequences indicate that the time spent in male germ line is important for the mutation rate, but does not exclude a specifically reduced mutation rate on the Z chromosome. Estimates of mutation rate in autosomal, Z- and W-linked chicken and turkey sequences indicate a slight reduction in the rate on Z. However, due to rate heterogeneity among introns this reduction is not significant and we cannot exclude male biased mutation as the single cause of rate variation between the chromosomal classes.</p><p>Analysis of indel mutation rates in avian and mammalian gametologous introns show frequent occurrence of indels on both W and Y, excluding meiotic recombination as the only source of this type of mutation. The different indel rate patterns in birds (Z>W) and mammals (X=Y) suggest that indels are caused by both replication and recombination.</p>

Sex chromosomes are useful for the study of how factors such as mutation, selection, recombination and effective population size affect diversity and divergence. A comparison of gametologous introns in seven different bird species revealed a complete lack of diversity on the female-specific W chromosome. In contrast, Z had at least one segregating site in all examined species. This can be explained by the lower mutation rate and lower effective population size of W but also suggests that selection affects diversity levels on the non-recombining W chromosome. In a diverse set of chicken breeds, the Z chromosome showed reduced diversity compared to autosomes and significant heterogeneity in levels of variation. High variance in male reproductive success, leading to a reduced Z chromosome effective population size, can partly explain this observation. In addition, we suggest that selective sweeps frequently act on the Z chromosome and are responsible for a significant part of the observed Z reduction. Differences in the mutation rate of Z and W chromosome sequences indicate that the time spent in male germ line is important for the mutation rate, but does not exclude a specifically reduced mutation rate on the Z chromosome. Estimates of mutation rate in autosomal, Z- and W-linked chicken and turkey sequences indicate a slight reduction in the rate on Z. However, due to rate heterogeneity among introns this reduction is not significant and we cannot exclude male biased mutation as the single cause of rate variation between the chromosomal classes. Analysis of indel mutation rates in avian and mammalian gametologous introns show frequent occurrence of indels on both W and Y, excluding meiotic recombination as the only source of this type of mutation. The different indel rate patterns in birds (Z&gt;W) and mammals (X=Y) suggest that indels are caused by both replication and recombination.

Whilst the number of women in the British Parliament increases in line with social progress towards gender equality, androcentric language use in the House of Commons prevails and perpetuates a harmful outdated hierarchical order of gender. The aims of this study are two-fold, (1) to gain insight into how androcentric occupational titles are used to negotiate the hierarchical structure of the Chamber, (2) to explore how MPs’ male bias is reflected by their use of androcentric generic nouns. From a gender perspective with the theoretical framework of feminist critical discourse analysis (CDA), this study analyses debates from the Hansard at Huddersfield Corpus. The analysis found that the term chairman can be used to ascribe rank as it contains an additional level of authority that the gender-neutral chair lacks. Through the use of androcentric generic nouns, the analysis uncovered how a male bias is internalised from various linguistic constructions such as conventional expressions and quotations that portray man as the norm. Stereotypical associations to denominators of professions, subject areas, and their hierarchical order determined by the hegemonic relationship between women and men were found to influence lexical choices. As a result of MPs’ use of androcentric generic nouns, non-male people are misrepresented and constrained by the implications of their connotated gendered meanings.

Feministische Rechtswissenschaft beschäftigt sich mit der Vergeschlechtlichung des Rechts und seiner Diskurse. Sie benennt und analysiert Ungleichheiten aufgrund des Geschlechts, die durch das Recht legitimiert oder hergestellt werden. Feministische Rechtswissenschaft setzt sich mit dem Potenzial von Recht als feministischem und emanzipatorischem Instrument auseinander. Anhand des ‚Dilemmas der Differenz‘ wird deutlich, wie ambivalent rechtliche Bemühungen um Gleichstellung ausfallen. Feministische Rechtswissenschaft knüpft an die Lebenswirklichkeiten von Frauen* an und ist in allen Rechtsgebieten – vom Verfassungsrecht über die Rechtsgeschichte bis hin zu Familien-, Arbeits- und Strafrecht – vertreten.

Frauen*rechte beschreiben Grund- und Menschenrechte, die für Frauen* und Mädchen* besonders relevant sind, wie beispielsweise das Recht auf politische Partizipation, auf Bildung, auf Gesundheit oder auf körperliche sowie sexuelle Integrität. Bemühungen um und die Konzeption von Frauen*rechten sind sowohl auf inter- als auch auf nationaler Ebene von Frauen*rechtsbewegungen beeinflusst. Trotz des strukturellen male bias des Rechts kennen sowohl das internationale Menschenrechtsregime als auch nationale Rechtsordnungen Gewaltschutzmechanismen, Geschlechterdiskriminierungsver- oder Gleichstellungsgebote. Kritik gegenüber Frauen*rechten wird aus kulturrelativistischen, universalistisch-feministischen, postkolonialen und queer-feministischen Perspektiven geübt.