Thought leaders in the news

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U.S. Women's soccer team win a statement on inequality in sports

Janine Lanza, an associate professor in the Department of History and director of the Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies Program, wrote an opinion piece about the growing influence of women in sports. “Women historically had few opportunities to engage in sports, whether at the amateur or professional levels. The opening up of opportunities for girls and women was the product of a long and often controversial campaign. When Katherine Switzer defied the ban on women running the Boston Marathon in 1975 organizers attempted to physically remove her from the course. The real game changer for female athletics was the passage of Title IX in 1972. Part of a broader educational reform bill, this section guaranteed equal funding for male and female sporting activities at all levels of education. Before this legislation, few girls played sports in school, and those who did were underfunded and ignored. The passage of that legislation created skyrocketing numbers of girls and women who participated in sports at all levels. In 1972 only 1 in 27 girls played any sport in school. By 2000 that number was 1 in 3. On the level of Olympic and other national sports organizations, only after the passage of the 1978 Amateur Sports Act did women’s sports get funding and representation in national sports organizations. Since the passage of that law, female athletes have had a much larger presence, and greater success, in international athletic competitions. But women and girls continue to struggle for support and equality with male athletes.”
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How much should we know about a CEO's health?

At the end of a marathon day in Balocco, Italy, in June, Sergio Marchionne was still going strong. Marchionne, the CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, died less than two months later. In the days after his death, the Swiss hospital where he died said Marchionne had been treated over the previous year for an undisclosed serious illness, and questions were being raised about what company officials knew. But if the FCA board knew of Marchionne's struggles — and that's not a certainty — is there a requirement to share more? Professor Sudip Datta, finance department chair at Wayne State University's Mike Ilitch School of Business, said the issue goes to privacy. "There's no requirement per se about disclosing the health of the CEO to investors," Datta said, "Just because someone is a CEO, it doesn't mean someone checks all his privacy at the door." The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission "doesn’t say you have to disclose the private lives of the CEO or for that matter any employee," Datta said.

Fighting with your spouse can make chronic conditions worse

If you’re living with a chronic illness—as half of all Americans are—then you may want to check any unnecessary bickering. According to a recent study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, the only thing worse than living with a chronic condition is fighting with your partner while living with a chronic condition. Researchers were interested in getting a better understanding of how the day-to-day interactions in a marriage impact the health of a person living with a chronic disease.
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Michigan may be on verge of drinking water crisis

Nick Schroeck with the Environmental Law Clinic at Wayne State University, says it used to be common for manufacturers to dispose of chemicals with little thought of long-term ramifications. “Back, pre-environmental law, think pre-1970s, you may have had chemicals that were just dumped out back behind the factory,” says Schroeck. ”Now we know these PFAS chemicals are very persistent in the environment, meaning they don’t break down. They’re in the environment for a very, very long time… They would accumulate over time in the groundwater plume under the soil.”