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Book Review by Jo Freeman

The Women’s Movement Inside and Outside the State
by Lee Ann Banaszak
Published by Cambridge University Press, New York; 2010,  247 pp.

When I was in college long ago there was an ongoing debate on working inside the system vs outside of the system.  

As I watched the women’s liberation movement emerge and unfold in the late 1960s and 1970s, and read more deeply in US history, I realized that this was a false dichotomy. The "system" was bigger than the government and other institutions. Indeed,  the best way to bring about change was a two-pronged approach, with people 'inside' and 'outside'  the government working for the same goal, if not necessarily with the same methods.

I wrote a bit about that in my first book, The Politics of Women’s Liberation. In her new book Lee Ann Banaszak has proven it.

Read more »

Arthur Stone, Professor and Vice Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook and colleagues at Columbia, Princeton, and Gallup have produced a detailed analysis of how Americans perceive well-being at various ages. They found that after age 50, life perceptions are more positive and feelings of worry or stress decline. This perception is consistent after age 50, regardless of certain life circumstances.

Titled  "A snapshot of the age distribution of psychological well-being in the US," the study is based on a 2008 Gallup-Healthways telephone survey of more than 340,000 adults in the United States. The research findings confirm earlier reports that between the ages of 18 and 50, perceptions of global well-being tend to decline with age, while after age 50, perceptions become more positive as people grow older, creating a U-shaped curve when ratings are plotted by age.

According to the researchers, the reasons for this pattern remain unknown. The analyses performed by Dr. Stone and colleagues indicate that changes in perception of well-being are not associated with having a partner, having children at home, or employment status.

Part of Johanna Grossman's recent article in Writ concering includes the following section two sections:

Davis v. Davis: A Failed Marriage, with No End in Sight

In the case before the New York court, Novel Davis filed for divorce against her husband, Shepherd Davis. The couple has been married and resided together for forty-one years."

Two years ago, Ms. Davis had filed for divorce on grounds of "abandonment" under New York Domestic Relations Law § 170(2), which provides that such an action can be premised on the "abandonment of the plaintiff by the defendant for a period of one or more years.

In her complaint, she alleged what amounts (or might amount) to "social abandonment" — stating that her husband refused to celebrate or acknowledge major holidays or birthdays with her; refused to "eat meals together"; refused to "attend family functions or accompany [her] to movies, shopping, restaurants, and church services"; once left her "at a hospital emergency room"; removed her "belongings from the marital bedroom"; and just generally "ignor[ed] her."

In response, Mr. Davis said, in legalese, "So what?" He argued that even if he did engage in these social refusals — and he contests many of Ms. Davis's allegations — this form of "social abandonment" is not sufficient to justify divorce under New York law.

The trial court that first heard their case ruled that the wife's "social abandonment" allegations  "do not support a cognizable legal theory."  Then, as noted above, the appellate court, in its recent ruling, agreed and upheld the dismissal of Ms. Davis's petition for divorce.  The couple (or, perhaps more accurately, the two married individuals) thus remain legally bound to one another...

New York's Unique Approach to Divorce

New York more or less let the no-fault revolution pass it by. The state legislature did expand the state's divorce laws in 1966 to include several additional grounds of fault — cruelty, abandonment, neglect, and felony imprisonment — as well as a separation ground. But the separation ground requires either fault or the consent of both parties. The one-year required separation period does not begin to run until a court has granted a legal separation on grounds of fault or until the couple has entered into a written agreement, filed with the court, resolving all their issues such as property division, alimony, and child custody.

If parties agree to divorce in New York, then they can pursue a separation-based divorce. But many still opt for a fault-based divorce, because it is faster and sometimes cheaper. They simply collude as to the alleged grounds and, typically, the defendant never responds to the complaint at all.

But when only one spouse wants a divorce, the situation is trickier. Without consent of the other spouse, a one-year separation is insufficient grounds for divorce. The spouse who wants out must, then, allege one of the enumerated grounds of fault. When a divorce is contested, however, the legal and factual sufficiency of the ground (or grounds) must be proven. And, as happened in the Davis case, courts in New York sometimes actually deny petitions for divorce. When that happens, the couple must, simply put, stay married until the party who wants out develops new grounds for divorce.

Read the rest of Johanna Grossman's article at FindLaw's  Writ.

"Physicians often misdiagnose bone fractures caused by child abuse as accidental breaks, particularly if the child is male and the doctor is not a pediatrician, a new study found."

"Of children who suffered fractures from abuse, about 20% had at least one previous medical visit during which a doctor missed signs of the problem (95% CI 15.8 to 26.0), according to a report published online Nov. 30 in Pediatrics. It took a median of eight days after the initial visit before doctors correctly assessed abuse during a subsequent examination."

"Doctors were most likely to misdiagnose abusive fractures if the patients were boys, had breaks in the limbs, or were seen in a primary care setting or general emergency room, as opposed to a pediatric emergency department."

Read the rest of the article at Medpage or at Nov. 30 issue of Pediatrics:

Wendy Gwirtzman Lane, Howard Dubowitz, and Patricia Langenberg

Screening for Occult Abdominal Trauma in Children With Suspected Physical Abuse

Pediatrics, Dec 2009;

Cost of article is $12, $45 online