Senior Women Web

Author: SeniorWomenWeb

  • National Institutes of Health (NIH) Launches Harm Reduction Research Network to Prevent Overdose Fatalities

    Friday, December 16, 2022: Scientists will test community-based approaches to prevent drug overdoses, curb high death rates.  person holding pkg

    To address the overdose crisis in the United States, the National Institutes of Health has established a research network that will test harm reduction strategies in different community settings to inform efforts to help save lives. The harm reduction research network’s efforts build on existing harm reduction research, and represent the largest pool of funding from NIH to date to study harm reduction strategies to address overdose deaths.

    Right, person holding package of Narcan Nasal Spray

    Harm reduction is an evidence-based, often life-saving approach that directly engages people who use drugs to prevent overdose, disease transmission and other harms. Researchers will test strategies to connect enrolled participants who use drugs with services and treatments and measure the effectiveness of these interventions in reducing overdose deaths and other outcomes.

    “Getting people into treatment for substance use disorders is critical, but first, people need to survive to have that choice,” said National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D. “Harm reduction services acknowledge this reality by aiming to meet people where they are to improve health, prevent overdoses, save lives and provide treatment options to individuals. Research to better understand how different harm reduction models may work in communities across the country is therefore crucial to address the overdose crisis strategically and effectively.”

    Funded by the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative, through NIDA, the awards are expected to total approximately $36 million over five years, pending the availability of funds. Studies will enroll participants to investigate a range of harm reduction approaches, such as distributing naloxone, a lifesaving medication to reverse overdose, and fentanyl test strips, which people can use to determine if drugs are contaminated with fentanyl.

    The research network will also examine the efficacy of moving harm reduction services and tools into communities via mobile vans, peer support specialists, internet- and smartphone-based tools and other types of outreach. By offering these services, harm reduction may be a first step interaction that also helps people access treatment for addiction and other healthcare.

    Novel forms of harm reduction services may prove helpful in rural areas of the country, where people may need to travel long distances to receive care and services. According to 2020 CDC data(link is external), rural counties experienced 26.2 overdose deaths per 100,000 people, which was only slightly lower than the rates in urban counties (28.6 deaths per 100,000 people); overdose deaths involving psychostimulants(link is external) were higher in rural counties than in urban counties from 2012 through 2020. Additionally, several projects will be aimed at populations disproportionally affected by the negative impacts of drug use, including Black and Latino/Latina communities, and women.

  • GAO (U.S. Government Accountability Office): Passengers with Disabilities; Barriers to Accessible Air Travel Remain

    GAO-23-106358 

    Fast Facts

    Air travel for people with disabilities can be very challenging. We testified about these challenges and actions that airports, airlines, and the Department of Transportation are taking to address them.

    For example, some airports have smartphone applications to help people with low vision navigate through terminals. Also, some airlines have developed guidance for passengers and training for airline staff to better support those traveling with wheelchairs.

    DOT has taken steps to develop new regulations, but has been slow to address other issues, such as the availability of wheelchair-accessible restrooms on some airplanes.

    A worker helping a person in a wheelchair through an airport

    What GAO Found

    Past GAO work has highlighted a range of barriers to accessible air travel that passengers with disabilities face. For example, GAO found that large, complex airports can affect accessibility with long distances to travel (GAO-21-354). Additionally, Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) screening practices may more frequently subject passengers with disabilities to additional screening (GAO-23-105201). GAO also found that passengers with disabilities may encounter barriers that airlines are responsible for addressing, including difficulties obtaining wheelchair and customer assistance and accessing onboard lavatories. Airlines also do not always properly handle passengers’ special accommodation requests or stow wheelchairs without damage.

    GAO reported in April 2021 that airports and airlines have taken some steps to reduce barriers and make air travel more accessible (GAO-21-354). As part of large capital projects to expand and renovate airports, airports have made improvements to ramps, elevators, and restrooms designed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended. To further improve the passenger experience, some airports have implemented a range of technology solutions, some of which may go beyond legal requirements (see figure). In October 2022, U.S. airlines announced a commitment to make air travel more accessible, including creating a passenger’s advisory group at each airline to improve policies and operations.

    Airport Accessibility Features to Help Passengers with Disabilities

    HL and FigB_7-106358_jo

    Based on GAO’s review of regulations and information obtained from officials with the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), GAO found that DOT has taken steps to implement the relevant accessibility-related provisions of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. For example, DOT now requires the largest U.S. airlines to report the number of wheelchairs and scooters that were transported and damaged. DOT is addressing several other provisions in the initial rulemaking processes. DOT has also taken steps to address other longstanding accessibility issues not required under the 2018 Act, but important to passengers with disabilities. In March 2022, DOT issued a proposed rule to address accessible lavatories that would apply to aircraft deliveries, to begin in 20 years. Regarding disability-related enforcement actions, DOT has taken one since 2019. GAO recommended in October 2020 that DOT increase transparency over its enforcement-related activities (GAO-21-109). DOT officials said they intend to provide more transparency and clarity into the results of their broader enforcement activities by December 2022.

    Why GAO Did This Study

    Approximately 27 million passengers with disabilities traveled by air in 2019, according to DOT. Without accommodations, such as appropriate assistance and communication, passengers with disabilities may face challenges when flying. In 2021, DOT received 1,394 disability-related complaints, a 54 percent increase from 2019. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 included provisions intended to improve the accessibility of air travel.

    This statement discusses: (1) barriers to accessible air travel; (2) steps that airports and airlines have taken to reduce those barriers; and, (3) the status of actions taken by DOT to respond to accessibility-related provisions in the Act and enforce accessibility-related regulations.

    This statement is based on GAO’s past work on a variety of aviation accessibility issues. For that work, GAO analyzed data and documents, interviewed relevant agency officials and representatives from selected disability advocacy groups, U.S airlines, and airports. For this statement, GAO reviewed DOT’s recent rulemaking actions and other relevant documents related to DOT accessibility and air travel efforts and interviewed DOT and FAA officials.

    Recommendations

    GAO previously recommended actions to (1) provide increased transparency into DOT’s enforcement of consumer protection issues and (2) enhance TSA’s efforts to protect civil rights in passenger screening. GAO will monitor DOT’s and TSA’s progress toward implementing these recommendations.

     

    Full Report

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    Accessible PDF (21 pages)

  • Jill Norgren Reviews On Account of Sex: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the Making of Gender Equality Law; Lady Justice, Women the Law and the Battle to Save America; Justice on the Brink and

    On Account of Sex: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the Making of Gender Equality Law. By Philippa Strum, University Press of Kansas, 2022. Available in paperback and ebook

    On Account of Sex

    Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America. By Dahlia Lithwick, Penguin
    Press, 2022. Available in hard cover, ebook, and audiobook.

    Justice on the Brink: A Requiem for the Supreme Court. By Linda Greenhouse, Random House,
    2021. Available in hard cover, paper, ebook, and audiobook.

    Make a New Year’s resolution to read these books, and to read them as a group, three short,
    complementary volumes concerned with civil rights, women lawyers, and the Supreme Court.

    Authored by well-known authorities, they provide powerful primers on how rights have been won, and lost, what is likely to occur in the coming years, and what role activists might play in determining whether that future is bleak or bright.

    Begin with On Account of Sex. Author Philippa Strum is a political scientist and legal historian who counts among her dozen well-regarded, highly readable studies When the Nazis Came to Skokie, Women in the Barracks, and Brandeis: Justice for the People. In a recent talk at the Woodrow Wilson Center Strum disclosed that she had written On Account of Sex because the public had scant knowledge of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s extraordinary pre-court legal career.

    She told her audience RBG had been a good judge. However, she continued, it was Ginsburg’s 1970s litigation for gender equality that made her special, the author of path breaking work comparable to that of legal giants Louis D. Brandeis and Thurgood Marshall before they joined the Supreme Court. On Account of Sex is Strum’s very successful effort to demonstrate the ways Ginsburg did notorious work long before she became the ‘notorious RBG’.

    In 1978, addressing an audience at West Virginia University, attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg explained that “the Constitution was viewed by jurists until well past this century’s midpoint as a virtually empty cupboard for sex equality claims.” Strum’s book tells the story of how Ginsburg filled that cupboard, working with a small group of women students and lawyers, to change the face of constitutional law in our country.

    Professor Ruth Ginsburg turned to the question of women and the law in 1969 after Rutgers law students asked her for a course on the topic. RBG’s review of the case law revealed that there was very little, and what there was did little for women with respect to employment, civic rights, or domestic responsibilities. Ginsburg began thinking about how she might use her legal training to bring change.

    As Strum describes her, Ginsburg was a cautious, thoughtful strategist. With her tax lawyer husband, she brought her first sex discrimination case in 1970 to the federal Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. It was titled Mortiz v. Commissioner. And they won. It was significant that the appeal involved a man claiming sex discrimination on the part of the IRS. From the start, RBG believed that gender stereotypes embodied in law hurt both sexes.

    Next, Ginsburg brought the all-male Supreme Court the case of Reed v. Reed which asserted a mother’s right to administer a deceased child’s estate. It was the first of a half a dozen cases in which she convinced that court to establish a constitutional right to gender equality. After oral argument in Reed, Justice Harry Blackmun made a note to himself, “I am inclined to feel that sex can be considered a suspect classification… There can be no question that women have been held down in the past in almost every area.” (p.53)

  • Scientific Energy Breakeven: Advancements in National Defense and the Future of Clean Power

     

    target chamber 121322

    The target chamber of LLNL’s National Ignition Facility, where 192 laser beams delivered more than 2 million joules of ultraviolet energy to a tiny fuel pellet to create fusion ignition on Dec. 5, 2022.

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced the achievement of fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) — a major scientific breakthrough decades in the making that will pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power. On Dec. 5, a team at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to reach this milestone, also known as scientific energy breakeven, meaning it produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it. This first-of-its-kind feat will provide unprecedented capability to support NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program and will provide invaluable insights into the prospects of clean fusion energy, which would be a game-changer for efforts to achieve President Biden’s goal of a net-zero carbon economy. 

    “This is a landmark achievement for the researchers and staff at the National Ignition Facility who have dedicated their careers to seeing fusion ignition become a reality, and this milestone will undoubtedly spark even more discovery,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to supporting our world-class scientists — like the team at NIF — whose work will help us solve humanity’s most complex and pressing problems, like providing clean power to combat climate change and maintaining a nuclear deterrent without nuclear testing.”

    “We have had a theoretical understanding of fusion for over a century, but the journey from knowing to doing can be long and arduous. Today’s milestone shows what we can do with perseverance,” said Dr. Arati Prabhakar, the President’s chief adviser for Science and Technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

     “Monday, December 5, 2022, was a historic day in science thanks to the incredible people at Livermore Lab and the National Ignition Facility. In making this breakthrough, they have opened a new chapter in NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program,” NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby said. “I would like to thank the members of Congress who have supported the National Ignition Facility because their belief in the promise of visionary science has been critical for our mission. Our team from around the DOE national laboratories and our international partners have shown us the power of collaboration.”

    “The pursuit of fusion ignition in the laboratory is one of the most significant scientific challenges ever tackled by humanity, and achieving it is a triumph of science, engineering, and most of all, people,” LLNL Director Dr. Kim Budil said. “Crossing this threshold is the vision that has driven 60 years of dedicated pursuit — a continual process of learning, building, expanding knowledge and capability, and then finding ways to overcome the new challenges that emerged. These are the problems that the U.S. national laboratories were created to solve.”

    “This astonishing scientific advance puts us on the precipice of a future no longer reliant on fossil fuels but instead powered by new clean fusion energy,” U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (NY) said. “I commend Lawrence Livermore National Labs and its partners in our nation’s Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) program, including the University of Rochester’s Lab for Laser Energetics in New York, for achieving this breakthrough. Making this future clean energy world a reality will require our physicists, innovative workers and brightest minds at our DOE-funded institutions, including the Rochester Laser Lab, to double down on their cutting-edge work. That’s why I’m also proud to announce today that I’ve helped to secure the highest-ever authorization of over $624 million this year in the National Defense Authorization Act for the ICF program to build on this amazing breakthrough.”

    “After more than a decade of scientific and technical innovation, I congratulate the team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Ignition Facility for their historic accomplishment,” said U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA). “This is an exciting step in fusion and everyone at Lawrence Livermore and NIF should be proud of this milestone achievement.”

    “This is an historic, innovative achievement that builds on the contributions of generations of Livermore scientists. Today, our nation stands on their collective shoulders. We still have a long way to go, but this is a critical step and I commend the U.S. Department of Energy and all who contributed toward this promising breakthrough, which could help fuel a brighter clean energy future for the United States and humanity,” said U.S. Senator Jack Reed (RI), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

    “This monumental scientific breakthrough is a milestone for the future of clean energy,” said U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (CA). “While there is more work ahead to harness the potential of fusion energy, I am proud that California scientists continue to lead the way in developing clean energy technologies. I congratulate the scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for their dedication to a clean energy future, and I am committed to ensuring they have all of the tools and funding they need to continue this important work.”

    “This is a very big deal. We can celebrate another performance record by the National Ignition Facility. This latest achievement is particularly remarkable because NIF used a less spherically symmetrical target than in the August 2021 experiment,” said U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (CA-19). “This significant advancement showcases the future possibilities for the commercialization of fusion energy. Congress and the Administration need to fully fund and properly implement the fusion research provisions in the recent CHIPS and Science Act and likely more. During World War II, we crafted the Manhattan Project for a timely result. The challenges facing the world today are even greater than at that time. We must double down and accelerate the research to explore new pathways for the clean, limitless energy that fusion promises.”

  • Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing Facility in Fort Worth, Texas

      
    December 8, 2022signature on currency of Janet Yellen

    As Prepared for Delivery 

    Thank you for that kind introduction, Chief Malerba, and for the extraordinary job you are doing as our Treasurer. And good morning, everyone. I’m delighted to be in Fort Worth – and at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

    Let me begin by thanking my BEP colleagues here today: for joining us and for all of your hard work. The currency that you produce here touches just about everyone in the United States and millions more across the world. Our currency is essential to the functioning of the financial system. And its integrity is core to our national security.

    BEP employees have always gone above and beyond. But you’ve done so at a whole new scale under heightened pressure over the past few years. When much of the nation was sheltering at home, most of you reported to work in person to run essential operations during the pandemic. You’ve worked overtime and on weekends to meet the historic demand for U.S. currency. And you did so successfully: on schedule and under budget.

    But that’s not all. As if these immediate needs weren’t enough of a challenge, many of you have dedicated time and energy to position BEP for the coming decades. You’ve made significant progress on our very ambitious plans to expand the Fort Worth facility and to build a new facility in Maryland. And most importantly, many of you are spending time to mentor and train the next generation of highly skilled union workers. Indeed, BEP benefits from over 1,200 dedicated union members.

    I want to thank you for all you are doing. Each of you is taking on so much. I know you take tremendous pride in your work. And I hope you know how appreciative I am of your work as well.

    I want to especially thank Director Len Olijar  Director Olijar is set to retire from federal service next month after nearly 35 years at BEP. Director: your dedication to BEP, Treasury, and our country epitomizes the spirit of public service. We’re grateful for your commitment to this organization – from when you were coming up the ranks of the Bureau to your many years at the helm.

  • Jo Freeman Reviews Charlayne Hunter-Gault’s My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives

    Charlayne Hunter-Gault   

    My People:  Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives       book My People

    New York: HarperCollins, 2022, xiii + 343 pages

     

    Charlayne Hunter-Gault made the national news when she was one of two Black students who integrated the University of Georgia in 1961.  She’s been writing national news ever since.  After graduation in 1963 she was invited to join the staff of The New Yorker where she stayed for many years. She went on to be a correspondent for The New York Times, PBS, National Public Radio, and CNN.

     
    This book gives you several dozen samples from her career as a journalist, but it’s not about that career.  There’s a little biographical information in the Forward (by someone else) and scattered pieces in introductions to the rest of the book. You learn that she wanted to be a journalist from a very early age, and that she spent many years in South Africa. Journalism came easy.
     
    While still a student she worked on the Atlanta Inquirer, a Black weekly started by the Atlanta Student Movement in 1960 because the city’s only black newspaper wouldn’t write about the civil rights movement or young people protesting segregation.
     
    Nine republished pieces are about Africa and another nine are about different aspects of her personal life in the US – a stay in Harlem when she was five, returning to U.Ga  nine years after she integrated it, vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard.  Eleven are on women.  She interviewed the famous (e.g. Nelson Mandela), the infamous (e.g. the Black Panthers) and the not famous (her grandmother).  Sometimes she writes about what she is thinking, and sometimes it’s “just the facts” of conventional journalism.
     
    Her perspective is captured by the title.  My People means Black Africans, and American descendants of Black Africans, whether they be in New York, Atlanta, Ethiopia or South Africa.  Whites float in and out of her world, but with a couple notable exceptions, they aren’t in it.
     
    C H-G is a superb writer, with a talent for capturing the flavor of a scene.  She tries to get inside her subjects’ heads, to see the world as they see it.  The book would be good for more than a casual read if it had an index, but it’s still a good read.
     
    As we contemplate today’s news, it’s good to remind ourselves how things used to be.
        
    Copyright © 2022 Jo Freeman   
     
    Jo has finished her book Tell It Like It Is: Living History in the Southern Civil Rights Movement, 1965-66 and is looking for a publisher.
     
     
     

  • At New York’s Morgan Ahead: Claude Gillot, Satire in the Age of Reason and Sublime Ideas, Drawings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi

    She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia, ca. 3400–2000 B.C.

    Through February 19, 2023

    She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia, ca. 3400-2000 B.C. brings together for the first time a comprehensive selection of artworks that capture rich and shifting expressions of women’s lives in ancient Mesopotamia during the 3rd millennium B.C. These works bear testament to women’s roles in religious contexts as goddesses, priestesses, and worshippers as well as in social, economic and political spheres as mothers, workers, and rulers. One particularly remarkable woman who wielded considerable religious and political power was the high priestess and poet Enheduanna (ca. 2300 B.C.), the earliest-named author in world literature. Bringing together a spectacular collection of her texts and images, this exhibition celebrates her timeless poetry and abiding legacy as an author, priestess, and woman.

    Field trips are available for school, camp, and community groups.

    Inspired by Enheduanna, the Morgan is hosting a creative writing contest for teens.

    Listen to audio guide

    She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia, ca. 3400-2000 B.C. is made possible through the generosity of Jeannette and Jonathan Rosen.

    Cylinder seal (modern impression) with goddesses Ninishkun and Ishtar, Mesopotamia, Akkadian, Akkadian period (ca. 2334–2154 BC), Cuneiform inscription: To the deity Niniškun, Ilaknuid, [seal]-cutter, presented (this), Limestone. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, acquired 1947; A27903.

    Exhibition tours: 

    Onsite exhibition tours run Tuesday through Sunday at 2:00 p.m. beginning on October 21, 2022 through February 16, 2023.

    Claude Gillot: Satire in the Age of Reason

    February 24 through May 28, 2023
    Two rickshaw drivers face off in argument while their passengers make gestures, with buildings in the background.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Around 1700, as an increasingly pious Louis XIV withdrew to Versailles, Paris flourished. The dynamic artistic scene included specialists such as Claude Gillot (1673–1722) who forged a career largely outside of the Royal Academy, designing everything from opera costumes to tapestries. Known primarily as a draftsman, Gillot specialized in scenes of satire. He found his subjects among the irreverent commedia dell’arte performances at fairground theaters, in the writings of satirists who waged the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns, and in the antics of vice-ridden satyrs whose bacchanals exposed human folly. Gillot’s amusing critiques and rational perspective heralded the advent of the Age of Reason while his innovative approach attracted the most talented artists of the next generation, Antoine Watteau and Nicolas Lancret, to his studio.

    With over seventy drawings, prints, and paintings, including an exceptional contingent from the Louvre, Claude Gillot: Satire in the Age of Reason explores the artist’s inventive and highly original draftsmanship and places his work in the context of the artistic and intellectual activity in Paris at the dawn of a new century.

    The catalogue accompanying the exhibition will provide the first comprehensive account of Gillot’s career.

    Claude Gillot: Satire in the Age of Reason is made possible by The Florence Gould Foundation, and by generous support from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust and the Alex Gordon Fund for Exhibitions. Additional support is provided by Diane A. Nixon, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Lionel Sauvage, Dr. Joan Taub Ades, Hubert and Mireille Goldschmidt, and Janet Mavec.

    Claude Gillot, Scene of the Two Carriages, ca. 1710-12. Oil on canvas. Département des peintures, Musée du Louvre, Paris; RF2405.

    Sublime Ideas: Drawings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi

    March 10 through June 4, 2023

    In a letter written near the end of his life, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) explained to his sister that he had lived away from his native Venice because he could find no patrons there willing to support “the sublimity of my ideas.” He resided instead in Rome, where he became internationally famous working as a printmaker, designer, architect, archaeologist, theorist, dealer, and polemicist. While Piranesi’s lasting fame is based above all on his etchings, he was also an intense, accomplished, and versatile draftsman, and much of his work was first developed in vigorous drawings.

    The Morgan holds the largest and most important collection of Piranesi’s drawings, well over 100 works that encompass his early architectural capricci, studies for prints, measured design drawings, sketches for a range of decorative objects, a variety of figural drawings, and views of Rome and Pompeii. These form the core of the exhibition, which will also include seldom-exhibited loans from a number of private collections. Accompanied by a publication offering a complete survey of Piranesi’s work as a draftsman, the exhibition will be the most comprehensive look at Piranesi’s drawings in more than a generation.

    Sublime Ideas: Drawings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi is made possible by The Gilbert & Ildiko Butler Family Foundation; the Lucy Ricciardi Family Exhibition Fund; the Wolfgang Ratjen Stiftung, Liechtenstein; and Joshua W. Sommer. Generous support is provided by the Berger Collection Education Trust and Alyce Williams Toonk, with additional support from The George Ortiz Collection, Robert Dance, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and Russell and Marian Burke.

    Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Fantasy of a Magnificent Forum, ca. 1765. Pen and brown ink and wash, 329 x 491 mm. Morgan Library & Museum, New York, inv. 1974.27.

     

  • GAO, Financial Services Industry: Overview of Representation of Minorities and Women and Practices to Promote Diversity

    GAO-23-106427Published: Dec 06, 2022. Publicly Released: Dec 06, 2022.

    Fast Facts

    We have issued several reports since 2017 reviewing the share of women and different racial/ethnic groups in the financial services industry, challenges associated with recruiting and retaining diverse staff, and practices to expand opportunities.

    We testified about these reports and how the financial services industry is addressing challenges and expanding opportunities. For instance firms are:

    • assessing data on the diversity of their employees
    • conducting targeted recruitment to build a potential pipeline of diverse employees
    • promoting interest in both STEM and financial services among women

    Four diverse individuals meeting around a table with windows in the background.

    What GAO Found

    Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) data that GAO analyzed on diversity in the financial services industry show slight increases in representation of minorities (racial/ethnic groups other than White) and women in management positions from 2007 to 2020. For instance, for senior management positions:

    • EEOC data (for 2007 – 2015) showed that Asian representation increased from 4 to 5 percent. Black and Hispanic representation was about 3 percent. Female representation remained around 29 percent in that period.
    • EEOC data (for 2018 – 2020) showed representation for both minorities and women was relatively flat or marginally increased. Black and Hispanic representation remained at about 3 and 4 percent, respectively. Female representation increased from 31 to 32 percent in that period.

    Representatives of financial services firms and other stakeholders with whom GAO spoke for the November 2017 report (GAO-18-64) described challenges in recruiting and retaining members of minority groups and women. They also identified practices that could help address the challenges, including recruiting students from a broad group of schools and academic disciplines and establishing management-level accountability to achieve diversity goals.

    Gender and Race/Ethnicity Representation of Executive/Senior-Level Management in the Financial Services Industry, 2020

    Highlights_ v1-106427-jys

    Note: The “Other” category includes Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, Native American or Alaska Native, and “two or more races.”

    GAO’s more targeted work highlighted industry challenges in recruiting and retaining women and minorities and using the services of minority- and women-owned businesses. GAO examined diversity efforts of the Federal Home Loan Banks, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. GAO also reviewed practices for selecting minority and women-owned asset managers and recruiting women with science, technology, engineering, and math degrees. Challenges included high levels of competition for diverse talent and bias in selecting service providers (preference for larger firms with brand recognition). Key practices to address these challenges included conducting targeted outreach and communicating diversity and inclusion priorities and goals within their organization.

    Why GAO Did This Study

    The financial services industry provides services that help families build wealth and is essential to the continued economic growth of the country. Research has found that a diverse workforce can help managers understand and address the needs of a demographically diverse customer base. Diversity also can be beneficial in solving complex problems and lead to better performance.

    This statement is based on five GAO reports (GAO-21-490, GAO-20-637, GAO-19-589, GAO-18-64, GAO-17-726) on diversity efforts in the financial services industry and recent EEOC data. It discusses our work on (1) trends in management-level diversity in the financial services industry and (2) diversity and inclusion efforts by private and public financial services entities.

    For this statement, GAO analyzed the most recent available EEOC data from 2018 through 2020 on workforce race, ethnicity, and gender in the financial services industry. For the prior work, GAO reviewed literature, documentation on diversity practices and policies, and EEOC data. GAO also interviewed representatives from federal agencies, financial services firms, and nonprofits.

    For more information, contact Daniel Garcia-Diaz at (202) 512-8678 or GarciaDiazD@gao.gov.

    Full Report

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  • The Beige Book Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions By Federal Reserve District Wednesday November 30, 2022

    members of board

    This report was prepared at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston based on information collected on or before November 23rd, 2022. This document summarizes comments received from contacts outside the Federal Reserve System and is not a commentary on the views of Federal Reserve officials.

    Federal Reserve Banks collect information for the Beige Book from a variety of business and nonbusiness sources. As of November 30, 2022, seven Banks now include individual community sections with information from nonbusiness sources, while the remaining Banks will continue to include such information within the existing structure of their District reports.

    Overall Economic Activity
    Economic activity was about flat or up slightly since the previous report, down from the modest average pace of growth in the prior Beige Book period. Five districts reported slight or modest gains in activity, and the rest experienced either no change or slight-to-modest declines. Interest rates and inflation continued to weigh on activity, and many contacts expressed greater uncertainty or increased pessimism concerning the outlook. Nonauto consumer spending was mixed but, on balance, eked out slight gains. Inflation pushed low-to-moderate income consumers to substitute increasingly to lower-priced goods. Travel and tourism contacts, by contrast, reported moderate gains in activity, as restaurants and high-end hospitality venues enjoyed robust demand. Auto sales declined slightly on average, but sales increased significantly in a few districts in response to higher inventories. Manufacturing activity was mixed across districts but up slightly on average. Demand for nonfinancial services was flat overall but softened in some districts. Higher interest rates further dented home sales, which declined at a moderate pace overall but fell steeply in some districts; apartment leasing started to slow, as well. Residential construction slid further at a modest pace, while nonresidential construction was mixed but down slightly on average. Commercial leasing weakened slightly, and office vacancies edged up. Bank lending saw modest further declines amid increasingly weak demand and tightening credit standards. Agricultural conditions were flat or up a bit, and energy sector activity increased slightly on balance.

  • Continuous Challenges: Dr. Anthony Fauci Reflects On the Perpetual Challenge of Infectious Diseases

    dr. fauci in his office, 1984

    What

    Once considered a potentially static field of medicine, the discipline of studying infectious diseases has proven to be dynamic as emerging and reemerging infectious diseases present continuous challenges, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., writes in a perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the piece, Dr. Fauci, who since 1984 has directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, reflects on his career responding to infectious disease threats. Dr. Fauci will step down from his positions as NIAID director, chief of NIAID’s Laboratory of Immunoregulation and chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden in December 2022.

    In the perspective, Dr. Fauci notes that the emergence of HIV/AIDS in 1981 led to a sharp increase in interest in infectious diseases among people entering the field of medicine. Since then, infectious disease specialists have faced numerous medical challenges, including the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, Ebola, Zika, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and COVID-19, he writes.

    Although COVID-19 was “the loudest wake-up call in more than a century to our vulnerability to outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases,” Dr. Fauci notes that one success of the response was the rapid development, testing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines thanks to years of research and investment in new and highly adaptable vaccine platforms and structural biology tools to design vaccine immunogens. These technological advances, among others, will greatly benefit the field of infectious diseases, he writes. He concludes by stressing the importance of improving capabilities to respond to established infectious diseases like malaria and tuberculosis while also responding to emerging threats.

    Article

    AS Fauci. It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over…but It’s Never Over — Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases. The New England Journal of Medicine DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2213814(link is external) (2022).

    Who

    NIAID conducts and supports research — at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide — to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website. 

    About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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