The Exponent - Purdue's Student Newspaper

March is the time for warmer weather and all of the students at Purdue to take a well-needed week off from classes. March is also Women’s History Month, something that Purdue is celebrating by giving students an opportunity to learn women’s history in many different ways.

This past Friday, I was able to attend an event concerning women’s health issues with keynote speaker Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal, MD, MPA, who is a former Assistant Surgeon General, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women’s Health, and Senior Global and E-Health Adviser.

Dr. Blumenthal started her prestigious career because of her mother, a thyroid cancer survivor who was later diagnosed with breast cancer. Vowing to try to stop the kind of suffering her mother had to endure, she spent more than 20 years in governmental service devoted to public health and science issues, especially those issues that most affect women.

One of the most interesting things I found about her speech was how sexist many of the first medical trials were. For example, some of the first breast cancer research was all done only on men, and even most of the lab rats used for any type of clinical trials were male rats.

Further, she noted that the chances of aspirin lowering the risk of heart attack are much greater in men than women, which was not known until recently since the first test subjects were male. Now I know that I should pay less attention to the commercials that say aspirin could greatly reduce my chances of heart attack – I guess they are really addressing the males in the audience.

Blumenthal was joined by a panel of amazing Purdue women to speak about women’s health issues. These issues I found very interesting, and they discussed both women’s physical and mental health issues. One of the panelists, Dr. Connie Weaver, a distinguished professor and head of the department of foods and nutrition, spoke briefly about her interesting research on osteoporosis.

She noted that since one-half of those over 65 will experience a bone fracture due to fragile bones, we need to start early building up healthy bone mass since most of this is acquired during adolescence. More encouragement for me to add a little vitamin D and calcium to my current college junk food diet, which I seem to be able to stick to so well, rather than waiting until I’m old and my bones are already breaking.

Also speaking on the panel was Dr. S. Laurel Weldon, an associate professor of political science whose work focuses on policies on violence against women. Dr. Sophie Lelièvre, associate professor of cancer pharmacology at Purdue’s Veterinary Medical School, talked about her work on breast cancer and the international conference she is organizing on the link between nutrition breast cancer.

Finally, Dr. Titilayo A. Okoro, an assistant professor in the Department of health and kinesiology and African American studies, discussed the stigma of HIV in African women and how culture has an influence on whether they choose to seek help or not because of possible social stigma.

This panel of women and Blumenthal’s speech would also not have been organized without more amazing Purdue women. Dr. Beverly Davenport Sypher helped organized the event thanks to the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center. Susan Butler is a Purdue alumna who provided fundraising for the center that bears her name and focuses on the development of women leaders.

Dr. Sypher and Katie Pope, director of the Women’s Resource office, also helped in organizing the panel of Purdue women whose research and stories all really impressed me, showing me what great talent we have here at Purdue.

Women’s History Month is a month that the nation focuses on women. Purdue is doing its part to give students an opportunity to learn from and about amazing women like Blumenthal and the women making a difference here at Purdue.

This month I encourage you to take the time to learn a little about Women’s History, and I hope that every student takes the time to do so despite the busy exam days that are no doubt approaching and the lazy Spring Break days that are almost here.

Jessica Davis is a senior in the College of Liberal Arts and may be reached at davis6@purdue.edu.