A Woman’s Place

The U.S. Department of Education has excluded nursing from its official definition of "professional degree" programs as part of student loan changes under a new bill. This reclassification, scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2026, means graduate nursing students will have lower federal loan borrowing limits and could impact access to financial aid.Whoa, what? Advancing nursing degrees are not 'professional'? And, let's see if we get this right: this would make it harder - more expensive - to get an advanced nursing degree? Last we checked we already had a nursing shortage. Not to mention that the nursing workforce is aging and not being replaced by younger nurses, hence greater shortages. Oh, and did we mention the profession is almost 90% female? MaryAnn Vitiello, APRN, MSN, NP, nurse and nursing advocate, joins us today. You'll hear not only about the proposed bill, but also about who all these advanced practice nurses are (Nurse Anesthetists? Nurse Practitioners?,) how they came about, and what their growth has meant for health care in America.For anyone who might need health care - and isn't that everyone? - this is for you.
 
Resources: Full list of degrees not classed as ‘professional’ by Trump admin - Newsweek, Nursing Excluded as 'Professional' Degree By Department of Education | Nurse.Org

Gen Z - our youngest active generation, ages 13-28 - shows a gender divide unseen in any past generation. Polls and voting records in the US and around the globe reveal young men to be far more conservative than any other generation alive today, and young women to be more liberal. Six in ten Gen Z men say men are being asked to do too much to support equality and almost a third say that a man who stays home to care for his children is 'less of a man."
Moreover, many Gen Z men place marriage and children high on their list of life priorities - higher than women of any political persuasion. And our media habits only amplify these divisions - men and women hew toward different podcasts, social media, and books. What's going on here? And how will we come together?
Resources:
Let's talk about the political power of Gen Z women | It's Been a Minute
Poll: Gen Z's gender divide reaches beyond politics and into its views on marriage, children and success
Gen Z men and women most divided on gender equality, global study shows | King's College London
Are Young Men and Women Now Enemies? - YouTube
Just the Facts, Ma'am: Single Women Home Buyers Since 1981
Women now outnumber men in the U.S. college-educated labor force
How has marriage in the US changed over time? | USAFacts

If you are one of the 1.3 million active duty military personnel in the US or one of the over 750,000 National Guard and Reserves called into active duty and you are sexually assaulted - or worse - you fall under a military justice system, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Your active commanding officers may well be determining your case. in 2024, there were 8195 reports of sexual assault in the miliary - affecting roughly equal numbers of men and women. In October 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rolled back whistle-blower protections for assault charges in the military. Why are we stepping back from reforms of the last 25 years? Can US military culture be made safer for service men and women? Join Nancy Parrish, Founder and Director of Protect Our Defenders (PoD), a national organization dedicated to ending sexual assault in the military, for a timely discussion of the military and it's policies surrounding sexual assault. (PoD provides pro bono legal assistance to affected individuals as well as advocacy on policy changes).
Resources: 
Veterans See Costs and Risks in Hegseth’s Military Rewind to 1990 - The New York Times
Protect Our Defenders
Hegseth’s Rollback of Whistleblower Protections Is Reckless and Dangerous to Mission Readiness
SAPR.mil
Lawmakers press for continued funds, staff to combat military sexual assault

Menopause - a naturally occurring stage of life for all women - has been misunderstood, hushed up, and often poorly treated for generations. Yet in recent years, a sea change has taken place. Women know more, speak up more, and their doctors - often female - are able to respond with more options. Where are we today? Join us for a conversation with Dr Kelly-Ann Shedd-Hartman about this topic every woman should know more about.
Resources:
Hormone Replacement Therapy - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf
Chin Hair, Laundry, Your Opinion: Women in Menopause Don’t Care
How a women's pain is often ignored by health care
The black box warning on menopause treatments could change. Here’s why.

Electricians, construction workers, plumbers, power plant technicians, heavy equipment operators: all these and more make up the 'skilled trades.' Such jobs typically offer some of the best pay for workers without a college degree. These skilled trades make up almost 30% of our economy - and have historically been all male. Today, women hold only 4% of these jobs. (Take that, Rosie the Riveter.) Why? Sue Hoffman is our guest to plumb (!) this topic. Sue has spent a lifetime working to expand workforces for women. She brings a wealth of experience, including as a consultant, the head of Women in Nontraditional Careers Initiative in Philadelphia, and as a tradeswoman herself. Listen in to learn about some of the biggest impediments to getting more women into more skilled trades. And, spoiler alert, it's not hiring discrimination.
Resources:
Equity Resource Center – Chicago Women in Trades
Construction Careers - Build Your Future
Career Cluster videos
Intro to Apprenticeship
Oregon Tradeswomen Earn Good Money
Turner Named One of America’s Best Employers for Women by Forbes | Insights
Quick Data on Women Working in Construction, 2015 to 2024 (Institute for Women's Policy Research, Aug 2025)

It can be hard to step back and 'see' our gendered world - all the different behaviors, work and family roles, clothes, speaking styles, body language, hair styles that to us mean 'male' or 'female.' This gendered world is all we've ever known, after all. 
All those seemingly small gendered manifestations yield big consequences however: men are 4 times more likely to commit suicide, women accumulate about half as many assets over a lifetime, men experience more physical violence and a dearth of satisfying social relationships, women provide the vast bulk of unpaid care for children, other adults, and the home - the list could go on. 
Yet these differences are not innate. They are not just a function of our hormones or our different reproductive functions. In fact, they reflect thousands of years of socializing norms and the creation of systems and institutions that govern our lives.
We think it's time for a fresh look at how we got here - gendered world and all.
Resources: A Gendered World makes a Gendered Brain | Gina Rippon | TEDxCardiff, Anglea Saini: The Patriarchs, How to talk to kids about gender equality and stereotypes | UN Women – Headquarters, National Women's History Museum, Invisible Women | Caroline Criado Perez, Gender stereotypes begin at age 10 | Hub, Gender and media - GSDRC, Geena Davis Institute, "Historical Perspectives on Violence Against Women" by Vivian C. Fox 

How do YOU view the government? Does it have a role in ensuring protections or enforcing rights? Does it handicap our lives with wasteful inefficiencies and rules? Does it help you - or do you think it only helps others? Whatever you think, you probably have good reasons for those beliefs. Which we get! In this episode, we peek into why and how we develop our attitudes about the government - and how listening to one another might just help us all thrive more. 
Resources:
A look at small businesses in the U.S.
A Bipartisan Nation of Beneficiaries | Pew Research Center
Invisible Women | Caroline Criado Perez

Out of 50 states in the US, women hold 13 governorships, 28% of Congress, and have never been elected President. The US is 53rd in the world in political gender parity. This is 2025, so really, why is this? And does it even matter - do we really need equal representation in elected offices? In this episode, we look at the social forces at work (who is a leader?) as well as some pragmatic impediments. And yes, it does matter. Bonus: we talk about our deep-seated expectations of who should be in charge.
Resources:
Women Support Harris, but the American Presidency Remains a Male Bastion | The Fuller Project
The 119th Congress: Some history makers, but fewer women overall - The 19th
Americans tend to elect the tallest person for president - here's how the 2020 candidates would fare | The Independent
Pragmatic bias impedes women’s access to political leadership | PNAS

The League of Women Voters sounds like it comes from another era, like maybe that time of Victorian dresses festooned with "VOTES FOR WOMEN" sashes. Well, it sorta does. And yet it's still here today, more meaningful than ever. Today we talk with Terri Kondos, the Manatee County League Voter Services Chair. Terri spent 38 years with the Department of Defense in intelligence and national security, but her current beat is voter rights and information.
So, did you know the League publishes voter services guides on national AND local issues? And that they are ALWAYS non-partisan, and never advocate for any candidate? They're here for all of us! After you listen to Terri, sign up for the August 26 Women's Equality Day event in Sarasota - free and open to all. Sign-up link below.
 
Resources:
League of Women Voters
League of Women Voters of Manatee County
League of Women Voters of Sarasota County
Gender Differences in Voter Turnout
Sign up for August 26th - link!
 
 
Vote 411

Are people having the families they want? Why or why not? And are women really to blame for low fertility rates? A new report surveyed 14,000 people in 14 countries to really understand what is happening and why fertility rates are dropping all over. The findings may surprise some policy makers who are struggling to identify incentives for families, but really shouldn't surprise any of us. Spoiler: people want MORE children! Take a listen. 
Resources:
Not Just More Babies: These Republicans Want More Parents at Home
UNFPA report links falling birth rates to cost of living, sexist norms, fear of the future
Link report, videos from report
Opinion | A Bold Idea to Raise the Birthrate: Make Parenting Less Torturous - The New York Times
Americans' Preference for Larger Families Highest Since 1971
The Impossibly High Cost of Childcare – Women's eNews