Healthy & Powerful?

My thesis focused on gender, technology, and power. I used the most banal definition of technology -- anything that enables you to do something you COULD not have done otherwise, and the most banal definition of power -- anything that causes you to do something you would not have done of your own accord.

When the two concepts get together with issues of gender, you will find many a stimulating conversation. You will also find great struggles for power --  who should control the power and who does control the power? And then of course, there is the issue of economics. How do issues of class and financial well being affect access to technology and the control of power?

Perhaps because I used birth control as the case study through this thesis, I believe that health issues have the greatest potential to be advanced and hindered by technology, power, gender, and economics: Women make most financial and health-related decisions for their families. They plan menus and they carry out the food shopping. Women are getting their kids vaccinated and talking to (or not talking to) their kids about sex. Women are often not paid for their own sick days, and because 70% of Maine's households in poverty are run by single-Mom's, they are more often subjected to the economics of health and the politics of medicaid.

So where do we start? What are the politics of health that most adversely effect Maine women? What technologies have the greatest potential to help? How do economics effect healthy women and families? How do we best build healthy and powerful individuals?