Women without confidantes and friends from the same sex risk early death and are often found to take longer periods to recover from bereavement and other trauma compared to those who have a bigger group of friends.
A study from the University of California says female bonding activities serve as very important stress management strategies; and they have qualifiedly health benefits, reported The Indian Express.
The study indicates women who turn to other women for friendship lower the risk of early death. They also heal faster in times of bereavement or other trauma.
Woman-to-woman friendship bonding or ’hanging out with friends’ serve the purpose of filling the emotional gaps. Besides, says the study published in ’Psychological review’ when women are under stress, the hormone oxytocin is released as part of the response to stress.
This encourages them to seek the company of other women, and when they are engaged, more oxytocin is released, which counters stress and has a calming effect, it says.
“Women are more loyal and appreciative in their relationship so they possess a tendency to be bonded with each other,“ says Dr Aruna Broota, a well-known psychiatrist and professor, University of Delhi.
A housewife Pushpa Vikram says, “My husband and daughter leave for office and school respectively and for the whole day I am literally alone, but I overcome my loneliness by talking with my friends, who are also housewives like me.“

The maternity badge system, introduced last year in Japan to encourage people to care for and pay attention to pregnant women in trains and other public places, appears to be doing little to aid such women.
Few people recognize the meaning of the badges emblazoned with so-called maternity marks that are meant to be worn by pregnant women, who are exposed to the highest risk of miscarriage during the early stage of their pregnancy, said Yomiuri.co.jp.
“Only young women notice the badge,“ said five-month-pregnant Keiko Otaki, 34, of Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo.
The system was introduced in March last year by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, which hoped to see people give up their seats to pregnant women donning the badges and refrain from smoking in their presence. But little progress has been made in getting the badges recognized by the public.
The badges come in several designs. One conceived by the ministry depicts a woman and her baby in a pink heart. Since the introduction of the badges, the ministry has sent local governments and railway companies posters and leaflets intended to advertise it. In response, some local governments have distributed goods with the badge affixed to pregnant women. Some railway companies have even given women the badges free.
Last year, Yoko Okada, 30, of Setagaya Ward, Tokyo--a member of a group formed by women to share information and knowledge about how to raise children--attached a maternity badge to her bag during the first stage of her pregnancy.
“Few people gave up their seat for me in trains,“ she said about the badge she received at a station run by a private railway firm.
The badge, about five centimeters in diameter and decorated with a maternity symbol, has a chain attached so it can be hung from a handbag. This means that it tends to jiggle around, making it difficult for others to see what is printed on its face.
“Whenever I sit on a priority seat, I wear it so others can see it and realize I’m pregnant,“ Chieko Fukumoto, 37, of Kawasaki, said. But some passengers cast suspicious looks at the five-month-pregnant woman, apparently thinking she did not need to use a priority seat.

British government has told pregnant and breastfeeding women to increase their intake of vitamin D during the darker winter months to reduce the risk of seizures and the bone disease rickets in their children.
The Department of Health said doctors were reporting increasing numbers of cases of vitamin D deficiency in children.
It said that children from Asian, Afro-Caribbean and Middle Eastern backgrounds could be at greater risk, reported Reuters.
Dark skinned people do not absorb as much sunlight--a source of the vitamin--through the skin, and may also cover up most exposed parts of their body for cultural reasons, it said.
“We are seeing significant numbers of children with vitamin D deficiency,“ said Colin Michie, a pediatrician at Ealing Hospital in London.
“If a pregnant or breastfeeding woman is lacking in vitamin D, the baby will also have low vitamin D and calcium levels which can lead babies to develop seizures in the first months of life.“
In the summer, 15 minutes exposure to sunshine on the arms head and shoulders will create sufficient quantities of the vitamin in the body, the Department of Health said.
But in winter months when sunshine is limited, the vitamin must be obtained from food sources such as oily fish like salmon, tuna and sardines, eggs, fortified cereals and bread.
The health department said pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under four could benefit from taking a daily 10 mg supplement of vitamin D during winter.

Lape Nannie of the Dulong ethnic group shows her tattooed face.

At 98, Lape Nannie worries that her own death would erase from the memory of the living a mysterious image: the dark blue tattoo pricked on her face when she was a child.
She was one of 38 women who still bore the mark in the Dulong ethnic group, traditionally known as the “facial tattoo tribe“.
Experts said the group in the Dulong River Valley of southwestern Yunnan province was rapidly shrinking from the more than 60 reported last year, reported Xinhua.
“I do hope others will still remember the butterflies on our faces after we die,“ Lape Nannie said through an interpreter in her home county of Gongshan.
A close look at her tattoo showed that her cheeks looked like the wings of a butterfly, her nose its body, and her forehead its antennae.
The tiny lady, about 150 centimeters tall and no more than 35 kilograms, had six children, the youngest of whom is 48.
A lifetime of hard work in the field had caused constant aches in her back and stomach, but her eyesight and hearing were still good for her age.
Lape Nannie did not remember when, or why, she had her face tattooed. All she could remember was the acute pain. “I was there with two other girls from the village. We all cried in agony.“
The other two women died over the last two years.
Peng Yiliang, an ethnic culture expert at the county’s cultural bureau, said Dulong women used to have their face tattooed at 12 or 13. “It was said to mark the puberty of young girls and serve as an ID because the patterns vary in different clans.“
It was still controversial on whether the tattoos were considered beautiful in the old days.
“Some say it was an adornment to make women more beautiful. Others say it was meant to make them less attractive so the women wouldn’t be abducted,“ Peng said.
The tattoo, often the image of a butterfly because the souls of the dead were said to turn into butterflies, was pricked on the girls’ faces using bamboo needles and an ink made out of ashes on the bottoms of pans.
“The process lasted for seven or eight hours, and the girls were not to wash their faces for at least five days after the ordeal in order to keep the pattern intact.“

Some 60 percent of official complaints of abuse at work are made by women, Argentina’s Workplace Violence Advice Office said in a report.
Some 80 percent of official complaints are made for psychological abuse, 10 percent for physical abuse, and 8 percent for sexual harassment, the report said, adding that more than half of the abuse take place when workers make some other kind of demands on employers, Xinhua reported.
These other factors include complaints about a workplace accident, sickness or pregnancy.
According to the report, nearly 92 percent of workplace complaints are made by people whose work is what is called “en negro“(in the black) in Argentina, meaning that some or all of their activities are performed without official healthcare provisions or other obligatory benefits.
Problems begin to emerge when these workers demand the regularization or renegotiation of their working conditions.

Facing more problems than men to get important jobs, Polish women are underprivileged in the labor market, a UN report said.
The first extensive inquiry by the UN Development Program on gender equality in Poland indicated women are more often affected by poverty due to unemployment than men, Polish Radio reported.
The UN Development Program report covered a wide range of social fields, from macro-economy to trade, administration, health, education and human rights. Beata Balinska, a program official said the position of women in all those fields is complicated and far from ideal.
Warsaw University Professor Malgorzata Fuszara, one of authors of the UN Development Program report on gender equality, said the participation of women in politics was very small and such a small group of women hardly can do much for the cause of women.
“Almost in every country in the world, and Poland is no exception, wages of women are lower than those of men, and nobody is trying to rectify the situation and improve the position of women,“ Fuszara said.

A blind woman in a chess contest in Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi province.

A recent survey on violence against women in Pakistan has found that 71 percent males consider slapping and beating women as justifiable.
According to the survey, 80 percent of women are victims of domestic violence in society, reported ANI.
Addressing a recent seminar on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day at the Punjab Law College (PLC), participants said that sustained and collective efforts were needed to end domestic violence in Pakistan.
“Islam and the country’s legislation give equal rights to women. The only need is to implement Islamic rules and legislation, and create awareness in the society about women’s rights.“
Presentations were given on women rights in Islam, the Women Protection Bill and sexual harassment scenario in Pakistan.
Government College University Clinical Psychology Department director Zahid Mehmood was the chief guest.
Mehmood highlighted the psychological aspects of violence against women, and said it was a global problem, but of a different magnitude in Pakistan.
He claimed that the ratio of violence against women was comparatively higher in Pakistan.

Nearly 11 million abortions are carried out in India every year and some 80,000 women die during the process, according to a research.
A majority of abortions are performed by untrained hands and studies suggest that nearly 80,000 women die due to unsafe abortions, Dr Hema Divakar, chairperson of Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies in India (FOGSI), said in Bangalore, reported Timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
Stressing on the need to promote awareness about emergency contraception methods, she said research shows that 78 percent of pregnancies in the country are unplanned, of which 25 percent are unwanted, leading to approximately 11 million abortions annually.
“The level of emergency contraception is abysmally low in India,“ she said releasing details of the FOGSI research, adding that only one out of 100 women were aware of it.
Recent advertisements had created some awareness, but the sale of these contraceptives was yet to pick up, she said.