Another vote for women’s health research

Former New York congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro came to Yale in September with a message about the importance of the political process to women’s health. “In the past, some diseases were not very interesting to those who funded research because they only affected women. That’s changing now,” said Ferraro, the first woman nominated for vice president by a major party when she ran with Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984. She was the keynote speaker at “Conference 2000: Factoring in Gender,” sponsored by Women’s Health Research at Yale, a day-long event that attracted more than 200 people to New Haven’s Lawn Club for lectures and presentations by Yale investigators. Noting that women make up more than half the population—and they vote—Ferraro said, “We are different biologically. Policies that don’t take this into account are not only unacceptable, they’re undemocratic.”