On Second Thought For Tuesday, March 7, 2017

March is Women’s History Month, but this year doesn’t bring a lot of good news for women in Georgia. A new study found Georgia is the sixth worst state in the nation for females based on a number of factors, including wages, health care, dropout rates and life expectancy. On this show, we focus on some issues that affect the women in the state.

The wage gap between men and women in the South is larger than any other region in the country. According to a recent report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, closing that gap would cut poverty for working women in the South by more than half and add billions of dollars to the economy. We speak with two of the study’s authors. We also check in with Charmaine Davis, the Georgia chapter director of 9to5. She shares with us the greatest struggle women in Georgia face in the workplace and what’s being done to improve conditions.

A recent report by the Vera Institute of Justice found women are the fastest growing incarcerated population in the United States. The number of women in local jails is almost 14 times what it was in the 1970s. We examine what’s driving this trend and the unique challenges women face behind bars. We talk with Elizabeth Swavola, senior program associate at the institute and one of the study’s authors. Former Georgia inmate Priscilla Fennell also joins the conversation. She is now a criminal justice activist and organizer of Women On The Rise, a project by the Racial Justice Action Center in Atlanta.

A book by Emory University professor Melvin Konner poses a controversial theory. Konner writes that women are the naturally superior gender and he uses evolution, genetic research and cultural examples to back up his ideas. We talk with Konner about the biological, intellectual and social differences between women and men. We also explore whether or not there is a dominant sex after all. Also joining the conversation are Kennesaw State University psychology professor Roxanne Donovan and University of Maryland sociology professor Philip Cohen.