Women and…AI, Pregnancy Mortality Rates, Trans Rights, and SpaceGlam!
Topical Curiosities in Gender and Power–May 2025
Welcome to a new monthly feature for InPower Women! I want to align my writing more with current events, without becoming “a reporter.” So, in the first post of each month, I plan to highlight the gender and inpower dimensions of a few recent events that caught my interest. I’m curious about which topics interest my readers (paid and unpaid). Next week, I’ll do a deeper dive into the one(s) that captivate our attention, so please let me know in comments, chats, and direct messages what intrigues you about these topics (or others), as it will inform my inquiry.
Topics explored below:
Gender and AI
Increasing Pregnancy Mortality Rates for Women
Transgender Rights
SpaceGlam–Blue Origin’s PR stunt
Gender and AI
Let me just start with the startling statistics that brought this topic to the top of my inbox (thanks Lyz):
“[M]en are way more likely to use ChatGPT than women (they make up about 85% of its usership) and they are nearly three times more likely than women to use it for relationship advice. Something that tracks when you consider that men are both more likely to trust generative AI than women and less likely to go to therapy (only 36% of NHS therapy referrals are for men).” - Uk Cosmopolitan, It’s Cathartic–Meet The Men Turning To ChatGPT For Dating Advice.
I’ve known that computer models were biased since the 2018 Gendershades.org research discovered how early AI facial recognition models identified white males, by significant percentages, more accurately than any other gender/racial type.
I hadn’t really followed the gender and AI story that closely beyond the identifications of bias. So, the stats above, that men are more trusting of AI and use it three times more often than women do, surprised me. The fact that men use it so much for companionship and relationship advice surprised me even more.
This would be just another story of gender-different behavior, I suppose, if it weren’t for the fact that those gender stereotypes and biases identified in 2018 have not been managed well. Even though 2022 saw the explosion of AI working its way into every aspect of our lives, bias still shows up in all aspects of AI for a large number of reasons. I don’t know why I'm surprised, but I am, that men use AI for companionship like they do. As the Cosmo-UK article highlights, this makes sense given that men have fewer friends and social connections with whom they feel comfortable talking about intimate subjects. AI entering the mix seems to have upsides and downsides when it comes to the increasing problem associated with male loneliness, domestic violence, and falling marriage and birth rates.
An InPowered Take: Though my own proclivity wasn’t necessarily to become an AI expert user (I suck at prompt-writing), I am making it a point to find uses for AI that take advantage of it as a resource and keep me up to speed with an important tech more and more of our world will be built on. I’m finding it can give me more confidence in some decisions I’m making by focusing my energy on fact-checking and analysis rather than fact and perspective-finding. I think it’s important to find ways to use tech to bolster our personal power, ability to create impact and influence others. How are you using AI?
Additional questions this topic jostles loose for me:
How do men and women use virtual companions differently, and what does this tell us about expectations and power in relationships?
Is there a way to talk to AI that neutralizes its bias?
Can women use AI uniquely to enhance their own power and sense of confidence?
Increasing Pregnancy Mortality Rates for Women
The numbers below broke my brain. In a time of medical miracles when cancer mortality rates are dropping, and we are on the brink of making diabetes manageable in all kinds of people, mortality in the service of giving birth is increasing!?
A new study from the Gender Equity Policy Institute (GEPI) found that (American) women are twice as likely to die during pregnancy in states with abortion bans. Twice as likely. Meanwhile, maternal mortality in pro-choice states fell 21%. One stark comparison from the study: Texas’ maternal mortality rate was 155% higher than California’s…Since [Texas] passed an abortion ban, maternal mortality has risen by 56%—with deaths among white women increasing by a whopping 95%. - Jessica Valenti, Abortion Every Day
The kicker: the causes of these pregnant women’s deaths are entirely preventable by modern medicine, have been for decades, and were largely under control when doctors could provide medical care without government intervention. Women are dying because of delayed care, and policymakers ignoring the fact that in many instances, abortion is a form of health care for a woman who can’t carry a baby to term. Even when the doctor can save the woman’s life, they do not do so for fear of being arrested and/or having their license revoked. Threatening doctors to withhold care from pregnant women sounds like something from a horror flick. And if your sister or aunt or daughter is the one flirting with death due to her pregnancy, it is exactly that. Even worse, Texas wants to criminalize any woman who does not have the perfect pregnancy, leaving them isolated and afraid. Looking at outcomes (more women dying), the name of the Texas “pro-life” movement sounds ironic.
An InPowered Take: This issue is hard to find personal power in given that the problem itself is literally caused by the government taking power over women’s bodies away from us. The only true power in this issue we each have is to contribute our voice to the political debate, contribute our money where we believe it will do the most good, make educated and intentional choices for ourselves personally, and prepare to the best of our ability for worst case scenarios that may affect us based on where we live.
Additional questions this topic jostles loose for me:
What is the true state of abortion legislation around the country at this point? Is Texas an outlier?
If you live in an anti-abortion state, what are your options for managing your family planning, and how does it differ by income level?
Why, if a significant majority of Americans support abortion care, does it seem impossible for women to feel safe when it comes to managing their own pregnancies in consultation with their medical providers?
Lest you think I’m all pro-California, let me note another topic about these two states that has caught my attention lately: Texas is offering better living conditions and enticing Californians to move as a result. California’s loss is Texas’ gain. Too bad the pregnant women moving from California to Texas for cheaper housing are now more likely to die.
Transgender Rights and What it Means for Women
In case you’ve been living under a rock, a major battle in the culture war taking place across the world on the rights of transgender humans took a surprising turn last month.
Despite years of increasing flexibility in gender definitions as separate from physical sex – to include trans, queer, and nonbinary people’s preferred pronouns and identity – the UK Supreme Court rolled it all back. In April, the Court ruled unanimously that “the terms 'woman' and 'sex'… refer to a biological woman and biological sex."
The implications for this are still working themselves out but the clear takeaway is that a class of people struggling against discrimination will now face more of it. Of particular concern, the (up to) 50% of trans people who experience abuse may find it harder to receive support and service, contributing to mental health challenges they already face.
This is just the latest in battles across Europe and the US to limit the protections all genders have against discrimination. While there have been some wins for trans rights activists here and there, generally speaking trans rights have been coming under fire, including and especially by some feminists (e.g., JK Rowling) who want to “protect” women from men they believe are hiding under the guise of being a woman to unfairly disadvantage women in everything from safety to sports to pay equality. This issue generates more than just equality and equity disagreements, also touching on mental and physical health for children as often the battle over respect for trans identities begins in youth.
To the best of my ability to tell, the implications for “women” in this sticky wicket of issues are clear only in the sense that the battle itself reinforces stereotypes for everyone. But they also exacerbate divides between “feminists” that have traditionally undermined the ability for women to present a united front on issues that affect us all.
An InPowered Take: I believe that trans rights issues give us each a petri dish to become more aware of our own biases and stereotypes. Regardless of where you come out on the political dimensions of the issues in the end, approaching this issue with a lens on your own biases (you do have many of them as we all do), you’ll learn more about yourself and others when you take this approach. At least, that’s how I approach trans rights and as a result I’ve found new levels of compassion in my heart along the way.
Not sure you do have unconscious biases? Think again and watch this video!
Additional questions this topic jostles loose for me:
Why is ‘trans’ a modern flash point in the culture wars? Is ‘trans’ a new category of human?
When trans rights are honored, what changes in society for women?
If we can eliminate the extremist voices in the trans debates, what are the most likely positive and negative changes for women of limiting or expanding trans rights?
Is the trans debate among feminists just an extension of other internal debates? Does it undermine the larger cause more or less than tensions over race or sex have in the past?
SpaceGlam: Laaaaaadies in Space!
On April 14 six women shot 62 miles above the earth in a first touted “all women” space flight.
Photo & data on the flight from The Cut
Here was my favorite headline aout this event: One Giant Stunt for Womankind: Blue Origin’s all-female flight proves that women are now free to enjoy capitalism’s most extravagant spoils alongside rich men. - Amanda Hess, NY Times
I was ambivalent about touting the all-woman space flight as it's largely a publicity stunt. Personally, I'm more interested in what Pearl I. Young, Katherine Johnson, Margaret Hamilton, Valentina Tereshkova, Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, Peggy Whitson, Christina Koch, and Jessica Meir accomplished. Women contribute so much to society and history, and we're only now learning to get past our gender biases to see it.
But here’s the dimension of this PR event that sticks with me. I get blurbs about women in history on my feeds (because the great algorithm in the sky knows I follow women’s stuff.) I find it, like most history, interesting primarily to the extent that it sheds light on the bits of our human identity that never make it into our history books. And women’s stories and contributions have been systemically eliminated from what we know about being human on this planet.
These deletions from our collective memories warp our appreciation for what feminine and masculine traits combined bring to our humanity. Even more concerning, knowledge about how to survive and be healthy doesn’t make it into our brains. By treating women, people of color, and many others as aberrant versions of the cis white male standard, in the workplace and everywhere else, we end up knowing very little about our bodies. And that makes it too easy for politicians to try to prevent us from gaining this knowledge, which harms half the population (not to mention the other half who lives with us and loves us!) In case you were wondering, yes, my response to the Trump administration’s effort to defund the most important longitudinal study of women’s health was complete horror.
So I ask myself about the news that is writing itself on our minds today in this historical context. When I see that Katy Perry gets more acknowledgement for going to space than any of the scientists above, I am sad that eyelashes in spaaaaaace is what the first all-woman space flight told us about ourselves.
An InPowered Take: This is a reminder to me, and I hope you, to seek out stories of more substance about the accomplishments of women. I particularly enjoy reading The Broadsheet for daily business news about and by women. It’s just like any other newsletter except that it looks at the business headlines of the day as though women were the ones making the news – which they are! And as a result I learn about the ways women are impacting the world that don’t make it into the normal headlines. And I learn to see women leaders for who they are, not as “the firsts” they’re often portrayed as.
Additional questions this topic jostles loose for me:
If women got credit for their historical contributions, what might we remember differently?
What’s the latest on women in STEM, and how do the new cuts to federal funding for DEI affect it?
What can female astronauts, scientists, and writers teach us about cosmic possibilities we aren’t learning from men?
What are other places to normalize our understanding of women as regular contributors to history and current events?
Let me know what you thought of this inpowered scroll through recent headlines and what you want to know more about in comments, chats, and direct messages!
Mastermind Subscribers: Join us on May 21st at noon eastern on Zoom to explore these themes–and others you bring with you–in community with other women. (Look for a calendar invite and Substack chat reminder with the Zoom link.)
InPowering Powerful Women,
Dana Theus
Executive Coach
InPowerCoaching.com