Female Life Span Going Down In Some Parts Of The U.S.

[Igel]

10. Stress, but not just from low income.

Single women and mothers who spent most of their lives working and supporting their families also experience stress that's not from lack of nutrition or enhanced low-SES job security or even comparing themselves with others better off. (We used to call this last kind of stress "envy" or "jealousy" or even "keeping up with the Jones." When some kids in my classes do this, it's called "greed" and "consumerism." When others do it, it's "low-income stress".)

More decades of smoking than their predecessors. Higher levels of obesity. Less physical exertion. Poorer diet. More dedication to the miracle drug "acai" or relying on the wonders of echinacea or black cohosh or whatever Women's World Daily or whatever it's called spouts to goose sales this week among the illiterati.

They think that heating up pre-made lasagna is a home-cooked meal and, if they own a home, rely crucially on some day laborer to cut their grass, trim their shrubs, clean their carpets, unplug their drains. Eventually that'll include "change their light bulbs" and "brush their teeth" (which sounds really strange, given how inalienable possession works in English syntax).