Two guidelines have been issued to reduce screening for breast and cervical cancer this week.

Madison Park
CNN

It's been a confusing week for women.

On Monday, it started with breast cancer.

A federal advisory board made a controversial recommendation that women begin routine mammograms at age 50, rather than at 40. The United States Preventive Services Task Force came under heavy criticism for its position and triggered confusion and political accusations of health care rationing.

Then, the week ended with cervical cancer.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued guidelines advising that women should receive their first cervical cancer screening, or Pap test, at the age of 21.

The group, a nonprofit organization of women's health care physicians, also recommended that patients younger than 30 be screened every two years, instead of annually, and that healthy women 30 or older be given a Pap test once every three years.

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American Cancer Society

Cancer is a group of diseases that cause cells in the body to change and grow out of control. Most types of cancer cells eventually form a lump or mass called a tumor, and are named after the part of the body where the tumor originates.

Breast cancer begins in breast tissue, which is made up of glands for milk production, called lobules, and the ducts that connect lobules to the nipple. The remainder of the breast is made up of fatty, connective, and lymphatic tissue.

• Most masses are benign; that is, they are not cancerous, do not grow uncontrollably or spread, and are not life-threatening.

• Some breast cancers are called in situ because they are confined within the ducts (ductal carcinoma in situ) or lobules (lobular carcinoma in situ) of the breast. Nearly all cancers at this stage can be cured. Many oncologists believe that lobular carcinoma in situ (also known as lobular neoplasia) is not a true cancer, but an indicator of increased risk for developing invasive cancer in either breast.

Find more facts and figures about breast cancer...

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's new mammography recommendations have raised controversy.

Elizabeth Landau
CNN

A vacation to Washington nearly a decade ago led to a life-changing revelation for Kathi Cordsen. Passing by a breast cancer awareness event, her mother blurted it out: Her doctor had just confirmed that she had breast cancer.

She'd found the lump during a self-examination.

Fortunately, Cordsen's mom had found the cancer so early that she was able to have a lumpectomy and didn't need chemotherapy or radiation. That's why, today, Cordsen checks her own breasts every day in the shower.

"It was such an inspirational thing to find out that it saved her life, that's for sure," said Cordsen, 57, who submitted her story to CNN's iReport. "It's just important, to want to live and take care of yourself."
New guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force say that women age 40 to 49 don't need to have routine mammograms anymore and that breast self-exams aren't recommended in general. The group found no evidence that self-exams reduce breast cancer death rates, and it discourages teaching women how to examine themselves.

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Aid agencies say young women are being forced into prostitution around the world – including Russia's capital.

Tanya M. Acker
AC360° Contributor
Attorney

At the Women’s Conference hosted by Governor Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver last week, I listened to Somaly Mam, a human rights activist who has made the liberation of girls from sex slavery her life’s work, describe her experience of being sold into sex slavery in Cambodia at 10 or 12-years-old. (Ms. Mam did not know exactly how old she was when she was first imprisoned in the brothel, as she lost all conception of time during her confinement.)

She talked about the fact that child sex slaves are raped sometimes 20 to 30 times a day and also described the horror of watching her best friend murdered, an event which ultimately prompted her to attempt a successful escape.

I then heard Ms. Mam and Nicholas Kristof describe the widespread tragedy that is the global sex trade in girls and how in many cases, as these girls are valued by their brothel masters at only a few hundred dollars a person, those brothel owners often think it efficient to execute the “recalcitrants” publicly in order to send a lesson to the others.

And then, as I listened to Lisa Ling correctly point out that much of what passes for “news” these days consists of talking heads yelling at one another, I thought about how, as one of those talking heads, I have spent more time arguing with right wing anchors about such inanities as whether the President is simultaneously a socialist and fascist who wants to impose his own version of martial law, than I have discussing the plight of these girls.

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Kim Parker
Pew Research Center

Women now make up almost half of the U.S. labor force, up from 38% in 1970. This nearly forty-year trend has been fueled by a broad public consensus about the changing role of women in society. A solid majority of Americans (75%) reject the idea that women should return to their traditional roles in society, and most believe that both husband and wife should contribute to the family income.

But in spite of these long-term changes in behaviors and attitudes, many women remain conflicted about the competing roles they play at work and at home. Working mothers in particular are ambivalent about whether full-time work is the best thing for them or their children; they feel the tug of family much more acutely than do working fathers. As a result, most working mothers find themselves in a situation that they say is less than ideal.

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Elise Miller
AC360° Associate Producer

Tonight we’re talking to four successful women who have at least this much in common; they’ve risen to the very top in traditionally male dominated fields.

Our panel of experts will be tackling issues that working women face and sharing how they’ve overcome obstacles to make a name for themselves. The panelists are financial powerhouse Suze Orman, first female White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, neurosurgeon and author Dr. Katrina Firlik and professional poker player Maria Ho.

We’re also focusing on the Tuesday elections. Many of you will be voting, so we’re breaking down the races and the issues. Members of the best political team on television will also look the changed landscape for Democratic and Republican candidates – exactly one year after the general election.

And Afghan electoral officials have declared incumbent President Hamid Karzai the winner of the 2009 presidential election. The announcement was made after opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah withdrew saying he believed a second round of voting would be fraudulent. We’ll dig deeper tonight on the implications of Karzai’s presidency on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.

What else are you following? Let us know and see you at 10 p.m. ET

A 15-year-old girl was gang raped on the campus of Richmond High School in Northern California

Ron Avi Astor
Special to CNN

The alleged gang rape of a 15-year-old girl on the campus of Richmond High School in Northern California while 10 or more witnesses, most of them students, looked on has sparked familiar questions: "Why are our kids so messed up?" "Why didn't these students try to stop the crime?" "What's happening in our schools?"

These are fair questions, and commentators in the media have provided familiar answers. The purported rape is another sad example of today's self-absorbed and uncaring youth. It was the media's glorification of violence that caused it. The horrific act shows how sociopathic brains develop. But it seems as if the majority of commentators have settled on the idea that the Richmond students did nothing because of the "bystander effect": The more people involved in a criminal incident, the less likely any one of them will intervene to do something about it.

Unfortunately, this "What's wrong with our children?" approach leads to a dead end, because it results in a sweeping moral condemnation of the schools, families and students in this community. These perpetrators committed a heinous act that should be widely condemned. But a discussion that focuses exclusively on the immorality of these deviant young men does not provide solutions that prevent gang rape from happening.

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Editor’s Note: On Monday on AC360°, we’ll look at the gender gap at the office. Dr. Katrina Firlik will be part of our panel discussing the changing roles of women at work. Don't miss this special report at 10 p.m. ET.

Women make up only 5 percent of all neurosurgeons.

Dr. Katrina Firlik
Neurosurgeon & Author

I remember the scene well. I’m being interviewed for a position in a neurosurgery residency program. I’m sitting across the table from two senior neurosurgeons, one friendly and talkative, the other reserved. I’ve anticipated the common questions and I’m armed with quick responses. Why did you choose neurosurgery? What are your strengths? Your weaknesses? Can you explain the research you’ve done? Where do you see yourself in ten years? The friendly one is asking all the questions and I feel like I’m acing them. The quiet one stares at me.

I sense the end of the interview and there’s a long pause. The quiet one finally pipes up: “How do you know you’ll be able to handle a surgical drill?” Now there’s one I hadn’t anticipated. And there’s one I doubt he asked the guy with the crew cut before me. Think…think. I feign nonchalance and attempt spontaneous wit: “Well…if you accept me into the program I’ll show you how I can use a drill.” The friendly one cracks a smile.

As a woman in a male-dominated field (only about 5 percent of neurosurgeons are women) there were moments like this, but they were actually rare. In my book, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside, I don’t focus on the “woman in surgery” issue as much as some readers hope. Truthfully, there just wasn’t much there. But that’s progress!

It was a different story for the generations of women who became surgeons before me, but that’s not a story that I can tell, and they are to thank for clearing the way.

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Erica Hill | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

If you’re not a working woman, you don’t need to look far to find one. Women now account for half of the U.S. workforce, and they are increasingly a major economic force within their families, as more women take on the role of “breadwinner.” Despite their solid place in the workforce alongside men – and most families’ need for women to work - it is impossible to ignore the wage gap. Women make 77 cents for every dollar a man brings home. Seventy-seven cents. It is a sobering figure, and a telling one.

Fortune illustrates the chasm in simple numbers from some of the nation’s top earners. The magazine put together lists of the 25 highest-paid women and the 25 best-paid men. Below are the salaries of the top three on each list – I’ll let you guess which salaries belong to the female execs, and which belong to the males.

LIST 1:
1. $42.4 million

2. $23.9 million

3. $20.3 million

LIST 2:
1. $112.5 million

2. $104.5 million

3. $84.5 million

Interesting the difference in those numbers, no? There are other factors that need to be taken into account if one is to compare salaries, among them experience, health of the company and the industry, but still, you can’t ignore the paychecks.

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