When I was young I thought only boys like me stammer. May be not all boys, just me. My sister did not stammer, my mother did not. Girls in my class did not stammer. In fact some girls were “fascinated” with my stutter, which I found quite embarrassing. Now, at 52, many of my opinions are changed. I know girls too stammer and they too feel embarrassed when boys tease them about it.

Just like us. But they find it even more difficult to deal with it. Women in Asia face more difficulties due to the fact that they are women in a society governed totally by men: social scientist have talked about increasing feminization of poverty, triple jeopardy of older women (you are woman, you are more likely to be a widow than your husband is likely to be a widower, on top of that- you are an old woman!) etc etc. All this points to the problems caused by an uneven play field.

As a counselor, I have been in touch with young PWS of both gender for some years. I have found few (not many) women PWS coming out of the self imposed silence successfully: On the other hand, men PWS make a lot of progress in terms of sharing their experiences (on blog, forum and through other means), participating in the self help activity etc. Of course it is difficult for both. No doubt. But unless you talk about it- how will you ever come out of the problem? Recently, I heard a podcast by two women who stammer: Gloria Klumb from Madison, Wisconsin, interviewed by Pam Hertz. It was a pleasure to listen to. I wish I had access to it twenty years ago!

Gloria talks very candidly about her life with stuttering: her children and family - the work scene- and finally how she becomes a chapter leader for National Stuttering Association. Both women demonstrate that calm comfortable way of stammering for which many of us would happily give our right eye or limb. They both are very good communicator and talk a lot of sense. If you are a woman- you must listen to it; if you are men, you should listen to It twice- and share with others.
Download this podcast (episode 6) at this page. It is 38.8 Mb mp3 file.
http://stutterrockstar.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/its-ok-to-stutter-episode-6/