On Wednesday, Nobuko Horibe, director of the Asia and Pacific Regional Office of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) issued a statement before the International Workshop on Prenatal Sex Selection describing the UNFPA’s renewed commitment to ending gender-based sex selection and discrimination against women and girls. Horibe pointed out that that gender imbalances contribute to […]
A study published on Monday called into question the benefits of injectable hormones, the most popular form of contraception used in Southern and Eastern Africa, and identified a link between the contraception and HIV transmission. The study appeared in a front page, above the fold article in Tuesday’s New York Times, attracting attention to the […]
On Thursday, 20 House Democrats, led by Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY), called for an ethics investigation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for allegedly failing to report that his wife was paid $700,000 for her work at the Heritage Foundation between 2003 and 2007. The Democrats issued a letter requesting that the Judicial Conference determine […]
According to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Washington, published in the Lancet Infections Diseases, women who used contraceptive injections were twice as likely to contract and spread HIV. The researchers studied 3,790 couples in which one partner was HIV positive in Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Ungada, and Zambia. Isobel […]
A new study conducted by the American Cancer Society revealed that deaths resulting from breast cancer have been steadily decreasing for more affluent women in the US since 1990. By contrast, lower-income women have not experienced the same rate of decline and were 7 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than their more […]
On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in conjunction with Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, filed a lawsuit against a new North Carolina law that requires pregnant women to receive ultrasounds and be given information about […]
A study conducted by Stanford researchers, Eran Bendavid and Grant Miller, revealed that when the Global Gag Rule was in effect, rates of abortion increased in Africa. The Global Gag Rule bans US funding for family planning programs in developing countries that provide information to women or advocate on a full range of options, including […]
A survey of approximately 1,000 Afghan women, conducted by Action Aid and Oxfam, revealed that the majority of the women (86 percent) were concerned about the possibility of returning to a Taliban-style government. Seventy-two percent of the women surveyed had experienced improvements and increased rights since the war began in Afghanistan in 2001, and 37 […]
The group sold baked goods that were priced according to the race and gender of their costumers.
US Senior District Judge Wesley Brown denied the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) motion to block a Kansas law that prohibits private health insurance plans from covering abortion services, except when the woman’s life is endangered. Under the law, women who seek coverage for abortion services must purchase a separate rider to cover non-lifesaving abortions. […]
Students at UC Berkeley have been engaged in an ongoing debate and protest this week after a GOP campus group organized an anti-affirmative action bake sale on Tuesday. The group sold baked goods that were priced according to the race and gender of their costumers. The bake sale was designed to protest the California Senate […]
The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Service is considering modernizing the definition of rape, which currently does not include forced anal sex and/or oral sex, vaginal or anal fisting, rape with an object (even if serious injuries result), and other injurious and degrading sexual assaults. As a result of the FBI’s outmoded definition of rape, thousands […]
Walmart recently approved a provision as part of its non-discrimination policy to protect its transgender employees. The provision, which went into effect a few weeks ago, according to Walmart spokesman Phillip Keene, prohibits harassment both on the basis of gender identity and gender expression. Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign, stated, “What matters […]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a meeting with Catherine Ashton, the top diplomat for the European Union and Michelle Bachelet, executive director of UN Women and the former president of Chile, signed a document in support of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). “We call upon […]
Hundreds Of People packed the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Wednesday morning to call for the defeat of two bills that will restrict abortion access in Pennsylvania. The bills, SB 732 and SB 3, would require abortion clinics to become licensed as outpatient surgery clinics, and ban state-run health insurance providers from covering abortion care. […]
On Tuesday, a Saudi court sentenced a woman to 10 lashes with a whip for driving a car. According to the Los Angeles Times, there is no formal law in place in Saudi Arabia that bans women from driving. However, there is a law that requires citizens to carry locally issued licenses. These licenses are […]
By Trish Calvarese, 9/26/2011 In a national TV address Sunday, Saudi King Abdullah declared an end to the de facto ban on women’s suffrage. Beginning in 2015, women will be able to vote and run in local elections. This seemingly good news, heralded by the AP as “a major advancement for the rights of women,” overshadowed […]
Yesterday Tina Tchen, executive director of the White House Council on Women and Girls, John P. Holdren, policy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, and National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Subra Suresh announced their new initiative to promote work place flexibility to women and men involved in research careers. Tina Tchen […]
Despite gaining the right to vote in a recent speech delivered by King Abdullah, Saudi women are facing a setback in their struggle to achieve driving rights. The same day as the king’s announcement, the Authority of Prosecutors Committee brought Najla al-Hariri to the police department to question her about her involvement in a recent […]
Africa’s first woman Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai, died at age 71 of cancer on Sunday. In 2004, Maathi was awarded the Nobel Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.” She stated in her acceptance speech, “My fellow Africans, as we embrace this recognition, let us use it to intensify our […]
