The Ugandan parliament unanimously passed a bill late last week that bans female genital mutilation (FGM) in the country. According to United Press International, those who are convicted of performing FGM will face up to 10 years in prison and can face life sentences in instances where the girl dies from the procedure. Parliament is […]
Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider, who are sharing this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine with Jack Szostak, called for wider opportunities for women in the sciences in advance of receiving the prize last week. Blackburn, Greider, and Szostak, who are all American, are sharing the award “for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by […]
Somayeh Rashidi, an Iranian women’s rights activist with the One Million Signatures Campaign, was targeted this morning with a search of her home and a summons to court. She told Change for Equality, that she “asked the security officials to provide me with identification, but they refused, claiming instead that [she] will find out in […]
On Dec. 9th, 2009 CNN American Morning, presented a disappointing, one sided, and not scientifically based segment about the value of single-sex classes in public schools. Tell CNN to stop promoting sex segregation in public schools.
Congress released the final FY 2010 appropriations bill Wednesday night, which eliminates traditional sources of funding for abstinence-only programs and instead provides funding for “a new evidence-based teenage pregnancy prevention initiative.” The bill calls for $114.5 million to be appropriated for the new programs, which will include age appropriate and medically accurate information on both […]
Ohio state representative Kathleen Chandler introduced a bill this week that would establish a program to protect the confidentiality of domestic violence victims. The bill would amend current law to “establish an address confidentiality program for individuals who reasonably believe that they are in danger of being threatened or physically harmed by another person.” The […]
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor became the first to use the term “undocumented immigrant” in a Supreme Court decision when her first opinion from the high court was released Tuesday. According to the New York Times, the term “illegal immigrant” has appeared in a dozen previous Supreme Court opinions. The case, Mohawk v. Carpenter (see […]
Last week, filmmaker Darryl Roberts launched a boycott against the clothing company Ralph Lauren on the grounds that their advertisements promote negative body images in women and girls. According to the Huffington Post, the boycott has so far generated the support of the National Association of Anorexia Nervousa and Associated Eating Disorders (ANAD), the YWCA […]
Yesterday, the Senate defeated the anti-choice Nelson-Hatch amendment to the health insurance reform bill by a vote of 54-45. Prior to the vote, 16 Senators spoke out on the floor against the amendment, including Senators Max Baucus (D-MT), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Al Franken […]
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley won the Democratic US Senate primary for the special election to fill the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat yesterday. Coakley is widely expected to win the special election on January 19 against state Senator Scott Brown, the Republican nominee. According to the Boston Globe, Massachusetts has not elected a Republican […]
Ugandan legislators announced today that proposed legislation that would have imposed life imprisonment as the minimum sentence for being gay and would have allowed for the death penalty is being altered to remove both punishments, but still would introduce imprisonment and potentially counseling to reverse offenders’ sexual orientation. According to Bloomberg, the new version of […]
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon signed a bill that requires crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) to post signs disclosing that they do not offer referrals for or information about abortion and contraception. Dixon’s approval of the measure makes Baltimore the first city in the US to have “truth in advertising” legislation. In November the bill was approved […]
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) delivered a floor speech yesterday in the US Senate addressing the anti-abortion Stupak/Pitts amendment in the House of Representatives and the similar Nelson amendment proposed this week in the Senate. Today’s debate of Senator Ben Nelson’s (D-NE) amendment is being covered live on CSPAN2. Excerpts of Senator Boxer’s remarks are as […]
The case of three Irish women who are challenging Ireland’s abortion ban will be heard by the full 17 member chamber of the European Court of Human Rights this week. The three women claim in their lawsuit, ABC v. Ireland, that their well-being and health was threatened by Ireland’s restrictive laws that prevent abortion in […]
A bill introduced in the French parliament last week would require all companies on the Paris Stock Exchange to ensure that 50 percent of their board members are women by 2015. According to the plan, companies would be required to have women as 20 percent of their boards within 18 months and women as 40 […]
Hundreds of feminist activists from around the country gathered today on Capitol Hill to rally against the anti-abortion Stupak/Pitts amendment to the health insurance reform bill. The lobby day was presented by the Stop Stupak Coalition, which is also sponsoring a week of action that started Monday. The coalition includes 53 partners that form “a […]
The Senate approved an amendment to the healthcare insurance reform legislation yesterday that requires insurance companies to provide women with free mammograms and other preventative screening services. The amendment was approved on a 61 to 39 vote. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) introduced the amendment and told the New York Times, “My amendment offers key preventive […]
Nature Publishing Group, which publishes Scientific American, announced yesterday that Mariette DiChristina will be the 164-year-old publication’s first woman Editor-in-Chief. DiChristina has been acting Editor-in-Chief since June, when John Rennie left the position, according to Scientific American. Previously, she was the publication’s executive editor. DiChristina has worked for more than 20 years in science journalism. […]
The head of Iran’s state television, Ezatollah Zarghami, said Wednesday that state-sponsored television programs will prohibit women who appear on air from using make-up. Zarghami also said that programs will ban “repulsive jokes” between women and men, and that it is “preferable” that women guests appear on shows hosted by other women, according to Agence […]
It’s really, really hard to get a sport into the Olympic Games. The sport must be played competitively in a certain amount of countries—which can mean that boosters must help develop the sport outside of their home country as well as within it—and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) must be convinced. For women’s sports, the […]
