Nobel Peace Laureate and human rights activist Rigoberta Menchu Tum lost her bid for Guatemala’s presidency Sunday, finishing sixth in a field of 14 candidates. The country’s first indigenous presidential candidate, Menchu Tum garnered three percent of the vote after a difficult campaign marked by inadequate funds, sexism, and discrimination based on her Mayan-Indian background. […]
A British study showed that use of the contraceptive pill does not increase the risk for cancer, and may actually reduce the risk of some types of cancer. Researchers, lead by Professor Philip Hannaford, studied the records of 46,000 women over a 36-year period and compared the half of the sample of women who began […]
A lawsuit alleging that University of Colorado (CU) football players and recruits gang-raped two women in 2001 was reinstated by a federal appeals court Thursday. Brought under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the suit alleges that CU officials failed to respond adequately to a long history of sexual harassment and assault by […]
The California State Senate has passed a law to shield workers in the state from a US Supreme Court decision that severely limits employees’ ability to sue for equal pay. In May, the Court ruled 5-4 in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire Co. that wage discrimination complaints could only be filed within 180 days of the […]
Sonia Gandhi, chair of India’s governing party, addressed nearly 5,000 women at a Women’s Empowerment Conference in Kashmir on Monday. In her speech, Gandhi stated that education and opportunity were the keys to women’s empowerment and praised the women of Kashmir as a symbol of resistance against terror. “The women have always bore the brunt […]
After a long delay, the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Bill is now being considered by the Wisconsin State Assembly. The bill, which would require hospitals to provide rape victims with information about emergency contraception and access to the medication if it is requested, already passed the State Senate with a 27-6 vote. It has […]
The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego reached a nearly $200 million settlement on Friday with 144 victims of alleged abuse by church clergy members. The $198.1 million settlement, if approved by a judge, marks the second-largest payment by a Roman Catholic diocese since widespread claims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy became public in […]
Police suspect that Islamic militants are responsible for the kidnapping and beheading of two women in Pakistan on Friday. The women, identified as Maino and Malaki, were abducted by five armed men on Thursday as they rode in an auto rickshaw, the Associated Press reports. On Friday, their bodies were discovered outside a village about […]
In a 53-41 vote yesterday, the Senate passed an amendment to the $34 billion fiscal year 2008 foreign aid bill that would overturn the Global Gag Rule. Also called the Mexico City policy, the Global Gag Rule prohibits the US from funding overseas organizations that support abortion in any way — including direct services, counseling, […]
In its annual list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women, Forbes Magazine included several feminists and friends of the women’s movement, demonstrating the power women can hold when they believe in equality. Women political leaders ranked high, with Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi […]
Legislators in Great Britain are preparing to make abortion more accessible to women by removing a requirement for prior approval from two different doctors and, in some cases, allowing nurses to perform the procedure. Members of parliament from all parties are set to “modernize” the 1967 abortion law by enabling women who are less than […]
During a recent trip to Iran, United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights Louise Arbour met with women’s rights activist and Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi on the status of women in Iran. According to Reuters, Dr. Ebadi wrote to the United Nations earlier this summer, asking for a UN investigation of Iran’s treatment of […]
A 2003-2005 breastfeeding promotion campaign commissioned by the federal government was watered down after pressure from formula industry lobbyists, the Washington Post reports. Originally, the ads featured disquieting images of insulin syringes and asthma inhalers to emphasize the negative health consequences associated with not breastfeeding. They were the result of focus-group research suggesting that an […]
Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari left Iran earlier this week after eight months of detention. Dr. Esfandiari, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Middle East Program, was prevented from leaving Iran to return to the US after visiting her ailing mother in December 2006. Iran accused her of being a threat to Iranian national security, and […]
Niki Tsongas won the Democratic primary yesterday for her Congressional bid in Massachusetts’ fifth district, where US Representative Martin Meehan (D) has announced he will be stepping down after serving in Congress for 14 years. Tsongas, who has support from the Feminist Majority PAC and EMILY’s List, beat out four other contenders in the primary, […]
For less than a day, Iowa officials were accepting marriage license requests from same-sex couples and one same-sex couple was officially married, becoming the first same-sex married couple outside of Massachusetts. Judge Robert Hanson ruled on Thursday in favor of six same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses under a 1998 Iowa state law that […]
A new study reveals a considerable difference in how cohabitating couples and married couples divide housework responsibilities. The international study, conducted by researchers at North Carolina State University and George Mason University and published in the September edition of the Journal of Family Issues, finds that cohabitating couples tend to split household chores more equitably […]
Emails released by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) yesterday confirm claims by former Surgeon General Richard Carmona that he was subject to political pressure and interference by the Bush administration during his tenure in the position. Carmona had testified in July before a House committee that that the Bush administration interfered with and censored his speeches […]
A federal judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of a new Missouri law that would have caused several Planned Parenthood clinics to close. The law, which was intended to take effect on Tuesday, would have placed abortion clinics under state supervision under the category of “outpatient surgery centers,” requiring them to meet standards that Planned Parenthood […]
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Refugee Agency released a report today assessing the status of economic and social rights in Afghanistan. The second of its kind, the report consolidates interviews with over 11,000 people, many of whom are former refugees, internally displaced persons, members of “vulnerable groups,” and residents in […]
