For the first time ever, more American women are living without a spouse than with one, the New York Times reports in an analysis of the latest census results. In 2005, 51 percent of women reported living without a spouse. This number was only 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000. William H. […]
A second drought in Afghanistan has affected over two-and-a-half million villagers, some of whom are selling their young daughters as brides in order to feed and clothe their families. An article in The Guardian earlier this month documented the recent surge of bride-selling in Afghanistan that has resulted from two disastrous droughts to hit Afghanistan […]
Harvard University is considering two women in its “short list” of fewer than 10 candidates for its next president, the Boston Globe reports. Both Elena Kagan, dean of Harvard’s law school, and Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, are reportedly among the selection committee’s final choices for the elite position. […]
The US House of Representatives voted yesterday to approve a bill that expands research on embryonic stem cells. The bill, known as HR 3 or the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, amends the Public Health Service Act to fund human embryonic stem cell research with cells that were originally created for fertility treatment. […]
Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston has cleared George Tiller of allegations by former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline that Tiller broke state laws requiring him to report suspicions of underage sex. After a month-long investigation, Foulston concluded that Dr. Tiller did, in fact, follow mandatory reporting laws in various jurisdictions by alerting child protective […]
Under the new leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the 110th Congress voted yesterday to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15-an-hour to $7.25-an-hour by 2009. All House Democrats and 82 Republicans supported the legislation, which passed 315 to 116. Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis (D-CA) issued a statement on the new legislation, known as the […]
Facing pressure from women’s groups and the European Union, the Turkish government has begun a major media campaign condemning all violence towards women, especially so-called “honor” killings. They will also set up hotlines, rescue teams, and town hall meetings in the Kurdish southeastern area of the country, where the rate of honor killings is particularly […]
Less than two months after re-nominating four controversial Court of Appeals nominees during the lame duck session, President Bush did not include these men in his first list of judicial nominees to the new Congress. The four nominees, William J. Haynes II, Terrence W. Boyle, William G. Myers III, and Michael B. Wallace, had all […]
James Kopp, who was convicted under New York state law for the 1998 murder of an abortion provider in Buffalo, NY, started his federal trial yesterday on charges that he violated the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. According to the AP, Kopp is facing a third charge for using a weapon […]
President Bush is expected to announce tonight during an address to the nation an increase in US troops in Iraq by some 20,000. Peace groups, led by Win Without War and True Majority, have formed a coalition called America Says No to make clear the vast opposition to an escalation of the Iraq war. In […]
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU/SC) is suing California over an antiquated marriage law that makes it easier for women to assume their husbands’ last names than for a man to assume his wife’s. Under the state’s current law, women only need to fill in a blank on the marriage form and […]
Margaret Chan, the newly-elected Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), recently announced an agenda for her term centered around women”s health. Dr. Chan is focused on achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals, which include the promotion of gender equality and female empowerment, as well as improving maternal health. Chan is also focused on […]
Before leaving his office as Ohio Governor, Bob Taft (R) last Thursday signed House Bill 239, which officially declares the state’s preference for childbirth over abortion and prohibits the use of public funding to subsidize abortion for poor women. The bill, which was introduced in May 2005, was sent to former Governor Taft on December […]
Oklahoma State Representative Mike Reynolds (R) recently filed an abortion ‘trigger’ bill in the state legislature. The bill would restore Oklahoma’s laws prohibiting abortion in the state if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. “Given recent changes at the Supreme Court and expected retirements, there is a real chance the Court could revisit and […]
Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made history yesterday when she became the first ever woman Speaker of the House. After a roll call on the floor of the House of Representatives, the new 110th Congress elected Pelosi, an Italian-American feminist and grandmother of six, as their Speaker. As Pelosi took the Speaker’s gavel for the first […]
War has taken a toll on Iraq’s once-exemplary maternal health care system, endangering the health of pregnant Iraqi women and their fetuses, according to an article in Thursday’s Washington Post. Nightly curfews, constant fighting and unannounced road closures make it dangerous and difficult for women in labor, and their doctors, to get to the hospital […]
A law newly passed in Togo expands abortion rights, legalizing abortion in cases of rape or incest and when the fetus is at risk of a serious medical condition. Previously, abortion was only legal to protect the mother’s life or physical health. As of April 2005, only three of 53 African countries–Cape Verde, South Africa […]
The rate of intimate partner violence declined by more than half from 1993 to 2004, according to a survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a division of the US Department of Justice. A preamble to the data notes that violence between intimates is particularly hard to measure, as victims are largely reluctant to report […]
In the past month, women across the world have been moving into new and groundbreaking political leadership positions. Here, we profile four women’s recent successes. In the United States, Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will be sworn-in as Speaker of the House this afternoon. Speaker Pelosi, who will begin serving her 11th term in Congress, has […]
Same-sex marriage advocates were delivered a major blow on Tuesday when the Massachusetts legislature voted to advance a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to a man and woman. Three-years ago, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled that same-sex marriage should be legal. However, last week the same court proclaimed that lawmakers should weigh in on the […]
