This summer, the US Department of Education (ED) will conduct in-depth investigations of how colleges and universities are treating women and men students and faculty in their science and mathematics departments. Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs, is best known for its effects on federally funded athletic opportunities. “This reminds […]
A second woman has decided to run for president of Yemen. On March 15, Rashida al-Qaili joined Sumaya Ali Raja, who had announced her candidacy in December, as the first two women candidates ever to seek the position. Rashida Al-Qaili, a satirical columnist, will run as an independent candidate. She said she would rely on […]
Duke University has suspended games of the men’s lacrosse team, which was ranked number two in the nation, while allegations of gang rape involving members of the team are investigated. An African-American student at neighboring North Carolina Central University told police she was raped for approximately half an hour by three white members of the […]
Jamaica’s first woman prime minister was sworn in yesterday at a ceremony in Kingston, the nation’s capital. “The swearing-in of the honorable Portia Simpson-Miller as the seventh prime minister of Jamaica must certainly rank among the defining moments in the history of this country,” said Jamaican Governor-General Kenneth Hall, speaking to a crowd of 6,000. […]
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) announced today a new bill aimed at false advertising by so-called crisis pregnancy centers. The bill, “Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services” Act, targets anti-choice centers that use deceptive advertising offering help to pregnant women or free pregnancy tests to lure women in, especially young and low-income women. Rather than offering […]
Journalist Jill Carroll, who was abducted in Iraq three months ago, was released today by her captors unharmed. Carroll was in Iraq on assignment for the Christian Science Monitor when she was abducted and her translator killed on January 7. In an interview that was broadcast on Baghdad television, Carroll emphasized that her captors “never […]
An anti-abortion group known as the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit this week challenging Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s law requiring a 15-foot buffer zone around clinics. The ordinance was passed in December, and prohibits protestors from coming within 15 feet of a clinic or within eight feet of an individual patient. Violators would be fined for […]
A new study has revealed that the voices of anti-choice men dominate The New York Times’ op-eds about abortion. According to the American Prospect’s study, between February 2004 and February 2006, women wrote just 17 percent of Times op-eds mentioning abortion, and only seven of 67 writers who touched on the subject were female. Maureen […]
The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) recently instructed all public school districts to stop using a federally funded abstinence-only sex education program called “Right Time, Right Place,” which was developed by Heritage of Rhode Island and was taught in two school districts last year. Heritage of Rhode Island had a federal three-year grant which […]
Late last night the proposed Mississippi abortion ban was killed when the Republican Chair of the Senate’s Public Health and Welfare committee, Alan Nunnelee, refused to sign the House bill. The House chair, Democrat Steve Holland, called Nunnelee’s bluff by essentially agreeing to all provisions of the ban. Holland told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger “we brought […]
President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea has nominated Han Myeong Sook, who has often worked on women’s causes, to be the country’s next prime minister. While Han is the second woman to be nominated to the post of prime minister, the previous nomination was rejected by Parliament, which has 20 days to vote on the […]
A new coalition called South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families announced on Friday that it was launching a referendum campaign to repeal the South Dakota abortion ban. The law, which will take effect in July, bans all abortions in South Dakota except those necessary to save the life of the woman – even victims of […]
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) released a new resource guide last week designed to help women to negotiate wages and recognize wage discrimination in their jobs. The guide, Know What to Ask and Know Your Rights: A Pay Equity Guide on How to Help Yourself in the Workplace is aimed at young women entering the […]
Experts at the Regional Consultation on Unsafe Abortion in Africa, which ended yesterday, discussed the prevalence of unsafe abortions and how policy changes can change these statistics. The conference was sponsored by two US organizations, Ipas and the Guttmacher Institute, and drew medical experts and policy-makers to Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia for four days. Eunice Brookman-Amissah, Ipas […]
French women will now need to be 18 years or older to consent to marry, three years older than previously required by law. The French parliament passed the law as a method of preventing forced marriages, reports Ireland Online, and the French standard is now aligned with other states that belong to the European Union. […]
At the Fourth Annual World Water Forum, held this past week in Mexico City, the Women’s Caucus called on the conference attendees to uphold women’s human right to water by including women in decisions related to water usage and sanitation and by taking gender issues into consideration when making policy. They cited the United Nations […]
The National Population and Family Planning Commission of China has announced its intention to continue its one-child per family policy despite allegations of abuse, while stepping up efforts to prevent sex-selection abortions. NPFPCC Director Zhang Weiqing said in an online forum that officials would continue to “unswervingly implement” the policy because higher population would place […]
In a decision that could have severe ramifications for victims of domestic violence, the Supreme Court is considering whether plaintiffs in abuse cases are required by the Constitution to appear in court – something that many are afraid to do. “[Requiring in-court testimony] would make it very difficult, if not impossible, to prosecute the vast […]
Andrew von Eschenbach, Acting Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and nominee to the permanent position, denied any undue influence from the Bush administration. Speaking to reporters at the Association of Health Care Journalists annual meeting, von Eschenbach said that he had not been ideologically “restrained or constrained” by the administration in any […]
In a move that could have devastating effects on low-income women in Missouri, the state House of Representatives voted in favor of cutting off state funding of contraceptives and forbidding state-funded programs from referring women to other programs that would provide contraception. Instead, a portion of the more than $9 million marked for public-health programs […]
