Liberians voted last Tuesday for the first time since the 14-year civil war ravaged the country under Charles Taylor. Since none of the 22 candidates received a majority vote, a runoff has been set for November 8 to decide between Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and George Weah. Johnson-Sirleaf, 66, is a Harvard-educated economist with an impressive resume […]
A 1989 Texans for Life questionnaire released yesterday made clear that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers is extremely opposed to abortion. The 1989 questionnaire was delivered to the Senate Judiciary Committee along with Miers’ answers to the questionnaire given to her by the committee. On the questionnaire, given to Miers during her run for Dallas […]
A new study shows that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the women of the Gulf Coast the hardest. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), women in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are more likely than men to be impoverished and heading single-parent families. The poverty rate among female-headed families—which comprise 56 […]
A study by the Writers Guild of America, West, has revealed a discouraging rate of progress in the number of women writers employed film and TV over the past seven years. Although the percentage of women writers is up, the total number of women writers is down. The report, entitled “Catching Up With a Changing […]
On a 1989 questionnaire, Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers supported an extreme proposed US Constitutional ban on abortions, and she continues to avoid taking a stand on the issue of privacy in the Constitution. On the 1989 questionnaire from Texans United for Life, taken during her run for Dallas City Council, Miers checked “yes” to […]
The Supreme Court today acknowledged the right of a Missouri inmate to have an abortion, accepting the ruling of a federal judge who had ordered Missouri prison officials to provide transportation for the woman. The judge, US District Judge Dean Whipple, had overruled the state’s decision to refuse the woman transportation because of a new […]
The Feminist Majority Foundation, along with nine other women’s rights and health organizations has called for the withdrawal of President Bush’s nomination of Ellen Sauerbrey to be Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration. Sauerbrey is currently the US Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women and has […]
The White House Project has released an analysis of the continuing dearth of female voices in mainstream media, focusing on Sunday morning talk shows. According to the report, titled Who’s Talking Now, women compose only 14 percent of guests on these shows, up from the 11 percent representation found in a 2001 report. The 2005 […]
EMILY’s List celebrated its 20th anniversary today with a Gala in Washington, DC, commemorating two decades of campaigning for pro-choice Democratic women. Since its inception, EMILY’s List has helped elected 61 US congresswoman, 11 US Senators, eight governors and 216 women to other state and local offices. “We have combined the financial commitment of thousands […]
Last week, 62 members of Congress sent a letter urging Andrew von Eschenbach, acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to approve the emergency contraceptive Plan B for over-the-counter sales. “We are displeased that the FDA continues to delay, postpone, and create impediments to issuing a decision on an application that its own […]
Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, the male editor of a women’s rights magazine in Afghanistan who was arrested and jailed on October 1, is now on trial on charges of blasphemy. Nasab was arrested for publishing articles criticizing execution and other severe punishments for adultery, thievery, and murder under Sharia (Islamic) law. Nasab was reportedly arrested at […]
C DeLores Tucker, a lifetime champion of civil rights and women’s rights, died yesterday at the age of 78. Dr. Tucker was the first African American and the first woman to hold the position of Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1971, the first African-American woman to be vice chair of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party, […]
As Iraq prepares to vote on its new constitution on Saturday, 11 members of the House of Representatives have sent a letter to President Bush expressing their concerns about the challenges facing Iraqi women and asking him to make public any plans he may have to ensure that women’s rights are safeguarded by the new […]
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has released its 2005 report, highlighting the critical link between achieving gender equality and eradicating poverty. Entitled The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals, the report analyzes the current status of women and girls, particularly in developing areas, and suggests a “road map” […]
The Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese released personnel files yesterday as part of settlement talks with 560 alleged victims of priest sexual abuse. The documents, which were edited to delete revealing details about both the priests and the alleged victims, revealed that in many cases over the past several decades, priests accused of pedophilia were […]
Angela Merkel will replace Gerhard Schroeder as chancellor of Germany, becoming the first woman and first East German to hold the office. The decision came after three weeks of negotiation between the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD), following an inconclusive election. The two opposing parties decided to attempt joint […]
A California bill signed into law last week includes a ban on shackling women during labor, delivery and recovery. According to reports by Salon.com and the San Jose Mercury News, shackling women inmates during labor had been a routine practice in California prisons, despite no recorded instances of escape or assault by a prisoner giving […]
The editor of an Afghan women’s rights magazine has been jailed for ten days so far on charges of publishing articles criticizing execution and other severe punishments for adultery, thievery, and murder under Sharia (Islamic) law. Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, the male editor of Haqooq-i-zan, which means Women’s Rights, was reportedly arrested at the urging of […]
The pharmaceutical giant Merck has announced successful results in a study of its vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. Of the 12,000 women who participated in the two-year study, 100 percent of those who received the vaccine were free from precancerous lesions and early-stage cancers, while 21 cases of lesions were reported in the group that […]
Indiana State Senator Pat Miller on Wednesday withdrew her bill to regulate assisted reproduction. The measure would have effectively banned gay couples and single individuals from access, and would have required married couples to undergo invasive questioning before being approved by the state. In a brief statement, Miller said she decided to drop the proposal […]
