After a spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Church in Spain for the first time expressed support of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, Spain’s bishops retracted the statement. Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, spokesperson for the Spanish Bishops Conference, told reporters in Madrid, “Condoms have a place in the global prevention of AIDS” and that […]
Led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), 36 women members of Congress sent a letter to President Bush in response to President Bush’s remarks on Social Security last week. The Congresswomen expressed their concern about the ways Social Security privatization would negatively affect women, who make up almost 60 percent of Social Security beneficiaries. […]
The Illinois legislature approved a bill last week to amend the Illinois Human Rights Act to include protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation in the areas of employment, housing, public accommodations, and credit. The Chicago Tribune reports that the passing vote of 65-51 in the Illinois House was the result of urging from several […]
Women in Iraq are putting their lives at risk as candidates for political office in the upcoming elections. According to the LA Times, most of the female candidates are running in secret because women have been particularly targeted by religious fundamentalists. One female candidate was killed near her home in December and another survived an […]
Harvard President Lawrence Summers is under heavy criticism for suggesting at an academic conference that women have less innate ability to perform in science and mathematics than men. He also downplayed the role discrimination and social factors play in explaining the dearth of female professors in science and engineering at major universities, according to the […]
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco on Sunday signed a bill to make the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr a state holiday, following up on her first official act as governor last year of proclaiming the day should be recognized by Louisiana. The official sanction was made possible after the state legislature approved the legislation (Act […]
A group of Iranian journalists have received death threats from judicial officials after testifying before a presidential commission about being tortured while in detention. According to Human Rights Watch, a female journalist, Fereshteh Ghazi, told the commission that she endured severe beatings and a broken nose. Ghazi writes about women’s rights issues in a daily […]
Ninety-seven US Lawmakers, led by Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), sent a letter Tuesday to the Department of Justice, in which they “strongly urged” the revision of its new guidelines for the treatment of sexual assault survivors to include information about emergency contraception (EC). The letter, to Diane Stuart, Director of DOJ’s Office on Violence Against […]
More than seventy women from twenty-one Arab countries met in Yemen in December at the first Democratic Forum for Arab Women arguing that “political empowerment of women is a necessary step towards political reform in the Arab states,” reports Reuters. Women from the Arab world are demanding no less than 20 percent representation in political […]
Christine Gregoire was sworn in Wednesday as Governor of Washington state. Washington makes history as the first state to have its top three statewide offices held by women, as Governor Gregoire joins U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray. Washington, at 33.3%, ranks second to Maryland in the percentage of women holding state legislative office […]
Doris Matsui announced yesterday that she will seek the California congressional seat held for 26 years by her late husband Rep. Robert T. Matsui. She immediately received the endorsement of Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi, who represents the San Francisco area in Congress. Pelosi noted her credentials in giving her endorsement. “Doris has advocated for […]
Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) in a National Press Club speech urged Democrats to not be Republican clones saying that if they do they “will lose again, and deserve to lose.” Citing the small margin in Ohio, Kennedy pointed out that a change of only 60,000 votes would have defeated an incumbent president. He rejected […]
If the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has its way, after July 2005 employers will no longer be required to provide data on female and male employees in their monthly payroll reports. The BLS cited a lack of demand for the information and not wanting to overburden employers as their reasons for […]
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) criticized the Bush administration for putting too much emphasis on abstinence in the fight against HIV/AIDS and restricting women’s access to reproductive health services in developing countries in a recent address to the International Women’s Health Coalition. Clinton stated that although the Bush administration supports the “ABC” HIV prevention model, […]
Four family members have been arrested for murdering a newlywed couple in Punjab, India in what police believe is a so-called “honor killing”. According to India News, Harpreet Singh and his wife who was seven months pregnant, Amandeep Kaur, belonged to different castes, which the police believed angered the woman’s family. Kaur’s maternal grandfather and […]
An early Sunday morning fire at the Eastside Women’s Health Clinic in Olympia, Washington was intentionally set according to local police and federal investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The clinic was closed when the fire was discovered and there were no injuries, reports the Associated Press. […]
The Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to Florida’s ban on adoption by lesbians and gay men. According to the Washington Post, the court declined a petition issued by four gay foster parents and their foster children, in Lawrence v. Texas, who are arguing that Florida’s law, the only state law in the […]
President Hamid Karzai recently announced twenty-seven ministers that will serve in his new Cabinet, including three women. The only female presidential candidate to run in Afghanistan’s first post-Taliban elections, Dr. Masooda Jalal, was named the Minister of Women’s Affairs. Jalal, a medical doctor, was also the only women to run for president of the Interim […]
Nine women were arrested Friday as they participated in a protest of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) holding up the over-the-counter-use of Emergency Contraception (EC). Part of a group of some 40 protesters, the nine women, mostly from New York and Florida, were charged with disorderly conduct as they were arrested by Homeland Security […]
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that the Voting Integrity and Verification Act of 2004 (VIVA) will be reintroduced in the new Congress. The Act would amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to by requiring “a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy” of votes cast. Senator Reid made his announcement during last week’s […]
