Stating that the Linda Chavez nomination is an affront to labor, the AFL-CIO is gearing up to stop Chavez’s nomination as Labor Secretary. Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, Board Member of the Feminist Majority, and leading champion for Latina women, has announced that she will strongly oppose Chavez’s nomination. Huerta is currently […]
A recent Gallup survey asked people living in the major cities of Brazil, Columbia, Mexico and El Salvador whether they think their countries will elect a female president in the next 20 years. Two-thirds of respondents said yes. Seventy-nine percent of El Salvadoran respondents saw their nation electing a woman in the next 20 years; […]
In September, archaeologists at the Museum of London announced that what may be the remains of a female gladiator had been discovered near the London Amphitheatre, where gladiators are believed to have fought. The woman, who lived almost two thousand years ago, was probably in her early twenties. She was identified by a charred pelvic […]
Breaking from the traditional seniority-based system of appointment, House Republicans yesterday selected a slate of committee chairs that did not include even one woman. The most senior woman in the House, moderate Rep. Marge Roukema (R-NJ), was passed over for the chairmanship of the Financial Services Committee. The committee, which will hold broad jurisdiction over […]
Stem cell research, which could potentially provide life saving treatment for Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s, and cancer patients, could be blocked under the new Bush administration. During his presidential campaign, Bush said he “would oppose federally funded research for experimentation on embryonic stem cells that require live human embryos to be destroyed.” Questions remain if Bush […]
Two Long Island women have filed complaints stating that Suffolk County police officers forced them to strip in public to avoid arrest. On Dec. 27 Julianna Rubio was pulled over by Officer Frank Wright for driving without headlights and then given two sobriety tests, one of which he said she failed. Ms. Rubio claims that […]
Opponents of Linda Chavez’s nomination for Labor Secretary have amassed excerpts from her collection of conservative columns and statements that reveal her blatant anti-woman rights stance. Chavez does not believe women face “glass ceilings” in the workplace that keep women from moving to upper-level, higher paying positions. Instead she attributes unequal pay and lower-level positions […]
A commission, set up by Maryland Governor Parris Glendening, has determined “discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation does occur in Maryland.” The commission has also recommended Maryland adopt measures to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations. Glendening’s proposal for a new state law will reach the State House of Representatives […]
Hillary Rodham Clinton made history Wednesday as the first woman Senator from New York and the only First Lady ever to win public office. After being sworn in as New York’s junior Senator by Vice President Al Gore, Clinton pledged to continue the Democratic policies of her husband. President Clinton jokingly thanked New Yorkers for […]
More than 10,000 Afghan women and children who have fled fighting inside Afghanistan and the Taliban’s military advancements, which now control almost 95% of the country, are in makeshift camps along the Pyandi River in the midst of winter. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed grave concern over increasingly poor conditions for […]
In a remarkable, yet long overdue, social policy change the German military has opened all divisions of its military to women. Until this change, women were only allowed to serve the military in medical staff positions and musical units, totaling approximately 4,460 positions available to them in Germanys’ 320,000-member armed forces. The elimination of gender […]
On New Year’s Eve, just in time to meet the year-end deadline, President Clinton signed the International Criminal Court (ICC) Treatya major victory for women’s rights and human rights groups. Had Clinton not signed the Treaty, the US could not have indicated its support of the ICC through signature alone and would have needed ratification […]
New York Representative and avid abortion rights supporter Nita Lowey (D-NY) is the first woman selected to chair the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, whose efforts include taking back control of the House in 2002. Lowey, who is serving her eighth term in the House, will lead fundraising efforts and political planning for candidates in the […]
On December 31, 2000, an unknown person fired at least 25 bullets into a suburban Kansas City abortion clinic. An FBI spokesperson reported that the shots appeared to have been fired after 2 a.m. from outside the clinic, located in the suburb of Overland Park, KS. The damage did not affect patient-care areas, and the […]
Linda Chavez, President-elect George W. Bush’s pick for Labor Department Secretary, has a decades-long record of anti-affirmative action, anti-pay equity, anti-minimum wage and English-only education positions. Women’s rights groups, labor groups and Latino groups have expressed outrage over Chavez’s nomination. Cecelia Munoz of the National Council of La Raza, criticized Chavez for being “in favor […]
Last July, as the 13th International AIDS Conference drew to a close in Durban, South Africa, a lawmaker in neighboring Swaziland was proposing a way to halt the spread of AIDS in his country: ban miniskirts. This way, Senator Majahenkhaba Dlamini reportedly argued, men who are infected with HIV would be less likely to rape […]
Civil, women’s, and abortion rights groups are gearing up to oppose the nomination of former Senator John Ashcroft (R-MO) for US Attorney General because of his anti-woman, anti-choice positions on abortion and gun control. Groups campaigning against Ashcroft will urge Senators not to follow tradition by voting for a colleague, but rather to acknowledge Ashcroft’s […]
An Arizona federal appeals court lifted the state’s ban on fetal tissue research, ruling that the law was too vague for doctors to follow, and therefore unconstitutional. The court’s ruling revokes the nation’s last existing ban on such research. The law was initially challenged in 1996 by four Parkinson’s disease patients. Studies have shown fetal […]
The Welfare Reform Act, signed in 1996 by President Clinton, contains a greatly overlooked amendment that increases funding for sex education programs that teach chastity as the only option for preventing pregnancy and sexual transmitted disease. The law reserves $250 million ($437 million with mandatory state matching funds) for educating children and teenagers about abstinence. […]
A federal Appeals Court has reversed a lower court judge’s ruling that the Massachusetts Buffer Zone law is unconstitutional. In late November, US District Judge Edward Harrington banned buffer zones, stating the law is unconstitutional and violates the free speech rights of anti-choice protesters. Harrington also stated the law unfairly discriminates against people protesting abortions […]
