Combating pervasive and “degrading” sexual harassment from their bosses, 270 women union members sued their employers at a Seoul hotel in an unprecedented class-action harassment suit. The suit charged that approximately 70 percent of female union employees at Lotte Hotel were subjected to sexual harassment, citing 480 instances that include groping, fondling, suggestive remarks, and […]
A convicted pedophile in Britain will not have to serve his sentence for sexually assaulting one of his female students. A judge ruled that Raymond Cullens had “suffered” enough because he had been named in Britain’s tabloid News of the World. The ruling comes after a week of violent protests by anti-pedophile campaigners.
Survivors of rape and torture won $745 million in a verdict against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. The federal jury in New York came to a decision on August 9th after hearing grueling accounts of the rape and torture perpetrated by Karadzic and his supporters, who used everything from fishhooks, large sticks, and lit […]
Operation Rescue West, the antiabortion group, has launched a week-long campaign in Los Angeles, CA for the duration of the Democratic National Convention to protest against reproductive rights. Their schedule not only includes picketing outside of the convention but also at an interfaith convocation sponsored by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice as well as […]
A recent study of 990 prostitutes in four countries found that the spermicide nonoxynol-9 may increase the risk of contracting the HIV-AIDS virus for sexually active women. Evidence from a study sponsored by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) shows that when used frequently, the chemical’s irritant causes breaks or “lesions” in the […]
Federal officials are concerned that as states attempt to enforce the rules of 1996 Welfare Reform Act, they are inhibiting eligible applicants from applying for food stamps. Currently 12 million potential recipients of food stamps are not receiving them. In most states, food-stamp applications have become so arduous and time-consuming that needy people are dissuaded […]
What better way for a man like Donald Trump to show his devotion to women than by purchasing a beauty pageant. He now produces three of the world’s best-known pageants, Miss Teen USA, Miss USA, and Miss Universe—which comprise the Miss Universe Organization. As a sign of the times, the organization has rechristened its Miss […]
Although women constitute 52 percent of Burkina Faso’s population and contribute to 80 percent of the agricultural production, they may not receive their fair share of a 700 million dollar debt cancellation benefit. One of the poorest countries in Africa, Burkina Faso recently benefited from the Heavily indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, which canceled half […]
In three of Brazil’s state capitals women are running against women for the seat of mayor, a refreshing indicator that women’s participation in local politics is flourishing. Researchers point to a glass ceiling in politics, in which women’s leadership is only accepted at the local level. Women’s participation in local politics soar in regions where […]
The New Zealand government may make sweeping changes to its current policy towards sex offenders. It is considering to establish a register to track sex offenders and pedophiles, toughen sentencing laws against serious sex offenders, and enacting mandatory police checks on people planning to work with children. These proposed changes follow an incident earlier this […]
Women’s rights advocates in the Middle East are fighting to end “honor” killings, polygamy, and repressive marriage laws. Men convicted of “honor” crimes, frequently glorified rather than condemned, sometimes serve less than three months in jail. Asma Khader, a woman lawyer in Jordan, recounts a litany of horrific cases that she has studied; in one […]
The American Civil Liberties Union, along with four other legal organizations, sought a restraining order to stop what it claims is harassment of demonstrators prior to next week’s Democratic National Convention. According to the Associated Press, ACLU attorney Daniel P. Tokaji said that close to two dozen incidents of LAPD harassment have occurred this past […]
The District of Columbia agreed Thursday to pay $1.75 million dollars to the mother of a transvestite who died after city firefighters and doctors failed to provide adequate medical care due to gender discrimination. The settlement ends a case that began in 1995 when Tyrone “Tyra” Hunter was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident. […]
Assistant US Customs Commissioner Bonni G. Tischler has just been named as the first woman to hold the position of chief of the Office of Field Operations at the US Customs Commission. Tischler was the first woman to head the agency’s Office of Investigations where, under her leadership, 37,000 investigations were conducted with a record […]
Two Bangladeshi women garment workers were crushed under the wheels of a speeding minivan that was being chased by the police in the capital Dhaka on August 8th. Clashes between opposition activists and the government during the weekend left at least 50 people injured. An alliance fighting to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Sheikh […]
Violence against women in India is increasing, and basic rights, such as the right to choose whether to marry, continue to be denied. In June of this year, a woman was burned alive in front of a bustling railway station in one of India’s most urban cities. The 41-year old single woman had refused to […]
Hundreds of U.S. soldiers will train and equip West African battalions that will then be sent to Sierra Leone to support government troops and United Nations peacekeepers. A senior Clinton administration official stated that the U.S. had “gone through an agonizing reappraisal” of its policy toward Sierra Leone, where the Revolutionary United Front rebel forces […]
For the first time in the U.S., women make up the majority of the online population, says a survey by Media Metrix. In 1999, women made up 45.4 percent of internet users; today, women are 50.4 percent of internet users. The fastest growing group of women on the internet is teenage girls aged 12-17, 4.4 […]
NAACP Dallas branch President Lee Alcorn resigned on Aug. 9 after being suspended for making anti-Semitic comments in reaction to Gore’s VP choice of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew. On a Fort-Worth radio show on Aug. 7, Alcorn said, “I think we need to be very suspicious of any kind of partnerships between the […]
Over 70 pharmacists in three inner-city Health Action Zones are participating in a pilot program to widen access to emergency contraception for young women in an attempt to halt Great Britain’s climbing teen pregnancy rate. According to statistics from one of the zones, over 100 young women under age 16 have participated, although they make […]
