A British employment tribunal ordered 47-year-old Peter Burlow to pay his 24-year-old secretary Emma Smith 38,915 pounds in damages for sexual harassment — one of the largest payments ever ordered in a sexual harassment case. Smith alleged that Burlow, who is managing director of Software (Europe) in Lincoln, asked her if he could look up […]
Program on Women’s Education for Retirement (POWER) is an educational program that was created to teach low and middle-income women how to better plan for retirement. Since women live longer than men, earn less than men, are more likely to marry spouses older than themselves, and are more likely to quit working or work fewer […]
After learning about the United States history of slavery, Barbara Vogel’s fifth-grade class was horrified to learn that the practice of slavery is not confined to the past. Students read a news article written by Associated Press writer Karin Davis and learned that slavery is a modern-day reality in Sudan. Militias fighting in an ongoing […]
The U.N. has established a Gender Coordinating Unit for Afghanistan which will establish gender policy for the area together with other agencies. A human rights adviser has also been appointed, and a gender advisor will begin work there next month. Diplomats fear that the Taliban will enter into a confrontation with the U.N. if the […]
An eight-member jury will begin deliberations today on a 1995 suit filed by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a women’s clinic, and five doctors against creators of the “Nuremberg Files” Web site. The plaintiffs have charged the creators of the Web site with violating the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinics Act, which made blockading […]
Priscilla Nankurrai has made it her mission to save young girls from being forced into early marriages against their will. She aids them by offering them the refuge of her boarding school in Kajiado, Kenya. Girls find their way to the school in many different ways. Nankurrai has a network of informers who let her […]
Women artists including Paula Cole, Judy Collins, Janis Ian, Jewel, Helen Reddy, Phoebe Snow, Odetta and Mandy Barnett donated their time and talents to a benefit performance for family planning services at Madison Square Garden Monday. Proceeds from the “History of Women in Music Concert” will benefit Zero Population Growth’s Turner/Fonda Family Planning Outreach Project. […]
Over 300 women’s rights activists from around the world met in Bangladesh Wednesday for a three day conference addressing the sexual exploitation of women. The conference was organized by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), an umbrella organization that represents 50 women’s organizations worldwide. The organization’s president, Philippine native Aurora Javate de Dios, addressed […]
Two weeks after civil rights lawyers filed a complaint with the U.S. Labor Department that graduate students working as employees should be covered by the University of California’s federal contractor-mandated affirmative action plan, California Assembly Democrats have urged UC to postpone its ban on affirmative action admissions. Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamente asked UC to delay […]
The state of Alabama asked a federal appeals court to uphold a 1992 Alabama law banning funds for any campus group that “fosters or promotes a lifestyle or actions prohibited by the (state’s) sodomy and sexual misconduct laws” in order to keep lesbian and gay campus groups from receiving state funds. Last year, a federal […]
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the government may not use statistical sampling in the upcoming year 2000 census for the purposes of apportionment. The Court did not rule on whether statistical estimates could be used in calculations for other purposes. Census figures are of great political importance because they used in apportionment (defining […]
Danial J. Williams was convicted of raping and stabbing the wife of a neighbor and Navy colleague in July 1997. Six other men who had also been current or former members of the U.S. navy are also charged in the crime. As part of a plea bargain that would protect him from a death sentence, […]
Scientists have long hypothesized that women’s biology makes them naturally monogamous and that men are naturally prone to stray and seek multiple sexual partners. This argument is based on the theory that women’s more limited opportunities for reproduction (9 months for each pregnancy, with time to wean children in between) and need for help in […]
A recent finding may help to explain why women who have children before the age of 30 have less risk of breast cancer than those who become pregnant later in life or never have children. Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Sciences Center found that young mothers gain protection from a protein called alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). […]
Traditional beliefs that tie women to early marriage and child-rearing without the help of their husbands have made it difficult for Japanese women to excel in the business world. Women often serve as assistants and helpers to their male colleagues, and are denied the opportunity to lead. Poor child care, lack of maternity leave benefits, […]
DNA from a strand of hair found near the home of murdered obstetrician-gynecologist and abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian closely matches the DNA found in another strand of hair from a former home of 44-year-old anti-abortion protester James C. Kopp. Technicians will conduct further tests to verify that the two strands both came from Kopp. […]
A bill sponsored by Republican Delegate Robert G. Marshall of the Virginia House of delegates has would damage women’s health by reducing women’s access to reproductive health services including abortion. The new law would require abortion clinics to have certain architectural requirements that are currently applied to hospitals. For example, hallways must be at least […]
Last August, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced his intention to rule Pakistan under a system of Islamic Shari’a law by proposing a constitutional amendment that would eliminate all secular laws and institute laws based on the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Under the amendment, the government would have complete power to “prescribe what is […]
More than 200 women from 26 Mexican states gathered together this weekend at the first National Assembly of the Feminists’ Political Group. Patricia Mercado is a leader in the movement to incorporate women’s issues into the political sphere. Called “DiVersa,” the movement lists legalized abortion, equal rights for homosexuals and indigenous peoples, increased financial resources […]
Claire (Schillace) Donahue was the first woman drafted to play in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1943, and played for four seasons as a center fielder for the Racine, Wisconsin Belles. The women’s league was established during World War II, when the major leagues were suffering a shortage of players due to […]
