Four girls and one teacher were brutally murdered yesterday when two boys, ages 11 and 13, opened fire outside the Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Another female teacher and five girls were listed in stable condition, while three girls and a boy were all treated for injures and released from the hospital. Fourteen of […]
Testimony in NOW vs. Scheidler continued as anti-abortion leaders admitted that they were involved in blockades and activities intended to close down the clinics. Tim Murphy and Andrew Scholberg, former employees of the Pro-Life Action League, testified that they were present at annual meetings with Joseph Scheidler and that they planned blockades and training sessions. […]
Sri Lankan Women’s Affairs Minister Hema Ratnayake said that the People’s Alliance government will pass legislation that requires a minimum of 25 percent representation for women in all elected groups. Although Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister are both women, historian Lorna Dewarajah noted that most of the area’s female politicians were either wives or […]
A Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) report entitled, “Mapping Progress: Assessing Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action,” documents that 70% of countries have drawn up plans for implementing the platform of the Fourth World Conference on Women. Despite these plans governments enacted policies that have impeded women’s access to employment, health care, education, […]
The U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved legislation that would grant $18 billion to the International Monetary Fund and $505 million to the United Nations for past U.S. dues. Republicans still plan to add anti-abortion language that would forbid the granting of funds to organizations that attempt to aid in family planning. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin […]
The United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) are launching a campaign aimed at heightening global awareness that women’s rights are human rights. The event marks 1998 as the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Human Rights Year. The Face to Face campaign will include […]
Protesters in northern New South Wales are refusing to let Ross Mining, one of Australia’s largest mining companies, go ahead with plans to mine ancestral land, citing loss of birthrights, including sacred lands and sites, by Aboriginal women. Ross Mining officials have reached an agreement with the New South Wales Lands Council and a regional […]
The United Nations announced that it has shut down its operations in Southern Afghanistan, the geographical center of operations for the Taliban army, because of harassment by the Taliban and restrictions placed on women humanitarian workers. U.N. spokeswoman Sarah Russell said, “The decision (to withdraw) was prompted by persistent interference by the Taliban authorities in […]
The U.S. Supreme Court let stand an Ohio appeals court ruling, in Voinovich v. Women’s Medical Professional Corp., that overturned a ban on “partial-birth” abortions. The Supreme Court justices did not offer an explanation for the decision. Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia all voted to hear the case. Thomas said […]
The settlement reached in the class-action sexual harassment case, Martens v. Smith Barney, has been deemed “unconscionable” by lead plaintiffs Pam Martens, Judith Mione, and the New York City and New York State chapters of NOW. A statement by the plaintiffs declared that the settlement is “yet another dirty deal from Wall St.” Under the […]
The Food and Drug Administration determined that women should have access to a new breast cancer pill called Xeloda while the manufacturer, Hoffman-La Roche, attempts to prove its capabilities. FDA advisers claimed that the drug should be available to women for whom alternative methods of treatment do not prove effective. Xeloda, known as capecitabine, is […]
The World Health Organization is supporting a program designed to test whether women can safely have as little as four prenatal check-ups during a pregnancy. The program is testing 20,000 pregnant women in Argentina, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Thailand. Many poor women cannot afford the accepted 8 to 12 recommended check-ups. Doctor Guillermo Carroli, head […]
Members of a Jerusalem women’s group called Women of the Wall have been trying to get arrested for violating “Regulation 13” during monthly meetings at the Western Wall where they read scriptures aloud. According to “Regulation 13,” a law that prohibits any acts at the Wall that offend worshipers, women are not permitted to read […]
Members of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) are concerned about the increasing list of countries that will not ratify the treaty. Out of 161 countries who are ratifying, 44 have said that they will not include certain provisions of the treaty because of religious, political, cultural or constitutional […]
Hillary Rodham Clinton called for equal opportunities for women and praised the nation of Ghana for prohibiting female genital mutilation (FGM) in a speech at a Ghanaian day-care center today. Rodham Clinton said that women need greater access to education and the law. “…We empower women to make the right choices for themselves. … too […]
Internationally acclaimed artist Beatrice Wood, known professionally as Beato and the “Mama of Da Da,” died earlier this month. Wood was known for her ceramic sculptures, drawings and lithographs. Wood wrote more than 6 books and a play and studied painting at the French Academie Julien, acting with a member of the Theatre Francais and […]
Many women who search for mentors in their profession have found only men in top-level positions and that these men are often unwilling to offer advice. Debra Meyerson, a researcher at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University, said that mentoring “is important for everybody, but it’s probably even more important […]
According to a U.N. report, each year 20 million women around the world risk their lives obtaining unsafe abortions. Approximately 80,000 women die from unsafe abortions annually. Dr. Jerker Liljestrand of the World Health Organization said that of the 20 million unsafe abortions performed, 95 percent are carried out in developing countries, by untrained practitioners […]
The Maryland House of Delegates voted to increase the number of poor teenage women who qualify for state-funded abortions yesterday. The new law will offer health and insurance benefits to 60,000 more children and pregnant women whose earnings are moderate, but not low enough to qualify for Medicaid. Although federal law prohibits the use of […]
Britain’s Secretary of State for Social Security Harriet Harman announced plans for new programs that will put an end to the idea of a male “breadwinner.” Harman said, “Key factors taken for granted in post-war society cannot be taken for granted in the 1990s,” said Harman. “Today, in most quarters at any rate, we have […]
