Faculty members, students and alumni of Georgetown Law Center are outraged at the University President’s decision to dismiss Law Center Dean Judith Areen, the first woman to head a national law school. Georgetown President Leo O’Donovan has not said why he sent a letter to students and faculty stating that he was searching for a […]
Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said that they are conducting a criminal probe into adoption agencies that are bringing pregnant Russian women into the U.S. to give birth to their children and then give them up for adoption to U.S. citizens. The adoption agencies are suspected of paying the mothers’ airfare, living expenses and a […]
Six Maryland college students gave testimony in a Guatemalan court yesterday concerning the robbery and assault of eighteen people and the brutal rape of five female students January 15th. Other students and staff will give testimony today. The Maryland students and staff were visiting Guatemala in order to study the country’s rich Mayan culture and […]
Leaders of the Afghan Taliban militia group stated that they are willing to discuss their decree prohibiting girls from attending school with U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson Friday, but they will not promise reforms. Afghan women and girls attended schools and universities for years before the Taliban took control in September 1996. The Taliban militia group […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled against the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rules, which required stations to hire minorities and women at levels similar to their composition in the surrounding communities. The case was brought to the Court by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which appealed a […]
Head of the Washington Post Co. Katherine Graham and playwright Paulo Vogel each won a Pulitzer Prize. Graham received the Prize for her book Personal History. The book chronicled her life and the challenges she faces after her husband’s 1963 suicide, when she took over the Post. A New York Times Book Review article by […]
More and more women in Japan are choosing to remain single, rather than be financially dependent on a man, according to an Inter Press Service article. This finding was true even among women who wanted children. In 1994, the Japanese Health and Welfare Ministry reported approximately 37,500 single mothers in Japan. Women’s groups in Japan […]
Three northern Virginia gang members, aged 17 to 25, have been sentenced to 10 and 20 year prison terms for beating and raping a 15-year-old girl last October. The three assailants attacked and raped the girl for dating a member of a rival gang. Alexandria Circuit Court sentencing Judge Donald M. Haddock said, “It’s unbelievable […]
Bella S. Abzug, a longtime feminist leader and former member of Congress died today of complications following heart surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Harold Holzer, her spokesperson, said she had been in the hospital for 3 1/2 weeks. Abzug is known for her ardent campaigns for women’s and civil rights, her anti-war sentiments during […]
U.N. officials warned Afghanistan’s Taliban militia group that it will pull out of the country entirely unless the U.N. is “allowed to do its job.” This includes permitting women to work outside the home, opening schools to girls, and allowing women to obtain sufficient health care. U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said that if the U.N. […]
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced a bill that would require employers to allow breastfeeding on the job. The New Mothers’ Breastfeeding Promotion and Protection Act would also allow for unpaid breaks up to one hour a day for women to use a breast pump during their child’s first year, and would offer tax credits for […]
More than forty U.K. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups have pledged to join an Equality Standing Forum to fight for human rights. The groups are worried that the fight for human rights for lesbians and gay men is “being stalled” by British and European courts and by the Labour Government’s failure to repeal discriminatory […]
The U.S. Supreme Court voted to let stand the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that an Ohio ban on D&X abortions was unconstitutional. Justices voted 6-3, refusing to hear arguments in support of the law that would have banned women from obtaining late-term abortions. “The campaign to pressure Congress and state legislatures to ban […]
The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints appointed women to top leadership positions for the first time. Delegates of the church elected Linda Booth and Gail Mengel to the Council of 12 Apostles, which is second to the First Presidency, the highest body of the church. Delegate Marjorie Troeh said, “This is […]
A British industrial tribunal ruled against the British Boxing after it refused to issue a boxer’s license to Women’s World Welterweight Champion Jane Couch, claiming that pre-menstrual tension would make her unstable. Couch accused the board of sex discrimination, and may sue for having missed a 163,000 pound ($273,000) fight last year. Although women’s boxing […]
Women’s groups across the country are demanding that the Arkansas murders of four girls and a woman and the attempted murder of 10 girls and a boy be investigated as a hate crime against women and girls. “I’m gravely concerned that everyone seems to have missed it. Every day, batterers of adult partners threaten to […]
Taliban militia forces in Afghanistan bombed the northern city of Pul-e-Kumri this weekend. The explosions killed three women and two children and wounded many more. The anti-Taliban alliance which controls Pul-e-Kumri and about 15% of Afghanistan had launched a counter-offensive to regain some of the 85% of the country that the Taliban militia now controls. […]
Foreign workers on a U.S. island territory are suffering from women’s rights and human rights abuses, according to a report by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Undercover agents interviewed more than 400 workers in the U.S. territory, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), made up of islands between Hawaii and the Philippines. […]
Ralph Waldo Emerson may have derived material for his popular writings directly from his aunt without acknowledging her influence, according to a new book, Mary Moody Emerson and the Origins of Transcendentalism. Author Phyllis Cole, a Penn State University professor, said “I am saying that she was not only a general influence, she told him […]
Actress Emma Thompson is launching a battle against Hollywood’s demand that actresses be extraordinarily thin. Thompson said in a recent interview that constant dieting is “a disease among actresses,” and she thinks “it’s very dangerous.” Thompson said, “You know, we fought for a long time for our independence. We have replaced it now with this […]
