On Thursday morning, Representatives Nancy Johnson (R-Calif.) and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) in conjunction with the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, co-chaired a congressional hearing on women’s access to contraceptive technology. At the hearing, members of Congress urged support for legislation which would require insurance companies to include contraceptives among prescription drugs already covered. The […]
In Israel, a man who raped and sodomized a pregnant woman received a light sentence because the assault was “extremely brief,” said judges. Although the woman was late into her pregnancy, and the rape could have severely injured her and her baby, judges gave Reuven Vaknin a brief three-year jail sentence.
A Saudi Arabian court has spared an Indonesian maid from having her head cut off as a punishment for murder. The woman, Nasiroh, was convicted of shooting her male employer to death in 1994. She reportedly confessed to a closed court, even though Saudi police say she did not even know how to fire a […]
With votes from most of the Irish constituencies in, Mary McAleese of the Fianna Fail party will be the next president of Ireland. McAleese was the first choice of 45% of the voters, while her closest competitor Mary Banotti trailed with about 30% of the vote. Banotti conceded defeat this afternoon. McAleese campaigned for reconciliation […]
Lyndi McCartney, wife of Promise Keepers’ founder Bill McCartney, revealed in a New York Times interview that her husband was frequently absent from home even while preaching to men that they should treasure their wives and families. The Promise Keepers, a male-only evangelical Christian group, preaches that women should submit to their husbands, and that […]
Women’s water polo will be played at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, thanks to the efforts of Australian women players, who led a successful campaign for the sport’s inclusion. The campaign included a picket at Sydney Airport in which the athletes, decked out in their swimming costumes, protested to visiting officials. “It’s just an […]
Almost 40% of American women did not have a Pap smear in the past year, according to a study by the College of American Pathologists. The national survey showed that although nearly 90% of women over 18 knew they should be tested for cervical cancer each year, many did not find the time to do […]
Mina Rees, a noted mathematician and the first woman to head the American Association for the Advancement of Science died at age 95 on Saturday. In addition to more than ten years of teaching at Hunter College, Rees served as a presidential appointee to the National Science Foundation board and was later elected president, was […]
On Tuesday, the National Basketball Association named Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner as two of five additional full-time referees hired for the upcoming basketball season, which is scheduled to open this Friday. The NBA decision, lauded as a groundbreaking move by sports enthusiasts and women’s rights activists, marks the first time in U.S. pro sports […]
At the 4th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific yesterday, a group of prostitutes said that if men would wear condoms, the spread of AIDS could be slowed. The sex workers told the conference in Manila that AIDS was not spread by prostitution, but by unsafe working conditions. “You need at least […]
New Scientist Magazine described a genetically engineered “magic bullet” that may effectively many common cancers. Initial tests reveal that the “magic bullets” effectively treated adenocarcinomas, which are found in cancers of the lung, ovary, breast, colon, and prostate. The bullets injecting tumors with a deadly bacterial toxin, killing the cancerous cells without harming the healthy […]
Franklin Raines, director of the U.S. government’s Office of Management and Budget, announced Wednesday that the next U.S. census will not include a “multi-racial” category. Respondents will instead be allowed to check all the racial categories that make up their heritage. OMB officials believe that this change, along with the creation of new racial categories […]
Lesbian and gay rights supporters are once again criticizing ABC after the network reversed its earlier decision to discontinue the use of parental advisory warnings on the TV show Ellen. Two weeks ago, activists protested the use of the advisory warnings, claiming ABC’s application of the warnings was unfair and discriminatory. ABC backed down from […]
Britain’s women soldiers will now be allowed to have certain jobs on the front lines, Defense Secretary George Robertson said. Seventy percent of jobs will now be opened to women, up from 47% previously. New job opportunities include forward radio operators, combat engineers and artillery gunners. “If we are to properly modernize our armed forces, […]
A Parliamentary committee in the Netherlands recommended yesterday that full civil marriage and parenting rights be granted to same-sex couples. They found that “same sex couples can only be afforded equal treatment if they are allowed to enter into civil marriage. These members do not view the new type of marriage as a break with […]
The Feminist Majority, along with the National Organization for Women, the Ms. Foundation, and other women’s groups, held a news conference deploring the use of sweatshops in Vietnam, Indonesia and China by NIKE. NIKE has spent hundreds of millions marketing to women with empowering advertising about women and girls in sports, but at the same […]
A government panel recommended Tuesday that Japan end its decades-old ban and legalize birth control pills. Because of a legal loophole that allows birth control pills to be prescribed for menstrual pain, an estimated 200,000 Japanese women already use them. However, they must take higher-dose pills than ones that are made in the U.S., which […]
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) will introduce the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act tomorrow at a press conference. The bill would make benefits such as health insurance and retirement benefits available to the domestic partners of federal employees. Some of the bill’s co-sponsors, Nita Lowey (D-Mass.), Elizabeth Furse (D-Ore.) Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and Bob […]
Republicans recently surveyed middle-aged voters and discovered that “the gender gap is a significant electoral problem,” said pollster Linda DiVall. The polls were commissioned to help Republicans understand why women vote for Democrats more often than men. The poll found that among all voters, women support Democrats 47%-35%, while men favor Republicans by 47%-37%. Among […]
Robert Acremant, who murdered Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill two years ago, has been given the death penalty. Although Acremant’s original motive was robbery of the women’s property management business, when he discovered Ellis and Abdill were lesbians, he said it “made it easier” to kill them. He thought that lesbians would have no family […]
