A study of women and health presented to the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific Conference yesterday stated that sex-selective abortion, infanticide and neglect were responsible for China’s skewed birth rate of 117 males for every 100 females. The study revealed that despite the fact female babies naturally have better survival rates, more girls die in […]
British Nurses Lucille McLauchlan and Deborah Parry have been sentenced to 500 lashes with a whip and eight years in prison in Saudi Arabia for the murder of fellow nurse Yvonne Gilford, an Australian. Some accounts say that Gilford’s family has reached a $1.2 settlement with Parry. If they do not reach a settlement, Parry […]
Washington, D.C. – On the morning of President Clinton’s speech at Little Rock’s Central High School, bomb scares were investigated at two local abortion clinics. According to news reports, the suspect rented two Ryder trucks, mimicking the terroristic tactic of the Oklahoma City bombing, and left them parked in front of the clinics. Upon arrival, […]
In a landmark decision Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David Coar in Chicago held that the evidence against Operation Rescue and other anti-abortion extremists on racketeering charges aimed at closing that clinic was enough to continue to a jury trial. NOW filed the class-action lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). NOW President […]
Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew said yesterday that the experimental all-girls public middle school in East Harlem would remain single-sex and that he would not create an equivalent school for boys. Crew will likely battle the Education Department and the New York Civil Liberties Union in court on civil rights charges because the Young Women’s Leadership […]
Grand Slam Cup tennis organizers said Tuesday that they would consider allowing women to play in the yearly tournament, which offers $6 million in prize money. The Grand Slam Cup is reserved for the top players in each of the four Grand Slam events. Axel Meyer-Woelden, who founded the Cup in 1990 and recently died, […]
In her bid for director general of the World Health Organization, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland has hit the campaign trail. In the next two months, she will visit WHO executive committee members in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan called Brundtland a “strong candidate” for the post, which […]
After years of research which kept women of childbearing age out of studies and away from treatments because they might get pregnant and the medication might harm the fetus, the FDA stated yesterday that it wants to delay any medical trial that discriminates on the basis of sex. The FDA proposed regulations that would put […]
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) are sponsoring a measure that would increase access to birth control information and services. National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) President Kate Michelman said that the 3 million annual accidental pregnancies are a sign that many people do not have access to the information […]
Accomplishing what no other sitting president has, President Clinton will address a Nov. 8 dinner sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay and lesbian civil rights group. White House Spokesman Mike McCurry said that Clinton has worked closely with gay men and lesbians “on issues that are of primary concern” to the gay […]
A recent study found that women who suffer from severe premenstrual syndrome (about 3-5% of menstruating women) can be helped with the antidepressant drug Zoloft. Sixty-two percent of the women who took Zoloft showed “much or very much improvement,” as compared to 34% of the women who took a placebo. Prior studies have established that […]
Three days before trial, Home Depot USA has agreed to settle a class action gender discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of about 8,000 women employees at their west coast division. This lawsuit is one of four nationwide filed against Home Depot, alleging that the company paid women less than men, gave women fewer raises and […]
Global Exchange released a study last week charging that workers at Nike and Reebok plants earned as little at 10 cents an hour and worked 17 hours a day under enforced silence. Global Exchange worked with two human rights organizations in Hong Kong that interviewed workers at four Chinese sports shoe factories employing over 80,000 […]
About 40 women from grassroots organizations in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, and other countries in the Horn of Africa met recently to discuss how to rebuild their war-torn societies. Women’s organizations are struggling to restart schools and hospitals, and are looking into getting grants from international donors to help them. Many have started programs in their […]
Former U.S. Labor Secretary Lynn Martin has been subpoenaed to testify on her study of sexual harassment at Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi hired Martin last year to study workplace practices at their Illinois plant, one month after the EEOC filed a lawsuit claiming more than 300 women had been sexually harassed and discriminated against by the management […]
The Cambodian National Assembly proposed banning midwives and lay healers from performing abortions on Monday. The new law would legalize first-trimester abortions performed by licensed practitioners only. Because Cambodia currently has no abortion laws, untrained health workers often perform abortions for extra money and because women have nowhere else to go. The government wants to […]
While widows in Kabul stand in line for food handouts and policemen beg at intersections, the Taliban extremist group in Afghanistan issued an edict banning foreign journalists from writing commentaries or analyses of the situation in Afghanistan. In addition, foreign journalists were ordered to write only reports which “conform with the rules . . . […]
Facing a severe decline in Latino and African-American graduate enrollment as a result of prohibitions against affirmative action in the wake of Proposition 209, the University of California is considering dropping the SAT requirement for undergraduate admission, citing racial bias in the test. The university task force investigating the issue stated that continued use of […]
Under pressure from a critical Gov. Pete Wilson, the University of California Board of Regents delayed voting on same-sex partner benefits for students and faculty until November. Several regents were dismayed at the delay, and suggested that UC President Richard Atkinson simply start instituting the plan. Harvard, Yale and Stanford, among others, already have domestic-partner […]
Anne Beers, a 21-year veteran of the Minnesota State Patrol, was appointed chief on Friday. She is the first woman to head Minnesota’s State Patrol, and the second woman in the country to hold the position (Chief Annette Sandberg of Washington state is the other). When she began in 1966, there were only three women […]
