The Lilith Fair, a female music festival on tour in the United States this summer, is the brainchild of musician Sarah McLachlan. The Fair features over 60 female performers, who appear on a rotation and include some of today’s top music stars. The festival includes McLachlan, Jewel, Shawn Colvin, the Indigo Girls, Tracy Chapman, Sheryl […]
Amelia Earhart’s Birthday Centenniel celebration begins in Kansas on July 24. The four-day celebration is expected to bring 50,000 visitors to the state, according to the Kansas City Star. Scheduled guests include Texas businesswoman Linda Finch, who recently re-enacted the aviator’s last flight. In 1929, Earhart and pilot Fay Gillis Wells co-founded the International 99s, […]
Democratic women in the House of Representatives delayed action on the FY 1998 agriculture appropriations bill on July 17 to protest the Republican leadership’s decisions on amendments to the Foreign Operations spending bill. The women were able to halt consideration on the appropriations bill by using a series of procedural votes, so most Republicans relented […]
Illinois governor Jim Edgar used his amendatory veto powers last week to give unmarried biological fathers legal status to bring criminal complaints against doctors who perform D&X abortions. Edgar, who usually favors abortion rights likely invoked his veto powers to satisfy conservatives in light of the upcoming 1998 elections. Women’s rights activists, however, have pointed […]
On July 19, the Episcopal Church rejected a proposal which would have recognized same-sex marriages. The day before the vote, the head of the church had reminded clergy and laity of his request twelve years ago asking the church to make everyone welcome. While voters did not heed his request, the proposal failed by such […]
The publicly-funded University of Connecticut Medical Center has made plans to join with Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, a Catholic hospital, to provide a center for out-patient surgery. The center will not provide abortions or sterilization for women, however. Connecticut’s Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has joined an increasing number of people in arguing that […]
A fifth woman has brought charges against the Army’s top enlisted man, Sergeant Major of the Army Gene McKinney. This woman is the first, however, to charge that McKinney physically assaulted someone in performance of her duties. McKinney is currently being charged with sexual misconduct and solicitation of adultery. A hearing to determine whether or […]
Air traffic controllers Jan Gonzales and Linda Owens have filed a class-action internal complaint with their employer, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for sexual harassment. Because six months has passed since they filed the complaint, their lawyers can now file a lawsuit in federal court. The lawyers said about 25 female controllers have submitted statements […]
On July 16, Rev. Peter Gomes, a gay pastor of the Harvard University Memorial Church, announced that the nondenominational church has decided to allow same-sex marriages. Immediate controversy over this decision arose as conservative clergy members denounced the move while lesbians and gay men praised it. Same-sex marriages, frequently called commitments or blessings, have no […]
A former Miller Brewing executive who sued the company for firing him has been awarded $26.6 million by a jury in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1993 Patricia Best complained to Miller Brewing Company officials after co-worker Jerold Mackenzie told her about a Seinfeld episode. In the episode, the main character could not remember the name of […]
Colonel Robert Jarvis, the presiding officer in the pretrial hearing on allegations of sexual misconduct by the Army’s top enlisted man, Sergeant Major of the Army Gene McKinney, has ruled that Retired Sergeant Major Brenda Hoster must give a sworn statement in the hearing against McKinney. Hoster accused McKinney of sexual harassment, but has refused […]
On July 16, leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and government agencies encouraged a large audience of African Americans to take political action against a congressional bill which wants to eliminate federal affirmative action programs. After pointing out that pervasive discrimination still exist, NAACP and government officials urged individuals to […]
Boasting thirty-three Georgia O’Keeffe pieces in its permanent collection, the Georgia O’Keeffe museum opened has recently opened in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Anne Marion, of the Burnett Foundation, made the museum a reality by having the foundation buy the property for the land. Marion herself also hired and oversaw an architect to mold the ten […]
Brandeis University has announced its intentions to establish a center for the study of Jewish women and has stated that singer/director Barbara Streisand will serve as the center’s honorary chairwoman. Hadassah, a 385,000-member Jewish women’s group, plans to fund the International Research Institute on Jewish Women with a $1.5 million grant. The group has also […]
A study conducted by the University of Toronto, and published in the July 17th edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, has found that a treatment of aspirin and the hormone prednisone does not effectively reduce women’s chances of miscarriage. The study further found that the combination drug therapy could actually increase the chances […]
A Fayette, Kentucky Circuit Court jury has awarded Mary Lous Moses $125,000 in damages for the sexual harassment she endured while working for Applied Technologies Inc. manager Sam Brookshire. Moses claimed that while working at the Lexington, Kentucky branch, Brookshire repeatedly sexually harassed her by following her around constantly, repeatedly professing his love for her […]
According to a study published July 14, women under the age of 45 are twice as likely to have heart attacks if they have a certain combination of blood-borne factors, including too little folate and too much of the protein homocysteine. Researchers studied 79 women who survived heart attacks and compared them to 386 healthy […]
Minority- and women-owned executive recruitment firms around the country made presentations to Sears, Roebuck and Company on July 15 for Sears’ second vendor diversity fair. More than twenty-five firms met with Sears human resource directors to explore opportunities to increase the representation of minorities and women in Sears senior management. The first diversity fair in […]
According to Thomas B. Doyle, Vice President of Information and Research at the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA), female participation in athletic activities has been increasing and changing dramatically in the last five years. He based his remarks on “Sports Participation in 1996”, a two-page report from a NSGA survey of 35,000 US households. In […]
Janeth Ravner Rosenblaum, the former president of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the League of Women Voters, died on July 15th of lung ailments. Rosenblaum also served on the national board of the League and as acting president of its Overseas Education Fund. Rosenblaum also volunteered for the American Red Cross and the D.C. Board […]
