In February, retired Sgt. Major Brenda L. Hoster’s allegations of sexual misconduct against Sergeant Major of the Army, Gene C. McKinney, kicked off an investigation of the actions of the Army’s top enlisted man. The Army is currently conducting a preliminary hearing into Hoster’s and other women’s allegations, against McKinney. But Susan Barnes, Brenda Hoster’s […]
A Navy report accuses Captain Dennis Gillespie, the air wing commander of the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, of failing to adequately integrate female Navy pilots into his carrier. The report, an investigation into the integration of women on the carrier, gives many highlights of Gillespie’s actions and words which created a double standard for the […]
Eighteen women changed a 158-year old tradition on Monday, June 30, by attending the Virginia Military Institute’s previously all-male summer transition program. According to VMI, the cadets who participate in the program are less likely to drop out of the school than those who choose not to attend in the summer. Although the program will […]
Women and minority members of the Los Angeles City Council were disappointed Tuesday, July 1 when two white men were reelected to the council’s top positions. While the council unanimously chose the incumbent John Ferraro as its president, Joel Wachs became president pro tempore with a nine-to-six vote. Mike Hernandez, a liberal Latino who challenged […]
A new study by the International Business Machines Corp. found that minority women are the fastest-growing segment of business owners in the country. In the past ten years, firms which African American, Latino, Asian and Native American women own have risen in number by 153% to 1 million businesses nationally. Minority women’s businesses employ 1.7 […]
Judge Michael Luttig of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overruled U.S. District Judge James C. Turk on the evening of June 30, just hours after Turk had blocked enforcement of Virginia’s Parental Consent Law. Luttig’s decision allows the law to go into effect. Physicians performing abortions on minors are now required to make […]
Three former high school athletes, convicted four years ago of sexually assaulting a retarded girl, were finally put in jail on June 30th. During a resentencing, required after an Appeals court reduced the convictions of the three men, Kevin Scherzer and Christopher Archer received fifteen years at a youth facility from which they could be […]
Police have arrested the Director of Citizens for Pro-Life Society, Monica Miller, for allegedly leaving her two-year-old son in a locked car. The car’s window were barely cracked and the car was parked in the sun during mid-80’s weather. Jefferson Aikin, a spokesperson for the Milwaukee County Department of Human Services, said that when the […]
A professional baseball league exclusively for women, Ladies League Baseball, has announced its schedule and final roster for its inaugural season. Opening day is slated for July 9, 1997 at San Jose Municipal Stadium. The Los Angeles Legends will play against the San Jose Spitfires. Three other cities have female baseball franchises, including the Long […]
At a news conference Friday, June 26, Defense Secretary William Cohen discussed a panel he has created to study the “viability” and “desirability” of mixed-gender training and make sure women trainees receive fair treatment. While he claims the panel will not restrict opportunities for women in the military, Cohen did not deny the possibility that […]
The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted a pivotal affirmative action case for review during its 1997-98 term. The case centers around whether the New Jersey Piscataway School Board legally or illegally laid off a white woman teacher rather than an equally qualified African-American woman teacher. Lower courts have ruled that the school board illegally fired […]
On August 18, Erin Claunch and twenty-nine other women will do what no other women have done before. They will report for classes at the previously all-male Virginia Military Institute. VMI had to change its all-male policy because of a Supreme Court decision in June 1996 which ordered the school to admit women or become […]
Spectators in Manhattan and San Francisco cheered for the thousands of lesbians and gay men who participated in the 28th annual march for Gay Pride Day. The event launched an effort to help people stay healthy and free of HIV. In Manhattan, marchers included the city’s politicians. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani ( R ), received […]
On Thursday, June 26, the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution concluded that the country needs affirmative action because the “preferences have been on the side of white America for so long.” Members of the subcommittee who supported the deceptively-titled “Civil Rights Act of 1997” often claimed that the passage of Proposition 209, a California […]
Lucille Gager, 66, has filed a $10 million lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, New York against the 24th Precinct New York police station. The lawsuit claims that four police officers forcefully threw her to the ground, assaulted, falsely arrested, wrongfully imprisoned her and violated her civil rights. The incident occurred when Gager […]
The United States State Department has formally denounced a recent Egyptian court ruling which overturned a ban on female genital mutilation. The State Department called the mutilation an “abhorrent practice.” State Department spokesperson John Dinger commented, “The U.S. government will continue to urge an end to this form of violence against women. It has been […]
Hearings began this week to determine whether the Army’s highest-ranking enlisted soldier should be court-martialed for alleged charges of indecent assault, adultery, and obstruction of justice. Sgt. Christine A. Roy, a key witness for the prosecution, testified against Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney on June 26. She was disappointed to learn that, because of loopholes in […]
A 13-ton marble statue of suffragists Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony has greeted individuals who have visited the Capitol Rotunda for the past month. The monument, formerly located in the crypt of the building, was formally rededicated on June 26. The National Woman’s Party presented the statue to Congress in 1921, […]
One-third of diabetic teen girls at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children often skip their insulin injections to lose weight, according to researchers at the hospital. Psychiatrist Gary Rodin and his colleagues discovered that skipping insulin presents a greater threat than other eating disorders, which are common among diabetic teen-agers. Eighty-six percent of the girls they […]
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that the 1996 Communications Decency Act violates freedom of speech guarantees. The law restricted free expression on the Internet, ostensibly to protect children from material intended for adults. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the seven-member majority that the law went too far in restricting adults’ access to […]
