According to two studies released on June 19, women who take estrogen for years after menopause cut their risk of death from all causes by 37% and of Alzheimer’s dementia by 54%. However, long-term estrogen therapy after 10 years also carries a 43% higher risk of dying from breast cancer. Thus benefits of estrogen therapy […]
A preliminary hearing that will determine whether there is enough evidence of sexual misconduct to court-martial Sgt. Major of the Army Gene C. McKinney will be closed to the public. The Army decided that the hearing regarding its top enlisted man would be closed to the public despite appeals from the defendant and his main […]
Adrienne Bak Ortolano finally received justice last week when a jury convicted Alex Kelly of raping her eleven years before. After the conviction, the 27-year-old woman gave her first interview since the rape in 1986. She came forward because she wanted to give other rape victims courage and show the world she is not ashamed […]
The Democratic women U.S. House of Representatives members will release a Democratic Policy Committee Report on June 19th which outlines how the Republican tax bill harms women. The report will give details on a number of issues. For example, the GOP tax bill cuts the child tax credit for six million families with child care […]
Lifetime Television for Women is seeking to become the leader in women’s sports broadcasting. The television network will begin televising Friday night games of the Women’s National Basketball Association on June 27th. On June 19th, the network will air the second installment of a four part series of sports documentaries. The series, entitled Breaking Through, […]
The Southern Baptist Convention has voted to boycott Walt Disney Co. The boycott includes Disney theme parks and its ABC-TV subsidiary. The church is protesting what it calls Disney’s “gay-friendly” policies, including Ellen’s coming out on ABC. David Smith, a senior strategist for the Human Rights Campaign, commented, “Unlike the Southern Baptist Convention, most people […]
Vinson Champ, a stand-up comedian who travels the college circuit, is allegedly responsible for a string of rapes across colleges in the Midwest area. DNA tests confirm that he was responsible for the sexual assault of a woman at Kenosha’s Carthage College. Other DNA tests indicate that Champ was also responsible for two attacks in […]
Linda Fairstein has served as the head of the sex crimes unit at the Manhattan, NY district attorney’s office for twenty-one years. In her job, she is responsible for prosecuting rapes, family violence, sexual assaults and other sex-related crimes. She says that the rewards of her work are enormous. She commented, “My work is with […]
Chanting “Tanya, Tanya, She’s No Friend. She Gives Guns To Violent Men,” over thirty women’s rights, domestic violence, and anti-gun activists held an informational picket outside of a speech by NRA Lobbyist Tanya Metaska before the Independent Women’s Forum. Metaska’s new book, Safe, Not Sorry, portrays women’s gun ownership as the solution to domestic violence […]
U.S. President Bill Clinton, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, astronaut Sally Ride and Olympic Gold Medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee came together to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Title IX, the law barring sex discrimination in schools receiving federal funds. At the ceremony, President Clinton described the success women and girls have been able to achieve because […]
Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Representative Charles Cannady (R-FL) have introduced legislation that would eliminate all federal affirmative action programs. The measure, deceptively titled the “Civil Rights Act of 1997,” has an additional 49 House sponsors and two Senate sponsors. In a recent San Diego University commencement address, President Clinton reaffirmed his support of affirmative […]
The Army has made Lt. General Claudia Kennedy its first female three-star general. Kennedy, an intelligence expert, will become the senior intelligence official in the Department of the Army. Kennedy joined the Army in 1969 and was assistant deputy chief of staff for intelligence at the Pentagon. 8
Southern Baptists will vote on June 18th on whether or not to boycott Walt Disney Co. parks and stores. Some leaders of the 15.7 million member group have been angered by what they term Disney’s “gay-friendly” policies. They point to “gay day” at Disney parks, the company’s extension of health benefits for partners of lesbian […]
The Good: The U.S. Supreme Court has left intact a lower court ruling that declared a Utah law banning almost all forms of abortion for women over 20 weeks pregnant unconstitutional. In December of 1996, the 10 U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Utah lawmakers had placed, “an insurmountable obstacle in the path of […]
Women’s Web World, the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Online Web Site, has won the Caf_ Underground Award for Web Excellence. The award is presented to an elite group of select sites and web-designers who have displayed and outstanding balance of graphic style, practical applications and political awareness.
Former First Lt. Kelly Flinn, the first female B-52 pilot, has signed a deal with Random House to write a book about her life in the military, the controversy over her affair, and her subsequent general discharge from the army. Tentatively titled Proud to Be, Flinn’s Air Force Academy class’ motto, Harold Evans, the publisher […]
Recently the U.S. Federal Drug and Food Administration ruled that morning-after birth control pills, taken as emergency contraception, are safe and effective. However, some pharmacists are refusing to fill the prescriptions for women seeking the pills. Although the American Pharmaceutical Association, with 48,000 members, supports a pharmacist’s right of refusal, it also says that the […]
A law approved on June 13th in Germany makes marital rape a crime punishable by up to five years in jail. Female ministers and women’s rights activists have lobbied for over 25 years to get the law changed; previously rape was a crime only when the woman was not married to her attacker. Legislators were […]
Japan’s public health committee paved the way for the approval of the birth control by softening its negative stance on the pill’s use. The committee had earlier concluded that the pill’s use could help spread sexually transmitted diseases. A June 16th meeting, however, drew over 100 women supporters who criticized the committee for using the […]
The Army has announced that it will close the hotline it set up in November of 1996 to address the Aberdeen sex scandal. The hotline will close as of Friday, June 20th. The Army said it was closing the hotline because it had accomplished its job, and calls had dwindled in recent weeks. A sexual […]
