A new study published in the March 25th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that approximately 7.8 million women and girls lack sufficient iron in their diets. An additional 3.3. million more women and girls have the severe iron deficiency called anemia. The study, conducted by Anne Looker and colleagues […]
The State Department is on alert: women’s furtherance world-wide is a central priority of America’s foreign policy. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has told all U.S. diplomats that she and President Clinton are committed to improving the status of women throughout the world. At an International Women’s Day ceremony, Albright outlined the policy and said, […]
During her trip to Africa with daughter Chelsea, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has continuously stressed that the plight of women, their pains and triumphs, worldwide are a natural point for forging a new relationship between the United States and Africa. During her trip to Tanzania, where an international tribunal is investigating crimes against women […]
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is attempting to intervene in a sex discrimination lawsuit against Home Depot, Inc. The EEOC asked a federal court to allow it to join an attempt by 22,000 women employees of the store to form a class action. The women, from 312 stores east of the Mississippi, claim that the […]
Forty percent of women carry a gene which can double the risk of breast cancer and is responsible for nearly thirty percent of all breast cancer cases. The gene, CYP17, controls estrogen production and influences girls as they go through puberty. Researchers at the University of Southern California presented this information to the American Cancer […]
Georgia lawmakers have passed a bill which bans the D & X abortion procedure. Governor Zell Miller has said he will sign the bill which outlaws the procedure unless the woman’s life is in danger.
Revising earlier guidelines, the American Cancer Society announced on March 23rd that women in their forties should receive annual mammograms. The National Cancer Institute is expected to make similar recommendations this week. In January, a federal advisory panel concluded that women in their forties should consult their doctors and make their own decisions regarding the […]
On April 30th, Ellen Degeneres’s television character Ellen will reveal that she is a lesbian. The hour-long episode, which will air in one or two segments, includes guest appearances by Oprah Winfrey, k.d. lang, Melissa Etheridge and Billy Bob Thornton. Immediately following the episode, Degeneres will make her own sexuality clear during an interview with […]
A law passed by Congress last September which outlaws female genital mutilation in women under 18 takes effects on March 29th. The law, shepherded through Congress by ex-Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (D-CO), makes the procedure a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison. An estimated 100 million women worldwide have undergone the procedure […]
Former Miss USA Shannon Marketic has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the Sultan of Brunei Haji Hassanal Bolkiah and his brother, Prince Jaji Jefri Bolkiah held her against her will and tried to turn her into their “sexual toy.” Marketic is also suing Kaliber Talent Consultants who sent her to the Sultan’s palace promising […]
A circulating petition claims that The Phillip-Morris Tobacco Company has released a new music recording label entitled, “Woman Thing Music” in order to attract more women to smoking. The company will give away free CD’s of its female recording artists to persons who buy two or more packs of Virginia Slims Cigarettes. Martha Byrne a […]
The House of Representatives voted 295-136 on March 20 to ban the use of the D&X abortion method except in cases where it would save the life of the woman. The ban makes no exception for using the procedure when the woman’s health is at stake. Doctors performing the procedure could face up to two […]
Civil Rights Lawyers filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Education on March 19, alleging that the University of California, having abolished affirmative action in graduate admissions, discriminates against women and people of color. The complaint claims that criteria favoring whites and men are still considered in UC’s graduate admissions, a violation of […]
Aberdeen Proving Ground’s Capt. Derrick Robertson pleaded guilty and was sentenced on March 20 to only four months in prison on charges of adultery, sodomy, conduct unbecoming an officer and failing to obey a general lawful order. Roberston admitted to having sex with a 20-year-old female private under his command who came to him seeking […]
On CBS’ “60 Minutes,” to air Sunday, March 23, two male cadets at South Carolina’s the Citadel military college said that they reported incidents of hazing suffered by former cadet Jeanie Mentavlos to their tactical officer and that they were told to keep quiet about the abuses. Mentavlos and Kim Messer, two of the first […]
A New York Times editorial urges members of Congress to support the law that prohibits anyone convicted of domestic violence from purchasing a gun, and reject two bills that would gut that law. The law has come under attack from police organizations because it does not exempt police officers from the gun ban. The New […]
After her “brief and gentle” confirmation hearing on March 18, propects for Alexis Herman’s approval for Secretary of Labor look promising. Herman, who would be the highest-ranking African-American woman in the administration, is a strong supporter of women’s rights and minority issues, and was the youngest person ever to head the Dept. of Labor’s Women’s […]
The extremist Islamic group controlling much of Afghanistan, the Taleban, ordered Kabul residents to paint their windows opaque so neighbors would not see women’s faces inside the homes. “The face of a woman is a source of corruption for men who are not related to them,” said a Taleban official. Women continue to be harassed […]
A bill to ban discrimination against lesbian and gay students has for the first time passed a California Assembly committee. The bill was introduced by the California legislature’s first openly gay member, Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica). Currently in California students cannot be discriminated on the basis of race, religion, education, national origin or disability. […]
District of Columbia Police Inspector Adrian D. Barnes has resigned amid findings that he was convicted in the early 1990s of abusing his wife. D.C. Police Chief Larry Soulsby said the recently-promoted high-ranking official did not report serving a year’s probation for domestic violence. Officers in the department said that Barnes’ domestic abuse charge was […]
