Dutch filmmaker Marleen Gorris, who won the foreign language Oscar in 1996 for directing Antonia’s Line, has will direct her first major studio picture. 20th Century Fox has contracted with her to direct Come West With Me, a movie based on the play Abundance by Beth Henley. The nineteenth-century drama deals with the story of […]
A study conducted by the McCormack Institute and the Center for Survey Research has found that two-thirds of welfare recipients have been victims of domestic violence. Approximately one fifth of welfare recipients have been victims of domestic violence within the past twelve months. Seven hundred thirty-four women participated in the first scientific study of its […]
The president and president’s deputy of CNA Life insurance company resigned after the sexual harassment allegations of two female employees came to light. The female employees complained of sexual harassment committed by president, Jack Kettler, to the company’s deputy president, Robert Teske. Teske failed to act in the matter, and Roger Morris, a spokesperson for […]
On March 4th, The Population Council announced that plans to use a company called Advances for Choice to market mifepristone (formerly known as RU 486). The step came after The Population Council settled legal issues with a business partner and created a new company to introduce the drug into the United States. The company said […]
According to a poll conducted by Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Connecticut, ex-vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro would easily defeat incumbent Senator Alfonse D’Amato in the 1998 New York Senate race. The poll interviewed 1,071 registered New Yorkers from February 24th to March 2nd. Ferraro came out ahead of all other possible Democratic contenders and ahead of […]
After delaying Alexis Herman’s Secretary of Labor confirmation hearings for weeks, Senator James Jeffords has finally scheduled the hearings. Commenting that he found her responses concerning questions about her private finances and conduct as a White House aide to be “adequate”, the Chair of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Comittee scheduled the hearings for […]
ABC has given the t.v. sitcom Ellen the go ahead to have its lead character come out as a lesbian on an April 30th show. Ellen will reveal to Oprah Winfrey, playing her therapist, that she is attracted to a lesbian. Ellen will be the first show to have a gay or lesbian lead character. […]
While many of the women nominated for Oscar’s this year participated in films created by small, independent studios, mainstream Hollywood has also included a variety of women in films and women-oriented films during the past year. In 1994, the “Year of the Woman” in Oscars ironically exposed Hollywood’s tendency to shut women out of executive […]
The following teams have received an automatic bid to play in the 1997 women’s NCAA tournament: Liberty (22-7), Harvard (19-6), Eastern Kentucky (24-5), Old Dominion (29-1), Marshall (18-11), St. Peter’s (25-3), North Carolina (27-2), and San Francisco (25-5). Each team received its bid for winning its regional conference tournament.
Among calls by some members of Congress for segregating the military after widespread allegations of sexual harassment have emerged, a reporter from The Washington Post spent a week with integrated troops in Bosnia and found that women and men worked together easily and for the benefit of the entire operation. Dana Priest found that there […]
So-called Operation Rescue plans to begin targeting high schools starting March 3 through the end of the 1997 school year in order to harass young men and women. The group says it wants to “educate” women on the abortion issue. Critics of the campaign believe that the picketing is a scare tactic also being used […]
The former editor of McCall’s and Ladies’ Home Journal magazines died on February 27th due to complications resulting from Parkison’s disease at age 78. Hershey began her career by working at the promotion department of The New York Herald Tribune. In 1968 she left the position of executive director of McCall’s magazine to become the […]
Anita Roddick, Bette Midler and Bella Abzug were some of the twenty-five women recognized by the United Nations as world environmental leaders. On March 6th, the United Nations will host “Eyes on the Environment: 25 Women Leaders in Action” during which the women will receive the awards. Anita Roddick, CEO of The Body Shop, commented, […]
An all-male institution since its foundation 155 years ago, the Vienna Philharmonic has agreed to admit women as players. In a vote which passed with a two-thirds margin, the group responded to pressures of feminist groups to boycott the Philharmonic’s upcoming U.S. tour if it did not agree to admit women. Elena Osteleitner, an assistant […]
The first International Women’s Day was March 8, 1911. In 1981, Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) cosponsored a Joint Congressional Resolution proclaiming the week of March 8 National Women’s History Week. In 1986, the National Women’s History Project (founded in 1979 by Molly MacGregor) helped expand the celebration to the entire […]
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said on February 26th that he saw no reason to segregate military training on the basis of sex. He said he was still open to comments regarding the issue, but that any changes must not cause women to lose any gains they have made in the military. After a series […]
A Texan woman, Linda Finch, is planning to recreate Amelia Earhart’s last and most perplexing around the world. Finch found one of only two twin-engine Lockheed Electra 10E’s, the type Earhart used, known to exist and will fly it around the same path with many of the same stops as did Earhart. Pratt & Whitney […]
Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal, together with other national women’s leaders launched a campaign for the confirmation of Alexis Herman, nominee for U.S. Secretary of Labor at a press conference on February 26. Smeal said, “Although Senator Jeffords (R-Vermont) has made public his intention to schedule the hearing, we urge him do so quickly and […]
For the first time since 1921, Ireland has made divorce permissible by a Constitutional amendment. The predominately Roman Catholic country had banned divorce when Ireland gained independence from England. A similar attempt to legalize divorce was defeated in a 1986, but in a stunning blow to a scandal-ridden Church, the referendum passed in 1995. The […]
A Japanese government report unveiled on February 25th reported that contraceptive pills are safe and effective. The endorsement has paved the way for government approval of the pill’s use. So far, nine pharmaceutical companies have submitted applications for approval of the pill. With its expected approval within the year, North Korea remains the only country […]
