Friday, December 9, 2011

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Will Russia’s restrictions on abortion boost their population?

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Polly Trenow WVoN co-editor  Earlier this month the Russian government passed controversial legislation to limit women’s access to abortion. With a rapidly declining population and the highest abortion rate in the world, the Russian authorities have placed a cap on abortions at 12 weeks and imposed waiting periods, ultrasounds and counselling on those seeking abortion. [...]

US decision to allow under-18s emergency contraception overruled

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Summary of stories from RH Reality Check and The New York Times, December 7, 2011 Kathleen Sebelius, US Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services has overruled a decision by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make emergency contraception available over-the-counter to women of all ages. This is the first time a [...]

‘Lads mags’ may legitimise hostile sexism

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Summary from Middlesex University, December 7, 2011 '”Soft porn” magazines could be legitimising hostile sexist attitudes, according to new research. Psychologists from Middlesex University and the University of Surrey found that most of the people they surveyed were not able to tell apart descriptions of women taken from 'lads' magazines, and comments about women made [...]

Bahrain police and activists trade blame over death

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Summary of story from Arabian Business, December 8, 2011 A Bahraini woman has died after being struck in the head during unrest, police said on Wednesday, blaming protesters for her death. However, human rights activists have expressed doubt over the official explanation. “A Bahraini lady who was injured in the head by an iron rod hurled [...]

Olympic medallist seeks higher profile for women’s cycling

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Summary of story from BBC News, December 8, 2011 British Olympic silver medallist Emma Pooley has called on cycling’s international governing body to actively raise the profile of women’s racing. Pooley, 29, wants the International Cycling Union (UCI) to strive for financial growth in the sport. She said: “Most women’s races aren’t televised so it’s less attractive [...]

Afghan women wary of the future

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Summary of story from RFE/RL , December 8, 2011 Afghan women are demanding to be heard in the on-going international dialogue over Afghanistan’s future after 2014, when foreign troops leave amid hopes that a peace settlement can be reached with the Taliban. As the US and its NATO allies prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan, women fear that [...]

Women to be allowed to serve on UK submarines

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Summary of story from BBC News, December 8, 2011 Women are to be allowed to serve on Royal Navy submarines, UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has confirmed. The first women officers will begin serving on Vanguard-class nuclear subs in late 2013. Women had been excluded from subs because of health concerns about carbon dioxide but [...]

History repeating itself? New book researches women’s social history

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Suzie Grogan WVoN co-editor  I have written on women's issues and on social and family history, so when Women's Lives: Researching Women's Social History 1800–1939 (Pen and Sword Books, £12.99) was published in November 2011 I was keen to take a look. Written by Jennifer Newby, editor of Family History Monthly magazine and keen writer [...]

Occupy Wall Street protester joins Wall Street firm

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Summary of story from International Business Times, December 6, 2011 Tracy Postert took to the Occupy Wall Street protests in October while still unemployed but emerged in December with an actual job on Wall Street. Postert initially joined the Occupy Wall Street protests carrying signs that read, “Reagan sucks,” and “I’ll vote after the revolution.” [...]

Roza Otunbaeva ends term as transitional leader of Kyrgyzstan

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Summary of story from RFE/RL, December 2, 2011 Roza Otunbaeva has been showered with roses, decorated with medals, and even proposed as a contender for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. However, she is now voluntarily stepping down as Kyrgyzstan’s transitional head of state in the first peaceful transfer of power throughout the country’s twenty years of [...]

Head of prostitution ring is executed in China

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Summary of story from BBC News, December 8, 2011 Chinese media are reporting that the female head of a gangland prostitution ring in Chongqing, south-west China, has been executed. Wang Ziqi was convicted in 2010 of luring hundreds of women to beauty salons or hotels and forcing them into prostitution. She was sentenced to death [...]

Women farmers denied entry to UN Climate Change summit

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Summary of story from the Sydney Morning Herald, December 4, 2011 A French photographer has reported that riot police blocked hundreds of women farmers from entering UN climate talks in Durban. The 12-day, 194 country talks are where government ministers, diplomats, experts and NGOs are trying to revive international climate change negotiations. The women farmers [...]

Pakistani girls refuse to bow to Taliban pressure

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Summary of story from RFE/RL, November 25, 2011 The Taliban have continued to demonstrate the extent to which they are willing to go to prevent girls from receiving an education, after an explosion in a school in the Swabi region of Pakistan destroyed classrooms on November 15. On November 22, a police officer was killed [...]

Ex-president arrested for electoral fraud

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Summary of story from BBC News, December 7, 2011 When she became president of the Philippines in 2001, Gloria Arroyo promised Filipinos a new era of integrity and honesty. But 10 years later she has been arrested and charged with electoral fraud. Unlike her predecessor, Joseph Estrada, Arroyo is quiet and studious, an economics graduate and classmate [...]

Female journalist murdered in Honduran capital

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Summary of story from Yahoo, December 7, 2011 Journalist Luz Marina Paz was gunned down in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, as she prepared to go to work at the Honduran News Channel on Tuesday. Police say the 38 year old, who hosted morning programme Three in the News, was hit along with her driver by dozens [...]

History programme remembers suffragette Emily Davison

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Denise Turner WVoN co-editor The UK television series Find My Past will today feature an episode about suffragette Emily Wilding Davison (1872-1913). Davison died four days after she was cut down by the King’s horse when she ran onto the racecourse at the Epsom Derby in an act designed to raise awareness of the women’s [...]

Anti-feminist endorses Bachmann for president

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Summary of story from the International Business Times, December 5, 2011 Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative activist who spearheaded the anti-feminist movement in the US during the 1970s, has endorsed Michele Bachmann for the Republican presidential nomination. Schlafly has less influence now than she did at her prime, when she was part of the successful campaign [...]

Poet withdraws from prize over investment company sponsorship

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Summary of story from The Guardian, December 6, 2011 Award-winning poet Alice Oswald has chosen to withdraw from the TS Eliot prize for poetry in protest against its new sponsorship by an investment company. The UK-based Poetry Book Society loses its Arts Council funding next year, and to compensate it has announced a three-year sponsorship [...]