Sunday, December 18, 2011

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

The lowlights of 2011′s ‘War on Women’ in the US

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Summary of story from In These Times, December 15, 2011 Early this year, in response to a wave of anti-choice and anti-reproductive health legislation in the US, pro-choice advocates began talking about a new War On Women. In fact, it was a war on many people, and many things: choice, contraceptive access, dignity, and common [...]

Woman elected new Scottish Labour leader

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Summary of story from BBC News, December 17, 2011. Johann Lamont, member of the Scottish parliament (MSP), has been elected as the new Scottish Labour leader, pledging to “make Labour Scotland’s party once again”. The former Scottish minister warned supporters the party must reach out to people, rather than put its own interests first. Lamont [...]

UK police sued for deceit by lovers of undercover officers

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Summary of story from The Guardian, December 16, 2011 Eight women who say they were duped into forming long-term loving relationships with undercover policemen in the UK have started legal action against police chiefs, alleging that they have suffered intense emotional trauma and pain. The women say the men “deliberately and knowingly deceived” them into [...]

Obama bans daughters from Facebook

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Summary of story from the Daily Mail, December 17, 2011 US president Barack Obama has admitted he has banned his daughters from using Facebook – because he doesn't want 'strangers knowing our business'. He said it 'does not make much sense' to put the most private details of his family life on public view, saying, [...]

Protests in Brighton after archaic comments about breastfeeding

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Ruth Mason Manager, Rape Crisis Centre, Brighton and Hove  About 60 mothers gathered in central Brighton in southern England yesterday to highlight the need for a supportive attitude to breastfeeding in public. The event was organised after Brighton mother Claire Jones-Hughes was told by customers, while she was nursing her child in a local cafe, [...]

Jerusalem bus stopped after woman refuses to move to the back

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Summary of story from 972Mag, December 17, 2011 When Tanya Rosenblit had to get from her hometown Ashdod to Jerusalem for a meeting, she decided to take the bus. Looking at the timetables of the leading bus company in Israel, Rosenblit chose the one most convenient for her destination. Once on the bus, however, she [...]

Sweden and Yemen at the top and bottom of the UNDP’s Gender Inequality Index

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Rosy Moorhead WVoN features editor  "It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights." In Beijing in 1995, Hillary Rodham Clinton made her now historic speech on women’s rights to the United Nations’ Fourth [...]

American women played key part in road home from Iraq

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Summary of story from the Huffington Post, December 15, 2011 Women have been leaders in shaping criticism of policy concerning the Iraq war, whilst simultaneously strengthening support for US troops serving in the country. Tammy Duckworth, who volunteered to go to Iraq in 2004, lost her legs in combat. After her return home, she called [...]

What has the Arab Spring done for women’s rights?

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Summary of story from National Post, December 16, 2011 Nearly a year has passed since the Arab Spring began sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa. However the brilliant future that these revolutions appeared to promise for women seems less achievable than first thought. In Egypt, both men and women queued this month to [...]

European women golfers struggle for attention on world stage

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Summary of story from CBS Sports, December 17, 2011 Less than ten years ago, European women golfers were among the top players in the world, with people such as Annika Sorenstam and Laura Davies regularly racking up victories at the majors. Today, however, golf fans would struggle to name a top European woman player. Only [...]

Male model fronts Dutch lingerie campaign

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Summary of story from Yahoo! Lifestyle, December 14, 2011 Hema the Dutch department store is using Andrej Pejic, a male model celebrated for his androgynous looks, to front their marketing campaign for a push-up bra. The company's decision to have a man front the campaign appears to have paid off – as his natural cleavage-free [...]

American study finds men often misread women’s sexual cues

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Summary of story from Health.com, December 16, 2011 An American study has found that heterosexual men often have difficulty accurately reading a woman's level of sexual interest in them. The study involved 96 male and 103 female US college undergraduates taking part in a 'speed-meeting' exercise, talking for three minutes each to five members of [...]

Egyptian blogger’s sisters held after clashes in Cairo

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Summary of story from The Guardian, December 16, 2011 Mona and Sanaa Seif, sisters of prominent Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El-Fatah, were among those arrested outside the Egyptian cabinet building earlier this week. The arrests occured during clashes between protesters and security forces who moved in to clear a sit-in near the building. The violence [...]

Women increasingly powerful in Bulgaria

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Summary of story from Al Jazeera, December 15, 2011 Women are increasingly powerful in Bulgaria, comprising a third of company owners and managers. In the last five years, two women – who are also the two Bulgarian European Union Commissioners – have been the most popular politicians in the country. They also hold some of [...]

Sexism alive and well in Federer Lindt chocolate ad

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Jane Osmond WVoN co-editor  We write a lot here at Women's Views on News about how the media portrays women as sexual objects, and how this has an adverse effect on the way that women are perceived on the world's stage. However, the use of sexist tropes is not restricted only to women, as evidenced [...]

Gender equality improves in East Asia Pacific region, but challenges remain

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Summary of story from Vietnam News, December 16, 2011 A new report from the World Bank has found that the gender gap is narrowing in the East Asia Pacific region, particularly in terms of education, life expectancy and participation in labour markets over the past 25 years. Among developing countries, girls now outnumber boys in secondary [...]

Female doctor wins £4.5m at UK employment tribunal

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Summary of story from The Guardian, December 16, 2011 Pontefract General Infirmary in West Yorkshire has been ordered to pay out £4.5m in compensation after a hospital consultant won a claim for sex and race discrimination against Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS trust. Dr Eva Michalak, 53, who worked as an obstetrician, was the subject of a [...]

Ivekovic exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art

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Summary of story from the New York Times, December 15, 2011 Sanja Ivekovic's exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, seen as 'ardently and precisely feminist', offers a retrospective look at the inequalities to which women have routinely been subjected over the last 35 years. Ms Ivekovic was born in Zagreb, Croatia when it [...]