Nobel Prize Winning Women

From The Nation:

History was made yesterday when Liberian and Africa’s first democratically elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, led two other women to win the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.

The others are: a Liberian peace activist, Leyma Gbowee and a woman who stood up to Yemen’s authoritarian regime, Tawakkul Karman. Tawakkul is the first Arab woman to win the prize.

The trio won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to secure women’s rights, which the prize committee described as fundamental to advancing world peace.

The 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award was therefore split among them.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee honoured the three women “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work. We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society,” the prize committee said.

Johnson Sirleaf, the 72-year-old Harvard-trained economist, became Africa’s first democratically elected female president in 2005.

Gbowee, who organised a group of Christian and Muslim women to challenge Liberia’s warlords, was honoured for mobilising women “across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections.”

Karman is a 32-year-old mother of three who heads the human rights group, Women Journalists without Chains. She has been a leading figure in organising protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh that kicked off in late January as part of a wave of anti-authoritarian revolts that have convulsed the Arab world.

  

Read more at the Guardian:

Diane Cilento

From the Telegraph:

Diane Cilento, the actress, who died on Thursday aged 78, appeared in films, television shows and stage productions, but was perhaps best known as the first wife of the actor Sean Connery.

Her heyday came in the late 1950s and 1960s, with her most memorable film part being that of Molly Seagrim, the lewd gamekeeper’s wench in Tony Richardson’s 1963 production of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones.

Throughout her life, one Australian newspaper noted in 2006, Diane Cilento was sustained by a mix of rebelliousness, humour, independence and spirituality. Her try-anything-once approach included an early job modelling sports clothes in a Brisbane shop, playing bit parts in films and on television, and riding an elephant in a circus. “I wore the traditional fishnet stockings, incredibly high heels, a bum-revealing little green flared skirt, a pillbox hat and gloves that were shocking pink and sequinned,’’ she recalled of the circus gig.

In 2001 she was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal for “distinguished service to the arts, especially theatre”.

Afghan Womens' Rights Threatened

From BBC News:

Women's rights in Afghanistan are under threat after 10 years of progress, two leading British aid agencies have said.

Oxfam and Action Aid said many Afghan women were worried that improvements could be sacrificed to secure a political deal with the Taliban.

An Action Aid survey of 1,000 Afghan women found that 86% were worried about a return to a Taliban-style government.

The UK government said it was working hard to support Afghan women's empowerment "through transition".

Womens' Rights Campaigner Warns of Yemani Uprisings

From The Guardian:

A campaigner for women's rights in Yemen has claimed that key figures in the anti-government protest movement are abusing human rights and have been responsible for some of the worst atrocities during the unrest.

"To those who talk of a pro-democracy Arab spring in my country," she told the Observer in London, where she is seeking asylum, "I would say that it was not President Saleh who threatened my life or made me too frightened to carry on with my work or stay in Yemen, it was the opposition."

"Sara" does not want to give her real name out of fear for the consequences for her family and colleagues back in Yemen, but she is anxious to highlight what she believes is a profound misunderstanding in the west of what is really going on in her country, where over 400 people have died since the start of the uprising.

"I welcomed the protests when the young people first starting gathering in Sana'a in what they have renamed Change Square. Yemen needs change and an end to the corruption, but when the shooting and shelling started in March, the people in the square were the innocents caught in the middle of the real battle for power that is still going on."

Proof: Women Are Tougher Than Men

From The Star:

Researchers have pieced together strong evidence as to why women are born tougher than men.

Science has long believed the “male flu,” or men’s higher susceptibility to infections, colds and disease, is real. The reasons pointed to the basic genetic difference: two X chromosomes in women and one X and one Y in men.

Now molecular biologists at the University of Ghent in Belgium have looked inside those genes and found the microRNA molecules, one of the most important regulatory mechanisms in human cells, could very well explain the difference.

“The microRNA field is quite a new field,” Dr. Iris Pinheiro told the Toronto Star on Thursday. “What is remarkable about the X chromosome is that it has so many microRNAs.”

And what is so remarkable about the Y chromosome is that it has none.

“That is striking to me,” said Pinheiro. The Y chromosome has evolved through history to shed almost all of its important genes and now has only one biological function: to make men male and to produce sperm.

Scientifically, she said, “it’s just a piece of junk DNA.”

Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women

From Media Bistro:

It’s Friday and it’s lunch time, so you’re probably done with the heavy work load and already thinking about watching the most illegal move in wrestling history. Or maybe that’s just us. Either way, it’s a good time for a list, and Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business for 2011 is worth checking out.

The issue hits newsstands Monday, but here’s a couple quick notes: Oprah Winfrey is an unfamiliar spot, having fallen 10 slots to number 16 because OWN hasn’t worked out yet, and one-third of the newcomers on the list are from India or China. Interesting, right?

Check out the list at Fortune.

Loretta C Ford - Hall of Fame Inductee

From Democrat & Chronicle:

When Loretta C. Ford was a pediatric public health nurse in the 1960s, she was often the sole medical practitioner available in rural areas near Boulder, Colo.

It prompted her to co-develop the nurse practitioner model at the University of Colorado in 1965.

In 1972, when the University of Rochester department established its School of Nursing, Ford — the school's founding dean — further changed the way nurses are trained by pioneering and implementing the unification model, an expanded combination of education, practice and research.

There are now more than 140,000 nurse practitioners in the United States today, and about 400 nurse practitioners at UR Medical Center's Strong Memorial Hospital.

On Saturday, Ford will be one of 11 women inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls.

Nigeria: Women Seek Relevance

From The Tribune:

The journey so far marks 51 years of Nigeria's independence. Looking at the prospects available to the society, men glaringly appear to be privileged and advantaged. And the women? Their song has been that of marginalisation in all spheres.

As Nigeria celebrates its 51st Independence Day, the cry of women, most especially professionals, is that of equal opportunities with men. 'We want not only to be seen, but to be heard,' they sing.

Saint Katharine Drexel

From Philly Burbs:

She was an assertive Philadelphia debutante who dreamed of changing the world and had the family fortune to make it happen.

In a time before women could vote, she built more than 60 schools and founded Xavier University for blacks in the segregated South.

Katharine Drexel became a nun only after founding her own religious order to control how the money was spent. And 11 years after being named a Catholic saint, she is to take her place among the most famous women in American history.

Drexel will be inducted this weekend into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Members of her order, based in Bensalem and founded in 1891, were overjoyed this week at the news, hoping it will allow Drexel’s life mission to inspire a new audience. The sisters will travel this weekend to Seneca Falls for ceremonies in the birthplace of the women’s suffrage movement.

“I think she would accept this award only if it gave her an opportunity to draw more attention to her mission for justice and the cries of the poor in our society today, especially among people of color and among the Native American communities,” said Sister Suchalski, president of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.