Women of Vision

From Jewish Exponent:

A total of 55 members of Women of Vision -- Federation's Jewish Women's Foundation -- and Women's Philanthropy donors took part in the trip. They lobbied lawmakers and met with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, all while forging bonds with each other during this one-day mission.

The group traveled to Capitol Hill to advocate for three congressional bills that directly impact the lives of women: The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act, which would ensure that patients have adequate medical support after breast-cancer surgery; the EARLY Act, which would develop a nationwide public-education campaign to increase breast-cancer awareness and prevention, as well as provide support for young women diagnosed with the disease; and the CLASS Act, which would create a voluntary long-term-disability insurance program for adults.

Designer Vagina

From ABC News Online:

There is mounting concern about a vaginal plastic surgery procedure more and more Australian women are having.

Each year more than 1,200 Australian women undergo surgery on their genitalia in a procedure known as labioplasty.

Doctors and surgeons fear that some women may be having the operation unnecessarily and there are concerns about operations being done by unqualified medical professionals.

In Britain, where the procedure is equally popular, medical experts are warning of a shocking lack of information about the risks and long-term impact.

It is controversial surgery but it is booming nonetheless.

For some, labioplasty is an exercise in Hollywood-style vanity, while for others it is a transformative procedure that trims, sculpts and restores a woman's genitalia.

But there have been no studies to prove its long-term safety and doctors are worried about its ballooning popularity.

US: Crusading Dominican Nun Rebuked

From the Chicago Tribune:

For decades, Sister Donna Quinn has championed the rights of women to use contraception, seek ordination and end unwanted pregnancies.

The Dominican nun has picketed for abortion rights in the nation's capital, petitioned the pope to select a female archbishop and escorted women into abortion clinics.

But as the Vatican turns up scrutiny of the nation's nuns and America's Roman Catholic bishops refuse to support universal health care if it covers abortion, Quinn has put her crusade on hold.

Raised on Chicago's Southwest Side, Quinn expressed her calling to serve the church when a visiting priest asked her seventh-grade class who wanted to be ordained. The boys chuckled when her hand went up. After graduating from Visitation High School in 1955, Quinn joined the Dominican Sisters in Sinsinawa, Wis.

In 1974, she returned to Chicago where she helped start Chicago Catholic Women. Six years later, she became a leader of the National Coalition of American Nuns, a national organization with a similar mission of advocating for women's rights.

USA: Violence Against Women Rising

From CNN:

Fifteen years after passage of the Violence Against Women Act to combat physical abuse of women and girls, domestic violence remains especially acute among Native American and Alaska Native women, Justice officials said Monday.

"The levels of violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women are shocking, and cannot be tolerated," said Deputy Attorney General David Ogden. "Indeed, in some tribal land counties, murder rates for American Indian and Alaska Native women are 10 times the national average."

A new report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics released Monday said its victimization survey showed 652,000 incidents of overall violent crime inflicted by intimate partners in 2008.

More than 550,000 violent incidents targeted women; 101,050 targeted men.

Most of the incidents were classified as simple assaults, but there were 111,530 cases of aggravated assault, 44,000 rapes and sexual assaults and 38,820 robberies.

The number of homicides by intimate partners rose slightly in the past two years, while the cases of nonfatal intimate partner violence continued to decline, the Justice Department report said.

Repeal Women's Right To Vote?

Digital Journal:

Women’s suffrage, according to British-American John Derbyshire and Ann Coulter, U.S. conservative pundit, has caused so many problems America would be better off if it hadn’t happened. So should the women’s vote be repealed?

Women were given the right to vote following the passage of the 19th amendment on August 16, 1920. Although initially those against women’s vote were concerned there might be a gender gap with voting, history shows this did not initially materialize, as women tended to vote Republican and more conservative than men until 1980. It was after that there began to be a slight difference between men and women in voting. This occurred during the Reagan – Carter election where women gave Carter 47% of their vote and 45% to Reagan.

What has been more remarkable is that women vote in greater numbers than men, which is the reason political parties look to the women’s vote in political matters since they have constituted approximately 52% of the vote since 1980. Where the difference in gender voting has been more pronounced is between stay-at-home mothers versus stay-at-home fathers where mothers vote more liberally on social issues than men according to a study reported in mid-September 2009. It has also been found that since 1980 the definition of “family” and therefore “family values” has become more value and therefore the play to “family values” has had varying effects depending upon how those values have been described.

So as women have expanded political power following the right to vote, how they vote has differed throughout history and according to present accounts can’t be predicted unless they happen to have children at home. This information provokes the question once again: Should women retain the right to vote if it is principally young mothers where the gender gap in voting is shown?

UN Merges Women's Agencies

From Moni Basu @ CNN Politics:

A parade of world leaders took the lectern at the United Nations on Wednesday. But days before the speeches on a host of issues, the global body quietly undertook an issue that often flies under the radar: Women.

Last week, the United Nations consolidated four agencies that tackle women's issues and created a new super agency. Humanitarian workers around the world embraced the move. It was about time, they said, that the world got serious about how half its population lives.

Ahead of this week's U.N. meetings, UNIFEM issued a report on the progress of women's rights, part of a set of development goals that global agencies have committed to achieving by 2015.

Last week, the General Assembly voted to merge UNIFEM and three other U.N. women's agencies to better address glaring gender inequities.

Neera Desai [Neeraben]

Wonderful tribute to a woman who did much to pioneer the study of women in India.

Obituary @ Foreign Policy Association website:

Dr. Neera Desai [Neeraben] one of the pioneers of Women’s Studies in India, died on June 25, 2009 after a long struggle with cancer. Neeraben, born Neera Druv in Ahmedabad in 1924, lived most of her life in Bombay/ Mumbai where she founded India’s first Research Centre for Women’s Studies, called the Research Unit for Women’s Studies, at S.N.D.T. Women’s University in 1974. As the founder director of the Research Centre, she played a major role in designing and guiding research projects on women, linking academic Women’s Studies with women’s real-life issues, and introducing Women’s Studies to the curriculum. Trained as a Sociologist, she was also a pioneer in pushing her discipline to include women and gender in the analysis.

The Plight of Afghan Women

From Katherine Butler @ the Independent:

One reason for the widespread public support for the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan was genuine revulsion at the treatment of Afghan women under the Taliban. Shocking videos of women being flogged or executed by firing squads in football stadiums for "adultery" had been smuggled out by campaigners in the late 1990s. Many people assumed that with the disappearance of Mullah Omar and his extremist followers, women would no longer be regarded as lower in status than farm animals, fit only for household drudgery or reproduction.

Girls would be able to go to school, and their mothers or sisters allowed to work, or even just enjoy ordinary pleasures such as travelling in a taxi, singing, laughing in public, or venturing out of the home without a male relative or a heavy blue cloak covering every inch. Western leaders were eager too to play up the "liberation of the women" as one of the noble aims of the military engagement in Afghanistan.

Pervez Kambaksh has now benefited from a behind-closed-doors act of clemency from the Afghan president. But the fact that the student must flee in fear of his life because he circulated an article questioning attitudes to women in Islam suggests that the supposed introduction of democracy and eight years of war have delivered scant progress.

Yakina: Womens' Clinic Turns 30

Article by Leah Beth Ward of the Yakima Herald Republic as reported in the News Tribune:
Beverly Whipple and Deborah Lazaldi

opened the Feminist Women's Health Center in Yakima [in 1979], which has been operating ever since, surviving the violence and turmoil of the anti-abortion movement at its height from the late 1980s to the mid-'90s.

Now in its 30th year of operation, the original clinic and two others in Renton and Tacoma operate under the umbrella of Cedar River Clinics, providing safe abortions, birth control services, testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and Pap smears to about 11,000 visitors a year. The Yakima clinic provides approximately 1,000 to 1,200 abortions per year.

Jewish Women: Bus Protest

From Roy Ellman @ Y Net:

The protest against gender-segregated bus lines stepped up. Dozens of protesters, mainly women, rode en masse on buses labeled 'mehadrin lines' in Jerusalem in which women must sit at the back of bus out for modesty reasons.

Under the banner "Free transportation day – putting an end to discrimination in public spaces," the protesters flocked early in the morning on Sunday to 'mehadrin line' bus stops. When the buses arrived, they sat in the men's section at the front of the bus. The protesters, among them members of city council Laura Wharton and Rachel Azaria, wore red bracelets on their wrists as a sign of their protest and distributed to the passengers information booklets against the controversial separation between the sexes.

Saudi Women Protest

From the Khaleej Times Online:

Scuffles broke out on Sunday when hundreds of Saudi women students held a rare protest at a university over alleged corrupt admission policies, local newspapers reported.

The protest erupted after students were turned away on admissions day at Taif University, south of the holy city of Mecca, Okaz and its sister paper the Saudi Gazette said on Monday.

Female security guards clashed with the students and female guardians as they staged a sit-in and blocked streets and the entrance to the university, they said on their websites.

Witnesses quoted by the Saudi Gazette said that Red Crescent relief teams treated the female guardian of one of the girls “who was beaten up by the security women.”

Al-Medina newspaper said the women and their guardians attempted to storm the university’s gate and were pushed back by security guards, resulting in some injuries.

The women accused the university of admitting less qualified students and closing admissions before the official registration date.

But the dean of admissions and registration, Hisham al-Zeer denied there was any corruption in the admissions process, the Gazette said.

Afghan Marriage Law Furor

Article from Heidi Vogt, Associated Press @ Boston.com:

Activists yesterday rejected proposed revisions to Afghanistan’s marriage law, calling the new version just as oppressive as the original, which critics say legalized marital rape.

President Hamid Karzai signed the law in March but quickly suspended enforcement after governments around the world condemned it.

Though the law applied only to minority Shi’ites, critics saw it as a return to Taliban-style oppression of women by a government that was supposed to be promoting democracy and human rights.

The changes, which are not yet approved by Parliament, would delete sections that said a woman needs her husband’s permission to leave the house and must be ready for sex at least every four days. In a letter to the president, activists said other parts would change so little that the law is still unacceptable.

Issues such as polygamy and a woman’s right to work and to refuse sex have been addressed only with “slight changes in the wordings of the law, rather than changes in content,’’ the letter states.

The section about submitting to sex every four days was deleted, but other sections let a husband order sex, said Shinkai Kharokhel, a lawmaker involved in attempts to change the legislation.

A section explaining a husband must provide financially for his wife also says he can withhold support if she refuses to “submit to her husband’s reasonable sexual enjoyment,’’ according to Human Rights Watch.

That’s equivalent to saying a husband can starve his wife if she refuses to have sex, Kharokhel said.

Most Afghan women “are illiterate and they don’t have financial security and no one will give her money . . . shelter, medical, food, all these expenses belong to the man, and he can hold that back,’’ she said.

The revised law would also restrict a woman’s right to leave the house and to work, she said.

Even so, Kharokhel said, deletion of some of the most controversial articles showed the government was trying to address women’s rights.

Roe V Wade

Yesterday marked the 36th anniversary of the historic Roe V Wade.

From the Examiner:

"Americans have witnessed a historic week as President Barack Obama became the first African-American U.S. president, and the celebration continues as today marks 36 years of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that recognized a woman's constitutional right to abortion.

Some view this reproductive day of emancipation as an opportunity to further their agenda to impose their view that women’s bodies belong under the jurisdiction of government. Pro-choice Americans believe that abortion should be safe, legal and rare; and a private matter between a woman and her medical provider.

Over the last several years, access to abortion has been restricted or made more difficult by many new state laws. These include requiring expensive ultrasound tests; mandated waiting periods that increase the cost of the procedure; parental involvement requirements; and targeted regulation of abortion clinics that make operations costly and difficult. Other state efforts, such as those designed to establish fetal personhood, are intended to create a test case for the Supreme Court to use in overturning or further limiting Roe."

Girl Child Day 2009

From the Times of India:

"The government declared January 24 as the national girl child day, coinciding with the date of swearing in of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the first woman to occupy the post in the country.

The ministry is organising a number of activities which would culminate on March 8 coinciding with the international Women's Day. "

Jewish-Muslim Women's Club

From VOA News:

"Attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions in Europe have sharply increased since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza. The number of incidents is particularly high in France, home to Europe's largest populations of Jews and Muslims. While prospects for a cease-fire in the Middle East seem to be improving, there are no signs the anti-Semitic attacks are abating in Europe. Now, a club of Jewish and Muslim women is trying to build peace by not talking about the conflict.

But one group of French Jewish and Muslim women is working to stop the spread of religious hatred. The group is called the Batisseuses de Paix, or Peace Builders. It is headed by Annie-Paul Derczansky, a former French Jewish journalist. She was on the phone this week with a Muslim counterpart and friend in the French city in Lyon, to see how the chapter there was going. Derczansky said she got the idea of a Jewish-Muslim women's group after reporting on a similar effort among Israeli and Palestinian women. Even if these women differed on political matters, she said, they could find solidarity around cultural and social events."

What an inspiring group of women!!!

Women In India

From the Economic Times:

"Terming actor Sanjay Dutt's comments on his sister using her maiden name as "very very sad", Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhry today said the Constitution has given the right to any woman to choose her surname.

"It is very very sad. The Constitution has given a right to women. They can choose any name they want," Chowdhry told reporters here. "

Forgive my ignorance in this area, but I would be interested on any comments regarding this article. Just from reading this article alone,dame upon marriage. Is this a very irrugular occurrance or is this trend becoming more popular - though I would suspect mainly in the larger cities as opposed to the more rural areas.

Hajiya Salamatu Suleiman

From allAfrica.com:
"The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Salamatu Suleiman, has charged the management and staff of the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) to be proactive and more efficient in their programmes and projects so as to fast-track the gender imperatives of the present administration.

Hajiya Suleiman, who gave the charge during her familiarisation tour of the centre in Abuja yesterday noted that the centre had a lot of potentials yet to be explored towards meeting government's target on gender mainstreaming in the country.

Hajiya Suleiman therefore advocated Public-Private Partnership in the activities and management of the centre, saying that it was one way of making the place self-sustaining and reduces the financial burden on government."

Empowering Nigerian Women

From allAfrica.com:
"While many of the women in positions of power and those in the rural areas continue to hail the various empowerment initiatives of past first ladies, the initiative of the Wife of the incumbent Governor, Mrs.Alayingi Sylva has expanded the scope as she effectively engage in open advocacy and awareness campaign on health related issues, politics and participation of women in ensuring the peace process initiated by President, Alhaji Musa Yar'dua.

At the last count, in accordance with the record provided by the state ministry of health, the advocacy campaign on health and Cancer related issues have led to the treatment of over 5,000 women in various rural communities of the state.

Mrs. Alayingi however has never hidden her desire to use the stay of her husband in position as Governor for the benefit of women, youths and men equally. She told a group of women known as the Ogbia Women Forum last year that she has a burning desire to move women in the state to a greater height."

From The Star Online:
"Asean, China and other Asian countries should set up a network to collect and share data to prevent international crimes against women.

The network would also promote education and economic empowerment of women, said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen.

She said gender issues had to be put into mainstream national and international planning €“ not in sideline discussions.

Dr Ng said women’s issues had to be the mainstay of most international meetings between governments and not just at women-led forums.

“It is obvious that to initiate change on gender-related issues, there must be discussion and agreement among all related parties, particularly our male counterparts, if gender equality is to achieved,” she said.

On the Malaysian scene, Dr Ng said women here were still under-represented in Parliament and the private business sector €“ with the number not even touching 30%.

Women representatives accounted for only 26.7% in the Dewan Negara and only 10.8% in the Dewan Rakyat.

Dr Ng said there were only two women Cabinet ministers and six women Deputy Ministers. Women members on boards of directors had dropped from 9.9% in 2005 to 5.3% in 2007.

“Initiatives are being intensified to create awareness among political leaders, the legislative and judiciary and high-level management officials,” she said at the second China-Asean High Level Women’s Forum on Tuesday."