Last year, Savita Halappanavar, an Indian woman being treated in a hospital in Ireland, was denied a life saving abortion because of the country’s strict Catholic code of conduct. She died. The world was outraged as it came face to face with the horrifying truth that when religion guides your government, the death toll rises. Now we are again [...]
Archive | Global Women’s Issues
RSS feed for this section
Femen: Feminism’s Enfant Terrible
Both the Western and worldwide media does not pay attention to women until they take off their clothes. This isn’t news to anyone. Sites decrying the lack of young people’s morality also have gossip pages detailing lasciviously the nip slips and crotch shots of our favorite rehab bound women. With the preoccupation of women’s bodies [...]
#IWD: Educating Girls Is One of The Most Important Things You Can Do Today
Of the estimated 61 million children deprived of basic education globally, 60 percent are girls. But, that’s just the beginning of a dramatic gender gap. According to the Global Campaign for Education: “An additional 100 million girls worldwide that begin primary school do not finish [school]. The numbers are even starker for secondary education, which [...]
La Barbe
A group in France known as La Barbe “The Beard” is approaching Feminist activism with a mixture of humor and candor. These ladies don fake beards and protest sexism by drawing attention to the pervasive over-representation of men in places where policy and other important decisions are made. I was interested in finding out more [...]
The Lasting Legacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton
Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her final goodbyes to her employees of the State Department. As she left and gave her final waves before the cameras, she closed the door, on what was nothing short of an extraordinary 20 years in public service. As Secretary of State, Clinton achieved many things not [...]
Syria: Rape, Honor, and Quiet Collusion
Warning: This post contains graphic depictions of sexualized violence. Lauren Wolfe, director of the Women Under Siege Project which documents the incidence of rape in war and militarized zones, this week posted an opinion piece, End Culture of Rape in 2013. As she knows better than most, this is easier said then done. The [...]
Anne Hathaway & One Billion Rising Inspiration For 2013
Who inspires me? I could answer this question at the moment with Anne Hathaway. Of course this might just be the Les Mis high talking, but I did feel inspired by her remarkable performance in film that as Fantine. If you haven’t seen the film yet, and are not a musical theatre nerd; Fantine is [...]
Segregated Voting: An Outdated Chilean Political Practice
Last year, the Chilean National Congress modernized the electoral system, automatically registering all qualified residents to vote and making voting itself voluntary. Previously, registering to vote was optional, but once you registered, voting was obligatory, with fines of up to $224 for registered voters who didn’t show up at the polls. The threat of fines [...]
We Must Keep Fighting: Post World AIDS Day
I was born in 1989, while the AIDS epidemic in the US was in full force. I’ve never lived in a world where learning about HIV/AIDS wasn’t a part of my school health classes. I know that I’m lucky to have been taught an unbigoted view of how HIV/AIDS could happen to anyone, no matter [...]
World AIDS Day: Seize the day
With December 1 comes World AIDS Day. The timing of this commemoration of those gone, those still fighting, and our hopes at prevention (and dare-we-hope an end?) to this epidemic always strikes me as curious. For Americans, World AIDS Day comes on the heels of Thanksgiving (and Black Friday) and nearly smack in the [...]