Tag Archives: Women

Gender

Canada News | Women

Elective abortion services to return to Prince Edward Island for first time in more than three decades
  • The Prince Edward Island government announced that it has asked Health PEI to plan a new women’s reproductive health clinic, which will offer medical and surgical abortion procedures among other health services.
  • PEI has not offered on-island elective abortion procedures since 1982, forcing its residents to travel to New Brunswick or Nova Scotia for healthcare.
  • Activists had threatened the provincial government with a lawsuit, which few thought would withstand scrutiny under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Read more:
“PEI drops opposition to abortion, plans to provide access by year’s end” (The Globe and Mail)
“Abortion services coming to P.E.I., province announces” (CBC News)
“Canada’s Prince Edward Island ends abortion ban in province” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: The Washington Post/Getty Images, via CBC News)

Age, Gender

Cameroon Feature | Women & Children

The Weaponized Girls of Boko Haram

As Boko Haram’s successes in northeastern Nigeria have been rolled back, the extremist group’s attentions have turned elsewhere in the region, including neighboring Cameroon. Rare in other global terrorist activity, female suicide bombers between 14 and 24 years of age have formed the lion’s share of suicide attacks in Cameroon, comprising some 80% of incidents. Female suicide bombers have also been deployed in Nigeria, most recently in Maiduguri. Reuters investigates the pipeline from abduction to sexual slavery to suicide attacks that women captured by Boko Haram have found themselves caught up in.

Read:
“Weakened Boko Haram sends girl bombers against Cameroon civilians” (Reuters)

Additional:
“Video: The war against Boko Haram’s suicide bombers in Cameroon” (France24)
“Nigeria mosque hit by Maiduguri suicide bombers” (BBC)

(Image Credit: Joe Penney/Reuters)

Class + Socioeconomics, Gender, Ideology + Affiliation

South Korea News | Sex Workers

South Korean sex workers protest court ruling upholding criminalization of sex work
  • Pro-sex work activists protested the Constitutional Court’s decision to uphold a 2004 law that set punishments for both sex workers and customers, arguing it unfairly limits women’s economic opportunity and punishes poor clientele while paid relationships among the wealthy persist.
  • Sex workers and consumers face up to a year in jail or a fine of 3 million won ($2,600).
  • Activists say the ruling violates their right to work and announced intentions to petition the United Nations.

Read more:
“South Korean Court Upholds Ban on Prostitution” (The New York Times)
“South Korea prostitutes decry court ruling, demand right to work” (Reuters)
“South Korea Upholds Tough Anti-Prostitution Laws” (AP via ABC News)

(Image Credit: Jean Chung/The New York Times)

Class + Socioeconomics, Gender

U.S. News | Women

FDA eases restrictions around abortion pill, increasing access for rural and low-income women
  • The U.S. Food and Drug Administration now allows for mifepristone (Mifeprex) to be legally prescribed and taken further into pregnancy (10 vs. 7 weeks), with reduced dosage (200 vs. 600 mg), and requiring only two rather than three doctor’s visits.
  • Medical professionals and researchers have held that the restrictions, based on science from the 1990s, were out of step with advanced medical and pharmacological understanding.
  • Conservative states have long restricted access to mifepristone, requiring the drug to be administered by licensed physicians and at times in the presence of the prescribing doctor.

Read more:
“New F.D.A. Guidelines Ease Access to Abortion Pill” (The New York Times)
“FDA backs expanded use of medical abortion pill” (Reuters)
“FDA Extends Abortion Pill Recommendations To Later In Pregnancy” (BuzzFeed News)

(Image Credit: Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times)

Gender

Vietnam News | Women

Vietnam parliament elects first woman chair
  • Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan became the country’s first parliament chairwoman, the fourth-highest government office.
  • Legislators lauded the historic moment and noted the ongoing push for 30% of the parliament’s seats to be occupied by women.
  • Her election was expected after she was re-elected to the 19-member Politburo within the Communist Party, the lead decision-making body in the country.

Read more:
“Vietnam has first chairwoman of parliament” (Thanh Nien News)
“Vietnam elects first woman to lead parliament” (Deutsche Welle)
“Vietnam Elects First Chairwoman of Parliament” (AP via ABC News)

(Image Credit: Ngoc Thang/Thanh Nien)

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity

India Feature | Women

The Women Enforcers of Ghunduribadi

While international media attention often focuses on oppressive conditions women face in India’s tribal regions, women from Ghunduribadi, in the eastern state of Odisha, have stepped up as the security forces to protect the land rights of their villages. Land rights reforms have sought to reclaim ancestral lands expropriated under British colonial laws, but enforcement has been spotty and, according to some advocates and lawmakers, diluted. As their community suffered from illegal incursions into the forest their village relies on for food and supplies, the women banded together to conduct patrols, stepping in where the law wouldn’t to ensure that their land and community are protected.

Read more:
“These Indian women said they could protect their local forests better than the men in their village. The men agreed.” (Public Radio International)

Additional reading:
“‘Centre, states undermining tribal rights’” (Hindustan Times)
“Cong. protests ‘dilution’ of Forest Rights Act” (The Hindu)

(Image Credit: Sam Eaton/PRI)

Gender, Ideology + Affiliation

Sudan Feature | Women Activists

Video

The Embattled Women Activists of Sudan

A new Human Rights Watch report details the threatening conditions faced by women activists in Sudan. Women have reported being subjected to abuse, sexual violence, and arbitrary detention by Sudan’s security forces, while local media have slurred them as “lesbians and prostitutes.” As international agencies have called for more women in conflict resolution and men have continued violating women activists without impunity, women seeking to invest in their country’s future have struggled to find ways to include their voices while protecting their well-being.

Read more:
Good Girls Don’t Protest (Human Rights Watch)
Sudan: Silencing Women Rights Defenders (Human Rights Watch, YouTube)
“‘Good girls don’t protest’: report exposes attacks on Sudan’s female activists” (The Guardian)

Gender, Nationality + Migration

Kuwait News | Zimbabwean Women

As many as 200 Zimbabwean women caught up in Kuwaiti human trafficking scam
  • The women were lured to Kuwait under the pretense of domestic and healthcare employment but found themselves subjected to terrifying work conditions including starvation, violence, and false imprisonment.
  • While 15 of the women have been repatriated, at least 150 remain in Kuwait, caught up in a process that has seen a former Kuwaiti ambassador to Zimbabwe charged with human trafficking.
  • Many Zimbabweans, facing an unfavorable labor market at home, have taken to working abroad, with some having become trapped in employment and scholarship scams by human traffickers.

Read more:
“Zimbabwe: Former Kuwaiti diplomat trafficked 200 women” (International Business Times)
“Zim govt brings back 15 women trafficked to Kuwait – ministry” (News24)
“15 Zimbabwe women home after Kuwait trafficking scam” (Eyewitness News)

Gender

Bangladesh Feature | Women

Sewing Clothes, Sewing Futures

A new initiative is providing Bangladeshi women working in garment factories with the opportunity to earn a college education. Through a partnership with the Asian University for Women (AUW), garment factories, many affiliated with popular global brands, are sending select workers to school while maintaining their pay. Factories’ reputations have taken a blow in the fallout from the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, and some employers are keen on improving their public image through social responsibility initiatives. The Guardian takes a look at the program and a few of its bright young student-workers.

Read more:
“Dresses to degrees: university opens its doors to Bangladesh garment workers” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: David Levene/The Guardian)

Gender, Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Germany Feature | Women & Refugees

Securing Women’s Bodies in Germany

On New Year’s Eve, hundreds of women were grabbed and sexually assaulted by a group of mostly Algerian and Moroccan men during holiday festivities in Cologne. In the fallout, a contentious international debate exploded, impacted by ongoing tension over Germany’s refugee policy. While both sides have accused the other of information distortion for political purposes, some feminists have shifted the focus to the lax laws that enable such sexual assaults to take place, arguing that such violence has been a problem since long before refugees arrived. With a mere 13% of rape cases resulting in conviction, advocates have sought to change laws that require evidence of overwhelming offensive and defensive physical force for a case to be considered rape. BuzzFeed News examines the intersection of sexism, racism, xenophobia, and feminism in the fight to secure women’s sexual agency and refugee integration in Germany.

Read more:
“Why The New Year’s Attacks On Women In Germany Weren’t Even A Crime” (BuzzFeed News)

Additional reading:
“Germany tightens rape law in wake of Cologne assaults” (AFP via The Local)
“Germany to tighten rape laws in wake of Cologne attacks” (The Independent)

(Image Credit: Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images, via BuzzFeed News)

Class + Socioeconomics, Gender

Brazil Feature | Women

The Coerced Pregnancies of Brazilian Women

As cases of Zika infection and newborn microcephaly have exploded in heavily Catholic and evangelical Brazil, the country’s tough abortion laws—preventing the procedure except in cases of rape, maternal health endangerment, and child inviability—have come back into the international spotlight. Legislators have proposed the possible prison sentence for women who undergo an abortion from one to three years to four-and-a-half for women who abort because of detected microcephaly, with doctors facing up to 15 years. Brazil’s class divide has exacerbated healthcare restrictions, constraining women of less means to life-threatening procedures (including black market pills, Internet-advised intervention, acid injections, and self-attempted extraction)  while wealthy women enjoy access to overseas healthcare and hidden networks of clinics and doctors. Vocativ takes a look at the dire straits Brazilian women seeking an abortion find themselves in and attempts to gain reproductive rights.

Read more:
“From Sketchy Pills To Upscale Clinics: Illegal Abortion In Brazil” (Vocativ)

Additional reading:
“Brazilian Legislators Look to Increase Abortion Penalties in the Wake of Zika Outbreak” (TIME)
“Illegal abortions claim lives of Brazilian women” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Chrisophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images, via Vocativ)

Gender, Health + Ability

Palestine Feature | Women

Video

Hair and Hope for Palestine’s Cancer Victims

teleSUR English profiles an effort by the Aid and Hope Program to provide Palestinian women who have experienced hair loss during cancer treatment with wigs. With cancer the second-leading cause of death in Gaza, the campaign, entitled Be Beautiful, addresses the physiological and psychological effects of chemotherapy among the many afflicted women.

View the video on teleSUR English’s YouTube channel.

Gender, Nationality + Migration

Thailand Feature | Migrant Burmese Women

Video

Working Under Threat

As Burmese women have crossed Myanmar’s southeastern border to pursue undocumented domestic work in Thailand, the attractiveness of relatively high wages has been offset by the threat of exploitation at the hands of their employers. The lack of legislation protecting foreign domestic workers has left them vulnerable to mobility restrictions, overworking, and isolation. Migrant advocacy groups struggle to connect with the women, who are housed in private homes and prevented from participating in the public sphere. Voice of America provides a brief look at some of the challenges the women face while seeking opportunity across the border.

View the video on VOA News’s YouTube channel.

Gender

Japan Research | Women

Sexual Harassment in the Japanese Workforce

A groundbreaking study by Japan’s Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry surveyed more than 9,600 women between the ages of 25 and 44 on workplace conditions, revealing that women in the Japanese workforce are subjected to high rates of sexual harassment in the workplace. The governmental study comes as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe struggles towards his target of 30% of women in business leadership positions by 2020.

28.7% (full- and part-time) / 34.7% (full-time only)

Percentage of women reporting having experienced sexual harassment in the workplace

40.1%

Percentage of sexually harassed women who reported having experienced unnecessary physical contact

24.1%

Percentage of perpetrators who were the women’s bosses

63%

Percentage of women who reported doing nothing in response to harassment

~10%

Percentage of sexually harassed women who complained who were demoted or given an unsympathetic hearing

Read more:
“Nearly a third of Japan’s women ‘sexually harassed at work’” (The Guardian)
“30% of working women sexually harassed” (The Japan News)
“A third of Japanese working women were sexually harassed: study” (The Japan Times)

(Image Credit: AP, via The Japan Times)

Gender

Global Research | Women

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Global Companies Profit from Women in Leadership

As global public and private sectors alike search for ways to connect the social value of workplace diversity to companies’ economic value, a study by the Washington D.C.–based Peterson Institute for International Economics has found that increased gender diversity in corporate leadership benefits businesses’ bottom line. The analysis involved more than 20,000 firms from 91 countries.

15% increase

Profitability change associated with an increase in share of women in leadership from zero to 30%

40% of board seats / 20% of executive positions

Women’s representation in corporate leadership in Norway, the highest from countries reported

12% of board seats / 16% of executive positions

Women’s representation in corporate leadership in the U.S., near the middle of the pack

Parental leave policies

Stronger paternity (versus maternity) leave policies correlate with more female leadership

Read more:
“Is Gender Diversity Profitable? Evidence from a Global Survey” (Marcus Noland, Tyler Moran, Barbara Kotschwar)
“Women in Company Leadership Tied to Stronger Profits, Study Says” (The New York Times)

Additional reading:
Women and Leadership (Pew Research Center)