we have brains

grrrly news 10/5

October 5, 2003 09:36 AM posted by lisa : track it (0)

Anger at Vatican plan to ban altar girls
A heated battle has been joined in the Vatican between moderates and conservatives over a directive, called for by the Pope, that would bar altar girls and stop millions of Roman Catholics around the world dancing, or even clapping, in their churches.
The document would also clamp down on adult, lay pastoral assistants. It would forbid priests during sermons quoting from ethical texts other than the Gospels. And it would rank services jointly celebrated with Protestant ministers or Orthodox priests alongside black masses as one of the four "most serious" abuses.

Builders unite to stop abortion clinic
Building contractors in Austin, Texas, have organized a city-wide boycott to prevent construction of a Planned Parenthood clinic that will perform abortions.
The builders want to make sure concrete, building materials and workers are not available to erect the $6.2 million facility, planned for a site south of downtown where the project is scheduled to break ground today, the Associated Press reported.

Gov. Davis sued over 'gay marriage' bill
A California lawmaker and a non-profit group are suing Gov. Gray Davis for allegedly usurping the rights of Californians by signing a bill that awards virtually all the rights of marriage to same-sex partners.
State Senator William Knight and the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund argue bill AB 205 – signed Friday at the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center – nullifies many aspects of Proposition 22, a ballot initiative approved three years ago by a 2-1 margin

Definitions Impede Stem-Cell Work
The medical promise of embryonic stem-cell research has been plagued by ethical controversy. Now, an apparent way to get stem cells without destroying human embryos is hung up by federal policy.
A group of researchers from Michigan State University, Wake Forest University's School of Medicine and a handful of other universities manipulated primate egg cells, tricking them into behaving as if they had been inseminated. The process resulted not in an embryo, but a bundle of cells similar to a pre-embryo, although the cells could never survive even if implanted in the primate's womb.

The World Today - A look into gender-based education
Now to what some are calling the "feminisation of education". Australian women in their 20s and early 30s are now more likely to have a university degree than men in the same age bracket. That's the finding of a report by the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Today we take a look beyond the findings and head back into the classroom, in an attempt to discover what has changed.

Are boys now disadvantaged in our education system, or is it simply that girls have more opportunities in education than ever before?

Reform call for laws on women who kill
Victoria's homicide laws should be redrawn to be fairer to women charged over killings, according to a Law Reform Commission discussion paper to be published tomorrow.
The paper argues that defences to charges of murder, such as provocation and self-defence, better suit the circumstances in which men kill.

A rainbow ends for Daddy's little girl
New research suggests growing up without a father puts girls more at risk of early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy. Bettina Arndt reports.

Murder in Juárez
This week in the magazine, in a Letter from Mexico, Alma Guillermoprieto writes about a series of brutal killings of young women which has sparked outrage at the police and at politicians. Guillermoprieto has written about Latin America for the magazine since 1989; her most recent piece, in the February 10, 2003, issue, concerns her career as a young dancer in New York. Here she talks to The New Yorker’s Amy Davidson about Mexican justice, life on the border, and being a writer.

Debate exchanges may 'terminate' women's votes
Maybe it was the allusion to a movie scene in which he shoved a female robot's head into a toilet or telling candidate Arianna Huffington to drink more decaffeinated coffee, but actor Arnold Schwarzenegger's image with many women voters wasn't helped by his performance in Wednesday's debate, analysts say.
Instead, they say, it will most likely hurt his chances of expanding his support beyond the Republican women who like him.
"From what I'm been hearing today, Schwarzenegger did himself some significant damage," said Democratic consultant Darry Sragow. "I think

Rape files for 650 women fake
A planned lawsuit by 650 Kenyan tribeswomen alleging that they were raped by British soldiers was put in doubt Friday after Royal Military Police investigators concluded that police records filed by the claimants were forged.
A spokesman at the British High Commission in Nairobi confirmed that the 37 reports expected to form the backbone of the case, the only ones filed at the time of the alleged attacks, had proved to be fakes. The reports had encouraged hundreds more women to come forward.

NZ court asked if just looking is illegal
Does looking at child pornography on the Internet, but not downloading it, amount to the criminal offence of possessing it?
That is a question a New Zealand judge is considering in a test case authorities have brought against the former headmaster of a school, a newspaper reported yesterday.

NEW GIRLS' CLUB
For the first time, women on Forbes' list of the 400 Richest People in America topped men in average net worth, with $2.8 billion vs. $2.4 billion for men.
And while previous lists have included more women than this year's 50, the current ranking features more self-made female moguls than ever.
These days, eBay's Meg Whitman and "Friends" producer Marcy Carsey are pushing aside the usual cast of corporate heiresses - the Waltons, Annenbergs, Cargills and Krocs - who have populated the list since its inception in 1982.
"An increasing number of women on the list are self-made," said Pete Newcomb, senior editor at Forbes who has worked on the Forbes 400 since the days of the Duponts, Rockefellers and Mellons.

Amendment key to abortion bill's fate
Congress is close to passing a bill that will ban partial-birth abortion, but Senate Republicans want to remove an amendment that Democrats support and that could prevent the legislation from passing both chambers.
Senate Republicans are confident that the Senate will pass the bill this week and send it to the president.

Muslim slays daughter in 'honor killing'
A Muslim Kurdish refugee living in the UK was sentenced to life in prison today after being convicted of murdering his 16-year-old daughter because she had started a relationship with a Lebanese Christian boy and had become too "westernized."
By stabbing his daughter in the neck, Abdalla Yones, 48, was performing what in the Muslim world is considered an "honor killing," an attack on a relative who has brought shame to the family. The murder occurred in the family's home in Acton, West London, according to the London Times.

Study: U.S. Abortion Policy Closes African Clinics
President Bush's anti-abortion policy has forced family planning clinics in poor countries to close, leaving some communities without any healthcare, according to a report issued Wednesday.
Even faith-based clinics that promote abstinence -- in line with White House policy -- have had to close, according to organizers.
Under the policy, known as the Mexico City rule by supporters and the Global Gag rule by opponents, foreign family planning agencies cannot receive U.S. funds if they provide abortion services or lobby to make or keep abortion legal in their own country.

Far Right woos women with vows on feminism and family
'People aren't used to women in the nationalist movement doing more than standing behind their menfolk. They don't realise that it's changed now; that we're fighting side by side with them.'
Women have played a supporting role in fascism in the past - Oswald Mosley's wife, Diana, championed Hitler's ideas in the Thirties - but an Observer investigation has discovered that the far Right in Britain is now being transformed by an influx of women keen to fight for a longed-for racist future.
'I headbutt, punch and kick just like a man,' says Jackie Oakley, editor of the White Nationalist Party's Valkyrie magazine and head of its women's division. 'None of your poncey girly scratching for me; I'm up there with the men and so are all the other women in the group.'

Firms rate for moms on the job
Northern California's working moms don't need to look far to find the best places in the nation to work, according to a list from Working Mother magazine released Monday.
Four California companies and several employers with large operations in the Sacramento area were among the top 100 in the magazine's 18th annual survey, including Intel Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and USAA.
Over the years, the magazine reported in its October issue, benefits to working mothers have improved as companies strive to improve the women's lives and help them balance homes and careers.

Debating Academic Freedom
Some of those pushing colleges to be more open to "conservative" points of view sincerely want to create an atmosphere of open inquiry and intense, rigorous debate. On the other hand, others merely want to reduce the influence of the left and increase the influence of the right. That is, if colleges happened to hire mostly Republicans, I sincerely doubt we'd hear as much complaining from the Republicans (and indeed the left would be on the offensive).

Absurdistan in America
In Iowa, the government has confiscated the savings of 11-year-old Rylan Nitzschke. Rylan saved $220 from chores and shoveling snow, but that now belongs to Iowa. Why? Rylan’s father allegedly owes child support (to Rylan), and his father’s name was on the boy’s bank account

Linda S. Heard: Apathy of Afghan women after Taliban
During a radio broadcast to the nation on November 17, 2001 US First Lady Laura Bush empathised with the plight of Afghan women struggling for freedom under the iron glove of the Taliban, and painted a far rosier future.

"Because of our recent military gains in much of Afghanistan, women are no longer imprisoned in their homes. They can listen to music and teach their daughters without fear of punishment," she said, adding: "The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women."

Just two days later, up popped Cherie Blair echoing the sentiments of Laura Bush in a patently politically orchestrated fashion.

Women on top
Women are calling the sexual shots in the latest crop of heroines on film, writes Belinda Smaill.
It was one of the most famous invitations ever set to film. In the classic thriller To Have and Have Not, the great femme fatale, Lauren Bacall, tells her later real-life husband, Humphrey Bogart: "You don't have to say anything and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? Just put your lips together and blow."
Since the 1940s days of Bacall and Bogart there has been a natural whittling away of how a filmic female character gets her man.

MSNBC begs Hillary to run
MSNBC didn't help itself overcome accusations it is politically biased when the No. 2 Internet newssite in the world led its virtual "news" front page with a "glowing, first-person, editorial column by BusinessWeek Online's Washington bureau chief calling for Hillary Clinton to enter the presidential race.
"Who are the Democrats kidding?" the oddly positioned editorial by Douglas Harbrecht began. "They have somebody who could beat George W. Bush next year. Her name is Hillary Rodham Clinton. The only question, really, is how badly she wants to return to the White House."

Power: Do Women Really
Want It
That's the surprising question more of them are asking when they ponder top jobs in business, academia, and government

Convicted Murderess Can Get Custody but Decent Fathers Can't
Clara Harris, a Texas woman who was convicted of murdering her husband in March, was just granted joint custody of her twin five year-old boys. The ruling validates what fathers' and children's advocates have been saying for years--when it comes to children, many courts believe that mothers can do no wrong.

Gender Games
Women athletes are challenging stereotypes by competing against men -- and winning. So are males and females really so different?

Arnold's Female Problem: Two Opposing Views
We present today two viewpoints on whether women should vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger in Tuesday's recall vote on the governorship of California.

New York's Little Liberia Relives Homeland's War
An ocean away from the war they fled, female immigrants living in Staten Island's Little Liberia are coping with the violence that afflicted their families in Africa, while becoming increasing willing to call 911 if their husbands beat them.

New Techniques May Reduce Cervical Cancer's Toll
Pap tests and new technologies have dramatically reduced cervical cancer deaths in the United States. Future decreases may come from a vaccine, but testing those who are inadequately screened can help now.

Refugee Women Need Bias-Free Assistance
As the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees holds its annual meeting in Geneva this week, it should commit to refugee women having independent access to all aid packages and better protection from gender-based violence

Saudi Arabia: Woman in Labor Must Bring in Man
This week, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Qassim Al-Qasabi issued a directive, effective immediately, recommending that all hospitals admit pregnant women only when they are accompanied by men who will take responsibility for the mother and child, reported the Arab News.
The action was the direct result of a joint ministries committee meeting addressing findings that children of unmarried mothers accounted for the largest percentage of abandoned children.
In accordance with the directive, the man accompanying the woman must produce a photocopy of his Saudi Arabian identification card, which immediately becomes part of the woman's medical file. He must also sign a document naming him accountable for the mother and child.

Downturn Pushing Single Mothers Out of Work Force
Beneath the statistics showing women hanging on to their jobs at a rate slightly better than men, single mothers are an exception. With an unemployment rate of 8.4 percent, they are one of the groups hardest hit by the weaker economy.

Ban Limits Endings for Doomed Pregnancies
The so-called Partial-Birth Abortion Ban would limit the clinical options of women who find, in their second trimesters, that something has gone terribly with their pregnancies. Here, two doctors argue the pros and cons of that.

Suffragist Milholland Collapses on Speaking Tour
Inez Milholland was perhaps the suffrage movement's most charismatic public figure, surely its most dramatic. In 1913, as President Woodrow Wilson was being inaugurated in Washington D.C., that was Milholland, robed in white and gold, riding astride a white charger at the head of 8,000 parading women, enduring the taunts and assaults of onlookers opposed to granting women the vote.

Education credited for women gaining more management jobs
Women are more likely than men to work as managers in white-collar professions, a new study says, a significant change since similar research was done 25 years ago.
Thirty-nine percent of women - compared to 28 percent of men - held managerial jobs in professions including law and medicine, according to the survey by the New York-based Families and Work Institute.

Girls' night in
With summer slacker days gone, the business of living kicks into high gear once again, and those busy fall schedules mean stress levels rise. A night "in" just might be the cure. Invite your favorite friends -- especially the ones who know how to have a good time -- for a chick party. A little female bonding time can be very therapeutic.

Girls seek to narrow gender gap on SAT
Education has its fashions, but some things we have come to take for granted: Kids work together on homework and it's not cheating. Teachers have e-mail. Whiteboards are as common as chalkboards. . . . And girls score lower than boys on the SAT.
This last fact -- the perennial point gap between male and female scores that has persisted for decades -- was once cause for public outcry. But lately, it has been a nonstarter.
"What's happened is women are now 56 percent of those receiving bachelor's degrees, and nobody cares that they're not doing as well on the SAT," said Phyllis Rosser, a scholar and director of the Equality in Testing Project in New York who has tracked the issue since 1979.

« Women of the Wild West | whb homepage | beyond gender? »

your comments : post a new comment