A Utah woman is being taken to court for bearing her breasts in her home – an explicit example of a double standard
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Continue reading...Category Archives: Women
Concern grows over ‘rough sex gone wrong’ defence in courts
UK lawyers and activists demand action as researchers find tenfold rise in usage
Senior lawyers and women’s organisations have condemned the increasing use of “rough sex gone wrong” as a courtroom defence to the murder of women and called for a change to the law in the UK.
In the wake of the conviction of British backpacker Grace Millane’s killer in New Zealand, researchers have revealed a tenfold rise over the past two decades in the number of times similar claims have been made in UK courts.
Continue reading...Australian women win landmark vaginal mesh class action against Johnson & Johnson
The case was launched on behalf of 700 women who had pelvic mesh and tape products implanted to treat common complications of childbirth
Hundreds of women left in debilitating pain by faulty transvaginal mesh devices have won a landmark case against multinational giant Johnson & Johnson.
The Australian class action against companies owned by Johnson & Johnson – watched closely across the world – was won on behalf of 1,350 women who had mesh and tape products implanted to treat pelvic prolapse or stress urinary incontinence, both common complications of childbirth.
Continue reading...Who’s the daddy? Paternity mixed up in cities, study finds
Illegitimacy more likely over past 500 years among urban poor, say geneticists
The Romans had a phrase that summed it up nicely: mater semper certa est, pater semper incertus est. The mother is always certain, the father is always uncertain.
Now, researchers have found that some people have more reason to doubt their fathers than others, or at least have had over the past half millennium.
Continue reading...Family planning schemes must offer options other than abortion, says US
Campaigners urge global action on reproductive rights as US comments embolden anti-choice groups at Nairobi summit
The US will only support family planning programmes that offer alternatives to abortions, a senior policy adviser has told a conference in Nairobi.
In a statement that has emboldened anti-choice groups in the city, Valerie Huber, the US special representative for global women’s health, also told a summit on population and development that her country sought to combat gender-based violence by investing in programmes that respected the rights of women and girls, but didn’t compromise “the inherent value of every human life – born and unborn”.
Continue reading...Joana Choumali wins 2019 Prix Prictet photography prize
Artist becomes first African to win the prestigious prize, for embroidered pictures created following terrorist attack
• See a photo essay of the Prix Pictet 2019 shortlist
Joana Choumali, a 45-year-old photographer from Ivory Coast, has become the first African artist to win the Prix Pictet. The announcement was made this evening in a ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London for the opening of an exhibition of the 12 shortlisted artists.
The theme of the eighth Prix Pictet, a global award for photography and sustainability, was Hope. The jury, which included last year’s winner, Richard Mosse, praised Choumali’s “brilliantly original meditation on the ability of the human spirit to wrest hope and resilience from even the most traumatic events”.
Continue reading...The female problem: how male bias in medical trials ruined women’s health
Centuries of female exclusion has meant women’s diseases are often missed, misdiagnosed or remain a total mystery
From the earliest days of medicine, women have been considered inferior versions of men. In On the Generation of Animals, the Greek philosopher Aristotle characterised a female as a mutilated male, and this belief has persisted in western medical culture.
“For much of documented history, women have been excluded from medical and science knowledge production, so essentially we’ve ended up with a healthcare system, among other things in society, that has been made by men for men,” Dr Kate Young, a public health researcher at Monash University in Australia, tells me.
Continue reading...Japanese women demand right to wear glasses at work
Public outcry after TV show exposes businesses imposing ban on female staff
Japanese women on social media are demanding the right to wear glasses to work, after reports that employers were imposing bans.
In the latest protest against rigid rules over women’s appearance, the hashtag “glasses are forbidden” was trending on Twitter in reaction to a Japanese television show that exposed businesses that were imposing the bans on female staff.
Continue reading...Lebanese women demand new rights amid political turmoil
Feminist bloc plans to build on role in protests that brought down prime minister
A man may just have stepped down as prime minister, but the women of Lebanon are not going anywhere.
During the protests that led to the resignation of Saad Hariri, women were among those chanting, blocking roads and debating the future of the country’s politics.
Continue reading...Young Kurdish feminists make me hopeful for the future of the region
A conference on sexual violence in Iraqi Kurdistan has given women an overdue opportunity to voice their experiences
When I received an email from the Kurdish feminist writer and activist Houzan Mahmoud, asking if I would speak at the first conference on sexual violence against women and girls to be held in Iraqi Kurdistan, I could barely contain my excitement.
Mahmoud, a campaigner for Kurdish and Iraqi women’s rights – “honour” killings, the rape and abduction of women in Iraq and the imposition of Islamic sharia law are among the areas she tackles – was supporting the Sofia Society, a group of roughly 40 young feminists.
Continue reading...No woman should be slapped for screaming as she gives birth | Ann Yates
Respect in childbirth is a human right. As a midwife of many years’ experience, I am calling for a global effort towards more compassion in maternity care
Respectful maternity care is a universal human right due to every childbearing woman in every health system around the world. So why do women continue to endure violence, abuse and substandard care during childbirth?
As a midwife with more than 44 years of international experience, I have seen disrespect and abuse in many countries.
Continue reading...If the government tracks women’s periods, why not track male ejaculation, too? | Arwa Mahdawi
Missouri is so concerned about women’s health it keeps spreadsheets of dates of Planned Parenthood patients’ periods
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Continue reading...New Zealand: just 11% of sexual violence reports lead to conviction
Major Ministry of Justice report analysed tens of thousands of cases over four years, with nearly two-third involving children
Less than a third of sexual violence reports in New Zealand lead to a court case, and only 11% to a conviction, the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken in the country has found.
The Ministry of Justice report, which looked at tens of thousands of cases over four years, “does not make for happy reading” and highlighted just how many people face barriers to justice, said Jan Logie, under-secretary to the minister of justice.
Continue reading...The treatment of Meghan is racist. We should feel able to say so | Yomi Adegoke
The MPs who condemned the press attacks on the Duchess of Sussex should be praised, but tiptoeing around the language only protects perpetrators
The silence surrounding the Duchess of Sussex’s treatment by the press has become a roar. More than 70 female MPs signed a letter this week in “solidarity” with Meghan after she spoke about her treatment by sections of the media. The letter outlined attempts “to cast aspersions” on her character. It also attempted to address the nature of these attacks: “We are calling out what can only be described as outdated, colonial undertones to some of these stories,” it read.
However, this treatment can be described as only one thing: racist. Not saying so explicitly is part of a growing trend – the word “racist” is now dodged with more fervour than racial slurs themselves.
Continue reading...Strike a contrapposto pose to look more attractive, science says
Study finds pose makes waist-to-hip ratio seem lower on one side and looks more appealing
Dancers do it, Instagrammers do it, even the Venus de Milo does it. When it comes to striking a pose, it seems the only way is contrapposto. Now research has shed light on why the attitude is so appealing.
Experts say the pose, which involves standing with weight predominantly on one foot with a slight twist in the upper body, makes the waist-to-hip ratio appear strikingly low on one side of the body.
Continue reading...‘Women were being killed on the street’: the township struggling with domestic abuse
In a 2016 study of Diepsloot, 56% of men surveyed admitted to raping or beating a women in the previous 12 months – a lack of policing is just the start of the problem
The violence usually starts on a Thursday night, worsens on a Friday and reaches a peak over Saturday into the early hours of the morning. At the start of spring in September, temperatures rise and tempers flare. By the hot, heady weeks of the festive season in December, domestic abuse reaches its worst, outdoing the incidents of violence that have become common over long weekends throughout the year. In Diepsloot, an impoverished community north west of Johannesburg, gender-based violence has become so common that it follows a recognisable pattern.
Some would survive if a car comes by while they are raping her or before she was killed
Continue reading...Northern Ireland set to legalise abortion and same-sex marriage
Equality campaigners celebrate ahead of a midnight deadline for new laws to come into force
Northern Ireland is poised to legalise abortion and same-sex marriage after an 11th-hour attempt by the region’s assembly to block change collapsed into farce.
Equality campaigners celebrated on Monday as the clock ticked towards midnight when laws extending abortion and marriage rights were due to come into force, ushering in momentous social change as Northern Ireland aligned with the rest of the UK.
Continue reading...‘Glacial change’: film industry is slow to reform despite #MeToo
Progress towards equality in the entertainment industry has been patchy, say campaigners
Two years ago, the entertainment industry became the primary focus of discussions over abuse, harassment and decades of ingrained sexism after allegations against Harvey Weinstein rocked Hollywood and kickstarted the wider #MeToo movement.
While a raft of initiatives have been introduced, including Time’s Up, a group that provides legal support to victims, and 50/50 x 2020, a gender parity pledge that all major film festivals have signed up to, industry experts said change has been glacial.
Continue reading...The uproar over AOC’s hair is a reminder that women can’t win under the patriarchy
Women simply can’t play by the patriarchy’s rules – which is why we need to stop and lean all the way out
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Continue reading...Baby dies in UK prison after inmate ‘gives birth alone in cell’
Police investigate unexplained death at Bronzefield women’s prison in Surrey
Police are investigating the death of a baby in Britain’s largest female prison after an inmate gave birth alone in her cell at night.
The Guardian understands that the woman, who had been at an advanced stage of pregnancy, gave birth alone in her cell in the early hours of Friday last week. A source with knowledge of the events said that when prison staff visited the woman’s cell on Friday morning the baby was unresponsive.
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