The cause of promoting gender equality and meeting the needs of women and girls has taken an historic step forward.
A new organization—UN Women—was officially launched recently at the UN General Assembly Hall in the presence of leaders from the worlds of politics, entertainment, business and the media.
The new body aims to provide a dynamic and powerful voice at national, regional and global levels for women’s rights and equality. It is also tasked with ensuring that the UN system lives up to its own commitments to gender equality, making new opportunities for women and girls central to UN programmes.
2011-02-28
Posted in Women In the News
Susan notes: hmmmm... somedays I wonder if we've made any progress at all !
Last night, Stephen Colbert interviewed author Stephanie Coontz about her new book "A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s."
Coontz discussed how important and shocking Betty Friedan's "Feminine Mystique" was when it came out. Coontz said, "In those days, women were told, 'All you are is somebody's keeper.'"
While "housewife syndrome" isn't the problem that it once was, Coontz argued that women face many new problems, one of which she referred to as "the hottie mystique."
She discussed how women are now allowed to do everything that men are allowed to "as long as [they] are gorgeous every step of the way and display [their] sexuality." She considers this a "big pressure" for women.
2011-02-28
Posted in Women In the News
Tran Thi Hue, a 27-year-old from the northern province of Ha Nam, has won the first-ever Miss HIV Pageant Vietnam in 2010.
Nghiem Thi Lan and To Thi Tuyet from northern provinces of Thai Binh and Bac Giang were the first and second runners-up in the “Elegant Plus” pageant held in Hanoi, with beauty and contribution to community making up top criteria for selection.
There were 15 contestants who were chosen from 110 applicants.
Tran Thi Hue discovered in 2005 that she was infected by her husband and that her baby was also born with the disease.
After her husband passed away in 2008, Hue became an HIV activist working among women in her province.
By winning the pageant, Hue becomes the ambassador for the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, and will engage in activities to promoting HIV/AIDS prevention around the country.
2011-02-15
Posted in Women In the News
Susan notes: human rights are worth fighting for whatever your age. Eighty-year-old Nawal El Saadawi is an
Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist.
El Saadawi was born in the small village of Kafr Tahla, the eldest of nine
children. Her father was a government official in the Ministry of
Education, who had fought against the rule of the King and the British
in the revolution of 1919. He taught his daughter to speak her mind.
El Saadawi has
written many books on the subject of women in Islam, paying particular
attention to the practice of female genital mutilation in her society. She is feisty, and furious at the Egyptian government's strategy to "firghten" people. She says she will not be detered....
2011-02-05
Posted in Women In the News
Susan notes: the world reacts in horror to the events unfolding in Egypt. Here's one letter I got from the Global Fund for Women this morning February 3, 2011:
Dear Supporter,
As many of you watch the incredible revolution unfold in Egypt
(Al Jazeera livestream here), we wanted to update you on what we are hearing from our board members, advisors and grantees on the ground in Tahrir (Liberation) Square in Cairo.
The peaceful demonstrations that drew some two million anti-Mubarak protestors to Tahrir Square and inspired the world is now a terrifying scene of violence. With the Internet back up, our board member, Professor Hoda Elsadda, Chair of the Study of Contemporary Arab World at the University of Manchester, sent us an urgent email this morning:
2011-02-02
Posted in Women In the News
