Women's eNews

Apr 26

Jan 7

The Internet Proves a Powerful Tool for Women’s Leadership Winners in 2013

Women who started digital petitions popularized on social media in Saudi Arabia and New Jersey make up part of the Women’s eNews 21 Leaders honor roll for 2013.

Manal Al-Sharif of Saudi Arabia captured the world’s attention with the Women2Drive campaign which gained visibility for women on YouTube and Twitter. More than 100 Saudi women and their male supporters drove cars publicly and posted videos on YouTube in a country where women are required to employ a male driver to get around if a male relative isn’t available. The digital campaign was backed up with an online petition on the website change.org, which gained support from more than 100,000 people in 156 countries in 2012.

Emma Axelrod, Sammi Siegel & Elena Tsemberis of New Jersey also harnessed the power of online petitions at change.org to put the first female moderator on a presidential debate in 20 years. Candy Crowley was appointed moderator of the second meeting of Obama and Romney after a questionable performance from PBS’s Jim Lehrer earlier in the campaign season. The girls gained over 100,000 signatures and continued the winning streak of women’s equality issues online.

These four women will receive their honors alongside leaders from Norway, India, Colombia, Ireland, Canada and the U.S. as 21 Leaders for the 21st Century,

Women’s eNews’ annual gala to celebrate the gains that have been made in women’s equality. As an international news organization, the 21 Leaders Gala provides an annual point of celebration for Women’s eNews, a nonprofit news organization that raises women’s voices around the world through journalism.

Sep 25

“It’s Not Culture. It’s Child Abuse”

Jun 7

Women in Honduras

Credit: Waterdotorg on Flickr, under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Central American Women Suffer ‘Crisis of Violence’

By Sadiya Ansari

(WOMENSENEWS)—Violence against women is reaching crisis proportions in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, finds a June 5 report by the Nobel Women’s Initiative and Just Associates, an advocacy group supporting grassroots organization working in 13 countries.

The finding is based on over 200 testimonies from human rights activists.

“From Survivors to Defenders, Women Confronting Violence in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala,” was based on a fact-finding mission in January 2012 led by Nobel laureates Jody Williams and Rigoberta Menchú Tum.

The authors said that both government and organized crime have perpetrated rape, torture and murder…Read more

Credit: seaturtle on Flickr, under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

NARAL Focuses on Flipping House Seats Lost in 2010

By Sammatha Kimmey

(WOMENSENEWS)—NARAL Pro-Choice America communicates via press releases and social media with its Facebook followers and one-million-plus activist members about every bill related to contraception or abortion.

Yet, Erika West, deputy political director, says it may be necessary to step back and consider the “totality of damage” that a GOP-controlled House has tried to bring on choice since the 2010 elections… Read more

Apr 11

Tunisia’s Dhaouadi: Dignity and Freedom At Last

After years of repression, Aicha Dhaouadi is serving parliament for the Islamist party.

In 1991, her husband Mohammed Hedi Kefi won asylum in France as a political refugee, but she wasn’t so lucky. “I was taken hostage for seven years before being able to join my spouse in France,” she said in an interview earlier this year.
Read more

Mar 22

Battles Loom on Women’s Rights, Health, Budget

Spring brings an overflow of political battles that affect women. Statehouse bills attack choice, Medicare and Medicaid could be picked apart in agency budget hearings, and federal spending to curb domestic violence faces unusual opposition.

“Less than 13 percent of the jobs that the Labor Department projects will be created by 2018 will pay wages that will not only allow workers to meet their basic expenses, but put their children through college and save for retirement,” Addkison said in a phone interview. “More than 60 percent of single women now live in economic insecurity because of low wages.”

Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act—which has been the centerpiece of the nation’s efforts to combat domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking since 1994—is another area of fierce partisan debate…

Mar 21

Moroccan Suicide Focuses Legal Trackers on Rape

Moroccan activists met in Fez last week to learn how to use an online database of women’s rights court decisions—aside from those by the Supreme Court, Moroccan court decisions are often scattered and difficult to find. They hope it will help propel reforms that were too late for Amina Filali, the teen who killed herself after being forced to marry her rapist.

Mar 19

Victoria Woodhull, Prophet of Women’s Power, read by Barbara Goldsmith

Rise and declare … yourself free. Women are entirely unaware of their power. Like an elephant led by a string they are subordinated by … just those who are most interested in holding them in slavery. If the very next Congress refuses women all the legitimate results of citizenship … we shall proceed to call another convention expressly to frame a new constitution and to erect a new government … We mean treason, we mean secession, and on a thousand times grander scale than was that of the South. We are plotting revolution.

Learn more about Victoria Woodhull

Mar 14

Female Longevity Offset by Lethal Gender Gaps | Womens eNews

Women live longer than men, yet speakers at a recent conference asserted that the low status of women and girls results in about 3.9 million excess deaths of girls relative to men.