Cheat Sheet

Concerned about the underrepresentation of women in public and political roles, the Welsh government is planning to implement a 40 percent quota for women on public sector boards.

Read it at BBC

March 4, 2013 4:04 PM

The recent gang rape and death of a college student in New Delhi spurred development of a new mobile app that tracks incidents of violence and harassment in real time. Four women created Safecity.in, a forum for discussing harassment with a "Pin the Creeps" submission process for real-time updates about the location of attacks.

Read it at Gizmodo

March 4, 2013 3:57 PM

Engineer-turned-entrepreneur and Stanford grad Debbie Sterling has created Goldieblox, a construction toy and book that centers on a female engineer character. Sterling’s aim? To teach girls basic engineering skills and open more pathways for women to pursue jobs in the male-dominated tech industry. "In every class I went into, I was always one of a handful of girls in a room of 80 or 90 people. It's hard being a minority in a male-dominated field.” With help from Kickstarter, Sterling was able to develop GoldieBlox; it will hit shelves next month.

Read it at Silicon Valley

March 4, 2013 3:43 PM

New statistics show that among women under the age of 40, advanced breast cancer has tripled in the U.S. Why this is happening? Researchers are still unsure. Early detection is key, and if any breast mass is found, bringing it to the attention of a physician is best, say experts.

Read it at Bloomberg

February 27, 2013 3:17 PM

Activists are angered that the Libyan Supreme Court recently overturned a law that required men to get approval from their first wife before taking on a second one. Liberals fear that this regressive step means that that post-Gadhafi Libya will be more conservative than they hoped

Read it at VOA News

February 27, 2013 3:12 PM

While major cities like New York have seen a dip in their teen pregnancy rates, rural America is experiencing quite the opposite. And the reasons have little to do with factors like the age at which girls start sexual activity. Instead, say experts, inaccessibility to clinics and unaffordable birth control account for the higher birth rate.

Read it at CNN

February 27, 2013 3:09 PM

While women control 80% percent of consumer spending, only 3 percent of ad agencies’ creative directors are women.  A report by Fast Company sheds light on the challenges women face in balancing careers and a family and what companies should be doing to attract more female directors.

Read it at Fast Company

February 26, 2013 2:40 PM

In a country where abortion is illegal under any circumstances, activists have banded together to aid women who would otherwise have undergone unsafe and clandestine abortions. The hotline, run by the Lesbians and Feminists for the Right to Information, tells women how they can obtain a safe abortion in their first trimester.

Read it at Trust Law

February 26, 2013 2:37 PM

Women in Egypt are uniting in a campaign to raise public awareness of women’s issues and their role in the political sector. On Saturday, these female activists launched E’rafni (Know Me) to support female candidates running for parliamentary elections.

Read it at All Africa

February 26, 2013 2:32 PM

A report by The Women’s Media Center reveals that women remain underrepresented in the nation’s newsrooms, both on TV and in online operations. Among major cable news networks, MSNBC showed the biggest gender gap with a staff comprised of 70 percent men and 30 percent women. “We live in a racially and ethnically diverse nation that is 51 percent female, but the news media itself remains staggeringly limited to a single demographic”, says the WMC report.

Read it at Inquisitr

February 25, 2013 4:11 PM

One out of every three Indian women can’t read or write, reported a local politician at a conference on Sunday. "Even today after 65 years of independence, the literacy rate of women is just at 65.5 percent compared to the more healthy 82.1 percent for men,” he said.

Read it at Times of India

February 25, 2013 4:05 PM

Advertisers historical depiction of all women as domestics gets it wrong, especially as women’s personal and professional lives become more varied, writes Adweek’s David Gianatasio.  A simplistic approach to marketing to women often leaves many feeling excluded. There are, however, some companies who get it right, says Gianatasio, and they include Tide, Huggies and Target, all of which used some form of social media to engage consumers.

Read it at AdWeek

February 25, 2013 4:00 PM

Park Geun-hye is the first woman to be elected president of South Korea. In her inauguration speech she detailed her commitment to government transparency, a more fair distribution of wealth, and forging a better relationship with neighbor North Korea, among other efforts.

Read it at BBC

February 25, 2013 3:57 PM

Peru's first lady, Nadine Heredia, is heralded as a compassionate, smart, and charismatic “co-president.” Her approval ratings are seven points higher than her husband’s ratings. The power couple is seen to strongly compliment one another’s strengths and weaknesses. Heredia is considered a possible candidate for president after her husband’s term limits have been met, however she has neither acknowledged nor denied such claims.

Read it at Trust Law

February 22, 2013 3:12 PM

Rapid urbanization coupled with poor public services add up to increased risks for women. With half the world’s population now living in urban settings, the way cities manage transportation, housing, street lighting and sanitation have the potential to exacerbate the violence women face daily. ActionAid International is advocating to improve public services so that they focus on the needs of women in particular.

Read it at The Guardian

February 22, 2013 3:08 PM

Afghanistan’s first female provincial governor, Saira Shakeeb Sadat, is fighting for change within her district. In a country plagued by violence and oppression of women, she stands as a model of what is possible. Sadat hopes to further implement national development strategies aimed at bringing women into government and other responsibility-laden positions.

Read it at Al Jazeera

February 22, 2013 3:01 PM

In the ultra-conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the first female members of the Shura Council, a legal advisory council, were recently sworn in. Women now make up one-fifth of the council. It’s just another sign of change in a country where women are banned from driving and need male approval to open a bank account. In 2011, King Abdullah announced that women would also be granted the right to vote and to run for municipal political office.

Read it at Trust Law

February 22, 2013 2:57 PM

Two years after the revolution in Tunisia, the country is grappling with its identity as a secular and democratic nation amidst the voices of conservative Islamists. Women are facing the steepest battle as they fight to keep the rights and freedoms they have enjoyed for decades.

Read it at New York Times

February 22, 2013 2:52 PM

Research from Women 2.0, a media company devoted to women in the tech industry, shows that female-run companies have a 35 percent higher return on investment than male-owned tech companies. The same study found that the average age of women entrepreneurs founding tech companies has dropped, from 41 to 32, since an earlier, smaller study was done in 2009.

Read it at Business Week

February 20, 2013 6:43 PM

Stats from the CDC show that the number of new cases of cervical cancer among Hispanics is 11.9 per 100,000 women—nearly double the total in white women (6.2 per 100,000). Cervical cancer, according to experts, can be prevented by vaccines and deaths can be avoided by early detection through Pap smears. The two major reasons for Hispanic women’s higher cancer rates are reduced access to healthcare and lower income.

Read it at Take Part

February 20, 2013 6:37 PM

In an effort to promote social and economic power, Intel South Asia and Kudumbasree Mission, a government-led program in India, have teamed up to create an e-literacy program. "Today, computing skills are essential for empowerment," says Kudumbasree’s head, K B Valsala Kumari, “and digital literacy for women is one of the fastest ways to ensure the growth of the state and the nation.”

Read it at Times of India

February 20, 2013 6:26 PM

Governor Cuomo’s State of the State address detailed his commitment to expanding women’s rights and strengthening anti-discrimination statutes. His  Women’s Equality Act will allow women to get late-term abortions if the mother’s health is at risk or the fetus is unable to develop. Although pregnancy termination is the most controversial part of the bill it is only one aspect of it. “Maybe it’s a man’s world, but it is not a man’s world in New York. Not anymore,” Cuomo said.

Read it at MSNBC

February 20, 2013 6:17 PM

When the International Labor Organization released its January report on global employment trends, it ranked India eleventh from the bottom of 131 countries for female participation in the labor force. Cultural and social norms may play a role, say experts, or it could be that more women are seeking secondary education instead of employment opportunities.

Read it at International Labor Organization

February 15, 2013 3:22 PM

For the past month women in Turkey have been gathering to show their support of abortion rights and to denounce what they consider the government’s “back door methods” to ban abortion. Abortion was initially legalized in Turkey in 1983 because of the high number of deaths from unsafe, illegal procedures; activists are afraid that recent actions by the Turkish government signal a return to such times.

Read it at Voice of America

February 15, 2013 3:18 PM

Amid reports that violence against women is on the rise in Afghanistan, activists gathered in Afghanistan to denounce such violence. The organized protest was part of the global One Billion Rising campaign, seeking to bring global awareness to domestic violence issues. Men were also encouraged to support and join the peaceful protest.

Read it at ABC News

February 15, 2013 3:17 PM