October 19, 2020
Though progress has been made in some areas, today we’re still debating women’s rights and gender equality, trying to convince disparate communities and governments of all levels that women play a critical and necessary part of the world, and should be considered as such. I have included the link to an article published in Women’s eNews titled, “World Leaders Should Champion Gender Equality” by Nisha Varia, a women’s rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. […]
November 16, 2016
Nancy Cohen, historian and author, published Breakthrough, the Making of America’s First Woman President this year in advance of the election and appears this week at the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee to talk about the results. Her writings on women and American politics have appeared in mainstream publications like the Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, and the New Republic. Having taught at Occidental College, Cal State Long Beach, and UCLA, she sits on the […]
March 23, 2016
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (WOMENSENEWS)— The U.N. Commission on the Status of Women is wrapping up its 60th annual meeting in New York on March 24.It’s a huge event that attracts thousands of people from around the world, but it’s not alone in the universe of women’s commissions. In fact it’s part of a movement with a long history.Today the commission movement exists on two fronts: on an international stage, where the U.N. commission monitors the […]
June 1, 2015
On May 13, Attorney General Kamala Harris and U.C. President Janet Napolitano took aggressive action to improve response to rape on campuses. They issued a directive to all state colleges to “notify authorities when a sexual assault is reported” and a set of guidelines to encourage collaboration between campuses and law enforcement. California schools must adopt policies implementing the directive by July 1. This action followed the release last year of a White House Council on […]
March 17, 2014
(WOMENSENEWS)– California boasts two female senators. We are the only state to advance women’s reproductive rights in the last few years. The state is rapidly moving forward on the Affordable Health Care Act and there has been paid family leave in California since 2002, though it is underused. But don’t be misled. Even here we have a political gender gap that is actually widening, not closing. The California state legislature has 120 members with 32 […]
July 11, 2013
The number of unanalyzed rape kits nationally is projected to be as high as 400,000, according to a CNN news report on May 28, 2013. They have been sitting on shelves in some cases for more than 40 years, and the statue of limitations for prosecuting rapes has passed for many of them. The CNN reporter, Randi Kaye, interviewed Lavinia Masters, who was raped at the age of 13 in 1985 in Detroit. It was only recently, […]
April 11, 2013
The years 2012 and 2013 have been times of celebration and political victory for the feminist movement. Ms. magazine recently published its 40th anniversary edition. January 22, 2013 marked the 40th year since Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that established the fundamental right to abortion. The 2012 election resulted in some formidable firsts for women. Although the percentage of women in the U.S. Congress still remains low, at 18%, women broke several glass ceilings in […]