Women’s Equality at Stake in Israel

JERUSALEM — Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews tried to block a liberal women’s group from praying at the Western Wall on Friday morning, creating a tense standoff in the latest flash point of a broader battle over religion and identity that has engulfed Israel. Heeding calls from their rabbis, religious teenage girls turned up in large…

Read More

Ohio State Senator Nina Turner Says Men Need Medical Information Before Taking Viagra

ProgressOhioOrg – Bill modeled after similar legislation to help women make informed decisions (Columbus) -State Senator Nina Turner (D-Cleveland) announced legislation today that would protect men in Ohio from the risks of PDE-5 inhibitors, drugs commonly used to treat symptoms of impotence.  Turner’s legislation would include provisions to document that the symptoms are not psychological in…

Read More

Gender Gap on Wages Is Slow to Close

By MOTOKO RICH for The New York Times – First, there was the “mancession” that made the downturn much worse for men. Then, what my colleague Catherine Rampell has called the “he-recovery,” which has put more men than women back to work. What has remained consistent is that women remain on the wrong side of the wage gap. Even with…

Read More

Mississippi Votes to Keep Birth Control Legal

Huffington Post – Mississippi voters Tuesday defeated a ballot initiative that would’ve declared life begins at fertilization, a proposal that supporters sought in the Bible Belt state as a way to prompt a legal challenge to abortion rights nationwide. The so-called “personhood” initiative was rejected by more than 55 percent of voters, falling far short of…

Read More

The worst states to be female

Ohio, Virginia, Kansas and South Dakota are leading the conservative war on women’s health By Sarah Seltzer for AlterNet – Every day, it becomes a little bit harder for women to get the health care they need in America, particularly if that health care has anything to do with sexual and reproductive health. The “war…

Read More

The Shocking Truth for Thirty Percent of Divorced Women

By Jennifer Gauvain for The Huffington Post – It was the day she had dreamed about. Standing barefoot at sunset, “Joni” (a former client of mine whose name I have changed) stood looking at the man she was about to marry. She planned the perfect wedding–a fairytale. There was one hitch–as she looked into her…

Read More

Obama Administration: Health Insurers Must Cover Birth Control With No Copays

Huffington Post – Health insurance plans must cover birth control as preventive care for women, with no copays, the Obama administration said Monday in a decision with far-reaching implications for health care as well as social mores. The requirement is part of a broad expansion of coverage for women’s preventive care under President Barack Obama’s health…

Read More

Birth Control Should Be Free Says Institute of Health

A new report recommends that birth control should be fully covered so “women can better avoid unwanted pregnancies.” (CNN) — Contraceptives, sterilization and reproductive education should be covered by health insurance plans with no cost to patients under the health care reform law, a new report recommends. The birth control methods, services and education should be…

Read More

New Zealand CEO Blames Menstruation for Lack of Equal Pay

MSNBC – The head of a business group has been fired after asserting that menstruation makes women less productive in the workplace than men. Alasdair Thompson, chief executive of New Zealand’s Employers and Manufacturers Association, made the comments during a radio debate. The BBC reported that Thompson sparked controversy by suggesting that women earned less…

Read More