RIGHTS: Africa’s Success Stories in Gender Empowerment
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Thalif Deen* – IPS/TerraViva
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (IPS) – Whenever gender empowerment is a vibrant topic of discussion internationally, some of the countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America are invariably singled out for their success stories in politics, education, health care or civil liberties even as Africa [...]
Q&A: Qualified Women Have Better Chance in Top Jobs
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Thalif Deen interviews UNESCO Director-General IRINA BOKOVA* – IPS/Terraviva
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 8 (IPS) – Irina Bokova, who was elected director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) last September, heads the Paris-based agency at a time when the world body has placed a high priority on [...]
BOLIVIA: More Women in Parliament, With Their Own Agenda
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, Jan 20 (IPS) – An unprecedented 28 percent of seats in Bolivia’s new parliament will soon be occupied by women. Female lawmakers have already launched a battle for women to serve in half the posts in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.
One [...]
PERU: Victims of Military Rapists Wait for Justice 25 Years On
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
LIMA
Ángel Páez, Jan 20 (IPS) – ”I want justice. That will be a kind of peace,” says Micaela, a 40-year-old woman from the Andean region of Peru who is a survivor of the sexual violence prevalent during the 1980-2000 civil war. Twenty-five years ago, soldiers assaulted her at [...]
GHANA: Quietly Extending Options to Women
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Elana Roth*
ACCRA, Jan 19, 2010 (IPS) – Juliana Kweais has a small scar on her bottom lip, from the first time she witnessed an abortion. The sharp blow to her mouth was delivered by her grandmother, after the then-13-year-old Kweais had asked why her auntie had given [...]
INDIA: Women As Hindu Priests Have An Edge
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Daksha Warty
PUNE, India, Nov 24 (IPS) – Defying Hindu orthodoxy and intolerant male priests, women in Maharashtra state, western India, have revived a Vedic tradition and become priests.
Approximately 700 women, most of them from Pune, a busy metropolis, 164-km south of Mumbai (previously Bombay), have undergone the [...]
INDIA: Women’s Political Empowerment, Yes; Better Lives, No
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Neeta Lal
NEW DELHI, Nov 23 (IPS) – Despite getting suitably politically empowered, women in India continue to lag behind on almost all crucial developmental parametres like education, health and economic participation.
So why isn’t women’s political empowerment—a fact acknowledged by the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) latest [...]
RIGHTS-LAOS: How Women Cope With Disability – Part 1
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Melody Kemp
VIENTIANE, Nov 20 (IPS) – Before 2002, Chanhpheng Sivila held training workshops for the many Lao disabled women and men at her own house.
Now she presides over the sprawling Lao Disabled Women’s Development Centre fronting the Mekong, 20 km from Vientiane. Traffic thunders over the nearby [...]
CLIMATE CHANGE: Women Central to Adapatation, Mitigation
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Nastasya Tay
PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, Nov 18 (IPS) – Poor women will bear the greatest ‘climate burden’, says the United Nations Population Fund in its 2009 State of the World Population report, released today.
The report emphasises that climate change is more than an issue of energy efficiency [...]
Q&A: Women Should Be More Than Window Dressing
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Jedi Ramalapa interviews Ingrid Srinath, Secretary General of CIVICUS
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 18 (IPS) – Women in developing countries are among the most vulnerable to the effects of crisis – be that climate change, food price hikes, the HIV/AIDS pandemic or the global recession. It is becoming more commonplace to [...]
Q&A: ”What is Important is to Give Equal Opportunity” – Part 2
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Stephen de Tarczynski interviews scientist Lourdes J. Cruz, winner of the 2010 UNESCO-L’Oréal Award
MANILA, Nov 18 (IPS) – Although women have long made major contributions to science, their efforts have often been overlooked. For the past 12 years, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has [...]
GENDER: Women in Science Face Discrimination in India – Part 1
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
K.S. Harikrishnan
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Nov 18 (IPS) – Just 10 of the 443 Indian scientists who received the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) award in the last 50 years were women.
An IPS investigation reveals that women scientists are sidelined by male-centric selection committees for awards and for appointments to [...]
CENTRAL AMERICA: Gender-based Violence, the Hidden Face of Insecurity
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
José Adán Silva
MANAGUA, Nov 16 (IPS) – Gender-based violence and sexual abuse are serious public security problems in Central America, and Nicaragua is no exception, according to reports by United Nations agencies and women’s organisations.
The Central American Human Development Report 2009-2010, released on Oct. 20 by the [...]
U.S.: Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Dahr Jamail
VENTURA, California, Nov 13 (IPS) – U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her [...]
PARAGUAY: Indigenous Women Leaders Buck Discrimination
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Natalia Ruiz Díaz
ASUNCION, Nov 12 (IPS) – More and more indigenous women in Paraguay are overcoming sexist resistance in their communities and emerging as leaders within and outside of their villages, fighting for the rights of their people and against discrimination.
Estela Maris Álvarez is one of these [...]
Q&A: ”CEDAW is UNIFEM’S Entry Point”
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Andrea Borde interviews JOANNE SANDLER, Deputy Executive Director, UNIFEM*
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 9 (IPS) – On Sep. 14, the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly adopted a resolution that opened the door for the creation of a new U.N. agency specifically for women.
It will draw together under one umbrella [...]
