Tag: women’s rights

Improving our Future by Outdating Gender Roles

My first memory of rejecting societal gender roles was when my mom sent me to school in pig tails one morning. These pig tails were bad, too. They stuck straight out from the sides of my head and had bows, and my mom insisted that I wear them. Even now, almost 20 years later, I …

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Will Bras End Sex Trafficking?

I recently read an article on the CNN Project Freedom website about a woman from Denver, Colorado who is trying to end modern day slavery, otherwise known as sex trafficking. Kimba Langas was a stay at home mom who, like most of us, began accumulating unwanted clothing, boxed in her garage, which she packed away …

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Rural women: the road towards sustainable development

For the last two weeks the United Nations held the 56th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The CSW is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to women’s rights and gender equality. This commission meets annually for 10 working days. The principal outcomes of the commission are the agreed conclusion between member (45 …

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International Women’s Day and the Arab Spring

Today, March 8th, is International Women’s Day, and in honor of this event the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars released a special report on how women have fared in the Arab Spring.  They asked a variety of women to comment on the events, and a surprising number of them were not very positive.  Women …

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Title IX and the Gender Gap Forty Years Later

National Girls and Women in Sports Day was held last month on February 1st, forty years after the passage of Title IX. For the past 26 years, people across the country have celebrated NGWSD and strengthened Title IX’s declaration, that no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from …

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The Missing Piece: Where Are Women in the Rio+20 Development Puzzle?

The Rio+20 Summit has been generating lots of buzz lately, although the international meeting is not until this summer.  Fellow bloggers Julia and Katherine have discussed, at different lengths, the history and preparation of this year’s summit.  There are seven key categories up for discussion during the three-day event:  Jobs, energy, cities, food, water, oceans, …

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Gender Discrimination: Ending Street Harassment in the US

Women in the United States have come a long way since the 1800s. From being granted voting rights, to the creation of Planned Parenthood and approval of birth control, to the equal pay act, women have covered a lot of ground on the road toward equality. However, there are still some grey areas where women …

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The UN on Human Rights

The Human Rights Council, a part of the United Nations, is made up of 47 states that are all to be looked at as examples responsible for ensuring and strengthening universal human rights. The UN General Assembly created the council in 2006 in hopes of greatly improving and instilling the values that are listed in …

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U.S. Domestic Violence Laws in America: How They Fail Women?

Domestic violence is a painful issue that women have faced for centuries in the United States and abroad.  As time goes by and our legal system becomes more progressive addressing complex issues such as cyber terrorism and modern day piracy I am amazed how domestic violence laws haven’t made much progress.  In fact it may …

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Achieving Global Sustainability: Women’s Rights

The UN Secretary General chose a 22 member panel in 2010 to create a new blueprint for global sustainable development. At the end of last month the report, “Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing,” was released to the public. Focus areas of the panel include the conservation of our planet, global equity, lessening …

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