Let's hear it for the Land Down Under

The World’s Best Countries for Women - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com

The G.D.I. takes both absolute and relative levels of these factors into account, penalizing countries with a high disparity between men’s and women’s achievements. In 2007, the latest year for which data are currently available, the United States ranked 13th on the Human Development Index and 19th on the Gender-Related Development Index. Norway took first place on the H.D.I., but only second on the G.D.I. (Australia took the gold in G.D.I. rankings.)

BBC News - Profile: Kathryn Bigelow

BBC News - Profile: Kathryn Bigelow

Kathryn Bigelow has become the first woman in the history of the Academy Awards to win the best director trophy, as her tension-filled Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker collected six prizes.

Three Proven Steps to Advance the World’s Women, on International Women’s Day - Nicholas D. Kristof Blog - NYTimes.com

Three Proven Steps to Advance the World’s Women, on International Women’s Day - Nicholas D. Kristof Blog - NYTimes.com

Why I (still) don't celebrate Women's Day

Women are not from Venus, we are from planet Earth. We represent 50% (or more) of the human race and according to the ancient Chinese proverb, we hold up half the sky. So why do we get just one day of the year?

Here's an entry I wrote in another post, on another Women's Day. It's still valid:

As you celebrate (if you do), remember the female foeticide and infanticide that still goes on in India and China, among other places. Remember the sex slaves in streets and brothels around the world. Remember the victims of female circumcision (RIP Katoucha Niane). Remember the victims of honour killings. Remember the girls being forced into marriage and women in traditional communities who are dying of AIDS, infected by their husbands. I could go on, but I'm getting a bit depressed, and more than a bit enraged. So please, don't wish me Happy Women's Day (again) this year.

Letting Women Reach Women in Afghan War - NYTimes.com

Letting Women Reach Women in Afghan War - NYTimes.com

Excerpt:

Whatever the outcome, the teams reflect how much the military has adapted over nine years of war, not only in the way it fights but to the shifting gender roles within its ranks. Women make up only 6 percent of the Marine Corps, which cultivates an image as the most testosterone-fueled service, and they are still officially barred from combat branches like the infantry.

But in a bureaucratic sleight of hand, used by both the Army and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan when women have been needed for critical jobs like bomb disposal or intelligence, the female engagement teams are to be “attached” to all-male infantry units within the First Marine Expeditionary Force — a source of pride and excitement for them.

“When I heard about this, I said, Oh, that’s it, let’s go,” said Cpl. Vanessa Jones, 25.

The idea for the teams grew out of the “Lioness” program in Iraq, which used female Marines to search Iraqi women at checkpoints. Over the past year in Afghanistan, the Army and Marines have assembled ad hoc female engagement teams, but the women were hastily pulled from work as cooks or engineers.

Op-Ed Columnist - Divorced Before Puberty - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - Divorced Before Puberty - NYTimes.com
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Nujood is a Yemeni girl, and it’s no coincidence that Yemen abounds both in child brides and in terrorists (and now, thanks to Nujood, children who have been divorced). Societies that repress women tend to be prone to violence.

Op-Ed Columnist - Loosey-Goosey Saudi - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - Loosey-Goosey Saudi - NYTimes.com
Maureen Dowd

excerpt:

Young Saudi women whom I interviewed said that the popular king has relaxed the grip of the bullying mutawa, the bearded religious police officers who patrol the streets ready to throw you in the clink at the first sign of fun or skin. Their low point came in 2002 when they notoriously stopped teenage girls without head scarves from fleeing a fire at a school in Mecca; 15 girls died. Two years ago, they arrested an American woman living here while she was sitting in a Starbucks with her male business partner, even though she was in a curtained booth in the “family” section designated for men and women.
“It is not allowed for any woman to travel alone and sit with a strange man and talk and laugh and drink coffee together like they are married,” the religious police said.