For decades, Chinese daughters were abandoned in favor of sons, leading to waves of international adoptions like Kate’s. This new restriction on international adoption seems to signal a change in how Chinese society views its daughters today.
Tag: women
War Within a War: Sexual Violence in Ukraine
Trigger Warning: Discussion of sexual assault and violence against women The United Nations departments of Sexual Violence in Conflict and UN Women put forth a joint statement on April 9th stating that they are “gravely concerned about mounting allegations of sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls in the context of the war in Ukraine.” […]
The Lingering Effects of Female Hysteria in Medicine
Human history can be defined by many threads, one being the millennia spent oppressing women’s bodies, minds and spirits. This has lasted and thrived into the modern era, resulting in unfounded beliefs about female frailty shaping every facet of our society. The stereotype that women are weak, fragile and to be protected from strenuous mental […]
Sarah Edwards and Beyond: Building Cities That Are Safer For Women
3rd March 2021 was not a peculiar day for most living in South London. It was yet another day of lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic mandated by the Boris Johnson government. A woman was walking home at night from a friend’s house in Clapham Common. She went missing on the same night. Six days later, […]
The Alarming Violence Facing Bisexual Women
Throughout the past six months, I have watched five loved ones come out as bisexual and open up to the world in a confident, breathtaking way. In fact, more and more people of Generation Z than ever before are coming out, with 11.5 percent of them identifying as bisexual, according to Gallup. With heightened visibility […]
Double Standards in the Olympics and Beyond
Marginalized groups are running an entirely different race Utilizing Caster Semenya as an entryway into the discussion, this article aims to understand the correlation between the treatment of marginalized groups in national and international sports and their treatment in the United States. Semenya, a women’s track competitor, has been embroiled in a legal battle against […]
Weighing Education Against Women’s Rights In Tanzania
When Mwajuma was fifteen and living in Shinyanga, Tanzania, her parents informed her she would have to drop out of school. She was getting married. Such instances of child marriage are not uncommon in Tanzania. It’s ingrained in the culture and in the law; the 1971 Law of Marriage Act allows girls to legally get […]
Rewriting Title IX: A New Chapter in California’s Schools
In 1972 Congress passed Title IX, a sweeping policy of the Education Amendments that protects students from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. Title IX was, and still is, monumental legislation for the protection of women on college campuses: it mandates, among other things, the creation and […]
Papa Putin and Mother Russia: The Historical and Political Implications of Domestic Violence in Russia
In Russia, nearly 40 women die every day due to domestic violence. This rate is around three per day in the United States. The women that survive are too often left with scars, burns, or permanent disabilities, and are subject to continued threats or violence. Despite this, in February of 2017, Russia’s legislature overwhelmingly passed […]
No Nation For Indian Women
With India nearing general elections in 2019, one is forced to look back on where Modi’s revolutionary government has brought us. While it has been generally accepted that the status of ethnic groups such as Muslim and Dalit minorities have declined, another group that has arguably faced increased marginalisation is women. Hindu nationalism or Hindutva […]
The Inclusion-Exclusion Paradox
“A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.” —Gloria Steinem In the cruel winter of 1989-1990, Mongolia’s future hung on a precipice. Starting on December 10, 1989, demonstrators filled the Youth Square of Ulaanbaatar, demanding an end to the Communist regime that had killed hundreds of thousands. Eventually, the demonstrators won […]
When Universalism Met Culture
As I read the story of Aasia Bibi, the 17-year-old Pakistani girl who unintentionally poisoned and killed 17 members of her family in her attempt to escape the prospect of an arranged marriage, I wonder how many South Asian women have contemplated the same. As a South Indian woman myself, talk of my marriage is […]
Dear California, We Said Enough: Sexual Abuse in California’s Capitol
Nancy Kathleen Finnigan opened the door to her boss’ apartment and discovered him with pants open, exposed. Shortly after, she was fired from her job. Unfortunately, Finnigan is not alone. Her experience reflects a broader trend in California’s Capitol. Over 140 female legislators, legislative aides, lobbyists, and staff signed an open letter in October of […]
Rwanda’s Path to Gender Equity
When Justine Uvuza returned to Rwanda after the 1994 genocide, she was shocked by the state of her country. At the time, the little remaining infrastructure and shattered political systems that resulted from the Rwandan genocide comprised the leading narrative of the country. But when she returned, what stood out most to Uvuza was […]
The Ill-Named Item Number
Kareena Kapoor, a famous Bollywood actress, is seen in the still above performing the item number “Fevicol Se” in the film Dabangg 2. A colorful brothel. Scantily dressed women. Intoxicated men ogling prostitutes. These set the scene for one of the most popular item numbers in Bollywood, “Munni Badnaam Hui” from the 2010 movie Dabangg. […]
Iran’s Private Sector: Putting Up a Fight on an Uphill Battle
By the end of this year, you will likely see Tehran displayed on the departures list in the airports of many major European cities. With the passing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the official name of the Iran nuclear deal, Iran has had an influx of business inquiries from Western companies. Headlines […]
The Fake Liberation: Dissecting the Impact of Saudi Arabia’s “All-Women” Cities
Saudi Arabia, the country where women are not allowed to go in public without a chaperone, have individual rights in court, drive, wear clothes that show off too much skin, wear too much makeup, study engineering, architecture, or political science, interact with men outside the family, use swimming pools, compete freely in sports, try on […]
The Precarious Position of Planned Parenthood
2015 has been a year full of debate, controversy and headlines regarding Planned Parenthood (PP), but the nation was stunned on November 27th when a gunman attacked a PP clinic, killing three people and injuring nine others. A standoff between the shooter and police lasted five hours at the Colorado Springs clinic, ending with the […]
Jean Fuller and the Battle for Political Equality
Women are beginning to prove that California politics are not simply a man’s job. August 27, 2015 marked a historic day for California’s legislative branch as State Senator Jean Fuller became the state’s first female senate leader. A Republican representing the sixteenth district of Bakersfield, Fuller was first elected to the California State Assembly […]
The Exceptions and the Norm
While women represent half of California’s population, they make up only one-fourth of the California State Legislature. Source: Dishary Hossain California Attorney General Kamala Harris and United States Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez—both are in the lead for the 2016 election to the U.S. Senate as representative of the state of California. Senator Dianne Feinstein and […]
Carly Fiorina’s tenure at HP, in Perspective
“A problem solver, with the track record to prove it” reads one of the sections of Carly Fiorina’s official 2016 campaign website, the latter clause bolded, as if subliminally aware of the eyebrows being raised in response. The section’s side panel attempts to defend this assertion, postulating that, under Fiorina, HP had “doubled revenues,” “more […]
Trapped in Tradition’s Prison: Why India is Not Ready to Criminalize Marital Rape
Jyoti Singh was brutally gang raped on December 16, 2012. The assault against this 23-year-old New Delhi resident suddenly put India’s laws against sexual assault under a global spotlight, exposing their serious defects. Within the next 56 days, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed off on a landmark package addressing sexual violence. For the first time, […]
Feminism’s Glass Ceiling
Women: they’re everywhere! Mothers, actresses, professors, Presidents – you name it, and a woman will be it. This development, however, is recent. It is only in the last 100 years that society has recognized that women are also human beings, with the capacity to deserve human rights. It is for this reason that today, society […]
What’s Up Their Sleeves?
There was a recent New York article written by Vanessa Friedman discussing Michelle Obama’s fashion choices when she toured Asia to promote the “Let Girls Learn” education campaign. In the article, Friedman expresses her surprise that the First Lady chose to wear more traditionally feminine outfits such as a bright yellow patterned dress unlike the […]
The Afghan Honeymoon: Why Post-Election Optimism Won’t Last
The international community has recently showered Afghanistan with much praise. Yet, despite the handful of developments that call for celebration, the nation’s future is nonetheless littered with obstacles for both the Afghan government and its constituents. The Presidential election this June between Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah deteriorated into an acrimonious stalemate, as the latter […]