Article here. Excerpt:

'Of the world's 15 most competitive nations, 14 mandate paid sick leave, 13 guarantee paid maternal leave and 12 provide paid paternal leave by law, they said. Eleven provide paid leave to care for children's health and eight provide paid leave for adult family care.

The United States legally guarantees none of these policies to workers, the authors note....

Advocates for women's rights argue paid family leave is essential for women, who tend to care more for family members than do men, to compete and advance in the job market.
...
"One of the questions that's consistently asked in the United States is ... will we be able to compete if we have paid sick leave, paid maternity leave?" said author Jody Heymann of McGill's Institute for Health and Social Policy. "Will there be more unemployment? Will we lose jobs?'

Story here. Excerpt:

"We met these three homeless men at the Urban Ministry Center where they had turned up for a meal at the soup kitchen, and they agreed to let us follow them around for the day.
...
As we walk, Corbett and Everhart tell us about the day laboring work they do for an agency, which sends people out to work as unskilled and semi-skilled laborers — usually construction or demolition work. If they get a day’s work, they get $40 after taxes.

This involves walking two hours from their camp to be at the agency by 5:30am; otherwise there is no chance they will find any work.

“If we’re lucky, we get one or two days of work a week,” Everhart said. “Sometimes there are 50 or more guys out there and maybe 10 of them get work.”
...

Story here. Excerpt:

'Desperate times call for disparate thinking. High school sports budgets are being squeezed even tighter this year and students are finding that they’ll have to come up with creative funding, if they want extra travel or new uniforms.

Last week, the senior boys basketball team kicked off their fall fundraiser with a bottle drive, firewood delivery and leaf raking service. If the weather goes cold, they’ll also be available for snow shovelling.
...
“We’ve had to cut back the amount we can charge each student for each sport they take part in,” said Fisher. “Last year, it was $75 per sport for the major senior sports... soccer, basketball and volleyball. This year, we can only charge $50.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Across the Juneau School District, 75 percent of all principal-level discipline occurred with a male student in the 2008-09 school year, according to data from district Director of Student Services Dave Newton.

Juneau-Douglas High School guidance counselor Frank Coenraad said one reason may be differing levels of school connectedness.

"I don't want to just say 'Boys will be boys,'" he said. "I feel that the more connected the student is at the high school, less in terms of behavioral issues will arise."
...
In the district's recent 2008-2009 student achievement report, girls outperformed boys in reading, writing and math. Boys outperformed girls in science.

While nationwide reports in recent years point to a changing gender achievement gap between boys and girls, the independent think tank Education Sector says the hype is overrated in its report, "The Evidence Suggests Otherwise: The Truth about Boys and Girls."

Article here. Excerpt:

'As Michelle Obama touched down in Denver today to promote her efforts to connect America's public school students with professional mentors, she declined to send an invitation to one population who could most benefit: our city's neglected boys.
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Over the years, I've written frequently about sexism against our boys. Perhaps it seems ironic given that I'm the mother of two girls. I do so, however, knowing that today's girl-power hype sends the wrong message to my own girls. Like professional working moms across the country, I provide my daughters an imperfect but devoted mentor right inside their own home. And gender has nothing to do with it, as they'll also see their father balance life's responsibilities and his own professional ambitions.
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In an already overly complicated world, I don't need to explain why the First Lady believes that picking winners or losers based on gender is okay. It's not -- never has been and never will be.'

Article here.

'SANDIA PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) - Educators and community members from across New Mexico will meet Tuesday to find out why education is failing boys.

'The New Mexico Men's Council for Boys and Young Men (ed.: link added) will hold its second annual conference at Sandia Resort and Casino. The gathering will focus on closing the achievement gap for boys in education.

Conference organizers say dropout data from 2008 show that fewer than half the boys in New Mexico graduate from high school and only about 42 percent of students in colleges and universities are male.

They say as boys leave school, many turn to drugs and alcohol and violence which then drives up rates of addiction and domestic violence.

The organizers hope the conference will help mobilize parents, teachers, administrators and students to address the problem.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A judge ruled that former tour guide Erin Maitland cannot advertise women-only holidays because it could breach the human rights of men.

Judge Marilyn Harbison refused to grant Ms Maitland an exemption to the Equal Opportunity Act, ruling that she had not proved it was reasonable or necessary.

"The exemption may well be convenient and practical in the establishment of her business, but it cannot be justified on human rights principles," said the vice-president of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
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The judge said Ms Maitland believed Travel Sisters would provide security for women, re-assure male partners who could not travel and be used by women who did not want to mix with men for cultural or religious reasons or because they were victims of domestic violence or sexual assault.

Her application was opposed by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, which said it would conflict with Victoria's Charter of Human Rights.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'You have to give the Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association credit for political smarts. Finding itself fighting for ice time on the city's overbooked rinks, it pulled out that ace of aces, the sexism card.

The 900-member association wrote a letter to Mayor David Miller threatening to launch a human-rights complaint for sex discrimination unless the city makes sure the girls get their share of ice. The mayor rushed to the mikes to promise that he would correct this monstrous injustice, even if it meant taking the issue to a vote at city council.

A Toronto Star editorial called it a clear case of “discrimination on ice.” But where is the evidence that the Leaside girls were discriminated against because of their sex – a serious charge indeed in the year 2009? Were they told they didn't rate ice time because they were girls?

Article here. Excerpt:

'MIAMI, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Both men and women respond in a more hostile way to a woman who violates sex-role expectations, U.S. researchers say.

Co-authors Blaine Fowers, professor at the University of Miami, and Alyssa Fowers, a student at Duke University, said even though both men and women participate in maintaining a gender hierarchy in U.S. society, sexism is a form of social hierarchy that is beneficial to men and detrimental to women.

The study, published in the journal of Sex Roles, also found women show a strong preference for benevolent sexism -- portraying women as relatively weak, placing them on a pedestal of purity and suggesting they need protection and guidance -- over hostile sexism, the derogatory portrayals of women.
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The researchers said both hostile sexism and benevolent sexism are harmful, because both support a gender hierarchy that limits and marginalizes women.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'DOCTORS performing ritual circumcisions on children face financial ruin, disciplinary action and even jail.

A test-case being brought by a 20-year-old man circumcised as a baby could, if successful, open the floodgates to claimants.

The unnamed man is to sue a GP still practising in Greater London for physical and psychological damage.

He will argue that circumcision on a child without a medical requirement is mutilation.

His father took him to be circumcised shortly after birth in accordance with his own religious beliefs.

Now the father is mortified at the mental and physical state of his adult son, and is supporting the case.
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"This is not a straightforward case. Parents have the right to give consent but only when in the best interests of a child. I don't think any act involving cutting off half of a child's penis is in their best interests."'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A former Ballarat teacher who last month admitted to having sexual liaisons with two students has faced court for her plea hearing.

Michelle Lynn Dennis, 33, pleaded guilty in the County Count at Ballarat in October to two counts of sexual penetration of a child under supervision and one count of sexual penetration of a child under 16.

Dennis was teaching at Ballarat High School when she committed the offences against two students in 2007.

The former music teacher engaged in the sexual acts outside the school's grounds.

Dennis was arrested and charged in October, 2008, and stood down from the school.

She was also suspended from teaching by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A former Portland High School teacher convicted of having sex with her underage teacher's aide has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

District Attorney Ray Whitley said Sandy Binkley "got what she had coming to her."

"(Judge Dee Gay) gave her the maximum sentence and that's what she deserved," Whitley said.

David Ridings, Binkley's attorney, said it was the most egregious abuse of justice in sentencing that he has ever seen. "We hoped that (the judge) would follow the law. He failed miserably at that," Ridings said.

Binkley's attorney had hoped the former teacher would be sentenced to no more than three years. He plans to appeal.
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Binkley, 37, the former teacher, was convicted Sept. 29 in Sumner County on two counts of statutory rape by an authority figure.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'The Folweni woman who recently claimed she had been kidnapped and repeatedly raped, on Monday pleaded guilty to the charges against her at the Empangeni District Court.

Sindisiwe Buthelezi, 34, was charged with defeating the ends of justice as well as contravening the provisions of the Commissioners of Oaths Act. She pleaded guilty on Monday and was convicted.

Buthelezi had earlier reported to police that she had been in Durban when she was picked up by someone who promised her a job in Isipingo.

She told police the person did not take the Isipingo turn-off, but drove to Umzinto and dropped her off with three men in a bakkie, where there were two other women, before being taken to an unknown area. She said their faces had been covered and she had not been able see where they were going.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Charged with lying about being raped at East Stroudsburg University, former student Laura Gruver, 22, of Bethlehem, waived her right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday before Magisterial District Judge Michael Muth and will head to Monroe County Court.

Gruver, who is free on $5,000 unsecured bail, will appear at a future date in district court, where she can go to trial or plead guilty/no contest.
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A first-time offender with no prior criminal record, Gruver is charged with giving a false report, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in Monroe County Correctional Facility.

Police said Gruver at first told them the following story:

At 11 a.m. Aug. 13, she was walking to her car in the parking lot, behind the Dansbury Commons cafeteria, when someone grabbed her from behind, put a knife to her throat, forced her into the woods to the ground and raped her.'

Story here.

'A Shelby woman was indicted by the Richland County Grand Jury on charges of escape, falsification and making false allegations after she ran out of a police cruiser in early October and accused the officer of raping her.

The incident began when Samantha Ramirez, 19, collapsed during a hearing in Shelby Municipal Court and was taken to MedCentral Shelby Hospital for treatment by Shelby Police Officer John Guisinger. After treatment, Ramirez was being transported to the Richland County Jail when she jumped out of the vehicle an fled.

She was later found at Ashland Samaritan Hospital where she accused the officer of raping her. She later confessed she lied.'