Story here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama chose federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice on Tuesday, praising her as "an inspiring woman" with both the intellect and compassion to interpret the Constitution wisely.
...
In one of her most notable decisions, as an appellate judge she sided last year with the city of New Haven, Conn., in a discrimination case brought by white firefighters. The city threw out results of a promotion exam because too few minorities scored high enough. Coincidentally, that case is now before the Supreme Court.
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As a federal appeals court judge in 2002, she ruled against an abortion rights group that had challenged a government policy prohibiting foreign organizations receiving U.S. funds from performing or supporting abortions.

In her opinion, Sotomayor wrote that the government was free to favor the anti-abortion position over a pro-choice position when public funds were involved.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Under prevailing law, which is based on the Brown University case brought by women gymnasts whose team had been eliminated in a university-wide cutback, institutions must "fully accommodate" the interests and abilities of women to participate in intercollegiate sports. It is not simply a matter of eliminating equal numbers of men's and women's teams or even equal numbers of opportunities to participate for each gender. Women's teams simply cannot be eliminated unless a college can prove that females in the student body have their interests in participating fully met. Unless college women suddenly decide that they no longer wish to pursue college athletics, schools will have to save money by cutting only men's teams or finding some other means to balance their budgets. They can always follow the Brandeis University approach of either selling their artwork (which Brandeis ultimately decided not to do) or cutting pension contributions for their loyal employees (which Brandeis decided to do last week).'

Story here.

'MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police have charged a woman who they say used a child car seat with a 2-month-old infant inside to hit a Wal-Mart employee.

Detective Monique Martin said in a news release Monday that Camilla Fields of Memphis, Tenn., was charged with felony child abuse and neglect and assault. Police did not know if she had an attorney.

A police report from the Wednesday incident says Fields was carrying the car seat when she was confronted by a security guard about shoplifting.

Police say Fields threw the seat and ran away, causing the baby to land face down on the pavement. A paramedic treated the baby until the child regained consciousness.

The child's mother, Stacey Cleaves, was also charged with false reporting and child neglect.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'The Women Airforce Service Pilots was born in 1942 to create a corps of female pilots able to fill all types of flying jobs at home to free male military pilots to travel to the front.

In the days after the outbreak of the war, Jacqueline Cochran, one of the country's leading female pilots at the time, went to a key general to argue that women would be just as capable pilots as men if they were given the same training.

She won the argument, and the program was launched.
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Some 65 years after their service, the WASPs are being honored with the Congressional Gold Medal [hyperlink added] -- one of the national's [sic] highest civilian honors.
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"This is a largely overlooked veterans group. They haven't gotten the medals they deserve, the recognition they deserve," Ros-Lehtinen told CNN.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'As low- and semi-skilled manual jobs disappear, working-class men are getting hammered - and so is their masculinity. “Manual labour has been a key source of identity, pride, self-esteem and power for working-class men,” says a recent British study, which set out to probe a fascinating question: What makes these men so unemployable?

Article here. Excerpt:

"I can't tell you the number of women, including Michelle, who say choose the person you think is going to be best," President Obama said in an interview airing today on C-SPAN.

Michelle Obama understands the nomination of a woman to the Supreme Court in a way her husband cannot.
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Those feminists who continue to insist that the president should nominate a woman to the bench in order to balance the numbers to reflect the population are demeaning all professional women.

In my career in politics and the media, I have never gotten a job because my boss needed a woman. I was hired for my hard work ethic, experience, intelligence, and skills.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The current economic crisis has thrown such touchy issues into sharp relief. With the recession intensifying financial pressures on millions of families, many men have lost—or are afraid of losing—their jobs. Even in prosperous times, husbands often feel threatened when their partners’ achievements or incomes surpass their own. More than a quarter of working wives now outearn their spouses, and as women’s economic empowerment and professional clout transform the American marriage, couples are becoming increasingly egalitarian. But even if a husband remains the major breadwinner, his wife’s financial autonomy may threaten his control or erode a fragile sense of self-worth. Needless to say, problems can be greatly exacerbated if the man’s economic power is diminished or jeopardized.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman who was allegedly raped by a man whom she met on MySpace.com now says the sex was consensual, according to Orlando Police.

The woman told officers earlier this week that the man raped her when she went to his apartment on Westgate Drive.

The 21-year-old woman told officers she met the man, 25, on MySpace.com on April 20 and began talking to him on the phone and via e-mail.

According to a police report the woman went to the man's apartment on Tuesday afternoon to hang out there and eventually leave to go hang out somewhere else together.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'"Do as your wife commands and never question her authority": this advice to husbands came in a lighter vein from a vacation Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Markandey Katju and Deepak Verma. The judges asked them to adhere to this time-tested formula.
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The Bench’s banter did reflect the traditional sympathetic view that the law and the courts adopt towards the fair sex. Law considers matrimonial relationship to be sacred and takes a strict view of anyone polluting it.

Take for example the offence of adultery, which is punishable under Section 497 of Indian Penal Code (IPC). The offence, as defined in IPC, can only be committed by a man, not by a woman! In Sowmithiri Vishnu vs Union of India (1985 SCC Sup 137), the SC held, “Indeed, the section provides expressly that the wife shall not be punishable even as an abettor... The contemplation of law is that the wife, who is involved in an illicit relationship with another man, is a victim and not the author of the crime.”'

This story aired on Australian television last night, and I immediately wished I hadn't dignified it by watching it: here . (The main story is preceded by about 30 secs of advertising).

Excerpt from story tag:

'The kindest cut?
The complex debate surrounding male circumcision is back on the agenda and Monique Wright discovers the decision to snip or not to snip is not an easy choice for parents.'

Actually, 80+% of the world's parents are never confronted with any decision at all and the 'choice' for parents in Australia is only made difficult by the statements of discredited, publicity-drunk academicians like Brian Morris and profiteering doctors like Terry Russell.

From Jay H.: The National Women's Law Center provides a form to express one's support for the Paycheck Fairness Act 2009, a bill rife with bias against men here.

The nwlc.org website is on the first page of search results when searching Google for either "Paycheck Fairness Act" or "Paycheck Fairness Act 2009" or "women's pay". When searching for a variation of "fair pay" it is the first or second result.

The ACLU's frontpage provides a link to a nearly identical form with the description, "TAKE ACTION - Tell Your Senators to Support The Paycheck Fairness Act". Shouldn't we be asking for a similar call to action against this misguided bill?

Story here.

'The mother of a three-year-old boy whose body was pulled from an Oregon river hours before daybreak on Saturday was arrested and accused of dumping the boy and her seven-year-old daughter off a bridge.

Portland police said Amanda Jo Stott-Smith, 31, was taken into custody at a downtown parking garage.

Police said her car was on the Sellwood Bridge over the Willamette River moments before residents of the area heard the children's screams and a massive search was launched.

A resident who joined the search in his boat found the children nearly an hour after the screams were heard. Rescuers were unable to revive the boy. The girl was admitted to hospital.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Only 7% of men would be prepared to stay at home with a newborn baby if maternity benefits were replaced with parental ones, according to a survey.

Even fewer women - 4% - would hand over the role at home to the father, while two-thirds of working mothers said they only kept jobs out of necessity.
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"And interestingly women who don't have children tend to continue earning virtually the same as men as they continue in their careers."
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New mothers currently get nine months paid leave, six weeks at 90% of their salary and the rest at the statutory rate of £117.18 a week. Fathers get two weeks at the statutory rate.
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The show's survey found that 54% of respondents thought men were the main breadwinners, although 67% did not think they should be.

Almost one in five women said they experienced sex discrimination at work, while twice as many men than women surveyed had asked for a pay rise in the last five years.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A report by a lobby group championing men's rights on Sunday said over 1.5 million in Kenya are victims of domestic violence daily.

The Maendeleo ya Wanaume organisation said even though they are battered by their wives, men find it difficult to report this to authorities for fear of social ridicule.

The findings show the campaign for the rights of the women has led to a reverse of the scenario and now men are at the centre of violence. The group carried out a survey in 40 selected districts in Kenya's provinces from August 2008 and has found out that between 1 and 1.5 million men are domestically abused by women daily.

The report shows that men have little say on issues that concern conjugal rights in their relationship and that women are the ones who determine when they should get intimate. In an apparent reference to the just-concluded sexual boycott called by a group of women activists, G10, the men said “this was equal to a domestic abuse against men.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In science, Japanese fourth-graders ranked fourth in performance compared to their international peers; eighth-graders ranked third; 15-year-olds ranked third. All three ranks represent performances significantly above international averages.

The only difference in average math performance between Japanese boys and girls was in the 15-year-old category, wherein boys outperformed girls by 20 points. The math gender gap has widened by 9 points since 2003.

Japanese 15-year-old girls outperformed boys in reading by 31 points. The reading gender gap has not narrowed since PISA began collecting data in 2000. It is currently more than 50 percent larger than the math gender gap.
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52 percent of males and 38 percent of females enter universities in Japan. The international average is 50 percent of males and 62 percent of females.'