Story here. Excerpt:

'California Family Fitness is being sued for alleged gender discrimination for operating workout areas and one club dedicated to women.
...
For years California regulators and courts have squashed women-only poker tournaments, sex-based discounts at car washes and bars, and other promotions that favor one gender over another. Rotary Clubs, for one, were forced to accept women members after a court decision two decades ago.

Fitness centers locally and nationally — particularly express gyms such as Curves — have long marketed themselves to one gender. Eight states specifically allow for single-gender health clubs, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association. But California isn’t one of them. An effort to pass such a law in the Golden State failed in 2005.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has commuted the sentence of a woman experts believe was suffering from a postpartum psychosis when she killed her two young children more than two decades ago.

Quinn on Friday commuted Debra Lynn Gindorf's life sentence to 48 years. That likely means she's eligible for immediate release on parole because she's served 24 years and can qualify for day-for-day good-conduct time, her lawyer said.

Gindorf, 45, of Zion was found guilty but mentally ill in the 1985 slayings of her children, 23-month-old Christina and 3-month-old Jason.

Experts conceded she was a depressed and battered wife but couldn't agree what was wrong with her. She and her supporters now believe she had postpartum depression when she attempted to kill herself, then decided to kill her children as well.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Now Harman has succeeded in driving through her cherished equality proposals, which in the name of equality will make it possible to discriminate against individuals on grounds of sex or race. If Hattie has her way, the Equality Bill she unveiled last week will make it legal for employers to discriminate against white men in favour of white women and black people. This horribly muddled thinking gives meaning to the misogynist’s phrase “feminine logic”.
...
Here we have a spectacle that is about as bad for women as it gets. Female politicians, many promoted above their ability, seek to promote another woman above her democratic entitlement and against their own principles and meanwhile legislate to promote working women over men. With supporters like Harman and her crew, we women do not need enemies.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Last week a letter was sent to President Obama, urging him to establish a White House Council on Men and Boys. The plea came from Alpha Phi Alpha, a fraternity boasting a membership of 200,000 African-American men: http://apa1906.net/PressNewsDetails.php?newsID=90&newsCat=Press%20Release

The APA letter highlights a report by the Schott Foundation for Public Education that found only 26% of black male students in New York City graduate from high school. Nationally, only 22% of Black men who enter college end up getting their degree.
...
Surely both Barack and Michelle desire that their daughters will one day be courted by marriage-able men. If we're going to have a White House on Women and Girls, it's only fair that we extend the same courtesy to men and boys.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Almost 40% of primary schools now have no male teachers on their staff. New figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show 1,238 of the state’s 3,248 national schools have an all-female line-up in the classroom.

The revelation means that the Department of Education’s expensive efforts to attract men into primary school teaching have been a failure so far. Many children are now educated exclusively by women as the teaching profession becomes increasingly feminised.
...
Matt Hume, principal of St Joseph’s boys’ school in Terenure, Dublin, which bucks the trend by having a staff of 40% men and 60% women, said it is important for boys to have male teachers as role models, particularly in areas where they may not have otherpositive male role models in their lives. “Another problem is that if boys don’t see male teachers in schools, they’re unlikely to pursue a career in teaching themselves,” he said.

Story here. Contrast the attitudes shown with what mothers get for the same crime with the same circumstances. Another report with more detail found here. Note one piece of press commentary: Our View: Absolutely no business being a parent. I wonder if they would have written that way if the mother had gone to trial first and been convicted? This is a case to watch; we'll see what sentence the father gets vs. the treatment the mother gets. Excerpt:

'(Peoria) -- James Sargent has been found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in connection to the death of his five-and-a-half-month-old son Benjamin last year.

A Peoria County Judge handed down the verdict Wednesday afternoon, immediately following the conclusion of a three day bench trial.

For once, a reasonably fair article on dating abuse, from my alma mater, no less. Article here. Excerpt:

"Both psychological and physical abuse in dating relationships have been reported among high school and college students in the United States, with mental and physical health consequences similar to that of cohabiting adults. Whereas women are much more likely than men to be the victims of domestic violence, most studies on adolescents found that males experience rates of relationship abuse similar to or greater than that of females.
...
Females were significantly more favorable than were males about their partner on the positive scale. There was no gender difference on the sexual abuse scale. For the remaining seven abuse scales, males reported more abuse than females, for both non-physical and physical items. Fortunately, the overall levels of dating abuse we found were low, with the highest frequencies reported by a minority of the students."

Article here. Excerpt:

'The erratic treatment of Rod Refcio in Ontario family court is an extreme but powerful example of disturbing flaws that continue to plague Canada's spousal support system.

Two courts incredulously concluded Refcio's responsibility to his ex-wife extends to her twins; twins who were born well after the marriage ended and who were fathered by another man.

In 2006, Ontario Court Judge Thomas Granger ruled Refcio owed his ex-wife Katia $1,500 per month, for an indefinite period of time. For the payer of spousal support, the length of the order is crucial.

Without an end date, a person's life is on hold indefinitely, making a clean break from a former spouse impossible.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Harriet Harman claims that women earn on average 22.6% less per hour than men and takes it for granted that this difference is the result of discrimination against women by men. And yet the Government's own figures support no such conclusion.
...
Quite simply the Government's emphasis on the gender pay gap of 22.6% is an abuse of official statistics. And to infer that the difference in the average hourly rate is the result of discrimination is an abuse of logic. When women without dependent children compete head to head with men in the same situation their hourly rate is higher. Most women today work throughout their 20s and find that success is the result of being good at something. Employers are looking for capable people whether male or female.

Women today don't need government quotas. They are doing fine on their own. They want to be judged on their merits, not patronised by the old generation of 1970s quota feminists like Harriet Harman.'

Article here. Excerpt:

"Women executives regularly get pushed off the career ladder in favour of men, a survey said yesterday.

'Invisible discrimination' means they have no chance of matching the success of male counterparts, it was claimed. In some industries it was found that only one in 14 women with the potential to reach the top actually did so.
...
Management consultancy DDI, which carried out the survey, said its evidence showed that most women never reach the 'glass ceiling' that is usually said to block their progress. Rather, the experts said, women slide down 'glass walls' before they even get near the top.
...
Yet inquiries launched by Labour over the past decade in an attempt to unmask prejudice among employers have failed to find evidence of any.
...
The consultancy advised women to make their ambitions clear from the start of their careers and to accept assignments abroad.

Story here. The rarest of the rare is this woman who was arrested for assaulting her live-in boyfriend. She was charged with violation of something called the Family Violence Act. And to top it off the male victim was not also arrested as is the standard operating procedures in DV incidents where the female is the prime aggressor. Excerpt:

'A Clayton County school board member was arrested last week on charges of simple battery after a dispute with her live-in boyfriend.

Trinia Garrett, 36, the District 7 representative, was arrested on April 21 on charges of violating the state’s family violence act.

According to Clayton Magistrate Court records, Garrett made “physical contact of an insulting and provoking nature” against Albert Stocken, 58, with whom she has lived for the past 18 months in Lake City.

Garrett allegedly started the altercation by arguing over a credit card charge of $85 at a local hotel. She grabbed a chain and pulled it from Stocken’s neck, according to court records.'

Via Jeremy S. from a New F4J mailing:

Richard West (of the New F4J) has been arrested in his home town of Ottery St Mary (Devon, England UK) and held at Heavitree Road Police Station, in Exeter. We believe that this has been after Richard continually trying to get hold of medical documents relating to his son and C.A.M.s (social services) Richard secured a bid in Court and the C.A.M.s team was told to hand the files over but continually and blatantly refused to co-operate. Even the mother of Richards son joined the request in seeing their OWN child's records!!

Last week Rich publicly made a statement to his local press, The Sidmouth Herald stating that the NHS, who are responsible for the C.A.M.s team, have till the end of the month to comply or he would "cause massive disruption by shutting down one of the country's major public infrastructures by the end of the month". (See here.)

Story here. Excerpt:

'London's only treatment centre for women alcohol and drug addicts has tripled in size to cope with an increasing number of cases.

Hope House has moved from an eight-bedroom building in Maida Vale to a 23-bed centre in Clapham Common formerly used only by male addicts.

The centre treats women who have been through detox and offers them help to accustom themselves to the world after the first stages of rehab.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'STOCKHOLM, Sweden, April 29 (UPI) -- A survey suggests most Swedes believe the country's men were more masculine in the past than now.

The online survey of 1,003 people between the ages of 15 and 64, conducted by YouGov on a contract from MBT Shoes, found 51 percent of those polled -- including 58 percent of male respondents -- believe Swedish men were more masculine in the past, The Local reported Wednesday.

Nine percent of respondents said they believe Swedish men are more masculine than the males in other countries, while 19 percent said Swedish men are less masculine and a 65 percent majority said they believe Swedish men are on par with other countries.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The sisterhood of lawyers has never been more potent. In conference rooms and swanky restaurants, women across the ranks--senior partners and associates, general counsel, and staff attorneys--are brainstorming about what it takes for women to succeed in a profession that's still predominantly male. Over sushi, cosmos, and the occasional mani/pedi treatment, they are bonding, united in the mission for gender equality. The message is clear: Women are united, and they want their sisters to succeed.

But scratch the surface a bit deeper, and some members of the sorority tell another story: that women--particularly their immediate superiors--can be their worst tormentors. Fact is, despite the veneer of harmony and the decades of shared struggle, there's tension on the women's front. Talk to any group of women lawyers, and there will be plenty of war stories on the betrayals--real or perceived--that they have experienced at the hands of other women.'