Article here. Excerpt:

'A father was arrested on Friday for allegedly beating up his former co-worker, a Title IX coordinator at the University of Portland, over the handling of his daughter’s sexual-assault investigation.

Patrick Ell, 52, was charged with second-degree assault of Matthew Rygg, who also serves as associate vice president for student development at the private Roman Catholic university. On Friday, Ell allegedly waited outside of Rygg’s home around 9 p.m., hit him over the head with a baseball bat, then chased him down the street.
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Ell and his daughter, Clara Ell, have publicly spoken about the allegation that she was raped in her University of Portland dorm by a classmate and their belief that the investigation was mishandled. The university’s formal conduct hearing process reportedly found that Clara’s purported rapist was “not responsible” and that the case did not warrant further looking into.

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'While common sense suggests an obvious answer, two recent explorations of that question demonstrate the extent to which our culture is in fact deeply conflicted about acknowledging sex differences and deeply confused about how to handle them.

Writing in a recent issue of Scientific American, Columbia University psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman argues, “It’s time to take sex differences in personality seriously.” Describing the results of four large-scale, cross-cultural studies of personality differences between the sexes, Kaufman notes, “All four studies converge on the same basic finding: when looking at the overall gestalt of human personality, there is a truly striking difference between the typical male and female personality profiles.”

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'The Wing was supposed to be the ultimate sanctuary for women: decidedly feminine in design, with walls and furniture in shades of millennial pink and a thermometer set at a women’s-clothing-friendly 72 degrees. Conference rooms and telephone booths are named after feminist icons like Anita Hill and fictional literary heroines such as Hermione Granger of “Harry Potter” fame. It offers perks that other co-working spaces can’t match — showers stocked with high-end beauty products and events featuring big names such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Critics of the Wing were quick to point out the lack of diversity in the spaces, but the company’s expansion and popularity has brought up a completely different issue that was never expected to arise: straight men wanting to come in and hang out.

Sure, it’s not against the rules for men to be at the lady lair, which costs anywhere from $185 to $250 a month in the US to join. But that’s only because legally the company can’t ban men.

Article here. Excerpt:

'On any given campus, making an accusation of sexual assault is taken on faith as true, and failure to immediately punish the accused party is taken as an intolerable delay in justice.

In any given federal court, however, you have to prove your case.

Four female students came up short in their Title IX lawsuits against Michigan State University, which alleged the administration’s response to their sexual assault claims was “inadequate, caused them physical and emotional harm, and consequently denied them educational opportunities.”

Last week the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court that allowed Title IX claims to move forward against the university. It also determined that a university official deserved “qualified immunity” from liability.

The three-judge panel was reviewing whether the taxpayer-funded institution had violated the so-called Davis precedent from the Supreme Court.'

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'Former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama on Thursday urged girls to resist the “imposter syndrome” she had felt on the way up and fight men for power, saying plenty of them didn’t deserve it.

On a trip to Asia to promote girls’ education, Obama contrasted her path to the top as a black woman with the easy presumption many men feel on their route to high office.

“I am telling you, there are a lot of people who don’t belong there,” Obama said, drawing laughter from the crowd.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Speaking in Singapore, he said women aren't perfect, but are "indisputably better" than men.

He said most of the problems in the world came from old people, mostly men, holding onto positions of power.

He also spoke about political polarisation and the use of social media to spread falsehoods.

Speaking at a private event on leadership, Mr Obama said while in office he had mused what a world run by women would look like.

"Now women, I just want you to know; you are not perfect, but what I can say pretty indisputably is that you're better than us [men].

"I'm absolutely confident that for two years if every nation on earth was run by women, you would see a significant improvement across the board on just about everything... living standards and outcomes."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In Adam Shankman’s film, “What Men Want,” Taraji P. Henson’s character solicits a compliment from a man. “My ass doesn’t look good in this skirt?” she asks rhetorically. The man replies, “In the current cultural climate it feels inappropriate for me to comment on your body.” A sharp reminder from her that she wants approval prompts his candor: “Tight as a snare drum; you could bounce a quarter off that thing!”

Henson’s callipygian talent agent is out to rebuke and conquer her white male bosses and rivals, though when she still wants flattery from males, she’ll ask for it — or demand it. But this is a comedy; in the real-life cultural climate, no rational man would risk making a remark about a woman’s backside in public.'

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'Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has come up with a plan to educated boys in schools not to "misbehave with girls". "(Deputy Chief Minister) Manish Sisodia and I have decided that in all government and private schools, we will get all boys to take a pledge that they will never misbehave with a girl," Arvind Kejriwal said at an event organised by industry body FICCI in Delhi.
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"We need to build a moral pressure on boys that we will not tolerate bad behaviour. All the girls will also be asked to talk to their brothers, to tell them that he cannot ever misbehave with any girl," Mr Kejriwal said. "Mothers need to tell their male children that if you ever do something to a girl, I will never let you inside this house again. We will have to have this conversation with boys," he added.'

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'But all the great successes they’re enjoying doesn’t come without criticism. Bex added that the female-only aspect of it has invited some backlash.

‘I receive regular criticism for having a women’s only group and have been called a hypocrite and a sexist.

'Men have been dominating the adventure and outdoor scene since its beginnings so I can’t see a problem with having a group that celebrates an underrepresented group in this field.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In an earlier article, I had written about how paid paternity leave is imperative for gender justice and well-being of children. I argued that paternity leave not only allows new fathers to up their care-giving quotient, thereby reducing the burden on new mothers, it is also great for the development and health of babies as the first few months tend to be a crucial period. Additionally, having paid maternity leave alone skews the field against working women as companies may be less inclined to hire or promote women employees if they see paid maternity leave as a burden.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Certainly the #MeToo movement has raised awareness of the need for gender equality in the workplace, Shilepsky said.

“But for a lot of companies, the concern about inclusiveness and level playing fields has been part of their cultures for a while,” she noted. “Sometimes they get it right and sometimes they don’t, but there are legal ways to promote fairness and opportunity for all. Making room for one group by pushing out another is not legal.”

Employer-side attorney Lisa S. Burton, who practices in Boston, is also seeing more instances of complaints in the #MeToo context, sometimes from men who believe that they did not receive a thorough or fair process before being disciplined or discharged.

“That is where we are seeing more claims: ‘Employers are not giving me a fair shake,’” she said.

Article here. Excerpt:

'We may be months away from ending the U.S. military draft, once and for all.

After a court ruled that the male-only draft was unconstitutional, a Congress-appointed commission has been studying whether to draft women into the U.S. military. The commission will make its report in March, and will likely either advocate for expanding draft registration to women or abolishing the draft, once and for all.

Instead of expanding the draft to women, it’s time to end the draft for all genders.

Drafting women is a deeply unpopular idea. For months, people have been testifying against it to the commission. Even the former director of the Selective Service thinks it's time to get rid of draft registration altogether.

Currently, the U.S. military draft is in a state of dysfunction. For decades, millions of men have refused and/or failed to register.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'“The military wasn’t as bad as I imagined it would be ... it was far worse," said Chun, who was forced to serve from 2004-2006.

In South Korea, able-bodied male citizens between the ages of 18 and 40 are required to serve in the military for nearly two years. Refusing the draft means prison time, while dual citizens must decide to serve or give up their South Korean citizenship within the year they turn 18.
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With a growing population crisis and technically an ongoing war with North Korea, South Korea may start to forcibly conscript more overseas Koreans and foreigners. The government-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses is currently wrapping up research around the idea of drafting naturalized citizens — those who gain South Korean citizenship, but aren’t born with it — to cope with the country’s dwindling number of troops.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'An appellate court’s decision could minimize colleges and universities’ responsibility to provide remedies for victims of sexual misconduct on campus.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that Michigan State University and one of its senior administrators cannot be held liable for student victims’ emotional distress after seeing their alleged perpetrators on campus because the interactions did not lead to further sexual harassment or assault, according to an opinion issued Thursday.
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Article here. Excerpt:

'Bonnie Lee doesn’t care about finding a boyfriend or a fairy-tale wedding, and will decide her own happily-ever-after: “I’m a straight woman who is no longer interested in having relationships with men.”

She is not alone.

A growing number of South Korean women are banding together to reject rigid patriarchal norms and vowing never to wed, have children or even date and have sex.

“I’ve always felt that as a woman there are more disadvantages than advantages to being married,” said Lee, a 40-something professional who lives with her dog near Seoul.

Now she has gone even further, embracing the nation’s radical feminist movement called 4B, from the “four nos”: no dating, no sex, no marriage and no child-rearing.
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But for Lee, the future is female.

She insisted, “My dream is to build housing only for women who plan to never marry.”'