Article here. Excerpt:

'Legislators and advocates called Tuesday for gender parity on public boards and commissions, and Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia Haddad said legislators have a "strong obligation" to improve the situation.

Haddad and Sen. Jason Lewis spoke at an event with the Eos Foundation, which released a report about the gender representation on 50 public boards and commissions. Lewis and Haddad have sponsored an act to ensure gender parity on public boards and commissions.
...
Starting on Jan. 1, 2022, legislation pending on Beacon Hill would require that all appointed public boards and commissions have at least 50 percent women board members or commissioners, and when "practicable" will reflect the racial and ethnic composition of the general population.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'While campaigning in Iowa over the weekend, 2020 presidential hopeful Robert "Beto" O'Rourke said it would be his "preference" to tap a women as his vice president if he were to become the Democrat nominee.

O'Rourke was asked by a supporter point-blank if he would "put a woman" as his vice president if he were to become the Democratic nominee. There was not a specific candidate's name mentioned, but a general request that whomever he chooses be female.

"It's hard for me to think of a reason that I would not do that," O'Rourke answered, noting that "talking about who I would pick as vice president feels really premature."

"I know it feels premature," the supporter acknowledged, "but you’re half of a ticket, and you’re becoming president. You represent the other half of this country, too. They need to see in a position of power in this country."

"Yes," said O'Rourke, nodding along.

Splayed on the front page of cnn.com here. Excerpt:

'Among the many tragedies of the massacre at two New Zealand mosques on Friday is a bitter irony: The terrorist who killed at least 50 people in an Islamophobic attack resembled in many ways a member of ISIS. If his life had gone different in some way, he might well have ended up one and killed people somewhere else in its name. The type of extremism and hatred is of course different. But they have at least one thing in common: the internet as a tool of radicalization.

There is still much we don't know about the suspect and his background. But before anything at all was known about him, anyone who has studied or covered extremism and these kinds of attacks could have given you an educated guess about what kind of person he was: Male. Probably in his 20s. Decent chance of at least a minor criminal record. More than likely a history of hatred toward or violence against women. Oh, and one more thing — probably spent a fair amount of time on the internet.

Article here. One to watch. Will she be treated like a man and given the max or will she go with some story intended to play on sympathies and get her off light? No excuses from men are allowed. Why with women? Excerpt:

'A Baltimore woman walked onto a Cherry Hill playground late Thursday afternoon, struck up a conversation with a boy she didn’t know, then opened fire on the boy and his mother, police say.

Nichole George, 31, of the 900 block of Seagull Ave., is charged with several counts of attempted first-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault and handgun violations, according to police.
...
She said the victim is a fifth-grade student at the school, which was closed Friday for conferences. She described the boy as a quiet student who does not cause trouble. Garrett said she and other staff members tried to visit him at the hospital earlier in the day but could not because he was still in critical condition.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Graduates of one of Cambridge University's last women-only colleges are angry about the decision to accept men from 2021 – and rightly so. When Professor Dame Madeline Atkins, president of Lucy Cavendish College, announced the college would accept "excellent students from non-traditional backgrounds, regardless of gender", dozens of former students expressed outrage.

One alum said they were "beyond grief", while another said Lucy Cavendish had "lost what made them special".'

Article here. Excerpt:

'By now the rules of toxic masculinity are well-established: men must be strong above all else, they must be stoic, feelings are for the weak and violence, regardless of the question, is usually the answer.

Toxic masculinity has, in recent years, become something of a feminist punchline – mostly albeit in good faith. Exposing the stereotypes that belittle and diminish all genders is part of the dichotomy that has long formed the basis of any movement towards equality. Today, however, comments made by one prominent British figurehead about male suicide has opened up an important discussion about the role of feminism within male mental health – and how, for some, it remains dangerously misunderstood.

“Maybe other people’s feminisms are about making the world better for men,” Chidera Eggerue, aka The Slumflower, tweeted yesterday. “As for me,” she continued, “I don’t have time to think about the reasons why the system you created at my expense to benefit you is now choking you.

Article here. Jump the paywall by Googling the first paragraph.
Excerpt:

'Challen, now 65, admits to killing her husband but denies murder, arguing that she has diminished responsibility because of the physical and psychological abuse to which he subjected her.

Her attorney, Harriet Wistrich, pursued that argument by pointing to a law approved in 2015 that recognizes coercive control as a criminal offense. Notably, the statute does not require that the abuse present an imminent lethal danger, an element that has been central to the use in U.S. courts in what some call the “battered woman’s defense.”

The decision affirmed in stark terms just how terribly marital violence matters and pointed to new understanding, in the era of the #MeToo movement, that not all injuries are external. It acknowledged, Wistrich said, how abuse and belittlement make themselves invisible by winding their way into the very fabric of female experience.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Forget everything you've learned about men and Mars.

Chances are the first person to land on the red planet will be a woman, the head of NASA said recently.

Jim Bridenstine was a guest on the science and technology radio show "Science Friday," when he teased that a woman is "likely to be" the first person on Mars.

The NASA administrator did not identify a specific person, but said women are at the forefront of the agency's upcoming plans.

Bridenstine responded "absolutely" to a question from a Twitter user who asked whether women will be included in the agency's next trip to the moon.

In fact, he said the next person on the moon is also likely to be a woman.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Last month, a federal judge in Texas ruled that drafting only men for military service was unconstitutional. The National Coalition for Men (NCFM), the plaintiff in the case, considers the win a step toward gender equity, but not for the reasons you might think. In a press release announcing the legal victory, the NCFM says that it considers conscription for men "an aspect of socially institutionalized male disposability." The draft, according to the NCFM, is evidence of society-wide discrimination against men.

In addition to the draft, the NCFM lists, among other things, education and family court as other areas where men are commonly discriminated against. Statistical data does not support these claims. In fact, more than 90 percent of custody cases are agreed upon by parents without court intervention—and when the courts do become involved, it's commonly because abusers are using the family court as a method of terror when they sue for custodial rights.

Article here. I include this here largely for its humor value. Excerpt:

'A feminist educator in the United Kingdom is making a point not to step aside when men walk in her direction, playing what she refers to as “patriarchy chicken.”

Dr. Charlotte Riley, a lecturer and historian of twentieth century labour party politics, managed to get her Twitter post turned into an op-ed on New Statesman America, an offshoot of the left-leaning, London-based New Statesman publication.

The idea of patriarchy chicken is as follows: by refusing to move out of the way to avoid collision with men going in the opposite direction, women are somehow empowering themselves.

“A few days ago, I was having a bad morning: my train tickets were expensive, my train was delayed, and my coffee was cold,” Riley wrote. “But I cheered myself up by playing a game on my commute. The game is called Patriarchy Chicken, and the rules are simple: do not move out of the way for men.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Spain’s Popular Party (PP) has announced it will not be attending the demonstration in Madrid for International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8. In a press release, the opposition conservative group defended its decision on the grounds that the declaration that will be read out at the march is “politicized” and “partisan.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Andrea James pleaded guilty in 2009 to four criminal counts related to a mortgage fraud.

When the time came to argue about sentencing, her attorney asked the judge to consider the fact that James’s son was just 4 months old. But the prosecutors held the high cards, and they objected. “She made the decision to have this baby at the age of 44 when facing criminal charges and a likely prison sentence,” they wrote in a memo to the judge.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Scripted television does not reflect reality as it exists. Rather, in addition to dramatizing for entertainment, the creators often also intend to create a guide to what reality should be. Television programs tell us what is cool and what is not; they tell us what is desirable and what is not. A more precise way of saying this is that television programs often have political agendas.

One of the visions offered to us through contemporary shows is that single motherhood is cool. More than that, it is desirable, because it reinforces the feminist precept that women do not need men and are better off without them. Unmarried mothers and single motherhood are normalized, even encouraged. Many TV heroines are now single mothers:
...
So almost one-third of American children do not live with a mother and father -- and of those, most live with their mothers.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Most Republican women said gender discrimination is not a serious problem in the United States, according to a new HuffPost/Yahoo/CARE survey.

Only 30 percent of Republican women polled said gender discrimination is a serious problem, compared with 74 percent of Democratic women.

“I’m not saying it never happens, but I think it’s blown out of proportion and used as an excuse,” said Melissa, a 45-year-old Republican survey respondent from Sacramento, California, who asked HuffPost not to reveal her last name because she doesn’t want her co-workers to know she voted for Donald Trump in 2016.

Similarly, only 26 percent of women who identified as Republican said unequal pay between men and women working the same jobs was a serious problem, compared with 63 percent of Democratic women.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Scott Morrison has suggested that women’s advancement should not come at the expense of men, in an address to mark International Women’s Day.

Speaking to the Chamber of Minerals and Energy in Western Australia on Friday, Morrison said the Liberal party wanted women to rise but did not “want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse”.

The prime minister’s comments echo remarks by the minister for women, Kelly O’Dwyer, at the National Press Club in November, rejecting the view that “girls doing well must mean that boys do badly”.

Morrison said O’Dwyer’s message was that “gender equality isn’t about pitting girls against boys”.

“See, we’re not about setting Australians against each other, trying to push some down to lift others up,” he said.'