Story here. Excerpt:

'Call it contraception equality.

Vasectomies, which are not covered under President Barack Obama’s health care law, are increasingly being included in state measures that would require insurers to provide cost-free coverage of birth control.

Backers of laws and proposals in such states as Illinois, Vermont, Maryland and most recently New York say that if women can get tubal ligations with no out-of-pocket costs, men should be able to get their surgical sterilization covered cost-free as well. Such state measures are seen as a key backup if the federal mandate is repealed.

“What we have are couples facing a decision about which birth control method to use and they see that methods used by women have no out-of-pocket cost while there would be a cost, in some cases a fairly substantial cost, for men’s,” said Adam Sonfield, a policy analyst for the Guttmacher Institute, which studies reproductive health issues.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The European Investment Bank (EIB), the money-lending arm of the EU, is to launch a new gender strategy to increase women’s participation in global economies.

From 1 January the bank will implement new rules designed to ensure its lending will help women and men equally, following growing evidence of the economic advantages of female equality.

According to the bank, up to $12tn could be added to global GDP by 2025 by advancing women’s equality. It says the public, private, and social sectors need to act to close gender gaps in work and society, and acknowledges that it, along with other multilateral development bank, has a seminal role to play in making this happen.

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'To little fanfare from the usual trumpeters of pay inequality, figures released last week highlighted a new, and growing, gender pay gap.

Perhaps we can gain some insight into why the usual suspects lay silent when the latest tranche of data emerged from one of the few headlines it did garner: Earnings inequality among men soars.
...
Twenty years ago only 1 man in 20 aged 25-55 with low hourly wages worked part-time. Today the figure is one in five.

Furthermore, while 95% of top-earning men normally work full-time, 20% of the lowest-paid are now part-timers.

That means wage inequality for men has risen over two decades, while for women the opposite has been true.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Order a beer, get a lesson about consent, gender-based violence and sexual harassment– at least in Toronto through Jan. 22.

On Monday, at least 15 of the city’s bars kicked off the “On the Table” campaign, where they’ll distribute 10,000 message-bearing coasters.

Funded in part by the City of Toronto’s Arts Council, the project was created by Aisle 4, a “curatorial project that initiates and promotes socially engaged artwork.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In a landmark legal case, a Swiss man has been convicted of rape after secretly removing a condom during sex without his partner's consent.

The Independent reports the 47-year-old man (who has not been named publicly) met his partner on Tinder and they began to have consensual sex with a condom. Afterwards, the woman realized he had removed the condom at some point without her knowledge or approval.

Now, the Federal Supreme Court in Lausanne—the highest court in Switzerland—has judged that such actions do constitute rape, passing down a one-year suspended sentence. In comments to news agency RTS, the victim's lawyer described it as "a first in Switzerland."

Our understanding of consent has evolved hugely in recent years, thanks largely to the dedicated work of feminist activists and anti-sexual violence campaigners. However, for many a question mark hovers over whether removing a condom during sex is legally the same as rape. For the avoidance of any doubt: under UK law, it is.'

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'Air India is set to launch women-only seating to protect female fliers from sexual harassment after a number of women were allegedly groped by male passengers.

Starting January 18th, these seats will be made available on Airbus A320 aircrafts to women who travel alone and do not wish to be seated next to men, and will see the first two rows sectioned off.

Air India general manager-revenue management Meenakshi Malik told The Hindu that the company would not be charging any additional fee for blocking these seats as the move is meant to enhance female safety.

“We feel, as national carriers, it is our responsibility to enhance comfort level to female passengers. There are a lot of female passengers who travel alone with us and we will be blocking a few seats for them.”

The women-only seats will be available on domestic flights but may be extended to other flights in the next few months.

By Nahema Marchal | 7:25 am, January 17, 2017

Air India is set to launch women-only seating to protect female fliers from sexual harassment after a number of women were allegedly groped by male passengers.

Starting January 18th, these seats will be made available on Airbus A320 aircrafts to women who travel alone and do not wish to be seated next to men, and will see the first two rows sectioned off.

Air India general manager-revenue management Meenakshi Malik told The Hindu that the company would not be charging any additional fee for blocking these seats as the move is meant to enhance female safety.

“We feel, as national carriers, it is our responsibility to enhance comfort level to female passengers. There are a lot of female passengers who travel alone with us and we will be blocking a few seats for them.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Washington Post reports, “Of the 175,000 people who indicated they are going on the march’s Facebook page, just a fraction appear to be men,” which makes sense; it is the “Women’s March,” after all. But in this day and age, that which makes sense is usually problematic.

According to the Post, it’s “the same test that played out when Americans went to vote for the nation’s first female president,” and American men are once again failing.
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Men are understandably confused. Esquire’s Luke O’Neil is here to help. O’Neil explained what men should do:

“Anyone with any degree of self-awareness may be hesitant to blunder his way into areas he wasn’t explicitly invited into, and there has been the regrettable emergence of a reviled archetype in recent years of the performative male feminist who espouses feminist talking points to enhance his own status . . . As a modest suggestion, men simply need to do two things at once: Speak up and keep your mouth shut.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'To be a woman in the United States is to feel unequal, despite great strides in gender equality, according to a wide-ranging poll about gender in postelection America released Tuesday. It’s catcalls on the street, disrespect at work and unbalanced responsibilities at home. For girls, it’s being taught, more than boys, to aspire to marriage, and for women, it’s watching positions of power go to men.

Men, however, don’t necessarily see it that way.

Those are some of the findings from the poll, by PerryUndem, a nonpartisan research and polling firm whose biggest clients are foundations. It surveyed 1,302 adults in December via the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago’s AmeriSpeak panel.

Eighty-two percent of women said sexism was a problem in society today, and 41 percent of women said they had felt unequal because of their gender.

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'On Tuesday night, two Democrat senators pressured President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, to embrace a debunked college campus "rape culture" narrative on sexual assault. Specifically, they asked her to commit to enforcing Title IX regulations which have deprived hundreds of students of their due process rights under the Constitution.

The issue of campus sexual assault is more complicated than Democrats like to admit. While such assault is a heinous crime and should be dealt with seriously, every case should be examined on its own merits, without preconceived judgements on either side. Much of the rhetoric involving such cases is one-sided, and it pressures colleges to find the accused guilty, even in the face of exonerating evidence.

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'Indeed, traditional concepts of masculinity, which asked men to cultivate physical and mental toughness, to assume leadership roles in the home, in business, and on the battlefield, and to become guardians and protectors, became the “trap” or “man box,” to quote the University of Richmond’s ridiculous “authentic masculinities” site. The most destructive words a boy can hear? “Be a man,” at least according to the mandatory freshman orientation at Gettysburg College.

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'Two sisters who disappeared from Rhode Island with their mother in 1985 have been located in the Houston area, and their mother was charged with snatching them, police announced Tuesday.

An anonymous tip two days before Christmas led police to Kimberly and Kelly Yates and their mother, Elaine Yates, state police Lt. Col. Joseph Philbin said. Elaine Yates, who had been living in Houston under the name Liana Lynn Waldberg, was arrested Monday and faces arraignment Wednesday in Rhode Island.

Kelly Yates was 10 months old and her sister was 3 years old when they disappeared. Kelly Yates, now 32, and Kimberly Yates, now 35, weren't living with their mother, who's 69, but are in the Houston area and are in good health, Philbin said.

The girls' father, Russell Yates, was told of the arrest immediately after it happened and is relieved, Philbin said. His contact information was given to his daughters.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A grandfather was credited with fighting off a woman who tried to kidnap his 3-year-old granddaughter on Saturday at a Northern California park.

Lindsay Frasher, 28, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and is being held on $200,000 bail in the Placer County jail, according to the Auburn Police Department.

Police Sgt. Gary Hopping told KTXL-TV that the man and his two grandchildren were visiting Ashford Park in Auburn, about 35 miles northeast of Sacramento, at 1:42 p.m. when Frasher approached them.

She then grabbed one of the children, a 3-year-old girl, and tried to pull her from her grandfather, police said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Rigid definitions of masculinity are toxic to men's health. Even the World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized that men's tendency to die at younger ages may correlate to the harmful ways that masculinity has been defined in society and the ways that men have been conditioned to practice it.

“In 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged the need to pay greater attention to the shorter life expectancy of men and identified a lack of understanding of the role of ‘masculinity’ in shaping men’s expectations and behaviours as a primary causative factor for the health disparity between men and women” (Evans, Frank, Oliffe and Gregory, 2011).

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Spanish murderer dubbed the “ice cream killer” is so dangerous, she’s being moved to an all-male prison to serve out her life sentence, according to a new report.

Estibaliz Carranza, 38, earned the chilling nickname after she shot her boyfriend and ex-husband to death in 2008, cut up their bodies with a chainsaw and hid them in the freezers of her ice cream store in Vienna, Austria.

The Mexican-born Spanish national stored the body parts in ice cream tubs filled with concrete and disguised the smell with air fresheners.

Now, she’ll spend the rest of her life in an all-male prison in Asten, Austria, because she shows an “advanced reduction of the relevant dangerousness,” according to the Mirror.

The prison, which houses 91 men, allows inmates to freely move around and cook their own meals together. Prisoners can also use a lounge area with a TV.

Carranza is one of 13 women to be transferred to the prison.

She carried out the crimes because the men failed to get her pregnant.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A 40 minute video posted by a pro-free speech cameraman shows protesters hitting his camera and screaming at police officers during Breitbart Senior Editor MILO’s event at UC Davis on Friday.

Student protesters and “anti-fascists” can be seen in the video screaming “move cops get out the way,” at the line of police officers attempting to protect the venue and those inside, before the cameraman gets attacked, with numerous protesters hitting his camera, pushing him away, throwing up their signs in front of his face, and shouting at him.'