Advocacy and Lobbying

Jane Martinson reports from the Women in the World summit, where campaigners are drawing attention to the internet as a tool to aid women in the Middle East.

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Senior United Nations officials today stressed the need to promote the participation of women in decision-making, noting that democracy and gender equality are interlinked and mutually reinforcing.

The Lebanese Women’s Council called Friday on all women’s rights groups to put politics aside and unite toward holding MPs accountable in the coming elections.

The National Committee for the Follow-up on Women’s Issues (CFUWI) held a news conference at the Press Federation, Friday, announcing the conclusion of another stage of its project on “Lebanese women’s rights and the Nationality Law.”

Saudi Arabian women ushered in a wave of new suffragettes when over 50 women risked arrest last Friday in defiance of the driving ban. Even riding a bicycle is forbidden to women in Saudi Arabia. In 2008, the governing Shura Council recommended women be allowed to drive but no law to that effect has been approved. The seemingly innocuous problem of women's right to drive presents a dilemma for the Saudi monarchy and a threat capable of rocking its theological foundations.

Hillary Clinton’s speech was met with silence from the male-dominated envoys at the African Union as she criticized the continents aging autocrats. The mood changed when the U.S. Secretary of State turned her attention to women.

Women in minority and indigenous communities are especially vulnerable to wide-ranging forms of violence, abuse and discrimination, according to a new report released Wednesday by Minority Rights Group International (MRG), a human rights group that works on behalf of minorities and indigenous peoples.

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At the gathering in a hotel on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital, there was talk of canvassing “highly persuadable” voters, campaign budgets and media strategies. There was even a stirring speech by a “candidate.” The gathering had all the hallmarks of an election campaign meeting, with a couple of exceptions: all the participants were women, and they were from across the political spectrum, united in their eagerness to learn how to run a successful campaign.

Gender equality is shrewd economics as well as a human right, the World Bank has said in a report that showed countries with better opportunities for women and girls can boost productivity and development.

The most glaring disparity is the rate at which girls and women die relative to men in developing countries, according to The World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development.

Fair hiring in China. Literacy in Mali. Newsweek’s rankings reveal where women are leaving their mark—and where the gains are slow to come.