Role of women in society

Two months after Julia Gillard was ousted, feminist and sociologist Eva Cox looks back on the misogyny debate her time as Australia's prime minister sparked - and whether gender issues are on the election agenda as a result.

The question of female leadership still sits rather uncomfortably in discussions of power politics. The recent death of Margaret Thatcher reminded us of her politically successful tenure and re-elections, whether we agreed with her stance or not.

On Sunday night, Aminata Touré was named Prime Minister of Senegal. Whichever mineral flows through the veins of Aminata Touré, she has spent all of her adult life working as a human rights and women’s rights activist, who has worked in Senegal and around the world on women’s issues and, more generally, at the intersection of social and economic justice struggles.

State Sen. LeAnna Washington, D-4, was a high school dropout, had her first child at age 17, was a single mother, grew up in a tumultuous household, was a victim of domestic violence and received government assistance well into her adult years. However, these hardships did not stifle Washington — they motivated her to be a leader in her community.

It is often said that the protest at Greenham Common was ineffectual. The eventual closure of the US base at Newbury is deemed to have been an almost inadvertent side effect of much more important (ie male) political forces. In this version of history the bunch of women sitting near a fence in middle England 30 years ago are rendered pretty much irrelevant.

We invite our users to read the full article published September 2 2013

In Afghanistan, a female politician who escaped an assassination attempt in the south of the country says she fully intends to return to work.

Senator Rooh Gul Khirzard, speaking from her hospital bed where she has been recovering from multiple gunshot wounds, told the BBC that women would not be intimidated by Taliban attacks.

Her nine year old daughter died in the ambush and her 11-year-old remains in intensive care.

As often said, beside every successful man, there is a woman. It has just come to the fore that every successful politician has a woman of great influence who plays along with him. If it was the man’s spouse, it is considered better because courage and support are brood right from home. This is more so, considering the fact that no woman will watch her husband record a public and documented failure during his stay in office.

We invite our users to read the full article published August 30 2013