women's empowerment

Ex-frontrunner Christine Quinn is the latest female candidate to start strong, but fade at the end. Are women voters part of the problem?

Cate Faehrmann acknowledges the fact that she took a big risk in resigning from the NSW Legislative Assembly to contest the federal election on September 7. But for this traditional ‘greenie’ and founding director of GetUp!, “its absolutely a risk worth taking”.

“For me a lot of the issues that I care very passionately about are the federal issues like climate change, the environment and the treatment of asylum seekers,” Cate Faehrmann told Australian Women Online.

The newly appointed Prime Minister of Senegal Ms Aminata Toure (in photo) has set up a 32 member cabinet following consultations with President Macky Sall and other political stakeholders.

Among the top Ministers that lost their posts are the Ministers of Interior General Pathe Seck and    Finance Amadu Kane who is said to be a close relative of President Sall.

At least 300 women would have been trained in politics by the end of 2013 under a programme aimed at politically empowering women in Mauritius, PANA reported from here Monday.

The training, which includes campaign planning and development of campaign materials, public speaking, media relations and electoral laws, is being carried out by the Ministry of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare.

Use of the terms “gender” and “gender equality” in Armenia’s new law equal rights stirred major discontent among those believing that the ambiguity of the words set a legal ground for gradual destruction of Armenian families. Pressured by public criticism and the concerns expressed by the Armenian Apostolic Church, the government has replaced “gender” by “equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women”. 

Malaysia came in for particular praise at the ongoing 59th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference here for instituting changes that allowed the participation of more women in the political process, at least within the Commonwealth grouping.

Commonwealth Sec-Gen Dr William Shija said it was affirmative action that indeed some political parties have put into the system to try to reach out to women candidate that have produced results.

The Women’s Initiative Network for Peace (Win-Peace) has expressed serious concern at the continued imprisonment of hundreds of political prisoners including women activists in various Burmese jails and urged the reform savvy from President Thein Sein to take necessary initiative to release them at the earliest.

The Win-Peace asserted that the authority maintains its repressive laws followed by more arrests and hence appealed to the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission to take serious note on the situation.

Celebrating only five years of independence and following recent fanfare surrounding its struggle to achieve recognition by 100 members of the United Nations, Kosovo may not necessarily be the first country that comes to mind in contemporary discussions of women in diplomatic leadership.