women's empowerment

Continuing our series on women in federal politics, we meet the Hon Kate Ellis MP (ALP), Federal Member for Adelaide, Minister for Early Childhood, Childcare and Youth, Minister for Employment Participation and Minister for the Status of Women.

The 43rd Australian Parliament was extraordinary for several reasons but perhaps most notably for how Labor women confronted sexism and misogyny.

In the lead up to the Federal Election on 7 September 2013, Australian Women Online will be profiling women from the major political parties in both houses of Federal Parliament.

Malians are still waiting for the government to announce full provisional results from Sunday's presidential poll. The presidency says the announcement has been delayed until Friday, the day by law when the results are due.

However, several candidates have already denounced partial results released earlier this week as fraudulent. Authorities said those partial results indicate a likely first-round victory for former prime minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita...

The Georgetown law student Rush Limbaugh labeled a "slut" and "prostitute" because of her comments before congressional leaders about insurance coverage of contraception in 2012 has joined a training program for Democratic women with ambitions of running for public office. Sandra Fluke, then a student at the Catholic university, objected to not being able to acquire birth control through the university's plan.

Fluke, a native of Pennsylvania, will be representing Emerge California's class of 2014. She hopes to get women more active in California politics.

When I wrote my article on the subtle, sexist whispering campaign against Janet Yellen, my example of a rare not-so-subtle sexist comment came from Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve. Asked about Yellen on CNBC, he worried that the pick would be “driven by gender,” even as he allowed that she was “extremely capable.”

We invite you to read the full article published July 31

In Ireland, the rate of female participation in politics is one of the lowest in Europe

Just 15 per cent of Dail members are women, which ranks 5th in Europe, according to European Parliament figures collected after the general election in 2011. 

Last year, the department of the environment introduced legislation under the Electoral Act 1997 stipulating that all political parties provide a minimum of 30 per cent female candidates at the next general election or risk losing 50 per cent of their state funding.

If women are not at the centre of the fight against poverty, we won't achieve what we want to, warns new head of UN Women.

 I moved away from Zimbabwe almost 15 years ago. In the early years I inhaled all the news I could; watching in shock as my home country descended into crisis. Each visit home and conversations with friends and family became about what used to be, and with that came a resignation of sorts to the status quo as we carried on with our lives.