women's empowerment

Once upon a time, all a woman had to do to stand out in the crowd of Canadian premiers was to sport a red jacket or a skirt. Now that female leaders constitute half of the exclusive club membership, the salient question has become not what is she wearing, but what difference will all that female energy make?

Notably, the six women present at this year’s annual premiers’ gathering represent very different political parties, have remarkably diverse life experiences and are at different ages and stages of their lives.

HARARE — Zimbabweans go to the polls July 31 under a new constitution that some hoped would bring more women into politics. But, some women say the road to gender equity in Zimbabwean politics is a long one.  
 
Zimbabwe’s 2012 census shows that women comprise 52 percent of the population. But that demographic is not reflected in the political arena.

WITH more countries around the world voting in female prime ministers, Fiji's women are also being encouraged to add a female face to the words "Prime Minister".

Such a change will obviously be accompanied by numerous challenges, explained Minister for Women Dr Jiko Luveni, who said women were important agents of change.

"They have the ability to make effective leaders that serve the people as parliamentarians and should run for the elections next year," Dr Luveni said.

North American experiments are showing that women have an electoral advantage. In one study in which only the names of a candidate were changed, participants rated the candidate they thought was female as stronger, more honest, and more compassionate than the male candidate. After Premier Christy Clark suddenly won the B.C. election on May 14th, I don’t remember any of the shocked pundits talking about the female factor. What happened to the polls that had apparently shown B.C. women were less inclined than men to vote for Clark?

Hodan Ahmed and her family were forced to flee Somalia in 1991. The civil war that drove them from their home would go on for two decades. Ahmed live abroad in India and then in Kenya, where she got her education and began her career, but her dream was to return to Somalia to give her children the chance to grow up where she could not.

We invite you to read the full article published July 2 2013 by our partner, NDI

Women in the Labor caucus have come under fire from the ‘sisterhood’ for siding with the men who brought down Julia Gillard. By comparison, the men who actually orchestrated the rise and fall of our first female Prime Minister, got off relatively easy.

Senator Penny Wong got the worst of it, with Coalition Senator Michaelia Cash, launching a scathing attack on the Finance Minister in the Senate this afternoon. Senator Cash captured the attention of the media when she accused Penny Wong of stabbing Julia Gillard in the back and betraying the sisterhood.

The guest instructor in a Philadelphia University classroom got right to the point: You can do what you're thinking of doing, and you can make a difference. Just be prepared for the brutality.

"It is a dirty business, there is no doubt," Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane said. "It is distasteful. They call you every name in the book. They try and put you down as much as they possibly can - and sometimes that's your own party, just to get you out of the race so their buddy can run."

(CNN) -- Early in Dara's career, she was told by a coach that "honey attracts more bees than vinegar," so she took pains to rein in her natural candor and soften her opinions. But when she started her present job as vice president at a national retailer, her boss told her she was too nice. "Where's the balance?" Dara muses. "Do they want me to be harder or softer? With men or with women? With my superiors or my subordinates? It's tricky to figure out."

A political lobby group is pushing for a female candidate to replace long-term Labor MP Martin Ferguson when he steps down from politics in September.

The 59-year-old announced that he would not contest his safe inner-Melbourne seat of Batman at the upcoming election on Wednesday, prompting calls from Emily’s List, a group pushing for greater representation of women in parliament.

National co-convenor Tanja Kovac told Fairfax Media it was important to have a woman step up for the role, which has been held by Ferguson since 1996.