women's role in society

Women are defined in American society by the men who are or aren't in their lives. From the time we're little girls into young adults, we're encouraged to find our prince charming and never let him go. People quietly frown upon single women, wondering what's wrong with women like me who haven't married yet or may never marry.

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.

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.

Ann Bookman, a nationally known researcher and social policy expert on women's issues, work-family balance and community engagement, has been named director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy (CWPPP)of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

As prime minister, Julia Gillard remained instinctively private, consistently contained and, for a figure so much in the public eye, oddly enigmatic.

American political dynasties historically have been built on power passed from fathers to sons, brothers to brothers, even husbands to wives: the Adamses, the Kennedys, the Bushes, the Clintons.

Now, it is the daughters’ turn.

We invite you to read the full article published July 26 2013

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?