International Women’s Day
www.internationalwomensday.com
The Vatican marks International Women’s Day with an annual “Voices of Faith” conference on women in the Church. This year Mary McAleese, former president of Ireland, is among those attending.
The Catholic Church is “an empire of misogyny”, Ireland’s former president said on Wednesday ahead of a conference calling for women to be included in Church decision-making.
When I began to put this diary together, and looked at the articles in connection with International Women’s Day, these words by T.S. Eliot wouldn’t leave my mind:
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Granted, Eliot had something else in mind, and might not think his words appropriate for this diary, but it’s exactly how I feel about events during this week in the war on women: we are in the shadow, somewhere between the idea and the reality, between the potency and the existence — of something — equality, recognition as full human beings perhaps? This was evident at the Academy Awards, where MeToo was celebrated but Kobe Bryant won an Oscar; where a woman was nominated for the first time for cinematography but that was not mentioned by the winner; where the overall number of women nominees and winners was still dismal. But if we are not yet at the reality, we are past the mere idea, and Frances McDormand, in her acceptance speech as best actress, showed this with her call to action, “inclusion riders.”
The shadow is where our activism lives.
As I move on to the rest of the news, I want to thank the WoW crew who helped me round up stories for the week, including Besame, Sandra LLAP, thurayya, Tara the Antisocial Social Worker, noweasels, BMScott.
Women’s Health
Valerie Huber, strong advocate for abstinence-only education, will now have the final say on which health programs receive Title X grants for providing family planning services to poor women. This is a change from past policy, in which all decisions were made by a small group of administrators. While this is seen as an attack on Planned Parenthood,
Ms Huber has said Planned Parenthood is still welcome to apply for the grants, but that the department would prioritise applications from organisations with a religious background, and those that counsel abstinence or “natural” methods.
The Mississippi legislature has passed a 15-week abortion ban, the most severe anti-abortion law in any state. Several states have had 20-week bans overturned in the courts, and this law will be contested by Mississippi’s only abortion clinic.
Violence Against Women
There is a new National Science Foundation policy requiring grant recipients to report researchers found to have committed sexual or other harassment.
Korean politician Ahn Hee-jung stands down after his secretary accuses him of multiple rapes.
Australian report on women in the workplace notes sexual harassment is common.
Yale student found not guilty of rape.
France raises sexual age of consent to 15.
Kentucky law setting marriage age at 18 is stalled.
Culture
The NY Times begins a series of obituaries for people who were overlooked in the obituary section when they died with obituaries for 15 women. The series will include other overlooked groups as well.
On International Women’s Day I head this report from NPR about girls and women in baseball.
Frida Kahlo Barbie?
Maybe, maybe not.
remezcla.com/...