discrimination

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

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."

When Laura Boldrini, 52, was elected as speaker of Italy’s lower house last month, she knew the job would come with enormous challenges. But she didn’t expect it to come with death threats. Last week, the former United Nations high commisioner for refugees Italian spokesperson sat in front of Italy’s lower house of Parliament and read some of the hundreds of squalid emails she has received since taking office. Many threatened rape, sodomy, torture, and murder. All the warnings were sexual in nature. “You need to be lynched, bitch,” one hater wrote.