Sixteen-year-old pitcher Eri Yoshida became the first woman to be drafted by a professional Japanese baseball league this week. Negotiations are still being made, but Yoshida could become the first woman to share the field with professional male players, breaking a huge barrier for female athletes. ...

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Alabama sent a letter last week to the Mobile County School System, the largest school system in Alabama, warning that mandatory sex segregation policies are illegal. Hankins Middle School, one of the system's schools, was segregated by sex for the ...

Ten members of an internet-based sex trafficking network were sentenced last week in the United Kingdom after pleading guilty to money laundering and prostitution charges. The group was arrested earlier this year following raids on brothels in Surrey and Central London. According to the

Arzigul Tursun, pregnant with her third child, is hospitalized under orders by Chinese officials who plan to forcibly terminate her pregnancy. China has a one-child-per-family rule. Tursun is allowed to have two children because she belongs to the Uighur minority group. Local officials determined ...

Lieutenant General Ann E. Dunwoody became the first woman to be promoted to the rank of a four-star general on Friday. According to CNN, Dunwoody became a three-star general in 2005, which made her the h...

Sex selection practices are gaining increased visibility and criticism in India, where the sex ratio has declined significantly. According to The Telegraph the national ratio is 927 women to...

Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez vetoed legislation Thursday that would have legalized abortion in the first trimester. The bill was passed in the Senate earlier this week and would have allowed women to end a pregnancy in the first 12 weeks due to hardship on the basis of economics, family, age, ...

The United Nations Population Fund released its annual State of the World Population Report this week. The report (see PDF) focuses on cultural politics and development, examining gender inequality and c...

Connecticut began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples Wednesday morning. The Connecticut State Supreme Court ruled in October that banning same-sex marriage violated the state constitution. Connectic...

A temporary injunction has prevented an Oklahoma anti-abortion law from going into effect November 1. The law, Senate...

A group of Afghan girls walking to school were sprayed with battery acid by two men on motorcycles Wednesday. The attack, which blinded at least two of the victims, took place outside of the Mirwais Nika Girls High School in the southern city of Kandahar. It is speculated that the Taliban is behi...

Esha Momeni, a feminist activist, was released from Evin prison in Iran Monday where she had been held since October 15. She was originally arrested on supposed traffic violation charges while working for the One Million Signat...

Operation Rescue announced Tuesday their plan to respond to a week-long hearing in the case against Dr. George Tiller, a late-term abortion provider, with anti-choice protests. According to a

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday on a federal gun ban that affects individuals convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence charges. In 1996, lawmakers approved an amendment to a federal gun ban that restricted those convicted of violent felonies from owning guns to include those convict...

A recent CEO Pay Survey finds that a wage gap exists between male and female CEOs. The latest findings from The Corporate Library's CEO Pay Survey: CEO Pay 2008, found that not only are fem...

Milwaukee voters approved a ballot referendum last week that will require paid sick leave for workers. The referendum, which passed with 68 percent voter approval, will require employers to provide workers with nine paid sick days. Businesses with less than 10 employees will be required to provide...

Dr Sima Samar's selection as the winner of the 2008 Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award (ADRHA) was announced Monday by Taiwan Foundation for Democracy Chairman Wang Jin-pyng. The award honors Dr. Samar's significant...