sexism

It's raining machismo in France. Chucking it down, in fact.

From parliament to local councils, via national media and regional newspapers, storms have erupted as French men indulge in misogynist outbursts that could have come from the cave age.

Now, thanks to the name-and-shame tactics of social media networks, France's long-suffering women, who might previously have shrugged off such attacks as everyday sexism and machismo, are hitting back.

Despairing news from Iran...

Nina Siahkali Moradi, 27, was barred from taking up her seat in Qazvin by the conservative electoral review board.
An electoral candidate who won a place on a city council in Iran has reportedly been barred from taking up the seat because she is too attractive.During the polls in the city of Qazvin, 27-year-old Nina Siahkali Moradi received 10,000 votes, placing her 14th out of 163 candidates.

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.

Continuing our series on women in federal politics, we meet the Hon Kate Ellis MP (ALP), Federal Member for Adelaide, Minister for Early Childhood, Childcare and Youth, Minister for Employment Participation and Minister for the Status of Women.

The 43rd Australian Parliament was extraordinary for several reasons but perhaps most notably for how Labor women confronted sexism and misogyny.

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

If women are not at the centre of the fight against poverty, we won't achieve what we want to, warns new head of UN Women.