When my grandmother got married in the 1950s, it wasn’t only for love. Marriage had a more practical purpose in those days: to secure a woman’s social status. The newest generation of brides may finally break the age-old rags-to-riches fairytale stereotype that insists a woman marry an older and wealthier gentleman. In fact, they may ...
I’ll get straight down to the point. Who is responsible for educating who when it comes to issues of oppression, sexism, racism and the like? As Lena Chen of the Chicktionary eloquently writes, I don’t expect gay people to prove to me, a straight person, that there’s actually homophobia. I don’t expect poor people to ...
Small changes in legislation can positively affect women’s lives. Take India for example. In 1993, a law was implemented requiring that a third of all local government council seats be held by women. The hope behind the legislation was that “women’s status might improve” by putting them in positions of influence and power where they ...
Traditional birth attendants provide the majority of care to women in Sierra Leone. But despite the fact that the country has less than 80 professional midwives and only six obstetricians the government in Sierra Leone has banned them from practising their craft. The argument goes that because traditional birth attendants do not have knowledge of ...
Santa gets all the credit. He hears what people want for Christmas and personally delivers it, but I bet Mrs. Claus is the brains behind the whole operation. This year it’s time for Mrs. Claus to share in some of the glory. While Santa is off doing his thing and eating all the cookies ...
Human sexuality is nothing to be ashamed of, but this doesn’t mean we leave nudie magazines on our coffee table for guests to enjoy a sneak peek. But how would you feel about Playboys at the public library? In all my years as a library-devotee I’ve never even noticed Playboy magazines lying around, but it ...
Many women are putting kids on the back burner until they get an education and career. The consequence? Some women are left childless. But there’s new evidence that educated women, for the most part, are actually having more kids. Canada is the odd woman out. While women in the US are getting an education without ...
Sasha Grey is an ex-porn star. Does this mean she should not be allowed to read to elementary school students in Compton? Some parents think so. In fact, they’re up in arms about the porn star-turned-actress reading to their kids. Grey may be trying to do good, but apparently it doesn’t make up for the ...
Women and girls in Somalia are earning a living and helping others access education through a sanitary pad project. Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development, an NGO funded by UNICEF, employs internally displaced women to manufacture the pads, which are distributed in IDP camps. This not only enables women to earn a living; girls ...
On average, the gender gap is narrowing around the world so this is definitely something to celebrate. Women are almost as healthy (96 percent gap closed) and educated (93 percent gap closed) as men. Unfortunately, there’s still a long way to go with only 60 percent of the gap closed for economic participation and 20 ...
Dear Madame X, I have just started seeing this girl. She seems great, but she recently told me she...
Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved arrived in my hands via a public library, when I was a broke teenager with...
My attention was drawn this week to an article about the reaction at a Canadian university to proposals to...
Airport security. Bloody nuisance. Also a conspiracy designed to subjugate women. Allow me to elaborate. Despite flying quite a...
The Cannes film festival has kicked off this week with controversy over the lack of films made by women...
Dear Madame X, I seem to be only attracted to men who are macho assholes. I like them at...
When A Clockwork Orange was published in 1962, the term sexualized violence wasn’t in use. The distinction between sexualized...
Skincare. Not so very long ago, a man would have been mocked mercilessly for using just the word, never...
