8,000 girls suffer FMG each day

Each day, more than 8,000 girls suffer the mental, emotional and physical torture of genital mutilation. That’s a United Nations statistic and also the last comment in the film “Desert Flower,” the story of supermodel Waris Dirie, who endured female genital mutilation at age...

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Sojourner Truth didn’t say that

I’m disappointed. The famous words “And ain’t I a Woman?” did not come from the mouth of Sojourner Truth. According to historian Nell Irvin Painter, author of Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol, Frances Dana Gage, a white feminist, revised Truth’s impromptu address to a women’s rights...

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Women rule in Seneca Falls

If you support women’s rights and haven’t made a trip to Seneca Falls, NY—go! I’ve visited several times and never fail to be moved by the names of the 68 courageous women engraved on the wall in the Women’s Rights National Historical Park who signed the Declaration of Sentiments more...

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Former Bollywood star wants No More Tears

Sometimes brothers do more than tease their sisters. Sometimes they say things like, “Why don’t you help women who are brought to the U.S. from different countries and are abused by their husbands?” That’s what former Bollywood star Somy Ali’s brother advised after a bleeding Bangladeshi...

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2nd act takes woman filmmaker to China

When the sinking economy stalled her freelance advertising business, May Tchao thought, “What the heck, I’ve done it all my life, so I want to try something new.” What Tchao did was begin filming the documentary “Rise of the Phoenix,” which casts the issue of women’s...

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Making the best of rape

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s blurt that a woman pregnant from a rape “make the best out of a bad situation” has many female journalists fuming. Some have come up with a flurry of interesting questions that sound absurd at face value but–considering how our courts...

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FBI updates definition of rape

It took 82 years for the FBI to change its naive, chauvinistic definition of rape. That’s 10 years longer than the campaign to give women the right to vote. Once again, women’s rights advocates are credited with the change. Since 1929 the FBI has defined rape as “carnal knowledge...

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Female Peace Prize winners get less

This year’s $1.5 million Nobel Peace Prize will be divvied up among three African women. Call me cynical but—once again—women get paid less than men. Why must each woman receive one-third of the prize money? Why not give them each $1.5 million? Every individual winner (e.g., Mother Teresa,...

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History books lie

“Women never did anything important. If they had it would be in the history books.” So claims the father-in-law of National Women’s History Museum founder Karen Staser. Can you imagine spending holidays with that guy? Still, he’s not alone. Most Americans grow up thinking men built the...

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