Following Norway’s footsteps from 2003, Germany is now set to introduce a quota for numbers of women in boardrooms. The country’s major political forces, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the social democrats, have made a compromise over the frauenquote, or women’s quota. As of 2016, companies registered on the German stock exchange will be required…
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In a generous move from both hosts, the Today Show’s Lisa Wilkinson and Georgie Gardner allowed themselves to be filmed having mammograms. Last week, Wilkinson admitted that she felt ‘like a fraud’ because it had been three years since her last mammogram. As an ambassador for the National Breast Cancer Foundation for almost ten…
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Coming into effect in January 2014, the UK has announced a new law that means anyone in possession of porn that simulates rape can be jailed for up to three years. British Prime Minister David Cameron first spoke of his plans for the new law in July, saying that they were ‘closing the loophole’ and…
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Federal MPs from both sides backed Labor MP Chris Hayes on Monday in his move to raise awareness of Australia’s ‘shameful secret’ of violence against women. The move from Hayes comes just before White Ribbon Day on Monday 25 November, and he recounted some saddening statistics about domestic violence in Australia: – One in three…
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A teenager from Massachusetts recently discovered on her MacBook that Apple had defined the word “gay” as ‘foolish, stupid or unimpressive’. Stating that she was ‘in disbelief’, Becca Gormon immediately sent an email to Apple chief executive Tim Cook, who is openly gay and frequently lobbies for equal work rights for homosexuals. While the entry…
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FEMEN activists went topless to protest against the anti-abortion movement in Madrid on Sunday. Abortion is currently a legally authorised practice in Spain. For women who wish for an abortion within 14 weeks of pregnancy, or 22 weeks for those facing health risks, abortion is a legal option. But the new Minister of Justice, Alberto…
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Attorney-General George Brandis announced last week that his first act of legislation would be to lift a ban on racial vilification that was put into place almost two decades ago. In 1995, laws were put into place to give people who were effected by racial slurs and harmful language to seek action, which could lead…
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Last Wednesday, Brisbane Airport was rocked last Wednesday, with allegations emerging of the sexual harassment of five female international students. All five women work as cleaners at the airport and have reported being sexually abused by a man working for the same cleaning business. The reports surfaced on Wednesday afternoon after the cleaning company received…
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On Sunday, the Abbott government released the terms of reference for a major review of the childcare system. This has been a long time in the making, and will include reviews of childcare and early childhood learning, as well as long day care, parents who hire nannies, mobile care and outside-school-hours care. The Productivity Commission…
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In an effort to combat low breastfeeding rates in some poorer areas of Britain, new mothers will be entitled to receive government benefits pursuant to a new trial program. The pilot stage of the program is to operate out of the lower socio-economic areas of Derbyshire and South Yorkshire in England. Under this scheme,…
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Good things come to those who wait. For intersex Australians, the months and months it has taken the Federal Senate to compile a report into the involuntary or coerced sterilisation of intersex people has come to fruition. The senate was compelled to investigate the issue following a report into the forced sterilisation of girls and…
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A Melbourne GP who believes that women who have abortions deserve to die has been under investigation after he supposedly revealed on Facebook that he broke Victoria’s abortion laws, by not referring patients seeking abortions to the appropriate services and even actively attempting to talk women out of getting terminations. Daniel Mathews, a lecturer from…
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This week, Lily Allen released her latest song, Hard Out Here, and it’s really got everyone talking. Not only is it a scathing criticism of objectification and misogyny in popular culture, but it’s also a feminist pop anthem that totally blows Britney’s Work Bitch out of the water. In keeping with Allen’s signature lyrical candour,…
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Joss Whedon, noted creator of great television classics Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and other fairly forgettable ones – 2009’s cancelled Dollhouse, has declared the word ‘feminist’ is in need of a makeover. In his speech at a benefit dinner for non-government organisation Equality Now, Whedon took the opportunity to make the argument that…
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