Obama: Cover Birth Control; 8 Egyptian Women Win

By WeNews staff

Saturday, January 21, 2012

(WOMENSENEWS)--

Cheers

The Obama administration said Jan. 20 that health insurance plans must cover contraceptives for women without charge, and it rejected a broad exemption sought by the Roman Catholic Church for insurance provided to employees of Catholic hospitals, colleges and charities, reported the New York Times. But the administration said it would give some employers affiliated with churches an extra year to comply, meaning that coverage would not begin for their employees until well after the 2012 elections.

Church leaders had personally appealed to Obama to grant the exemption, and he made the final decision on the issue after hearing all points of view, administration officials said.

More News to Cheer This Week:

The Pentagon is preparing a series of new initiatives to try to curb sexual assaults in the military, the defense chief said Jan. 18, calling the problem a stain on the honor of the armed forces, reported the Associated Press. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said there were 3,191 reported sexual assaults in the military last year, a slight increase from 2010. Yet because the crime is under-reported, he said, the real number is closer to 19,000 assaults.

Seventy-four percent of Latino/a registered voters agree that a woman has a right to make her own personal, private decisions about abortion without politicians interfering, according to a Lake Research Partners poll.

A national campaign to increase the percentage of women on U.S. company boards to 20 percent or greater by 2020, called 2020 Women on Boards, published its Gender Diversity Directory, reported PRNewswire Jan. 20. The directory includes over 1,000 companies and categorizes them by what percentage of board members are women.

Former investment strategist Diane Garnick said she is opening an asset management firm that she hopes will help tilt the balance of the top Wall Street jobs more in favor of women, Bloomberg reported Jan. 19.

Yahoo! hosted its first summit on women and social and digital media in the Middle East and North Africa region, Information and Technology Publishing reported Jan. 18. The summit brought together women in leadership roles from across the Middle East and North Africa to discuss how women can use technology and the Web to drive positive change.

A Massachusetts state court struck down a judge's ruling that a mentally ill woman must have an abortion against her will and then be sterilized, The Boston Globe reported Jan. 17.

Ivycorp, creators of Ivytalk (a next-generation enterprise messaging network for businesses and organizations), has received an initial $1 million in Series A investment capital from a combination of investors led by the Women's Venture Capital Fund, reported Marketwatch Jan. 18.

Hundreds protested the recent attacks in Malawi on women wearing pants and miniskirts, reported the Associated Press Jan. 20. While a ban on women wearing pants and miniskirts ended in 1994, some in the country continue to believe that wearing such clothing is a sign of loose morals or prostitution. President Bingu wa Mutharika has ordered any attackers to be arrested.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire filed a bill last week that would make her state the seventh to allow same-sex couples to marry, reported The New York Times Jan. 16.

The Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Bill in Maryland, if passed, would allow men who dress as women to use women's bathrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms, reported WBOC 16 in Delmarva, Md., Jan. 18. The bill aims to promote equality for transgender individuals in the state.

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Two women of 502 elected positions in Egypt! Women are definitely being put into the background very severely.
Today, January 27, the Muslim Brotherhood are filling the square again in Egypt, including praying together. There are almost no women in the crowd.
Then the women's enews article that claimed that after WWII women were glad to get back home and make babies, which was rightly contested in a comment.
For the women of Egypt and a few other nations, be careful which abuser you get rid of, the next one might be worse for women, and there might not be another option for women. I can only hope that those women and men in Egypt who are not a part of the Muslim brotherhood and who were part of the revolutionary acts, that they keep working toward the true democracy that they want, and not let themselves be run over again, this time by the Brotherhood.

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