Shampoo Co. Scrubs Bias; India Renews Gay Sex Ban

Credit: Nagarjun Kandukuru on Flickr, under Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0)

(WOMENSENEWS)–

Cheers

A shampoo company, Pantene Philippines, has launched a powerful commercial campaign pointing out how identical behavior often earns men and women different labels in the workplace, the Huffington Post reported Dec. 9. The short video explores double standards: In a situation where a man would be called persuasive, for example, women are called pushy. A man is the boss, a woman is bossy. A dad working late is dedicated, a mom doing the same is selfish.

More News to Cheer This Week:

The board of directors of The American Institute of Architects voted Dec. 12 to posthumously award the 2014 AIA Gold Medal to Julia Morgan, whose extensive body of work has served as an inspiration to a generation of female architects, according to a press release from the institute.

The New York Women’s Foundation has announced a total of $2.3 million in grants to 32 organizations across New York City as a part of the foundation’s fall 2013 grant cycle, the New York Nonprofit Press reported.

A court in Marseille, France, sentenced the founder of a French company to four years in prison for selling hundreds of thousands of defective breast implants in more than 65 countries, The New York Times reported Dec.10.

General Motors Company named its first female CEO, Mary Barra, who is now the first woman to run a major automobile maker, The Miami Herald reported Dec. 10. She joins just 22 other female CEOs among U.S. companies in the Fortune 500 firms.

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests ordained Mary Sue Barnett as its latest female priest in Louisville, Ky., USA TODAY reported Dec. 8.

Twenty-one women and girls who had been detained for more than a month over a street protest in Egypt have been released, The New York Times reported Dec. 7. An appeals court had reduced their harsh penalties to suspended sentences.

Jeers

Homosexuality became illegal again in India after the Indian Supreme Court ruled that a colonial-era law banning gay sex was improperly struck down, The New York Times reported Dec. 10. The ruling reverses a landmark judgment by a lower court, which in 2009 decided that an 1861 law that forbids “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with man, woman or animal” was unconstitutional. The law, passed by the British, makes homosexuality punishable by 10 years in prison.

More News to Jeer This Week:

Michigan will join more conservative states in requiring residents who want health insurance coverage for abortions to buy an extra policy, after Republican legislators passed the law on Dec. 11 over the objections of Democrats who pleaded for them to take the issue to voters instead, the Wisconsin Gazette reported. The citizens’ initiative approved 62-47 by the House and 27-11 in the Senate–almost entirely along party lines–will become law in March without the signature of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.

Only one-third of teenage girls in the U.S. have received all three doses of the HPV vaccine and few people understand its effectiveness against cancer, a study has found, The Daily Mail reported Dec. 9.

While Afghan women and girls are increasingly coming forward to report incidents of abuse, prosecution of those crimes isn’t rising along with it, a U.N. report revealed, Al Jazeera reported Dec. 8.

The U.S. Department of Education will investigate the civil rights complaint of seven women who allege the University of Connecticut responded to sexual assaults on campus with deliberate indifference or worse, the Huffington Post reported Dec. 9.

Noted:

The body that represents universities in the United Kingdom has withdrawn guidance on the gender segregation of audiences in lectures and debates after Prime Minister David Cameron said it should not be allowed to happen, The Guardian reported Dec. 13.

Taking the breast cancer drug Anastrozole for five years reduces the chances of post-menopausal women at high risk of breast cancer developing the disease by 53 percent compared with women who took a placebo, according to a study published in the Lancet Dec. 12.

About 75 percent of young women believe the U.S. needs to do more to bring about equality in the workplace, a study finds, The Guardian reported Dec. 11.

Logan College in Missouri settled a pregnancy discrimination complaint, the National Women’s Law Center said Dec. 10. The complaint said Logan College violated Title IX–the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education–when the school told a student it could not excuse her absences related to an emergency Cesarean surgery.

Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner was sentenced Dec. 9 to 90 days in home confinement, three years’ probation and a series of fines totaling about $1500 as part of a plea deal, CNN reported Dec. 9. The 71-year-old pleaded guilty in October to kissing or grabbing three women at campaign events or at City Hall.

U.S. pregnancy rates declined about 10 percent each for married and unmarried women since 1990, researchers say, UPI reported Dec. 6. The U.S. pregnancy rate in 2009 was 102.1 per 1,000 women ages 15-44 — the lowest level in 12 years.