Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/author/colleen-flaherty/)
Women’s eNews announces today the 21 Leaders for the 21st Century 2011, a remarkable array of talent and determination that renews our optimism about what will be accomplished this year and for years to come.
Friends and advocates of female prisoners gave thanks for many things at a recent meeting in Harlem. One was a New York law passed in June that helps parents keep custody of their children while they are in jail, mostly for nonviolent offenses.
Obama’s visit to “The Daily Show” was one sign of the sinking youth interest in the midterm elections. Another is what’s going on at a political mentoring program for high school girls. In 2009 it received 30,000 applications. This year it was 1,000 at most.
The 2010 elections could bring the first drop in women’s congressional numbers in 30 years. Despite that, a bipartisan effort targeting the over-45 set aims to make the next elections, in 2012, a bonanza year for female politicians.
Women’s numbers in the U.S. Senate are unlikely to budge much from the current 17. What could change is party composition as Democratic women who thundered into office in 1992 face a tough year for incumbency.
A woman who was robbed and sexually assaulted in 2004 wound up as a suspect in her assailant’s crime. This week she told her story at a congressional hearing into the under-reporting and poor policing of rape and sex-assault charges.