India Allows Female Workers Behind Bar

Women in India who want to work as bartenders are popping corks after the country's supreme court this week overturned a law banning women from serving alcohol. The decision was a major victory for both gender equity and the Institute of Bar Operations and Management, which has already reported rising demand for female bartenders, the BBC reports.

The ruling, which also lowers the minimum age for bartenders from 25 to 21, judged the 1914 ban "outmoded in content and stifling in means," the Hindu reports. "Before we could not express our feelings because of the law, but now that has all changed," one woman said. The ban's supporters had argued that females would be subject to assault by drunken men. (More India stories.)