Stories related to: feminism

Hillary Clinton will almost certainly not be the Democratic nominee for president, and the end of her campaign is a relief for Marie Cocco in the Washington Post —but not for political reasons. The end of the Democratic primary, she writes, will also put to rest the sexist rhetoric of Clinton's opponents and the media, who have called her a "she-devil," "whore," and worse. More »

Barack Obama wasn’t the first in his family to defy convention: His grandmother bucked prejudices in Hawaii against women and whites in the 1960s and '70s, USA Today reports. Madelyn Dunham, now 85, fought to become one of the Bank of Hawaii’s first female vice presidents. “Was she ambitious? She had to be,” said a former colleague. “It was a tough world.” More »

Uber feminist Gloria Steinem downplayed John McCain's experience as a Vietnam POW in a stump speech for Hillary Clinton, and said Americans have behaved since George Washington "as if killing people is a qualification for ruling people," reports the New York Observer . Speaking of McCain's years as a POW, Steinem told a Texas audience: "I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so." More »

Women in their 40s waiting for Mr. Right are "almost like teenagers who believe they're invulnerable to dying in a drunk-driving accident," Lori Gottlieb writes in the Atlantic Monthly . Gottlieb (single, 40ish), thinks women who shun "Mr. Good Enough" believing it's better to be alone are kidding themselves; chuck the idealism and you'll probably be "happier in the long run." More »

Feminists denounced Ted Kennedy today for endorsing Barack Obama, calling it "the ultimate betrayal," the Times Union reports. The National Organization for Women's New York chapter released a statement that Kennedy has "joined the list of progressive white men who can't or won't handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton." More »

The Smurfs have turned 50 and made it to century 21, but some say the lack of girl Smurfs makes it old-fashioned. An upcoming Smurfs movie plans to fix the gender imbalance in Smurf society, Der Speigel reports: "There have been dramatic changes in socio-cultural values in the past 20 to 25 years," said Hendrik Coysman, who heads the company that owns Smurfs rights. "One of these is girl empowerment." More »

Benazir Bhutto wasn't always a staunch defender of women's rights, but for Pakistani women the fight for gender equality is a lot tougher now that she's gone. Bhutto may have jump-started women's health care and job programs, but she missed opportunities to repeal harsh anti-egalitarian laws—failures her defenders chalk up to the demands of political compromise. "She walked the walk," said one. "We just expected her to walk more." More »

It took protesters outside NBC's studios, a letter of complaint signed by Gloria Steinem, and a little pressure from on high, but after 10 days Hardball host Chris Matthews backed down from sexist remarks about Hillary Clinton, the Washington Post reports. He admitted last night that saying Clinton's political career launched because "her husband messed around" was unfair and sounded "nasty." More »

Simone de Beauvoir was born 100 years ago today, and the Independent observes the centenary by asking whether women are still the second sex in the feminist's native France. Her writings influenced multiple generations of women by dismantling assumptions about feminine identity, and new biographies have humanized the once imperious-seeming author who wrote, "One is not born a woman; one becomes one." More »

At-home female entrepreneurs are ditching Mary Kay for Tasers, but they're keeping the pink. Taser International is marketing its user-friendly C2 "personal protector" to the public, and women with an interest in self-defense are holding independent Taser parties in states where the stun gun is legal. "It's a girl power kind of thing," said one woman. Critics, however, aren't so sure. More »

President Cristina Fernandez isn't the only empowered woman in Argentina, the Miami Herald reports: Her female compatriots may not be burning their bras in the streets, but they are at the helm of their own sexual revolution. They're the ones shopping at discreet all-female sex shops and dragging their boyfriends to X-rated dinner shows in chic Buenos Aires neighborhoods. More »

"Stone Age feminism" may have contributed to the Neanderthals' extinction, says a recent study, which uses archaeological evidence to argue that Neanderthal females hunted—and were "stomped, gored, and worse"—alongside males. Pitting the "reproductive core" of a population that never topped 10,000 against giant beasts, reports the Boston Globe , "could bring doom to a hard-pressed species." More »

Hillary Clinton may have taken a beating in the candidate debates this week, but the Wellesley College alum was hailed as a rock star when she returned to the all-women's campus to urge students to "shatter that highest glass ceiling." As students roared in approval, Clinton proclaimed: "We can make history." More »

Acclaimed writer and activist Grace Paley, who in only three collections of short stories gave earthy voice to the interior life of the Bronx Everywoman, died yesterday at age 84 in her Vermont home, the Los Angeles Times reports. Paley—whose sensibility admirer Philip Roth called "splendidly comic and unladylike"—suffered from breast cancer. More »

Slate reviewer Katie Roiphe dresses down the entire emerging "Mommy Lit" genre in her caustic feminist review of the Brit bestseller "Slummy Mummy." Roiphe says she doesn't have a problem with light summer page-turners, but she takes issue with the novel's celebration of frumpy female mediocrity.  More »

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority and mixed evangelism with conservative social criticism, died today after collapsing in his office at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He was 73. A lightning rod for controversy, Falwell once called AIDS "the wrath of a just God against homosexuals" and claimed that God is a Republican. More »

The feminist generation gap gets a sharp appraisal in "The Feminine Mistake," the new book by Leslie Bennetts that questions why so many upscale young women are abandoning careers for children. Joan Walsh finds it a refreshing rebuttal to recent paens to motherhood, especially since Bennetts recognizes that   status seeking is behind at least some of the so-called "opt-out revolution." More »

Salon Editor-in-chief Joan Walsh admits that sexist web trolls are a serious problem, despite her own longtime dismissal of the issue. Her mea culpa follows the implosion of programming instructor and game developer Kathy Sierra's blog after Sierra was assaulted, on her site and others, by crude sexual insults and finally death threats. More »