Battle of the Sexes

A Kansas Catholic high school’s decision to ban a female referee from officiating a boys’ basketball game because of the school’s religious beliefs has state officials investigating the incident and considering banning the school from future competition, the AP reports. Referees said officials from St. Mary’s Academy, near Topeka, refused to let Michelle Campbell work a game Feb. 2. More »

A woman who has long compared men to dogs has a book coming out and a movie in the works, all plugging the notion that men can be trained. But critics fear that What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love and Marriage is another pop psych title that props up gender cliches, and therapists warn that Sutherland's notions are cute but no cure-all. "In small doses, it's a really good idea," one told Newsweek . More »

As people age, their relationships with other people gradually become smoother except in one area—their marriages, a new study has found. Researchers discovered that the longer two people are married, the more likely they are to find each other irritating and demanding. It's completely normal—and could even be a sign of a healthy relationship, LiveScience reports. More »

"Mature" women sitting on gold mines are being paired up with hot young men at a New York matchmaking event next week, Reuters reports. Traditionally, rich middle-aged men nab catwalk-worthy arm candy, but one entrepreneur hopes to tweak the trend. The "sugar mamas" must be at least 36 and make a minimum $500,000 a year—though $4 million in assets also meets requirements. More »

Women in Mexico City will now have the option to ride buses that only allow female travelers after an outcry against groping and ogling by male passengers. The city already offers women-only subway cars during rush hour traffic, but bus travel is far more popular. Several cities around the world have similar services. More »

Men aren't any smarter than women, reveals a new analysis of several studies on IQ, but they think they are. The surprise is that women go along with it. In an interview with Newsweek , researcher Adrian Furnham said both sexes overestimate male intelligence and underestimate female intelligence. "It's what we call the male hubris and female humility effect," Furnham says. 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 »

Iranian women can't travel without a man's permission, but two female racecar drivers are taking matters into their own hands and fighting for equal opportunity on the track. Nervous officials have repeatedly banned Zoreh Vatankhah and her mentor, Laleh Seddigh, from races—and their successes don't often make the front page. But they're not giving up, Der Spiegel reports. More »

The National Women’s Political Caucus will rally outside NBC's Washington studios today in protest of Chris Matthews’ pattern of sexist comments towards Hillary Clinton. The group has also signed a letter to the network from watchdog David Brock, AOL reports, quoting the Hardball anchor’s jibes at length. Last week, Matthews said, “the reason she may be a frontrunner is her husband messed around.” 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 »

The day after a heckler held up a sign reading "Iron My Shirt" at a Hillary Clinton rally, Gloria Steinem got out the big guns in today's New York Times . Asserting that “gender is probably the most restricting force in American life,” she argues that a woman with Barack Obama’s biography wouldn’t have a glimmer of hope in this election. 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 »

Shedding an age-old preference for sons, South Korea has in the last two decades become the first Asian country to reverse a large sex imbalance at birth. A radical shift in Koreans' attitude toward female babies—and toward working women—has brought down the rate of sex-selection abortion, the New York Times reports. More »

Argentina might have its first elected female president—and her nearest rival was also a woman—but the fairer sex is succeeding politically only on the coattails of husbands, and female-friendly policies get nowhere. In a phenomenon the Economist calls “Peronist”—president Juan Peron had two wives who were leaders—Argentina’s top women don’t stand on their own feet, but rather as proxies for their men. More »

Blue-collar women are crazy for Hillary Clinton; so why are the candidate’s college-educated peers less thrilled? The LA Times looks at a demographic that’s cold on the Democratic  frontrunner. Many don’t like her politics, some feel she handled her husband's infidelity poorly, and others just don’t trust her. More »

How to pass the time while your wife’s in labor? Perhaps at the jewelry store. The New York Times profiles the trend of fathers rewarding their babies’ mothers with “push presents,” gifts for enduring pregnancy. Modern women “are likely to want some sort of tangible bonus” for their nine-months’ troubles, and their partners are rushing in with Louis Vuitton diaper bags. More »

For the first time in the 9-year-old contest, high school girls have won both top honors at the Siemens Competition in science. The individual prize of $100,000 went to a Pennsylvania girl whose research into bone growth was deemed to be at graduate student level by the judges. She was proud to help reverse the male domination of math, science and computers, BusinessWeek reports. More »