Women World Wide

• The New Paper: This woman's job is to chase prostitutes out – February 1, 2012
  She is one of the first people to be informed when the police will be raiding the hotel that she works in. Janice (not her real name), 32, is a front office manager. As part of the job, she has to assist the police in their anti-vice operations. “I will inform the hotel’s security officers to closely monitor the CCTV cameras and give specific instructions to the housekeepers to be on the alert when they enter the specific rooms suspected of vice-activities,” says Janice, who agreed to speak to The New Paper on Sunday, on the condition that we do not disclose her identity or name the hotel that she works in.
• Gender Across Borders: The exclusion of women tearing Israel apart – February 1, 2012
  In the last few months alone, a handful of controversies have occurred across the country, causing the Haredi to lash out, and the secular population of Israel to protest what they see as a growing mistreatment of women. The Haredi have long held on to their rigid beliefs surrounding women and modesty, and are comfortable challenging anyone who defies these beliefs. Advertisers will no longer put up ads that include women in Haredi neighborhoods after vandals continued to black out women’s faces on posters. Women are routinely segregated to the back of public buses in Haredi neighborhoods, and recently, a female soldier was attacked for refusing to move to the women’s section of a bus.
• Pilgrimage: The case for female National Service – February 1, 2012
  On this 45th anniversary year of the introduction of National Service in Singapore, I propose a change to this national institution. I request for the inclusion of all females into National Service on several grounds. Firstly, I do not ask that women be made to serve National Service primarily in the Armed Forces, Police Force, or Civil Defence Force. My proposal is for women to serve in the two other sectors which are most acutely short of manpower in all developed countries: in Healthcare and in Education. Not all women have to become nurses and teachers, just like not all men become soldiers – those deemed to be qualified and fit may be assigned to teach or nurse after some sort of common basic training, while others may be assigned to different areas in those fields.
• Shin Min: Only 'feminine' women for Ladies' Nights – February 1, 2012
  Reporters spoke to several local nightspots to find out about their practices for “Ladies’ Nights”. Well known nightspot Zouk said that all females, even those who are not feminine, are given free entry on Ladies’ Nights but they must still be properly attired. Another nightspot, Attica, said that women get free entry and free drinks on Ladies’ Nights but bouncers will directed females dressed in an androgynous manner to the men’s queue instead. Attica’s spokesperson said, “Ladies’ Nights are meant to cater to ‘ladies’. Those dressed in a non-feminine manner are allowed entry, but will have to pay the cover charges and they will not get free drinks.”
• Jezebel: Baby girls make dads more interested in equality – February 1, 2012
  There’s a trend among fathers documented by sociologists Emily Shafer and Neil Malhotra. Their article measured the effect of a new baby’s sex on a parent’s gender ideology.  Their findings?  Men’s support for traditional gender roles weakens after they have a daughter; no similar result was documented for new mothers.
• Slate: The problem with polygamy – January 31, 2012
  These are boom times for memoirs about growing up in, marrying into or escaping from polygamous families. Americans are fixated these days on polygamy, and it’s fair to say we don’t know how to feel about it. Polygamy evokes both fascination and revulsion—the former when Chloe Sevigny is involved, and the latter when it is practiced by patently evil men like and Osama Bin Laden and Warren Jeffs, the fundamentalist Mormon leader who had a thing for underage wives. At the same time, the practice of plural marriage is so outside mainstream American culture, so far in the past for many Westerners, that it has come to be regarded as almost quaint. What’s so wrong with it, if it works for some people? In counterculture circles, the practice of polyamory, or open partnerships, is supposed to be having some sort of moment.
• The New Paper: The woman who changed two men's worlds – January 31, 2012
  Sensual is apt, said her colleagues. Not vulgar, but elegant. In fact, refined with the right amount of gentle touching that sizzles. Always immaculately dressed, the femme fatale caught up in the ongoing corruption probe is a real head-turner. A colleague described her: “She was just so refined and charming. She would know how to flirt without teasing too much. “Even when she touched you on the elbow, it was enough for her male colleagues.” Women were envious. She got the hot contracts and appeared to nail them with ease.
• Korea Herald: Ministry strives for women's rights – January 31, 2012
  Korea is largely regarded as one of the worst environments for gender equality, as the nation’s gender wage gap is more than double the OECD average. Other studies show that only 8 percent of women have supervisory responsibilities here, and only one female university graduate is employed per every four male graduates. A little less than 5 percent of the nation’s corporate executives are women. “Korean women in their early 30s usually see a halt in their careers because of marriage and child-rearing, and when these people try and enter the workforce again, they cannot find contracted full-time jobs and settle for low wages or freelance work.” This is an issue that the OECD continues to indicate, repeatedly calling on Korea to improve working conditions for women with families. This is why such issues are among the Gender Ministry’s priorities.
• Asia Sentinel: A porn star goes to Bollywood – January 31, 2012
  Leone’s toned body and attitude have catapulted her to a spot at the top of India’s most-searched Internet celebrity list. The problem is that if she indeed attains stardom, she would be doing something that is almost unheard of, not only in Bollywood but in Hollywood as well, except by a handful of fringe crossovers. She earns her living as an adult pornography star, which is illegal despite India’s thriving and throbbing underground porn industry. For all of their verve, Bollywood movies remain relatively chaste – the industry has become famous for “air kisses” – lips rarely touch, let alone genitals.
• New York Times: Birth control and reproductive rights – January 31, 2012
  It was good news that the Obama administration withstood pressure from Roman Catholic bishops and social conservatives to deny contraceptive coverage for millions of American women who work for religiously affiliated employers. Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services secretary, rejected broad exemptions from a new rule requiring all health plans to cover birth control, without a deductible or co-payment. The administration’s commitment to affordable birth control is welcome at a moment when women’s access to reproductive health care is under assault in the courts, state legislatures and Congress, as well as on the Republican campaign trail.
• Telegraph: Obedient Wives Club investigated for sex campaign – January 30, 2012
  Malaysia’s Obedient Wives Club are to be investigated over whether they violated religious laws with a morality campaign that describes the Prophet Mohammed as a role model for “sacred sex”. The group is planning private talks for hundreds of its members in the campaign centred around the prophet, who is thought to have married about a dozen women in his lifetime, including widows in need of protection. The campaign, which is scheduled to run for nearly two weeks, bears a title that calls the prophet a “role model for sacred sex” and urges members to follow his example and avoid sexual sins.
• New York Times: More online media use means less happiness for girls? – January 30, 2012
  Researchers suggest that girls “need to experience the full pantheon of communication that comes from face-to-face contact, such as learning to read body language, and subtle facial and verbal cues.” The more media use of any kind, the less time for real-world interaction — and face-to-face contact was strongly associated with feeling good about social connections. Boiled down to its simplest result, this survey reveals that the more time 8- to 12-year-old girls say they spend online, the less happy they say they are— and that is surely not what those girls wanted or expected when they begged for custody of mom’s old laptop.
• China Post: Taiwan's baby gender bias at 16-year low – January 30, 2012
  Chiu Shu-ti, director-general of the BHP under the Department of Health, said yesterday that the childbirth ratio of boys to girls dropped to 1.079 last year. The figure places Taiwan at No. 12 in the world in terms of baby gender bias, down from the 3rd spot registered in 2003. Following increased public education and changes in people’s thinking, the ratio for the families’ third babies born also fell to its lowest level in 18 years with 1.134 boys born versus girls.
• AsiaOne: Woman in centre of CPIB probe leads double life – January 30, 2012
  More details have emerged regarding the woman involved with two top civil servants. According to a Straits Times (ST) report on Saturday, the woman, who was not named, seemingly led a double life. Friends and associates were shocked to learn that she had allegedly slept with both men, ex-director of Central Narcotics Bureau Ng Boon Gay, 45 and ex-chief of Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Peter Lim Sin Pang, 51. It was hard to believe as the married woman just had a child about a year ago, the report said. It put her age at 36.
• My Paper: SPP's Lina Chiam mum on new CEC make-up – January 30, 2012
  Mrs Lina Chiam has opted to keep mum on who will be filling the shoes of the six Singapore People’s Party (SPP) central executive-committee (CEC) members who quit the party last Saturday. Mrs Chiam, 62, second vice-chairman of the CEC, would say only that “the remaining members” of the committee have been re-elected. How many members were re-elected as well as their names will be revealed at a later date, she added.

 
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