As Kamala Harris becomes the first woman elected U.S. vice-president, a global study reported Nov 9 at Thomson Reuters Foundation finds only an average 52% of people across the G7 group of major developed countries are okay with women in positions of leadership.
... 46% of men and 59% of women — would feel "very comfortable" with a woman as head of their government.
While that did mark a six-point rise from 2019, research company Kantar said its Reykjavik Index for Leadership showed no change in attitudes when people were asked if men and women were equally suited to leadership roles in politics and business.
"We've made enormous progress (since the 1950s) but right now nothing is telling us that we are in an era of change. It could be the opposite," [Michelle Harrison, CEO of Kantar's public division and the index's co-founder, said] warning that the pandemic could push women into more traditional roles.
The researchers were ... surprised to find that younger people were more prejudiced than older generations about women in high-profile roles, with the biggest differences in Britain, Germany and France….
This Week In The War On Women welcomes all who are interested to comment in the discussion, bring relevant links and stories, join in order to reblog diaries on women’s issues, and consider writing for the Saturday schedule — see schedule comment in the thread.
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Our diaries are a team effort — particular thanks this week to Angmar, Tara the Antisocial Social Worker, SandraLLAP, and elenacarlena.
📌 26 women’s-news sources are HERE. (Please comment to link us to yet more.) 📌Our Saturday posting history - HERE. 📌 Trailblazing Women and Events in Our History (wow2) - HERE. 📌 Everything blogged&reblogged to our group - here.📌
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<big>MORE ON WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP <big><big>👩🏽💼</big></big></big>
<small>AP via Indian Country Today:</small> Nov. 13 — <big>Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer notified Canadian company, Enbridge, of legal action to shut down oil Pipeline 5 running below the Straits of Mackinac that links Lake Huron & Lake Michican. MI Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit Friday to carry out Whitmer’s decision.</big> The revocation of Enbridge’s pipeline easement within 180 days, is due to “violation of the public trust doctrine” and “a longstanding, persistent pattern of noncompliance with easement conditions and the standard of due care.” Line 5 is part of a network sending about 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids daily from western Canada, traversing parts of northern Michigan and Wisconsin, to refineries in the U.S. and Ontario.
...“We are thrilled and thankful for Governor Whitmer's decision to revoke the easement for Enbridge’s pipeline...” [Bay Mills/Ojibwe Indian Community President Bryan Newland] said in a statement. “Enbridge has consistently shown that it only cares about its profits and not about the communities of the Great Lakes. This is a monumental first step in rectifying the harm that the company has already inflicted upon Bay Mills and other tribal nations for decades.”
... [The]
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians Chairperson Aaron Payment said Friday's announcement was a day to celebrate [and that]
women often lead the fight …
“Our tribal ogitchidaakwe (warrior women) have been persistent voices for stopping the oil before a disaster strikes, especially those on our tribal board of directors – both those currently seated and those who previously served… it is particularly satisfying that the women leading the state of Michigan have taken this responsibility seriously and taken this action today.”
This follows Minnesota Thursday granting “a stack of important permits and approvals” for Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline replacement there that environmental and tribal groups have been fighting for years, on grounds of it threatening pristine waters where Native Americans harvest wild rice, and because Line 3’s Canadian tar sands oil aggravate climate change.
...In a joint statement, Honor the Earth, MN 350 and Sierra Club North Star Chapter, in a joint statement, said the fight to stop the pipeline will continue.
“The science is clear that Line 3 would threaten Minnesota’s clean water and set back our state’s progress on climate at a time when we can least afford it. Granting Enbridge the permits to build this tar sands pipeline through our state defies the science and defies the law. This decision is completely out of step with the Walz administration’s stated goals of protecting our environment and tackling the climate crisis,” Sierra Club North Star Chapter Director Margaret Levin said in a statement.
Geneva, November 5 — UNHuman Rights Office of the High Commissioner - UN Committee urges Saudis to release women’s rights activitists:
The worsening health of Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain Al-Hathloul, who has been on hunger strike since 26 October to protest against her prolonged detention, is deeply alarming, the UN women’s rights committee said today. The Committee called for the immediate release of Al-Hathloul and all other women human rights defenders in detention."
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Ahead of International Women Human Rights Defenders Day on 29 November, the Committee appealed to His Majesty King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to use his royal prerogative powers to ensure the release [of these women].
The Committee also paid tribute to all other women human rights defenders around the world who face reprisals because of their work to defend women’s human rights and advocate for gender equality and non-discrimination.
Medscape — New research finds that during the past 10 years at annual meetings of the ASBrS (American Society of Breast Surgeons), women surgeons are the numerical leadership in committees, speakerships, and scientific presentations. The study’s senior author Sharon Lum, MD, of Loma Linda University School of Medicine, California, called it a glass ceiling shattered, because this majority is contrary to all other surgical specialties and most other medical specialties, too.
WOMEN’S LIFE
NBC News/world — A step in the right direction from the UAE to boost their economic and social standing in time for hosting the pandemic-postponed World Expo, a high-stakes event expected to attract 25 million visitors for business and pleasure:
The United United Arab Emirates announced [last] Saturday a major overhaul of the country's Islamic personal laws, allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate, loosening alcohol restrictions and criminalizing ... "honor [crimes and] killings."
...[With expatriates outnumbering] citizens nearly nine to one, the amendments will also permit foreigners to avoid Islamic Shariah courts on issues like marriage, divorce and inheritance...
...“In a move to better ‘protect women's rights,’ the government said it also decided to get rid of laws defending ... a widely criticized custom in which a male relative may evade prosecution for assaulting [or killing] a woman seen as dishonoring her family...”
Reuters Fndn - Gender pay gap narrows only marginally in Europe
...A woman doing the same job as a man is still getting 14.1% less money for it, a small improvement on the 14.5% last year….
Terrific photo at that article, by the way.
BBC - Leeds, England — Youngsters solicited for sex near managed red light district. <big><big><big><big>🇬🇧</big></big></big></big>
...Dubbed Britain's first legal red light zone [begun 2014], the "managed approach" to street sex work in Holbeck [a run-down former industrial inner city area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England] … has allowed street sex workers to operate freely without fear of arrest between the hours of 20:00 and 06:00…
Many students ... have to walk through [it] to get to school... a daily occurrence to see sex workers, used condoms and discarded needles lying around...
...One girl said she was asked [by a man if she was "open for business] ... “I was 13 and wearing my school uniform ... I've been asked by sex workers if I was one of them...”
... another girl described … being followed and grabbed by a man [saying ‘I like you] ...
...head teacher ... worried pupils could be harmed. … Leeds council urged anyone with concerns to get in touch… Local residents have held protests in the past, claiming the area was plagued by anti-social behaviour… An independent review in July 2020 found the community should have more of a say on how it was run, relying less on police. …
From AP: latest on legal action by Project South and the Government Accountability Project against the ICE Detention Center in Ocilla, Irwin County, Georgia, run by Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections (a private-prison family business) where the Congressional Hispanic Caucus recently toured —<big>US deports migrant women who alleged abuse by Georgia doctor</big>
The Trump administration is trying to deport several women who allege [medical abuse] by a Georgia gynecologist at [the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia] according to their lawyers.
[ICE] has already deported six...
...While people who have been deported might still be able to serve as witnesses in a criminal or civil case, many end up in unstable countries or situations where it becomes difficult to maintain contact with them. The deportations are occurring in the last weeks of President Donald Trump’s administration following his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden.
“ICE is destroying the evidence needed for this investigation,” said Elora Mukherjee, a Columbia University law professor who is working with several of the women….
Meteor Blades — Joe Biden expected to roll back abortion restrictions early in his administration
<big>🕊️</big>
Nat'l Catholic Reporter — Poland's abortion protests about more than one issue
Polish women are making it clear: They've had enough. Their protests against the Law and Justice government and against the Catholic Church continue to gain momentum… These demonstrations were the largest in Poland since the collapse of its communist government in 1989...
The movement's logo, designed by Warsaw feminist Ola Jasionowska, is a red lightning bolt that's meant as a warning against depriving women of their basic human rights...
WOMEN IN THE PANDEMIC
Reuters Fndn —“About 220 registered nurses and more than 2,000 healthcare workers have died in the United States from COVID-19, with 90% of nurses globally women.— Gloria Estefan pitches in on a star-studded event to help Nurse Heroes hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, with • Billy Crystal • Oprah Winfrey • Black Eyed Peas • Andrea Bocelli • Céline Dion • Gloria Estefan • Emily Estefan • David Foster • Katharine McPhee Foster • Josh Groban • Carole King • Maluma • Leslie Odom Jr. • Pitbull • Allen Stone • The Wailers • Stevie Wonder • Taylor Swift donating her autographed ‘Folklore’ guitar for the auction to benefit of the Nurse Heroes Foundation and more...”
Reuters via Medscape — Pfizer’s COVID19 vaccine comes from a partnership with German biotech firm BioNTech, itself founded by a remarkable partnership:
Özlem Türeci and her husband Uğur Şahin are both of them physicians, professors, businesspeople, parents, and dedicated, high-achieving immunologists. “On the day they married, they returned to their lab after the ceremony.”[9] They’re also the children of Turkish immigrants. And among the top 100 richest individuals in Germany. Anti-intellectuals, anti-immigrationists, and anti-egalitarians — take note.
BioNTech & Pfizer were the first drugmakers to release successful trial data, showing the vaccine over 90% effective, and protective for a year, a major victory in the fight against the pandemic. BioNTech is planning to price the two-shot regimen below "typical market rates" and would differentiate pricing between countries or regions. More about their vaccine here. — Medscape is free, readers just have to register.
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<big>Mary Hasbah Roessel, MD in MDEdge on COVID19 RAVAGING THE NAVAJO NATION. </big> Dr Roessel is a Navajo board-certified psychiatrist practicing in Santa Fe, N.M., working with the local indigenous population. She has special expertise in cultural psychiatry; her childhood was spent growing up in the Navajo Nation with her grandfather, who was a Navajo medicine man. Her psychiatric practice focuses on integrating indigenous knowledge and principles. Dr. Roessel is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Also at her link: Addressing suicidality amng Indigenous Women and Girls.)
Community oncologist Barbara L. McAneny, MD, writes from Gallup, New Mexico, about the devastating impact of COVID-19 and the battle to continue serving Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and neighboring cancer patients. “When there's a failure, it's always the poor people, the brown people, the Black people who feel the brunt of it.”
<small>Reuters via Medscape:</small> Female indigenous volunteers & allies bring lifeline supplies to northwest elders and families of the Navajo Nation.
“This is what we're here for, as young people, to be able to sacrifice ourselves, sacrifice our well-being, so that more people don't get sick," said Kim Smith, 36, who drives the group's blue Dodge Ram pickup truck and runs the relief operation from a farm in Hogback, New Mexico.
Medscape — pregnant women who contract the coronavirus are more likely to develop a severe form of the disease, deliver prematurely, and/or die, according to new studies released last week from the CDC. The overall risk remains low, yet higher than for some other groups. "Pregnant women should be counseled about the risk for severe COVID-19-associated illness including death," the CDC COVID-19 Response Pregnancy and Infant Linked Outcomes Team wrote in a summary. [This is yet more evidence that pregnancy can and does threaten women’s lives. — ed.]