In an article for On The Issues magazine, Janet Benshoof argues that the U.S. must ratify CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women). CEDAW is an international treaty that "imposes affirmative obligations on governments to dismantle systemic gender discrimination." Benshoof cautions, though, against including restrictions currently attached to CEDAW that would "provide legal authority to those who want to undermine women's rights."

The Richmond-Times Dispatch reports: "Flora M. Trimmer Crater, the founder of the state's first chapter of the National Organization for Women and a leader in Virginia's campaign for equal rights, died today at her daughter's home in Delaware. She was 94....In 1997, the Virginia General Assembly honored Mrs. Crater with a resolution commending her for her lifetime of work empowering women and minorities. Among her efforts was a group called Crater's Raiders that she led in 1972 to lobby Congress to pass the Equal Rights Amendment."

The New York Times' editorial board writes that legal services and access to family planning, "two programs for the poor that are in urgent need of Congressional attention," were ignored in the economic stimulus bill passed by the House. Calling President Obama's removal of the family planning funds "distressing," the editorial argues the ability of these Medicaid-funded services to "reduce the number of abortions by helping an estimated half-million women avoid unplanned pregnancy."

John F. Burns writes in The New York Times, "With the swearing-in of its first female prime minister on Sunday, Iceland became the first country to change its government as a direct result of the global financial crisis." Burns reports that Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, a Social Democrat who has previously served as social affairs minister, "also appears to be the modern world’s first openly gay head of government."

Jason DeParle reports in The New York Times that "18 states cut their welfare rolls last year, and nationally the number of people receiving cash assistance remained at or near the lowest in more than 40 years...[raising] questions about how well a revamped welfare system with great state discretion is responding to growing hardships." DeParle focuses on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, "the main cash welfare program for families with children...which mostly serves single mothers."

Ruth Sunderland of The Observer addresses the lack of women's voices at this year's World Economic Forum at Davos, arguing that "the idea that [shaping the post-crisis world] can be achieved while excluding half the population is breathtaking in its arrogance." She also spotlights the lack of attention being paid "to the devastating effects the banking crisis will have on women and children or to the ways in which a female contribution to economic policy may help the recovery."

In The Guardian, Katha Pollitt argues the necessity of Medicaid-funded family planning, which was stripped from the House's stimulus bill. Pollitt notes that the bill contains funding for other health matters, and contraception is akin to "childhood vaccines and antibiotics" in protecting women's health. Additionally, she writes that "the production, prescribing, buying and selling of birth control is an economic activity--funding more of it means more clinics, more clinic workers, more patients, more customers, more people making the products."

Dr. Peter Klatsky writes in the Huffington Post, "One cannot help but wonder whether congressional Republicans actually want to maintain the current rates of abortion, teen pregnancy, unnecessary public spending, or decreased productivity. Their policy on contraception suggests that they do."

Gail Collins, in an opinion piece for The New York Times, details the accomplishments of Lilly Ledbetter and her predecessors, just as Ledbetter's eponymous Fair Pay Act is signed into law. Collins characterizes Ledbetter as "part of a long line of working women who went to court and changed a little bit of the world in fights that often brought them minimal personal benefit."

Jane P. Riccobono writes for the Cornell Daily Sun about the contemporary marketing of virginity, using the example of Natalie Dylan (a young woman who put her virginity up for auction) as a launching point.

Yasmeen Hassan writes in The Washington Post: "[T]oday the Swat Valley [in Pakistan] is experiencing heartbreaking pressures, as the Taliban strike with disconcerting regularity and, among other atrocities, impose a ban on the education of girls. . . . The area seems to be in competition with Afghanistan over which will establish the worst record on women's rights."

Dennis Hevesi writes for The New York Times upon the passing of Constance Cook, "a former New York State assemblywoman who was co-author of the law that legalized abortion in the state three years before the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade."

Allison Stevens from Women's eNews writes, "When welfare was overhauled in 1996, single mothers lost a safety net that protected them. Rep. Gwen Moore is trying to change that in Congress."

Amy Goodman writes of the need to help Obama by putting pressure on for important issues, "Obama said he was just one person, that he couldn't do it alone. Obama's final answer: 'Make me do it.'"

Debora Spar writes in the Washington Post, "The experience of the past year suggests that we desperately need to bring more women into leadership positions on Wall Street, in politics, in regulatory bodies and in American life generally. As the constant wail from Wall Street should remind us, diversity isn't just nice in theory. It makes for better business."