Maya Schenwar writes, "Like the rest of the world, the US has been moving forward in terms of women in politics, but it's doing so in spurts and slower than many of its neighbors. Ten years ago, this country ranked 37th in terms of women's political representation. It now sits in 71st place, according to a recent Interparliamentary Union study."

Read more | Electoral Politics

The National Organization for Women PAC is stepping up to the plate yet again in their efforts to elect Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Democratic nominee for President. In addition to phoning female supporters and organizing on-the-ground to galvanize women voters, last month NOW PAC started an Internet ad campaign.

Read more | Press Releases, Issues, NOW PACs, Elections, Campaign

Ellen Goodman writes, "Today women are a mainstay of family income and often the whole income. But an entire agenda of work and family issues is stalled while we're forced to protect -- and sometimes lose -- the gains won 44 years ago."

Read more | Economic Equity

Pfc. Monica Brown earned a Silver Star in March for repeatedly risking her life to shield and treat her wounded comrades, displaying bravery and grit. She is the second woman since World War II to receive the nation's third-highest combat medal. Within a few days of her heroic acts, however, the Army pulled Brown out of the remote camp in Paktika province where she was serving with a cavalry unit -- because, her platoon commander said, Army restrictions on women in combat barred her from such missions.

Read more | Women in the Military

Ann Wright writes of deaths of women soldiers in Iraq and in the United States following rape. "The military has characterized each death of women who were first sexually assaulted as deaths from 'noncombat related injuries,' and then added 'suicide.' Yet, the families of the women whom the military has declared to have committed suicide strongly dispute the findings and are calling for further investigations into the deaths of their daughters."

Read more | Violence Against Women, Women in the Military

Katha Pollitt writes about the Yearning for Zion Ranch and the Catholic Pope and their attitude toward women.

Read more | Issues, Family

Nearly 1 million women in Iraq are widows or divorcees, or their husbands are missing, according to Samira al-Mosawi, a Shiite member of parliament who heads the women's affairs committee. . . . Mosawi said approximately 86,000 widows are receiving about $40 a month from the government. Aid organizations and government agencies are unable to help more widows because of a lack of funds and the challenges of doing social work in volatile neighborhoods.

Read more | Issues, Global Feminism, Peace

Read or listen to a roundtable discussion on the 2008 race with Clinton supporter Kim Gandy, the president of the National Organization for Women; Obama supporter Bill Fletcher, the executive editor of The Black Commentator; and Cynthia McKinney supporter Ted Glick, coordinator of the US Climate Emergency Council.

Read more | NOW in the News, Electoral Politics

Fran Wood interviewed NOW PACs Chair Kim Gandy, who said "There's no question that an enormous amount of sexism has been directed at Hillary in the media. And it's not exclusively Hillary. Nancy Pelosi has been the recipient of some of it, and even Michele Obama. But Hillary has brought out a level of sexism I haven't seen since the'70s."

Read more | Media Activism, NOW in the News, Electoral Politics, Feminism

John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei write in politico.com, "The shower of indignation on Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos over the last few days is the clearest evidence yet that the Clintonites are fundamentally correct in their complaint that she has been flying throughout this campaign into a headwind of media favoritism for Obama."

Read more | Media Activism, Electoral Politics

Kate Zernike writes in the New York Times, "the politics of the last few months have certainly opened a spigot on the question of where exactly society stands on gender matters."

Read more | Electoral Politics, Feminism

Marcia Dyson, Betsy Ebeling, NOW PACs Chair Kim Gandy and Irene Natividad traveled in North Carolina as the second stop on the Clinton Campaign's Women's Day of Action tour.

Read more | NOW in the News, Electoral Politics

Amanda Fortini writes in New York magazine, "Hillary Clinton declared her candidacy, and the sexism in America, long lying dormant, like some feral, tranquilized animal, yawned and revealed itself. Even those of us who didn’t usually concern ourselves with gender-centric matters began to realize that when it comes to women, we are not post-anything."

Read more | Media Activism, Electoral Politics, Feminism

Eric Boehlert of Media Matters writes that Chris Matthews' "openly sexist comments have produced very few condemnations from within the industry and even less soul-searching from the (mostly male) press corps. In fact, in Matthews' case, the sexist outbursts have helped propel his career."

Read more | Media Activism

Sean Wilentz writes, "In his latest round of ad feminam slurs, Senator Barack Obama has denigrated Senator Hillary Clinton and her position on gun regulation by likening her to Annie Oakley. But once again, Obama has shot himself in the foot."

Read more | Electoral Politics