skirt! world: March 8

Good news and bad news

Just wait until skirt! factors in.

Preliminary findings of the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project — containing data from 42 countries but not from North America as of yet — show that only 24 percent of the people interviewed, heard, seen or read about in mainstream broadcast and print news are female.

This is, however, a big change from 1995 when only 17 percent of people in the news were women, the study says.

The greatest change in women’s visibility was in the area of science and health, with 22 percent of news subjects in 2005 increasing to 37 percent in 2010.

Other preliminary findings:
• Only 16 percent of all stories focus specifically on women.
• Women have near parity as opinion givers in news stories, but less than one in five experts interviewed are women.
• Less than 1.5 percent each of media attention is given to areas of coverage with special concerns to women.

The full report is expected in September.

Advances in women’s rights

Women’s rights advanced in 15 of the 18 countries in the Middle East and North Africa over the past five years, according to the democracy watchdog group Freedom House, The Associated Press reported.

The progress in jobs, education and politics, described as modest, overcame continuing resistance from religious and cultural elites, the study said.

Overall, women in the region suffer from greater inequality than women elsewhere, although they now enjoy more economic opportunity, fewer barriers to education and greater participation in the political process than five years ago, AP quoted the report as saying.

Gathering sets record

The southern state of Kerala in India may have hosted the largest gathering of women ever seen at the culmination of a 10-day annual event, BBC News reported.

At least 2 million women and maybe up to 3 million filled the state capital Trivandrum on Feb. 28 to offer a special meal at the Attukal temple to Hindu goddess Bhagavathy, according to BBC News.

Guinness Worlds Records certified the crowd strength was 1.5 million when it was assessed for the first time in 1997. Last year’s turnout was 2.5 million .

UNAIDS to focus on women

The United Nations is launching a global campaign to prevent girls and women from contracting HIV, now the leading cause of death and disease among women between the reproductive ages of 15 and 49, The Associated Press reported.

The U.N. AIDS agency and Scottish singer and AIDS activist Annie Lennox unveiled the five-year action plan.

Michele Sidibe, the executive director of UNAIDS, said the agency’s latest report in December showed the proportion of women infected with HIV has risen in many regions of the world over the past 10 years, AP reported.

Abortion ultrasound bill Nixed

A divided Kentucky House committee has rejected a bill that would require doctors to show pregnant women seeking abortions ultrasound images of their fetuses.

The measure, which has passed the Senate, stalled on a 7-7 vote after the House Health and Welfare Committee heard emotional testimony from people on both sides of the debate.
Heidi Reihing told the panel that she underwent an abortion 13 years ago without seeing an ultrasound image or hearing the heartbeat of the fetus.

“Maybe if I had, I would not have chosen an abortion,” the Lexington woman said.

Mary Jo Davis, representing the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, countered that the bill would make an “already difficult situation for women more onerous.”