Latest Women's rights News

As China censors homegrown feminism, a feminist scholar from Japan is on its bestseller lists

Sep. 29, 2023 00:15 AM EDT

HONG KONG (AP) — In the last few years, China’s government has promoted increasingly conservative social values, encouraging women to focus on raising children. It has cracked down on civil society movements and made laws to drive out foreign influence. So a 75-year-old Japanese...

Thousands of women march in Latin American cities calling for abortion rights

Sep. 28, 2023 22:11 PM EDT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The streets of cities across Latin America were bathed in green Thursday as tens of thousands of women marched to commemorate International Safe Abortion Day. Latin American feminists have spent decades fighting to roll back strict prohibitions, although there...

As mental health worsens among Afghanistan's women, the UN is asked to declare 'gender apartheid'

Sep. 27, 2023 06:06 AM EDT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N.’s most powerful body must support governments seeking to legally declare the intensifying crackdown by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on women and girls “gender apartheid,” the head of the U.N. agency promoting gender equality said Tuesday. Sima...

Japan's Kishida unveils the gist of a new economic package as support for his government dwindles

Sep. 25, 2023 12:11 PM EDT

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday unveiled the gist of his new economic package that focuses on wage increases and measures to soften the impact of rising prices. Support for his Cabinet has dwindled despite the latest reshuffle less than two weeks ago. ...

`10 Days in a Madhouse' opera premieres in Philadelphia, celebrating women's voices

Sep. 22, 2023 13:04 PM EDT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kiera Duffy is disturbed by “10 Days in a Madhouse” as much as an 1887 public was outraged by the squalid surroundings exposed by trailblazing reporter Nellie Bly. “The idea of the hysterical woman trope really does persist today,” the soprano said ahead...

On 50th anniversary of Billie Jean King's 'Battle of the Sexes' win, a push to honor her in Congress

Sep. 20, 2023 15:08 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Billie Jean King's victory in the “Battle of the Sexes” was a milestone moment as women pushed for equality on the playing field and beyond. On the 50th anniversary of that match against Bobby Riggs — still the most-watched in tennis history — King moved...

Abortion-rights group rebrands to Reproductive Freedom for All in post-Roe world

Sep. 20, 2023 14:00 PM EDT

NARAL Pro-Choice America, an influential abortion-rights group, announced Wednesday that it is changing its name to Reproductive Freedom for All. The rebrand was needed to better reflect how people think about abortion access little more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court...

Chelsea Clinton hopes new donations and ideas can help women and girls face increasing challenges

Sep. 19, 2023 23:24 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Clinton Global Initiative added gender equity as a pillar of the nonprofit’s work to sound the alarm about the increasing challenges women and girls currently face, Clinton Foundation Vice Chair Chelsea Clinton told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. ...

Mental health among Afghan women deteriorating across the country, UN report finds

Sep. 19, 2023 10:17 AM EDT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The mental health of Afghan women, who have suffered under harsh measures imposed by the Taliban since taking power two years ago, has deteriorated across the country, according to a joint report from three U.N. agencies released Tuesday. Nearly 70% reported that...

A mayor in South Sudan was caught on video slapping a female street vendor. He has since been sacked

Sep. 19, 2023 09:16 AM EDT

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — A video showing a mayor in South Sudan slapping a female street vendor has gone viral. Now he has been sacked. In the video, Emmanuel Khamis Richard, the acting mayor of the African nation's capital, is seen wielding a pistol and walking up to where a...