North America - News

Female farmworkers across the United States are commonly sexually harassed and assaulted, in part because their immigration status makes them fearful of calling police, according to a report being released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch. The survey by the international rights group mirrors two previous reports on the risks facing women and girls that had focused on California, where most of the nation's farmworkers reside.

Alaska Natives are lining up in opposition to Lower 48 tribes over the congressional reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

Barbara Gove served as a Marine at Parris Island and Cherry Point in the mid-nineteen-fifties. Decades later, she was interviewed for the University of North Carolina-Greensboro's Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project. “Do you think they were not as tough on the women entering the service?” she was asked. “Oh no, they were tough,” Gove said.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey emerged from a closed-door meeting with U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas and other members of congress to announce measures aimed at improving the military's response to sexual assault.

Opposition to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has some who advocate for victims of domestic abuse scratching their heads.

Military and civilian experts convened at the U.S. Naval War College (NWC) for the inaugural Women, Peace and Security Conference March 29-30, to discuss issues related to the current U.S. National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security.

Over the course of a decade and through the administrations of two presidents of different political parties, the United States has maintained a consistent commitment to support the women of Afghanistan through the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council (USAWC). USAWC is a public-private partnership established by President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2002. Since its creation, representatives of the U.S. and Afghan governments, private sector, academia, and non-governmental organizations have joined hands to develop and carry out initiatives in support of Afghan women and girls. Today the Council is housed at Georgetown University. I have the privilege to co-chair the council with GU's President, John J. DeGioia.

As part of her floor speech pushing to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) on Wednesday, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) told the story of her own history of being sexually assaulted during her childhood and then raped as a young woman. "Violence against women is as American as apple pie," she told colleagues. "I know, not only as a legislator, but from personal experience. Domestic violence has been a thread throughout my personal life, up to and including being a child repeatedly sexually assaulted, up to and including being an adult who's been raped."

On March 14 at the White House, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer and U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby announced a joint initiative to provide $4.65 million in small grants to grassroots organizations to address gender-based violence (GBV) issues.

Whatever role the argument served in defeat of ERA, the military service debate has become moot, if the results of a Rasmussen Poll released Monday are accurate. According to the poll, 54 percent of Americans support placing women in the front lines of combat.