Number of Female Prisoners Increasing, Gender Bias at Work

General

Oklahoma No. 1 in female prisoners - UPI
Oklahoma has the highest per capita female prisoner population in the United States at 129 per 100,000 women, double the national average, a report said.

State's Female Prisoners Increasing - KOLO
According to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, Nevada's female inmate population is climbing at a much higher rate than the national average. The number of women behind bars in Nevada soared 16-point-three percent over the year ending June 30th, 2004 compared with the national average of four percent.

Book: Rape victims persistently mistreated - New Kerala
Many U.S. rape victims are mistreated by the police, doctors, lawyers and judges who process them despite 30 years of improvements, a sociologist says.Even well-meaning officials do harm since they put their organization's interests above that of rape victims, says Florida State University's Patricia Martin in her new book "Rape Work: Victims, Gender and Emotions in Organization and Community Context." Martin said mainstream organizations often require people dealing with rape victims to "remain skeptical, emotionally aloof and uninvolved and to challenge victims as witnesses whose stories must be validated rather than comfort them as victims."

UH med school first in gender equity - Pacific Business News
The University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine has the highest percentage of female department chairs of any medical school in the United States, according to a new report.


Reproductive Rights

Groups concerned by grants promoting pregnancy over abortion - KGBT
Some abortion rights groups are complaining that grants are being taken from crisis pregnancy centers that provide medical care and contraception. The complaints come as Texas nears awarding five (M) million dollars in grants to centers that promote childbirth over abortion. The Legislature approved the grants last spring. It implements a statewide program "for women seeking alternatives to abortion focused on pregnancy support services that promote childbirth."

Assembly OKs bill to cover female birth control - Press of Atlantic City
Employers and insurance companies [in New Jersey] would be required to cover the cost of prescription contraceptives, such as birth-control pills, under legislation sent to the governor's desk Monday. Pro-choice advocates called the requirement a matter of fairness, noting that while most insurance plans cover Viagra and other prescriptions used by men, birth control pills are often excluded. "Contraceptives are basic health care for women," said Michele Jaker of Planned Parenthood of New Jersey, during a news conference on the Statehouse steps held before the vote. "It's an issue of basic fairness and equity." The legislation passed the Assembly by a 57-14 vote with five abstentions.

Pro-choice group mounts protest demanding legal abortion - Ireland On-Line
Seventeen young pro-choice activists have mounted a protest outside the Dáil calling for the legalisation of abortion in Ireland. The activists have imprisoned themselves in a cage fashioned from coat-hangers to represent the 17 Irish women they say are forced to travel to Britain for an abortion every day. The protestors are members of a new group calling itself BODY, which is campaigning for another referendum on abortion


In the Workplace

At work, gender bias a major discrimination concern - Kansas City Star
The perception of discrimination dogs the U.S. workplace these days. In a recent Gallup Organization poll, nearly one out of six U.S. employees said they had been discriminated against in the last year. Many complaints (26 percent of the total) involved gender bias.


International

Children suffer most when women imprisoned - Radio Jamaica
The Planning Institute of Jamaica Tuesday launched the first ever study of Women in Prison. The study looked at who these women are, how they got behind prison walls, and what happens to their children while they are incarcerated. The study found that most of the women were incarcerated for drug offences. Many claimed poverty as the primary driving factor behind their crime. The study also pointed out that it was likely that after serving their time, these women return to a life of poverty and perhaps crime. The children fared the worst from their mother's incarceration. Most showed high levels of depression, shame, silent resentment and anger at their mothers.

Women's Rights Treaty Enacted by Fifteen African Nations - Feminist Daily News Wire
Fifteen African countries have ratified the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, affirming that reproductive rights are human rights. The Protocol mandates that women have the right to an abortion when pregnancy results from assault, rape, or incest, as well as when the woman's mental health, physical health, or life is jeopardized, reports Population Action International (PAI). According to the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), this is the first international treaty to assert this right.