U.S. Trails the World in Success of Female Leaders

"Corruption, under my administration, will be the major public enemy. We will confront and we will fight it."
-Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female head-of-state to be elected on the continent of Africa

Women come into own in nations around world - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Where trouble and corruption hang in the air, voters increasingly are turning to women to clean up the mess left behind by bad-old-boy networks. The United States trails much of the world in the success of female candidates, ranking behind dozens of countries in the percentage of women elected to parliamentary bodies. That is due in large measure to the fact that about 70 countries now prescribe hard quotas or voluntary goals for women's participation.

U.N. Reports Lack of Data on Women in Poverty - NY Times
Rock stars, movie actresses and heads of state have shined a bright light on global poverty in the past year, often highlighting the particular burden on women, but a report from the United Nations released this week painstakingly details the huge gaps in data needed to understand how poverty - in all its ugly guises - affects women.

States Step Up Fight on Abortion - LA Times
Taking direct aim at Roe vs. Wade, lawmakers from several states are proposing broad restrictions on abortion, with the goal of forcing the U.S. Supreme Court -- once it has a second new justice -- to revisit the landmark ruling issued 33 years ago. The bill under consideration in Indiana would ban all abortions, except when continuing the pregnancy would threaten the woman's life or put her physical health in danger of "substantial permanent impairment." Similar legislation is pending in Ohio, Georgia and Tennessee.

Female execs hard to find in corner office - Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago's 50 largest public companies reported no female CEOs and promoted fewer women to executive posts, according to a 2005 study. It was among the worst showings in eight years of tracking women's progress locally.