In a 60 Minutes special on American soccer star Christian Pulisic,it was mentioned that the US has never won a World Cup. Twitter was quick to correct this possible error. The US Women’s National Team won the World Cup three times. Was the statement accurate? Did the WNT win the World Cup, or the Women’s World Cup? And if the latter is true, what’s the difference? Sports Illustrated soccer writer Grant Wahl responded to that twitter outrage by tweeting, “Think it’s time that we print folks start calling the tournaments ‘men’s World Cup’ and ‘women’s World Cup’.”
Public libraries may seem like low-key places today, but back then they were perceived as being fraught with danger. Libraries had traditionally been private male spaces, and when they first opened to women, critics wondered whether it was decent for women to openly traverse stacks and climb stairs, accessing potentially immoral books and running into strangers along the way. “Of particular concern were ‘library loafers,’ unredeemable working-class men whose loitering thwarted the noble purposes of the public library,” writes van Slyck. These supposed loafers were thought to frequent the library to read betting notices in newspapers, and to leer at women.
Obstetric violence is institutional, gender-based violence, suffered by pregnant women at the hands of healthcare personnel. In a 2007 law, Venezuela said it includes dehumanised treatment, abuse of medication, and “the appropriation of the body and reproductive processes of women by health personnel… bringing with it loss of autonomy and the ability to decide freely about their bodies and sexuality.” In 2014, the World Health Organisation described disrespectful and abusive care during childbirth – including physical and verbal abuse, refusals of care and medication, and coercive or unconsented medical procedures – as human rights violations.
For men and women to make progress towards understanding each other better, we need to also acknowledge that false stereotypes, assumptions and reactions exist on both sides of the ‘gender divide’, even while it is true that power is not distributed equally in our society, and oppression of some kinds is experienced more directly by women than by men.

The GDP is sexist

John C. Havens / Quartz
“The GDP is sexist because it adopts a framework of value creation and productivity that is traditionally anchored on individualistic, male-dominated activities,” says Lorenzo Fioramonti, professor of political economy at the University of Pretoria and author of The World After GDP. “It relegates all activities that have to do with care, nurturing, and community support—[which are] traditionally performed by women—to the margins of economic value creation.”
"It's not about genders anymore, it's about delivery," she says, adding that while some view her as a trailblazer or simply a percussionist, others still don't know what to make of her. "So it's pretty mixed up, but I could say it's more comfortable now because I feel like once you've proved to the world that you are just a human being doing an amazing job, people tend to accept you better."
As women’s surfing continues to push the boundaries in the water, and the sports world at large gets dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, it’s worth reminding ourselves that unlike some other sports (London 2012 was the first time women competed in all sports at the olympics), surfing has a long a proud history of female stand-outs, dating as far back as the ancient Hawaiians.
In the U.S., many women see workplace discrimination as a major issue blocking them from promotions. Silicon Valley has been roiled by revelations of mistreatment of women at companies such as Uber and smaller startups, and of predatory behavior by tech investors. All of that might make a figure from America’s tech industry seem problematic as a hero for Chinese working women. Yet women in China say they face more prosaic hurdles, such as fulfilling family obligations. That can be challenging: 46 percent of women surveyed in China equate success with getting married or having a family, according to Lean In China. The survey also found that while the majority of women in China believe that child care should be shared equally by both parents — a position Sandberg took in her book — 63 percent of married women say they do more than their husbands, which they say takes away time they could be spending on their careers.
"The PM said removal of the restriction of having a male guardian or ‘mahram’ may appear as a “small thing”, but such issues “have a far reaching impact on our image as a society”. “Why this discrimination? And when I went into the depth of the matter I was surprised to find that even after 70 years of our independence, we were the ones who had imposed these restrictions. For decades, injustice was being rendered to Muslim women but there was no discussion on it,” he said in his broadcast.
For centuries, women around the world have been fighting for gender equity. This year brought about an abundance of change. Recent revelations of sexual harassment and allegations of assault by men in all different sectors, from movie producers to senators, have transformed global outrage into action. Around the world, from Europe and North America to the Middle East and Central America, this year has brought historic changes to the lives of women and girls as countries abolish laws which previously marginalized, discriminated, and silenced women.
Exactly 20 years after Ellen DeGeneres risked everything by having her sitcom character come out as a lesbian, queer women are more visible and nuanced on TV now than ever before. Since there are too many examples for me to go through individually — which, to be clear, is an awesome problem to have — I’ve picked four storylines I saw and loved on television this year that aced their depictions of women coming out. Crucially, all these characters were shaped by queer women writers and actors who have lived — and continue to live — these stories. With any luck, they will in turn inspire more creators to treat queer women characters as three-dimensional people rather than objects of curiosity.