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The article discusses the issue of declining birth rates in France and China and the government's attempts to address this problem. French President Emmanuel Macron has called for "demographic rearmament" and proposed measures such as more support for infertile couples and revising parental leave. However, the article questions whether these measures will be effective in encouraging women to have more children, as raising a child involves significant physical, emotional, and financial sacrifices. In China, the one-child policy has led to a population imbalance and a reluctance among young women to prioritize marriage and motherhood. The article suggests that instead of using punitive measures, governments should consider offering substantial incentives to make having children more attractive. [Extracted from the article]

Several article are presented about #MeToo, a social movement and awareness campaign that was launched in October 2017 to denounce sexual assault and harassment in the U.S., in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against film producer and executive Harvey Weinstein. Issues discussed include addressing the rights of working women in the country, how to improve condition of women in the workplace, and the need to provide basic understanding about the meaning of masculinity and manhood.

When Donald Trump was elected, Uncle Harry predicted that the next four years would be awful but there would be only two things that couldn't be undone even if the Democrats won in 2020: the destruction Trump would wreak on the environment and the justices he would put on the Supreme Court. Trump's three Supreme Court appointments (Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett) are so far to the right that Chief Justice John Roberts is now a centrist. Uncle Harry didn't mention the lower courts, but let's not forget that Trump has nominated and the Senate has confirmed 218 federal judges to lifetime appointments; that's a quarter of the federal judge total. [Extracted from the article]

The author reveals her concerns about the present political climate in the U.S. in regard to abortion rights. She expresses disappointment over how only women's rights to contraception and abortion are debatable, postponable and side-trackable. She also criticizes Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez for issuing a statement declaring abortion rights as non-negotiable. In addition, the author explains why she believes running an anti-choice candidate might pick up few Republican votes.

The article looks at the commitment of Democrats to defending abortion rights in 2017. It highlights the views some Democratic politicians on abortion, including Nebraska state legislator Heath Mello, Tom Perez, head of the Democratic National Committee, and presidential nominee Bernie Sanders. The importance of women's rights to the Democratic Party is also discussed.

The article focuses on government policy on abortion and constitution in the U.S. Topics discussed are challenges of feminist group to implement equal pay, more women in politics, and stronger action against domestic violence and rape; relation between women's rights and personal ethics on the fate of fertilized eggs, embryo, and human fetus; and effect of restricted abortion laws on women's autonomy.

The article discusses the author's views about the inclusive aspects of feminism in America as of 2017, and it mentions the fight for women's rights in relation to U.S. President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and pop-culture leaders such as singer Beyoncé. The concept of liberal feminism, which deals with female empowerment, is examined in relation to its impact on low- and middle-income American women and working mothers.

The article discusses the 2016 campaign of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, with a particular focus on his rhetoric on women's rights and gender issues. Topics, including Sanders' perspective on U.S. government policy towards parental leave, equal pay for men and women, race, minimum wage and inequality, are discussed.

The article discusses global economic, social, and ecological problems in relation to Catholic Pope Francis' views about women's rights, reproductive health, and a female's ability to control her own fertility. Pope Francis' "Laudato Si'" encyclical paper, which addresses issues such as capitalism and climate change, is examined. The potential impacts of climate change on poor women are assessed, along with the Pope's views on abortion and the efforts to protect human embryos.

The author presents a reaction to the death of Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz, which comments on his social, political and religious views, as well as the way he is commemorated in the West. Topics include a comparison of modern Saudi Arabia and medieval European kingdoms; the number of terrorists responsible for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. who were Saudi; and Saudi Arabia's stance as a theocracy against women's rights.

The author discusses the response she received from a previous article in which she posed nine questions to pro-life activists in the U.S. in 2014. Topics include the impact of criminalizing abortion on abortion rates, access to birth control in the U.S., and reproductive choice for women in the U.S. in 2014.

The article looks at women's rights and the social conditions of women. The author offers a retrospective look at the year 2013, discussing several events that reflect on the position of women. Items discussed include the filibuster of a restrictive abortion law carried out by Texas State Senator Wendy Davis, the creation of the Everyday Sexism website and hashtag in Great Britain to raise awareness of misogyny, and the selection of Janet Yellen as head of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board.

The article presents an adaptation of atheist Katha Pollitt's June 2013 acceptance speech for receiving the American Humanist Association (AHA) Feminist Caucus's 2013 Humanist Heroine award, in which she discusses feminists including women in Afghanistan, abortion providers, and women's rights.

The article discusses the effect of liberalism ideals towards women in the U.S. It states that since 1970 women protested for social and cultural change as legalization of abortion, creating a childcare centers and equal opportunity for all. It mentions that liberal institutions, magazines, websites, among others are controlled by men and plenty of liberals are uneasy with the implications of women's emancipation from old structure of norms. It also notes that equal opportunity is not a vital theme in every liberal discourse, citing that the limited progress of feminism is replicated within liberalism.

Presents letters to the editor in response to articles in previous issues of "The Nation." Response to "Subject to Debate," on Harvard president Lawrence Summer's controversial statements about women, in the Feb. 21, 2005 issue; Reaction to "Post-Roe Postcard," on the deterioration of women's rights and the trend towards recriminalizing abortion, in the Feb. 7 issue; Letter regarding "Passings," noting Seymour Melman's death, in the Jan. 24 issue; More letters.

Presents letters to the editor commenting on articles that appeared in previous issues of the magazine. Letters in response to Katha Pollitt's column, "Kristof to the Rescue?", in the March 1, 2004 issue, and a reply by Pollitt; Letter in response to David Cole's "Spying on the Guild," in the March 1 issue; Letter commenting on the suffering of U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq, and their families; Letter commenting on Jennifer Baumgardner's "We're Not Sorry, Charlie," in the February 1 issue, and a reply by Baumgardner.

The author discusses Ross Douthat, Catholic columnist for the "New York Times" newspaper, and his views on womens' reproductive rights and family planning. Topics include the reasons for the decrease in U.S.-born women having children between 2007 and 2011, the changing demography within the U.S., and family stability.

The author discusses women's rights and reproductive issues raised during the 2012 U.S. presidential election, and describes the policy differences between President Barack Obama and candidate Mitt Romney. Topics such as equal pay, abortion, and contraception are discussed, as well as legislation such as the Lilly Ledbetter Act. The author argues that Romney could appoint conservative Supreme Court Justices to overturn abortion rights case Roe v. Wade.

In this article the author discusses SlutWalks, grassroots demonstrations by women in various cities throughout the world protesting sexual violence by participating in collective walks. She argues that these walks are a sign that young feminists are engaging in women's rights activism and criticizes the idea that sexual violence, especially rape, is the fault of the women victims. She also explores the origins of the word "slut."

The article presents an interview with Wajeha al-Huwaider, a Saudi woman known for her efforts to instill women's rights, human rights, and democracy to the area. Topics discussed include the social freedoms of women in Morocco, Saudi Arabia's laws which prevent women from driving automobiles, and gender-egalitarian interpretations of the Koran.

The article discusses the actions and beliefs of young feminists. Topics discussed in the article include the way in which young feminists disown feminists who have come before them, the author's opinions regarding the way in which political and body image issues are treated by young feminists and comparisons between young feminists and the feminists that were active in the 1920s.

The article focuses on abortion and health care reform in the U.S. The author states that pro-choice advocates chose to compromise on health care reform legislation. Article topics include women's rights, with particular attention given to the U.S. maternal mortality rate, the need for the U.S. to pass the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) from the United Nations, and the need for full funding of the U.S. Violence Against Women Act.

In this article the author comments on the rights of women in the Muslim world. The central focus of the article is the portion of a speech given by U.S. president Barack Obama in which he addressed that issue. Also discussed are the protests in Iran in which women play a prominent role, and efforts on the part of Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France, to ban the Muslim head scarf.

In this article the author comments on generational conflict in the American feminist movement. She rejects the notion that activism for women's rights in the United States can be defined in terms of successive generational waves each more divorced from the prominent figures in the early movement such as Gloria Steinem and Adrienne Rich.

The author discusses the fact that U.S. feminists have not decided whether they trust U.S. President-elect Barack Obama or not, despite his progressive positions on reproductive rights, pay equity, and domestic violence. The author suggests that Obama make gender equality a major goal of his administration, and use the U.S. economic stimulus plan as an opportunity to address gender inequality.

The article discusses a backlash against women's rights which has occurred in the U.S. The controversy regarding the decision by Washington University giving an honorary degree to political activist Phyllis Schlafly is discussed. Schlafly's beliefs regarding women are mentioned. Legal decisions which hinder the rights of women in the U.S. are discussed, including an Oklahoma law requiring women to view a sonogram of their fetus before having an abortion.

The article presents the author's views on the arrest in Texas of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and of the visit to the U.S. of Pope Benedict XVI. She sees both churches, the FLDS and the Roman Catholic Church, as abusive of women's reproductive and civil rights.

The article discusses the policy of Harvard University to open one of its gymnasiums as having women-only hours during some of the week at the request of some Muslim women. The author believes that this issue would not be controversial had it come at the request of nonreligious women. The poor women's rights record of Muslim countries is discussed and connected to Harvard's policy.

This article presents the author's critique of "The Death of Feminism," by Phyllis Chesler and an article by Christina Hoff Sommers and their assertion that American feminists should play a greater role in advocating gender freedom for Muslim women. She refutes this by mentioning the case of Mukhtar Mai and the work of Rafia Zakaria.

The author offers opinions on the state of women's rights in Iraq. The case of Doaa Khalil Aswad, a Kurdish teenager stoned to death for converting to Islam, is cited. Statistics, quotes from Iraqi women, and other court cases are used to compile a picture of violent oppression of women. The author gives contract information for an organization working to help Iraqi women in danger.

The article discusses the feminist movement in light of one of its founders, "The Feminine Mystique" author, Betty Friedan. Feminists have done harm to their cause by emphasizing choice over justice. Also explored is the inability of 21st century American students to understand the culture that Friedan criticized.

Focuses on the influence of Islam on the draft constitution in Iraq. Use of Islam as a basic source of legislation in Iraq; Discussion of a clause in the draft constitution that says Iraqis are equal before the law without discrimination because of sex, religion, ethnicity and so on; Question of what will happen when Islam conflicts with democracy or human rights; Discussion of whether the draft constitution upholds women's rights and freedom of religion.

Critiques the role of the U.S. in the Beijing Plus 10 conference, a United Nations summit on women and development. View that the assertion of conservative social values by the U.S. hinders the work of the conference; Impact of the consensus document produced by the Beijing conference on women's rights and status; Reflections on the life of the author's father, Basil Riddiford Pollitt, upon his death.

Presents a list of organizations that liberals should donate money to. Description of the Canadian Harambee Education Society that helps send Kenyan and Tanzanian girls to high school; Role of the organization Equality Now, which helps fight against the abuses of women's rights around the world; Discussion of the role of the Afghan Women's Fund in helping women in Afghanistan; Description of the Freedom From Religion Foundation; Suggestion that people donate to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty; Report that Code Pink, a feminist peace organization, is collecting medical and other supplies for the victims of the Iraq War; Report that the National Advocates for Pregnant Women supports the rights of poor women to respectful healthcare and social services.

The article looks at the influence of the religious right on the policies of United States President George W. Bush. How long did it take Republicans to write their thank-you note to the Christian right? On November 21, 2004, Congress passed a $388 billion spending bill that permits any health provider to refuse to be involved in abortion, up to and including informing a woman where to get one. Coming up soon: the Child Custody Protection Act, which would make it illegal for anyone but a parent or guardian to take an underage girl across state lines for an abortion, thus making parental notification and consent laws impossible to get around. Measures like these make abortion harder to get. If you have been racking your brains for an activist project, here is one that could make a real difference as Bush swoops us into the wild blue fundamentalist yonder: Get involved with your local abortion fund. Abortion funds help low-income women obtain a crucial medical service, but they also help clinics fulfill their mission of egalitarian feminist healthcare.

The author argues that poor and drug-addicted pregnant women should be supported, not charged with crimes, if they fail to produce healthy babies. The good news is that Utah has dropped murder charges against Melissa Rowland, who rejected her doctors' advice to undergo an immediate Caesarean section and gave birth to a stillborn boy and a girl who tested positive for cocaine. The bad news is that she has accepted a plea to two counts of child endangerment for using drugs during pregnancy and faces a possible five-year sentence. [T]his is what we've come to in America: failure to produce a live, healthy, non-drug-exposed baby can land you in prison. Stillbirth is a tragedy. Drug use during pregnancy is a terrible idea. But should they be crimes as well? Rowland lacked everything a pregnant woman should have: support, security, understanding, respect. Pregnant drug users don't get much sympathy from the public, but the specter of women forced under the knife against their will, compelled by law to risk their lives and health despite their own judgment, is one many women can relate to. As Lynn Paltrow of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) points out, doctors are often wrong about the need for C-sections. The point at issue in the murder charge remained whether pregnant women are people or vessels: Can they decide what is done to their bodies, what risks to take, or not?

The author considers how the Democratic Party can cultivate single women voters. Single women under 65--those separated, widowed, divorced or never married--represent at least 24 percent of the voting-age population and a whopping 46 percent of voting-age women. According to an influential study by the Democratic pollsters Stan Greenberg and Celinda Lake, they tend to be progressive and to lean Democratic. Indeed, if the nation's 45 million single women voted at the same rate as married women--52 percent versus 68 percent--there would be 6 million more voters in the electorate, and Gore would be in the White House today. Party leaders like Ann Lewis, national chair of the DNC's Women's Vote Center, want the Democratic Party to cultivate single women and connect them with the polling booth; Page Gardner and Christina Desser have founded "Women's Voices. Women Vote" (www.wvwv.org), to reach out and register them. It's about time! [S]ingle women are a natural constituency for the Democratic Party: They tend to be pro-choice, anti-gun, socially liberal and supporters of "big government." But there are problems with the single-women idea. For one, this is not a coherent demographic. Then, too, single women are disproportionately young, mobile, struggling and/or very, very poor--all categories that are less likely to register, vote or want to vote. The trouble with going after single women, those fans of progressive change, is that one has to offer them something progressive. Pay equity, for example, comes in at the top of polls of women's concerns.

The author reports that, amid gloomy news for women in 2003, there were some positive events and achievements worth celebrating. Her list includes: 1. Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize. 2. Hormone replacement therapy was further debunked. Instead of protecting you from Alzheimer's, it doubles your risk. 3. Antiwar activism got a feminist edge. The Lysistrata Project saw 1,029 productions of Aristophanes' hilarious, bawdy comedy performed all over the world on March 3. 4. Barbara Ransby's moving and invaluable Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision illuminated a behind-the-scenes heroine of the civil rights struggle. 5. A Department of Education commission rejected energetic efforts to water down Title IX, the main legal vehicle promoting equality for women's athletics in schools. 6. Some movies had leading female characters who were not wives, girlfriends, prostitutes or assassins. 7. One in four people in Ireland saw The Magdalene Sisters, the movie that exposed the lifelong virtual consignment to hard labor in convent laundries of Irish girls. 8. Afghan women set the gold standard for courage with major conferences in Kandahar and Kabul to push for women's rights in the new constitution. 9. In Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws criminalizing gay sex. 10. Amina Lawal, condemned to death by stoning by a Nigerian Sharia court for having sex out of wedlock, was set free on appeal.

Lisa Belkin's confused, myopic New York Times Magazine cover story, "The Opt-Out Revolution," is the latest version of that journalistic evergreen, "The Death of Feminism," in which privileged white women quit their high-powered jobs to find "balance" and "sanity" raising their kids, volunteering and hanging out at Starbucks. Belkin's thesis is that "women" are turning away from demanding careers because they realize that there's more to life than work-work-work. But none of the caveats seem to matter as she states her central conclusion: "Why don't women run the world? Maybe it's because they don't want to." As Joan Walsh points out in her witty riposte in Salon, Belkin hedges her argument with the sorts of qualifiers editors tend to insist on: Yes there's discrimination, yes Princeton isn't Everycollege, yes black women (they get a whole parenthesis to themselves) are working more, not less.Do Belkin's subjects represent a trend? There has indeed been a small decline in the percentage of married mothers who work. When the job market sours, people with options tend to leave the work force because their conditions of employment deteriorate and they can't advance or get a better job-while others simply give up on finding work. The best thing these women could do for themselves would be to organize a new, muscular, inclusive women's movement that would fight for a fairer deal for working mothers in their jobs, at home and in government policy.

The author considers the conflict between religious fanaticism and secular modernity over the issue of interpreting the rights of women. Christian fundamentalists are no different from Islamic fundamentalists. The author illustrates this by citing two instances, including the disruption of a beauty pageant in Kaduna, Nigeria by militant Muslims in the name religious integrity.

The article discusses the role of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in the hesitation of U.S. President George W. Bush to sign the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty ratified by 169 nations. The religious right opposes CEDAW since the treaty would supposedly license abortion, promote homosexuality and teenage sex as well as destroy the family. CEDAW has been used by women in various countries to improve their legal status and access to education and healthcare.

The article discusses about the role of U.S. for the Afghan women's right post-Taliban rule. The down-to-earth and nonthreatening U.S. First Lady Laura Bush spoke so eloquently in support of Afghan women's rights the author actually found himself not wanting to believe the Democratic Party accusation that this was a cynical attempt to appeal to women and narrow the eleven-point gender gap that bedeviled U.S. President George W. Bush in the 2000 election, not that a shortage of votes turned out to matter, but that's another story. Afghan women are swinging into action, with a major conference planned for early December in Brussels, Belgium, to insist on equality and political power in their post-Taliban nation.

In this article, the author discusses the issue of women's participation in the practical politics in the U.S. and associated factors. Yet apart from the issue of abortion, women seem curiously invisible this election season. Women are apparently unpersuaded that they earn 71 cents on the male dollar because, as the Independent Women's Forum insists, they choose low-paid jobs in order to have lots of time and energy for childcare and housecleaning. Violence against women has gone unmentioned, as opposed to media violence and smut, a major theme and supposed woman-pleaser, ditto insurance coverage for contraception, high-quality daycare, the near-impossibility of collecting court-ordered child support from an ex-husband who does not want to pay it and dozens of other problems facing real-life women.

The article focuses on women's rights with particular reference to sexual rights. The Supreme Court of India ruled in January 1999 that sexual harassment violates women's rights and need not involve actual touching. It is a particularly interesting verdict, given that sexual harassment, along with legal abortion, is often seen as the obsession of a handful of U.S. feminists. Recently two countries, Poland and El Salvador, made abortion harder to get. El Salvador, indeed, is now one of the only countries to enact in law the official position of the Catholic Church and the platform of the U.S. Republican Party both of which reject abortion even to save the mother's life.

Scandal and steam and spin are the lens through which Americans in the collective wisdom have decided to view life's great questions, of which relations between men and women are certainly five or six. The one side points out that the military has always been a hotbed of sex, consensual and, as Americans are now learning from the mass trials of drill sergeants at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, otherwise. The other side tries, semi-futilely, to argue that the issue isn't really sex but disobedience and lack of gravitas, and furthermore, what is the world coming to when loose women, or maybe women, period have access to nuclear weapons? What's missing from the whole debate is any hint of resistance to the routine militarization of society her story reveals. Back when the women's movement was connected to the peace movement, feminists used to vigorously attack both the military budget and the authoritarian and violence-based military culture.

The article presents information on the Republican primary voters, whom conventional wisdom depicts as pro-life Christian gunnuts personally escorted to the polling booth. They don't care all that much about abortion, don't want government to impose traditional values; and don't much like the presidential candidate on offer--they like Colin Powell. There's a certain tragic aspect to the current fundamentalist surge. Nuttiness aside-banning fairy tales, creationism, its basic aim is to restore the institutions of a more prosperous and authoritarian era: stable marriages, parental control, women in the kitchen, gays in the closet, safe neighborhoods, bland culture, civic piety.

Women's voices are so rarely heard in the U.S. national forums of debate, public affairs talk shows, Op-Ed pages, political magazines, newspaper columns. The answer, one part "passive but institutionalized discrimination on the part of editors and producers," two parts women's "deeply conditioned, internal inhibitions" against self-assertion and conflict, would have rung truer if the proportions had been reversed. The journal "The New Republic" receives, from two to five times as many unsolicited manuscripts from men as from women, but surely what counts is not the slush pile, very little of which is usable, but assignments. Most of those editors are men.