Updated July 20, 2009
What were the hot-button topics in women's issues in 2008? Here's a round-up of some the top stories making headlines along with others you may have missed:
Women and Politics
Hillary ran and lost. Sarah ran and lost. But we all won with those 18 million cracks on that now-fragile glass ceiling:
- Hillary Clinton in 2008 - A Groundbreaking Year in Review
- Impact of Sexism on Hillary Clinton's 2008 Campaign
- Michelle Obama, First African American First Lady
- Sarah Palin, First Republican Female Candidate for Vice President
- Negative Media Coverage of Sarah Palin
- Did the Women's Vote Really Matter in the 2008 Election?
- Thanks to 2008 Elections, Record Number of Women in Congress in 2009
- More Power to Women - 2008 Marks All-Time High for Female Legislators in US
Is it the Juno Effect, or the biological clock ticking way too fast? From the high school student next door to a GOP candidate's daughter, everybody's doing it...and nobody's blinking:
- Juno, Teen Pregnancy, and Choice
- Controversial Number of Pregnancies at Gloucester High School Has Everyone Asking Why?
- NBC Reality Show Built Around Teenage Pregnancy
- Republicans Announce Sarah Palin's Teenage Daughter Bristol is Pregnant
- Teen Pregnancy Almost Commonplace in Media/Pop Culture
Lilly Ledbetter didn't quite get her day in (the Supreme) Court and turned to Congress for redress. No go. Likewise, another case on maternity leave and pension benefits isn't looking good for working women who were pregnant before 1979:
- Why the Senate Vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is Important to Women
- Supreme Court Hears Maternity & Pension Gender Bias Case - AT&T Corp. v. Hulteen
- Equal Pay Day 2008 Illustrates How Much Less Women Earn
What's more important - a woman's ability to access appropriate healthcare, reproductive information, and contraception...or the personal belief system of a healthcare worker who would deny that access? This is the basis of a proposal that's being pushed through in the final days of the Bush Administration:
- New DHHS Proposal Seeks to Mislabel 'Contraception' As 'Abortion'
- Bush Administration's "Right of Conscience" Rule Seeks to Limit Reproductive Healthcare
From random abductions to girls(and moms) engaging in mean-girl behavior, these actions led to unfathomable abuse and needless, untimely death:
- Florida Mom Denise Lee Kidnapped and Calls 911, But Dies When Call is Bungled By Operator
- Alleged Army Cover-Up of Pfc. LaVena Johnson's Brutal Murder, a Death Labeled 'Suicide'
- Florida Teens Attack Girl, Tape Abuse For Girl-Beating Video on YouTube
- MySpace Mom Lori Drew Poses as Teen Online, Drives Girl To Suicide
Stand by your man, or strike out on your own? Two political spouses dealt with their cheating spouses in two different ways:
- The Eliot Spitzer Scandal & Why Judging Silda Wall Spitzer is Wrong
- The John Edwards Scandal
- Elizabeth Edwards and What Might Have Been
Are we really that different? Yes in the small ways and perhaps more so in the bigger ones. But that doesn't mean we can't do the same work with equal competence:
- Voters Want Female Candidates to Be Attractive - and Male Candidates? Not So Much
- Men 'Rest,' Women Run Off Topic - Business Meetings and Gender Differences
- Study Finds Husbands Help Out More at Home, Though Certain Tasks Remain Gender-Specific
- Gender Differences in Voter Turnout
- Cosmo UK Study Finds Men Think Sex, Women Think S-H-O-P
- Women and Men Spent Their 2008 Tax Stimulus Checks Differently