Europe

The U.K.-based site, Mumsnet, is hosting what could shape up to be the Gladiator of all online political advertising battles: The quest for the mom blogger vote. From Advertising Age magazine:

 "Only one bathroom?" The woman behind me looked ahead, at the half-dozen other passengers waiting for the tiny toilet to be available. I smiled and nodded, raising my eyebrows in a what can you do? kind of way.

The end of the year is for reflection.  I like to take a look back at all the feminism & gender issues I covered for BlogHer.  Since it's hard for me to remember what happened an hour ago, let alone in July or, heaven forbid, January, this is an important exercise for me. It reminds me what feminists accomplished, what still needs to be done, and what I'll can only laugh about or else I'll be curled up in the fetal position whimpering.  This year, I sorted stories by topic. 1sts

For the past four years, the World Economic Forum has studied the gender gap - that is, the amount of resources dedicated to boys and girls and women's opportunities to fully participate in society - in over 100 countries, then ranked them. (In 2009, the Index included data from 134 nations. At least 12 of 14 indicators used for the Index must be available in order for a country to be included.) The goal, according to the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report, is:

Ever since the HPV prevention drug Gardasil hit the market in 2006, I've been very suspicious. The marketing campaign says that it is the "only vaccine for cervical cancer," but what Gardasil actually protects against are some strains of HPV, a sexually transmitted disease that may cause cervical cancer. This is very misleading, not to mention that it is possible to prevent HPV infections through safe sex practices. What also got my dander was how quickly it got pushed on the public.