Editorial

EDITORIAL
We're sorry to announce that due to ill-health November's issue is suspended. At the moment it is next to impossible to use the computer. There may also be no issue in December, or a very limited one, but we hope to return at full strength in the new year. Apologies too for the lack of main features in September and October - delayed for the same reasons. Please stick with us, we will be back.
Navigation
A word on navigation. There's a lot here, and a lot to post each month. To help you, the archive is at the top right of the page, just under this editorial. You'll see posts listed by month and topic. If you want to skip straight to Sport, or Arts, you can do so using these links. Otherwise you'll have to scroll down through more than one page to read everything each month. Please note that any queries about content or other matters should be directed to the original publications of linked articles as WHTW? can't be responsible for fact-checking and vetting sources of all of them.
This month's issue
While you are waiting, October's issue is full of fascinating articles. We are asking is child labour wrong? Girls in Bolivia's new child union don't think so (see Women/Work) and are demanding respect from society for their labour (and give us your view in our poll at the foot of the page). In Politics, Denmark has a new woman prime minister and you can read a statement on increasing women's political participation from UN women leaders, and research on peace and gender. In Family and society, there's a list of the best and worst countries for women and an article on the pros and cons of pirate husbands in Somalia. In Arts there's a comment on the furore over pop-star Rihanna's in-your-face raunch. And in Science and technology we celebrate Thai and Kenyan women's scientific achievements. In Health, there's a warning about injectable contraceptives and HIV infection, and a rise in breast cancer in UK Asian women. In Law, a US lawyer is protesting at the treatment of jailed women in childbirth. In the Mind, body and spirit post you can engage in debate over the Pill - or the lack of it - and its transformative effects on society. And, for a giggle, look at the men in pin-up poses in the And another thing section of this blog.
Our special feature this month will be a collection of links on Women in the Arab Spring. Look out for it coming soon!
We hope you will find this blog a useful resource and a provocative and productive place for debate. We look forward to your comments and feedback.
Anna Purna

Friday 7 October 2011

September editorial


Hello and welcome to the first issue of WHTW?. You could call this an experimental issue, firstly to see whether it is something you'll find useful and readable, second in terms of layout, posting schedules and so on, third in terms of its scope and ambition. We hope it will grow. We hope you will get involved. We hope it will become not just a forum and archive for international news and debate on women's issues but a way of seeing how developments - or losses - in one part of the world link to shifts and changes in another. We hope having information on what women are achieving, or having to face, in another part of the world will inspire you to act in your own locality.
You'll notice this looks like serious stuff. On the whole, it is. While we love shoes as much as the next woman, in our view there is a time and a place. So you won't find much about the latest trends in these pages. The same goes for lipstick and wrinkle-fillers, dating advice and baking recipes. It's not that we aren't interested, it's that we think there are better places to read about them and suspect that a focus on these issues in the mainstream media is what leads to a trivialisation of women's concerns. So less of the mascara, more of the predations of the cosmetics industry. Less of the apple pie, more of the economics and politics of motherhood. Think of us as the firm support undergarments of the women's magazine/feminist blog world rather than the lacy fripperies. There. You're warming to us already...
Navigation
A word on navigation. There's a lot here, and a lot to post each month. To help you, the archive is at the top right of the page, just under this editorial. You'll see posts listed by month and topic. If you want to skip straight to Sport, or Arts, you can do so using these links. Otherwise you'll have to scroll down through more than one page to read everything each month.
This month's issue
Each month there'll be one - or possibly more - original articles, rather than just a round-up and summary of links collected from other publications. This month, the main article is on abortion, because abortion has been in the news: in the UK, in the USA, in Poland and elsewhere. Please note that any queries about content or other matters should be directed to the original publications of linked articles as WHTW? can't be responsible for fact-checking and vetting sources of all of them.
We think you'll also be interested in theEgyptian women's charter post-revolution (in Politics), the Rajasthan witch-huntinglink and the moral policing of women's relationships in Kerala in Family and Society, the annual £10,000 pay deficit of UK women managers in Work, the discussion of women in comics in Arts and the list of potential diseases attributable to silicone breast implants in Health, to name just a few.
Finally, you will find a link to a petition for better treatment of women in the criminal justice system in the sidebar. Please consider signing.
We hope you will find this blog a useful resource and a provocative and productive place for debate. We look forward to your comments and feedback.
Anna Purna

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