Hardy Girls, Healthy Women

I just received the newsletter from Hardy Girls, Healthy Women based in Maine, USA.   It includes Girls Rock Award Winners 2011,  news of a Girls Rock weekend (April 8-10 2011), details of local (Maine) events, and some interesting links to explore.

Suffering of women in Haiti

From the Amnesty International blog today:

In 2008 Amnesty produced a report highlighting that sexual violence against women and girls in Haiti is particularly rife and that the government should pay greater attention to stopping these abuses. With the quake shattering Haiti’s already fragile infrastructure, the risk of sexual violence being carried out with impunity may well increase.

The post ends:

The situation for women and girls is often forgotten about in times of disasters and crises and yet it's these people who are often the hardest hit. The international community cannot simply keep tacitly accepting this. Let's hope that for this crisis, the rights of women and girls are central to Haiti’s reconstruction and development efforts.

Many links in the original post worth following for background and opinion. We should not be picking on Haiti at the country's lowest point, of course, but this is an issue that is bigger than any one country. When a people suffer, their women suffer most.

Dora going 'tween'

A Pink Stinks blog entry about how young girls are manipulated for marketing purposes, in particular objecting to the way Dora is being made to grow up into a 'tween'. Dora is a cartoon character who so far has presented some kind of active role model for little girls.

Comments are interesting too.

There is a petition you can sign here

Pink continues to stink

Some good articles and links on the Pink Stinks blog. Certainly empowering girls!

Pink stinks

I picked this web address up in the NUT magazine. Add to the links.

Pressure on Teenage Girls

Pressure to grow up too quickly, to own iPods and other items, and then exams. All examined in a Guardian article this morning.