While circumstances may vary by region and culture, street harassment affects women's ability to exist in public all around the world. Several groups - including JAGORI’s Safe Delhi in India, Bangalore's Blank Noise Project, the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights, and the London Anti-Street Harassment Campaign – combat the problem locally and raise awareness that street harassment does not happen in a vacuum.

A few years ago, Holly Kearl wrote her Master’s thesis about street harassment. Conducting independent research, she realized very little had been published about gender-based harassment in public space and concluded that legal remedies might provide relief for women bombarded with lewd comments and unsolicited suggestive glances. Kearl founded the Stop Street Harassment website and blog. By the middle of 2009, she had conducted several independent studies with hundreds of women and had enough material for a book.

Last winter film director Lisa Cholodenko came to Berlin to present The Kids Are All Right at the International Film Festival. Dressed in black with short dark hair and thick-framed glasses Cholodenko is an outgoing and witty person, who occasionally swears. She has a winning sense of humor, which is reflected in the new movie. Her films portray the clash between conservative and creative milieus, places she knows first-hand. Though The Kids Are All Right has not done well outside of the large cities and art house theaters, the topic is “timely” and significant.

On July 15, 2010 a civil rights milestone was set - Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage. Not so long ago, in fact until 1983, homosexuals were persecuted. Homosexuals in Argentina now have the same rights as heterosexuals, including the right to adoption, inheritance, pension, and social security. This is a sign of evolution in a nation in which a Macho-driven culture unfortunately still prevails.

Gender-based violence occurs in many forms and can be physical, sexual, or cultural. It is in the home in the form of domestic violence. It is rampant in conflict situations where women are violated and exploited as weapons of war. In the sex trade, women are bought, sold, and abused as cheap, expendable goods. And in some cultures, women are mutilated, forced into child marriages, and denied access to basic rights such as healthcare and education.

On Thursday, August 5 The WIP community had the unique opportunity to participate in a live internet chat with CARE, a leading humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO) that is working to pass the International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) - a landmark piece of bi-partisan U.S. legislation.

John Kerry (D-MA), a lead sponsor of the Senate bill, recently commented, “[I-VAWA] builds on the [Obama] Administration’s focus on women as peace-makers, change-agents, and a crucial investment in the future.”

In 1971 the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women's Equality Day” to commemorate the passage of the 19th Amendment and to call attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality. The following opinion, co-authored by WIP Contributor Linda Tarr-Whelan and Jacki Zehner, was originally published August 25 by Bloomberg. – Ed.

Today marks Women’s Equality Day, the commemoration of women’s suffrage achieved in 1920. What better time to take stock of what’s left to do?

We need a national conversation led by the White House to explore how women decision-makers can help achieve better economic performance and a more prosperous future for all.

The administration of Barack Obama has already taken the first step by appointing talented women -- including Mary Schapiro, who holds the top job at the Securities and Exchange Commission; Elizabeth Warren, who chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel; and Sheila Bair, who heads the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. -- to help dig us out of the financial mess.

Having a few females at the top is wonderful, but until we have at least 30 percent of senior women in leadership, we will be ignoring a strong dynamic that is working well elsewhere.

The monsoon floods in Pakistan have killed thousands and affected an estimated twenty million people across several provinces. According to development organizations working in the country, the humanitarian crisis is yet another blow for Pakistan's rural women. With increasing effects of climate change, the longer-term situation can only get worse.

• A helicopter flies over a bridge destroyed by flood waters, Aug. 11, in the Swat Valley, Pakistan. Photo by U.S. Army Sgt. Monica K. Smith used under Creative Commons licenses •

It's been weeks since I left Haiti, but the fractured images of the ruined city replay themselves like a battered flipbook.

• Mango sellers in Haiti. Photograph by Hands On volunteer Nathan Gray. •

In 2009, the Toronto Star published a series of investigative reports on the widespread abuse and exploitation of Filipina live-in caregivers. The newspaper repeatedly pegged migrant women as victims: victims of ungodly employers; victims of provincial labor law inequalities; and, perhaps most importantly, victims of oppressive Canadian immigration policy, specifically the Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP).

The Live-In Caregiver Program is a visa-entry program that recruits women to enter Canada as live-in caregivers, maids, and nannies for affluent Canadian families. Canadian families hire foreign-born women to care for their children, do their laundry, and prepare their meals. At the same time, foreign-born women from economically impoverished countries, such as the Philippines, have a chance—after living in the employers’ houses for a minimum of 24 months within a 36-month period— to acquire highly coveted Canadian citizenship.

The Live-In Caregiver Program is a far cry from a win-win situation. Activists, journalists and scholars have shown time and time again how the Live-In Caregiver Program reproduces inequalities along the intersecting axes of gender, race, and class.

I was the only woman who worked on a ropes course during the summer I spent employed at a girls’ camp in Pennsylvania. Officially, my job was to strap kids into climbing harnesses and belay them as they ventured to the top of walls, fake boulders, and the a 60-foot “adventure pyramid.” Unofficially, my job was to encourage and coax the many girls who were scared to climb high.

During Parents’ Weekend, one eight-year-old, who made it to the peak of the adventure pyramid, was scared to slide off the top—a necessary move for me to belay her back down to the ground. While I could have had someone simply climb up after her, I spent half an hour encouraging the girl to let go. A crowd of parents and girls formed, their necks craned backwards to look up at the little girl stranded at the top. She trembled. She whined. And, finally, when she did slide off – to enormous cheering – she hit the ground with both feet and held her hands in the air in triumph.

“Nice coaching,” said one of the fathers.

Israeli director Yael Hersonski examines the lost footage in her 89 minute directorial debut, A Film Unfinished. Interweaving footage with diary entries by Ghetto inhabitants, an account of filming by a German cameraman, and reflections by Warsaw Ghetto survivors now viewing the footage, Hersonski brings a new perspective to the authenticity of Nazi propaganda films. Scenes were staged to create a life of happiness and abundance that concealed the suffering of the Ghetto’s 440,000 residents. Imagined encounters include a staged dinner party with guests who were, in reality, on the verge of starvation. The perversity of the Third Reich’s obsessive documentation of human suffering, intensified by the revelation of cinematic manipulation, stays with you long after leaving the theater.

Being Nigerian and having many relatives still living there, I keep abreast of political and economic events. Nigeria is blessed with many natural resources and brilliant, hardworking citizens, but corruption over decades is draining her resources.

This oil rich, corruption challenged country lacks both basic amenities and economic opportunities for the masses. Most businesses are laced with bribery and greed, sending citizens seeking greener pastures into self imposed exile in the West. So a Nigerian attempting to eradicate corruption is notable.

I learned of Nuhu Ribadu because his anti-corruption activities - not sparing rich and politically powerful people - make him a Nigerian media fixture. Trained as a lawyer he spent 18 years as a police officer fighting corruption. From 2003-2007, as Executive Chairman of the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he investigated financial crimes and led anti-corruption public sector reforms. In 2007, at the height of his success, he left Nigeria for safety reasons.

One of my favorite mothering “manuals” is a book called “So That’s What They’re For: Breastfeeding Basics.” I was raised in a culture that prefers to see a baby with a bottle over a baby at the breast, where women who breastfeed in public are sometimes labeled “lactivists,” and where the boob is rated R for sexual content rather than E for every baby. So when I was pregnant with my first child, this book, with its semi-corny title, introduced me to an area of my body that was biologically mine but whose function was shrouded in mystery – or, under a blanket.

I decided to breastfeed my baby because my mother breastfed my two sisters and me. But without the 275 pages of information and encouragement in “So That’s What They’re For,” and the help of the midwives at the “Baby Friendly” Cambridge Birth Center, where my first son was born, initiating and sticking with nursing would have been a lot more difficult. Over 20,000 hospitals worldwide have earned a “Baby Friendly” designation because of their supportive breastfeeding policies. Only 94 of them are in the U.S.A.

High in the north Indian state of Kashmir sits Ladakh, held by many as the last bastion of Himalayan Buddhism. Since Tibet is out of bounds for most tourists, Ladakh now attracts travelers and spiritual seekers who come for glimpses of a traditional Buddhist way of life; even seasoned travelers go so far as to describe it as the last Shangri La.

• Buddhists in Ladakh are often seen spinning a prayer wheel, a practice believed to bring wisdom and good karma or merit. All photographs © Charukesi Ramadurai. •

It is true that Kashmir is a war-torn region, however, the turmoil does not touch Ladakh, a good 280 miles from the capital city of Srinagar. Nor are there any foreign invaders intent upon destroying Buddhism to establish their own faith.

Today, the (perceived) threat to Ladakhi Buddhism is from a different kind of invasion - globalization - brought by travelers and their notions of modernity that invariably spread along with them. And with this comes concerns about the erosion of a faith and way of life that is centuries old.

Eleven-year-old Carmen Suze quarreled with a classmate and ended up in jail. Barely audible, she explains that her friend had lifted her skirt and had been the first to throw a rock. The plastic butterfly hairclips holding her braids together make her look even younger. Suze says that she did not realize how badly she had hit her back. Her father had offered the girl’s parents some money to take her to a hospital, but they did not. Her classmate died eight days later.

Suze is the youngest of 58 minors currently incarcerated in Port-au-Prince’s penitentiaries - held next to adult inmates, with no trial, and in degrading conditions.

Danielle Johnson, The WIP’s Community Outreach & Development Coordinator, is currently working in Alabama as a Bird Rehabilitation Technician for the International Bird Rescue Research Center. –Ed.

During my time with wildlife rehabilitation in Louisiana and Alabama, I have come in contact with many species of birds - pelicans, herons, loons, and gulls. Some birds came in oiled, some had been caught in the booms, some exposed to dispersants, and others captured for unknown health issues. I have had the opportunity to assist in every step of bird rehabilitation - intake evaluations, washing with Dawn detergent, feeding, siphoning dirty pools, administering medication, drawing blood, releasing into the wild, and euthanasia.

It was explained on my first day that it is better to euthanize a bird not healthy enough to tolerate treatment than to release it, knowing it could suffer and die in the wild. The process of capture and rehabilitation is stressful on the already weakened birds. This “mercy” was a comforting way to cope with euthanasia. It worked for a while. I was aware of the various birds that were put down for open lesions on their carpals, hawk pox, gunshot wounds, and the intestinal deterioration caused when birds ingest oil.

I admire boldness. So Katrina Rodabaugh’s The Dresses / Objects Project, a multi-disciplinary installation combining a dizzying array of artistic forms appealed to me. Through poetry, dance, fashion, photography and letterpress, Rodabaugh embraces a broad swath of disciplines and takes on a wide range of ideas. She uses women’s clothing to explore gender and femininity, the line between art and what is generally considered women’s crafts, and how context affects the way we view things.

Rodabaugh’s The Dresses / Objects Project was inspired by Gertrude Stein’s book of experimental poetry, Tender Buttons, published in 1914. Rodabaugh, a poet and an artist, loves the way Stein played with language, focusing on the sound of the words. She finds poems like A Petticoat modern and moving almost 100 years later:

A light white, a disgrace, an ink spot, a rosy charm.