Women's Rights & Gender Equality Archive

Last month, two South Korean police officers assigned to protect high school students in Busan, the country’s second-largest city, were found to have had sex with several of them. But neither was punished. Instead, they both resigned and were set up to receive full retirement benefits. The former police chief who broke the scandal on Facebook commented, “This is what happens when you dispatch young, good-looking police officers to schools filled with teenage girls.” News of this story broke as South Korea was in an uproar after a young woman was stabbed to death in a bathroom near Seoul’s central […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on the status of women’s rights and gender equality in various countries around the globe. Theresa May became the second-ever female prime minister of the U.K. earlier this month, but a speech she gave in 2013 calling for the Human Rights Act to be scrapped has many wondering how women’s rights might change under her leadership. In an email interview, Andrea den Boer, a senior lecturer at the University of Kent, discusses the state of women’s rights in the U.K. WPR: What is the current status of women’s rights […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on the status of women’s rights and gender equality in various countries around the globe. Women’s groups in Iran recently reported that women were barred from attending a major volleyball tournament featuring the men’s Olympic team. In an email interview, Val Moghadam, a professor of sociology and international affairs at Northeastern University, discusses the state of women’s rights in Iran. WPR: What is the current status of women’s rights and gender equality in Iran, and how has the situation for women evolved since the Islamic Revolution? Val Moghadam: Women’s […]