Why Don’t Women Rule the World?

Before Hillary Clinton Wore Pantsuits, Hatshepsut Governed Egypt with a Fake Beard and an Iron Fist

This November, nearly 200 women are running for Congress. Most are not going to win, if the past is any guide. Of the 535 representatives and senators currently serving, only 99–18.5 percent–are women. The financial world is even bleaker: Women hold just 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions. Why are there so few women in positions of political or economic power in this modern age?

One way to answer that question is by examining the story of the greatest woman ever to rule in the ancient world: an Egyptian …

by Kara Cooney | November 3, 2014

Why Do We Only Remember Bra-Burning?

Our Memory of the Women’s Liberation Movement Is Jarringly Incomplete

by Jennifer Lee | June 6, 2014

Imagine an America where women had the right to vote but could be rejected for a job because of their gender. Imagine an America where women were refused admission to …

Let’s Talk About Breasts

Reproductive Health Is Also Environmental Health. We Have A Lot Of Catching Up To Do.

by Florence Williams | November 20, 2012

After my daughter was born, I decided, after reading some scientific reports, to get my breast milk tested for industrial chemicals. I’d heard many everyday chemicals used in commerce are …

In Praise Of the Male Biological Clock

No One Likes Nature’s Inflexibility, But Maybe Now Young People Will Push to Have Kids-And A Life

by Brigid Schulte | September 9, 2012

When my husband and I had our first child, our son, I had to look up the strangely ominous label I’d read on my chart: “elderly primigravida.” With visions of …

How Equality Begat Inequality

And Other Ways the 1970s Shaped Our World

by Thomas Borstelmann | December 19, 2011

I grew up in the South, but as part of a carpetbagger family. My Californian parents moved to Jim Crow North Carolina in 1951 for my dad to take a …

Women Rocked the Ancient World—But Ruling It Was Harder

Nefertiti, Cleopatra, and Hatshepsut Commanded Empires and Flipped Gender Roles While Pushing Against the Patriarchy

What The Young People of Egypt Learned

A Close Up Look at Four Young Egyptians Who Were Present at the Revolution

The Bedouin People Who Blur the Boundaries of Egyptian Identity

An Indigenous North African Minority Near the Libyan Border Has Often Been Treated Like Foreigners

Don’t You Dare Speak Ill of Thailand’s King

Even a Facebook Joke About the Monarch, Entering His Eighth Decade of Rule, Could Send You to Prison for Decades

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