Women

Girl Power and the Fragility Trap

Academic economists usually air their new ideas first in working papers. Here, before the work gets dusty, a quick look at transition policy research in progress.

BY PETER PASSELL | JANUARY 20, 2012

Is the Arab Spring Bad for Women?

Overthrowing male dominance could be harder than overthrowing a dictator.

BY ISOBEL COLEMAN | DECEMBER 20, 2011

The Personal Is Political

Saudi Arabia's fabulous female pioneers.

DECEMBER 1, 2011

What Do Saudi Women Want?

It's not as simple as driving, voting, and property.

BY EMAN AL NAFJAN | DECEMBER 2011

Two Plus Two Equals Five

What numbers can we trust? A second look at the death toll from some of the world's worst disasters.

BY PHILIP WALKER | AUGUST 17, 2011

India's Walk of Shame

SlutWalk India was not quite the riotous occasion that it's been in other countries. Too bad, because India's streets could use some equality.

BY SURYA BHATTACHARYA | AUGUST 2, 2011

The Feminine Realpolitik

Breaking down the walls of Micah Zenko's "City of Men."

BY HEATHER HURLBURT | JULY 18, 2011

Where Have All the Girls Gone?

It's true: Western money and advice really did help fuel the explosion of sex selection in Asia.

BY MARA HVISTENDAHL | JUNE 27, 2011

Wheels of Change

How one Saudi woman defied the authorities and took to the street -- by driving her Hummer.

BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER | JUNE 17, 2011

Swimming Upstream

Meet Christine Lagarde, Europe's consensus choice to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn as chief of the IMF.

BY ERIC PAPE | JUNE 1, 2011

Veil of Ignorance

Have we gotten the headscarf all wrong?

BY LEILA AHMED | MAY/JUNE 2011

Iron Ladies

Why women leaders aren't the peaceniks you think.

BY JOSHUA E. KEATING | MAY/JUNE 2011

What Not to Wear

Five countries where the term "fashion police" is meant literally.

BY SUZANNE MERKELSON, JOSHUA E. KEATING | APRIL 11, 2011

What Egyptian Women (and Men) Want

Survey data reveals what Egyptians expect from their new country, on everything from legal rights and education to the role of Islamic law.

BY DALIA MOGAHED | MARCH 10, 2011

When Women's Day Is a Thing of the Past

Talking to the head of U.N. Women about what a true post-feminist world would look like.

INTERVIEW BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | MARCH 8, 2011

The Hidden War

The stories you missed in 2010: AfPak edition.

DECEMBER 21, 2010

Egypt's Pro-Women Election Turns Ugly

When Egypt's government announced its new parliamentary quota for women, it was hailed as a step for gender equality. The reality on the ground? Not so much.

BY SARAH A. TOPOL | NOVEMBER 27, 2010

Womenomics

A brief history of women in the workplace.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | NOVEMBER 2010

Women in Control

While it's true that more than 75 percent of parliaments worldwide are more than three-quarters male, in recent years some high-powered female heads of state have bucked the trend. If Dilma Rousseff is elected as Brazil's first female president, she'll be joining a small, but elite, cohort.

BY SUZANNE MERKELSON, ANDREW SWIFT | OCTOBER 1, 2010

The Vote Comes to Afghanistan’s Peaceful Heartland

At the polls in Bamiyan, the anti-Taliban province that's seeing a resurgence of female participation.

BY E. BENJAMIN SKINNER | SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

What the Waters Washed Away

The rural, conservative refugees from Pakistan’s floods have not only lost their homes, but also their entire way of life.

BY RANIA ABOUZEID | SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

The Not-So-Radical Roots of Miss USA

Rima Fakih is no Hezbollah hottie -- she's the living embodiment of Lebanon's cultural complexity.

BY HANIN GHADDAR | MAY 21, 2010

Veil or Prison?

A look at the burqa that has Europe in a political uproar.

MAY 11, 2010

Betrayed

They said we were there to save Afghanistan’s women. So how come we haven’t?

BY VALERIE M. HUDSON, PATRICIA LEIDL | MAY 10, 2010

Yemen's Child Bride Backlash

After a 13-year-old girl's death, the conservative Islamists are retrenching -- with some bizarre, yet somehow effective, arguments.

BY HALEY SWEETLAND EDWARDS | APRIL 30, 2010

More Nancy Pelosis, Please

Why the world needs more female lawmakers -- and why quota systems won't necessarily get us there.

BY ALEXANDRA STARR | MARCH 24, 2010

The FP Quiz

Are you a globalization junkie? Then test your knowledge of global trends, economics, and politics with 8 questions about how the world works.

MARCH/APRIL 2010

Mexico's Abortion War

The culture clashes aren't just in the United States anymore.

BY ALEXIS OKEOWO | DECEMBER 17, 2009

Sarkozy's Better Half

If the French president has a hope of getting things done at the G-20, it's because of his philosophic finance minister, Christine Lagarde.

BY ANNIE LOWREY | SEPTEMBER 24, 2009