Women And Girls

Harford County Sheriff's deputies are seeking information on the whereabouts of nine missing women and girls, including an Aberdeen resident who disappeared days after four other women were attacked or killed in the area, police said. Jennifer Lynn Blankenship, 25, of the 100 block of Spesutia Road, was last seen June 4, two days after Sheila Ann Turner, 42, was found dead in a field in Perryman. Another woman - Lillian Abramowicz Phelps of Elkton - was found dead two weeks later, and two other women told police they were choked and left for dead in secluded locations, as well.

Violence against women is a global epidemic, threatening the lives and safety of women and girls around the world. Today, one out of every three women worldwide will be physically or sexually abused during her lifetime, with rates reaching 70 percent in some countries. These are horrifying statistics. As chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I recently joined efforts to tackle this egregious problem by co-sponsoring the International Violence Against Women Act. Violence against women ranges from gang rape to domestic violence and from acid burnings to so-called honor killings.

They call themselves the Company of Women. But they're girls at heart.Founded six years ago in Boston, the Company of Women is based on the combined principles of Kristin Linklater, a nationally recognized vocal coach, and Carol Gilligan, a research psychologist whose work focuses on studies of women and girls.The company, which was in residence at Goucher College last month and returns there to perform in September, has a twofold mission: 1) It produces all-female productions of Shakespeare's plays, and 2)

The list of sins against women in the United States is long. We still badly lag our male counterparts in pay. We just about outnumber men in college but are only a fraction of the bosses in business. We just about outnumber men in law school, too. But there are only two women on the Supreme Court. We work outside the home but still handle most of the chores in it. We are in regular danger of having our reproductive rights revoked. Our daughters are muscled out of the way in science classes.

The list of sins against women in the United States is long. We still badly lag our male counterparts in pay. We just about outnumber men in college but are only a fraction of the bosses in business. We just about outnumber men in law school, too. But there are only two women on the Supreme Court. We work outside the home but still handle most of the chores in it. We are in regular danger of having our reproductive rights revoked. Our daughters are muscled out of the way in science classes.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Girls as young as 13 were having sex with U.N. peacekeepers for as little as $1. Five young Haitian women who followed soldiers back to Sri Lanka were forced into brothels or polygamous households. They have been rescued and brought home to warn others of the dangers of foreign liaisons. The young mother of a peacekeeper's child had to send the toddler to live with relatives in the countryside after other children and parents taunted him with the nickname "Little Minustah," the French acronym for the United Nations mission here.

Twenty-five years into the AIDS epidemic and halfway through the initial phase of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, there is increasing international consensus about the need to target women and girls. One area where the U.S. could make a real difference in women's lives has until recently been largely overlooked: integrating HIV/AIDS and reproductive health services. This presents important new opportunities for the U.S. AIDS program to become more effective and sustainable.

V iolence against women is a global epidemic, threatening the lives and safety of women and girls around the world. Today, one out of every three women worldwide will be physically or sexually abused during her lifetime, with rates reaching 70 percent in some countries. These are horrifying statistics. As chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I recently joined efforts to tackle this egregious problem by co-sponsoring the International Violence Against Women Act. Violence against women ranges from gang rape to domestic violence and from acid burnings to so-called honor killings.

A RECENT report on sexual abuse and exploitation of civilian women and girls by United Nations peacekeepers demands quick and unequivocal action by the organization's full assembly. The world body should adopt comprehensive recommendations made in the report, including prosecution of perpetrators by their home countries and on-site courts-martial in the countries where mission members served. The U.N. report verifies a deeply troubling and widespread problem that first came to light last year with allegations of rape and other abuses by peacekeeping personnel in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where some 63 implicated peacekeepers have been expelled and where 106 other cases of abuse, including gang rape, are being investigated.

LOS ANGELES -- At 7 going on 8, Lacy Bird likes baseball and ballet and riding bikes with her best friend, Whitney. School is fun; reading is her best subject.Boys are barely a blip on the radar screen.And Lacy knows just what she wants to be when she grows up."I think about being a doctor and a waitress and a linguist," she says without hesitation.The contradictions in the list don't make a difference to the suburban Simi Valley second-grader. It's what she wants and, for now, she believes she can have it.Hang onto these memories -- life won't always be so sweet, says Emily Hancock, a psychologist whose work at Harvard University led to her book, "The Girl Within" (Fawcett; $10)

WASHINGTON -With a flick of his pen, President Barack Obama finally laid to rest Freud's most famous question and iterated one of man's hardest-won lessons: Women want what women want. And the wise man sayeth: "Yes, dear." Thus, it came to pass that the president created the White House Council on Women and Girls to ensure that all Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies affect women and families. Presumably, men and boys may expect to benefit from what is helpful to women and girls.

Student artwork to be auctioned Saturday The Columbia Association's Teen Advisory Committee invites Howard County students to submit artwork to be sold at a student auction and fundraiser, to be held from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Columbia Art Center, 6100 Foreland Garth, Columbia. Fifty percent of the proceeds will go to the artist; 50 percent to Smile Train, a charity providing free surgery for poor children in developing countries in need of cleft palate or lip repair. The charity also provides training for doctors and other medical professionals.

Integral relocating Integral Systems Inc., a provider of software for command and control systems for satellites, has announced plans to move its corporate headquarters from Lanham in Prince George's County to Columbia next year, bringing more than 200 jobs to the area. The company, founded in 1982, operates at three locations in the United States and one in France. Its new headquarters, under construction, is in Gateway Exchange, a three-building complex being developed by Corporate Office Properties Trust in Columbia Gateway Business Park.

Stephanie Luddy was in middle school when the Spice Girls came to Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia. So many of Luddy's friends went to the show, but money was tight, and she couldn't make it. Not this time around. Now, six years after disbanding, and one greatest hits album later, the Spice Girls are temporarily back together and triumphantly winding down their reunion tour. When they come to the Verizon Center in Washington tonight, Luddy will be there. "It's a little silly, but it's fun," said Luddy, a 23-year-old middle-school math teacher.

County Executive Ken Ulman, Chief Administrative Officer Lonnie Robbins and Budget Director Raymond S. Wacks will attend a budget hearing at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Ellicott City Senior Center, 9401 Frederick Road. The meeting has been scheduled to give residents who might find it difficult to attend the usual nighttime budget hearings an opportunity to discuss their budget priorities and concerns. Sign-up for those wishing to testify will begin at 12:30 p.m., and testimony will be heard on a first-to-sign-up, first-to-speak basis.

Enterprising Women magazine has named Hollis Thomases its Enterprising Woman of the Year in the $1 million to $5 million category. Thomases is president and chief executive officer of WebAdvantage.net, a search marketing and online advertising agency in Havre de Grace. She will be honored at the magazine's tribute to North America's top women entrepreneurs Feb. 28 to March 1 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. She founded WebAdvantage.net in 1998. The company is largely operated by women.

WASHINGTON - The government should encourage women and girls to reduce the amount of meat, whole milk and other fatty foods they eat as a way of protecting themselves and their offspring from dioxins, harmful residues of natural and industrial combustion, an expert panel said yesterday. The Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit health policy advisory body, recommended that the government do more to educate women and girls about limiting consumption of dioxins, which can be passed through the placenta to a fetus or through breast milk to an infant.

The Women's Giving Circle of Howard County will hold an introduction to careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for middle and high school girls from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. today in North Laurel. The event will be held with support from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Math Engineering Science Achievement. Those who attend will have opportunities to meet and talk with professional women in their fields of interest, participate in hands-on STEM activities, and visit displays on careers in aerospace, computer science, electrical engineering, geology, information technology, science education and space mission engineering.