The United States is one of four countries around the world with no national laws requiring paid parental leave for new mothers.
Russia bars women from a variety of jobs, including freight train conductor and mining rig operator.
And Iran and Qatar are among 18 countries that require a married woman to ask for her husband's permission to go to work.
Those are among the findings of a World Bank study of 173 countries on how domestic laws impede women's ability to work, open a business and participate in public life.

In four years of college, more than one-fourth of undergraduate women at a large group of leading universities said they had been sexually assaulted by force or when they were incapacitated, according to one of the largest studies of its kind, released Monday.
Responding to a survey commissioned by the Association of American Universities, 27.2 percent of female college seniors reported that, since entering college, they had experienced some kind of unwanted sexual contact — anything from touching to rape — carried out by incapacitation, usually due to alcohol or drugs, or by force. Nearly half of those, 13.5 percent, had experienced penetration, attempted penetration or oral sex.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — As exclusive all-male clubs at Harvard go, the Spee Club may have seemed relatively progressive. The 163-year-old organization admitted Catholics at the turn of the 20th century, Jews in the 1930s and blacks in the 1960s.
But women — they were a bridge too far for the Spee and Harvard's eight other elite all-male social clubs. In 1984, when Harvard demanded that they start admitting women, the clubs chose instead to sever all ties with the university and move off-campus.
And so it came as something of a surprise early Friday morning when some female students found formal invitations, replete with cursive typeface and sealed with an ornate "S," to join the Spee slipped under their doors.

Dr. Esserman, 58, is one of the most vocal proponents of the idea that breast cancer screening brings with it overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Her philosophy is controversial, to say the least. For decades, the specter of women dying for lack of intervention has made aggressive treatment a given.
But last month, her approach was given a boost by a long-term study published in the journal JAMA Oncology. The analysis of 20 years of patient data made the case for a less aggressive approach to treating a condition known as ductal carcinoma in situ, or D.C.I.S., for which the current practice is nearly always surgery, and often radiation. The results suggest that the form of treatment may make no difference in outcomes.

Ellen Pao, a tech industry executive who brought an unsuccessful discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, said on Thursday that she would not pursue an appeal.
Ms. Pao, who has been quiet about the case in recent months, broke her silence in a statement and lengthy post published on the website ReCode. She said that she made the decision because her personal resources paled in comparison with the firm's financial clout, adding, "I cannot afford the risk of even more costs to fight against a firm with tremendous financial resources and massive legal and P.R. armies."

From 2007 through 2014, women made up only 30.2 percent of all speaking or named characters in the 100 top-grossing fictional films distributed in the United States, according to a report released in August by the University of Southern California. Only 19.9 percent of female characters were 40 to 64 years old. Only 1.9 percent of the movies were directed by women. And the numbers for minority women are even worse.
The movie industry is "failing women," Manohla Dargis of The Times has said.

These recent complaints reveal a pattern of abuse, including failure to pay in a timely manner or at all, failure to reimburse for mandatory expenses or to adhere to basic requirements under state labor laws, and unlawful deductions from earnings, including penalties for minor infractions such as forgetting pompoms.
According to the complaints, the cheerleaders often worked hundreds of hours for less than minimum wage and without overtime, workers' compensation coverage or lunch breaks. Women reported cheering while injured for fear of being kicked off the squad. Many teams required them to go to approved vendors for out-of-pocket expenses, often amounting to thousands of dollars. Teams mandated specific hairstyles, nails, clothing and makeup, and strictly monitored weight. Minor slip-ups could result in fines.
Meanwhile, teams marketed their cheerleaders at live events and on calendars and other merchandise for profit.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The people of Taiwan appear poised to elect their first female president. Two of the three leading candidates in the January election, including the nominees of both major parties, are women.
Women have led other Asian nations, but they have largely followed in the footsteps of male relatives. Not in this case. Rather, analysts say, the race reflects the fact that Taiwan does a better job of putting women into political office than just about anywhere else in the world.

Rất nhiều người lao động đang lo lắng không đủ tiền sinh sống khi về hưu, chữa bệnh khi về già. Công tư phối hợp được cho là giải pháp hữu hiệu để giúp người lao động có thể an tâm về an sinh hưu trí.
Tại Việt Nam, kết quả khảo sát cho thấy chỉ có 1/5 số người đang lao động hi vọng sẽ có thu nhập từ tài sản tài chính khi nghỉ hưu, và chỉ 10% người được hỏi tin rằng con cái trưởng thành hoặc những thành viên khác trong gia đình là chỗ dựa thu nhập khi nghỉ hưu của họ.

26 năm trời làm công nhân, ngày về hưu nhận được bảng lương hưu mà tôi chết lặng, hai hàng nước mắt cứ thế chảy ra.