As if working mothers don't carry enough guilt with them as they set off for the office every day - imagine how the good hardworking mums of London felt when they saw this poster emblazoned on the side of the capital's famous red buses - 'CAREER WOMEN MAKE BAD MOTHERS' ... Apparently it was designed to promote the effectiveness of billboard advertising. Hmmmm. I bet the ad exec who thought that one up didn't have two little kids at home and a whole lotta bills to...

As far as social networking sites are concerned, I often find myself somewhat of a late-in-the-game participant. I swore I'd never join Twitter, but after some coaxing from friends and a few laughs at celebrity posts, I took the plunge. One of the first people I decided to follow was Yoko Ono, because well, I think she's fascinating. Yoko's daily posts are an injection of positivity and wisdom, stemming from her many years involved in art, the peace movement, and her famous relationship with John...

Anne of Green Gables, Jo in Little Women and Pippi Longstocking - three fictional females who inspired me when I was growing up. In fact, these literary ladies featured on a long list of hearty heroines on my pre-teen bookshelves. Maybe my parents were pro-active in picking positive role models for my sister and I to aspire to, or maybe I grew up in less gender-specific early years reading times, but I was interested to read an article by British writer Viv Groskop where she...

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, our favorite recent pop culture phenom, Lady Gaga, finally admitted to being a feminist, a term which she has rejected in the past. Speaking with music critic Ann Powers, Gaga said, ""I'm getting the sense that you're a little bit of a feminist, like I am, which is good. I find that men get away with saying a lot in this business, and that women get away with saying very little . . . In my opinion,...

  Elizabeth Simbiwa Sogbo-Tortu was disqualified from running for chief in an election in her home country of Sierra Leone, because she is a woman. Not only was she barred from the election solely based on her gender, but as of Monday, she could not return to her home because it had been besieged by members of a Sierra Leone traditional group and her convoy pelted with stones. She has taken refuge in the capital and at the time was being protected by armed police, UN officials,...

Author Barbara J. Berg, Ph.D., who will be speaking at 92Y in Tribeca next month, answers that one with a resounding NOPE.  Her most recent book, in fact, is Sexism in America: Alive, Well, and Ruining Our Future.  Her title lacks subtlety, but so do most calls to action.  That is, Berg's book is very much intended as "a wake-up call," and that's what it's often described as by both professional and amateur reviewers.  According to the author's own introduction, inspiration for the book came...

     How would you feel if you were going for a surgical procedure and had to pay taxes on it? It may just be the case. This issue is stirring up in the media with supporters and protestors alike. The subject with taxes on elective surgeries are included in a provision in the Senate Health Care bill. (You may have heard of this referred to as the "Bo-tax.") So, what's the deal? The bill includes a 5% tax on these elective procedures. A shot of Botox runs...

When the fabulous Guerrilla Girls were asked to create a poster commemorating the 20th anniversary of the disturbing l’École Polytechnique massacre aka Montreal massacre - a gunman entered a university, separated the male and female students, and proceeded to shoot only the women in the name of "fighting feminism" -  they immediately said yes. Their posters, which focus on the injustices women face in the art world and beyond, always manage to teach me something new. This time around, their newest poster focuses on hate-speech...

Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. While breastcancer.org predicts that 40,480 American women are expected to die in 2008 from it, the good news is that death rates have been decreasing since 1990. The organization largely credits earlier detection among the top reasons for the decrease. So it’s understandable why women all over the U.S. are riled up about the new breast exam guidelines released Monday by the...

Here at BUST, we are well aware that there is no feminist dress code. But others aren't so savvy on the idea that following fashion doesn't mean you are disloyal to feminist ideals. Just yesterday a headline from the UK's Independent read 'You can be beautiful and still be a feminist.' As if that is a profound statement! We figured that one out long ago. The article was spurred after Cambridge undergrads stripped down to their skivvies for a student magazine, leading to comments about...