Chris Shelton is Professor of Exercise and Sport Studies at Smith College.  She’s also a representative for the Americas for the International Working Group on Women and Sport.

Chris says that today more girls than ever are interested in a whole range of sports.  Whether you go to the barrios in Mexico where girls are playing soccer or the outskirts of Bogota’, where women are rock climbing, women and girls are playing sports at record numbers.

But, she says, in many developing countries there are still many barriers that keep girls and women from being physically active.  And that needs to change because when it comes to young girls, sports have so many benefits.

To hear the entire interview click on: www.chicagopublicradio.org

UPDATE:

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles prosecutors have met with a British actress who claims she was sexually abused by director Roman Polanski when she was 16 in Paris.

Forty-two-year-old Charlotte Lewis, speaking at a news conference Friday in Los Angeles, says Polanski abused her in 1982, four years before she appeared in Polanski’s “Pirates” film.

District attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons acknowledges Lewis met with a prosecutor handling Polanski’s 33-year-old sex case involving another girl. Gibbons would not comment further.

As Steven Zeitchik reported for the LA Times yesterday, there is another petition currently circulating around Cannes this year to free Roman Polanski. The petitioners are asking the Swiss government to refuse an extradition request from California. A few days ago, a California judge denied Polanski’s request to unseal testimony in…

Two wonderfully successful professional women.   One never married/no children.  One married for only a few years; never remarried/no children.

Doesn’t this suggest that we are still in a world in which it is far, far too hard to demonstrate your competence and rack up the sorts of accomplishments that lead to a Supreme Court nomination if

(1) you have a loving, supportive husband who just might ask, “Honey, is it really necessary to spend the third week-end in a row in the office working on that…

Two decades ago, Afghanistan’s air force was in full operation against the Soviets. Today, that air force is being rebuilt for a new war, with some of the same helicopters and some of the same pilots as well – including the first woman in the Afghan Air Corps and currently the only one.

The only time Capt. Latifa Nabizada left the force was to flee to Pakistan when the Taliban took over in the 1990s – a woman pilot was a prime target for them.

“I wanted to be a pilot since I was a child,” she says. “I also, as a woman, felt it was a responsibility to serve my country. So I joined 20 years ago. … I stayed in because…

“George Huguely has been officially charged with the murder of 22-year-old University of Virginia student Yeardley Love. Love was killed early Monday morning. The Daily Progress reported Huguely admitted to police that, during an argument with Yeardley Love, he “shook Love and her head repeatedly hit the wall,” according to an affidavit requesting a search warrant.

It was reported that Love was found face down on her pillow in her bedroom. Her right eye was swollen shut, there was a pool of blood on the pillow, and her face was bruised, according to the affidavits. The door to the room had been forced open and had a hole in it, according to the documents. The two had dated for over a year and recently split.

For roughly the…

For the entire article click here: http://www.nationalpartnership.org/site/News2?abbr=daily2_&page=NewsArticle&id=24416&security=1201&news_iv_ctrl=-1

The case against Polanski, now 76, dates back to 1977 when he was arrested in Los Angeles where he pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. He spent 42 days in prison but fled before a final court appearance for sentencing. Polanski was arrested in September 2009 at…

On Wednesday, Iran won a seat on UN Commission on Status of Women. The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women is committed to promoting gender equality. Well, it seems the UN has a different definition of “gender equality” than most women.

Perhaps this appointment is a backroom deal given that a few days ago Iran announced its withdrawal from a seat on the UN Human Rights Council? If the link between the two actions is true then perhaps it can surmised that women’s rights do not equate to human rights?

And for those of you not familiar with Iranian law – stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged “immodest.”

The CSW, a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social…

U.S. to WellPoint: Stop droppoing breast cancer patients, April 23, 2010

Yesterday it was announced that WellPoint and Blue Shield of California will “stop dropping sick policyholders.” The statement lacked mention of breast cancer patients, specifically. Yet the statement comes less than a week after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius lamented a Reuters report that reported that WellPoint targeted breast cancer patients for rescission.  For more information, refer to the Los Angeles Times.

Supreme Court Diversity Takes On Another Meaning, April 15, 2010

Yesterday, President Obama warned of a “conservative” brand of judicial activism in which the courts are ‘often not showing appropriate deference to the decision of lawmakers.’ His comments signal a strong influencing…

April 26, 2010 — Several states are debating and advancing new restrictions on abortion rights, “a trend fueled in part by” passage of the federal health reform law (PL 111-148), USA Today reports. Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute said that at least 22 states are weighing bills that would increase waiting periods or counseling prior to an abortion, while 18 states are debating measures that would expand pre-abortion ultrasound requirements. Nash added, “This year, particularly in the past couple of weeks, it’s really turned into a free-for-all on trying to restrict abortions.”
Mary Spaulding Balch of the National Right to Life Committee said that 2010 has been “very successful” for state measures restricting abortion…