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Biden plan aims to stem exodus of women from workforce
Washington (AFP) - The economic devastation and job losses wreaked by Covid-19 have hit women especially hard, but President-elect Joe Biden's rescue plan targets their central dilemma faced by many: school and child care. The US economy has seen an exodus of women from the labor force, in part because they make up a large share of workers in the hardest hit industries, like hospitality, which do not allow for remote work. But with schools and childcare centers forced to close nationwide, and young children at home often needing help with online learning, many women opted to leave their jobs. ...
AFP
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USA captain Alex Morgan tests positive for Covid-19
Los Angeles (AFP) - Alex Morgan, a two-time World Cup winner with the US women's football team, has tested positive for Covid-19, the star striker said on Twitter on Tuesday. "Unfortunately, my family and I closed out 2020 learning that we had contracted Covid while in California over the holidays," Morgan, 31, said in a Tweet. "We are all in good spirits and recovering well. After our isolation is completed, I will follow US Soccer's return to play guidelines to ensure my body is fully recovered and I can join my teammates back on the field soon." Morgan is married to former Los Angeles Galax...
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Making history, VP-elect Harris tells women she won't be last
Wilmington (United States) (AFP) - Kamala Harris on Saturday shattered barriers to become the first woman vice president and, in a symbolism-heavy victory speech, told girls she would not be the last.Introducing President-elect Joe Biden in an optimism-fueled outdoor rally, Harris -- also the first Black woman and Indian-American as vice president -- sported a white suit in recognition of the suffragist movement that fought to give US women the vote a century ago."While I may be the first woman in this office, I won't be the last," she said to cheers and honks from the crowd gathered in social...
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A woman's place? Out hunting with spears, study finds
Washington (AFP) - A new study says a woman's place might never have been at home to begin with.Scientists said Wednesday they had discovered the 9,000-year-old remains of a young woman in the Peruvian Andes alongside a well-stocked big game hunting toolkit.Based on a further analysis of 27 individuals at burial sites with similar tools, a team led by Randall Haas at the University of California, Davis concluded that between 30 to 50 percent of hunters in the Americas during this period may have been women.The paper, published in the journal Science Advances, contradicts the prevalent notion t...
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Candidates break barriers in several US races
Los Angeles (AFP) - Candidates broke barriers in several races in the US election, including in New Mexico, the first state to send a delegation to the US House of Representatives made up entirely of women of color.The group will consist of Representative Deb Haaland, a Democrat who in 2018 became one of the first Native American women elected to Congress, Republican Yvette Herrell, who is also Native American, and Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez, who is Hispanic.In Wyoming, Republican Cynthia Lummis on Tuesday became the first woman from the western state to win a seat in the US Senate.The ra...
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The suburban women aiming to S.W.A.T. away Trump
Stamford (United States) (AFP) - Donald Trump says suburban women will reelect him president, but in Connecticut female voters calling themselves The S.W.A.T. Team are campaigning against his efforts to court the crucial voting bloc.Suburban Women Against Trump was formed in early August in response to the US leader claiming that Democratic opponent Joe Biden would "destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream" with low-cost housing. "I was just appalled by how he was trying to paint this picture of suburban women falling into his camp and being as racist as he is," co-founder Brook Mane...
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Educating Hima: Maggie Doyne on battling poverty in Nepal
Surkhet (Nepal) (AFP) - Maggie Doyne still remembers the moment that changed her life forever. A chance encounter with six-year-old Hima, a little girl forced into manual labour to help her impoverished family, helped transform Doyne from gap-year teenager into a philanthropist on a mission. Seeing the child -- one of around a dozen -- working on a dry river bed breaking rocks, she felt compelled to act. Doyne used her savings to pay for Hima's schooling. The child was the first of hundreds of Nepali youngsters she and her team have since helped raise and teach.Kopila Valley Children's Home in...
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Window closing on Williams' quest for 24th Slam title
New York (AFP) - As a weary Serena Williams packed her bags and left Flushing Meadows in the early hours of Friday morning, her latest bid for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title snuffed out in the semi-finals of the US Open, one question was left hanging in the balmy night air: if not now, when?For nearly four years, Williams has been trading groundstrokes with Father Time as she attempts to add one more Grand Slam title to her collection, cementing her claim to be the greatest women's tennis player ever seen.Yet since her 23rd and last major title at the 2017 Australian Open, when she w...
AFP