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. They share only a fraction of the purse in sports.

 

But those grievances seem like just so much whining when put up against the cruelties visited upon women in the other half of the world: sex slavery, death in childbirth, mass rape, honor killings, genital cutting and the simple indifference of fathers and mothers to their infant daughters. (more…)

 

ASHEVILLE,  N.C.

 

It’s sure to be a powerful experience. The Emmy-nominated documentary “The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo” deals with the mass sexual assault of women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo. MacDowell will host screenings Thursday, Saturday and Sept. 27 at the Fine Arts Theatre downtown to benefit Our Voice, the Asheville organization assisting rape victims.

 

“This is a difficult movie to watch,” said MacDowell, who starred in such films as “Four Wedding and a Funeral,” “Green Card” and “Groundhog Day.” She’s been showing “The Greatest Silence” at her home for invited guests but wanted to get the word to a bigger audience.

 

“This issue is so overwhelming for me,” she said. “Once you see this movie, you see what the situation is. I wanted to do something.” (more…)