What’s Current: Google employees walk out in protest over response to sexual harassment

  • Thousands of Google employees around the world staged a walkout to protest the company’s handling of executives accused of sexual misconduct.
  • The Medical Council of Canada is reviewing its practices after being criticized for forcing women to hand over tampons and menstrual pads before taking exams.
  • Human Rights Watch reports that North Korean women are routinely subjected to sexual violence by male officials:

“I was a victim many times … On the days they felt like it, market guards or police officials could ask me to follow them to an empty room outside the market, or some other place they’d pick. What can we do? They consider us [sex] toys … We [women] are at the mercy of men. Now, women cannot survive without having men with power near them.”

  • Studies show that public restrooms around the world endanger women. One in three women do not have access to a toilet at home, and have to rely on public or community toilets, which sometimes lack locks, robust doors, or facilities to dispose of sanitary products. Traveling to these facilities can also put women at risk of being raped.
  • Women’s rights activist Meaza Ashenafi is named to head Ethiopia’s Supreme Court. Ashenafi is known for trying a court case that resulted in outlawing the tradition of kidnapping girls to be forced into marriage. 
Meghan McCarty

Meghan McCarty is an undergraduate student and aspiring journalist living in the United States.