What’s Current: Covid lockdown measures result in dramatic increase in calls to domestic abuse helplines

  • Several Canadian helplines for women experiencing domestic violence report a dramatic rise in calls since COVID-19 lockdown regulations went into effect, with the urgency and severity of callers’ situations intensifying. CTV reports:

“The United Nations has called violence against women and girls a ‘shadow pandemic’ as the COVID-19 crisis fuels social isolation and tensions caused by concerns over health, safety and financial security.

  • The U.S. Supreme Court declines to review a federal court decision ordering the Idaho Department of Corrections to provide sex reassignment surgery to a trans-identified inmate.
  • Five women professors sue Rutgers University for allegedly paying them tens of thousands of dollars less than their male counterparts with similar qualifications.
  • Researchers say women in Afghanistan are being forced to undergo so-called virginity tests, two years after a law requiring consent to the practice was introduced.
Meghan McCarty

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