From 14 January to 1 February United Nations Committee monitoring discriminaiton against women

Today sees the beginning of the UN committee on the elimination of discrimination against women. The report from France is due on 18 January and it wil be interesitng to see if there's a trace of it anywhere in the French media - let alone the French churches!

"The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women will hold its fortieth session at the Palais des Nations in Geneva from 14 January to 1 February 2008 to review the reports of Bolivia, Burundi, Saudi Arabia, France, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Morocco and Sweden on how those countries are implementing their obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women."
You can read more in the UN press release here, meanwhile women everywhere mainly have to be content with change taking place slowly and gradually. Feminists like me have of course to remember that we're not supposed to make demands or be too shrill, that might damage the cause ... more than patriarchy ever did I suppose. OK rant over.
Francoise Gaspard who represents France at the committee is an interesting woman. Involved in both politics and academia, she was one of the first openly gay French politicians and in 2006 began teaching the first French course on homosexuality at the prestigious Science Po.
Anyway I'm not sure whether you can follow podcasts of the proceedings at the UN but maybe this is the wake up call to find out what the situation of discrimination of women is like where you are.