This week, we discuss our ignorant realization that the Equal Rights Amendment still hasn't passed — a cause that must be won before women can advance in other areas. More unity and better marketing savvy is needed nationwide, as inspired by the documentary, Miss Representation. more ›

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi received a one-day jail sentence and three years of probation Monday for falsely imprisoning his wife, Eliana Lopez, during a fight that allegedly resulted in his bruising her. The Chronicle breathlessly reports, "An emotional Mirkarimi said outside the courtroom that he accepted full responsibility for his actions. He will get credit for the time he has already spent in jail." more ›

A 25-year-old woman survived a kidnapping and rape by two men in Oakland on Sunday morning. The victim says she was "grabbed from behind about 1 a.m. near 14th Street and Broadway" by a pair of men who then took her "to a secluded area and assaulted her," reports Oakland Tribune. The rape occurred near Oakland City Hall. more ›

On Monday night, the Marriott Hotel in Walnut Creek hosted the 2012 East Bay Women's Conference featuring feminist and political icon Gloria Steinem. During the conference, which culminated in her standing ovation-causing "The Progression of Feminism and Social Equity" speech, Oakland Tribune's Angela Hill caught up with Steinem for a one-on-one interview. When asked to give her thoughts on the recent political battle over contraception, Rush Limbaugh's slut-gate, and the conservative "war on women." Behold: more ›

We receive tons--tons!--of reader fan mail. We also receive the occasional piece of hate mail. It comes with the territory of having your name out there and writing for a wildly successful site like SFist. Anyway, this most recent piece of fist-shaking correspondence has us reeling. And confused. But mostly aghast. This person, an elderly vice president and general manager of sales and marketing somewhere in downtown San Francisco (whose name we redact for his own safety), responds this photo in SFist's most recent 7 Reasons to Love SF. His reaction is depressing. But mostly just wrong. more ›

The depressing story of 34-year-old San Francisco pageant mom Kerry Campbell, who gives her 8-year-old daughter Botox injections, made readers foam at the mouth after The Mommy Files brought the all-too-true tale to the public's attention. Kerry, looking to make her young daughter both famous and sexually alluring, "purchases Botox online and injects her 8-year-old daughter Britney with it." She also waxes her daughter's legs and bikini line in a chilling effort "to get rid of peach fuzz and to make sure she doesn't develop pubic hair later in life." Mom and daughter, named Britney (of course), appeared on Inside Edition today to explain. more ›

Another SF Bike Party ride pedals around the city for your Friday night pleasure, and you shouldn't miss it. The theme for the evening? Female icons. Since march is Women's History Month, and March 8 is International Woman’s Day, SF Bike Party wants to celebrate with a "Favorite Female Icon" ride. All riders (gender be damned) should dress as your favorite female icon and/or role model. more ›

And now for some gastronomic news outside San Francisco and across the pond. A London ice cream shop that posted an ad asking new mothers for their body's milk, London's Covent Garden, a specialist ice cream parlor, "plans to serve up breast milk ice cream and says people should think of it as an organic, free-range treat." Um, gross? more ›

Paolo Lucchesi of Inside Scoop broke some food industry news last night about the much-lauded A16. "Executive chef Liza Shaw — who has been in the kitchen since it opened in 2004 — will be leaving the Marina hotspot." Shaw will reportedly be "off to do some traveling." Owners Shelley Lindgren and Victoria Libin have replaced the noted food wiz with chef de cuisine David Taylor. This comes on the heels of Jennie Lorenzo departing Fifth Floor and Erica Holland-Toll exiting Ducca in September. Last year, Michael Bauer, if you recall, asked, 'where have all the women gone?' Good question, B. Good question. [Inside Scoop] more ›

Next to creamy thimblefulls of yogurt and sinfully dark chocolate, women love nothing more in life than a bowl of salad. If food commercials are to be believed, that is. Seriously, females cannot tearing apart greens, covering it low-calorie dressings, topping it with tomato wedges (seasons be damned!), and then smiling like lunatics over their fresh lettuce meals. See, many frail women, for unknown reasons, get unusually excited about all of that leafy, green flavor they're about to digest. It fills their lady parts with unbridled glee, or so we assume. Don't believe us? Check out The Hairpin's Women Laughing Alone With Salad to see for yourself. more ›

California NOW (National Organization of Women) plans to file complaints today against local Hooters venues for violations of state and local laws covering sexual entertainment and minor children." For those of you not in the know, Hooters is a popular chain restaurant famous for employing waitresses who must wear tight t-shirts that show off their supple, perky, full breasts; hence the popular mammary gland sobriquet used as their brand name. California NOW will file complaints in San Francisco, Sacramento, Orange County, and San Bruno with police departments, District Attorneys, and the California Attorney General. more ›

Griffith Rutherford Harsh V, Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's deplorable son, was accused of sexually assaulting a classmate while attending Princeton. Gawker's Maureen O'Connor, who broke the story, has the frightening accusation: more ›

by Andrew Dalton Those of you that like to bemoan San Francisco's notoriously lacking female population might be interested in the mostly self-explanatory services provided by Wheretheladies.at, a new mobile site designed to point eligible bachelors (and potential lookie-loos, if we're being honest) in the direction of the closest bar or venue with the most significant population of ladyfolk. more ›

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Your SFist editor is titillated (ahem) because he plans on attending his first-ever female strip club spectacular! (OK, we did once attend a strip joint in Reno via an astounding bachelor's party; however, the dancer, who grinded her bottom in our lap for several minutes, left a fury-inducing streak of body paint/glitter on our new suit, and thus rendered the entire visit null and void.) See, the Gold Club, San Francisco's Premier Gentleman's nudie club, celebrates its six-year anniversary tomorrow, Thursday, July 22. more ›

Geena Davis, star of such efforts as Cutthroat Island and Stuart Little 2, has a new gig to add to her lustrous resume. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named her as head of the Commission on the Status of Women, a nonpartisan California commission created to promote women's equality. "I am delighted to join the governor and this commission," Davis beamed in a written statement. "This appointment affords an important opportunity to improve the lives and well being of girls and women throughout California." [AP, via CBS 5] more ›

CBS 5 reporter Thuy Vu cracks the case of bad hair and XX-chromosome carriers. In an investigative report, Vu visits a Saratoga beauty parlor wherein she discovers that women, who like all things pretty, really do suffer on bad hair days. She notes the harrowing facts: "Bad hair can put women in a seriously bad mood. According to a poll by ShopSmart magazine, 44 percent of women say their mood has been affected by a bad hair day." She goes on to point out that some 25 percent of women, being the delicate yet hysterical creatures they are, weep uncontrollably after getting their hair did. A third have even regretted a style change. Watch this searing portrait of lady hair gone wrong here. more ›

The fantastic and fantastically brilliant @rebecca_f informs us of a most important day happening tomorrow: Women Tweeting Women Day. And it goes a little something like this: "the idea is to post information about inspiring women throughout the day. On Twitter please use the hashtag #wtw09 when tweeting about the inspiring women in your life." Also acceptable: Twitter updates about yogurt, dark chocolate, and/or husbands who won't get off the couch. [via Viva La Feminista] more ›

NBC Bay Area has pointed us today, for reasons not entirely clear to their news gathering mission, to this blog via a brief piece titled "Where Have San Francisco's Beautiful Women Gone?" The site boasts Thrillist and the Adam Carolla Podcast on their blogroll, so you get the picture. It's basically a twentysomething guy (we think) -- under the pseudonym Samuel Snodgrass, age 77 -- riffing on various theories as to why he can't score a date and why, allegedly, there are "no girls in San Francisco." He provides this concise analysis regarding the bicoastal debate: more ›

Want to see slinky, kinda nude women bathing in a tank of blood-colored water on Van Ness at noon? Of course you do. According to , PETA campaigner Jena Hunt "organized a protest scheduled for noon today at 600 Van Ness Ave., where two PETA 'chicks' in red bikinis will be crammed together in a tank of 'bloody' water with the message 'McDonald’s Scalds Chicks; to Death.'" (Aside: While we do not care much for McDonald's culinary vision, we highly recommend their Crispy ranch BLT sandwich, which you can get grilled or fried. Well worth the 600 calories. Trust us.) In an interview with the Ex, Hunt explains, there "a more humane slaughter method called controlled-atmosphere killing ensures that animals are killed painlessly while still in their transport crates before they have their throats cut or are handled by workers." Good point, Hunt. Also, there's a "McCruelty: I’m Hatin' It" billboard up at Sixth and Brannan today. more ›

Billed at the "first X-rated app approved by Apple," the folks in Cupertino gave the green light to MyPleasure.com’s MyVibe vibrator application. Sex researcher Dr. Debby Herbenick, according to Gizmodo, gave it the thumbs up. more ›

Steve Rhodes was at last night's vigil for Dr. George Tiller, the activist who was murdered this past weekend by an anti-abortion zealot. more ›

Peter Thiel -- noted gay Silicon Valley libertarian, PayPal co-founder, and the one of the first Facebook investors -- recently penned an essay in which he suggests that the last time one could be "genuinely optimistic" about U.S. politics was just before dames got the right to vote. In Cato Unbound, a site run by libertarian-ish Cato Institute, Thiel suggests the following. more ›

Scene from last week's Cougar Run, where women of-a-certain age (i.e., 35 or older) biked around the Mission with little to no shame. more ›

The March for Life and March for Life counter protest are currently underway in San Francisco. Over 25,000 pro/anti ilk showed up today to voice their opinion on abortion. Here are a few scenes from the protest. more ›

Abortion enthusiasts? Listen up. This weekend will be the abortion weekend to end all other abortion weekend. more ›

With the 15-hour time difference between Beijing and our fair Bay Area, there will be occasions on which today's Hot Bay Area Olympian has already competed by the time you read this. But the contest has not yet been broadcast, and this is some action that is rather likely to be televised. It's that unapologetically soft-porn invention called Beach Volleyball... known for it's skimpy outfits and provocatively-placed hand signals. And it's such the rage that even our numskull President GWB is getting in on the action! more ›

If you haven't been to comedy club as of late, you might be curious about the overabundance of women-and-yogurt commercials. Well, here's a delightful look at the attempts to get females to consume abnormal amounts of this sweet, cultured milk product. Enjoy. more ›

Pictured: Rock N' Roll, Arizona marathon where she qualified for the Olympic trials with a time of 2:46 more ›

Complete with heartwarming ultrasound images of a bouncy baby juxtaposed by a stern, deep, and concerned-sounding voiceover warning that babies are dying, a new KTVU teaser began playing this morning for a special report they're airing on Monday at 5. more ›