Japan's Shinzo Abe on Friday named the country's first ever female aide to the prime minister, just weeks after Caroline Kennedy arrived as the first woman US ambassador to Tokyo.
A UN General Assembly committee has agreed a landmark first resolution on women's rights defenders such as Malala Yousafzai, despite a hard fought campaign by an alliance including the Vatican to weaken the measure.
US Secretary of State John Kerry Friday joined forces with his predecessor Hillary Clinton to urge that hard-won gains for Afghan women since the fall of the Taliban be protected.
Turkish parliament has lifted a ban on women lawmakers wearing trousers in the assembly, shortly after a major government reform allowed them to don Islamic headscarves.
Saudi Arabia was braced for possible protests Saturday after women activists declared an "open driving campaign" against the deeply conservative kingdom's ban on women behind the wheel.
Janet Yellen, nominated by President Barack Obama to run the Federal Reserve, will be the first woman to hold what Obama has called one of the world's top policy-making jobs.
Australia's first female premier Julia Gillard has described her "murderous rage" at her sexist treatment but said she would do it all again in her first public appearance since being dumped.
A woman is for the first time bidding for the presidency in Tajikistan after an opposition bloc including an Islamic party chose a respected female rights lawyer as its candidate in the majority Muslim country.
Full-figured women had their day on the catwalks of New York on Friday when hometown designer Eden Miller unveiled her plus-size collection -- a fashion week first.
Judges on TV talent shows always attract controversy for making or breaking the careers of desperate wannabes -- but for Aryana Sayeed, the job is also a fight for Afghanistan's future.
Children born from obese women were 35 percent more likely to die prematurely in adulthood, according to a study Wednesday that warned of a growing epidemic.
Women in poverty-stricken Papua New Guinea suffer "severe brutality" with violence, including savage attacks involving knives, axes and whips, occurring in two-thirds of all families.