Women & Gender

Sumo wrestling in Japan is among the world’s oldest sports, dating back at least 1,500 years. The rules are simple: Square off with an opponent in a ring lined with sand, then try to push the other person out. Another rule: Japanese professional sumo is also off-limits to women. Japanese women wrestlers who achieve champion status at international sumo events are frustrated to face prejudice back home.

Two women are leading the presidential race in Mexico. But, in a country with a history of gender violence and inequality, feminists aren’t reading too much into the milestone. The World’s Tibisay Zea reports from Mexico City.

A third of the world’s population cooks with fuels that produce harmful fumes when burned. Breathing in the fine particles produced by cooking with wood, charcoal, coal, animal dung and agricultural waste can penetrate the lungs and cause multiple respiratory and cardiovascular problems, including cancer and strokes. Women and children are most at risk. Fifty countries gathered in Paris on Tuesday to raise funds to replace dangerous cooking with clean ones. Marco Werman speaks with Dymphna van der Lans, CEO of the Clean Cooking Alliance.

Last week, Mexican officials were able to find the bodies of three missing tourists from Australia and the US in less than a week. But many Mexican mothers have been searching for their children who have gone missing in Mexico for years — even decades — and can’t seem to get help from the authorities.

A multiweek general election is underway in India and more women are taking part in it than ever before. Nearly half of the electorate is expected to be female. The country’s political parties are now running campaign ads targeted toward women to win over this crucial voting bloc.