Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Enough already.

It is high time to declare an end to the breastfeeding dictatorship that is drowning women in guilt and worry just when they most need support: after the birth of a child.

Breastfeeding has gone from being an ideal option for new mothers to a mandatory prerequisite...

Invest in women and you change the world.

Many have come to that view and now former First Lady Laura Bush is using her platform to focus attention on women in one of the toughest countries in the world: Afghanistan. Mrs. Bush has been involved in promoting and talking about...

We think small when it comes to women. Micro, to be exact.

When I first started reporting on women entrepreneurs in conflict and post-conflict zones in 2005, nearly everyone, from IMF officials in their offices to development workers in the field, told me the only women I would find would...

In the wake of the horrible attack on veteran war reporter and CBS News correspondent Lara Logan, a disturbing round of 'blame the victim' chatter has buzzed around the media, from Twitter to blogs to cable news. Some have asked directly why in the world was Logan there? Do women...

The world mourns the loss of veteran diplomat Ambassador Richard Holbrooke at a critical time for the war in Afghanistan. President Obama's senior security advisers are gathering today to discuss the nine year war's future trajectory and to review the troop surge the president announced in 2009.

Ambassador...

Support in Afghanistan for women's rights to vote and go to school remains strong at nearly 90 percent, according to a new poll out from ABC News and its partners. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Afghanistan/afghanistan-poll-things-stand-2010/story?id=12277743 Despite the growing insurgency and an increasingly grim view of security in the country, 69 percent...

Today marks the graduation of 29 members of the Afghan National Army's (ANA) Officer Candidate School. What makes this class of Army officers who signed up to protect their country unique?

They are all women.

The 29 new officers are young women from across the country...

At the same time the United States is scaling back its goals for Afghanistan, women in the country are scaling up their own ambitions. In arenas ranging from medicine to the military, from small business to civil society, women are speaking up for themselves and tackling ever-larger aspirations. While problems...

Eight years after the first US attack on Taliban positions in their country, Afghans are waiting to see what the Americans will decide when it comes to facing a resurgent Taliban ready to retake parts of the country and perhaps its capital once more. Among those watching most closely are...

At a morning session in the basement of a sprawling three-story home doubling as an office, a handsome woman in an ivory head scarf and open-toed black heels talks campaign tactics to a dozen women around a horseshoe-shaped table.

"You must think about what your objective is," she begins. "That...

Signs of progress can be spotted around Kabul.  Among the most picturesque: newly lighted homes pressed up against the hillside. At dusk they form electric constellations stepping out to offer some cheer amid the mud and dust which surround them.  The transmission of electricity from neighboring Uzbekistan also means the...

Recently a slew of pieces have noted -- and sometimes bemoaned -- the fast-approaching fact that Afghan women are likely to see their rights recede in the rush to reach a deal with the Taliban. The latest of these notes in the Financial Times that:

Nato is...

Afghanistan's next generation is avidly watching to see what the US electorate decides come November 4. Voters 7,000 miles away are an object of keen curiosity among Kabul's young and educated.

Seven years after the US invasion, citizens speak of the international community's push to rebuild their country in...