Oh, the days when this news would have both enraged and surprised me…..

The New York Times reports a UN study found women in the United States rank 27th in terms of access to power.

How is such a broad term like “power” defined? The study examined literacy, acccess to education, health, and positions in government.  Although American women are certainly nearing parity moreso than at any time in history, we still rank a dismal 27th on the list — far behind Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Writes the Times:

The United States ranked 27th, above Russia (42nd), China (57th), Brazil (73rd) and India (113th). But the United States was ranked below Germany (11th), Britain (13th), France (15th), Lesotho (16th), Trinidad and Tobago (19th), South Africa (22nd), Argentina (24th) and Cuba (25th).

“The world’s women are nearly as educated and as healthy as men, but are nowhere to be found in terms of decision-making,” said Saadia Zahidi of the World Economic Forum.

But the U.S. isn’t the only country that I’m concerned about.  In case you missed it yesterday, I blogged about how over a dozen young Afghan girls had acid squirt-gunned in their faces — simply for being female and going to school.

Thanks to Voice scribe Lizza Dwoskin for bringing this NYT article to my attention.