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American mothers as a whole do not breast-feed their babies as much as medical professionals would like. Health experts say African-American moms are less likely to nurse than whites and Hispanics. The federal government, some hospitals and nonprofits are trying different strategies to close the breast-feeding gap among black women.

Sue Monk Kidd, the author of the best-selling The Secret Life of Bees, takes on both slavery and feminism in her novel The Invention of Wings. It's a story told by two women: Hetty, a slave, seeks her freedom, while Sarah, her reluctant owner, rebels against her family to become an abolitionist.

The genre has some of the most creative, politically savvy, intelligent female personalities in the industry.

For millennia, observant Jewish women have made monthly trips to a ritual bath called a mikvah for a kind of spiritual cleansing. In recent generations, the practice was dismissed by liberal Jews as demeaning. Now, some feminist Jews are reinventing the ritual.

NPR special Africa corresondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault talks about Liberia's recruitment of women for its army and the impact of Chinese investment in the African economy.

Japanese skater Shizuka Arakawa takes the gold medal in the most highly anticipated event of the Winter Olympics -- women's figure skating. Sasha Cohen of the United States wins the silver medal and Russia's Irina Slutskaya takes the bronze.

Most surrogates are paid thousands of dollars to bear a child for someone else, but many say that's not the main motivation. Women who are eager to get pregnant on behalf of others are inspired, among other things, by family history and a love of pregnancy.

As the "Me Too" moment hit Congress this year, Kirsten Gillibrand found herself in the center of the headlines. The New York senator is now on most short lists of possible Democratic 2020 contenders.

A group of women in Kenya rebelled against trading sex for a fisherman's catch to sell. They got their own boats, had success — but in past years have faced floods and now fears about HIV medications.

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky, the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library. about childlessness in politics.