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The State of the World's Women
It's a year of anniversaries for the global women's movement, but not necessarily a year of good news for women globally. International Women's Day, begun in Copenhagen at an international socialist gathering where women pledged to achieve universal suffrage, was celebrated for the 100th year, while the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is in its 30th year. To date, 189 countries have signed CEDAW. The United States, Iran, and Sudan are among those who have yet to ratify or sign it.
It has also been 15 years since the historic World Conference on Women in Beijing, where the world's governments united to advance the Platform for Action (PFA), a document that lays out clear targets to achieve gender equality. Earlier this month, the United Nations held the 54th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), an annual meeting of government ministers to assess how women are faring in their countries. The CSW is an opportunity for women's groups to network with one another, lobby their ministers, and hold their governments accountable for women's rights at an international forum.
So how are women faring since 1995? There have been limited or uneven achievements, and very limited state accountability to the commitments made in Beijing, according to the UN Secretary General report. And the achievements made haven't really translated into significant, sustained changes in the lives of women. During the UN review, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon reaffirmed the importance of the Beijing Platform for Action, which had "sent a clear message to women and girls around the world that equality and opportunity are inalienable rights."
The Bad News
Because of inadequate resources directed towards maternal care or restricted access to reproductive health services, according to statistics compiled by the UN Development Program (UNDP), a woman dies every minute from complications due to pregnancy or childbirth. Of all the Millennium Development Goals — the world's global compact to eradicate poverty — global efforts to reduce maternal death have made the least progress. Half of the people living with AIDS are women. In sub-Saharan Africa, women are 60 percent of those living with HIV.
In 1995, through the Platform for Action, countries set a target of having their elected officials be 30 percent women. We are far off that mark. Women are still grossly under-represented in political office: The global average of women holding office is just 18.6 percent. Only 39 countries have reached the 30 percent target, according to the UN Development Program. According to figures released by UN women's agencies, by the start of 2009, 31 women had assumed the highest positions in the world's parliaments (like Nancy Pelosi as House speaker). By this time last year, 15 women were heads of state, out of almost 200 countries.
Another major disappointment in reviewing the Beijing Platform for Action was in the area of ensuring women's leadership at the peacemaking table and in the peace building process. Three major Security Council resolutions (UNSC 1325, 1820 and 1888) in the past decade have sought greater women's participation and addressed sexual violence as security concerns. However, according to UNIFEM, of the 10 major peace processes of the past decade, on average, only 6 percent of negotiators and only 3 percent of signatories were women.
Women's economic rights are still a major area of concern. Although women are now participating more in the workforce — comprising 40 percent of all paid workers outside of agriculture — two-thirds of them are working either as self-employed workers or as unpaid family workers. Eighty percent of women in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa work in the informal sectors, which make them very vulnerable in this global economic crisis. While the migration of women workers has increased, both within and across regions, the lack of physical, social, and financial security also increases their vulnerability.
Governments aren't doing enough, given these continued challenges. Although the draft CSW resolution recognized that the implementation of the PFA "is essential to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration," it wasn't strong enough. According to Inter Press Service journalists covering the gathering, "The first blow for women at this CSW came in the form of the rather weak negotiated outcome document released by governments. This step, on the part of governments, sucked the energy of what women felt was a space to advance women's rights."
The Good News
The CSW meeting in New York wasn't a complete downer. For one, although not a world conference, this was the largest gathering of women activists representing a wide swath of the global women's movement. Over 8,000 people attended the two weeks of activities, a record for the CSW.
Furthermore, there was immense energy around the GEAR campaign (Gender Equality Architecture Reform). This is an effort by over 300 women's organizations, led by a core group that includes the Center for Global Women's Leadership and Women's Environmental and Development Organization. The goal of the GEAR campaign is to create one super woman's agency, headed up by an under-secretary-general, that unites four existing separate women's agencies: the Department on the Advancement of Women (DAW), UNIFEM (the program arm), INSTRAW (the research arm), and the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues (OSAGI). Having four separate organizations fragments coordination on advancing women's rights within the UN and on the ground — an under-secretary-general would ensure a strong and persistent voice representing women's rights at the decision-making table. This attempt at consolidation has been gaining momentum over the last few years. During Ban Ki-Moon's inaugural speech, the GEAR campaign held up a banner that said, "Gear Up Now!" which received a wave from the secretary general and a round of applause from everyone else. The GEAR campaign received additional political support from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the last day of CSW: "Here at the United Nations, a single, vibrant agency dedicated to women run by a strong leader, with a seat at the secretary general's table, would help galvanize the greater levels of coordination and commitment that the women of the world deserve."
In another signal of potentially good things to come, Clinton promised that "the Obama administration will continue to work for the ratification of CEDAW." Clinton reaffirmed the Obama administration's linking of women's security with national security: "President Obama and I believe that the subjugation of women is a threat to the national security of the United States. It is also a threat to the common security of our world, because the suffering and denial of the rights of women and instability of nations go hand in hand." However, the State Department may be marginalized in bringing up the ratification of CEDAW in the realm of national security concerns. Given that its pursuit will probably run into political opposition from Republicans and others in Congress, the already beleaguered Obama administration is unlikely to pursue ratification at this moment, even if it supports it in principle.
The Potentially Ugly News
As the global women's movement presses the United Nations and national governments to recognize the commitments they made in Beijing and elsewhere, women must be vigilant about how they're deployed in the service of militarism and neoliberalism.
Although inspiring, Clinton's speech also contained some troubling elements, including the assumption that merely substituting female soldiers for male soldiers makes a U.S. military occupation of another country more acceptable for the women of that country. Clinton lauded the Obama administration for working to include women "at every step in securing and rebuilding" Afghanistan, including sending all-women teams of U.S. Marines to go into the homes of Afghan women to assess their needs. U.S. Marines — whether they are women or men — possess weapons, power over civilians, and are still foreigners on the Afghan peoples' soil.
Another challenge for the global women's movement is the way in which women are being used to advance neoliberal objectives. As Lydia Alpizar Duran, executive director of the Association of Women's Rights in Development, testified during the CSW, a new discourse on investing in women and girls as "agents of change" and "economic actors" presents a challenge for the women's movement. Many new reports, such as the World Bank's 2007 Gender Action Plan, recognize women's central role in development and in the economy. But Duran warns of powerful economic institutions "that are now finally interested in recognizing women's economic contribution and power (and in taking advantage of women's increasing purchasing power in some countries) in services of the current financial and economic system."
Although the women's movement around the world has made enormous progress, we must not lose sight of our original goals — to challenge the underlying structures, systems and cultures that create unequal relations. Our vision for women's rights can only be truly fulfilled in a just and equitable world for all.
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Show AllFor some perspective, this is an interesting look BACKWARDS, to June 2002. It is borrowed from C-FAM, thanks.
Quote begin:
Both Boxer and Biden asserted that the current failure to ratify CEDAW damaged US credibility worldwide, and hampered US leadership on broader human rights issues. These sentiments were echoed by the individuals testifying in favor of CEDAW, many of whom called the current US stance an "embarrassment" within the world community.
Addressing concerns that CEDAW would undermine US sovereignty, Biden asserted that "The US Constitution and existing federal laws will satisfy the obligations of the treaty...The United States will not need to enact any new laws." There was also an effort to minimize the influence of the CEDAW compliance committee, which has frequently told states to legalize prostitution and abortion. Boxer admitted that the committee "says some controversial things," but assured the hearing that it "cannot force governments to do anything."
Speaking against CEDAW, former US Permanent Representative to the UN Jeane Kirkpatrick stated that "it is silly to pretend that ratifying a UN treaty will help women." Instead, "we should share the experiences of American women worldwide." [see opinion below]
Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), also testifying against CEDAW, asserted that CEDAW committee recommendations were far from "benign," since they "exert a great deal of informal pressure upon countries that depend upon United Nations funding of human aid programs." Davis also questioned why the US should seek to make CEDAW the international standard on women's rights, when the CEDAW committee has called for the legalization of prostitution in a number of countries. "This is simply inexcusable. Prostitution is inherently demeaning and degrading to women, and in no way promotes sexual equality." Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) also stated that the committee's stance on prostitution could impede US efforts to stop sex slavery and the trafficking of women.
Kathryn Balmforth, former director of the World Family Policy Center at Brigham Young University, called CEDAW a "threat to fundamental freedoms," since it obligates governments to change patterns of behavior by limiting freedom of speech and religion.
The hearing ended on a strange note, with Biden asserting that those opposed to CEDAW would not have signed the Declaration of Independence. Biden allowed no response to this charge. "I have the gavel," he said as he brought the hearing to a close.
Quote end.
Opinion: Women who support CEDAW ought to feel at home and abroad. - Trylon
Sioux Rose
TRYLON: Thank you for the post.
Hillary Clinton playing the female version of "Uncle Sam wants you," is disgusting. Just as many Blacks who attain high office turn against Affirmative Action and identify with the policies of "them that brung them," so, too, do women who climb the political and economic ladders often prove eager to to cut off access to the lower rungs in those they should stand up to protect and help advance.
There is a specific feminine persona that identifies with the father figure. Content to attain power of her own, this female has no problem selling out her sisters. She is Condi Rice, Hillary, Ms. Palin and other examples of women who embrace patriarchal values. They are 90% ego and turned on by personal power. Without empathy or contact with their inner souls, it's not difficult for them to sell out others, or champion policies that literally destroy lives. These motives are NOT in synch with the universal law of Love. Genitals alone do not make for behavior. Our spiritual natures make use of (and embody) a diverse array of masculine and feminine archetypes. Most dangerous of these (in my view), is Mars, the entity that clammors for war. Given our nation's investment in war, it's clear that this unruly archetype's representation is totally out of balance. It's heartbreaking when females attain power in support of this savage element.
blablablablablabla...alphabet soup activism.
But change is still glacial, and while all you lovely ladies are swapping speeches over rubber chicken dinners at fancy hotels, yapping on about the progress of women's organizations, the abuses, crimes, inequities continue, while you busy yourselves to fine-tune the esoteric, bloodless language in your organization's documents.
I'd have loved to see even one of you doff your chanel suit and pick up a shovel or pick in Haiti...
...rather than holding award ceremonies for women important in the feminist pac movements. This is no better than the endless, meaningless, fruitless Doha sessions for useless male politicians. At least, crazy as she was Valerie Solanas had some passion. Where's yours?
yap yap yap.
I've lost faith.
It's your fault.
Do you mean that traditional families are a threat? I don’t like your stated goal and I have a hard time believing it was the orginal goal of the women’s movement. One of my ancestors Sarah Buell Hale fought for the right of women to be able to get an education. I know she would have fought for the right of women to vote and equal pay for the same job.
Traditional families are not a threat to women. Just because I as a woman believe in marriage and family doesn’t mean I want women being abused or treated badly and that is why I escaped from my ex. I am different than a man. I am equal in value but I bring something else to the table. Men think differently than women. I believe women play just as important role in the family as a man, but at the same time we are different. A woman is the heart of the home. A man is a provider and protector. The woman is the earth and the man is the seed that brings new life into the world.
I have always been an old fashion woman. My goal was to be the best wife and mother I could be. I dreamed of marrying a nice Catholic man and having lots of babies. If Prince Charming does come into my life and wants to marry me I want our vows to be I love, honor, and obey him and he will love, honor and protect me. I am to strong willed and I need to have at least one person in the world that I obey without question. I have always needed someone to protect me from the bad people who do bad things. For me to have obey in my vows is a good thing. Because I believe so strongly that the man is the head of the home and the woman the heart of the home, I need to take my time and make sure he is a man who I respect and who I know will not take advantage of my unconditional love and submission.
One problem I find with some of the modern women is that they put women like me who believe in the traditional form of marriage down and don’t understand that it is our choice. If we value free choice than shouldn’t we let women themselves decide what role they play? Yet, they seem to want to destroy the traditonal form of marriage and it comes across sometimes as they hate men. I don’t hate men. I love men. I want a man to be the best he can be. There is nothing wrong about me wanting to be a good helpmate to the man I marry. Every man needs a good woman to stand beside him and helping him achieve our goals. We will be a team who works together.
I think that the women’s movement in this country has been hijacked from the goals of women being able to get a good education, being able to vote, getting paid the same amount as a man for the same work, and being able to decide for themselves what they want out of life. I believe in that vision of the women’s movement and will continue to fight for women all around the world to be treated as human beings and not as property that has no rights. We still have a lot of work to do in that area. I do not believe in some women's groups attacking traditional women who choose to be good wives and mothers and a good helpmate to their man. All my life I have been called stupid. Women’s lib type women call me stupid for being old fashion and wanting a traditional marriage. White Nationalists call me stupid because I don’t believe what they believe and in my heart believe they are traitors to the United States by their actions and vision. My mom calls me stupid because I still believe in someone doing the right thing after all these years. I haven’t given up hope that someday this person will have the courage to talk to me as two Catholics who will tell each other the truth and then forgive each other. I forgave him a long time ago, but for his sake and for mine, we need to face each other and do the right thing. I don’t trust this person anymore, but it is important to me that we do the right thing as Catholics. This person must face the truth and admit to himself and me the truth. Like Miss Mellie who never gave up on Scarlet, I am like this with this person and family. I refuse to admit to myself that I was wrong to have chosen the hero I did at five years old. Inspite of everything I still believe the truth will come out in the end and that the right thing will be done.
I have always felt I was born to late and am a throw back from an earlier age. Yet, I know that there is a reason why God had me born at the time he did. God has a plan for my life and someday I will find my destiny. Maybe there is a man who is a throw back from an earlier age who wants an old fashion woman for his wife.
I know that people here are not going to agree with me, but that is ok. If we truly believe in women having free choice than we must not get angry at other women who believe in the old fashion traditonal family. I believe one can still be Progressive and an old fashion women who believes in the traditional roles in marriage.
Sioux Rose
CHRISY: Your post is very dualistic. On one had you proclaim your wish for women to have their own autonomy, the right to pursue their elected course and so on. Then you talk about the wife OBEYING the husband. That is an old patriarchal canard. Suppose the husband is like a drunk driver. Still feel secure with him alone driving? One cannot obey another AND pursue their own course!
You are entitled to your beliefs and values, but exalting traditional values means that women end up controlled by men and the laws that males agree upon without the participation of women; or that particular "other" sensibility (that you did mention) influencing the consensus of the brotherhood.
You are confused.
I've never met a woman who was angry that another chose housewifery as a life path. The point of feminism was and still is that the woman makes the decisions for herself. A throwback indeed, you sound like you're stuck in the late 50's.
You do what you want; that doesn't mean you deserve a medal for it.
And "traditional marriage" was horrible for women. It included many social and economic disadvantages that were institutionalized by it. Perhaps you're too youg to remember for yourself. You ought to ask your grandmother what all "traditional marriage" meant, honestly.
Stop whining. As Sioux Rose says, you've picked up the patriarchal claptrap propaganda that keeps you in your coma. One day, you'll wake up.
In earlier days, women had little choice than to seek out a husband who would support them in return for domestic and sexual service. It saddens me at this point in history to see otherwise intelligent and articulate women taking the easy way out and still succumbing to the blatant infantilism of presenting themselves as little children who needed to be protected and provided for.
Self-empowerment and education of females builds better societies and a better world.
Sioux Rose
ARDENT: I don't reach the same conclusion you do in your 3rd paragraph from the evidence related in the 2nd. There's a gulf there. Care to explain?
Sioux Rose: Sorry to be off topic But -
"Sioux Rose I wonder if it was you that did my Pre natal chart in 1970 in London. I was with a long time girl friend named Kathleen. We had both recently graduated from Ohio State University.
We where just starting our journey. The predictions where mind blowing accurate. I am a Virgo with Leo raising and 5 houses in Libre. Does this info ring a bell?
My Email is - layarindah@dps.centrin.net.id
From Peter Jones
Sioux Rose: Sorry to be off topic But -
"Sioux Rose I wonder if it was you that did my Pre natal chart in 1970 in London. I was with a long time girl friend named Kathleen. We had both recently graduated from Ohio State University.
We where just starting our journey. The predictions where mind blowing accurate. I am a Virgo with Leo raising and 5 houses in Libre. Does this info ring a bell?
My Email is - layarindah@dps.centrin.net.id
From Peter Jones
Sioux Rose
PETER: I was in High School in l970. And one can have 5 planets in Libra, not 5 "houses" in Libra. Leo rising would make you seek stardom... or lots of attention. You'd also have to be born 2 hours before sunrise.
Thank you Ms. Sioux Rose, yes I was born at 4:22 AM, Aug. 29, 1946. You said in a previous post that you were in London in 1970.
The lady who did my chart was a remarkable women. I especially thought so after so much of her predictions came to pass: including a death in the family.
I of course lost that chart somewhere in the 80's. And I have enjoyed reading your posts for many years now, although I have been Posting myself for just A few months now.
Life is good and will find its positive way in spite of Mars, Bush, Cheney or Obomber.
All men I dare say! And you are a very bright Rose indeed!
More than looking at the politics of women, when I was on the other side of the planet, I had seen more cultural and economic influences that had affected women's well being more than the governments themselves. I am still reeling over some of the good, the bad, and ugly of what I witnessed in the Far East. The good is that women dress up great and are working a lot of better jobs and getting some recognition. The bad is that most women have yet to get over some of the inferiority complex, both internally and externally. In Japan, I had detected that out of those who commit suicide, women are twice as likely to plunge into one faster than men given the very competitive nature of the job market. In India, I had noticed that when someone is busy trying to clean up the mess on the streets, when a driver comes by he is likely to look out before running over a man but often goes careless on women. Every other day, there would be sad stories of young girls being killed by careless drivers in the papers. Now these are but a few of the many examples where in the East there are new ways of treating women as disposables but not as openly. The ugly is that of the women who fall into yuppie style capitalism, not only are they insane to fall for it but they are the bigger victims of it more than the men who also fall for it. But what really angers me the most is when they are being exploited for sex trafficking, fake beauty contests ala America, and advertising in general. There is so much of this cultural push for women to look perfect or else with no regards for their health or their true beauty for that matter. One thing I will say about the treatment of women in the East is that in some ways it's better than the West's and vice versa.
A first cousin of mine attended the 1995 World Conference on Woman in Beijing, China. Its purpose, as well, was to clarify the "State of the World's Women" - and I was curious to learn what metrics would serve that purpose for those gathered so far away in sensible shoes. Some metrics are mentioned in the stimulus article above.
Now, upon the first day of the week-long conference in China a totally bizarre item of news swept the United States and left millions of us looking at each other with our mouths hanging open.
Some American man - I think in his middle to late thirties - was so driven by desire to observe female genitalia that he lowered his body up to the neck into the chemical and shit-filled tank of a public latrine for women. He apparently survived a few hours researching whether or not a thing of beauty is a joy forever - but eventually some woman glanced down into the toilet's tank and screamed: "HOLY SHIT! CALL THE COPS!!!" It was one of the few times in history no cop gladly stepped forward to put handcuffs on a Peeping (seeping) Tom.
I hastily made an effort to get the news of this off to the conference in Beijing. I suggested a poll of those attending, to find out if anyone present would go to these lengths in order to watch naked men defecate. If no woman raised her hand to indicate interest, that pretty much clarified the relative status of the world's women. They should cancel the conference and all go home.
Trylon
So one day women make up equal numbers in the workforce as men. They earn the same wage. We have 100 percent employment,
Every man and every woman works a 10 hour shift 6 days a week for some firm so that they can afford the "neccesities of life". The Children taken to day care while the parents work.
We have our "equality" but is it a GOOD thing?
Now I am not suggesting that women should stay home naked and barefoot in the kitchen and the man the master of the house or that only men should rise to positions of power or labor at a job.
I am saying that we seem to have taken the approach that to have MORE equality we must make women more like men rather then value the QUALITIES of a woman as much as a mans.
Turning all women into ruthless bankers or of soldiers or insurance execs or Maggie Thatcher type Politicians does NOT a better world make.
“Now I am not suggesting that women should stay home naked and barefoot in the kitchen and the man [be] the master of the house or that only men should rise to positions of power or labor at a job.”
That’s exactly what you *are* suggesting. Your chivalry imprisons us no less than Lefty’s extolling islamic hijab and your crypto-mysto nonsense about ‘the QUALITIES of a woman’ is simply aimed to render us powerless and make us eternal victims.
bligh4
Not a word on the plight of women in Muslim societies, Saudi in particular. Figures.
I'm no practitioner or advocate of Islam but perhaps you can put some perspective on the West's drive for equality. Is that the equality that this article puts forth that women Marines can carry a weapon into households as good as men? Is that the equality of perspective I see amongst many women in America today that it is better to fight them "over there" than fight them here? The one where middle aged women with children don't blink an eye when talking about sending our sons and daughters to far-flung regions of the world to be slaughtered and maimed? Is it the equality of crack addiction, alcoholism and prostitution? Is it the equality of a massive pornography industry and exploitation via "sex sells"? Is it the equality of immodesty and letting them all hang out and leering stare downs? Is it the equality of a society where one in six women have been sexually assaulted? Looking looking looking.
“Is it the equality of a massive pornography industry and exploitation via "sex sells"? Is it the equality of immodesty and letting them all hang out and leering stare downs? Is it the equality of a society where one in six women have been sexually assaulted?”
No, it’s the ‘equality’ of being stoned to death, buried up to one’s neck and having rocks dropped onto one’s head until one’s brains are spattered all over the ground, for ‘committing adultery,’ being flogged for associating with men to whom one is not related, having acid thrown in one’s face for wearing ‘immodest dress,’ having one’s throat sliced open to restore the ‘family honour’ after being raped, or being beheaded or buried alive because one is a lesbian.
Junior ‘Lefties’ who romanticize islam as ‘honouring’ women or because it is somehow a method of ‘resistance to imperialism’ (oh, and ‘it’s part of our culture’ too) are deluding themselves — islam ‘honours’ women who ‘obey the rules’ — and will eventually hit a brick wall when the bricks-with-dangly-bits who rely for their inspiration on a certain invisible friend whom they name allah point out to them that liberal democracy, to say nothing of ‘socialism,’ is blasphemous and that it and its adherents have no place in the world.
As I've mentioned here before, I left the US, for the second time, in '91 and swore I'd stay out until CEDAW was ratified. Well, I did move back in '00 and, guess what, it's still not!!! What a country for women; right up there with Sudan and Iran.
It is telling that women’s rights are most disparaged in those states where religion, especially abrahamic religion, plays such a major part in the life of its citizens — it is no surprise that the United States and Iran share top billing in this regard.
As far as they could, starting from economic backwardness, exacerbated by the Civil War, the ‘godless commies’ of the USSR mandated true equality for women — not just 30% of bourgeois parliamentarians or extra pairs of Manolo Blahniks under the corporate boardroom table, but full access to all jobs for women, full and equal wages for women with men, socialized dining areas in workplaces, full-time childcare facilities, divorce at the request of either party and free abortion as part of comprehensive health care. They also abolished laws against ‘deviant’ sexuality. Despite the about-face on many of these issues under Stalin, Soviet women still enjoyed conditions that women in the ‘democratic’ West would not enjoy until the 70s, and which are under threat again in the early years of the C21.
The position of women has fallen considerably since the restoration of capitalism and the re-emergence of religious obscurantism in the former Eastern Bloc (particularly in Poland and the islamic ‘Asian Republics’).