the WomanStats Blog

Welcome to the WomanStats Blog!

The WomanStats Blog is an offshoot of the WomanStats Project. This project, begun in 2001, has both a research and a database component. Our research explores the linkage between the security of women and the security of states and the international system. To that end, we have constructed the largest compilation of information on women in the world: over 290 variables for 174 countries. The WomanStats Database is freely accessible online; click on our homepage link above. The purpose of creating a WomanStats blog was to allow project personnel to bring to the attention of readers interesting (and sometimes appalling) facts concerning women, and also to allow them to reflect upon their experiences extracting data for the project. Use the links to the right to access our RSS feed, sign up for email updates, and add our feed to your site. Other functions on site include search, comments, and ShareThis. The posts below are for 2009 and are listed newest to oldest, and we have archives and categories links to the right to assist you in finding particular posts. Enjoy!

Motes and Beams

A couple months ago I came across a story somewhere about sex selective abortions in China.  The image of unwanted girls circled my thoughts.  I felt like I began to see it referenced in most of the media and literature I was reading.  Every Chinese movie I watched whether a drama or romance seemed to discuss this preference for boys over girls.  My heart filled with indignation for these women who were denied the full recognition of their greatness.  I was enraged that woman would destroy the opportunity for another girl to be brought into this earth—that women were often the perpetrators of their own demise.  I still scream as I think about this major wrong that is done to the female spirit by this practice and belief.

I started looking through the information available in the WomanStats database about female infanticide in China.  The statistics are staggering.   “An official study in Hainan Province, [in China] discovered that 68 percent of abortions were of female fetuses” (Country Report: China, 2007, p. 75, 206). This horrific woman on woman violence has been around for Centuries in China and despite the countries best efforts to encourage families to have daughters, the results remain the same.   I would say this cannot be entirely attributed to the One-Child Policy enacted in 1979, but sex-selective abortions and son over daughter preference began long before that.  The main problem can be traced back to the cultural belief that male is better than female. 

These traditions are not always continued in the most blatant manner.  It can simply be by discussing the burden of a girl over a boy because of the increased manual labor a boy can offer over a girl.   In Chinese families, spending more time and money on the son’s education and health over the daughters teaches the her that she is as good.  The belief is engrained in the society.

But the more I thought about it the more I realized that this male better than female mindset is not unique to China and does not exclude my own “Mormon” American up bringing.  The way to begin to change is to begin with ourselves. 

Do we as women perpetuate that we personally are less than men or perhaps that other women are unequal?  As men do we assert that our lives and opinions are above that of a woman?  First we need to identify where the subtle differences are indicated. 

In my family I am the only daughter among six sons.  People used to say my family was very blessed because of the many sons they were given.  I was never directly told I was the weaker sex, but looking back I can see how it was unintentionally implied. I remember being encouraged that I could do anything my brother’s did if I worked hard.  I felt this was great encouragement….and it was.  However, it indicated that I, as a girl, would need to work harder to do all my brother’s did as boys.  Somehow with my inferior genetic female make-up I couldn’t accomplish all my brother’s did naturally as boys.  The common phrase “You play ball with a girl!” Or “Stop acting like a girl!”  It wasn’t until the last couple of years that I was able to ask, “Hey, what’s wrong with being a girl?!”  Nothing is wrong.  The culture is wrong. 

How do we create the change within ourselves and others?  We look for these subtle comments that are a symptom of a flawed belief system.  Then we are able to recognize exactly what we are fighting against.  Is that a naive or to simple answer?  Possibly, but we must start somewhere.  We can not allow it to continue, especially when inflicted by our own gender.  We must fight to empower ourselves both as men and women to realize the truth that all people are created equal not just men.

Posted by CK on 26 August 2010; Even in America; Numbers

 

The Kind of Woman My Grandma Is

           As mentioned in a previous blogpost about visiting Ecuador, last week’s meeting was rather thought provoking. It triggered poignant memories for me as well regarding my own family and the equality of women, especially – as was also mentioned – because everything is seen differently once you are a WomanStats coder. 
            My grandma has impacted my life specifically through her public service. In the course of her life she has served in the state legislature, as Lt. Governor, and as Governor for Utah. She was highly involved in the student body government during college at BYU, and she then pursued her education through various other degrees beyond that. To be honest, with her as my grandmother it never occurred to me that I wasn’t capable or “allowed” to dream big and go for those dreams for any reason. The idea that I couldn’t be successful because I was a girl wasn’t even fathomable.
            I remember my mom telling me funny stories about when my grandmother was younger.  Hopefully unembellished from time and my own memory, one of my favorites has always been when my grandma went with my grandpa to an evening event at Harvard University where my grandpa was pursuing a master’s degree in business. The room was full of the new students and their wives/significant others; at the time, women couldn’t receive an MBA at Harvard. As the event got started, the director of the program stood at the podium and began to talk about the business program. He asked a difficult question regarding business procedure and the room grew quiet as the director scanned the crowd. And then, there was a hand in the air to answer the question – and it wasn’t a student. It wasn’t even a man. It was none other than my grandmother! She answered the question confidently and accurately and then continued to look up at the director for his response. I love to imagine the room’s reaction! The director later came up to my grandparents and laughed as he said, “I hope we’ve accepted the right person!”
           That’s the kind of woman my grandma is.
            I’ve carried that image of my grandmother with me all these years – and ironically, it wasn’t until an evening class discussing state and local government at BYU that that ideal was challenged. As an attempt to liven up the two and half hour night class, our teacher had invited a guest lecturer to come speak to us. Our attention became riveted upon the women who stood at the front of the classroom as she began to tell us about currently serving on the state legislature. As she ran through her qualifications and experiences, she mentioned that she had had the privilege of serving with four different governors in Utah. She lifted her hand up in the air to give her next sentence more emphasis.
            “Each of them had very different styles.”
           I casually cracked open my textbook and tried to look nonchalant as she began telling small anecdotes about the first governor she worked with; I knew eventually she would mention working with my grandmother and I didn’t want to seem too interested and thus exude some level of arrogance by the association.  I snickered under my breath as she began listing endearing qualities she admired about one particular fellow she worked with. Some of my relatives weren’t as gracious as my grandma and therefore had a much different version of the qualities this woman found so endearing. On she went through the personnel until at last she came to my grandmother. I ducked my head a little further, undeniably curious at what she might say.
            “Well, she was the only woman governor Utah has had thus far. And to be honest, I did not like her style. She ran things like a woman.”
            Anything else she might have added after that fell on deaf ears. I was glad my head was down because I could feel my eyes flash with anger. That was all she had to say?! My grandma had years of service and experience and defying the odds of gender and then this guest woman was going to insidiously reduce all that to her gender? I couldn’t believe it. I also couldn’t believe that it was a woman putting down another woman for something such as that. As if it made her more legitimate to discuss government and the state after distancing herself.  Or something. And I may not be in politics – yet - but it still seems like mistake number one is to speak ill of someone in public. I couldn’t figure out the woman’s reasoning for her remarks. I’m fairly sure I spent the rest of the class trying to analyze where this woman was coming from.
            I took away from that experience a couple of things, namely that being a woman and running things like a woman is an honor, never an insult, and those who see it as an insult have quite a few things to learn. How often is it the planning and organization of a woman that really bring a huge event together? Or that really get things done? And second of all, how important it is to speak up! I could have raised my hand and corrected that guest speaker, but the thought of contention steered me away from the thought. Yet, what kind of message did the rest of the class take away with only the guest’s analysis hanging in the air? I’ve realized that everything we have to add can make a difference, especially the knowledge and courage we gain through WomanStats.
            And in the end, I’m left wondering, what if my grandmother had never risen her hand decades earlier at Harvard? It might not have changed the moment, but it’s moments like that that have made her who she is, regardless of anyone’s opinion. And I don’t care who you are, that’s style.

Posted by RFZ on 20 August 2010; Iron Women; Even in America

 

Poor Mowgli's Mistake

            I was watching “The Jungle Book” last night, enjoying the classic tunes and reliving my childhood. At the end Mowgli saw the new hitherto unknown “woman” and was enchanted by her singing and glittery eyes. I had never paid any attention to the girl before, but I actually listened to the lyrics of her song this time, “Then I will have a handsome husband, and a daughter of my own. And I'll send her to fetch the water, I'll be cooking in the home.” I chortled out loud and thought, “It’s rural India, and the movie came out in 1967 when the legal age of marriage in India was 12 years—chances are, Mowgli, she’s already taken.” Mowgli was probably pretty disappointed when he found out that his crush was married, and now there is an uneven sex ratio in India that is definitely not in his favor and today he probably would have little chance of being married due to lack of family presence, no funds and no available women. He should have listened to Baloo and gone back to the jungle. It was at this moment I realized that WomanStats had probably ruined my blissful ignorance of the reality being dismissed in Disney movies. But, they can inspire further blog posts.
            Child marriage is a worldwide phenomenon, and according to UNICEF’s The State of the World’s Children 2009, 49% of all women in the least developed countries are being married before the age of 18. As I investigated further I found some very bleak numbers; 82% of women in Niger, 75% in Bangladesh, 63% in Nepal, 57% in India and 50% in Uganda marry before 18 (International center for research on women Child marriage by the numbers pamphlet). Child marriage not only deprives these young girls of their childhood, but also has serious consequences on their future and their family’s future.
            The amount of education a girl receives is the strongest predictor of when she will be married; the more education a woman receives the longer she will push off marriage. When girls are married young, generally she stops going to school because now she has the responsibilities to the home and to bear children. Often these new responsibilities are mutually exclusive to continuing education. It is essential for girls to be educated to become better wives and mothers. Children of educated mothers have higher survival rates, tend to be better nourished and immunized.
            Health is a major concern for child wives. Young mothers experience much higher rates of maternal mortality and morbidity than women who give birth in their 20s; their bodies are not developed enough to handle childbirth safely. Not only the mother’s life but also the infant’s life are at very high risks due to the mother’s age. A growing concern for child marriage is the higher risk of HIV/AIDS infection.  A child bride generally has unprotected sex with her husband, who by virtue of being older and more experienced could already be a carrier of HIV. In many countries that practice child marriage, notably sub-Saharan Africa, HIV prevalence rates among women 15-24 years old are two to eight times higher than men in the same age group (UNIFEM report “The Implications of early marriage for HIV/AIDS policy” 2004). Child brides, who do not have a high level of general education, often do not have enough information about their reproductive rights, which leads to unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, early childbearing and contraction of STDs such as HIV/AIDS.
            After seeing all the negative consequences of child marriage, it would seem that the obvious solution would be to end it. Although legal action has been taken in many countries where this practice is prevalent, it is to no avail. Such practices are deeply entrenched in many societies and thus the cycle of child brides is hard to break. The girl in The Jungle Book sings about her duties as a daughter to fetch the water and her mother’s duties to cook. In the second refrain she sings about how her duties will be the same as her mother’s to cook and her daughter will fetch the water. This shows her mindset is that what her mother does, she will do and her daughter will follow suit. This idea of the infallibility of traditions is what continues horrid practices such as child marriage. If only the Mowgli’s crush, and other young girls, could sing about how instead of staying and cooking in the home, they will go out and get an education and become self-sufficient before consciously making the decision to seek a “handsome husband,” then the vicious cycle of child marriage can be broken.
            There are many organizations seeking to do this very thing, and many have been successful in their endeavors. To learn more about what is being done and what you can do to stop child marriage you can visit some of these websites:

http://www.iheu.org/node/2563
http://volunteers.unicefusa.org/activities/advocate/child-marriage.html
https://my.care.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=461

Posted by AB on 14 August 2010; WomanStats

 

In Our Families; My Visit to Ecuador

            I had an experience about a year ago that, I am ashamed to say, I pushed from my mind. Being frustrated with the situation I decided that rather than dwell on it, I’d ignore it-not the best way to solve a problem. At our last weekly meeting, however, my thoughts on the subject were again triggered.
            I grew up in Ecuador and lived there until I was eleven. My father is Ecuadorian and all of his family still lives there. Last summer I had the opportunity to return and visit with my family. I was excited to be reunited with my family and be able to spend time in the country I loved so much. While I did love my trip, I was deeply disturbed by something I encountered.
            When I was a kid living in Ecuador, I didn’t really pay attention to the adults, let alone the attitudes and cultural norms surrounding gender equality. However, upon my return last year, I did so with new eyes. I was older, I had been surrounded by a different culture, I was more educated, and most importantly, I was a WomanStats coder.
            Throughout my research I have learned about women of the world and the different challenges that they face. And while I have read about it and studied it, that is all I have done. Most of the more severe things I’ve read about are exactly that, things I’ve read about, not things I’ve seen. That being said, Ecuador is a small country in South America. One of the biggest problems facing the region is that of machismo. Men often use the women in their lives for the sake of looking tough and being in control. When I went back to visit, not only did I see this, but I saw it in my own (extended) family. We stayed with one of my uncles and his wife while we were there. This uncle also happens to be the man in my family afflicted with the severest case of machismo. I was appalled at the way he treated his wife. She was at his beck and call, answering to his every need. It was not a give and take relationship. She was his servant that he occasionally held hands with. It was even more frustrating to me though that she let him treat her that way. There are other men in my family who may be kinda macho and even some that aren’t at all. For most of them it was because the women in their lives refused to be treated that way and then somewhere along the way they realized it too.
            I read about women being treated as commodities but I had never witnessed it. While this isn’t even a severe case, it still shook me. I am a WomanStats coder. The purpose of our research is to fight for the proper treatment of women. How was it possible that something like this was going on in my own family? Even worse were the feelings of helplessness at not being able to do anything. It wasn’t until I brought all of this up at our last meeting that I learned the lesson I was supposed to out of this experience. The whole point was the impact that it had on me. I can’t change my uncle. I can’t change my aunt. The only person I have control over is me. Sometimes people question this research. They can’t understand why I spend hours reading horrific accounts of tortured women. It doesn’t change anything for the women themselves. Why put myself through the nausea and sadness that comes from reading such accounts? I have always thought that the only way to fix a problem is to understand it. We first need to acknowledge that there is a problem. Every document does just that. So maybe I can’t change my uncle. Maybe I can’t change the men in the stories I read. But I can change myself. It is through this process of change of I make a difference. This is the research and these are the experiences that are arming me to do so. This database is important. All those who read the information here hold the same responsibility that I do. We have the research; we have the knowledge to change ourselves. If each person using this database were to change their priorities and make the protection of women one of them, what a difference we would make. Maybe I can’t change the world. But I have changed, and that is what gives me strength to stand up for women even if no one thinks it is making a difference. I look at all of the coders and see how we have changed. We can’t fix the plight of all women, but we have become and outspoken for the cause of women. This is what makes the difference.

Posted by KTA on 10 August 2010; Thinking About Men; Coping Strategies

 

Queen Christina and the Treaty of Westphalia

The 30 Years War officially began in 1618. It was not a single war per se, but a series of interrelated wars between various European powers. It is considered one of the most destructive in Europe, with countries like Germany losing between 15-30% of its population to war and its consequences. Overall it was likely the third most destructive war by body count (WWI and WWII having more), but arguably the most destructive as a percentage of the population. It came to an end in an agreement known as the Treaty, or Peace, of Westphalia. Here is what I remember being taught about this pivotal treaty; it was the beginning of the modern era of states and national sovereignty, it was the end of religion as a major political force in Europe, it happen because Europe was out of money and very war wary, and happened on Oct 24, 1648.

It is perhaps one of the greatest political alliance in all of history. At its signing modern Europe was born. It set up most of the modern nations and boundaries that we recognize today, and as such also set up the majority of the wars that would now happen between sovereign states. Reading the majority of summaries on the Treaty of Westphalia one would get the impression that it was born out of some sort of immaculate conceptions. It just happened. The "States" did this or that, with little ro no attempt to reveal the behind the scenes people that made this monumental treaty possible.

Several weeks ago my daughter asked me to tell her stories of women who had done important things in history. Every night my family goes to bed after reading a story about a famous woman in history. It has been an illuminating exercise in my personal, and our collective forgetfulness of women in History. The general assumption is that women were not involved in world until the recent modern era, but as I have discovered with my daughter this is entirely inaccurate. Christina Vasa and the Treaty of Westphalia is one example.

Christina Wasa became the queen of Sweden at the age of six when her father was killed in one of the battles of the Thirty Years War. She was the sole heir of the King, and he insisted on her education be equal to that of any prince. Thus before his death he had set up his daughter to receive the training necessary to become a successful ruler in time. In 1644, at 18 years of age, she assumed the thrown.

         

By this time the 30 years war had raged for 26 years. The regent of Sweden, prior to Christina assuming the thrown, had procecuted the war fairly effectively. The Swedes had several years of successful battles and along with the French had become one of the stronger European powers. It was the regents advice that Christina continue to prosecute the war, and continue to advance the borders. Acting against his advice, and refusing to continue the Swedish territorial advance, Christina began to initiate peace in the region. Given the 12 years that the regent, Alex Oxenstierna, was in control this was a considerable feat of tactical politics for an 18 year old newly crowned queen.

The Treaty of Westphalia signed in 1648 was really the culmination of four years of negotiations beginning in 1644. It is not clear from the historical record who began the negotiation process, but it does seem clear that it was a combination of the French having already obtained their territorial goals, the Holy Roman Emperor running out of money and being thoroughly beaten, and Christina of Sweden's willingness to not continue their territorial expansion that lead to the beginning of a series of treaties that culminated in complete peace in 1648.

Queen Christina received in the negotiations both territory won in the war and a significant payment from the French for their alliance during the war. This income was used to pay for the war, but also allowed Queen Christina to turn her attention to art and philosophy. Because of her interest and investment into the the arts and sciences Sweden became known as the "Athens of the North".

Learning that a woman was strategic in the Peace of Westphalia came as a complete shock to me. In the several years that I have been a teaching assistant for various political science classes that cover the Peace of Westphalia I had never heard, remembered or taught Queen Christina's involvement in the treaty. I had inadvertently helped propagate an inaccurate view of history by not including the women involved.

I am grateful to my daughter Savannah who's desire to learn about the women of the past has helped correct my own education in so many ways, and hopefully will ensure that at least my children will receive a proper education that includes the roles of the men and women side by side in history.

Information for this post was summarized from the combination of these three articles.
1) http://womenshistory.about.com/od/rulerspre20th/p/queen_christina.htm
2) http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Axel_Oxenstierna_-_Territorial_gains_for_Sweden/id/613179
3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War
4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_of_Sweden

Posted by SMS on 5 August 2010; Iron Women

 

Social Evil Theory and Sex Selective Abortion

This semester I have had the opportunity to take a gender psychology course, which will forever be one of my most memorable college courses. The instructor is very much a feminist by definition (i.e. she supports political, social, and economic equality between the genders). I too am a feminist and found it most supportive to have a role model professor. Because she took gender issues seriously and honestly she welcomed a variety of classroom topics and presentations. A male student and I decided to present on female sex-selective abortions in India and China. We focused on the political, cultural, and traditional influences on family's fertility decisions. I centered my portion of the presentation on dowry practices in India and what this means for unborn Indian girls.
            Sex-selective abortion is the targeted aborting of female fetuses; their gender is seen through ultrasound. Dowry is a traditional practice in which daughters, in order to be married, must present gifts from their family to the groom's family. Gifts include property, money, livestock, valuable possessions, and so on. This practice most common among middle to lower caste families; however, it is widely practiced throughout all India. Because families, and mothers in particular, often cite dowry and its economic burden as the motivation to avoid having daughters, Indian government and the western world view dowry as an evil tradition. Indeed mothers report their main reason for daughter aversion is the dowry practice, yet these same mothers indicate they will require dowry from their future daughters-in-law's families. Dowry is illegal in India, yet as demonstrated, such laws remain ineffective. To address this life-threatening issue, researchers in the social sciences have investigated dowry practices, implications and sex-selective abortions as they relates to dowry.
            The two theories that stood out to me in my research were the social evil theory (commonly held by NGOs and the Indian government) and an alternative theory based on human behavior ecology. The later postulates that many Indians use dowry to ensure favorable situations for their marrying daughters, and that dowry is a way of ensuring security, safety, and respectable treatment of their daughters. It is true that husband's families often use dowry as a form of blackmail against their wife's family—if the gifts are not to the husband's family's liking they may beat the daughter, place her in servitude, and emotionally abuse her. To prevent this fate, families of daughters give her her inheritance early in the form of dowry, which, according to human behavior ecology theory protects her against abuse. The major problem with this theory is that supporting dowry because it protects daughters perpetuates the tradition of son preference and view of women as property. Fundamentally dowry disadvantages women, which is why most others and I favor the social evil theory as an explanation of dowry. Dowry practices support the abuse of women vicariously and dowry increases the economic burden associated with having daughters. It motivates sex-selective abortion and encourages female infanticide. These reasons, among others, indicate that dowry is a social evil against women.
            It was heartbreaking to read about these women who felt justified and supported in their decision to abort their daughters because of the costs of dowry, and that they anticipated requiring dowry from their future daughter-in-laws. My heartbreak was echoed by my classmates who remarked that they had never heard of dowry, sex-selective abortion, or the widespread occurrence of abuse against women. It was important for them to know—for everyone to know, and I am glad I taught them about the social evil of dowry against women in India.

Posted by ALA on 3 August 2010; Education, Please

 

When Women Get a Little Power

The world would say that when women get a little power they would become dictators; shrill, and seeking for domination of men. They would push their agendas forward by any means. They would look sensual, they would have money, and they would tend to be egocentric.

But in the Mewat district of India the “council of Elders” (Panchayat) has made a historical breakthrough: the traditionally male-dominated local political positions have been filled by all women.  Every one of the 10 members is a woman from surrounding villages. What have they done with their new-found power? They have built roads, brought running-water to villages that have been striving for it for decades; they are building schools for girls, upgrading the education system, improving health care, installed 72 toilets, brought proper regulation of government ration shops, and cleaned up government corruption, to mention a few of their accomplishments.

When the head position was filled by a woman, she was asked who she wanted to appoint for the other 10 positions. She said, “I had never stepped out of the house all my life. Suddenly, I was expected to preside  over a team of 10. Wasn’t this the logical solution?” The men in the villages were appalled, mocked them, and sought to belittle them. These older-generation women (in their 60’s and 70’s, one is 79) are illiterate, yet they were determined and thrilled to serve their villages. For 17 years the men had ruled the council by using the funds for “gigs and fairs” (essentially parties). They had never even called a meeting.
My favorite measure these brave women ruled was their first. Once the women of the surrounding villages heard their fellow women were in power, many of them came running, complaining of their intoxicated husbands and sons who were ruining families. Before, there was no law whatsoever on alcoholism, but these women took this large problem and implemented a culturally sound policy: any intoxicated or drunk in the district was not allowed a home-cooked meal. 

This district is unsurprisingly a very patriarchal society. Their sex ratio is astounding (893 females per 1,000 males), maternal mortality rates are off the scale, and has one of the highest incidences in India of child marriages and teenage marriages. It was about time some of these women got a little power. This is simply a case-study, not a generalized view of India, but it does show progress in the right direction. The hope is that this trend will spread across India, giving wise, middle-age women a chance to have a voice in their communities, changing the world one village at a time.

The beautiful women of the Mewat Panachayat

I told my roommate about this wonderful news, and she said, “Well of course, this makes perfect sense. Women see the needs of others and their communities. Men see business.”  These women have been able to see these needs, make a difference, and implement laws within cultural context that perhaps would never have been seen by a man’s perspective.  Women bring a view of the world that is essential in policy decisions for communities and nations. When given power, most well-reasoned women don’t think of themselves; their first thoughts are their family and then their community. Time Magazine featured a whole edition on women, and one of the articles focused on what women do with micro-loans in developing countries. The study found that men generally spent the money on tobacco, alcohol, and sometimes their personal business ventures. Women spent the money on health care, food, and needs for the family.
Although men may mock, women need to bring their perspectives to the table of improving our communities and societies. Salma, a member of the council said, “The men ridiculed us saying women are meant only to dance inside the house. We said why are we then made to work in the fields, fetch water, fetch wood? They said the panchayat is different.

We said, just wait and see.”

Posted by JF on 1o May 2010; Positive Change

 

Education for Migrant Children in China

Since coming to China, my husband and I have become interested in the lives of Chinese migrant laborers. Last semester we taught English at a school for migrant children and this semester my husband has an internship working with an NGO that helps gives legal advice to migrants and helps them adapt to life in the city. Working at the school was a wakeup call; the stark difference between the nice schools and well-dressed children around our neighborhood and the conditions in which the migrant children learn is astounding. Instead of wearing neat matching uniforms, the students wore matching neck kerchiefs. The building is old and drab and the classrooms have no digital capabilities. Each of our classes packed 70 children into the room, making it almost impossible to keep order and engage everyone. Our curriculum felt like a joke. It was not uncommon for us to teach one thing and come back the next week and find that the students were still on the same lesson. Their textbooks were badly in need of updating; I didn’t see the point of even teaching them terms like “cassette player”. As a disclaimer, I am talking about my experience teaching one subject in one school. I can’t speak for the condition of other schools other than generalities that I have read about in news articles.

This means that migrant children, both male and female, are limited because of their birth. Most come from rural towns where they have few opportunities. An article in the March 27-28 English China Daily discusses new research that shows that rural children are “three to six times more likely than city children to die before they turn 5.” They also have fewer educational opportunities. The problem, however, is that when migrant laborers settle in a Chinese city they are not considered residents of that city but still of their rural home. This has widespread implications for healthcare, education, legal issues, and more. Because education money is given to provinces based on their number of children and migrant children are considered residents of where they are from and not where their parents work, they cannot access the educational institutions of their city-born peers. To cover the needs of the children, unofficial or illegal schools sprout up but do not necessarily provide them with as good of an education. According to another article, “The only long-term solution is wide-ranging and systematic reform of the social welfare system and abolition of the hukou [registration] system.” That is huge and seems unlikely in the near future, although the article says demands for change are mounting.

This issue affects both female and male students. And when I think of the lack of education that rural and migrant children face, it does not surprise me that many of the tough issues for Chinese women are predominantly rural problems. Some examples include maternal and infant mortality and bride trafficking. We have discussed over and over at WomanStats that education for men and women is key in helping societies combat discrimination against women and until China confronts the education crisis that is happening all over the country, I am afraid that the same problems will continue to perpetuate themselves. And this breaks my heart when I think of our beautiful students and hope for their futures.

Posted by MIR on 13 April 2010; Insane Laws; Education, Please

 

Women and Disabilities

            My job is to give women, all women, a voice. When I got the assignment to write a blog, I knew exactly what I wanted to address: women with disabilities.  I wanted to address this topic because it affects me directly—I am a woman and I am a woman with a disability. Women with disabilities do not really have a voice, sadly not even in our own database. Only one variable directly addresses women with disabilities, and for this variable there is very little information. I’m writing my blog to ask “why?” Why are these particularly vulnerable women going unnoticed?
            Women are largely discriminated against because of their gender and women with disabilities are discriminated as being both disabled and a woman. This two-fold discrimination makes life exceptionally hard to live. In many cultures, women with disabilities have a particularly acute social stigma. This can prevent her from receiving the kind of help that she needs not only to overcome her disability, but also to be able to function as a member of society. Generally, women with disabilities do not have access to education and training. According to a 1998 UNDP study, the global literacy rate for adult women with disabilities is 1 percent. As our database shows under the section “Differential Access to Health Care Based on Gender,” many women around the world cannot access health care; having a disability augments this disadvantage in healthcare access.
            Fortunately, many developed countries have legislation prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities. For example the Americans With Disabilities Act prevents discrimination in employment, state and local government services, public transport and telecommunications. In the UK there is the Disability Discrimination Act and Germany and France both have their own similar laws. Even with these legal barriers in place, it is generally difficult for people with disabilities to obtain a job. Men with disabilities are twice as likely to have jobs than women with disabilities. When women with disabilities do work, they often “experience unequal hiring and promotion standards, unequal access to training and retraining, unequal access to credit and other productive resources, unequal pay for equal work and occupational segregation, and they rarely participate in economic decision-making” (Arthur O’Reilly. "Employment Barriers for Women with Disabilities" in "The Right to Decent Work of Persons with Disabilities" IFP/Skills Working Paper No. 14. International Labour Organization 2003).
            Naturally these statistics make me a bit concerned for my own future. It’s scary for me to think about what will happen to me when I leave BYU and enter the workforce. Sure I have the Americans with Disabilities Act and other pieces of legislation to theoretically be my advocate, but in all reality it is going to be extremely difficult not just because I am a woman or that I have a disability, but because I am a woman with a disability. I share my fears with millions of disabled women worldwide. What are we going to be able to do with our lives? We can be just as smart and capable as men with disabilities, or our more able bodied female counterparts, but we still may not be able to have the same opportunities as they do. All the while our plights are not investigated as the women’s rights movement doesn’t always address the issue of women with disabilities and the disability rights movement doesn’t focus on women. We’re left out.
            So what do we do? Unfortunately right now I don’t know a good answer to that. I do know that I signed up for this job because I want to change how women are treated. Change comes from illumination and education, which is exactly what this project provides to the world. I have a good year left as a Woman Stats coder and with that time I hope to be able to expand this section of the database to provide education on women with disabilities. I know that through my efforts as a coder I can help provide the information needed to change the situation of women world wide. I sincerely hope that I can create change for this minority within a minority not just for my sake, but for the benefit of all the other women, who like me, face the world with a disability.

For additional information, see http://www.un.org/womenwatch/enable/

Posted by AB on 29 March 2010; Women (General)

 

Female Engagement Teams: It's About Time!

In an attempt to enhance the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, the Marines have decided to try something radical and previously unheard of in Western countries. The idea is have female engagement teams of about 4 to 5 which will accompany men that are patrolling the Helmand Province in Afghanistan. And what is their purpose? It is their assignment to reach out to Afghan women and learn from them the needs of their area as well as to gain intelligence related to the Taliban. The information gathered from these discussions would then be compiled in a database and would be of great use to aid workers and the military.

At Camp Pendleton in California, 40 female marines recently received “cultural awareness” training which discussed how this special group of Marines would accomplish their mission while still respecting the culture around them. Upon entering a compound guarded by male military units, the women were instructed that they should leave their guns, remove their helmets, and cover their hair with a headscarf. Before talking with the women, permission from the village elder would be required, and then using a female interpreter, discussions with the local women could begin.

Prior to this new strategy, the Marines did have a few female engagement teams which accompanied patrol units and it was their goal as well to try and talk with the women. However, it was difficult to gain permission from village leaders and the use of male interpreters was a major setback. Even though these setbacks occurred, the American women started to win the trust of the Afghan women. Because of the success that was seen by these troops, the Marines hope that by training full time engagement units and using female translators, greater success will occur and Afghan and American women will be able to connect and share valuable information.

What a great idea! In this particular society where men are the predominate decision makers and voice of the community and where women often do not have the voice they deserve, employing female engagement teams may prove to be a beneficial tool to aid in the reconstruction process. Even the officers of General McChrystal have said that in order to gain the trust of the people, half of the population could not be ignored.  

The most successful development and aid projects have always taken into account the information given by both men and women. Through reaching out to these Afghan women, not only will their needs be discovered, but these women can see a different lifestyle in which women can have a stronger influence in their community and homes. Although the purpose of this mission is not empowerment of Afghan women per se, I believe this could be one of the byproducts.

Even in countries like Afghanistan, great strides are being made to recognize women and the important role they play in their societies. Gradually as the work of these Marines moves forward, hopefully lasting change will be made in Afghan society. I admire these female engagement teams and the wonderful work they are doing.

From the New York Times and NPR:
Letting Women Reach Women in Afghan War
Woman To Woman: A New Strategy In Afghanistan

Posted by JH on 21 March 2010; Positive Change

 

I'm a Title IX Girl

I have always loved sports. When I was younger, my identity was a soccer player. Literally. When people asked me who I was my first thought was not a daughter, a sister, a girl, or even a student, a child, a Californian or an American. I played soccer. To this day, one of my most remarkable memories was sitting in the Rose Bowl with over 90,000 other people, watching the 1999 Women’s World Cup Final, and seeing Brandi Chastain slice the soccer ball into the goal, cementing a victory as she whirled her shirt over her head. It was only later that I fully began to realize how amazing it is for me to have these memories.

My mother never played sports in high school or college, despite her natural athletic ability and passion for competition. Neither did her friends or my grandmothers. According to a National federation of State High Schools Report, prior to 1971, there were only 294,015 girls playing high school sports compared to 3,666,917 boys. Fast forward to 2005, and there were 2,953,355 girls playing high school sports. That is a 904% increase! In the same time period there was an almost 456% increase in women’s participation in collegiate sports.

This is an incredible, almost unbelievable shift in our culture, social norms, and school/public policy. This change can largely be attributed to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. In the last forty years, this law enabled and encouraged women to participate in athletics. Yet to be honest, most people are either unaware of or condemn Title IX. I remember the first time I had a major disagreement with my high school economics teacher it was over the benefits of Title IX. He argued that it had served its purpose and now was damaging boys’ opportunities.

We have all heard the arguments before. Title IX hurts men’s sports. It shuts down teams and unfairly benefits girls, who don’t even really want to play as much. It economically irrational and doesn’t follow the markets currents, implying that Title IX is anti-capitalistic and, in some way, almost a sin against mankind. A co-worker of mine had a debate with another man, who said, “it's done some good, but for the most part, it's had some of the worst ramifications ever, especially where college sports are concerned.” So why is Title IX relevant and, more importantly, why should it be preserved?

The important language in Title IX is actually this: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

• 20 U.S.C. §1681.

The law is aimed at eliminating sexual discrimination, which, I hope, we all can agree is a good goal. Contrary to popular thought, it does not require equal distribution of college or high school funds for men and women’s sports. In a 2003-2004 study, female collegiate athletes received only 37% or sports funds and only 32% of the recruitment funds—hardly a 50-50 split. Instead, the law focuses on having an institution demonstrate that they are making progress and that men and women participate in sports in proportional amount to their enrollment numbers. Men and women’s teams are not required to have the same services or the same equipment, or the same funds, but there also should not be strong disparities between the two. Before, there were cases of women’s basketball teams not having any uniforms, while the boys got new ones every year. A small case, but something that is so frustrating, because it is external validation by the school that boys have the right to play but girls do not. For boys, it’s admirable. For girls, it’s pointless and strange. Title IX is aimed at taking down these sexual stereotypes that create barriers for both genders in suggesting that all boys and only boys are interested in sports.

To be honest, it is more than a little sad that the perception is that by elevating women’s athletics and allowing women to compete and develop like men, we are harming men. There has been a steady increase in male sports participation in sports since Title IX. The NCAA memberships have had a net gain of 70 men’s sports since Title IX. And the claim that Title IX cuts men’s funding in favor for girls, despite all the stories your brother or neighbor or that boy in your class has told you, is also flawed. The real culprit? Typically men’s football and basketball teams. Schools are responsible under Title IX to have equitable distribution of funds. This doesn’t need to be a 50-50 split, but if 40% of the athletes are female, and the school athletic budget is only 25%, then someone could potentially sue and win them for discriminating against women under Title IX. So colleges plow money into these two sports at the expense of other men’s sports. By some estimates, Division I schools spend 40-50% of their sports budget on these two sports. Just these two sports! It’s incredible.

So it’s heartening when people realize that these consequences are due less to Title IX then a priority only a few sports. NCAA President Myles Brand states “Title IX mandates increased participation opportunities, not fewer. It is true that institutions [sic] must make decisions about what it can afford and what it cannot, about how many sports it can sponsor, and about the level at which those sports will be supported. Those are the results of institutional priorities and financial circumstances, not the unintended consequence of Title XI” (Title IX: 35 Years).  

And the argument that these two sports are justified to have these expenditures because their revenues pay for women’s sports? Also not justified. According to a 2002-2003 NCAA Report on Division I and II Intercollegiate Sports, 52% of football and 52% of basketball programs “operate with budget deficits, spending more than they bring in and contributing nothing to other sports budgets”. So while it may be true that some football sports do pay for the women’s softball teams, it is also true that at least half the time, if not more, they are actually a financial drain on the largest colleges, siphoning off a large percentage of a large athletic budget, which could have gone to supporting more men and women’s sports.

But I do understand their pain. It hurts me when I think about how the BYU men’s soccer team is only a club on our campus. I hate hearing that the lacrosse team can’t play in an official capacity at colleges around campus, or that this or that sport doesn’t exist at this high school or that university. Because I love sports, and I understand the personal value of them: the thrill of jumping off the bench to represent your team for the first time, the delight of catching the ball, or of striking that perfect cross, of knowing you have given everything your body can, or of rejoicing in competition. It’s not a gender-restricted reaction—it’s a human reaction. Boys and girls can both want it.  And I want everyone to have that opportunity. And Title IX has allowed literally millions of girls to have that opportunity, an opportunity that they never had before. The change to say, “I am an athlete, first and foremost” and not be ashamed because they are a girl and should not feel that way.

Not only that, the social benefits of encouraging women to play sports is almost incalculable. They have preformed several studies and all of them have a similar result: sports are good for women. Even if a person could prove that Title IX was a short run drain on men’s sports, and believed that women’s sports should not be supported because they are not typically as popular at the Olympics or at the professional level, look at the long run, individual and societal benefits: 
“Research studies have found that girls who play sports are more confident, have higher self-esteem and better body images, are less likely to get pregnant or be involved with drugs, and are more likely to graduate from high school than girls who do not play sports. Furthermore, sports participation reduces the risk of developing heart disease and helps control weight, builds lean muscle, reduces fat and prevents osteoporosis. As little as two hours of exercise a week on the part of a teenage girl can reduce her lifelong risk of breast cancer” (Title IX: 35 Years, 7).

How can we deny women the right to play and compete? Title IX tore down gender barriers so that people like me could play soccer in high school and run track and cross-country. It has helped me fulfill my dreams, and it has literally made me a healthier, stronger, more fulfilled person. And can’t we all use women with higher self-esteem? These women give back to society in more than just ticket-sales at college games. Theirs is a long-term investment; paid back over decades of service, community building, career employment, and teaching. 

Posted by MLT on 17 March 2010; Education, Please; Women (General)

 

There's More to Life than a Harvard Degree

                  American philosopher and psychologist, Mary Whiton Calkins, is yet another heroine to be added to my list of favorites.  As a pioneer in both her field and her gender, she crossed uncharted territory.  With the support of her father, Mary received degrees in both philosophy and the classics at a time when women generally did not attend university—the late 1800s.  She became a Greek language tutor and later was offered a teaching position at Wellesley College, where she instructed the all-female classes in Greek, philosophy, and psychology.  Due to her excellence in teaching, Mary was appointed to a newly created position in the experimental psychology department, despite her lack of training in psychology, and looked to expand her knowledge in the subject. 
                  She found that there were virtually no options for women at the time to attend classes in psychology, and a woman receiving a PhD was unheard of.  Mary decided to take classes through Harvard Annex, but was encouraged by her professor there, Josiah Royce, to take regular classes through Harvard with William James, another professor of renown, despite that it was a solely male student body.  However, the president of Harvard, Charles Eliot, did not like the idea of a woman studying in the same room as a man.  Eventually, with added pressure from Mary’s father and both Royce and James, Eliot finally allowed her to attend classes as long as she was registered as a guest—not as a student.
                   Shortly after, Mary, continuing both her education as well as her teaching job, helped to set up a psychology laboratory at Wellesley and introduced scientific psychology to their curriculum.  She excelled in her studies, hopefully to the shock and shame of the few men who had actually dropped the classes in protest when she began attending.  She completed every requirement for a PhD, and although her Harvard professors enthusiastically supported her, she was denied the honor of actually receiving it.  She was then offered the degree by Radcliffe, Harvard’s college for women, but politely turned it down, stating that she had done the work at Harvard. 
                  Mary didn’t let the unfortunate actions of others deter her from continuing teaching and researching, however.  Her contributions to psychology included the invention of the paired-associate technique for studying memory, groundbreaking research on dreams, and the development of a form of self-psychology.  To top it off, she became the first female president of both the American Psychological Association and the American Philosophical Association.  Although students petitioned for her to receive her degree in 1927, they were denied.  I am still trying to find out if she ever received a degree posthumously.

                  I admire this woman and her principles—continuing on her merry scholarly way despite an exasperating power struggle and an absent degree.  I also admire the men in her life who tried to help her attain her academic goals, thus paving the way for women’s equality in academia.  After a bit of reflection, I realize there’s a lot in my own education that I take for granted—I could have been born in a time where women were not allowed to study.  But here I am, surrounded by incredible experiences, with some truly amazing opportunities ahead of me.  And there’s still much to be done where equality is concerned.  I just hope that I can keep this snowball rolling forward at a pace that’s fast enough to make dear Mary proud.  

Posted by ASF on 4 March 2010; Education, Please; Women (General)

 

The Miracle Diet is Dead: Long Live the Miracle Diet

Recently I’ve been bombarded by the world’s obsession with body image: from material I’ve coded to assignments for school and even things I come across as I prepare for my wedding. It almost feels like I’m being given a hint, some sort of sign that I need to pay attention to this subject, and who am I to argue?

Evidence #1:
I have tried on many a wedding dress in my day. Now, I will be the first to admit that my body type is not the average woman’s body type (I distinctly remember the day a friend and I decided to go on a “fat diet” in junior high after receiving one too many taunts about our less-than-voluptuous figures). I know very well that I am thinner than most. The shocker to me is that so many wedding dresses are small, small, small—small enough to fit me, some even too small, sold in most stores in only the sample sizes of 4 and 6.

We read an article recently by Fatema Mernissi entitled “Size Six: The Western Women’s Harem” (http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/6/size_six_the_western_women_s_harem/). In it, she compares the Western world’s obsession with beauty and thinness to the way a Muslim man might try to suppress a woman by excluding her from the public view. She commented that Western attitudes “are even more dangerous and cunning than the Muslim ones” because while a Muslim man might physically force a woman to veil her face, the Western world figuratively veils older or larger women “wrapping them in shrouds of ugliness” if they don’t conform to an unrealistic expectation of perpetual youth and beauty. Did you know that the average model weighs 23% less than the average American woman? Or that only 5% of American women could possibly attain this body type genetically? Yet that is the standard we are held to.

Evidence #2
While writing a paper about the way telenovelas influence Mexican women’s body image, I came across an article that mentioned that Latinas are “opting for the head-to-toe fashion statement” and converting to Islam. Yes, you read right. Several Latinas told a Christian Science Monitor reporter that the reason they converted to Islam was that they wouldn’t be seen as sex objects anymore. I suppose that this isn’t SO surprising when you consider the way Latinas are portrayed: flip on any Spanish television channel and you will be bombarded with unintelligent Latina bombshells. Adding insult to injury, the stereotypical Latina expects men to notice her sex appeal (often wearing low-cut, skin-tight clothes to achieve the desired effect).

Evidence #3
A few months ago I coded an article that ran in the magazine Marie Claire entitled “Forced to be Fat” (http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/international/forcefeeding-in-mauritania-2), and to my dismay, I found that the people of Mauritania have taken my silly junior-high “fat diet” to a whole different level. There, where bigger is better and stretch marks are sexy, girls are brutally force-fed a diet of up to 16,000 calories a day to prepare them for marriage. 16,000 calories a day, by the way, is more than four times what a male bodybuilder would eat.

Young girls in Mauritania are sent to a literal “fat camp,” where they have to endure the practice of leblouh—intensive force-feeding. At the end of the camp, force feeders sometimes receive a bonus if their “clients” have gained enough weight to develop silvery stretch marks, the ultimate sign of beauty. Spectacular results are achieved, apparently, by beating the girls, torturing them by squeezing a stick between their toes and isolating them. And at the end of it all, 12-14 year olds become eligible bachelorettes, for in the words of a force-feeder, “How will these poor girls find a husband if they're bony and revolting?” Goodbye sports.

What is so very frustrating about all three of these extremely diverse examples of the way women suffer to be beautiful is that they are so very, very different. It would be bad enough if all women everywhere were supposed to be thin, or veiled, or fat. But the saddest thing is that it seems as though no matter WHAT the standard of beauty is, it will always be detrimental to women. 

Posted by VN on 28 February 2010; Even in America; Wardrobe Problems; Women (General)

 

Firing Pregnant Women in a Recession?

                  What if I told you, that you could lose your job? In today’s economy that would seem probable. Now, what if I told you that if you were pregnant your chance of losing your job is even higher? Most people would say that is impossible, no work place would fire a pregnant woman, its inhuman! Well guess what folks, it’s happening right here in America. According to the New York Times, during the past year pregnant women who have lost their jobs have risen by over 50%. How could this be? The simple reason is that it is illegal for a workplace to fire a woman on the grounds of pregnancy, but that doesn’t mean the employer will declare that in the official records. Employers are avoiding maternity costs and benefits by targeting pregnant women and finding other excuses to lay off their pregnant employees. Now, where is the justice in that?! Here is another problem; the woman can’t apply for unemployment because…you have to be actively looking for a job; if you are in the last months of pregnancy that becomes very difficult. How much lower can a society or group of people sink? Targeting people for layoffs just because they are pregnant, so I ask even though employers want to maximize profits is avoiding maternity benefits really the most moral way to lower costs? Because it seems to me that it’s just another form of workplace discrimination against women.
Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/health/28patient.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Posted by MGH on 21 February 2010; Maternity Matters; Even in America

 

Jesus is a Feminist

When Jesus walked the streets of Palestine he set an example, a standard of behavior we are taught to follow. At that same time, and even today, the women of the Holy Land were oppressed. Women were forbidden to read scriptures, to pray, or to worship in the same court as men. In fact men used prayer to express gratitude and relief to God that they themselves were not created as a woman. Speaking to a woman in public, even if she were one's wife or daughter, was viewed as improper and dirty. Understanding this cultural context sheds light on the behaviors of our Savior when he frequently crossed the lines of propriety and spoke with women, taught women, prayed with and for women, and even revealed himself as the Messiah and Savior of the world to women!

Leonard Swidler, a professor of Catholic Theology, wrote an article entitled "Jesus was a Feminist" (http://www.godswordtowomen.org/feminist.htm). He begins his thesis with a definition of feminism that I find accurate and enlightening: "By a feminist is meant a person who is in favor of, and who promotes, the equality of women with men, a person who advocates and practices treating women primarily as human persons (as men are so treated) and willingly contravenes social customs in so acting." Using events recorded in the gospels, and a history of Palestine as a nation (and thus its treatment of women) Swidler eloquently describes the brave feminist acts Christ demonstrated even in the presence of the Pharisees and Sadducees who perpetuated women's suppression. Swidler analyzes women as disciples, commanded by Jesus to teach the gospel to others; women and resurrection (raising of Jairus' daughter, raising the only son of the widow of Nain, and raising of Lazarus' at the request of his sisters Martha and Mary); and women as humans, not sex objects, when he rebuked the accusers of the woman caught in adultery. All these events sincerely displayed Christ's disapproval of gender inequalities, but what perhaps moves me the most was how Jesus' healed the woman who had an issue of blood.

Cross-culture taboos continue today regarding menstruation as a curse of uncleanliness. Palestinian taboos surrounding menstruation demonstrated this belief. This woman had bled for twelve years, spent all her money doctors who could not heal her, and was seen by all her community and constantly ritually unclean. As multitudes surrounded Christ she, knowing of the negative beliefs all held about her bleeding, sought to discretely touch the robe of Jesus with faith in His healing. Her faith was remarkable and she was healed. But then Christ responded in such a way that defied ritual norms: He asked for the woman directly and in the midst of the multitude spoke "thy faith hath make thee whole; go in peace and be whole of thy plague." Jesus addressed and healed a woman, a woman in public, a woman with an "unclean" disease. 

Although this story is one I know quite well, hearing it in historic context illustrated to me how much the Savior exemplified equality between men and women. I believe in equality, I believe in Christ, and I now feel confident in declaring, "I am a feminist," and am following Christ's example. 

Posted by ALA on 16 February 2010; Positive Change; Women (General)

 

The Dark Side of Paradise

When most of us think of island countries like Fiji and the Solomon Islands, we picture colorful plant life, gorgeous ocean views, and a place removed from troubles and fears; in short, we picture a sort of paradise.  These are also the first things that come to my mind when I think of these and similar places.  That is, they were the first things that came to my mind before I became a WomanStats coder.  Reading about women in a particular area more often than not flips conventional ideas about that area on their heads thus allowing you to see clearly the grime between the tiles of culture and society.  This has proven to be true as I have read about the situation of women in Melanesia (Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu).

Where I once would have seen pristine beaches and beautiful waters as I pictured these countries, I now imagine the pain, fear, and endurance that is surely etched into some of the faces of the women of these countries.  You see, although these places may be prime spots for tourists to get their perfect tans, they’re also prime spots for local women to get beaten, raped, verbally insulted, or otherwise abused.  According to focus group interviews, some common forms of abuse are beating, choking, whipping, pulling hair, burning with fire, and banging the head on the ground.  Add to that verbal slurs such as “slut,” “prostitute,” and “you’re just a woman” and you begin to realize that the paradise these women are living in is anything but.  In addition to all of this, I then discovered that these women very rarely go anywhere alone because rape is common enough that each solo outing presents a significant risk.  So they go out together or they stay home.  But are they safe there?  Not according to the woman who reported that her husband beats her, rips her clothes off, and rapes her all while her helpless children look on and plead for him to stop.  For this woman and others like her, home may be one of the riskiest places for her to be.  This risk is not just for those women who live with their partners either; many women reported being beaten and raped by their boyfriends just because they wanted to use a condom.

As if these violent atrocities against the women of “paradise” weren’t enough to sicken anyone, I further discovered that these countries have additional perils for women which are perhaps more heinous than the ones already listed.  In addition to men beating and raping their significant others for wanting to use protection, there is a special protocol for those women who are viewed as, shall we say “uppity,” and desire to exercise rights, opinions, and autonomy.  When a man has a girlfriend like this and decides that it is time for her to “learn her lesson,” he will inform his friends of when and where he’s planning on having sex with her so they can ambush and gang rape her to put her in her place.  Not only are women punished for exercising independence, but they also have to pay a terrible price for contracting an STD.  This terrible phenomenon was discovered when HIV/AIDS treatment medications began to become available in these countries.  Women would come in for one treatment and by the time they came back for their next, it was often with bruises and broken bones because their partners brutally assaulted them as their quest for treatment brought their condition out of the shadows.  The fact that the women generally contracted these apparently infuriating STDs from their abusive partners was apparently not relevant.  Finally, because many of these countries have various clans, women are often exchanged between clans to settle feuds with little regard for the women themselves.  In fact, there were reported cases in which men of one tribe were allowed to repeatedly rape a woman of another in order to settle a feud between them.  This unenlightened tradition is practiced because clearly causing an uninvolved woman irreparable physical and psychological harm somehow solves the problem.

In short, although I love doing research for the WomanStats project, you cannot learn more about the women of the world without being exposed to a dark underside of the realities we’ve always taken for granted.  Whether it’s discovering that the U.S. health system systematically discriminates against motherhood or learning that the white beaches of popular tourist destinations mask the blood and tears of the women who can’t leave after a few days, I’ve discovered that learning not only involves comprehending the good but also gaining a more detailed understanding of the bad and the ugly.  Either way, knowledge is power and I can only hope that the knowledge of paradise infected will violence will be used to aid in the cure so that the paradise we imagine can be a reality and not merely a façade.

Posted by AK on 13 February 2010; WomanStats, Women (General)

 

Penelope in Ethiopia

While coding a document about female genital mutilation (FGM) in Ethiopia, I found that the education of women makes no significant difference in the practice of FGM.  The prevalence of FGM according to woman’s level of education is:
No education – 80.4%
Primary education—78.4%
Secondary education—78.2%

"The results can only be explained by the social and cultural pressures in the country, so that even the most enlightened and educated women do not venture to discard the tradition even when they oppose it in principle."

In Ethiopia, FGM is believed to be necessary for spiritual cleanliness.  It is a rite of passage needed for social acceptance and seen as necessary for hygienic and aesthetic reasons. The community enforces FGM by using fear of punishment by God or supernatural forces, poems and songs that celebrate circumcision and deride uncircumcised girls, and forcing FGM on women from other tribes marrying into the group.  The community also enforces FGM through divorce and refusal to marry uncircumcised women. 
This last method seems the most impactful. Though education can usually dispel myths of FGM being necessary for good hygiene, linked to Islamic or Christian beliefs, or able to prevent a newborn’s death, education will not always grant a woman social acceptance or guarantee her a husband.  Education, it seems, is not the be-all end-all answer to the world’s human rights questions.

I imagine that mothers in Ethiopia who perform FGM on their daughters believe that they are protecting them from ruin – the ruin that comes from being an unmarriageable or divorced woman in a traditional patriarchal society.  As our own database reports, a girl in Ethiopia “is expected to be shy and obedient, not to speak up in front of adult[s], in particular men. Her focus shall be entirely on her future reproductive and productive roles in the household of her husband. She shall respect and obey her husband and of course remain faithful to him."

The report does not specify what kind of education the Ethiopian women received.  I will not assume that education specifically teaching the physical and psychological consequences of FGM would not help to suppress the custom.  For all I know, the women could have been taught in school that FGM is necessary.  But I’d like to address a larger issue.

As Marilyn Waring wrote in Counting for Nothing, it is women who “reproduce social relations that have a deleterious effect on their health.  It was mothers who bound feet, it is women who perform clitoridectomy and other forms of female circumcision on young girls.  It is mothers who refuse to believe or deny their daughters’ reports of the father, uncle, brother, or neighbour’s molestation.”

All over the world, the inferiority of women is enforced on a daily basis.  The solution is not for outsiders to campaign for change, for governments to pass new laws, or for women to go to more years of school.  To be sure, all of these things can and will have an effect on the status of women.  But they are solutions aimed at the manifestations of the problem, not at the problem itself. 

In order for the governments, the leaders, the judges, the law officers, the husbands, and the fathers to see women differently, women must see themselves differently.  They must see their own inherent worth.  They must know that their lives, their voices, and their bodies have a value of their own.  Only then will they be able to stand up for themselves; only then will they be able to pass on this understanding to their daughters. 

I recently saw the film Penelope, in which a girl born with a pig’s snout is shut away from the world by her parents, waiting for a blue-blooded man to fall in love with her and break the curse that caused her ugliness.  She spends ages 18 to 25 meeting potential suitors who are lured by the promise of a substantial dowry, only to have them run away at the first glimpse of her face.  Penelope’s mother repeatedly tells her that getting married is her only chance for happiness. 

But Penelope finally learns that she is the one who needs to learn to love herself.  She breaks free from her overprotective mother (a woman who believes, “That's what mothers do with daughters; they talk about how to look prettier”).  Penelope goes out into the world, refuses to marry a man who does not love her, and ultimately declares, “I like myself the way I am.” 

Posted by LES on 7 February 2010; FGM; Positive Change

 

Seeing Beyond the "End"

Is volunteering a leech to femininity? Is it just a system that is perpetuating cultural expectations and limitations? Or can it be a stepping-stone to success for women?

The evidence stacked against volunteering is no small pile of grievances. Some of the arguments against women volunteering as a path to success include: volunteers are not taken seriously, it does not fix economic vulnerability, it feeds into the stereotype that “women’s work” can be done for free while the man’s world remains unchanged, it limits the value and talents of women, it can limit a woman from receiving independent credit in the way a “real” job would not, and there are no health benefits (or any tangible benefits really) to be seen for all the work. Feminist academics like Nancy Folbre argue that women have been expected to fill volunteer positions, with no reward but a job well done, for so long that it has become a cultural norm. There are multitudes of women who have volunteered for five, ten, fifteen years – only to realize that they are no more competitive in the work place or economically self-sufficient then they were before they volunteered. While some continue to see volunteerism as a noble and fulfilling sacrifice of time and energy, many women can attest to the strangling consequences they have come to experience by choosing the volunteer route.

While this evidence blatantly shows that the system is structurally flawed, I argue that virtue can yet be salvaged from volunteer work for women. While tradition sees female volunteer work as an end, I suggest that it can serve as a means. For women who volunteer for personal reasons (as a hobby, self-fulfillment, altruistic reasons, etc.) volunteering is the “end” – they do not intend to use their volunteer work as a way to reach a higher goal. The flaws of the system become magnified if a woman, who has been volunteering for years for personal reasons, has a change of circumstances where she needs to convert volunteering from an end to a means. I do not know how that would work or what obstacles would stand in her way, but I do know it would be incredibly difficult. If it has not been the goal all along, preparations for progress beyond volunteering would most likely not have been taken. In this scenario, the intangible benefits of volunteering would indeed limit the woman’s opportunities and offer little direction for what to do next. For this argument, women who have found volunteering restricting and have stood at this crossroads would be far more qualified to deconstruct these injustices than myself.

However, how about women who approach volunteering from the get-go as a means instead of an end, a mere tool to step closer to a distant goal instead of a twilight zone? Can volunteer work be valuable? I offer my own experience to suggest the possibilities. All I have to offer is my meager 21 years, but thus far I have seen volunteer work as a valuable step in positioning myself to achieve my goals. For example, I volunteered one summer for the non-profit organization United Way of Utah County. The experience rewarded me with the opportunity to meet people in authority in Utah County, gain a valuable friend in the President of United Way (who has been a great recommendation source), learn programs used for networking, as well as computer programs for organization and presentation, and become the representative on the front of the United Way of Utah County pamphlet. All of these things I gained from volunteering have benefited me in my current career/academic status and continue to open doors and qualify me for possibilities in the future.

Does this make me the outlier compared to the woman who has volunteered for five years and is left with the ugly underbelly of the system? I’d argue both perspectives are credible and therefore validate the notion of two sides to volunteering. But what makes the divide? Does there need to be qualifications on volunteering? Must the qualifications specify how long a woman can volunteer, what her initial motives must be, what stage of life she is in, or what kind of volunteer work it is, to be able to draw the line between beneficial volunteering and unbeneficial volunteering? Perhaps in the answers to these questions lies some potential evidence as to whether the system is solely constraining to women, or if the mentality of the women going into the system is equally limiting.

For those who dismiss the idea that volunteering could be a significant means to meet a specific goal, I pose an observation I have made. In my religious social circle, there are three men who are volunteering at the IHC hospital in Provo. Their work ranges from interpreting, working in the ER, and working in the OR. I have overheard them discussing their workload, their school load, and their trepidation to take the GMAT, GRE, and MCAT. So on the point of being completely frazzled, why do they volunteer? To get to where they want to go. I would like to bet money - if that were an acceptable thing to do - that their volunteer work will end when they get what they want from it, because to them it is a means, not an end, no matter how self-fulfilling the work is to them now. To them, volunteer work is a rational career move free from emotion. Many argue that volunteerism is largely feminized and men do not work for free. However, in certain demographics (such as the college town of Provo), males have a substantial presence in the volunteer field to achieve their goals. As far as men not working for free, I argue that they do in matters of getting from point A to point B - only until they rationally achieve volunteering's purpose for them. Especially in times of economic downturn when few people are hiring, volunteering becomes more competitive among men who need the experience and skills that can be gained from volunteering to be qualified for graduate school and future career plans.

This same mentality can be beneficial for women. Perhaps what I am suggesting then is that there is a difference between how men volunteer and how women volunteer (which would need sufficient studying and analyzing to argue with true assertion, but I’m throwing it out there anyway.) I advocate that there is nothing wrong with a woman navigating the “men” way of volunteering – to volunteer as a step to something else without the obligation to continue the service after the individual has achieved their purpose for the work. While society may still view the “women” way of volunteering as spending large quantities of time with no other intentions then selfless service, women should not be relegated to this view – it should be the woman’s choice to determine how/why she volunteers. Volunteering can be empowering for women if they find a volunteer position that they have previously researched and discovered it can be a necessary and acceptable step to their goal and then fulfill the volunteer work for that specific purpose.

By choosing to make a distinction in "ways" of volunteering, many questions arise. Even if women were volunteering to reach another goal, would the system still limit them? And in what ways? Can such experiences be generalized to all women, in all stages of life? Do men who volunteer for means instead of ends receive the same outcomes as women who do the same, or is there a difference - meaning, if men and women were volunteering with the same motives, would they get the same outcome? And to what degree does societal expectations on women in volunteer capacities still play a role - are women considered evil and heartless for volunteering for reasons beyond being of service?

To answer these questions it will take time, research, and women who are willing to use the volunteer route on their pathway to somewhere else instead of accepting the relegated position of perpetual “just-for-fun” volunteer work. While it cannot be denied that one way of volunteering means the the system works women, cannot there also be a way where women work the system? Is this possible? Is this realistic?

I love the idea of women creating their own path, of finding a route suited specifically to themselves that defies any structural limitations that already exist. Volunteering as a means to a desired destination is a possibility for women looking to achieve academic and career goals, despite cultural expectations. If volunteer work would be viewed more as an internship opportunity than a time-filler for women, there would be no “end” to what women can collectively achieve.

The Nancy Folbre article mentioned is “The Economy Sucks: Why Should Virtue Be Its Own Reward?”
Also a special thanks to Janille and Matt Stearmer and Professor Hudson for wonderful insight to the current condition and consequences of the female volunteer system.

Posted by RFZ on 4 February 2010; Coping Strategies; Women (General)

 

How Working on the WomanStats Project Has Changed My Life

I have been a WomanStats coder since the beginning of June, 2009, so just around 8 months. I would like to share how my perspective of the world and myself has changed because of the research I have done about the women of the world.

I remember one of my first training meetings asking Professor Hudson (WomanStats BYU facilitator) “What does FGM stands for?” I remember getting a reply similar too, “Well you are going to learn quickly.” Now not only do I know that FGM is female circumcision but that 3 million girls and women are cut each year, and there is an active cause (in Mauritania and West Africa and elsewhere) to fight against it.  

Once when I was a teenager (I think I was 15 years old) I watched an Oprah about women trafficking. My mouth dropped open as I learned about girl being sold and bought all over the world. I had never heard about it before. I turned off the TV shocked. Now I know that here in the great US of A truck stops are just a guise for female prostitution and United States officials sate that 14,500 to 17,500 people are brought into the country for purposes of exploitation every year (but of course those numbers are probably low).
When I was 5 years old I became an aunt. Now I have 15 nieces and nephews. They are so precious. Cute little hands and toes and beautiful smiles. Never had it ever crossed my mind that if they lived in a different country they could be getting married. Now I know that in Romania girls as young as five are becoming brides to men five times their age. They even move out of their families homes into their new families home and there is little to no enforcement of child rape.    

So, has this education made me a cynic? 

More like a fighter.

The education I have gained through this work is eternally invaluable. An example. A popular movie I watched in church growing up is called Johnny Lingo. It is how men ought to value women. I watched it since being a WomanStats coder and my mind was spinning. Not only did the movie promote bride prices but that women are property and are meant to be an means to an end (in this case Mahana is made a beautiful “servant” to Johnny Lingo). I also “mentally code” in movies, conversations, professors lectures, and even at church. I am sometimes (or often) shocked at what we think is acceptable, but in reality is belittling women.

When I overhear people on campus talk about dropping out of school when they get married, I speak up. When I find out that a certain University wants to shut down their Women’s Research Institute, I get up and fight. When I feel like placing my worth on whether or not I am accepted by a man, I straighten up. When I see women belittled in pornography or looked down on for having children, I stand up.

Ever since I was little I felt that something was very wrong with the idea that women were subordinate to men. Up until recently, I didn’t know why I felt that way or how to articulate why it was wrong. Education and understanding the importance of gender relations has helped me see the world in a clearer lense where relationships between men and women have not only political implications, but also influence that penetrates almost every aspect of society. From the stability of nations to the peace of our own families, how others view motherhood and women in society is pivotal to the well being of our communities.
The WomanStats project is not just about changing the lives of the women of the world; it also changes the lives of those who do the research.

Posted by JF on 30 January 2010; WomanStats, Women (General)

 

Emma Goldman and My Political Philosophy Professor

I am a political science major. I have taken classes upon classes on political theory, philosophy, and conflict. While all of these topics cover a vast array of issues, one thing remains the same: there are no women. I have read what seems like hundreds of articles; articles on terrorism, on presidents in Latin America, on the causes of war, on the proper way to run regressions, articles that are always written by men. I’ve heard that in one political science class, a girl asked, “Why don’t we ever read about women?” To which the professor responded, “Because they haven’t done anything.” Now I’m not entirely sure what he meant by that. Did he really think that women hadn’t done anything? Had they never been published? Never voiced an opinion? Have all women remained completely invisible? The answer: no.

At the beginning of this semester I had a professor explain to my political philosophy class that he was including a woman in the curriculum for the first time ever. I was impressed. A professor had identified a problem with what he was teaching and he took steps to fix it; because women have done something, and he was going to make us aware of this. The day finally came for us to learn about the famous American anarchist, Emma Goldman.

Emma Goldman emigrated to the United Sates from Russia at the age of sixteen. The year was 1885 and she found herself drawn to the anarchist movement. Over the years she would find herself lecturing before huge crowds, founding a journal, and at times, behind bars. While Goldman was an anarchist, her lectures addressed women’s rights and social issues.

Goldman was opposed to the first feminist movement and its goals concerning suffrage. Even so, her speeches and writings revolved around the education of women and their access to contraceptives. She challenged patriarchy as a hierarchy that should be challenged. She demanded “the independence of woman, her right to support herself; to live for herself; to love whomever she pleases, or as many as she pleases. [She demanded] freedom for both sexes, freedom of action, freedom in love and freedom in motherhood.”

Regardless of some of her crazier ideas and her opposition to feminism, I admire this woman. It was the late 1800s and early 1900s and it was not common for a woman to be at the forefront of anything. She did not let this deter her from doing what she believed. She would not take no for an answer. She was going to dictate her own life, not the men around her.

I left class impressed. Not only with the woman determined to speak her mind and be independent regardless of the current societal norms, but with my professor as well. A man in the political science department had realized that women have in fact done something; something noteworthy, something worth studying, something that contributed to the world of political philosophy, and he made sure his students were aware of it.

Posted by KTA on 20 January 2010; Education, Please

 

 

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