Posts tagged with: war on women

In many parts of the world, the deadliest words are, “it’s a girl.” Abortion and infanticide are common when those words are heard. If the girl manages to live, she is considered a burden and/or a slave.

One region in India is changing this attitude.

Villages like Piplantri in Rajasthan state of India have a story quite different from the more popular, abused and ill-treated ‘India’s daughter’.

Here, every time a girl child is born, 111 trees are planted in celebration and taken care of.

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Christina Hoff Sommers, of American Enterprise Institute, takes on the idea of men being obsolete. Civilization now needs empathy, social intelligence, emotional knowledge – right? And that’s where females excel. So do we still need men?

Sandra Fluke, the young woman who testified before Congress that she needed someone (you) to pay for her birth control, lost her bid for Senate in California. She was pushing for “progressive change,” which meant, in part, that someone (you) would be paying for lots of birth control. No one should be without. No questions asked.

Unless, of course, you want to have children – more than  your fair share. Or if you’re poor. Or not American. In these cases, there’s a problem.

Nicholas Kristof, in The New York Times, is throwing around words like “bewildered” and “nuts” when it comes to keeping certain people from getting pregnant. We simply aren’t doing enough to stop them. Globally, he says, we’re under-investing in getting birth control to the developing world. Here in the U.S., Kristof says, we need to get long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) into young people, fast. (Never mind that LARCs are more expensive in the long run and have hideous side effects for many women.) (more…)

HeForShe graphic

Emma Watson, the lovely British actress best known for her role as Hermione in the Harry Potter movies, is now a Goodwill ambassador for the United Nations. The program she is touting is called HeForShe (yes, I know that sounds like a support group for transgendered folk, but that’s beside the point.) It is, according to the website, a “solidarity movement for gender equality.” Basically, they want men (the “He”) to start supporting women’s (the “She”) equality.

There are certainly many places in the world where women face incredible challenges. Far too many women and girls lack basic access to voting, education, the free ability to travel on their own and to own property. These injustices clearly need to be addressed.

Today marks the 34th anniversary of China’s horrific one-child policy. It is hard to think of any other single policy that has claimed the lives of so many women, both born and unborn, and affected a nation in such a detrimental way. According to Women’s Rights Without Frontiers the Chinese government:

The One Child Policy causes more violence against women and girls than any other official policy on earth.

The One Child Policy is China’s war on women.   Any discussion of women’s rights, or human rights, would be a charade if forced abortion in China is not front and center.

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Vox is telling us that it’s “dangerous to be a woman in America.” (The news is delivered in a creepy video where statistics are displayed via writing on a woman’s body. No objectification there…) They also want us to know that it may take a “nuclear option” to tackle sexual assault on college campuses.

Enough.

In the U.S., 1 out of 6 women will suffer some sort of sexual assault during her life. 73 percent of the time, she will know her assailant. I do not want to downplay this; every assault is evil. However, 64 million girls in the world today will be forced into child marriage. 140 million girls will suffer genital mutilation. 50 percent of women in the EU report sexual harassment in the workplace. 1500 acid attacks are reported annually; the vast majority of the victims are female. Then there are these restrictions on women:

• Women in Saudi Arabia cannot legally drive.
• Women in Yemen are considered “half a witness” in court, and must receive permission from a male relative to leaver their home.
• In Morocco, females who are raped may be charged as being criminally negligent in their own assault.

Still think we American ladies have it tough? (more…)

One of my jobs when I was in college was doing tech work (lights and sound) for a small but busy theater. I enjoyed the work, and most of my co-workers, not to mention the opportunity to meet the varied and creative people who came to perform. One of my co-workers, though, was a first-class jerk. His hands “wandered,” he said inappropriately sexual things to me and harassed me. When I finally figured out that he was targeting me, I told him to not only knock it off, but if he didn’t, I’d call his wife and let her know exactly what he was doing. He never bothered me again. This situation did not require a bill to passed in Congress, nor a sexual harassment seminar for all employees. It required me to stand  up for myself.

When Sandra Fluke testified before a House panel on the need for employers to pay for women’s contraception in 2012, her testimony was celebrated by radical feminists and decried by women who believed we should be responsible for our own healthcare. It’s interesting to note how the President of the United States reacted to the whole situation. President Obama called Ms. Fluke to tell her that her parents should be proud of her. Huh? Ms. Fluke wasn’t some 4th-grade girl who stood up to bullies. She’s an adult, making adult choices and decisions. Why did the president feel it necessary to bring her parents into the discussion? (more…)

Gender disparity in pay has been discussed ad nauseum, especially given that the facts are that women really don’t get paid less than men, taking into account real life circumstances. But are there factors that hold women back? Women still tend to choose lower-paying jobs, and are more likely to leave the job market than men. Less than 5 percent of our nation’s leading CEOs and corporate leaders are female. What’s behind this?

Abby M. McCloskey, program director of economic policy at the American Enterprise Institute, shares a few ideas in this brief video.