Transcript Document

Women’s Rights
Around the World
By: York University
http://www.shs.d211.org/ENGLISH/faculty/KK1/E336/
Notes%20and%20Readings/Gender%20Politics.ppt
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US President Nixon (1969-74) once said, in a conversation
with aides: "I’m not for women in any job. I don’t want any
of them around. Thank God we don’t have any in the
cabinet ... I don’t think a woman should be in any
government job whatever. I mean, I really don’t. The
reason why I do is mainly because they are erratic. And
emotional. Men are erratic and emotional, too, but the point
is a woman is more likely to be.”
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Until recent times, women’s issues, interests and concerns
had been excluded from the political arena, for two basic
reasons:
1. The division between private and public spheres
2. The patriarchal assumptions of the language and
practice of politics
Women’s struggle for equality of rights has been one of the
key components of the global struggle for democracy
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Married women were legally dead in the eyes of the law
Women were not allowed to vote
Women had to submit to laws when they had no voice in
their formation
Married women had no property rights
Husbands had legal power over and responsibility for their
wives to the extent that they could imprison, rape, or beat
them with impunity
Divorce and child custody laws favored men, giving no
rights to women
Women had to pay property taxes although they had no
representation in the levying of these taxes
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Most occupations were closed to women and when women
did work they were paid only a fraction of what men earned
Women were not allowed to enter professions such as
medicine or law
Women had no means to gain an education since no
college or university would accept women students
With only a few exceptions, women were not allowed to
participate in the affairs of the church
Women were robbed of their self-confidence and selfrespect, and were made totally dependent on men
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), founder of modern feminism
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From Mary Wollstonecraft’s book A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman (1792):
“If women be educated for dependence; that is, to act
according to the will of another fallible being, and submit,
right or wrong, to power, where are we to stop?”
“The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings,
may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested
without danger.”
“I do not wish (women) to have power over men, but over
themselves.”
Elizabeth Stanton (1815-1902), a founder of the women’s suffrage movement in the US
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Elizabeth Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments, 1848:
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"The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and
usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in
direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over
her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.“
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3 waves of the women’s liberation movement
1. 19th – early 20th century
 Main goal – political equality (right to vote)
2. 1960s – 1980s
 Main goal – social and cultural equality
3. 1990s –
 Continuing struggle for social equality
Women’s suffrage march, New York, May 1913
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The fundamental economic, social, and cultural structures
of patriarchy remain strong
Inertia and resistance
Continuing struggles for equality and justice
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Reproductive rights
Domestic violence
Maternity leave
Equal pay
Sexual harassment
Sexual violence
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The plight of girls in the Global South (Julie Mullins, Gender
Discrimination Children In Need Inc. )
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When a boy is born in most developing countries, friends
and relatives exclaim congratulations. A son means
insurance. He will inherit his father's property and get a job
to help support the family.
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When a girl is born, the reaction is very different.
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In developing countries, the birth of a girl causes great
upheaval for poor families. When there is barely enough
food to survive, any child puts a strain on a family's
resources.
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But the monetary drain of a daughter feels even more
severe, especially in regions where dowry is practised.
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A new bride is at the mercy of her in-laws should they
decide her dowry is too small. UNICEF estimates that
around 5,000 Indian women are killed in dowry-related
incidents each year.
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China has its own long legacy of female infanticide. In the
last two decades, the government's infamous one-child
policy has weakened the country's track record even more.
By restricting household size to limit the population, the
policy gives parents just one chance to produce a coveted
son before being forced to pay heavy fines for additional
children.
In 1997, the World Health Organization declared, "…more
than 50 million women were estimated to be 'missing' in
China because of the institutionalized killing and neglect of
girls due to Beijing's population control program."
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Sex-selective abortions are even more common than
infanticides in India. They are growing ever more frequent
as technology makes it simple and cheap to determine a
fetus' gender. In Jaipur, a Western Indian city of 2 million
people, 3,500 sex-determined abortions are carried out
every year. The gender ratio across India has dropped to
an unnatural low of 927 females to 1,000 males due to
infanticide and sex-based abortions.
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Girls who survive are often subjected to neglect and
abuse, both physical and sexual.
In some cultures, the physical and psychological trauma of
rape is compounded by an additional stigma. In cultures
that maintain strict sexual codes for women, if a woman
steps out of bounds —by choosing her own husband,
flirting in public, or seeking divorce from an abusive
partner—she has brought dishonor to her family and must
be disciplined. Often, discipline means execution. Families
commit "honor killings" to salvage their reputation tainted
by disobedient and “sexually-impure” women.
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For the young girls who escape these pitfalls and grow up
relatively safely, daily life is still incredibly hard. School
might be an option for a few years, but most girls are
pulled out at age 9 or 10 when they're useful enough to
work all day at home. Nine million more girls than boys
miss out on school every year, according to UNICEF.
While their brothers continue to go to classes or pursue
their hobbies and play, they join the women to do the bulk
of the housework.
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Housework in developing countries consists of continuous,
difficult physical labor.
A girl is likely to work from before daybreak until the light
drains away. She walks barefoot long distances several
times a day carrying heavy buckets of water, most likely
polluted, just to keep her family alive. She cleans, grinds
corn, gathers fuel, tends to the fields, bathes her younger
siblings, and prepares meals until she sits down to her
own after all the men in the family have eaten.
Most families can't afford modern appliances, so her tasks
must be done by hand—crushing corn into meal with
heavy rocks, scrubbing laundry against rough stones,
kneading bread and cooking gruel over a blistering open
fire.
There is no time left in the day to learn to read and write or
to play with friends. She collapses exhausted each night,
ready to wake up the next morning to start another long
workday.
Why is this important?
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As Americans, we believe in
democracy and equal human rights
for all
As Americans, we are part of a
world society
As Americans, therefore, we need
to educate ourselves on the plight
of women around the world and do
what we can to assist them in their
fight for equality
Opportunities to help women
around the world will be
discussed next week as part of
a final Civil Rights Unit
project!
The Better Half: Helping Women
Help the World, by Isobel
Coleman, Foreign Affairs,
Jan/Feb 2010:
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/art
icles/65728/isobel-coleman/thebetter-half