Womens Status and Power: Global Status of Women Today (Burn, Women Across Cultures, 2005)

Economic Power
Power globally linked to economic power Employed womens earnings range from 50-95% of mens (International Labor Organization, 2003; UN, 199). The average is about 2/3 Majority of 1.5 billion people in the world living on $1.00/day or less are women. Referred to as feminization of poverty.

Political Power
In most countries, voting rights have only been awarded to women in the last 30 years 15% of the worlds lawmakers are female (2003) US ranks 59th among 125 countries with female representatives.
US, France, and Japan all lag behind 13 sub-Saharan countries 15 countries have no female representatives: Armenia, Bahrain, Micronesia, Palau, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Barbados, Kiribati, Libya, Nauru, Nigeria, Tonga, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait

Males Higher Status

Anthropologists Margaret Mead and Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo have noted that the prestige values always attach to the activities of men According to the UN, women worldwide are almost always in less prestigious and lower-paid jobs than men. In US: majority of prestigious and professional jobs are held by men:
71% of computer scientists 74 % of doctors 64% of college professors 77% of architects 90% of engineers

Males Higher Status

Son preference: in most countries, families value male children over female children
The Turkana people of Northern Kenya, great feasting held for birth of boy but not for girls Female children aged 1 to 4 are most likely to die than male children in all countries in south central Asia (India, Bangladesh, Nepal) and in nearly of the countries in northern Africa and Western Asia Discrimination in the care and feeding of female infants and higher rates of morbidity and malnutrition are reported in many countries listed as well as Bolivia, Columbia, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, and others

Males Higher Status

Sex-selective abortion:
In Mainland China, Taiwan, S. Korea, and India, some parents use amniocentesis and ultrasound to determine fetal sex so that female fetuses can be aborted India now has one of the most distorted sex ratios in the world:
927 females for every 1000 males (globally the average is 1060 females for 1000 males) In two Indian states, Haryana and Punjab, it is 793 girls for every 1000 males

Why?
Shift from subsistence agriculture to settled agriculture which is controlled by men (UN Commission on Human Rights) where value is attached to property and money. Sons are source of family income and provide for parents in old age and bring prestigeinterpreters of religious teaching, holders of political power and high status jobs, soldiers. Daughters are expected to marry and have children and leave the family. They do not enhance the familys economic or social position.

Females as Property
In many cultures, females are property. In Pakistan, a father may take his daughter to court if she marries without his permission. In the United Arab Emirates and Northern Africa, women follow parental orders to marry cousins so as to keep property in the family In Pakistans NW Frontier Province and tribal territories, practice of swara persists (amnesty International, 2002)handing over girls and women to rival partners to settle conflicts by establishing a blood tie. In Ethiopia, women and girls are viewed as the property of male family members who may exchange them as they wish.

Domestic Violence Worldwide

Includes:
Prenatal sex selection Female infanticide Sexual abuse Female genital mutilation Sexual harassment in schools and the workplace Trafficking Forced prostitution Dowry-related violence (--a dowry consists of good or money paid by the prices family to the groom or his family) Domestic violence Battering Marital rape

Womens Rights as Human Rights

When women are socially, politically, and economically subordinate, this subordination fosters a climate that produces
Intimate partner violence War rape Forced or voluntary prostitution Lack of police protection and a cultural acceptance of violence against women

Domestic Violence
The World Health Organization reports that 40-70% of women murdered in the US, Canada, Australia, and Israel were killed by their husbands or male partners In 9 Caribbean countries, 48% of women say their first sexual experience was forced or somewhat forced (UN, 2002) In the US, battery is the leading cause of injury to adult women; 700,000 cases are reported each year (US Dept. of Justice) Leading womens rights organization in Pakistan concludes that 80% of women or more experience domestic violence

Domestic violence, divorce, and economic power

Question for discussion:
Divorce divide and education level: Evidence is given that among college-educated couples, the divorce filing rate by women approaches 90%. Couples with high-school level education are twice as likely to divorce as those with college degrees. Why might education and income level be linked to marital stability? Or the initiation of divorce by women?

Domestic Violence
Carillo study (1992) links domestic violence to socially constructed and economically reinforced dependence of women on men.
Unpaid womens labor unvlaued Women are trained to believe that their value is attached to the men in their lives

Divorce
Challenges to leaving abusive marriages:
Great social stigma attached to divorce Womans status is significantly reduced if she is divorced
India: women have no right to matrimonial assets upon divorce (Jaising, 1995) United Arab Emirates and in Iran, a divorced mother is only entitled to custody of her children until they are 7 Israeli women are not allowed to divorce their husbands if the husband refuses but husbands may be granted a divorce if the wife refuses In the Sudan, a man may enact a divorce by stating You are divorced while a woman must go to court In Ireland, divorces were not granted until 1997

Dowry Death and Honor Killings

Dowry Deaththe murder of wives by husbands or in-laws in India and Pakistan, when the brides family is unable to provide the agreed-upon dowry, when the husband wants to get rid of her so they may get another dowry form a new bride, when a woman does not produce a son Sometimes called bride burnings because most victims are held over the cooking stove until their saris catch fire 2001: Indian government reported over 7000 of these fatalities Honor Killing: a man is obliged to kill a female relative if does something believed to tarnish the honor of the familyunmarried women who have sex, marital infidelity or suspected infidelity, seeking a divorce, flirting, being raped, dating without parental approval all quality.
1998 case of Saharan Abdullah of Jordan who shot his sister in the head four time because his brother-in-law raped her. He was released from jail after 6 months

UN estimates about 5000 deaths from honor killings annually, Pakistan, about 2 killings daily, about 20% prosecuted. The family of the victim may compromise with the killer, who is in this case a relative Brazil fails to prosecute honor killings because of alleged infidelity Jordan, perpetrators receive sentences of 3 months to a year

Sexual Violence
Rape: of concern to feminists because
1. rape is a threat to women everywhere: in the US, 74 women are raped every hour, 1 in 4 women in her lifetime. In India, a woman is raped every 35 minutes and 1 in 10 reported to police 2. Rape laws are weak and poorly enforced: most of the worlds rape laws conceive of rape as an act against the property of another manthe father or husband. In most countries, rape victims receive little support and feel shamed and humiliated. Consequences like in Pakistan, being charged with sex outside of marriage or honor killings explain why many women do not report such crimes. She may also become unmarriageable because she is no longer a virgin 3. Many victims of rape are girl children or adolescents: Especially true in parts of Africa such as Zimbabwe and South Africa where some unscrupulous folk healers prescribe sex with a virgin to treat AIDS

War Rape
Rape of women during wartime is often used as a tactic to punish the enemyubiquitous in war
WWIIMoroccan soldiers rape Italian women, Japanese soldiers raped Korean women, Nazi soldiers raped Jewish women 1990s: Bosnian Serbs raped between 20,000 and 50,000 Muslim women in the former Yugoslavia In Somalias civil war, all factions raped women to punish rival factions An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 women and girls were raped during a civil war in less than 100 days in Rwanda in 1994 In 2003, reports from Liberia, Zimbabwe, and Burma indicate that government soldiers used rape to terrorize and control groups that oppose the government

Types of War Rape

Genocidal rape: Rwanda, Balkans, intended to destroy an ethnic group or political group perceived as the enemy, ethnic cleansing Opportunistic rape: when men take advantage of the breakdown of law and order that may occur during wartime to commit crimes against women, knowing they it is unlikely they will face punishment Political rape: punishes individuals, families, or communities that hold different political views. When daughters or wives are raped to punish their male relatives (variation on women as property theme) Forced concubinage: kidnapping of girls and women to wash, cook, serve, and have sex with soldiers and militia. Documented in Uganda in 1980s and Zimbabwe and Burma in early 2000s

Prostitution
Effect of prostitution overlooked by governments in Thailand, Korea, and the Philippines who use prostitution to boost their economies and militaries Sexual tourism: Thailand, Brazil, Hungary, tourism based on the travel of men from first world countries to third world countries to buy cheap sex from Exotic women. Pimps control about 80-95% of prostitution World wide, most prostitutes are women with no other economic choices because of multilayered systems of sex discrimination

Explanations for Womens Lower Status

In cultures historically and presently where women have little control over reproduction along with males greater size and strength, some types of work were more appropriate for each gender Womens work became concentrated in the private sphere, mens in the public sphere because they were not constrained by childcare Resultant Gender stereotypes: beliefs about the qualities of each gender Gender norms/gender roles: social rules regarding what is appropriate for each gender to do

Explanations for Womens Lower Status

Gendered division of labor is often a function of biology (pregnancy and breastfeeding), but mens dominance in the public sphere has often been linked to having greater property rights, political and economic power and the increased value placed on paid labor
Theories: Development of patriarchy linked to Neolithic period when agriculture developed and the labor of children were needed to increase the production and further surpluses (women as commodities) resources to be traded, controlled, and acquired (Lerner, Creation of Patriarchy, 1986) Control of women means control of paternity (even so, about 1 in 25 men are unknowingly raising children not their own, or 4%) Devaluing of womens work linked to development societies based on moneywomens labor has private use value (for the family) while mens has exchange value (yielding money or exchange of goods). Power and status linked to ability to make money Well explore this more with Crittenden

Oppression
Often mens individual acts of dominance over women are the reflections of cultures overall systems of gender power relations Lips notes that the occurrence of many forms of routine oppression of women by men is mindless and unintentional Similarly, women often discourage girl children from challenging traditional gender relations
FGM Brokers of sexual slavery

Women of the upper class often exploit women of the lower classes (video later in semester)

Third Wave Feminism Status of Women in the US

WOM 101

Some of Womens Rights Today

In 1972, 26% of men and women said they would not vote for a woman for president. In 1996, that sentiment had plummeted to just over 5% for women and to 8% for men. Ninety-two percent of adults now say (2007) they would vote for a woman for president from their political party if she were qualified for the job. This support has increased steadily over the past 50 years. On July 5, 1993, marital rape became a crime in all 50 states. However, when his wife is most vulnerable (e.g., she is mentally or physically impaired, unconscious, asleep, etc.) and is legally unable to consent, a husband is exempt from prosecution in 33 states. In the United States, a woman is raped every three seconds, a woman is abused every 18 seconds, and four women are killed by their boyfriends or husbands every day. In May of 2004, the FDA blocked womens over the counter access to the morning after pill, a high dose of birth control pills that can prevent pregnancy after sex, despite the findings of two different scientific boards which supported increasing womens access to Plan B. Plan B would be particularly useful in cases of sexual assault, in rural areas, and for lower income women and would substantially reduce the number of abortions.

The Third Wave

The Third Wave is in our hands, either to create or ignore. Some central issues affecting women now:
Loss of reproductive freedom Pay inequity Domestic inequity Pornography Violence against women War Environmental destruction Feminization of Poverty

Loss of Reproductive Freedom

Less than one third of all women in the world have access to contraceptive information, and more than half have no trained help during pregnancy and childbirth. Forty-three (43) percent of women will have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old. Legal abortion is one of the safest and most common medical procedures available in the world today. Legal abortion entails half the risk of death involved in a tonsillectomy and one-hundredth the risk of death involved in an appendectomy. The risk of death from legal abortion is even lower than that from a shot of penicillin. The most effective way to reduce the need for abortion is to reduce unintended pregnancies. Almost half (49%) of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended, including more than 30 percent within marriage. Better access to contraception, responsible sex education and emergency contraception could cut the number of unintended pregnancies and abortion dramatically. Abstinence-only sexual education, sexist insurance policies, lack of access to health care, and restrictions on abortion rights are all negatively impacting womens reproductive freedom.

Pay Inequity
Among women aged 16 and over, 73 percent work in four occupational groups: administrative support; professional specialty; service workers; and executive, administrative, and managerial. White women make 78 cents to every white male dollar earned. Black women earn 64 cents and Hispanic women only 53 cents. College-educated women earn only $794 more per year than white men who have never taken a college course, and $14,217 less than college-educated white men.

Domestic Inequity
Women do 70-75% of the housework, and if there are children in the household, 7075% of the child raising. Because of this second shift, women work, on average, 15 more hours than men every week.

Violence
Males are the least likely to report a sexual assault, though it is estimated they make up 10% of all victims. Young females are four times more likely than any other group to be a victim of sexual assault. 73% of sexual assaults were perpetrated by a non-stranger 38% of perpetrators were a friend or acquaintance of the victim, 28% were an intimate and 7% were another relative. National Crime Victimization Survey, 2005 Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. One in six American women are victims of sexual assault, and one in 33 men. In 2004-2005, there were an average annual 200,780 victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault. About 44% of rape victims are under age 18, and 80% are under age 30. Since 1993, rape/sexual assault has fallen by over 69%. --from Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network Statistics Collection

Perpetrators
Perpetration Most perpetrators of sexual violence are men. Among acts of SV committed against women since the age of 18, 100% of rapes, 92% of physical assaults, and 97% of stalking acts were perpetrated by men. SV against men is also mainly male violence: 70% of rapes, 86% of physical assaults, and 65% of stalking acts were perpetrated by men (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000).

IPV
Nearly 5.3 million incidents of IPV occur each year among U.S. women ages 18 and older, and 3.2 million occur among men. Most assaults are relatively minor and consist of pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping, and hitting (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000a). In the United States every year, about 1.5 million women and more than 800,000 men are raped or physically assaulted by an intimate partner. This translates into about 47 IPV assaults per 1,000 women and 32 assaults per 1,000 men (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000a). IPV results in nearly 2 million injuries and 1,300 deaths nationwide every year (CDC 2003). From 1976 to 2002, about 11% of homicide victims were killed by an intimate partner (Fox and Zawitz 2004). In 2002, 76% of IPV homicide victims were female; 24% were male (Fox and Zawitz 2004). The number of intimate partner homicides decreased 14% overall for men and women in the span of about 20 years, with a 67% decrease for men (from 1,357 to 388) vs. 25% for women (from 1,600 to 1,202; Fox and Zawitz 2004). Previous literature suggests that women who have separated from their abusive partners often remain at risk of violence (Campbell et al. 2003; Fleury, Sullivan and Bybee 2000). Firearms were the major weapon type used in intimate partner homicides from 1981 to 1998 (Paulozzi et al. 2001). A national study found that 29% of women and 22% of men had experienced physical, sexual, or psychological IPV during their lifetime (Coker et al. 2002). Between 4% and 8% of pregnant women are abused at least once during the pregnancy (Gazmararian et al. 2000).

IPV: Victimization
The National Crime Victimization Survey found that 85% of IPV victims were women (Rennison 2003). Prevalence of IPV varies among race. Among the ethnic groups most at risk are American Indian/Alaskan Native women and men, AfricanAmerican women, and Hispanic women (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000b). Young women and those below the poverty line are disproportionately victims of IPV (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000b).

Pornography

There is a difference between pornography (unequal power, violence, dominance, and conquest) and erotica (warmth and sensuality). Sexual exploitation (pornography) violates human dignity and bodily integrity and is a violation of human rights. If a womans life is constrained by lack of education and employment opportunities by racism, by economic or political crisis, by childhood sexual, physical or emotional violence, or by poverty, then sexual exploitation aggravates and intensifies the harm. Even when women voluntarily enter into these situations, in hope of making money or finding a better life, the dynamics of the brutal, often illegal sex industry, quickly leave the women with few other options and a feeling of powerlessness in their own lives. Multiple studies have found direct evidence of a causal relationship between the consumption of pornography and increases in social levels of violence, hostility, and discrimination. Substantial exposure to violent sexually explicit material also leads to a greater acceptance of the rape myth that women enjoy being coerced into sexual activity, that they enjoy being physically hurt in sexual context, and that as a result, a man who forces himself on a woman sexually is in fact merely acceding to the real wishes of the woman, regardless of the extent to which she seems to be resisting.

War
In the 1980s, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) was formed in Minneapolis to protest the nuclear arms race. They received nationwide support and continue their nonviolent, grassroots activism today. The war in Iraq is coalescing a new womens movement.

Environmental Destruction

Toxic waste, pesticides, nuclear fallout, and other pollutions take their first toll as cancers of the female reproductive system, and in stillborn infants and birth deformities. The George W. Bush presidency has the worst environmental record in the history of the United States.
Bush weakened the Clean Air Act, allowing power plants to increase the amount of pollution they put into the air. What's more, the White House has scheduled a meeting for later this month to decide how much further they will go to weaken clean air laws. Bush endangered our water by allowing mining companies to pollute streams with impunity. Bush cut the EPA budget for 2004 by $500 million, gutting the agency's ability to enforce environmental laws effectively. Bush made significant cuts to the Superfund program, reducing the burden on polluters to pay for their own messes at the taxpayers' expense. (New Jersey, the state to which Whitman is returning, has the highest number of Superfund sites. Welcome home.) Bush declared open season on the nation's parks, monuments, and forests, opening them to drilling, road building, and other potentially damaging activities. Bush weakened protections for endangered species and made it more difficult to put new species on the endangered list.

Feminization of Poverty
Almost half of all homeless women are refugees of domestic violence. One third of the one million women who seek emergency shelter each year can find none. Two thirds of all illiterates are women. Women and children comprise eighty percent of all poverty population.

Hope, Work, and Change

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead