International Women's Day

[Luis Gutierrez]

Hello Evangelia,

Litosseliti, Evangelia wrote:
> 
> Dear colleagues,
> 
> How many times have we heard our students describe gender as 'not
> really an issue', feminism as an utterly outdated concept, gender
> equality as something now achieved?
> 
> How many times have we seen gender being the focus in the media for
> one day (Women's Day), only to become something that is relevant to
> women (hence the Women's page) thereafter?
> 
> Let me take the opportunity of International Women's Day celebrations
>  last week, to say this: while there is nothing wrong with having a
> day to reflect on what's happening to women around the world, and
> while there has been undeniable progress in many areas that affect
> women's lives, patriarchy (and feel free to replace this word with
> another, if you see it as too strong or old-fashioned) is alive and
> well. This will

Alive and well indeed .... and yet, it is still difficult to bring up
the subject, even informally among friends .... why?

> be obvious for many of us in this forum, but we often struggle to
> make the case to those outside (and often within) academia that there
> are far too many horrifying inequalities out there; inequalities that
> a Women's Day cannot begin to address. And further, even hard-won
> rights for women are now being reversed in some cases (as seen, for
> example, in the abortion-banning bill last week in South Dakota; in
> attempts to reimpose the veil on women in Iraq and elsewhere; and in
> the freezing of all US aid to fund sexual and reproductive health
> programmes in the developing world, where women and children are now
> dying needlessly as a direct result).
> 
> I say this because I repeatedly come across a pervasive
> 'post-feminist' discourse, that tells us about gender equality as
> something that has been achieved, about women as independent and free
> to pursue their goals (which seem to include the 'right' to various
> kinds of 'sexual freedom'), and about feminism as old-fashioned,
> ridiculous, and redundant.

Just as a person may be "in denial," I wonder if there is such thing as 
society being "in denial" .... refusing to face reality.

> So, I try to encourage this kind of discussion with my students, by 
> asking them  to simply consider the following:
> 
> ~ 70% of people living in poverty are women and children ~ 67% of all
> illiterate adults are women ~ 85 million girls worldwide are unable
> to attend school (compared with 45m boys) ~ 700.000.000 women are
> without adequate food, water, sanitation, health care or education
> (compared with 4000.000.000 men) ~ 1.440 women die each day during
> childbirth (a rate of one death every minute) ~ 12 world leaders are
> women (out of 191 members of the UN)
> 
> and...
> 
> ~ 1% of the titled land in the world is owned by women
> 
> [You will perhaps agree that I do not need to mention, in addition,
> the shocking statistics about women who become victims of rape and
> domestic violence around the world]

I think it is critical to include not only social statistics but also
statistics that show the abismally low number of women in roles of
religious authority .... this is an enormous obstacle for *human*
development, i.e., the advancement of *both* women *and* men.

> But what of those of us who live much more privileged lives, compared
> to the women described above? In the UK:
> 
> ~ The pay gap between men and women in similar full-time jobs is 17%.
>  ~ In part-time jobs,  the gap is 42% . ~ Women earn 38% less than
> men without qualifications. ~ 10% of company directors are women ,
> 20% of MPs, and 16% of local authority council leaders. ~ Each year
> 30.000 women lose their jobs for being pregnant. ~ Violence against
> women (when reported) accounts for 16% of all violent crime, and is
> on the increase.
> 
> And there is more. [You will easily find more in newspapers and the
> Internet, especially on Women's Day!]

I recently found this jewel:

South America and Women in Government
By Justin Vogler, The Globalist, 10 March 2006
http://www.theglobalist.com/storyid.aspx?StoryId=5163

I think the last three paragraphs are very interesting:

"I asked Marta Lagos whether the number of women in power reflects a 
change in attitudes towards women in South America. “Politics is 
changing much quicker than society,” she replied. “It will take 
generations before fundamental attitudes change, but it is a step forward.”

"Angelica Vargas is 18 years old. She lives in a lower-middle class 
neighborhood in the Chilean port of Valparaiso and wants to study 
accounting. I asked her if a female president would change men’s 
attitudes towards women in Chile.

“Nothing changes,” cried Angelica. “What does it matter who the 
president is? The men around here are all terribly sexist — and they are 
going to go on being sexist.” She paused for an instant and then added: 
“What might help is if they elected a woman Pope.”"

Get the point?

> I know that our focus in this list is on gender and language in 
> particular, and apologies if this message is a bit long, but I hope 
> you'll agree that we must not be complacent about any of these
> issues.

I believe in my heart that, as long as religious discourse keeps 
drilling into people's heads the notion that God is male, we may have 
reached the point of diminishing returns in the process of overcoming 
patriarchy in social institutions.

NB: I am a religious person myself (Catholic).  The problem is not 
religion per se.  The problem is organized religion structured as 
religious patriarchies.  For example, how many women do we have, in the 
Roman Catholic Church, in roles of religious authority?  Zero.  Why? 
Because only men can be ordained to the priesthood.

Hang in there,

Luis