- Introduction
- Hello, Introduce self
- Myth vs. Reality- Zebra (reality)
- Myth vs. Reality- Big foot (myth)
- Myth vs. Reality- 15.8 Mil. people are taken for sex trade, forced labor, bonded labor(myth)
- Reality= 20.9 m people are taken, 98% of sex slave trade is women and underage children
- Myth vs. Reality- some statistic that is reality
- talk abt statistic being real not fake
- Feminism (realt intro to project topic)
- Why I chose this topic
- made me realize my purpose (mission work), I want to help those who cannot help themselves and in order to help, I need to understand their struggles. This project lets me understand their struggles.
- As Americans we were born privlidged. We have the ability to help others.
- Define Feminism
- equality of the sexes not women> men
- north america has skewed, disapproving idea of it
- feminism is more than rape culture and equal pay (although those are extremely important)
- Women in the world need so much more than pay. They need a chance at life
- Map
- shows every country I looked at (alot are worst places to be a woman)
- Education
- Malala
- shot in head, rises to win Nobel Prize
- 53% of the world’s out-of-school children are girls and ⅔ of illiterate people in the world are women (500 million total- 319 million people in US)
- 3 million girls in Pakistan are uneducated, wage gap is at 60% bc of it
- http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/pdf/EDUCATION_IN_PAKISTAN__A_FACT_SHEET.pdf
- Domestic Violence (Honor Killings)?
- Glaubi Gang
- Sampat Devi Pal (leader)
- beat/ publicly shame rapists
- empower women and fight for equal society for lower castes
- Turkey
- 40% of women will see violence
- AKP political party, highly conservative
- Honor Killings/ acid
- ½ valid statement as a man in court, don’t bring abuse to the law
- discretion of judge
- Banned driving in Saudi Arabia
- Driving campaign
- Oct. 26 Campaign- monthly campaign to protest kingdom ban
- supports posting pics/vids of women driving
- al-Hathloul & al-Amoudi arrested for driving
- no law banning driving, but women refused licences by govt.
- banned because of fatwas; lead to mixing of genders, social problems
- Child Marriage
- 700 mil people today married as kids, 142 mil more by end of decade
- 1 in 3 married in developing countries (by 18), 1 in 9 married (by 15)
- Reasons
- dowry, family burden, social scrutiny, belief of less abuse
- health risks (pregnancy)
- Infanticide
- 3 million “missing” girls in India
- China, 1 child policy, orphanages overflowing with girls
- *burden or womanhood doc= resourcesHeForShe?
- Emma Watson
- find a quote?
- Conclusion
- all of these issues are big outside of our border, but still happen inside.
- Community Outreach
- Alle-Kiski Hope Center
Friday, April 3, 2015
Presentation Outline
Friday, March 27, 2015
Born to Die
It is no secret in third world countries that women are at a disadvantage starting from the day they are born. They are are inferior in many societies. Parents that live in the realities of a second class female world know what struggles and unfair social structures lay ahead of their daughters, and they take the most drastic measures possible because of it.
As children, women are fed less, denied education, and refused medical care. When they grow to be a teenager, they could be forced into marriage or sold into prostitution and labor. If they do make it to adulthood with minimal actions taken against them, they will be treated as less than farm animals and forced to have children.
This is not the life a parent would want for their child. After birth there is a decision to be made, and it is often the hardest decision a parent could ever make. In these third world countries, families turn to infanticide. They kill their baby solely based on the fact that it is a female.
However, killing their child because of the life they do not want it to live is the surface reason that looks good on paper. In reality, the truth of these baby killings is much more sickening. People would rather have one thousand sons than one single daughter. Sons can carry on the family name. Sons have the ability to bring in family income. Sons do not cost too much money. Sons can take care of their parents in old age. Parents kill their daughters because it is easier to do that than to raise them. They do not want the burden of a daughter.
Yet this epidemic of murdering female newborns is not only affecting the population rates of men versus women. In China there is a major disproportion of single young men and single young women. The one child policy in this country has caused a need for sons and a distaste for daughters. Girls can be given away to orphanages and put up for adoption or just eliminated by abortion the minute the parents find out they are expecting one. After decades of this one child law being in effect, the problems are finally settling in. Men need wives, but the lack of women around is making their search extremely hard. So, they turn to other options. One of these growing options is slave trade. Women are being taken from outlying regions of China and countries just outside the borders. These women are being pulled from their lives and forced to be wives to men they do not know. The demand needs to be met and the supply is unsuspecting, undereducated women.
Gender based infanticide is a method that is keeping women from reaching equality in the world. It keeps a culture stigma in which sons are idolized and daughters are considered close to less than human. If families keep believing that a daughter is a burden not worth having, then a world with female equality and power is one we will never see.
Friday, March 13, 2015
I Am Malala
On October 9th, 2012, one gunman walked onto a school bus full of kids demanding to know the identity of one girl. For months this girl, and most of her friends, knew she had a death threat put against her by the Taliban, but this did not stop the other children on the bus from looked at her, giving her location away to the gunman. Twenty seconds later the gunman shot her in the side of the head.
This girl is Malala Yousafzai and at fourteen years old she almost had her life taken away by a terrorist group because she was advocating for female education. After barely surviving the attack, she was taken from Mingora, Pakistan, her hometown, to Birmingham, England, for the treatment that would eventually save her life. Now, almost three years later, Malala has a Nobel Peace Prize and is on the forefront of women’s rights in the middle east.
Mingora, Pakistan had been a tourist attraction known for it’s summer festivals before the taliban started to take control of the country. Her family had roots in the town, since her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai had founded the school in the area. Malala attended that school up until the day she was shot. As the Taliban started to gain more power, they began attacking girls’ schools. This led Malala to giver her first speech. It was given in September of 2008,when she was only 11 years old and it was titled, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?” This was only the tip of the iceberg for this brave girl.
In 2009, she began blogging for the BBC about the Taliban and living under their threats to deny females education. She used the pen name Gul Makai do avoid detection, but was given away in December of that year. Even though she did not want this, it helped her grow her platform and spread her message. She continued to speak out and fight for what she believed it. This led her to be nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011, be awarded the Pakistan National Youth Peace Prize, but also a death threat from the Taliban. A group of grown terrorists had become threatened by a fourteen year old girl.
After the shooting on the bus, Malala managed to survive and continue her fight for education. In 2013 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but did not win it until the next year when she was nominated again. At seventeen, she became the youngest girl to win the award. In October of 2013, she also released an autobiography called, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. She wrote about her life’s story and explained the importance of education to women in our changing world.
Malala has become the voice of thousands. She speaks for every girl who has lost her right to an education and, subsequently, a future. She is fearless and strong and will stop at nothing to achieve what she deserves. It is people like Malala Yousafzai that keeps the feminist movement alive.
*Malala's powerful acceptance speech for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize*
Friday, March 6, 2015
Not Just Women's Rights
There are times when the idea of women's rights crosses over into plain old human rights. The subject of child marriage is one of these ideas. Child marriage is defined as a marriage, normally forced, between two people with at least one of them being under the age of 18. It is considered a world wide problem. Although it does affect boys and girls, it is mostly girls who are married underage and that makes it a women's rights issue.
Over 700 million women alive right now were married as children. It normally takes place in developing countries in places like Africa, South America and East Asia. In fact, 1 in ever 3 girls in these developing countries will be married before 18 and 1 in 9 will be married before 15. As of 2012, Niger leads the child marriage numbers with 76% of it's females being subject to it. By the end of the decade as many as 142 million girls will be married as children.
This phenomenon takes place because of four factors. The first is tradition. Child marriage has been taking place for generations on generations. Swaying from the culture norm could be scrutiny and exclusion in the community. Another factor is gender roles. In many cultures that this takes place in, girls are seen as less than their boy counterparts. They are valued at less, which means they can be seen as a burden. To get rid of this burden, parents may marry their daughter off young. The third factor is poverty. Having little to no money is a big incentive to marry a daughter off. It would give her family one less mouth to feed and lessen the expenses. Also, families could be given a dowry for the marriage to help with their financial state. The last factor is security. It is unlike all of the others because the family does it to help their child instead of themselves. With marrying their child off, they can somewhat ensure that she will no longer be at risk for physical or sexual abuse. Many of these parents can have false hope for this, but it is all they have.
Child marriage becomes a feminism problem along with a human rights problem because it hinders the development of women. Marrying this young can have an impact of the girl's health, education, safety, and poverty. When it comes to health, a leading causes of death among 15-19 year olds are pregnancy complications and birth. In fact, girls under 15 are five times more likely to die during child birth than woman aged 20-25. Being married as a child also increases their chances of contracting HIV and, later, AIDS. Child marriage ends any opportunity for an education. These opportunities are already low in developing countries, but being married young makes them even smaller.Many married girls have little to no formal education and can be illiterate. A lack of education leads to poverty, because they cannot bring in any sort of income or have any valuable skills. In the event that the marriage does end, the girl will not be able to support herself or her family. Another problem with child marriage is domestic violence. Being forced into a marriage puts girls at a much higher risk for sexual and physical abuse. They are likely to be beaten and forced into sexual intercourse.
Programs like Unicef and GirlsNotBrides are working to end this world wide culture norm. They are trying to do this through education, empowerment, and attempting to change tradition. Bringing men into the conversation has helped to keep the movement running. Another way to stop the marriage is to employ laws in this developing countries, which is being worked on in many.
Ending child marriage would be just another step towards closing the world wide gender gap. It would increase the amount of women being educated and create a healthier environment for everyone to live in.
*Infographic on the impacts of child marriage by GirlsNotBrides
Here is a ling to a video emphasizing the impacts of child marriage.
Friday, February 27, 2015
My 395 Page Lifesaver
Researching and finding laws for foreign countries is actually harder than I thought it would be. Then, on to of that,finding topics from countries that are different every week is even harder. I do not want every single one of my blogs to be the same: describing the laws, culture, and outlining how hard it is to be a woman. So, I try to find an issue or media phenomenon that is interesting instead. However, I need the laws, culture, and information on how hard it is to be a woman before I can write about the hard hitting issue, and that is exactly what I did this week.
Every year the World Economic Forum releases a Global Gender Gap Report. This report is a whopping 395 page pdf file of statistics, charts, and lists. It is boring and repetitive, but contains most of the information I need for the background of my project. There is everything from the wage gap and domestic abuse to legislative equality and education. Men and women are put side by side for each individual country, entire regions, and the whole world. All the top issues have rankings within them. These rankings consist of the 141 countries that participate in top global economics.
With this resource, I can easily compare countries to see where they fall on certain issues and women’s rights as a whole. I can use it to underline the rest of my projects and research. It is a file that I have spent a few good hours looking at this week, and still cannot fully comprehend everything it says. The report just puts everything in perspective, when it comes to America vs. the world and I am very excited that I found it.
So until next week, when I have an issue to write about and have fully digested this resource, here is some Beyonce, because why not?
***Flawless ft. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Friday, February 20, 2015
The Turkish Epidemic
Epidemics break out every year. To many they mean disease and sickness, but to the women in Turkey, it means domestic violence. Violence against women is a public and private societal norm in this country. In fact, about 40% of females will experience some type of abuse or violence in their lifetime. That is almost 1 in every 2 women. In contrast, the probability here in the United States is 1 in 4, which is still high, but double what it is in Turkey. Domestic violence in Turkey has grown into an epidemic that is having little resistance.
From 2003- 2010, the amount of murders of women skyrocketed up 1,400 percent. This rise happened right after the Islamist AKP political party took over. The party stems from the Islamic religion, and therefore practices highly conservative values. Some of these values made the country lean towards having it’s women being second class citizens. In the courts, a woman’s testimony has half the validity and worth of a man’s. This makes it extremely hard for women to take their abuse cases to court. Once it even gets to court, the punishment for the perpetrator is given on a case by case basis and is at the discretion of the judge. Because of these two factors, the punishments fluctuate and are not set in stone. A man could get away with murder or be set free to abuse again and again.
The violence most often comes from the and of a husband, father, brother, or other male family member. Men are seen as the head of the house and what they say goes. So it is not surprising that the most severe cases of violence, including murder, occur when a woman indicates that she wants a divorce. This want and need would bring dishonor to her family, causing hostility and anger. Social image is an important part of Eastern culture that our Western one does not have. Individual actions mirror and reflect their entire family. This honor system is taken extremely far, as seen by honor killings.
(A video further explaining the idea of honor)
The honor system and second class females are just two things that are accepted in Turkey’s culture. If a woman is seen or heard being beaten in the middle of her neighborhood or in public, people turn the other way. They will listen but not act, then go on about their lives once it is over. Society has accepted domestic abuse as something that has and always will happen. It is normal.
However, even though it is extremely bad and the violence is only rising, there are groups that are starting to fight back. In early 2014, the Kadin Partisi (Women’s Party) was founded. This political party works towards putting women in places of power. One problem with the domestic violence is the government's acceptance of it. With women holding governmental power, their voices can be heard to change the countrywide opinion about the hushed topic. In addition to the party, social media is playing a role in helping the cause. The more an issue is talked about, the better the chances are of their being a change. Media outlets and news reporters are starting to pay more attention to the growing problem and throwing it to a worldwide scale. These two things, a new political party and expanding exposure, can help the women of Turkey stop the domestic violence epidemic and bring peace to the country.
Friday, February 13, 2015
Gulabi Gang
Imagine a world completely different from our own, well for women that is. The illiteracy rate is 47% and infanticide, child marriages, and domestic violence is something of the cultural norm. Being a woman in this foreign world is a battle no would would ask for. This alternate reality is Uttar Pradesh in India. Last year alone there were 1,963 cases of rape, 7,910 cases of kidnapping and 2,244 cases of dowry death, which were all against women.
A woman by the name of Sampat Devi Pal has been working for the last 35 years to change all of this. Sampat, who goes by Devi, founded the Gulabi Gang, an all-women vigilante group. Their target? Rapists. Their weapon of choice? Sticks. Their costume? An all pink saree.
"Yes, we fight rapists with lathis [sticks]. If we find the culprit, we thrash him black and blue so he dare not attempt to do wrong to any girl or a woman again," says Devi.
~Sampat Devi Pal~
The group was started in response to the alarmingly large amount of crimes against women and the astonishing low amount of court and lawful punishment. With a broken law system, women have been taking matters into their own hands. The movement is now backed up up by over 400,000 women in 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
However, these women do not immediately resort to beating the perpetrators with sticks. First they try to gain justice for the crimes through dialogues, rallies, and hunger strikes. When these and all else fails, they take action in the same way the criminals did, with violence.
By founding this gang, Devi has started a revolution. She brought a subject that was ignored for so long into the spotlight. The fight for women’s rights is now somewhat in the spotlight of the country’s problems. The group has gotten country and world wide recognition, and in turn, is empowering women across India and the rest of the world to stand up for themselves and each other.
Friday, February 6, 2015
Project Direction
This project and my anxiety have an inverse relationship. As the deadline for this project comes closer and closer, my anxiety over the presentation is raising higher and higher. I have finally gotten over the doubts of my topic, but now I’m moving into the stress over what I’m going to have to say. It seem like everyday I have a different idea on how my presentation could go, but I think I have finally found a winner.
When I am researching and looking for things on feminism, I am drawn to the stories about women in foreign countries. To me, their lives are so much different than ours and they are normally different in the worst ways. It does not seem fair that women, and people in general, in America can complain about their almost superficial, social level problems, when women in other countries cannot even leave the house by themselves or have a right to an education.
So that is what I’m going to focus on. I think I am going to look at the rights and cultures of other countries (mostly 3rd world, or high poverty), and see how they differ from America. In my presentation, I am going to pretend I am a women from each country and show how my life would be different. Somehow I am going to see if there is a way that I can potentially help the women I am researching. If I could do that, I would consider my project a success.
This is essentially the direction I want to go in. Now that I have decided, I can really work on my weekly blogs and continue on with everything.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Banned From Behind the Wheel
After growing up in America, it is hard to believe that there are people in the world that are still fighting for their rights from the government. Here, American citizens have the same rights, male or female, but the same cannot be said for other countries. Gender disparities in rights and laws are most prominent in North Africa and the Middle East. One particular inequality takes place in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s strictest countries when it comes to women and family rules. They usually stem from religion (which is something I’m going to look into). However, one law in the country has recently been heavily protested.
Women cannot drive.
They cannot drive. I do not even want to think about how my life would be if I could not drive now, let alone for the rest of my life. This ban on driving limits women in everything they do. Granted they are allowed to drive in emergency situations, such as driving a family member to the hospital, but other than that they are not allowed behind the wheel.
In the last five years the women of Saudi Arabia have been voicing their unrest through social media. In fact, is October of 2013, sixty women took the wheel and documented it. Videos were posted on youtube and pictures were sent out on twitter and instagram. This brought in a world wide audience. Finally the struggles of Saudi women were receiving recognition. Within the country, the police did little to stop the protest. No women were arrested and it was mostly internally ignored.
However, in December of 2014, two women were not ignored. On the first, Loujain al-Hathloul and Maysa al-Amoud were arrested for driving and put in jail. After a month of being locked up (the longest for female drivers in the history of the country), the women were put on trial to be tried for terrorism charges. These are the first women to have such extreme charges (a woman was sentenced to 10 lashes in 2011, but had it revoked by the King). Loujain and Maysa are not being charged because of the driving, though. They are being charged with terrorism because of their acts on social media. The specifics of the case have not been revealed, but the idea is that the women have gone against the ideals of the country’s culture and government. The verdict for this case has not been reached yet, but hopefully the courts realize that terrorism could and is so much worse than two women behind the wheel of a vehicle.
(Loujain al-Hathloul driving before her arrest)
There is evidence that Saudi Arabia is leaning towards changing the ban towards women, but this leaning could take a long time. The only way for these women to get their right is to keep it in the world wide discussion. World wide pressure can quicken a government to take action. With the majority of the world having equal gender rights, it should not be hard to get a rise or change in Saudi.
This has just been one of many differences of men and women in other countries outside of North America. I plan on looking into others and finding the root of the problem. As for Saudi Arabian women, I hope they continue to fight peacefully for their right to drive. It is a simple act of independence that all humans should have.
Article on Loujain and Maysa Here.
Friday, January 23, 2015
#Meninism
It seems to be that the only logical response to straw man, modern feminism is a movement that works to further the equality of the highest social class in the world, the white man. In mid November of 2014 an anonymous twitter account was created-- the name, Meninism. It started and mostly continued to post sarcastic,witty, and mostly funny jabs at feminism and the female stereotypes.
I will admit I have been following the account since I first saw it. At the beginning it was because the tweets were funny. They made me laugh out loud and became some of my favorites. I took them as sarcasm and humor, but the same cannot be said for some of the population. In two short months meninism has taken off. While some tweets with the hashtag are still full or sarcasm, some people, mostly white male teens, are taking it as the truth.
The tweets aim to point out the unfair standards women hold men to, such as having to be over 6 feet tall and being put into the friend zone. Other tweets make absurd rape jokes and have moved from chuckle worthy to downright tasteless. In addition to the growing following, the twitter account has started selling t-shirts and hoodie with “Meninism” in bold letters across the front. An anonymous account made to be sarcastic has turned into a mini revolution among white male teens that feel the need to be included into a social movement.
Here's a video BBC made right when meninism was gaining speed among the population:
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