[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

WOMEN'S RIGHTS;Simple, basic ideas



Subject: WOMEN'S RIGHTS;Simple, basic ideas may boost the cause

mosteffectively
To: burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0
X-Sender: strider@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Asiaweek
WOMEN'S RIGHTS
Simple, basic ideas may boost the cause most effectively

"IF THERE IS ONE message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be
that
human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights, once and
for all." It has been three and a half years since American First Lady Hillary
Clinton summed up the keynote of the 4th United Nations World Conference on
Women in Beijing. At the close, delegates hammered out a manifesto. Among
other
things, it declared that women have equal rights to education, to own and
inherit property, and to make decisions about their sexuality and
childbearing.
It condemned all forms of violence against women, particularly if sanctioned
even tacitly by governments. As the world marks International Women's Day on
March 8, the last of the 20th century, how much of the ambitious plan has been
put into action? In real terms, not much. 
Violence against women? Last May, scores of Chinese-Indonesian women were
raped
during the political upheaval in Jakarta that swept president Suharto from
office. After much official denial, a panel of investigators confirmed not
only
that the crimes took place, but that ethnic-Chinese women had been targeted in
an organized campaign. International groups have documented abuses against
women in other troubled areas of Indonesia, such as East Timor, Aceh and Irian
Jaya. Widespread violence against ethnic-minority women has also been reported
in Myanmar. Yangon's armed forces, charged the U.S. State Department in 1998,
"continued to impress women for military portage duties, and there were many
reports of rape by soldiers." 
What about women making their own decisions on sexuality and childbearing?
Japanese authorities were quick to approve the new male potency pill, Viagra,
but continue to drag their feet over allowing the sale of birth-control pills.
Japan, the only developed nation that still refuses to sanction oral
contraceptives, trots out numerous excuses. One is that the pill is unsafe
(even though the low-dosage kind has been proven to be safe for years), and
another is that it would discourage the use of condoms and thus spread AIDS.
The latest reason cited, the nation's declining birth rate, has a certain
plausibility. Yet it can also be argued that if Japanese women felt they had

more control over their own reproduction, they might decide to have more
babies. 
China's one-child policy of population control is not meant to discriminate
against girls. In practice, however, it leads to sex-selective abortions,
infanticides and abandonment of female infants. Illegal though they are, such
practices have caused the "disappearance" of tens of millions of girls,
producing a skewed gender balance in China. The male-to-female ratio in some
parts of the country are as high as 120 to 100, compared with a "natural" rate
of 106 to 100. On top of that, China is the only nation where higher suicide
rates are reported for women than for men. The reasons are not entirely clear,
but one factor may be the low esteem in which women are often held - or hold
themselves. 
Economic hardship also tends to set back women's rights. When jobs and money
become more scarce, many societies find it easier to justify discrimination
based on gender. In Japan, for example, a strong preference in employment and
promotion has always been given to the family breadwinners - invariably
defined
as the men. Earlier in the decade, Japanese women had begun to make inroads
into bastions of male employment. But the Crisis and continuing shortages of
new jobs in the country sharply curtailed the opportunities for women,
especially fresh university graduates. Recessions also impact education, which
often involves substantial outlays for fees, books, uniforms. When family
resources become stretched, parents usually give higher priority to educating
sons. 
In fact, boosting schooling for girls is one of the best ways to advance the
cause of women - and to control population. Educated women tend to have fewer
babies. The past few years have seen some setbacks on this front, notably in
Afghanistan, where the Taliban regime stopped all girls from going to school.
Yet in the same area, the rest of the Muslim world has been making more
progress than anywhere else. A report by the Population Action International
group in Washington states that such nations as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt
made the greatest advances toward equality of education for girls between 1985
and 1995. The survey also cited improvements in China at the secondary-school
level. 
Great gender disparities in school enrollment still exist in South Asia, where
boys tend to outnumber girls by fifteen percentage points or more. The gap
widened in Pakistan, even though the overall number of girls receiving
schooling actually climbed. It's just that boys going to school climbed even
faster. The Washington study noted that there were several relatively simple
strategies to provide better educational opportunities for girls. Bangladesh
provides stipends to cover school fees and supplies. Others ideas include
recruiting more female teachers or permitting young women to return to school
after giving birth. Such simple steps may turn out to be more
cost-effective in
improving the conditions for women than all of the international conferences
put together.