What caught my attention of this topic was reading Is it still hard to be a woman? However like all articles on this subject it discusses the difficulties of women of the industrialized world or world where women are free as men are but yet face difficulties of working in a man's world.
Women in the work place faced insurmountable difficulties and they have now come a long way in gaining equality. However, women yet face difficulties and the struggle for refinement of their treatment is continuously on the spotlight.
Women who work face difficulties not only at work but also at home. A married woman would work the same hours as the husband and only return home to take burden of the bulk of the housework. Then when there are children at home, the juggling of office work, housework and child rearing also puts the greater pressure on the woman.
When we speak of high-flying jobs is it still hard to be a woman? Women still underrepresented in senior positions and most earn less than men earn. The most successful women are those who are single or those who had plenty of support (from family and/domestic employees) but for the majority are still behind the curve in senior positions or salary when compared to men. There are many stories of many women who have been extremely successful as entrepreneurs. This proves that they were at the helm by choice and did not face any discrimination from the other gender. However, for the average woman there are difficulties of all sorts.
Globalization may yet make it harder for women to get top positions. Even if the smart/dedication equation is on scale, to stay competitive in a senior job also takes talent and time. Therefore, local laws must mandate greater privileges for women who leave the workforce to have children and rear them. While women leave the workforce for longer or shorter periods when they have children, more women return to work after maternity leave. Scandinavian countries have an excellent model for maternity leave that sets a great example for the rest of the world to follow. Mothers get 9-12 months full-pay leave without loss of official status or position until they return to work. The Scandinavian maternity leave system not only helps mothers, children and the family, but also is beneficial in that mothers can stay home and breastfeed children in their most formative years. Unfortunately, many of these debates seem to ignore the work-life imbalance that women face and benefits to children in their first year of childhood being breastfed by the mother.
Yet, I must say, that it is lucky to be a woman in a country that legally accepts a woman as equal as a man. I come from a developing country that has great respect for women's rights. In fact, Sri Lanka had the first woman Prime Minister in the world. In many developing countries throughout the world, women hold very senior positions in private industry and government as much as they do in the industrialized world. Unfortunately, this does not apply to much of the Middle East and North African countries.
In Iraq its hard to be a woman. The same difficulties that women face today in Iraq they face in much of the Middle East and North Africa, or even worse thereof. It is such a pity that women must be subordinate to the masculine gender! What good God would insist on such an occurrence? When you think about the men and women who have pioneered scientific research and created great inventions, what do you see? Great male genes, great women genes or great efforts that spell success? The answer without a doubt is the latter. From countries that have given women equal rights it is clear that women who are given the freedom to exercise their efforts excel as much as or better than men on some occasion, proving that women are no less inferior to men in their intellect. Afghanistan is a good case in point as the most recent example of world history; women doctors, intellectuals and other professionals, once deprived of work by the Taliban, are now returning to their professions.
There are women in senior positions in the Middle East and North Africa; however, they have extra challenges and sacrifices to make because of the deterrence leveled against them. From human biology, it is clear that what we inherit is the beginning of what we can be. It is not the end. Given a chance to exercise effort, women excel in what ever they do. Women run marathons as fast as men do. And do you think that a woman could swim the Antarctica mile? In this 21st century,joining the exclusive masculine club are women leaders such as Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia, Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, Michelle Bachelet Jeria and other female Presidents (Finland, Ireland, Latvia and Philippines) and other women in senior positions of government and corporations are leading examples of women's potentials. The host of Women Prime Ministers and Presidents: 20th Century is an outstanding history of global women political leaders. At UNICEF we had terrific women executives; I experienced that it is much easier to work with a woman boss and I was candid enough to say that the best boss I ever had was a woman.
A great sector of the world is not using 50 per cent or so of its intellectual capacity by suppressing the rights of women. The matter gets worse when there is no separation of state and religion and the government of the country promotes a religious-based political system that treats women in diminutive and inferior ways. Such state controlled amplifications puts women at greater risk for domestic violence resulting in pathetic lives. These religious-based political systems also suppress the freedom for women to express themselves and assemble to discuss their difficulties.
Other questionable practices that affect the girl child is female genital cutting (FGC). Norway cracking down on FGC is a good act for the rest of Europe to follow. Egypt bans FGC is also a good act for the rest of the Middle East and North Africa to follow. This does not mean that FGC will cease in Egypt, at least it has been outlawed. Hopefully, Egypt will bring to book those who break the law. However, as is always the case, so much goes unreported. FGC is worse than discrimination, it is a inhuman and degrading treatment of the girl-child and women, it is a mutilation of the female body and it is a reconstruction of its natural creation. On FGC, Islamic juridical logic cannot acknowledge the distinction between female and male circumcision, both being the mutilation of healthy organs which is damaging to the physical integrity of the child, whatever the underlying religious motivations. Furthermore, both practices violate the Koran: "Our Lord, You did not create all this in vain" (3:191), and "[He] perfected everything He created" (32:7).Muslim Clergy oppose all forms of female genital cutting as it is viewed as a social custom, rather than a religious practice. According to Dr. Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-Salieh at the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law. Amnesty International estimates that over 130 million have suffered humiliation of FGC with over 2 million performed each year. The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) with the support of Muslim clergy should more forthrightly and unambiguously call for the abolition of FGC instead of having it buried in other words like discrimination against women.
Much of the Middle East and North Africa can take a page from Malaysia and Turkey. The Western world and the United Nations must keep up the good fight to fight for the equality of women all over the world. Sometimes, it is one step forward but backward again as success in Iran seems to be now somewhat hampered. Sadly, the cultural transformation for women to gain equality may take many sorrowful generations in some parts of the world.
One issue of women concerns and involves East and West. Today, yes today, in this day and age of 2007, over 12 million people will suffer in the slave trade and the larger number of them are girls and women, traded mostly for sex. In addition the export market entails thousands to a million or so women as domestic servants with little or no legal status exposing women to physical and sexual abuse. The UN Declaration of Human Rights needs enforcing by all governments so that people held in slavery or servitude are freed and the perpetrators severely reprimanded and punished.
The UN and UNICEF does work exclusively on Women's Rights. It would be good to see more countries called to make declarations to improve the rights of the girl child and women including abolishing unsavory practices that alter the normal creation of the female species.
As we see, in comparison to some parts of the world, it is much less difficult to be a woman in the Western world.
The United Nations should declare a 9th Millennium Development Goal, to "eradicate all forms of discrimination against women by the year 2015."
Annex 1:Africa's child brides - what a horror?
Annex 2: The girl child as household cook
Link to this post: The Changing Gender Dynamics of African Politics.
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