The girl effect is about leveraging the unique potential of adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves, their families, their communities, their countrie...
The Gender Equality Index is a composite indicator that measures the complex concept of gender equality and assists in monitoring progress of gender equality across the EU over time.
Chile’s feminist anthem “The rapist is you,” went viral in 2019. The chant became an anthem for women during the social unrest of 2019, which was sparked by deepening inequality in the country. The song had a global impact, but the struggle for equality back in Chile continues, we meet the women leading the charge.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has been described as the ‘rape capital of the world.’ Gynecologist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege has been fighting for years to help rape survivors. German doctor Gisela Schneider goes to visit him.
Many parents might be unfamiliar with the word "simp," but chances are your tween or teen has used or at least heard the term. Simp is slang for a person (typically a man) who is desperate for the attention and affection of someone else (typically a woman).
Gender dysphoria—the miserable feeling of being at odds with one’s sex—is one of the fastest-rising medical complaints among children. America had one paediatric gender clinic in 2007. It now has at least 50. The sole paediatric gender clinic for England and Wales, known by its acronym, gids, has seen referrals rise 30-fold in a decade. A similar pattern is evident across the rich world.
Many attending such clinics are given gonadotropin-releasing hormone (gnrh) agonists, or “puberty blockers”. These drugs, licensed to treat cancers of the breast and prostate, endometriosis and “central precocious puberty”—a rare condition in which puberty starts far earlier than normal—are prescribed off-label to stop the signals that stimulate the testicles or ovaries to ramp up sex-hormone production. The idea is to delay puberty, buying time for patients to decide whether to proceed to cross-sex hormones and surgery with the aim of “passing” as adult members of the opposite sex.
All drugs offer a mix of harms and benefits. But despite their popularity, the effects of puberty blockers remain unclear. Because they are not licensed for gender medicine, drug firms have done no trials. Record-keeping in many clinics is poor. A 2018 review by researchers at the University of Melbourne described the evidence for their use as “low-quality”. In December British judges likewise flagged the lack of a “firm evidence base” when ruling that children were unlikely to be able to give meaningful consent to taking them. Britain’s National Health Service recently withdrew a claim, still made elsewhere, that their effects are “fully reversible”.
The studies that do exist are at once weak and worrying. The day after the court ruling, gids published a study that found children were happy to receive the drugs. But there was little other evidence of benefit—not even a reduction in gender dysphoria. Two older studies of Dutch patients given puberty blockers in the 1990s found that gender dysphoria eased afterwards. But without a control group, it is impossible to tell how patients would have felt had they not taken the drugs.
A 2020 paper analysed responses to an online survey and concluded that people who had taken puberty blockers were less prone to suicidal thoughts. But online surveys capture convenient samples, not representative ones. People may answer repeatedly, or at random. Much of the data appeared to be misreported: many who said they had taken puberty blockers were too old to have plausibly done so.
In the absence of direct, robust evidence, researchers can try to extrapolate from other findings. Off-label prescribing is common in paediatric medicine, because drug firms do not generally like running trials on children. So doctors look for second-hand evidence from elsewhere to guide their decisions. One source is studies that look at how gnrh agonists are used to treat other conditions.
Interrupting normal adolescence is not the same as treating cancer, endometriosis or precocious puberty. Nevertheless, data from these conditions have flagged unpleasant side-effects. Men who take gnrh agonists lose energy and sexual desire. (This is why some countries prescribe them to sex offenders.) Women are thrust into an artificial menopause, an experience unpleasant enough that, in endometriosis, drugs are typically prescribed for six months at most. Several legal cases have been brought against drug firms by adults who took puberty blockers for precocious puberty. They allege cognitive deficits, brittle bones and chronic pain in later life, though none has made it to court.
Animal studies suggest such concerns may be worth investigating. One 2017 study looked at sheep, which go through a developmental spurt similar to human adolescence. Sheep given puberty-blockers performed worse than controls on a maze-navigation task, suggesting their spatial memory was inferior. A 2020 paper looking at mice found, among other things, that females given puberty blockers were more timid in unfamiliar environments, and gave up sooner on a “forced swim” test that is commonly used to assess whether anti-depressants work.
One big worry is that puberty blockers seem to reliably lead to cross-sex hormones, in what doctors call a “cascade of interventions”. The best estimate, from studies starting in the 1970s, is that around 80% of gender-dysphoric children who are allowed to express themselves as they wish, but who do not socially transition—change their clothes, pronouns and the like to present as members of the opposite sex—will, as they grow up, become reconciled to their biological sex. Yet puberty blockers seem to prevent that reconciliation. In European clinics that report numbers, it happens with just 2-4% of children given the drugs. American clinics rarely publish figures, but anecdotally the picture is similar.
Such numbers led British judges to rule that the effects of those subsequent treatments should be taken into account when assessing puberty blockers. Besides their intended effects, such as the growth of breasts or facial hair, cross-sex hormones also cause side-effects. One 2018 study concluded that females who take testosterone are more likely to suffer cardiovascular disease, while males who take oestrogen have higher risk of blood clots and strokes. The additional risk grew the longer the patients remained on hormones.
Some doctors worry about osteoporosis. Bone density rises sharply during puberty, but blockers disrupt that process. If they are followed by cross-sex hormones they are very likely to impair fertility, even if hormones are later stopped—though the lack of studies means no one knows how much, says Will Malone, an American endocrinologist and member of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, a new group. If the cascade of intervention ends with removal of the testicles or ovaries the result will be sterility.
Despite the uncertainties, professional bodies have endorsed the drugs. In a 2018 position paper the American Association of Paediatrics (aap) described “gender-affirmative” care as the only ethical approach. Not everyone is convinced. James Cantor, a Canadian clinical psychologist, published a paper accusing the aap of misstating the contents of its citations, which “repeatedly said the very opposite of what the aap attributed to them”. (Asked for comment, the aap restated its position.) Marcus Evans, a psychoanalyst, resigned from the board that oversees gids over worries about “experimental” treatments.
The best way to settle such disputes is the same as in any other part of medicine: a big, well-run clinical trial. So far, despite soaring caseloads, and puberty blockers having been prescribed for decades, no one is planning to conduct one
What a courageous and powerful position this woman was put in. The article is correct that it is ridiculous to think one woman in a room full of men is going to be able to do much, but it is a start. This whole situation reminds me of Nazi Germany and the Olympic games they held in Germany. Hitler had one token non-blond participant to prove he wasn’t racist. This is all this woman is to the Taliban, a way to show that they aren’t racist to other females. I certainly hope most of the world see through this and knows that the Taliban is still very much against woman’s rights.
This does show promise for the potential of Afganistan to start the process of advancing beyond sexist views, but given that it is a country that relies on Sacred Law, it is not likely to be much of a change or to last very long. Even the U.S. is still struggling with sexism and they like to consider themselves the leaders in human rights.
It's amazing to see this because in idealist terms the struggle has been to challenge taliban forces of fundamentalists and establish a more pro-western/democratic based government. As the middle east finds much of it's history tied to Islam and many take the texts literally and maintain older views it is nice to see such things prevailing as it would have never been heard of long ago.
Traditionally, strongman competitions have been the domain of bulky men with bulging biceps — but now women are seeing the benefit of lifting impossible weights.
Gender inequality is arguably the most pervasive form of inequality around the world and a pressing human rights concern. Progress on gender equality is fund...
I propose the examination of imprinting resulting from sexual abuse as a potential factor that may influence various outcomes, including homosexuality, stuttering, and autism in both men and women. It is suggested that imprinting originally triggered by sexual abuse might contribute to the development of these conditions. One possible sequence, among others, could involve the following: Sexual abuse imprinting (leading to imprinting of homosexuality) may be associated with imprinting of stuttering and autism in both men and women. These conditions, observed with an average ratio of four men to one woman, are known to be challenging to modify. These collective observations give rise to the imprinting syndrome of sexual abuse.
Imprinting refers to an early stage in an animal's life, or a sensitive stage when it forms bonds and develops its own identity. Through sexual imprinting, young animals learn mate preferences at an early age by observing and learning to imitate their parents as role models, as is the case with humans and various other animal species. Natural sexual imprinting prevents consanguinity or mating with relatives, and avoids inbreeding or mating between close members of a community. A summary of surveys conducted in 2016 in several countries on heterosexuality and homosexuality in men and women concluded that, on average, 2% of men and 0.5% of women identify as exclusively homosexual, resulting in a ratio of 4:1 for men and women. Additionally, 0.5% of men and 0.5% of women identify as predominantly homosexual, 0.5% of men and 1% of women as bisexual, 4% of men and 10% of women as mostly heterosexual, and 93% of men and 88% of women recognized themselves as exclusively heterosexual [1]. This reflects the fact that 7% of men and 12% of women show variations in their sexual preferences. Homosexual variants occur in both sexes, and if preferred, they cannot easily modify a certain sexual preference. In a 1997 survey in the United States, 46% of gay or bisexual individuals had a history of childhood sexual abuse, whereas only 12% did not. This study affirms: “Given these findings, it appears that being sexually abused as a child may affect the propensity of adult men to fantasize about young men [2,3].” Sexual abuse is defined as any sexual activity involving a child who does not provide or cannot provide consent. It can be forced sexual contact or through threats, regardless of the age of those who participate, as well as any sexual contact between an adult (or an older boy or girl), either through deception or if the minor, boy or girl, understands the sexual nature of that activity. Under overcrowded conditions, instances of homosexual rape have been reported to occur with greater frequency, such as in boarding schools and prisons [4,5].
In children, sexual abuse can result in specific attachments and well-defined aversion. In addition, these children may perceive their sexual inclinations differently due to the absence of a consolidated heterosexual gender imprinting identity, which they may be unaware of and consider foreign to them [6]. This perception may result from aversive imprinting caused by the sexual abuse experience. Consequently, individuals may perceive their bodies as incongruent with their sexual preferences, leading to rejection of their own physicality. Such perceptions can persist into adolescence, adulthood, and old age, with individuals perceiving their homosexual orientation as unchangeable and normal. When the imprinting of the minor's gender identity was preserved and coexisted with the imprinting resulting from sexual abuse, such as instances of short duration or lower intensity (e.g., when it was a woman who groped the child's anus), then the assaulted person could present both heterosexual and homosexual impulses or bisexuality. Some young homosexuals may conceal their sexual preferences, even resorting to extreme measures like suicide if they fear exposure. Homosexuality in adults may often be accompanied by aggressive sexual impulses and harm to babies [7]. Homosexuality may attenuate or nullify reproduction, too [8].
Certain brain areas may be involved, including the inner face of the temporal lobes and a part of the limbic system. This system is a part of the brain involved in behavioral and emotional responses, especially when it comes to behaviors that we need to survive, such as feeding, reproducing, caring for our offspring, and fighting or flight responses. Additionally, the emotional register of experiences directs human existence involuntarily [9,10].
I propose the examination of imprinting resulting from sexual abuse as a potential factor that may influence various outcomes, including homosexuality, stuttering, and autism in both men and women. It is suggested that imprinting originally triggered by sexual abuse might contribute to the development of these conditions. One possible sequence, among others, could involve the following: Sexual abuse imprinting (leading to imprinting of homosexuality) may be associated with imprinting of stuttering and autism in both men and women. These conditions, observed with an average ratio of four men to one woman, are known to be challenging to modify. These collective observations give rise to the imprinting syndrome of sexual abuse.
What is normal? And what constitutes a normal face? Our brains are constantly analyzing and classifying every face we encounter, and we as people are not alone in this. A whole field of science and technology analyzes these sub-attentive cognitive processes and breaks them down into statistical normalities. Through machine learning, facial recognition is even being used to categorize and predict human behavior.
A California man was arrested after making online threats against the dictionary publisher over their entries that defined women, investigators said.
The suspect also sent threats to other companies, investigators said.
ByIvan Pereira
23 April 2022, 01:49
• 5 min read
The fight for gay rights in America
A brief history of the movement's fight for equality.
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A California man was arrested this week for allegedly threating to bomb Merriam-Webster's offices and kill its employees over the dictionary publisher's definitions for women, federal prosecutors said.
Jeremy David Hanson, 34, of Rossmoor, California, was charged on April 20 with one count of interstate communication of threats to commit violence for alleged online threats that he sent to the company in October, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts.
Hanson allegedly sent the company several threatening messages through its "Contact us" section on its website and in the comments section on its webpages that corresponded to the word entries for “Girl” and “Woman.” Rachael Rollins, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said. Rollins said the threats were serious enough to force Merriam-Webster to close its Springfield and New York offices out of an abundance of caution.
MORE: Man arrested for threatening to attack LGBTQ community with guns, bombs
"We believe Hanson sent a multitude of anonymous threatening and despicable messages related to the LGBTQ community that were intended to evoke fear and division," she said in a statement.
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In this screen grab taken from Google Maps Street View, the Merriam-Webster building i...Read More
Hanson allegedly used the handle “@anonYmous” to post the a message on Oct. 2 on the comment section of Merriam-Webster's webpage for the definition of the word female stating that "Merriam-Webster now tells blatant lies and promotes anti-science propaganda," according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
"There is no such thing as 'gender identity.' The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot," he allegedly wrote in the comment section.
Hanson also allegedly wrote a message on the "Contact us" page stating the company's headquarters should be "shot up and bombed," federal prosecutors said.
"It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive,” he allegedly wrote.
Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images, FILE
In this Jan. 13, 2022, file photo, U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins is shown at a media round...Read More
Hanson posted a similar message on the "Contact us" page on Oct. 8, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
MORE: Multiple HBCUs temporarily cancel classes following threats
The suspect allegedly sent related threats to other companies, non-profits and individuals including the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Land O’ Lakes, Hasbro, Inc., IGN Entertainment, the president of the University of North Texas, two professors at Loyola Marymount University and a New York City rabbi, according to prosecutors.
Google Maps Street View
In this screen grab taken from Google Maps Street View, the Merriam-Webster building i...Read More
"Threats to life are most certainly not protected speech and they cause real fear in victims," Joseph R. Bonavolonta, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division, said in a statement.
Attorney information for Hanson wasn't immediately available.
He was released on conditions following a court appearance in the Central District of California, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Katherine A. Robertson in federal court in Springfield on April 29, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
"A California man was arrested this week for allegedly threating to bomb Merriam-Webster's offices and kill its employees over the dictionary publisher's definitions for women, federal prosecutors said.
Jeremy David Hanson, 34, of Rossmoor, California, was charged on April 20 with one count of interstate communication of threats to commit violence for alleged online threats that he sent to the company in October, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts.
Hanson allegedly sent the company several threatening messages through its "Contact us" section on its website and in the comments section on its webpages that corresponded to the word entries for “Girl” and “Woman.” Rachael Rollins, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said. Rollins said the threats were serious enough to force Merriam-Webster to close its Springfield and New York offices out of an abundance of caution.
"We believe Hanson sent a multitude of anonymous threatening and despicable messages related to the LGBTQ community that were intended to evoke fear and division," she said in a statement."
A California man was arrested this week for allegedly threating to bomb Merriam-Webster's offices and kill its employees over the dictionary publisher's definitions for women, federal prosecutors said.
Jeremy David Hanson, 34, of Rossmoor, California, was charged on April 20 with one count of interstate communication of threats to commit violence for alleged online threats that he sent to the company in October, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts.
Hanson allegedly sent the company several threatening messages through its "Contact us" section on its website and in the comments section on its webpages that corresponded to the word entries for “Girl” and “Woman.” Rachael Rollins, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said. Rollins said the threats were serious enough to force Merriam-Webster to close its Springfield and New York offices out of an abundance of caution.
"We believe Hanson sent a multitude of anonymous threatening and despicable messages related to the LGBTQ community that were intended to evoke fear and division," she said in a statement.
Millions of women across Mexico are expected to strike against gender-based violence on Monday. It comes after a year of countless protests against sexual harassment, abuse and murder. Government figures show men kill at least 10 women every day there.
Violence against women in Colombia is worsening under coronavirus lockdowns. The killing of a woman and her daughter has sparked many to take to the streets of the capital, Bogota. But, those murders were just the latest in a long list of crimes.
"These are the steps we need to take right now to make sure bias-free AI is developed by people representative of the whole of society and any given company ..."
Climbing the corporate ladder while dealing with a sexist office culture is, unfortunately, all in a day’s work for ladies in Japan. We show you some tactics to effect change at your workplace — even if it’s only baby steps.
It was 10 p.m. and my boss and I had just walked out of our last meeting for the day. I was lightheaded with hunger, tired and fantasizing about the moment I could take off my high heels. As we walked to the closest station together, out of the blue he turned to me and asked: “So, do you make dinner for your husband every night?”
My eyes narrowed and my neocortex went on red alert. What I really wanted to say was: “How could I possibly do that? It’s 10 p.m. and I’m here. With you. Working. For the third time this week — and it’s only Thursday!” Instead, I scrounged around for a comment biting enough to (hopefully) make him think and said: “My partner works for a gaishikei (foreign company). He leaves work on time and cooks for me.’
Ingrained sexism at the office Deeply entrenched beliefs and assumptions like this flourish in Japan’s traditionally-minded office culture. This goes for office environments across the country, where due to the cultural focus on wa (harmony) and gaman (basically, “grin and bear it”), many women go along with uncomfortable situations and remain silent, since fighting back would paradoxically make them “a troublemaker.”
Most instances of outlandish behavior come from older managerial types, such as those who summon their female coworkers by calling out, “Ne! (Hey!)” or who refuse to see women as anything other than “OL” (office ladies) who take care of the workspace and perform menial tasks. Although the younger generation is not usually so blatantly sexist, it’s easy for men in the Japanese workplace to remain blissfully unaware of how the nature of their comments can affect us.
Culturally-ingrained assumptions are a really difficult to deal with, no matter in which country, and by the looks of it, due to Japan's wa and gaman values, makes it difficult to speak up about it and make changes. Luckilly it seems that time is slowly helping people become more aware, and this is possibly due to office dramas in Japanese media, which can show the issues with and make fun of general office life.
I feel like it's really hard to comment on things from other cultures other than just saying that end result is bad. Most of the time we're looking at the situation through an ethnocentric viewpoint and don't really understand how they got there.
The whole idea of being in a workplace where sexism still exists turns my stomach. I worked in public service for my entire career. I will never forget when my fire captain told me that our fire department would never hire a woman because they could not do the job that we do as men. My jaw hit the floor on that day in 1994. I am glad that in my career that was not the case, women did get hired and proved that they were more than capable to do the job. Time is the only thing that will address this issue. It is through the efforts of women that we can change our misogynist ways but it takes time. For whatever reason people feel it is not an issue or it is not that big of a deal or they simply deny it exists. Fortunately, we have women that can stand up for their rights that should not be denied. Men like myself have to ensure that women get a fair shot and are treated for their abilities, not their sex.
A growing awareness of this, combined with activists’ call for transgender people to be recognised as members of the gender with which they identify, is leading to changes in the way trans prisoners are housed. In most cases, such inmates (the majority of whom are trans women) are incarcerated with members of their biological sex. But this month, California introduced a law allowing prisoners to request to be housed in accordance with their gender identity. Similar policies have been introduced elsewhere after transgender inmates sued for mistreatment.
Trans activists’ insistence that trans women be treated as women is also influencing federal lawmakers. On his first day in the White House, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing agencies to consider anti-discrimination measures in which he said that “children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room or school sports.” The Equality Act, which he has promised to make law, would redefine the “sex” of the amendments of the Civil Rights Act to include “gender identity” (that is, a person’s sense of their gender regardless of whether they have taken cross-sex hormones or undergone surgery). The logical outcome of that would seem to be admitting trans women to spaces once reserved for women, from sports teams to prisons.
America needs federal legislation to protect trans people from discrimination: in many states there may be nothing illegal about a landlord refusing to rent an apartment to a trans person, for example. But policies grounded in the flawed conflation of biological sex and gender identity will lead to more problems than they solve, because they create a clash between the rights of women and those of trans women.
Prisons offer a particularly worrying example of this. There are two obvious problems with putting trans women in female prisons. The first concerns safety. Most trans women pose no threat to women. But denying the reality of biological sex ignores the fact that men are much the more violent of the two sexes. In America they commit 90% of murders and constitute 92% of the prison population. There is no evidence that trans women have lower levels of criminality than men.
California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (cdcr) says the 130-plus prisoners who have so far requested they switch prisons (out of a trans population of around 1,000) are “predominantly” trans women. (This may also be because there are fewer trans men). Inmates’ requests to move are not granted automatically; they are assessed by a panel that is mindful that some male sex offenders will claim to be trans to gain access to victims.
But even if it were possible to weed out all sexual predators—some assaults, like flashing, rarely show up in criminal records —there would remain another, more widespread problem. Women’s right to separate spaces is not only about safety; it is also about privacy. “Women have a right to disrobe out of the sight of men,” says Ann Menasche, a lawyer with Feminists In Struggle which is lobbying to change the wording of the Equality Act. In prison that may be especially important. Most incarcerated women have suffered trauma: the American Civil Liberties Union says 92% of all women in California prisons have been “battered and abused”.
No one has surveyed female inmates about their views on how trans prisoners should be housed; “no one would dare, in the current climate,” says Ms Menasche. But it seems probable that most would rather not share a cell or shower with someone with the defining sex characteristics of a man. Most transwomen have not undergone “bottom surgery”: a survey by the National Centre of Transgender Equality found that 12% had undergone vaginoplasty or labiaplasty and 11% had a orchiectomy (the removal of one or more testicle).
How to balance the welfare of trans women and women inmates? When posed this question, transgender activists, who increasingly express dislike of the term “biological sex,” deny that any such tension exists. “Trans women are women,” says Shawn Meerkamper, a lawyer with the Transgender Law Centre, which helped draw up California’s new law.
The refusal to discuss any alternative to policies that ignore the meaning of “sex” precludes the exploration of better solutions. In Britain, the fear that allowing transwomen into women prisons endangers females prompted the establishment of a separate trans wing in a women’s prison in London. But this is unlikely to be copied in America: transgender-only spaces correspond with laws that protect transgender people as a separate category rather than those that count them as members of the sex with which they identify.
Changes to the way trans prisoners are housed are likely to come slowly. Guidelines introduced in 2012 that require all federal and state prisons to ask trans inmates whether they would feel safest in a men’s or women’s prison appear to have had little effect on where they are placed. But as more trans women enter women’s prisons, the problems this will entail will spark court cases. That may prompt a rethink. In the meantime, this policy will be tested at the expense of an unusually vulnerable and voiceless group.
ECONOMISTS HAVE long tried to calculate the value of unpaid housework. In terms of inputs and outputs, the contributions of a stay-at-home parent can easily be overlooked, hidden in the folds of freshly ironed shirts and the contents of a full belly. The courts, too, have tried their hand at putting a price on housework. Recent divorce cases show they are willing to hand out extra cash to the spouse who does more of the cleaning up.
Last month China was shocked when a court ordered a man to pay his wife $7,700 for housework during their five-year marriage. The wife, known as Ms Wang, told a judge in Beijing that she “looked after the child and managed the household chores while [her husband] did not care about or participate in any other household affairs besides going to work”. On average, Chinese women spend four hours a day on housework, compared with about an hour and a half for men. (The gap is even wider in India: five hours for women to half an hour for men.)
This article makes it clear that there is a time differential however I do understand that every situation is different. There are many factors that can lead to this easily becoming the opposite. The fact that they frame these as a "choice" is slightly rude. I do think that almost 8k is also insulting for a job that can literally take your entire life for 18 years. There is one thing that the "Economists" forgot to take into consideration and that is, the market speaks for it's self. Market rates for a babysitter plus the hours worked plus the value of having the mother of your child having the ability to provide care for your child. Sadly so many things are seen as worth less than the true value they provide nowadays.
I’d be interested to see the calculations they used. That certainly wouldn’t cover five years worth of babysitters, housekeepers, or personal cooks. Perhaps they subtracted her living expenses from the total? Even if this is the case, such a minimal amount is almost a slap in the face.
- Most of the time women end up staying home at least until they have a single child in daycare, or not in daycare any longer, due to the astronomical monthly cost of child care. When you add up the average cost for a cook, a maid, a child caregiver/ preschool teacher, the average family could not afford to pay for all three of those, especially if the price compounded with each additional child. Being a stay at home parent is truly a gamble. In a divorce alimony should absolutely be considered for each case that does not hold a valid prenup, or postnup. I don't feel that the court award matches the work the wife did.
This post is by Catherine Powell, fellow for CFR’s Women and Foreign Policy Program; and Amelia Wolf, research associate for CFR’s Center for Preventive Action and International Institutions and Global Governance Program.
The recent increase in attacks by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS)—known until recently as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)—and the group’s claims to territory in northern Iraq have spurred observers to draw comparisons between the current crisis in Iraq and the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. In Iraq, the IS has begun to impose Sharia law in areas under its control, forcing boys and girls to be separated at school, requiring women to wear the niqab in public, and banning music. There have been reports that the IS has forced women to marry or have sex with militants, ordered families to hand over their daughters, and distributed leaflets promoting the rape of women. In addition, a Saudi-based cleric recently issued a fatwa allowing militants to rape women in towns claimed by the group. All this has caused fear and concern that the drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by the end of 2016 will result in a similar unraveling and a revival of extremism in the country—which would undermine the primary intent of a decade of U.S. intervention.
Whether or not the crisis in Iraq compares directly to Afghanistan—given the historical, cultural, geographic, ethnic, and political differences between the two countries—it certainly provides a cautionary tale for U.S. policy toward Afghanistan. In particular, just as gender equality is threatened by the rise of IS in Iraq, the gains made by Afghan women and girls over the course of the U.S. presence in the country would be greatly imperiled by a resurgence of the Taliban if the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) are not strong enough to step in as U.S. troops withdraw.
Prior to the overthrow of the Taliban, women and girls were banned from schools; segregated in many aspects of public life, including the workplace; and prevented from leaving their homes without a male guardian. In 2001, virtually no girls were enrolled in school, and women rarely participated in the formal economy and or held leadership positions. Now, more than ten years later, women have made great strides in education, health, political participation, economic empowerment, and social engagement. Approximately 40 percent of children enrolled in schools are girls and maternal mortality has fallen from 1,600 to 327 deaths per 100,000 births. Additionally, women hold three out of twenty-five cabinet seats and 120 judicial positions. Backsliding on this progress would undermine security, stability, and development, as gender equality and stability are correlated.
Even if U.S. troops stay in Afghanistan beyond President Barack Obama’s December 2016 deadline for complete withdrawal, U.S. public opinion and funding for an ongoing U.S. military presence much beyond that date is unlikely to change, given the other potential demands on the U.S. military and constraints on resources. Obama’s recent announcement that U.S. military involvement will come to an end before he leaves office reflects this political reality as well as his desire for a legacy of pulling the United States out of two wars and refocusing U.S. counterterrorism efforts on new fronts in the Middle East and North Africa. While policymakers and media have focused on the continued presence of U.S. troops, severe cuts to U.S. funding of the ANSF are in the works and pose a great threat to the rights of women and girls going forward. U.S. policymakers should utilize the leverage they currently have in Afghanistan to strengthen the ANSF’s own ability to prevent the country from a fate similar to that of Iraq.
The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq was a fool’s errand from the beginning–particularly since a focus on Afghanistan instead would have better served U.S. interests in the region. However, once the United States toppled Saddam Hussein, it had a responsibility to assist the country with an orderly transition to a society in which human rights and security are guaranteed. Part of the current problem in Iraq is the fact that the United States withdrew before adequately training Iraqi forces. To avoid a similar erosion of security and backtracking on gender equality in Afghanistan, Washington should follow the recommendations outlined in a recent CFR report, Women and Girls in the Afghanistan Transition:
Support the ANSF’s ability to maintain security and enhance the environment for the participation of women and girls in public life. Double funding to support women’s integration into the ANSF. Invest in women’s rights and leadership–including in rural areas–as this will support sustainable development for the country as a whole. Maintain and expand girls’ education in Afghanistan.
In comparing the Afghanistan and Iraq, it is important to remember the crucial differences between the two countries. For example, gains made by women and girls since 2001 have been widely supported by a majority of Afghans, including men. This has not been the case is Iraq. In addition, sectarian divisions that lie at the heart of the resurging violence in Iraq do not exist to the same extent in Afghanistan. Lastly, while Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki refused to an agreement for a U.S. residual force in Iraq, the runoff candidates in Afghanistan—Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai—have both agreed to sign the bilateral security agreement to ensure a U.S. presence in the country. A security agreement is essential to ongoing cooperation between the two countries to achieve shared policy goals, including promoting the participation of women and girls in public life.
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This is one of my favorite vides. Thanks for posting this Cat George!