Happy International Women's Day!
Happy International Women's Day to all my women and men readers!
This is truly a good day to think about the position of women in society-- in all societies, and in the world.
I'm reading the UN's Human Development Report for 2001, the most recent issue that I have to hand. On "Gender Empowerment Issues" the US is ranked 10th, behind--in rank order--Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Canada, New Zealand, Netherlands, Germany, and Australia. Personally, I find that being behind Australia, with what I think of as its macho culture, and Germany, with its echoes of Kinder, Küche, Kirche, fairly shocking. (UK = #16.)
But more to the point, I urge all of you to head on over to Yvette Lopez's great blog, "A Taste of Africa", and read this March 7th post. In it, Yvette, a Filipina community organizer who's doing some skill-sharing in Somaliland with Somali counterparts, describes some of the planning for International Women's Day that she got involved in with a women's group in Gabiley District.
Ya know, I've always enjoyed reading Yvette's blog, and I have a link to it up on my Main page here on JWN. But today, reading that post, I thought, Wow, Yvette is not only an extraordinary, spunky, and inspiring individual-- she also has a real talent as an engaging and vivid writer in English.
(Yvette, how many languages do you speak?)
So head on over there, and leave her and her Somali friends a Comment! I'm going to.
I have NO idea why the Netherlands is in the top 10 on Gender Empowerment Issues, unless they do not restrict that to Women ;-).
We are liberated in many areas, but womens lib has not been one of them. Till the last decade or so we usually ended last in the OECD comparisons (often together with Ireland). I thought we were doing slightly better, at least in comparison. But no way are we among the best for women.
Helena, happy IWD to you! In recognition of IWD, the Canadian Globe and Mail (www.globeandmail.com) summarizes the most recent (2003) report of the International Labour Organization: 40% of the world's 2.8 B workers were women and 60% of the 550 M working poor were women. Working poor is defined as unable to earn above $1US/day! Interestingly, the micro-finance village programs seem to be targeting women and may prove to be the source of socio-economic empowerment for women and their families.
For the record, Australia was the second country in the world to give woment the vote (after New Zealand) and is very progressive when it comes to women's rights issues.
Helena, perhaps you have been reading too much Uli Shmetzer: see http://timblair.spleenville.com/archives/006142.php