Shaken, not stirred

So it's International Women's Day tomorrow. Its 100th anniversary even.

So what?

Not to pick on him in particular, but here's one's man take on the matter:

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff made the following statement on the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day:

"100 years ago tomorrow, the first International Women's Day was established in 1911 to campaign for women's rights to work, vote, hold public office and end gender discrimination.

"Today, International Women’s Day celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women across the globe..."

I wonder. Do women celebrate how far they've come in Congo, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, on the Highway of Tears, in low-income areas where single Moms live right here in Toronto ... ?

Meanwhile, in the US and, to a lesser extent, in Canada, there's a war on women's rights.

Sorry, but I can't get it up for International Women's Day.

So I'll let James Bond Judi Dench speak for me -- with James Bond (Daniel Craig) riding shotgun:

 

 

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: Love this post by April Reign complete with added video goodness.

What she said

Journalist Sheryl WuDunn, co-author with her husband New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof of Half the Sky, says it all at a recent TEDtalk.

H/T to my longtime -- from high school! -- friend Mark Takefman, who walks the talk in India.

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: Almost forgot. Under PM Stephen Harper's ''maternal health'' plan, women in these countries are not entitled to the reproductive freedom, including contraception, they would need to achieve equality.

Happy Birthday Gloria Steinem!

76 and still going strong.

Apologies for the shaky quality of this video, shot during a speech Gloria Steinem gave last year at the 2009 William K. Rashbaum, MD, Abortion Provider Award Ceremony.

No apologies for her words.

How I wish that this warrior woman might have laid down her arms by now because the struggle for women's equality had been won. But we are going backwards, as we have seen both in the U.S. and Canada this week.

P.S. The comments on the YouTube site -- like many of the comments that never get posted on this blog -- are indicative of how much hatred there is for women. Consider yourself warned.

H/T I am Dr. Tiller.

Women's Work

Stumbled across this stunning -- in so many ways -- National Film Board documentary the other day. 

It is totally worth 94 minutes of your time to get to know New Zealand political economist Marilyn Waring.  Her ideas, boiled down to their most basic, relate to how what women do and contribute count for nothing in a world measured by leading, lagging and other economic indicators.

For example, activities which involve monetary transactions count as production even when they involve the degradation of the earth's resources, such as strip-mining. A sunset has no value, nor a mountain, and trees only count when they have been chopped down and sold. At the same time, Waring criticizes traditional economics for not finding a way to value community well-being. By current thinking, war and disaster are 'good for the economy' because they create jobs such as arms production and clean-up.

As Gloria Steinem wrote in the introduction to Waring's book, Counting for Nothing: What Men Value and What Women are Worth, she will change your worldview. She certainly helped me crystallize many inchoate ideas I have had about women's work and place in the world.

Sometimes this film, which requires zero expertise in economics, just blew me away. It even helped me formulate today's treeware column about childcare.

But Waring's about so much more than that. My young economist friend Aaron Braaten tweeted back at me the other day that Waring, one of his idols, was years ahead of her time when this film was made in 1995.

Unfortunately, she still is years ahead of her time.

But at least, now, there's a realization that, while it's still a man's world, women make it go round.

If you have an iPhone, get the free NFB app and watch it on your commute or in bed or wherever you are. Or sit at the computer.

Just don't miss it.

Not-so-Happy International Women's Day!

There's been plenty of emailing, tweeting, Facebook posting, blogging and more about International  Women's Day, now marking its 100th anniversary. No question women in the west have considerably advanced from being nothing more than chattel to citizens ostensibly enjoying equal rights. (Although, the fight really never ends.)

But the human race and the planet would be far better off if women everywhere had access to reproductive choices and maternal healthcare, education and land and property rights. Instead, they suffer forced marriage, devastatingly early pregnancies, multiple births, crushing burdens of having to look after small children while also walking miles for food, water and kindling ...

Over the past couple of years, since this blog was birthed, I've been pleased to see some of these notions gain traction beyond the usual NGOs. There's a lot of talk. But there seems to be little political action.

Political action is what is needed.

And so, for International Women's Day, I would like to propose you do one thing to help women in one country where we already investing so much blood and treasure.

Afghanistan. Land of that despicable puppet we support Hamid Karzai.

Orzala Ashraf, a women’s rights activist in Kabul, blames the government: “Laws are clear about crimes but we see big criminals thriving and being nurtured by the state for illicit political gains,” she told IRIN, pointing to the government’s alleged failure to address human rights violations committed over the past three decades of conflict.

“Because no one is put on trial for his crimes, a criminal culture is being promoted: violators have no fear of the law, prosecution and a meaningful penalty,” said Ashraf.

Deep-seated ambivalence to women’s rights is evident from a law signed off by President Hamid Karzai in early 2009: The Shia Personal Status Law, dubbed a ‘rape legalizing law’, was amended after strong domestic and international pressure.

“The first version [of the law] was totally intolerable,” said Najia Zewari, a women’s rights expert with the UN Fund for Women (UNIFEM). “Despite positive changes in the final version, there are articles that still need to be discussed and reviewed further,” she said.

Another example of this ambivalence is the case of the men who threw acid in the faces of 15 female students in Kandahar city in November 2008: Karzai publicly vowed they would be “severely punished” but court officials in Kandahar and Kabul have said they are unaware of the case and do not know where the alleged perpetrators are.

“Judges say the men were wrongly accused and forced to confess,” Ranna Tarina, head of Kandahar women’s affairs department, told IRIN.

More on that rape law here and here.

Today RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan put out this statement:

Today, on the 8th of March, Afghan women are mourning for the gang-rape of Bashiras and Saimas, for being flogged by most lowed elements, for being auctioned in open market and for their young daughters who put an end to their miserable lives by self-immolation. But the perpetrators of all these crimes are forgiven; therefore they enjoy complete immunity, are still holding their official positions and tightening it through plundering our people and country.

Though we don’t expect anything different from the most corrupt and dirty puppet regime of the world, the pain of Afghan women turns chronic when the world believes that the US and NATO has donated liberation, democracy and human and women rights for Afghanistan; whereas, after eight years of the US and allies’ aggression under the banner of “war on terror”, they empowered the most brutal terrorists of the Northern Alliance and the former Russian puppets – the Khalqis and Parchamis – and by relying on them, the US imposed a puppet government on Afghan people. And instead of uprooting its Taliban and Al-Qaeda creations, the US and NATO continues to kill our innocent and poor civilians, mostly women and children, in their vicious air raids.

<SNIP>

RAWA is eager to get united in solidarity with individuals and forces that are ready to fight for democracy in an independent front against the occupation, the Taliban, Jehadi and Khalqi and Parchami homeland-sellers.

While women of Afghanistan are experiencing a new era of captivity and are in the grip of the fundamentalist monsters, RAWA sends it heartfelt salutations to struggling brave women of Iran, Palestine, Kurdistan, Sudan, Nepal, India and the rest of the world and announces solidarity with them.

So, this is the kind of thing our tax dollars are supporting.

Do I advocate abandoning these people? No. But I do think that we can let our politicians know that this is not acceptable, not under Canada's flag.

No deals with corrupt women-haters. Simple. Let your MP know. Let the PM know too.

Bread and Roses

Happy International Women's Day.

So much more work to be done. Get involved.

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: What Judy said.

While no doubt thousands of women and men will still join together to celebrate IWD and in some cities still go into the streets, there is little question that the women’s movement is a shadow of its former self. The strategy of second wave feminism was firmly rooted in the welfare state. Women’s equality depended on social programs like social assistance, women’s services and child care. The neo-liberal turn begun by Brian Mulroney in the 1980s and continued by every government since put not only the women’s movement itself but almost all the policies we had fought for under attack. It was no accident that the National Action Committee on the Status of Women was the first organization to protest Mulroney’s neo-liberal turn towards free trade.    NAC saw that the turn represented by the Free Trade Agreement with the United States would impact disproportionately on women, through loss of jobs and attacks on social programs.   Women political scientists like Janine Brodie and economists like Marjorie Cohen have documented the impact of free trade and  corporate globalization on women’s economic and social equality. 

Please read the whole thing.

Women on the edge

Back in Montreal. Dunno for how long.

Until I can return to regular blogging, please follow the fantastic posts put up by my sister Fringers on our Proud to be a Member of that Left Wing Fringe Group called Women Facebook page.

Don't let the Harper government get away with this latest outrage.

OTTAWA -- Missing and murdered women in Canada will be remembered Sunday in memorial marches across the country.

But the occasion may become a memorial for a government-funded research project that put a spotlight on the hundreds of aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in this country.
Federal funding for the Sisters in Spirit initiative of the Native Women's Association of Canada runs out March 31, and the federal government will not give the group any indication whether it will extend its mandate.

"We haven't heard anything," said Sisters in Spirit director Kate Rexe. "The government is silent on the issue."

With a grant of $5 million, Sisters in Spirit spent the last five years compiling a database of more than 520 women who have disappeared or been killed over the last 40 years. The group prepared tool kits for families and police to use when a woman goes missing and developed policies and programs to help stop the cycle of violence.

Rexe said the Sisters group is prepared to begin implementing policies and community programs aimed at three specific areas -- the justice system, child welfare and poverty. But that's been on hold for months because Ottawa won't say if it plans to keep funding the work.

"It's unbelievably frustrating," Rexe said. "We have all the knowledge, the momentum. We can actually start to implement change, but we don't even know if we can keep planning."

A year ago, Status of Women Minister Helena Guergis said she was working on extending the project. "I want you to know, I've already engaged in the process of what Sisters in Spirit Two would look like," Guergis said at the Status of Women committee meeting Feb. 12, 2009.

But a spokeswoman for Guergis would not say Friday whether funding for Sisters in Spirit is forthcoming, and said in an email Ottawa has asked NWAC to share its database with police

More here.

There's an action plan on the Fringers page.

Don't just hold the fort. Take (back) the hill.

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: This letter was sent to the Star's Public Editor Kathy English, about the image accompanying this post. I reprint it here, unedited:

Good afternoon,

 The following link came to my attention today, which takes an article published in Saturday’s Winnipeg Free Press regarding the fate of funding related to the research, education and policy initiative of the Native Women’s Association of Canada called Sisters In Spirit, and attaches an extremely offensive photo of two topless Aboriginal women.

 http://thestar.blogs.com/broadsides/2010/02/women-on-the-edge.html

This photo is not only offensive, it is a colonizer’s portrait of Aboriginal women which is sexualized and arguably trying to create the image of the “savage” woman, denying dignity and respect for the true place of Aboriginal women, who are historically the givers of life, central to communities as nurturers, caregivers, educators and leaders. To connect this photo to a story about Native women’s leadership on the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls is disrespectful and only goes to further devalue the lives of Aboriginal women and stigmatize their place in Canadian society.

 The response from one of my staff I think says it best:

 “Honestly though, I would like to see a newspaper article that talks about missing and murdered Aboriginal women with a photo of happy (or just normal) young, Aboriginal girls accompanying it. THESE are the women we’re talking about who are at risk of violence!!! And this photo proves a point we’re making in the research paper that Aboriginal women have been dehumanized through colonization. And Canada thinks it’s progressed?”

 I’m looking forward to the day when the media begin to treat Aboriginal women in the same way we do the stories of Tori Stafford and Jessica Lloyd – innocent victims of violence who are honoured for their lives, and not marginalized, dehumanized, or sensationalized for social stigmas or the circumstances surrounding their death. Sadly, this day will be a long time coming when supposedly “progressive” media outlets like The Toronto Star are posting photos of Canada’s shameful history as an image of Aboriginal women today. 

I ask you to please take this image down immediately.

Thank you,

Kate

 Kate Rexe, B.A. (Hons), M.A.

Director, Sisters in Spirit

Native Women's Association of Canada

You know, I actually don't disagree. Which is why I chose the image. Perhaps i should have been clearer about my intentions. It is precisely because Aboriginal women have been treated as disposable objects, ever since European men set foot in the Americas, that we have arrived at this place in modern history where our government not only does not care, but actively turns its back on the problem of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.

The photo, however, is not unlike other photos I have run with other blogposts about women being violated both here and abroad. Whether I am talking about the murder of Jasmine Fiore, whose highly-sexualized photos filled the media, or the acid attacks on Afghan girls, or the rapes of women in the Congo, none of the pictures are pretty.

And aren't all of these women colonized, not quite in the same way of course. But colonized none the less.

Girls Discovered

Facebook friend and sister Fringer Elizabeth Pickett found this must-bookmark website, which tracks the well-being of adolescent girls around the world through interactive maps.

The welfare of adolescent girls is crucial in determining economic and social outcomes for countries today, and in the future. For girls to become healthy mothers, productive citizens and economic contributors, their unique needs must be seen and understood.

Yet today, adolescent girls are undercounted and so underserved. Counting them is the first step to increasing their visibility.

Girls Discovered takes that first step. As a comprehensive source of maps and data on the status of adolescent girls worldwide, Girls Discovered helps donors, policy makers and implementing agencies target their investments.

It ain't news anymore that there is a close connection between what happens to girls and what happens to nations.

For example, keeping a girl in school until her body is mature enough for maternity not only results in better outcomes for mother and child, it reduces the strain for scarce resources such as food and water.

What's more, an educated girl is better equipped to support herself and her family -- and maybe, as I have already demonstrated, feed a village.

More info here.

Fertile ground

It's solid info like this (reg. req'd.) that reinforces my long-held contention -- now generally accepted wisdom by everybody but the Harper government -- that investing in women is just plain good business.

Those folks at McKinsey are not exactly lefties. Indeed, corporations hire their people at mind-boggling rates just to take advantage of their expertise.

Which is why, when they say something about economic growth, it's worth paying attention.

Here's the gist of their latest intel:

Few companies make social investments specifically aimed at empowering women in developing economies, but we believe that supporting this goal is good business and good practice for all companies. In the course of our work, we’ve uncovered a startlingly wide range of ways in which private-sector companies can offer sizable economic benefits not only to women and their societies but also to the companies themselves. The benefits to businesses come from enlarging their markets, improving the quality or size of their current and potential workforce (for instance, by attracting talent globally), and maintaining or improving their reputations.

Women in developing economies are hampered by many of the same concerns that face women in other countries, but they also deal with a number of additional barriers to economic security. In some cases, these problems are straightforward—girls getting less food and education than boys, for example. In others, they are as complicated as the difficulty women in many countries have in keeping control over money they may earn (because of regulations or long-standing cultural traditions that prevent them from having secure access to bank accounts), owning property, or acquiring loans.

Women’s unfulfilled potential significantly hinders economic growth. One recent study, for example, estimates that lower education and employment rates for women and girls are responsible for as much as a 1.6 percentage point difference in annual GDP growth between South Asia and East Asia. On the other hand, educated, income-earning women are especially powerful catalysts for development because they tend to invest more of their money in their families’ health, education, and well-being than men do.

Now pay extra special attention to this bit:

Nevertheless, only 19 percent of the respondents to a recent McKinsey Quarterly survey said that their companies had invested in economic-development activities specifically aimed at women in developing markets. Yet 83 percent said that economic growth there was at least somewhat important to their companies’ success over the next ten years.

Now, let me ask you, how freaking stupid is that? What do these companies expect? To expand their markets in countries where women have no money to spend on their products? 

Why yes. That's exactly right.

That despite:

Companies whose social investments do focus on women in developing economies, the survey and our other research show, benefit not only women and their societies but also themselves. Among survey respondents, 34 percent say that such investments have already improved profits, and a further 38 percent expect them to do so.

It's stuff like this that made me roll my eyes when I was getting my MBA.

Change of life

The Star's Peter Gorrie today neatly sums up one of the major flaws in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's supposed ''championing'' maternal health care and child mortality.

It's a point on which I have briefly touched several times.

Here's Peter, with linkage by me:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he wants to save the most vulnerable people on Earth.

"As president of the G8 in 2010, Canada will champion a major initiative to improve the health of women and children in the world's poorest regions," Harper said in a recent opinion article in this newspaper.

Some 500,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth every year, and 9 million kids die before their 5th birthday, he wrote. "Far too many lives and unexplored futures have already been lost for want of relatively simple health-care solutions."

Details are to come – in the federal budget scheduled for next month, and Harper's opening speech to the G20 summit, to be held here in June.

What should we expect from his sudden outburst of compassion?

Here's a clue.

A few days after Harper's article, Environment Minister Jim Prentice spoke in Calgary about climate change. Not only is Canada weakening its target for greenhouse gas emissions "to ensure that it matches exactly" the U.S. goal, Prentice said, but this country will also do nothing until the Americans act.

"We will only adopt a cap-and-trade regime if the United States signals that it wants to do the same. Our position on harmonization applies equally to regulation."

Since the U.S. Congress is unlikely to pass meaningful climate change legislation, and lawsuits will snarl any attempt by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to impose regulations, our government will happily continue the profligate status quo.

This approach hobbles Canada's ability to develop a thriving low-carbon economy: We'll leave that benefit to those with more ambition and imagination.

It also makes a mockery of Harper's pledge to help impoverished women and children. Even if Canada provides ample medicine and food to developing countries – an outcome that's far from certain – his "relatively simple" measures wouldn't suffice because poverty and disease result from social, economic and environmental wounds that require more than bandages.

Just about every major human rights organization I know has reported on how climate change has a greater effect on women than men -- including CIDA which is supposed to be financing this maternal health care initiative. Doesn't one hand know what the other is doing? Or is the Harper government that cynical?

Well, of course. This is the same government that cut off KAIROS -- which helps rape victims and works against environmental degradation -- because, or so Immigration Minister Jason Kenney claimed in Jerusalem, it's anti-Semitic. Which it is not.

Only goes to show how opportunistic Harper's initiative is. How can there be maternal health care and lower infant mortality when there's severe environmental degradation, causing droughts, floods, landslides?

It's women who walk miles to find water, kindling, fuel, food. It's women who are the back of the line when resources are scarce. It's women who are savaged when there are wars for food and water.

Continues Peter:

"If we invest in women's health while ignoring the impact of climate change, then, we're doomed to failure," says Robert Fox, executive-director of Oxfam Canada.

The most recent United Nations report on The State of the World's Population explains why:

"Women ... are among the most vulnerable to climate change, partly because in many countries they make up the larger share of the agricultural work force and partly because they tend to have access to fewer income-earning opportunities.

"Women manage households and care for family members, which often limits their mobility and increases their vulnerability to sudden weather-related natural disasters. Drought and erratic rainfall force women to work harder to secure food, water and energy for their homes. Girls drop out of school to help their mothers with these tasks (creating a) cycle of deprivation, poverty and inequality."

As climate change threatens their survival in rural areas, people flee to cities; forced into crowded, squalid conditions where food and water are scarce and diseases flourish. The precarious homes of these climate refugees are usually first to be destroyed in a storm or flood.

In general, women are more likely than men to die in weather-related disasters, which have increased four-fold over the past 20 years.

Sending traditional aid into these situations could ease some pain, but it's akin to pouring water into a bottomless bucket.

If Harper were serious about his new campaign, he'd put Canada in the lead on climate change rather than keep us a laggard. He'd make that policy part of a coherent effort to change the conditions that condemn so many women and children to desperate, short lives.

"We don't see them connecting the dots," Fox says.

Worse, they act as if the dots don't even exist.

The Harper Government: Working Hard to Get Those Left-Wing Fringe Group Votes.