For the past 5000 years, give or take a century or two, there has been a persistent tendency to leave unexamined the impact that social, economic, environmental, and military policies have on the lives of women throughout the world. As a result, women make up the majority of those living in poverty, millions of women have died needlessly due to lack of healthcare and safe living conditions and there is a worldwide pandemic of violence against women.
For those reasons, International Women’s Day (IWD), which is observed on March 8 is a time not only to celebrate women’s lives and achievements, but also a chance to join hands in solidarity with women around the globe and to focus much needed attention on the many problems women face today.
It has been said that the health of a society is measured by how it treats its women. With one in three women throughout the world likely to experience sexual assault during her lifetime, it is not a stretch to say that this society is in crisis. In recognition of the systemic and pervasive violence that impacts the lives of women every day, the United Nations’ theme for its 2007 observance of IWD is “Ending Impunity for Violence against Women.� As Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues has pointed out, “When you rape, beat, maim, mutilate, burn, bury, and terrorize women, you destroy the essential life energy on the planet. You force what is meant to be open, trusting, nurturing, creative, and alive to be bent, infertile, and broken.�
Here in the U.S. for the sixth year in a row, President Bush’s annual budget request for funding the Violence Against Women Act once again falls short of the amount of its Congressional authorization. And while the President will no doubt serve up the usual annual platitudes about honoring women on March 8th, his administration has, as it has every year since 2001, also requested cuts in funding for maternal and child health as well as family planning.
Meanwhile…more than half a million women worldwide will die this year from the complications of pregnancy and childbirth, including 68,000 from illegal and unsafe abortions. According to The Lancet, “an estimated 90% of deaths from unsafe abortions and 20% of obstetric mortality could be avoided with improved access to contraception. Yet the latest figures show that donor funding for family planning has decreased by 36%.�
It is particularly ironic that the supposedly liberated women of Afghanistan suffer the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world with 1,600 deaths per 100,000 live births. In the U.S. more than 20 million women live in poverty and out of 173 countries, the U.S. is one of only five countries that has no guaranteed maternity leave. The U.S. is also one of only seven countries that has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
The ongoing militarism that plagues our planet is also extremely detrimental to women. Violence during war and conflict is not incidental, it is systemic. Rape, a cheap alternative to bullets, has always been a de facto weapon of war. Women who are raped during conflict are particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Conflict frequently leaves women without homes, food and medical care and many become refugees. Obtaining work may become difficult, forcing many women into prostitution in order to survive. Hundreds of thousands of women are sexually trafficked every year and violence makes it impossible for hundreds of thousands of girls to attend school.
Pollution is also an important problem for women. Recent studies have found numerous toxins in breast milk and one out of six women in the U.S. has enough mercury in their wombs to cause mental retardation, autism and other diseases. Women who breathe polluted air are four times more likely to have children who develop cancer. Other pollutants such as PCBs, dioxin and DDT are known to impact reproductive health and have been linked to breast cancer. Chemical and nuclear weapons impact women’s reproductive health, causing low birth weights and gross birth abnormalities.
It is for all of these reasons that on March 8th, we once again affirm the human rights of women throughout the world as well as celebrate their lives and accomplishments.
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*This essay is adapted from commentary by the author that was originally published by the Louisville Eccentric Observer. “We Stand with the Women of the World� is the theme for the 2007 Louisville, Kentucky/US observance of IWD.
2 Responses to “International Women’s Day 2007: We Stand with the Women of the World”
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Admin note:Â This comment from Heather Wokusch originally appeared on our ‘About’ page but more properly belongs here.
1. Heather Wokusch Says:
March 8th, 2007 at 12:20 pm e
Dear Feminist Peace Network
I am an author and blogger and just released an article on International Women’s Day, mentioning your group at the bottom. Just wanted to let you know!
The article is pasted below and a linked version should be on my site soon. If you would like to post all or any part of the article on your site, be my guest.
Best
Heather Wokusch
http://www.heatherwokusch.com
http://www.progressiveshandbook.com
http://www.youtube.com/heatherwokusch
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War on Terror, War on Women
“On September 11, we saw clearly that evil exists in this world, and that it does not value life … Now we are engaged in a fight against evil and tyranny to preserve and protect life.� – Bush in 2002, linking abortion rights with terrorism, as he declared the 29th anniversary of Roe v. Wade to be “National Sanctity of Human Life Day.�
Under Bush, the US has become more militaristic and less tolerant of diplomacy and dissent. Women’s rights have deteriorated accordingly.
Sabotaging programs for women has become something of a sport for this administration – in fact, one of Bush’s first acts as president was to shut down the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach. Among other activities, the office had monitored policy initiatives and coordinated federal programs affecting women.
Bush then tried to close the Department of Labor Women’s Bureau regional offices, thus prohibiting women from learning about their legal rights in the workplace.
Most recently, the administration took revenge on the Office of Women’s Health, presumably because it had backed scientific research supporting the emergency contraceptive Plan B. Previous attempts to punish the office had included appointing a veterinarian as its director (speaks volumes, Bush wanted an animal doctor to be in charge of US women’s health), but two weeks ago, the hammer fell. The Women’s Health Office learned that its budget for this year would be slashed by 25%, thus threatening ongoing operations and research into everything from menopause to birth control.
The administration often uses funding as a weapon against women’s programs, both at home and abroad. Quickly after assuming office, for example, Bush brought back Reagan’s much-maligned “gag� rule, which prohibits healthcare providers abroad from receiving US funding, even if they spend their own money in counseling women about abortion or in providing abortion services. For developing countries struggling with HIV/AIDS, the gag rule’s return has meant a double whammy: reduced access to USAID-supplied contraceptives and condoms plus the closure of healthcare clinics critical to local populations.
The administration has also defunded the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which works in over 140 countries supporting maternal-health and family-planning programs, as well as fighting HIV/AIDS and violence against women. The administration has claimed that UNFPA was involved in coercive reproductive health practices in China – a charge a State Department investigation proved false.
Such funding cuts have had predictably tragic consequences. The respected British medical journal Lancet notes that more than 500,000 women die each year from “often preventable� pregnancy complications and that “women’s health rapidly improves when abortion is made legal, safe, and easily accessible but this is not an option for many women.� According to Lancet, “An estimated 90% of deaths from unsafe abortions and 20% of obstetric mortality could be avoided with improved access to contraception … Yet the latest figures show that donor funding for family planning has decreased by 36%.�
Unfortunately, the administration’s FY2008 budget promises more of the same: hundreds of billions of dollars for war with corresponding reductions in programs benefiting women.
So as we observe International Women’s Day, it’s up to those of us lucky enough to live in relative freedom and financial security to link the Bush administration’s focus on achieving goals through war and weaponry with the inevitable cutbacks of social programs benefiting women and children. And it’s up to us to demand that the administration pursue diplomacy with Iran, rather than a disastrous military strike.
After all, the US and Iran have a lot in common. Unlike most other countries across the globe, neither has ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Action tips:
1. Join the International Women’s Day celebration at http://www.internationalwomensday.com
2.Here are some great sites focused on women and peace
Feminist Peace Network http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org
Code Pink – Women’s Pre-emptive Strike for Peace http://www.codepink4peace.org
Coalition of Women for Peace http://coalitionofwomen.org
Gather the Women http://gatherthewomen.org/gtw/index.htm
Grandmothers against the War http://grandmothersagainstthewar.org
Madre http://www.madre.org
Peace Women http://www.peacewomen.org
UNIFEM’s portal on Women, Peace and Security http://www.womenwarpeace.org
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom http://www.wilpf.org
Heather Wokusch is the author of The Progressives’ Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now, Volumes I and II. She can be reached at http://www.heatherwokusch.com and can be seen discussing rollbacks in women’s rights under Bush (and many other topics) at http://www.youtube.com/heatherwokusch.
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article International Women’s Day 2007: We Stand with the Women of the World, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.