Women's Equality Throughout the World
by Lisa A. Siemers
Learning for the 21st Century - Spring 2000
Washington Online course
"However sugarcoated and ambiguous, every
form of authoritarianism must start with a belief in some group's greater right
to power, whether that right is justified by sex, race, class, religion, or all
four. However far it may expand, the progression inevitably rests on unequal
power and airtight roles within the family." by Gloria Steinem
"After more than 200 years of living under the United States Constitution and
despite all of the progress we have made, women continue to suffer
discrimination in employment, insurance, health care, education, the criminal
justice system, social security and pensions, and just about any other area you
can name." --from the "National Organization for Women" website
The focus of my research project is women’s equality throughout the world.
More specifically, I am looking at cultural customs, practices, and values
throughout the world that hinder or help women’s equality. I also investigated
the history of the women’s movement and its progression in the United States.
How far have we really come in terms of women's equality? Why are many women
still suffering horrible injustices in all areas of life? Where did systematic
dicrimination of women around the world originate? Has there ever been societies
that didn't practice patriarchy -- have any practiced gynearchy? These are just
a few of the many questions concerning women that I have deliberated over while
completing my research.
Although I have not been able to find concrete answers to all my questions,
I've found many interesting perspectives. I've found a plethora of information
concerning women's equality, and I've included numerous keywords and links that
will lead any person interested in women’s issues to some excellent sources of
knowledge and wisdom.
Academic Disciplines
- Social Sciences - Sociology
- Anthropology - Cultural Studies
LC Subject Headings
- Social Sciences
- Culture
- Social Conditions
- Women
- Feminism
Keywords
- Women’s equality
- Women's Rights
- National Organization for Women (NOW)
- Glass Ceiling
- Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
- UN Fourth World Conference on Women
- Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
- Chinese foot-binding
- Gender stratification
- Micro-credit
- Trafficking of women as sexual property
- Feminism
- Taliban rule in Afghanistan
- Gynearchy
- Afghanistan women
- Discrimination against women
- Gender gap
- Third Wave
Most Important Databases and Periodical Indexes
Organizations
C National Organization for Women (NOW)
http://www.now.org/
Founded in 1966, NOW is a reputable organization for, and by, women. NOW
discusses and advocates Women's Rights; NOW is working towards establishing full
equality for women with a "take action" approach. Currently, NOW has 500,000
contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of
Columbia.
Gendercide Watch Organization
http://www.gendercide.org/
Gendercide Watch seeks to confront acts of gender-selective mass killing
around the world. They believe that such atrocities against ordinary women and
men constitute one of humanity's worst blights, and one of its greatest
challenges in the new millennium. Gendercide Watch is a project of the Gender
Issues Education Foundation (GIEF), a registered charitable foundation based in
Edmonton, Alberta.
Statistics
"The pay gap is so great
that women who work full time average only two-thirds (66 percent) of what men
are paid (Statistical Abstract 1997: Table 734). The pay gap used to be
even worse. And it does not only occur in the United States. A gender gap in pay
characterizes all industrialized nations, though only in Japan is the gap larger
than in the United States (Blau and Kahn 1992)."
"An estimated 135 million of the world's girls and women have undergone
genital mutilation, and two million girls a year are at risk of mutilation -
approximately 6,000 per day. It is practised extensively in Africa and is common
in some countries in the Middle East. It also occurs, mainly among immigrant
communities, in parts of Asia and the Pacific, North and Latin America and
Europe."
Henslin, James M. Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. Needham
Heights, Massachusetts: Pearson Education, 2000.
Lightfoot-Klein, H., "The Sexual Experience and Marital Adjustment of Genitally Circumcised
and Infibulated Females in the Sudan" The Journal of Sex Research. 26 (3), pp. 375-392,
1989.
Articles in Reference Books
Barry, Kathleen L. "Liberation and the Global Rights of Women" Encyclopedia Americana.
Dansbury, CT: Grolier, 1997.
Kathleen L. Barry is a writer and graduate of Pennsylvania State University.
She contributed to the Woman Suffrage section of Encyclopedia Americana. This
particular article is very impressive and argues the justifications of cultural
relativism for practices throughout the world that hinder women’s equality.
McPhee, Carol, and Ann Fitzgerald. Feminist Quotations: Voices of Rebels, Reformers, and
Visionaries. New York: Crowell, 1992.
Carol McPhee, a writer, contributed to the
compilation of these feminist quotations along with her editor, Ann Fitzgerald.
Feminist Quotations is a great reference book filled with quotes from the 18th
century to present day. These quotations gave me an understanding of what women
feel when being oppressed, and what drives them to seek equality.
Okin, Susan Moller. Is Multiculturalism Bad For Women?. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1999.
Susan Moller Okin is Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society and
Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. Professor Okin discusses
many issues concerning women in this book. Topics included are minority women
and social conditions, sex discrimination against women, the negative influences
of multiculturalism, culture conflict, and feminism. Okin debates the soundness
of culture practices such as polygamy, forced marriage, female genital
mutilation, punishing women for being raped, differential access for men and
women to health care and education, unequal rights of ownership, assembly, and
political participation, unequal vulnerability to violence.
Nielsen, Joyce McCarl. Sex and Gender in Society: Perspectives on Stratification.
2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub., 1990.
Joyce McCarl Nielsen is a feminist author and researcher. This book focuses
on gender stratification around the world. Nielsen discusses possible reasons of
gender stratification and the enforced subservience of women without promoting a
single theoretical explanation. She discusses how sex stratification is built
into the very structure and framework of society. There are also candid
discussions on specific customs such as foot-binding and genital mutilation. In
addition, there is analysis on industrialized countries and the inequalities
women experience, like the gender wage gap.
MacFarquhar, Emily. "The War Against Women." U.S. News & World Report. 1994.
SIRS Knowledge Source. 15 May 2000 .
This extensive report covers the injustices women all over the world are
experiencing in the modern times, despite the strides that have been made in the
struggle for women's rights. There are several examples of inequality in Russia,
the U.S., and Africa. MacFarquhar states, “A lethal, age-old contempt for women
persists”, and this is the unequivocal premise of the entire article. In
conclusion, MacFarquhar suggests that the discrimination women face leads to
broad-based movements on their part for more equality. This article is excellent
source of information on the current practices that hinder women.
Riley, Nancy E. "China’s ‘Missing Girls.’" Honolulu Advertiser. 10 Sep. 1995.
SIRS Knowledge Source. 15 May 2000 .
Riley, writing for Hawaii's East-West Center, is a visiting Scholar at the
Population Reference Bureau in Washington, D.C. This is article succinctly
describes the second class citizen status Chinese women hold using the
disturbing example of China’s imbalance of infant boys and girls. Many girls are
aborted or murdered after their sex is discovered. Despite the governments
opposition of sex-selective abortion and female “infanticide”, these customs are
still rampant. The article ends by discussing the strides that need to be made
to discourage these practices.
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. "Exploring Feminism." Neither Victim Nor Enemy
(1995): 173-189.
Jean Bethke Elshtain is a feminist writer who went on to earn a Master's
degree in history as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow before turning to the study of
politics. She received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University in Politics in 1973
and joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Elshtain
has written many books, periodicals, and journals on women’s issues and
policies. "Exploring Feminism" is one of her many articles published in a
professional journal and book. In this article, she offers a perspective of
feminism and women.
Switala, Dr. Kristin. Feminist Theory Website. 1999. Center for Digital
Discourse and Culture. 9 June 2000
<http://www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/>.
Dr. Kristin Switala, the creator and editor of the Feminist Theory Website
and the Chantal Chawaf Newsletter, is a professor of philosophy at the
University of Tennessee. Her website provides research materials and information
for students, activists, and scholars interested in women's conditions and
struggles around the world.
Center for Women Policy Studies. Feb. 1999. The Center for Women Policy Studies
Institution. 27 May 2000
<http://www.centerwomenpolicy.org/>.
The Center for Women Policy Studies is an independent, national multiethnic
and multicultural feminist policy research and advocacy institution, founded in
1972. The Center addresses cutting edge issues that have significant
implications for women. The Center's work seeks to incorporate the perspectives
of women, in all their diversity, in the formulation of public policy that
ensures the just and equitable treatment of women.
U.S. House. 106th Congress, 1st session. S. RES. 68 Expressing the sense of the Senate
regarding the treatment of women and girls by the Taliban in Afghanistan. ONLINE.
THOMAS. <106th Congress>. 5 June 2000
<http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas2.html>.
This bill explains the need to restrict the Taliban led government in
Afghanistan from obtaining a seat in the UN General Assembly as long as they
continue to practice cruel violations of women’s human rights. It states that
the U.S. should refuse to recognize any government that does not take action to
work towards the right of women to participate in all civil, economic, and
social areas of life. This bill is an example of the steps the U.S. is taking
towards women’s global equality. It also expresses the brutal situation that
women and Afghanistan are facing.
I’ve had a fabulous time researching women’s equality. I’ve always been
interested in women’s issues, and I enjoy acquiring any information I can to
help further my knowledge of this topic. I was so pleased that we were allowed
to pick our own topic of research; it really gave me the motivation to select an
issue that I would study thoroughly.
Overall, the internet was my most frequently used research tool for this
project. When I started with "women's equality" keywords, I was able to access
lots of information from meta-search engines and periodical databases. After
reading through many of the retrieved articles and journals, I picked up
information and keywords on subjects and organizations that were related to the
original topic. The internet has become an excellent resource, with lots of
organizations and government agencies setting up shop online.
Finding out about specific practices that help or hinder women's equality
required me to look in the areas of culture study and sociology. The NOW website was also a tremendous aid. I already
had some previous knowledge of customs like foot-binding and female genital
mutilation, so I had a platform to leap from when starting my investigating. And
once again, the internet provided a vast amount of information to help me
discover and understand specific culture practices.
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