The War Against Women: The US, Australia, and Pakistan, and beyond

[tcpip]

Last Sunday evening was Dean Edwards speaking at the ALP Kooyong FEA forum on the U.S. elections followed by the fairly good film By The People, more of a following rather than a documentary; I did a fair bit of the organising for this, so was pleased that it went well. Of course, it is not exactly smooth sailing for the US Democrats with the Romney campaign making some headway in the polls. I find this rather extraordinary given that the U.S. Republicans have far too many crazies - especially of the anti-woman variety - in their midst. Of course, there is always a dissenting view.

In Australia, the Prime Minister came out against the leader of the opposition in one of her best speeches on the issue of sexism and misogyny, and issue which Mr. Abbott apparently has some issues with, among other things. Of course, it doesn't look that good for the PM when single parent benefits are being cut at the same time. In Pakistan, a notable event this week was the shooting of a Pakistani schoolgirl by a member of the Taliban. She had brought attention to herself by campainging for girls' education and hosting a 'blog which reported Taliban atrocities and whilst people have responed with appropriate outrage, action is not yet forthcoming.

The thing is, there is good empirical measures of the structural and systematic effects of sexism; maternal deaths, income and wealth ratios, schooling, & etc. (and with greater degrees of accuracy than some claims). The systematic effects are those which directly prevent women from controlling their own body, and their participation in public life. The structural effects are the replication of cultural norms which arise from system discrimination, and can persist even after those barriers have been removed. But one cannot even begin to remove those structural effects without targetting their systematic origins - and thus we also find some good news this week. Women can now inherit in Botswana. So begins a slow and steady much to equality - based on the outrageous assumption that half the population also matter and therefore are deserving of the same rights and sense of fairness that the other half may take for granted.

Comments

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

I'll drink to the last paragraph fortissimo!!!
:)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Indeed, it is extraordinarily good news.

On nairiporter's 'blog who also reports this event, I mentioned that customary law, whilst having strong associations with a population, invariably comes up with some very out-dated and prejudicial core components - especially in property rights.

Indeed, this will an example of systematic and structural effects. There is no way that women in Botswana could even aspire towards equality whilst male inheritance was ensured. Now is the beginning of some hope.

[ehintz.livejournal.com]

The Repubs and their Fox News mouthpiece have a most extraordinary and carefully crafted propaganda machine-quite possibly the best in the history of the world. Their ability to shift attention to what they want it on is spectacularly effective, which is how they survive-and even thrive-with so many straight out nutjobs at the helm. Respect. What they do is pretty wrong at best, in my opinion, but the effectiveness with which they do it is remarkably precise.

It's like the Wizard of Oz-pay no attention to that man behind the curtain-writ large.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well obviously we suffer from the insidious machinations of the Murdoch press here as well, but I do wonder whether it's an ever-shrinking market as Internet media diversifies.

Perhaps we better off just ignoring these trolls? Is Fox news big enough, important enough, and open to change to pay any serious attention to?

go figurehead

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User decrypt_era referenced to your post from go figurehead (http://decrypt-era.livejournal.com/24579.html) saying: [...] [Inspired by 's recent post, The War Against Women [...]