Women

Growing Gender Inequality in India

Topics: Women, Culture
Countries: India
Photo Credit: <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/3pom/2180527461/">3pom (flickr)</a>
Photo Credit: 3pom (flickr)

Technological advances have significantly impacted India's recent growth. But one technology may be causing more harm than good.

India is experiencing an alarming rise in sex-selective abortions. As the middle class has grown, more pregnant women are able to afford ultrasounds. One result is that many couples are choosing to abort female fetuses. Traditionally, boys are preferred over girls — they carry on the family name, can more easily find paid work, and don’t require expensive dowries. Even though India is becoming increasingly modernized, these traditional values remain intact.

The numbers tell the story: In 1981, India had 962 girls for every 1,000 boys. In the 2001 census, the ratio was 927 to 1,000. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently called the problem a "national shame."

Indian society is starting to experience the repercussions. With fewer available women to marry, some Indian men are resorting to buying their brides from poor communities outside their own, the BBC reports.

The Right to Vote

Topics: Women, Justice
Countries: Mexico

It's well-known that women's empowerment and economic development go hand-in-hand — which is another reason to support a Mexican woman's fight to allow women in rural Oaxaca to vote.

Women can vote in places as conservative as Afghanistan, as repressive as Burma and as closed-off as Bhutan, but the L.A. Times reports that women in rural Oaxacan communities cannot vote or run for office.

One woman, Eufrosina Cruz, is fighting for a change in Oaxaca, Mexico's second poorest state. (Three of four Oaxacans live in "extreme poverty.") Her state governor and Mexican President Felipe Calderon now support a change in legislation, which would grant thousands of Oaxacan women the right to vote and run for office.

Women in neighboring Guatemala can vote. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/elcanche/">El Canche</a>
Women in neighboring Guatemala can vote. Photo: El Canche

Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth

Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps
Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

Liberia lacks doctors, teachers, lawyers, electricians ... but they may have too many cooks.

Why? To help provide jobs following the end of Liberia's long and costly civil war, many international humanitarian agencies began delivering skills trainings to women. The most commonly taught skill? Baking, of course.

But there just aren't enough jobs for all the newly trained pastry makers. So women who learned to make wedding cakes and fancy foreign pastries are now selling two-cent donuts on the street. And foreign-owned companies (mostly Lebanese) continue to dominate the pastry making business.

In the rush to help Liberia, it appears that well-intended job trainings did not reflect market demand. The problem goes beyond baking. Other aid organizations continue to train women in the art of tie-dying. But unless Liberia's demand for tie-dyed shirts and sarongs reflects 1960s America, they may be wasting their time.

Gross Inadequacies in Afghani Education

Topics: Women, Education
Countries: Afghanistan
Photo: Shirine Bakhat/Mercy Corps
Photo: Shirine Bakhat/Mercy Corps

You would think that female access to education within one country would be roughly the same. Not so for Afghani girls trying to get ahead.

Radio Free Europe explores the deep inadequacies in education offered to female Afghani students. Educational opportunities are vastly different for female students in northern provinces and their female counterparts in southern Afghanistan.

The problem emerges not only from a lack of funds, but increasing lack of security due to the Taliban's presence in the south. Schools have been burned down by members of the Taliban and female teachers terrorized or killed.

The connection between education, female economic empowerment and poverty alleviation is essential and the growing inability of female students in the south to access safe educational opportunities worrisome.

Read the article and also check out what Mercy Corps is doing in Afghanistan.

China and Burqas: A New Relationship?

Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seeingthings/1442173917/">twocentsworth (flickr)</a>
Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: twocentsworth (flickr)

China has entered the business of producing and selling burqas-- and Afghani women are responding to the "modern" designs. With the resurgence of the Taliban and violence, many women are choosing (or being forced to) cover up. The result is that China's new industry is driving out the traditional Afghani burqa industry.

Check out the Wall Street Journal article and video about China's growing presence in the burqa industry from this week's Post Global.

Microfinance Empowering Women

Topics: Women, Microfinance
Countries: India

In a land where three farmers commit suicide per day, microfinance is making positive difference in Vidarbha- India's primary cotton growing region. Over 500,000 female small entrepreneurs there are determined to lift their families from the burden of debt by forming microfinance groups and finding alternative ways to make an income.

The micro credit banks urges them to save with them, with each member depositing money, ranging from 50 rupees to 1,000 rupees every month. The bank in turn provides credit to the group, whose members borrow money from the group depending on their needs.

Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

Wangari Maathai, Founder of the Greenbelt Movement, Speaks

Topics: Women
Countries: Kenya

Wangari Maathai is the 2004 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and founder of the Greenbelt Movement. She has spent her life as an activist promoting women’s rights, civil society and environmental protection. The international arm of the Greenbelt Movement focuses on empowering African women and girls, especially nurturing their leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

Ms. Maathi has said that ‘‘Africa is not poor. But the people of Africa are poor. They do not have the skills to use the resources they have in abundance. There can be no development in Africa if the continent does not use its resources effectively.''
In this short film, Ms. Maathai discusses the value of human rights and politics in creating a just society.

Afghani Business Success Story

Topics: Women
Countries: Afghanistan
Photo: Shirine Bakhat/Mercy Corps
Photo: Shirine Bakhat/Mercy Corps

Today's Christian Science Monitor has a hopeful piece on female entrepreneurs in Afghanistan.

The success of Sediqi and a handful of other Afghan businesswomen come amid difficult circumstances, despite steady growth in the overall economy. In the face of a resurgent Taliban, stagnant reconstruction, and the high-profile kidnappings of foreign aid workers, these women push forward, propelled by entrepreneurial grit and desire to support their families. While no official figures track their numbers, they can be found in pockets of Afghanistan, launching consultancies, furniture factories, and printing houses. Many of them say better business conditions, rather than more talk of their plight, are critical.

From the Archives

A Recipe for Job Creation in India

Topics: Women
Countries: India
Previously filed under: Asia, Success Stories
Lijjat Papad, a cooperative papadam business, has improved the lives of 41,000 members, mostly iliterate women, through an innovative business model.

From the Archives

Water-Guzzling Industries 'A Threat' to China's North

Topics: Women, Economic Development, Climate and Environment
Countries: China
Previously filed under: Asia, Environment
The concentration of water-intensive and polluting industries in China's dry Northern provinces is raising concerns.

From the Archives

Why Focus on Poor Women and How Best to Serve Them

Topics: Economic Development, Women
Previously filed under: Microfinance
Most poor people are women and most women are poor - yet almost all low income women are economically active and would benefit tremendously from access to microfinance.

From the Archives

Blogging from Baghdad

Topics: Women, Conflict and War
Countries: Iraq
Previously filed under: Europe and Middle East, Book and Film Reviews
A young woman in Baghdad reports on the war that she lives every day.

From the Archives

Hope Dawns as Women Beat Poverty

Topics: Women, Microfinance
Countries: India
Previously filed under: Asia, Microfinance
In India, hundreds of self-help groups provide one example of how women can mobilize to improve their lives.

Breaking News

Namibia: Kavango Communities Get Natural With It

All Africa - Fri, 05/09/2008 - 04:01
THE GOSPEL of sustainable use of Namibia's natural resources is increasingly being preached in many parts of the country.

Kenya's cabinet learns the ropes

BBC News - Fri, 05/09/2008 - 04:37
Kenya's power-sharing cabinet meets for the first time for former rivals to learn how to work as a team.

Burma rejects need for foreign aid workers, UN blasts regime

Times Online - Fri, 05/09/2008 - 00:11
Eyewitness report from disaster-struck region

Burma shuns foreign aid workers

BBC News - Fri, 05/09/2008 - 03:55
Burma wants aid but is "not ready" for foreign experts, its foreign ministry says, as fears grow for cyclone survivors.

The future of social networking: mobile phones

Times Online - Thu, 05/08/2008 - 16:00
Picture this: a young woman goes to a party. She doesn't know anyone but it's fine because she has her mobile with her. A few clicks and she accesses the profiles of a dozen people at the party, including their pictures. She's in luck: two of them turn out to be friends of friends. She messages them and they start to chat.

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