Women and Childrens Condition: Gender Inequalities and power redistribution

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Women and Childrens Condition Gender
Inequalities and power redistribution

• The story of the Kubaka Family

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Starring

• Zi

Ziadh
Emily
Danny
Marcia
Special Appearance by Rachel Thibeault
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• Where, after all, do universal human rights
  begin? In small places close to home. Such as the
  places where every man, woman and child seeks
  equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity,
  without discrimination.
• Eleanor Roosevelt

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Challenges to Equality
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• Custom family arrangements
• Womens own responsibilities
• Too challenging

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• Decision maker
• Support family economically
• Frowned upon

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Values and Practices of Women

• Patrilineal principles of inheritance and descent
  
• Patriarchal structures of authority
• Patri-local systems of marriage

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Womens Rights

• Women Education
• Feminization of poverty
• Women Health
• Female Genital Mutilation

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Women Education
In the developing world, more than 113 million
childrennearly two thirds are girlsdon't have
access to a formal education. Of all students who
do start school, one third drop out before the
fifth grade. Again, most are girls. ACDI-CIDA
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Net primary school enrolment/attendance () ,
2000-2005
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Girls Education

• Rigid ideas of gender roles in the household
• Women must stay at home and fulfill their
  motherly role and men are the breadwinners.
• Girls often have domestic work and
  responsibilities that leave little time for
  school. Household chores are viewed as a higher
  priority than going to school.
• Even if girls get education, there is no
  guarantee they will get a good job in which they
  could advance and occupy important positions.
• 2) Girls self-image They do not see and
  understand how important they are. They think
  they are not clever enough, and cannot study
  further like boys. Girls are socialized to think
  they are not worthy to receive education.
• Cultural
• -Early traditional marriage
• -A girl may be less marriageable if she is too
  educated

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• 4) Economic Restriction
• Poverty often prevents parents from paying school
  fees, and buying uniforms and books. Support
  services for students, especially child care and
  safe travel, are expensive and rare. When parents
  must choose between their son or daughter, they
  will send their son to school.
• Many girls would drop-out from school to work
  in garment factories in Phnom Penh. Sometimes
  parents would ask the village chief to tamper the
  age records of their daughters to increase their
  ages to 18 so that they can be eligible for
  factory employment. (Kompong Thom)
• Why are Girls Not in School ?
• Perceptions, Realities and Contradictions in
  Changing Cambodia Esther Velasco 2001

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• 5) Distance between rural schools and the village
  
• School is inaccessible due to poor roads, no
  transport and because it Is too
• Far away from the village.
• Safety Security Risk of Kidnapping and rape
• 6)School curriculum
• Even when girls make it to school, they often
  drop out, because the schools don't
• meet their needs. The teachers, curriculum and
  textbooks frequently reinforce gender
• stereotypes.
• Violence against girls in school
• 7)Facilities of the schools
• There may be no sanitation facilities in or near
  the school.

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Worldwide, for every 100 boys out-of-school
there are 117 girls
Gender disparities in education still remain
prevalent in the Arab States (134 girls
out-of-school for every 100 boys), South and West
Asia (129), and countries like Yemen (184), Iraq
(176), India (136), and Benin (136)

UNESCO, 2006 Gender
differential access to school is usually caused
by poverty, adverse cultural practices, schooling
quality and distance to schools. However, there
are some emerging challenges that reduce girls
enrollment in primary, secondary and tertiary
education. These are HIV/AIDS, conflicts,
emergencies and other fragile situations,
gender-based violence, and information technology
gender gap. World Bank
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Feminization of poverty
Women cultivate, plough, harvest more than half
of all the food in the world. On a global scale,
women cultivate more than half of all the food
that is grown. In sub-Saharan Africa and the
Caribbean, they produce up to 80 percent of basic
foodstuffs. In Asia, they account for around 50
percent of food production. In Latin America,
they are mainly engaged in subsistence farming,
horticulture, poultry and raising small
livestock. -IPS Constraints on Women
remunerative employment -Household
work -Children -Control over capital -Employment
conditions Smaller salaries and less control
over household income constrain their ability to
accumulate capital. Gender biases in property and
inheritance laws and in other channels of
acquiring assets also leave women and children at
greater risk of poverty.
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• Women should have equal access to employment
  opportunities
• Women are paid less than men for equal work
• Women are prevented by law or custom from owning
  or inheriting land
• Women should be treated with dignity, and to
  freedom from violence and exploitation
• Woman should have equal access to education
• Women do not always have full control or command
  over their most basic asset their own labor.

Women's rights poverty
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Women Health

• Health consequences of discrimination against
  women exist in nearly every culture.
• Powerful barriers including poverty, unequal
  power relationships between men and women, and
  lack of education prevent millions of women
  worldwide from having access to health care and
  from attaining and maintaining the best
  possible health.
• Women and girls suffer a disproportionate burden
  of disease due to their greater poverty, the
  physical demands of pregnancy and motherhood, and
  their inequality in society, which often results
  in gender-based violence and inequitable access
  to social, economic, and health services.

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• Womens multiple roles Stress
• Food quality Nutrition
• Maternal mortality In Mali and in Sierra Leone,
  two countries of central Africa, 1 woman out of
  10 risk of dying during pregnancy or delivery.
  (UN 2000) Compared to the United States which is
  1/4000, and Canada 1/9000.
• Limited access to reproductive services More
  than 350 million women worldwide do not have
  access to safe and effective contraceptive
  methods. (UNFP)
• -Women have a higher risk of contracting Aids and
  other sexually transmitted infections In north
  America , around 20 of HIV positive people are
  women. In Sub-Saharan Africa 55 of HIV positive
  persons are women (UN 2000)
• -Poverty affects prevention efforts Low
  socio-economic status linked to HIV infection in
  women

Women Health
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Women Health

• Increase in water borne and respiratory diseases
  amongst women
• Military conflict War
• Reproductive and sexual disorders linked to
  sexual violence
• Female genital mutilation

Women continue to be discriminated against at
many levels of the health sector, including the
health care delivery system, access to and
availability of quality services, allocation of
resources, decision-making and research. Improvin
g women's knowledge of nutrition and food safety
can prevent illnesses, disabilities and premature
deaths. Further, women who enjoy good health are
better able to contribute to economic
development.
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Gender-specific types of persecution Human
trafficking for prostitution and sexual
slavery Domestic violence Female genital
mutilation/cutting Honor killings Sexual
violence Forced abortion and sterilization
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Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

• 2) Where is Female Genital Mutilation practiced?
• In countries along a belt stretching from Senegal
  in West Africa to Somalia in East Africa and to
  Yemen in the Middle East, but it is also
  practiced in some parts of South-East Asia.
• Europe, North America and Australia indicate that
  it is practiced among immigrant communities as
  well.

1) What is Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting? Fem
ale genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is
the partial or total removal of the female
external genitalia or other injury to the female
genital organs for cultural or other
non-therapeutic reasons. It is estimated that
more than 130 million girls and women alive today
have undergone FGM/C, primarily in Africa and, to
a lesser extent, in some countries in the Middle
East. UNICEF
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World Health Organization (WHO) groups FGM/C into
four types
Type I - excision of the prepuce, with or without
excision of part or all of the clitoris Type II
- excision of the clitoris with partial or total
excision of the labia minora Type III -
excision of part or all of the external genitalia
and stitching/narrowing of the vaginal opening
(infibulation) Type IV - pricking, piercing or
incising of the clitoris and/or labia stretching
of the clitoris and/or labia cauterization by
burning of the clitoris and surrounding tissue
Introduction of corrosive substances or herbs
into the vagina to cause bleeding or for the
purpose of tightening or narrowing it and any
other procedure that falls under thedefinition
given above. The most common type of female
genital mutilation is excision of the clitoris
and the labia minora, accounting for up to 80 of
all cases the most extreme form is infibulation,
which constitutes about 15 of all procedures.
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• 3) Consequences of FGM/Cutting
• Physiological
• Excruciating pain, shock, urine
• Retention.
• Ulceration of the genitals
• Injury to surrounding
• tissue.
• Septicemia (blood poisoning,
• Infertility and obstructed labor
• Hemorrhaging and infection
• Dysmenorrhea
• Difficulty during pregnancy
• Psychological
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Genital mutilation may leave a lasting mark on
  thelife and mind of the woman or girl who has
  undergone it. In the longer term, women may
  suffer feelings of incompleteness, anxiety and
  depression.

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Cultural beliefs of FGM/C
To avoid disgracing the family
To be accepted
Greater pleasure for men
To attain the right to inherit property
Rite of passage into womanhood
To keep the genital region smooth for aesthetic
reasons
To increase fertility
To ensure chastity before marriage
To remove obstruction to sexual intercourse
caused by a very large labia
Prevention of becoming promiscuous and engaging
in immoral behavior
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FGM/C is a fundamental violation of human rights.
In the absence of any perceived medical
necessity, it subjects girls and women to health
risks and has life-threatening consequences.
Among those rights violated are the right to
the highest attainable standard of health and to
bodily integrity. Furthermore, it could be
argued that girls (under 18) cannot be said to
give informed consent to such a potentially
damaging practice as FGM/C. FGM is Used as a way
to control womens Sexuality. FGM/C is a
restriction made on the basis of sex which has
the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying
the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women.

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Kilimanjaro magazine 2005
Children should have the opportunity to
develop physically in a healthy way, receive
proper medical attention and be protected from
all forms of FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION/CUTTING vi
olence, injury or abuse.
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Situation of Women
Discrimination against girls is pervasive, in
practice and attitude.
Women continue to have fewer rights, lower
education and health status, less income, and
less access to resources and decision-making than
men.
Nevertheless, women have critical roles in food
production, income generation, management of
natural resources, community organization and
domestic responsibilities are essential for
sustainable development.
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Women International development
"Human development is neither successful nor
sustainable if women and men are not equal." In
fact, governments and international organizations
such as UN agencies treat the status of women and
the well-being of children as telling indicators
of economic, social and political development.
Equality for women is not simply a matter of
justice for women although that is part of it.
Equality for women is an essential requirement of
international development itself.
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Going to school means a better chance for an
education, and that means a better chance for the
future.One girl can change a family. One family
can change a community. One community can change
a nation. One nation can change the world.
Girls Global Education Fund
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References
ALWAYS CANADA (2007), Retrieved February 12th
2008 From www.alwayscanada.com Basic Education
and Gender equality, Retrieved February 12th 2008
From http//www.unicef.org/girlseducation/index
_barriers.html Battling an ancient tradition
Female genital mutilation in Ethiopia. (July
2006), Retrieved February 12th 2008
From http//www.unicef.org/protection/ethiopia_348
81.html Esther Velasco Why are girls not in
school? Perceptions, realities and
contradictions in Cambodia. (September 2001),
Retrieved February 20th 2008 from
http//66.218.69.11/search/cache?eiUTF- 8preaso
nswhygirlsarenoteducatedrdr1metavc3Dcaf
r yfp-t 501fp_ipCAuwww.unescobkk.org/fileadm
in/user_upload/appeal /whygirls.pdfwreasonsreas
onwhygirlsgirlnoteducatededuca tiondHfBraP
H_QbBJicp1.intlus
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References
Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (November
2005), Retrieved February 12th 2008 From
http//www.unicef.org/publications/files/FGM- C_fi
nal_10_October.pdf Girls Education, Retrieved
February 21st 2008 from http//web.worldbank.org/
WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUC ATION/0,,contentMDK
20298916menuPK617572pagePK148956piPK2 16618
theSitePK282386,00.html Girls Global Education
Fund, Retrieved February 12th 2008 From
http//www.ggef.org/top.html The Department of
Gender, Women and Health (2008), Retrieved
February 12th 2008 from http//www.who.int/gender
/en/ Violence against girls (2006), Retrieved
February 23rd 2008 from http//hrw.org/english/do
cs/2007/02/20/global15357.htm Women Poverty
(2004), Retrieved February 20th 2008
from http//www.uninstraw.org/en/index.php?option
contenttaskbl ogcategoryid143Itemid171