Driving women not to drive

Yesterday I was out for a walk and while crossing the street I saw two cars passing on the red light. All the pedestrians were outraged but only one has externalized his anger. ‘It’s not green you f*** b****, can’t you see? You women shouldn’t be allowed to drive’ he shouted. In that moment I realized that one of the drivers was a woman and that the man that apparently called for respecting the law was violating it, by gender discrimination. He wasn’t actually angry because two drivers were disobeying the rules, but because one of them was a woman. He didn’t mind that a man was accelerating on the red traffic light, but because she did it. Instead of showing a sense of justice, he acted like the law wasn’t meant to be equal for everyone.

This short episode made me think of one topical issue: women driving. A quick search on Google revealed lots of “why women can’t drive”, “women - the worst driving and parking skills” and “fail compilations”. All these encourage discrimination and harm personal integrity. Insulting a woman and minimizing her abilities pulls back her self-confidence. Repeating this action, even if the actual law permits it, women will be afraid to try to get their licence and will suffer from violent verbal aggression in traffic. While this kind of situations can happen in any part of the world (unfortunately), in Saudi Arabia it’s even worse: women remain banned from driving. This rule strongly affects women’s freedom of movement and their right to learn and work, making them dependent on men and even subjugated. Although lots of activists constantly organized campaigns to end the prohibition on driving, the reality is still against women’s rights.

Driving skills are not genetic like these oppressors argue (I’ve heard a lot of times that ‘women simply do not have the driving gene’), but are part of the competencies that one can develop. Denying this freedom is a severe violation of Human Rights. Of course, like any other person that wants to obtain a driving licence, women should know the rules, be attentive in traffic and practice their abilities. Not all of them will like driving, not all of them will take the test for the licence, but at least give them the chance to choose. But like this, they are driven into a closed wall world.

If you are interested in this topic, I recommend you to watch this video: http://www.ted.com/talks/manal_al_sharif_a_saudi_woman_who_dared_to_drive and check this website: http://saudiwomendriving.blogspot.ro/

Diana-Adela

If Harry Potter was a girl

Everyone recognizes him- or herself by name. In some cultures, its power is very big, some receiving names with deep religious roots or following family traditions. Others change their names throughout various transformation processes, religious or physical. While in formal contexts we have to use our names and surnames, in more informal environments we can use familiar or humorous terms instead of the real ones. How to choose one? Well, in this matter, imagination is the limit. Many performing artists have nicknames, which most of the times develop into stage names. Also, writers often use pen names for different editorial projects. Why? Because real names may be too long, difficult to pronounce, involuntarily amusing or already linked to another image. To attract attention or retain anonymity, they have the right to choose a name for this status. And that’s totally OK.

But to be convinced to hide your identity and thus your gender because “young boys might not want to read a book written by a woman” is not. J. K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter book series changed her name from Joanne to using two initials as a respond to her publishers’ request. The British novelist accepted this discriminatory marketing strategy although she proved to be one of the best selling fiction authors. And I really don’t believe it was thanks to the PR name trick. But let’s even say it worked. Time passed and she adopted another male pen name, Robert Galbraith, to publish her first crime novel. This “new writer” even had a fake biography, he was the perfect man to write that specific book and still, something went wrong. Until her identity was revealed, the number of sold copies broke the stereotype: just 1,500 books sold. She couldn’t blame the perfect man named Robert Galbraith for this failure, could she?

Hiding gender demands violate Human Rights. The principle of equality is ignored. An author’s identity should represent more than a name in a trade. Both women and men should have the same chance to express themselves. Also, putting your target in a box with a label on it (as “boys will definitely not read a women’s book”) limit their freedom of choice and unconsciously induce them this gender stereotype. Because in the end his or her story will catch the readers, not the author’s gender. Women have to assume their own identity and believe in their right to equality. If they also doubt about it, how can the others accept it?

Diana-Adela

The Woman in the Mirror

Are you beautiful?

!?

In her hesitation I found my answer. She was sure that the beauty is only in the eye of the beholder and that the beholder is tired to look at her and not find a woman matching the standards set by a narrow vision of femininity. She was also tired to look at herself with confidence. The image in the mirror was far from that of her role models. She was obsessed with the cover-girls’ perfection, with the fake myths about ideal dimensions of bust, waist and hips, with the new trends for body size and shape. Because she thought of “beauty” as an “outfit” not an inside thing, she totally forgot about being healthy no matter if this meant to gain or loose some weight and be out of the strict box with perfect body measurements. She also forgot about wearing a smile under the 3D shining effect moisturizing lip gloss. Her false eyelashes transformed her mysterious look into fake doll glances. I couldn’t understand how she could discriminate the people for the colour of the skin she was paying to obtain in a “beauty salon”, torturing her body.

Hidden under her mask, she couldn’t answer my question. Then she thought I’m joking when I told her that I am.

Yes, I am beautiful. I found inner peace and respected both my body and my mind. I didn’t value more some trends than my health. I knew that the only everlasting fashion is the inside beauty.

She laughed at me. Of course, I didn’t meet the standards. And she had lots of tips for me: first, I could eat cotton balls dipped in orange juice to feel full. Why on Earth I would order something like that for lunch? Change my hair colour, get quickly tanned, use some blue contact lenses, …,... . Can you imagine she had a full list of do’s and dont’s on how to be beautiful? But she couldn’t reach her goal, although she was strictly respecting it. One day, she hopes to be beautiful. That’s her aim.

The woman in her mirror had her eyes and soul closed.

Diana-Adela 

Fair-play at work

‘Whenever I was asking questions, he was telling me to stay in my place’, confessed a very good female friend of mine some time ago. ‘I wasn’t allowed to know more than he considered adequate. He took all the decisions and all I had to do was to agree with him and follow his rules. He wasn’t interested in any of my ideas or opinions, actually he was angry if I said I had something to say. My men colleagues always had the chance to present their views on every matter. We (the women) have never done that. When I realized this, I quit the job. It wasn’t easy, but I couldn’t stand anymore this discriminatory attitude of my boss’. I was angry to hear that hostile sexism still exists in a so-called democratic environment, but felt happy to know that women realize their unfair status and seek social change.

Few days ago I was talking to the same friend, who found another job. She is working as a junior assistant, although her education, experience and competencies recommend her for a higher position. It’s not easy to find a job nowadays, especially in the area you like, so I didn’t pay too much attention to this aspect until she told me that she is really appreciated at this workplace as she gets a lot of positive feedback whenever they have the staff evaluation and she feels relaxed as she doesn’t have to solve difficult tasks. In that moment I realized something was wrong. Who would value ones’ skills and knowledge, but not give the chance to really use them? Who would hire an expert and let her waste time with average responsibilities? The things got clearer to me, when she added that one of our men acquaintances, who got hired in the same period as she did, already got promoted two times. He wasn’t a brilliant student, nor a skillful person, so how come he succeeded and she didn’t? I knew that she wasn’t the kind of person who just gives up easily. She dreamt big and worked hard to achieve her professional ambitions. I remembered she quit her job in a time of crisis because she was discriminated and she wanted to make a difference. So, what changed?

I found the answer in the “Gender & work” study from the Harvard Business School (Peter Glick, 2013), which brings into attention the fact that nowadays sexism against women in the workplace is much more subtle. While normally we think that only negative stereotypes and hostile positions towards women cause discrimination, this research shows that also attitudes that simultaneously idealize but subordinate women as men’s dependents have the same effect, although at first glance they look favourable. The concept of “benevolent sexism” (BS, Glick & Fiske, 1996, 2001) best illustrates this situations and is the answer to my friend’s case and many other women that found themselves in the same situation. It has its roots in traditional gender stereotypes and helped me understand the on-going discrimination against women in the workforce process and its evolution. While experiencing hostile sexism, my friend’s motivation to succeed and her desire to prove oneself were extremely high. She had the strengths to leave that place and start from scratch. But facing the new form of discrimination, disguised in a kind attitude and a pretty comfortable but insignificant position, she didn’t even notice that it reduced her resistance to inequality and rewarded her for conforming to old stereotypes and status. She unconsciously stays “in her place” because she accepted it to be hers. The combination of positive feedback with less challenging assignments suggests that, rather than being favoured her manager patronized her. Such subtle discrimination undermines women’s ability both to develop and to demonstrate work-relevant skills. This is how women are denied various opportunities to use and improve their competencies, and to achieve success.

Discrimination at work has a wide variety of forms, and occurs in all kinds of settings. The inequality of opportunity is the result of treating people differently because of their features and reinforces disrespect towards Human Rights. As the International Labour Organization states, the elimination of discrimination is an indispensable part of any viable strategy for poverty reduction and sustainable economic development. My friend is one of the many people discriminated at work. Of course, although this text refers to a specific category (women), it can be extrapolated to any person who is denied the right of equal opportunity in employment, because of race, age, gender, sexuality, belief or disability. If it happens to you or to someone you know, please take a clear stance in order to condemn this attitudes.

By Diana Adela

** If you are interested in the “Gender & work” study (Peter Glick, 2013), you can read it here: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/conferences/2013-w50-research-symposium/Documents/glick.pdf

Let's Make This A Trend

People like to impress and if not able to create it, at least to follow the fashion. EMPOWER is a contemporary buzzword with roots back in the mid-17th century. Yes, it came a long way to be a worldwide trend now. But what hides behind this term?

According to the Oxford dictionaries, the transitive verb “to empower” means “to give (someone) the authority or power to do something” and “to make (someone) stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights”. So, we have these two connotations that draw the possibilities of using it correctly. Starting as a synonym for the term “to authorize”, being used in a broader way, meaning "to enable or permit", the term is an essential focus point in nowadays politics, economics, sociology and in pop psychology, based on self-help. Self-help and community-led initiatives contribute to psychological and social well-being through restoring dignity and a degree of control to disadvantaged groups.The Sphere Handbook, an internationally recognized sets of common principles and universal minimum standards in life-saving areas of humanitarian response emphasizes the importance of empowerment. The first Core Standard and its Key actions focus on building on community-based and self-help initiatives. Therefore, empowerment is a cross-cutting issue and lies on four pillars: access to information, inclusion, participation and accountability. The term as it appears today refers to increasing the economic, political, social, educational, gender, or spiritual strength of individuals and communities, meaning “to equip or supply with an ability”. This use was generated by the civil rights movement and is mostly linked to feminism.

Thinking of the current raised women’s issues, empowerment appears as a central point, but not always necessarily as a way to succeed and develop, but more as an excuse for eccentric behaviours. For example, many female artists have scandalous appearances on the stage and, when asked about their performances they blame the nudity and the explicit sexual movements on women’s empowerment. Of course, in this case, the concept looses its essence. The latex (almost un-)dressed female asking to be treated like a sexual toy and to be talked dirty is not helping the improvement of women’s lives, but encourages the harassment. Unfortunately, it becomes the opposite. It is good to raise awareness on women’s beauty and build self-confidence regarding one’s body, but when in most of our societies victim blaming occurs often, this behaviour only boosts the no sense of a right to be free from these kinds of violence.

Empowerment lies on improvement of standards and equality and is the process of obtaining basic opportunities for marginalized people. Women’s empowerment should be made through proper access to information and education, to social security and health-care and not through reassuring the enslavement. Empowerment involves encouraging and developing the competencies in order to make their own choices and not impose highly sexualised role models, created by a narrow vision of femininity. So, let’s not leave that a fashionable term like “empowerment” bring back the same old stereotypes. Let’s create a trend of real empowerment and make a positive change in the world.

Written by Diana-Adela

Maternal health: beauty and happiness

I have recently read “Beauty and sadness” novel (1964) by Yasunary Kawabata, the first Japanese Nobel Prize for Literature winner (1968). 16-year-old Otoko Ueno almost dies of the complications during pregnancy and gives birth to a child who lives just few hours. The father, Oki, a married 31-year-old writer, realizes that offering a normal health care could have saved both mother and child, but the unwanted kid from his young mistress made him take the wrong decisions. After this trauma, Otoko’s anxiety evolves in a mental illness. All her life she will be haunted by the ghosts of the past. On the other side, Oki’s wife, Fumiko, suffers a spontaneous abortion due to an emotional shock; later, in proper conditions, she will get pregnant again and give birth to a healthy girl. This Japanese story, talking actually about global human relations, brought into my attention an important issue then and nowadays: maternal health.

Image: Beni Sanchez

According to World Health Organization, most of the women who died during pregnancy had no access to skilled routine nor to emergency care, and over 10% of all women worldwide do not have access to or are not using an effective method of contraception. Improving maternal health is one of the Millennium Development Goals. The fifth. By 2015, it is targeted the reduction by three quarters of the maternal mortality ratio and the achievement of global access to reproductive health.

In the novel, Otoko finds her consolation in painting,  becoming a famous visual artist who expresses her feelings through colours and forms (in the same manner, Oki will ease his pain by writing, becoming well-known exactly for the novel about the love affair with her). Somehow, art and time heals their wounds and helps them go on.

But in reality, women need more than that. In the real world, saving the lives of women who are at risk of dying of complications during pregnancy and childbirth, including unsafe abortion, takes a lot of effort, building a safe socio-economic developed environment with proper education and health systems, efficient resource management and policies.  

Between 2011 and 2015, 33 million unwanted pregnancies are to be prevented and many more lives of women at risk are to be saved, as the UN Secretary-General's Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health targets. Are we ready to accomplish that? Are we ready to turn Kawabata’s novel into Beauty and happiness?

By Diana Adela