Women & Society 2014

By Anastasia Khramova

You are trying hard to pay your bills like, being on time on your rent, electric and utility bills. You are trying hard not to starve. You are trying to be on time to work every day. You are also trying to look for a 3rd or second job for those who are not lucky with jobs.

Yet you apply for the USPS job opening position. You apply, fill in your first, last name, and all the personal information such as address, previous work employment.

They send you the link to only say that you failed their assessment test. You scratch your head. Wait a minute, you never took one. You think to your self.

In the questionary section there is a question that gets you upset and angry . Are you black, white, African american, spanish, latino or other. Or you choose not to answer.

You choose white. Because your ethnicity is white. You still don't get the job.

You work at Burgerfi , a minimum wage job that pays $8.75 an hour. Mean while, you try your best to get every order correct as a cash register. Your balance on the cash register is always even. You notice that your hours start getting lower and lower. You wonder what you're doing wrong.

You come up to your boss. Ask for more hours. He shows you a post on the wall. The post says, " Don't complain about less hours. The manager is less responsible for his hours then he cares most about his employees. So get another job. "

You start crying because you know you have another job but your trying to pay your rent on time.

You then a few days later get your last pay check at Burger Fi because the manager at the end Fires you.

You then later on notice that a few weeks passes by and Spanish Employees are wearing Burger Fi shirts. Not only 2, but 3 or 5. You start to cry. You wonder why you got fired.

You believe and want to think, you just weren't meant right for the job.

I think, it's discrimination.

David Barton tackles women’s voting rights

Source: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/david-barton-tackles-womens-voting-rights

Far-right pseudo historian David Barton is known for having some creative ideas on history, but late last week, the conservative media personality broke some new ground.

…Barton explained that women were not given the right to vote when the Constitution was written because the Founding Fathers were trying to protect the institution of the family by giving every “family” a right to vote through the male head of the household.

Responding to a question from a listener who argued that the Founding Fathers denied women the right to vote not out of sexism but rather based on the biblical principle that a house divided against itself cannot stand, Barton said that this interpretation was exactly right because not allowing women to vote was designed “to keep the family together.”

There’s one small problem with this: Barton, as is too often the case, is wrong.

There’s literally nothing in the historical record to support the notion that voting rights were deliberately limited to men – or more accurately, white men – to “keep the family together.” Women, rather, were denied the right to vote until 1920 because men in power saw them as incapable.

That said, Barton’s odd argument is alarming to the extent that he seems to be suggesting that denying women voting right may have some familial value.

“Now, as we’ve moved away from the family unit – you need to be independent from the family, don’t be chained down and be a mother and don’t be chained down and be a father and don’t be chained down to your parents, you know, we’ve moved into more of a family anarchy kind of thing, the ‘Modern Family’ kind of portrayal – that understanding has gone away,” he told listeners to his radio show.

So does that mean one-family-one-vote is a worthwhile model in Barton’s mind?

As for why anyone would care what a fact-challenged pseudo historian has to say about women’s voting rights, Scott Martelle explained:

So why should we care about a fringe figure spouting patently and provably false versions of American history? Because people listen to him. His past endorsers include Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich, and his “The Jefferson Lies” book of purported history was a New York Times bestseller before critiques of the flawed research led publisher Thomas Nelson to withdraw the book from the marketplace.

There are a surprising number of prominent conservatives who take Barton seriously. What a shame.

The Curse

By Jotika C

Many sections of the society still take the effort to taboo ‘those days’ of the month. I wouldn’t know any women who have at some point of time in their lives not witnessed or experienced this taboo. As a woman with time one tends to get to terms with such customs.

Very recently during a trip when I causally heard about the ‘Chhaupadi’ custom I must admit I grossly undermined the seriousness, stubbing it as one of the orthodox custom women have grown immune to deal with de-facto until the learnt who exactly this custom is and the amount of lives it has costed over the years and has the potential to cost. 

Under the Chhaupadi custom practiced in western Nepal by Hindu/ Newa community, a menstruating woman or a woman about to deliver a child is exiled from the family house to live in a separate place, usually a mud covered hut or shed with no facilities. 

Such women are considered ‘impure’ and could allegedly anger the Gods if they lived a normal life with their families. Nepal is land of rich culture and folk tales, most of  which are very intriguing and interesting, the one about Chhaupadi is a sure exception.  IT is believed that if Chhaupadi is not followed evil spirits could possess the male members of the family. 

This custom restricts the lady to enter the premises of the house, touch any person or thing from the house, do not access public taps or wells they can access water only through restricted streams of water specifically assigned for women practicing chhaupadi and have no access to education during such times.

The Diet for menstruating and pregnant women is restricted to flat bread and salt. Milk or dairy products are specifically restricted. During times when women need assistance the most they are often left to their own devices to maintain their huts, collect firewood.  

In addition to the test of endurance, this practice is a huge cause of deteriorated health, vulnerability to diseases and social evils like assault and even rape while being on the ‘social exile. In Chhaupadi practicing sections of the Nepalese society most women deliver at their huts and not at hospitals some in presence of family members and some with no attendance at all. 

This practice has been abolished and considered unlawful by the Nepalese Supreme Court back in 2004 but still a decade later it still dies hard. Over the years there has been a huge outcry of women activists, urban population of Nepal and UNICEF.  If we let the numbers do the talking below is how the situation looks in Nepal and surrounding countries. Nepal has made considerable progress since the abolishment of Chhaupadi, but there is still a long way to go for this practice is die out.

		Units	2005	2010	2012
Nepal	HDI Ranking				157.00
	Maternal mortality ratio (deaths of women per100,000 live births)	deaths of women per100,000 live births	250.00	170.00
	GII: Gender Inequality Index, value	Index	0.63	0.50	0.49
Bangladesh	HDI Ranking				146.00
	Maternal mortality ratio (deaths of women per100,000 live births)	deaths of women per100,000 live births	330.00	240.00
	GII: Gender Inequality Index, value	Index	0.59	0.53	0.52
Bhutan	HDI Ranking				140.00
	Maternal mortality ratio (deaths of women per100,000 live births)	deaths of women per100,000 live births	270.00	180.00
	GII: Gender Inequality Index, value	Index			0.46
Myanmar	HDI Ranking				149.00
	Maternal mortality ratio (deaths of women per100,000 live births)	deaths of women per100,000 live births	230.00	200.00
	GII: Gender Inequality Index, value	Index		0.47	0.44
Viet Nam	HDI Ranking				127.00
	Maternal mortality ratio (deaths of women per100,000 live births)	deaths of women per100,000 live births	74.00	59.00
	GII: Gender Inequality Index, value	Index	0.32	0.32	0.30
Sri Lanka	HDI Ranking				92.00
	Maternal mortality ratio (deaths of women per100,000 live births)	deaths of women per100,000 live births	44.00	35.00
	GII: Gender Inequality Index, value	Index	0.45	0.41	0.40

Source: Human Development Report by the UN Development Programme