Moral Outrage for the "Missing" Women

If you've read the excellent feminist journalist Laura Flanders' first book, Real Majority, Media Minority (which I heartily recommend), you're already familiar with the fact that women represent the majority of the U.S. population, but less than half the world's population. Flanders writes:

Women haven't had the numerical upper hand worldwide since 1965. ... The only detailed discussion I could find of the documented decline of the world's women was a 1990 New York Review of Books article which estimated that although women naturally outlive men, the denial of food and healthcare to females had engineered a man-made shift in the planet's demography. The article was titled: "100 Million Missing Women."

One hundred million of us were estimated "missing" and for more than three decades it hadn't made the news? That's serious sidelining. Stumbling across the silence, I felt I'd downed a dose of the same contempt that determines who gets born and who survives. ... Neglect claims people's lives.

I bring up Flanders' book because this week's news includes a call to action for the "missing women" of the world. On womensenews.com (where else?), Joan Holmes writes:

Dr. Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize Laureate, coined the term "missing women" to describe the great numbers of women in the world who are literally not alive due to family neglect and discrimination. This is roughly equivalent to all the deaths in all the wars of the 20th century; the most violent century in human history. This is a holocaust many times over. ... Where's our shame? Where's our moral outrage? ...

It is time for a new kind of action.

Even if every country in the developing world increases its education budget, there is no assurance that girls will be educated. Unless a government takes specific actions on behalf of women and girls, increased funding will only perpetuate and widen the gender gap. And the world's basic problems will persist.

Holmes, who heads The Hunger Project and is a member of the UN Millennium Project Hunger Task Force, goes on to list several concrete programs, in education, health care, farm work, and international aid, that will help address this serious problem. She ends, "We know what the world looks like with half of its population treated as inferior and insignificant. We can only imagine what the world would look like if girls and women could express themselves and be 'everything they can be.'"

You said it.

Women in the News, and the Local Class War

Dear Reader,

You may or may not visit other parts of our website, so I'm using my blogging powers to call a few items to your attention. (Please note that I have taken a vow to use these powers for good.)

Amnesty International has a new educational and action-oriented presentation called "Women & War: Stop Violence Against Women - Women and girls, survivors and activists, tell their stories." The piece includes stories from Iraq, Israel/ Palestine, Sudan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Colombia, the Balkans, and other areas currently or formerly under siege. It's quite impressive.

In addition to sections on rape as a war strategy and the general impact of war on women, the presentation describes how women are at the forefront of peace efforts around the world:

Despite facing enormous personal risks, women are at the core of the human rights movement seeking justice for those murdered, "disappeared" or tortured by members of the security forces. Women consistently try to meet their communities' needs, even in the most difficult of circumstances...

When you get a chance, you should also read this powerful essay by a Nicaraguan woman activist. Here's an excerpt:

As an indigenous woman living in one of the poorest countries on the Americas, I have seen how devastating war has been on women in my communities. Indigenous women often lose everything: their land, families, communities and cultural base. Major media outlets ought to recognize the importance of the issue by renewing and strengthening their commitment to investigate and report on violence against women during wartime and in all its forms. Every war is a war on women. Women are on the frontlines, and we must be on the front pages.

And Madison Women for Peace represent, represented in our community, with this editorial on the importance of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.

Lastly, did you know that a coalition of local businesses (the "Main Street Coalition for Economic Growth" - how benevolent sounding!) has filed a lawsuit against the city, in an attempt to thwart the democratic process and stop the minimum wage increase in the city of Madison?

"Ed Block, the president of the Main Street Coalition for Economic Growth, said Friday that his organization is not trying to keep wages down," reported the Capital Times. Yeah, right. That just happens to be the focus of the lawsuit you filed.

If you feel moved to let the Main Street Coalition for Economic Growth Just for Us and No One Else know how you feel about their lawsuit, here's a few phone numbers for you:

• Their main office number: 608-270-9950
  
• Organizational contact Chris Tackett: 608-257-3541
  
• Organizational contact Ed Lump: 608-270-9950
  
• Organizational contact Bill G. Smith: 608-255-6083

Funny how they're all men, eh?