Women and Development

Analytical issues:

Note: Do the cummulative forms of violence and neglect to girls/women add up to "gendercide"?  It also is the case that other forms of violence are targeted at men (military operations).
www.gendercide.org    book: Adam Jones, Gendercide and Genocide, 2005

Special problems faced by women:

    Social preference for male sons
        needed for security in old age
        needed to maintain family name through the generations
            have descendants to make prayers offerings
    gender specific abortions
    female infanticide
    neglect, less food for young girls
    capture, tricked, sold  into virtual brothel slavery or marriage sex slave
    virginity inspection report
    genital mutilation

 WHO discussion of FGM
http://www.path.org/programs/p-chi/female_genital_mutilation.htm
Google resources on FGM

FGM has been used  for claiming refugee status
          http://www.usvisanews.com/memo1193.html
         http://www.immigration.com/newsletter/fed014.html

    Obstetric Fistulas  doctor in Africa
    less education, more illiteracy  (note impact of menstruation on education article)
    difficult work: carry water, firewood
    house work, child care
    sexual abuse
    physical abuse/assaults  | being raped in Pakistan is a capital crime, -
                in Northern Nigeria too,  Maybe for men too

    seclusion, purdah
    early arranged marriage (examples in Africa), dowry
    marriage by capture, kidnap and sale
    kidnap and sale into prostitution -- trafficking in women (Pakistan)
       wife forced into prostitution
    rape as a weapon to tear apart a society
        Congo, 2009
    "honor" killing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing
http://www.gendercide.org/case_honour.html
http://www.iifhr.com/womens%20website/ppaperhonor_killing.html
http://www.uchastings.edu/cgrs/campaigns/honor.htm
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/10/23/p6s1.htm
215-honor-killing-turks-in-germany.htm
Dastak women's shelter in Lahore   http://www.amnesty.org.au/women/action-letter06.html
Turkey changes in law
    domestic violence, abuse   Nigerian examples        India: dowry disputes, stove fires
        WHO 10 country study of domestic violence (Nov. 2005)
    indirect exposure (via husbands) to STDs
    legal issues
        property rights
        inheritance rights  widows in Africa may have no land rights
        lack signature power for contract, passport, etc.
        divorce law
        rape law
    economic issues
        wage rates, working conditions
        women often emphasize food crops, not cash economy
            marketing (vegetables, beer, etc.)
        women often leave the labor market after marriage,  don't build up seniority
 
 

Women Political Leaders in the Third World

India                 Indira Gandhi (daughter, 1966-77, 1980-84)

Sri Lanka          Sirimavo Bandaranaike (widow of Solomon Bandaranaike)
                                    (PM 1961-77, 1995-2001)
                        Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
                            (daughter, PM 1994; Pres 1994-2005)

Pakistan            Benazir Bhutto (daughter, Prime Minister, 1988-90, 1993-96)

Bangladesh

Begum Khaleda Zia, widow of the former President Ziaur Rahman, assassinated in 1981.
 PM 1991-1996), opposition leader

Sheikh Hasina Wajed , daughter of the former President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, assassinated in 1975, (Prime Minister 1999)

Philippines        Corazon Aquino (widow, 1986-92)\
                        Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo  (2001- ) daughter of:
                              Diosdado Macapagal, president of Philippines 1961-65

Burma             Aung San Sun Kyi (daughter, political leader/prisoner)

Indonesia           Megawati Sukarnoputi (daughter, Vice President, 1999-01,
                         President, 2001-2004)

Argentina           Evetta Peron (wife) (1974-76f)
                         Christina Fernandez de Kirchner (wife)(2007)

Nicaragua          Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (widow, President, 1990-95)
 

In all above cases, all women represent a political family, as wife, widow or daughter.
 

Starting in 2005, women were elected leaders on the basis of their individual merit.  Is this a new trend?
 

Liberia         Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf elected president, November 2005

Chile           Michelle Bachelet  elected president, Jan 2006

Jamaica        Portia Simpson Miller

became prime minister after being voted new party president, March 2006
Brazil             Dilma Rousseff, Nov. 2010-
 

World Wide Ranking -- percentage of women members of parliament:
                http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm
 

Return to class page