Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Global Feminism
I thought "The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World" was such an interesting book! Geography and maps have never really been my thing, but looking through this book, I started to understand the importance of them. Not only was this book extremely informative it also brought up a lot in terms of global feminism. I will admit that sometimes I forget to think about the world as a whole when I think about issues such as feminism but this book really showed how important feminism is globally. One statistic that really stood out to me (among the many) was how in Yemen women are not allowed to leave the house without their husband's consent(pg. 19)- talk about a housewife. How can there be a law that allows a human being to stop another human being from walking outside? Like a lot of other statistics in this book, that one really illuminated the power men have in the world. It also shows how feminism is so badly needed everywhere. Those facts were from the early 2000s! Making change in a town, city, state or country is not enough- it needs to be made everywhere. I am not saying one feminist needs to go out and change the world: I am saying there needs to be awareness so that there can be at least one voice in every part of our world that is working towards global change. There is still so much progress that needs to be made to better the lives of women everywhere. Which is why it is so crucial to have the work and voices of feminists spread globally.
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I completely agree with Amanda. The data presented by Seager illuminates the fact that many women are still stuck in traditional female roles. In large parts of Africa, Europe, Central America and North America over 25% of households are headed by females. In parts of Africa, Central and South America and Indonesia abortion is illegal, meaning that is a woman gets pregnant she has no choice but to give birth. While there are adoption programs, orphanages, etc. available to some women, it is likely that many women become mothers who may not desire the homemaker role. Along with the homemaker role, I thought it was interesting how much money is spent on cosmetics a year. While the U.S. spends $20 billion more than any other country, they are not the only country with a major cosmetic industry. I would argue that in the 20th century women are now expected to not only be homemakers and also subservient to their husbands, but also to maintain an "acceptable" physical appearance, as set by society. One piece of evidence to support this is the wide-spread popularity of cosmetic surgery to "better" ones appearance. Additionally, unequal opportunities within the work world as well as the capability of females to have children limit their options for obtaining work, forcing some into the homemaking role when they may well be capable of becoming a career woman. Lastly, I found it absurd that there are societies in countries such as Yemen where men have complete and utter control over women when it is the women who are cooking and cleaning and maintaining order in the man's life.
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