The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World

The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World gave a really strong picture of women, feminism, and gender on a global level. It was a refreshing change of pace but also quite overwhelming. Its one thing to look at the US and search through my own experience but to look at these issues on the global scale is eye opening.

I was in the group focused on power. One thing in particular that grabbed my attention was the section on crisis zones. Widespread rape of women by soldiers during times of armed conflict included Russia, South Africa, and India. These areas also had a high percentage of women in active armed forces, which led me to wonder if these countries put women in active duty as bodies and numbers to be killed without a second thought because these countries provide data that suggests women are valued less than men. Are they being used as expendable entities and not human beings?

I just want to know how this occurred. How did this widespread, worldwide, believed notion that women are less than men come to be? Who looked at women and men and had enough power and a highly valued opinion to compare the two and deem women less than and have a startling amount of other people agree and follow? How did we get to where we are? And more importantly why does it take so long to change people’s minds? The fact that female genital mutilation is still occurring in 2009 is disgusting and heartbreaking. The Atlas says that, “An estimated 130 million girls and women in the world have undergone genital cutting; each year, another 2 million join their ranks.”

In my opinion, this book is valuable to this class and it was a great way to gain a large amount of new knowledge about the entire world and it's attitudes and laws towards women. I know that a lot of the facts and pictures within the pages of it will stay with me and maybe my knowledge of it will find a way to be passed along. At the end of our group's discussion the only solution we could come up with was time and education. This book is a great tool for education.