This post is inspired by: “The Economist,” September ll, 2021, “why nations that fail women fail;” and “The Atlantic,” January/February, 2019, “The Global Backlash Against Women.” Other information also included.
“What Sani went through was forced marriage at..age..12: something not unusual in [XYZ], where 43% of girls are married off before their 18th birthday. Terrified of her 25-year-old husband, she managed to avoid him for the first two years of marriage. Eventually..he had his friends tie her to the bed and raped her so violently..she had to be admitted tro the hospital for days.” [Population Connection, September, 2017]
The Economist: “Societies that oppress women are far more likely to be violent and unstable..There are several possible reasons..In many places girls are selectively aborted or fatally neglected. This has led to skewed sex ratios..millions of young men..doomed to remain single..more likely to commit violent crimes or join rebel groups. Recruiters for Boko Haram and Islamic State..promise them ‘wives’ as..spoils of war. Polygamy also creates a surplus of single young men..all of the 20 most turbulent countries on the Fragile States index practice polygamy.”
“Outside rich democracies, the male kinship group is still the basic unit of many societies..Societies based on male bonding tend to subjugate women..Dowries or bride prices are common in half the world’s countries.”
“Researchers at Texas A&M and Brigham Young..compiled a global index of pre-modern attitudes to women, including sexist family laws, unequal property rights, early marriage for girls, patrilocal marriage, polygamy, bride prices, son preference, violence against women and legal indulgence of it.. It turned out..highly correlated with violent instability..”
“Oppressing women is not only bad for women; it hurts men too. It makes societies poorer and less stable…patriarchy and poverty go hand in hand.”
“Qualified women in tech dropping out of the industry” [Tracey Lien, 3/8/15, L.A. Times]: “A Harvard Business Review study from 2008 found…as many as 50% of women working in science, engineering and technology will..leave because of hostile work environments…Tracy Chou..a well-known engineer..said she faced an ‘undercurrent of sexism’..that included being bypassed for projects and treated ‘like I didn’t know what was going on.”
“Women may get harassed off STEM career path in academia” [Ethan Baron, 7/22/18, Mercury News]: “In the report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine..researchers lay out three categories of sexual harassment: actions that ‘convey hostility, objectification, exclusion, or second-class status about members of one gender; unwanted sexual attention; sexual coercion that involves favorable treatment in exchange for sexual activity’…higher ed is structured in a ‘patriarchal’ fashion…”Even when they remain, their ability to contribute and advance in their field can be limited as a consequence of sexual harassment..'”
“By the time she was 17, the Dutch teenager had written a harrowing memoir recounting repeated sexual assaults and her subsequent .. post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anorexia…when her sister announced the teenager..had died..’She had stopped eating and drinking,’ her relatives said..Her mother: ‘Noa doesn’t want this life anymore..She just longs for peace.'” [Iliana Magra, 6/7/19, N.Y. Times]
“Japanese medical school altered scores to limit women” [Mari Yamaguchi, 8/8/18, Associated Press]: “Tokyo Medical University manipulated all entrance exams starting in 2006 or even earlier..similar manipulations had occurred for years because the school wanted fewer female doctors since it anticipated they would shorten or halt their careers after becoming mothers..”
“Doctor says ‘women don’t work as hard’ [9/3/19 Associated Press]: “A Plano, Texas, doctor..told a medical publication..female physicians make less because: “Female physicians do not work as hard and do not see as many patients as male physicians..This is because they choose to, or they simply don’t want to be rushed, or they don’t want to work the long hours.”
“Women scientists get less funding” [4/14/19, Chicago Tribune]: “For many women, it will mean they don’t persist,” said Teresa Woodruff, professor of obstetrics and gynecology..and director of the Women’s Health Research Institute..”It’s impossible to measure what we’ve lost as a consequence of inequities.”
The Cost and Consequences of Sexism and Misogyny: We…will…NEVER…know…..
Consider what we DO. know:
-Margaret Kivelson, a physicist and planetary scientist transformed the course of space exploration, reshaping scientific understanding
-Marie Curie pioneered the study of radioactivity; winner of two Nobel Prizes: “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
-Rosalind Franklin played a pivotal role in one of scientific history’s greatest revolutions in genetics. Her work led to revealing the DNA mystery.
-Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” forced rethinking of pesticide effects, which founded the environmental movement.
“I listen to feminists and all the radical gals – most of them failures. They’ve blown it. Some of them have been married, but they married some Casper Milquetoast who asked permission to go tom the bathroom. These women just need a man in the house. That’s all they need. Most of these feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they all blew it and they’re mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They’re sexist. They hate men – that’s their problem.” [Reverend Jerry Falwell]
The Atlantic: “besides their hostility to liberal democracy, the right-wing autocrats taking power across the world share one big thing…..to subordinate women…for most of human history, leaders and their male subjects forged a social contract: ‘Men agreed to be ruled by other men in return for all men ruling over women.’ Trump and his evangelical backers [share] a common desire to constrain the behavior of women..Bolsonaro linked this counterrevolution to a counterrevolution against uppity women..Duterte’s antifeminist crusade..featured the ritualized humiliation of powerful women..Poland’s autocratic government has run ads urging Poles to “bred like rabbits”..
“The first [gender] difference individuals notice,” Valerie Hudson told me, “is the difference between sexes in one’s own home. That establishers the first political order, the nature of how things should be in the country.”….authoritarians often succeed when women – especially feminist women – threaten male dominance of public life in counties where men still reign in private.”
“Compare the U.S., Philippines, Brazil, Hungary, Poland with the countries of northern Europe, where women’s political power has become more normal.” Consider this: virtually every year, polls show “then happiest people on earth” live in northern Europe. This is “just a coincidence”?????????
“Inequality, for women, today, is not an abstraction, but something understood directly through their bodies, through legislative and regulatory efforts to deny them reproductive freedom, through the fear of assault and through the inequities built into our system, from bathrooms to medical research, that makes female bodies – which outnumber male bodies in the United States by several millions – the exception to the male-dominated norms and rules.” [Phillip Kennicott, 1/22/20, Washington Post]
“! in 3 women worldwide has suffered from abuse” [Maria Cheng, 6/21/13, Assoc.Press]: “Among the findings: 40% of women killed worldwide were slain by an intimate partner..According to the United Nations, more than 600 million women live in countries where domestic, violence is not considered a crime.”
“The deadly devaluation of a gender” [The Economist, 3/6/10]: “It is no exaggeration to call this gendercide. Women are missing in the millions..In 1990 an Indian economist, Amartya Sen, put the number at 100 million…The destruction of baby girls is a product of three forces: the ancient preference for sons; a modern desire for smaller families; and technologies that identify the sex of a fetus.”
“Pooping woes, gender inequality: Yup it’s a real thing” [Jessica Bennett, Amanda McCall, 9/28/19, N.Y. Times]: “Poop shame is real..disproportionately affects women…the patriarchy has seeped into women’s intestinal tracts…One unpublished study..found that a woman who excused herself to go to the bathroom was evaluated more negatively than one who excused herself to tend to “paperwork” – while there was no difference in the way participants viewed the men.”
“Things protective daughters never told their dads” [Monica Hesse, 10/8/18, Wash. Post]: “Two of my daughters have told me stories that I had never heard before about things that happened to them in high school,” Fox News anchor Chris Wallace mused on air…To the father of the young woman..assaulted by the student athlete she was hired to tutor: She never told you because she didn’t want to break your heart…To the father of the junior high student who was pinned down and undressed at a gathering 30 years ago: She didn’t tell you because she didn’t want to see you cry…To the father of the teenager who was raped at a party: You don’t know about this, because she was certain if you knew, you would kill her attacker and go to jail, and it would be her fault….”
“The Price of Speaking UP” [Agata Boxe, August, Scientific American]: “..a 2018 report analyzed 46,210 Title VII sexual harassment discrimination charges filed..found..65% of women who filed such charges between 2012 and 2016 said they lost their jobs after making their complaints.”
“When it comes to sexual harassment, the courthouse doors slam shut” [Jean Boler, 11/21/17, Mpls. Trib.]: “…courts have put up more barriers to women seeking justice after harassment on the job…Conduct must be ‘extreme’ and ‘so intimidating, offensive or hostile that it poisoned the work environment’…three male judges dismissed the case of a woman who had experienced male coworkers standing extremely close tom her with obvious erections, blocking her exit from her cubicle and coming uninvited into her work station…the court acknowledged conduct was “vile or inappropriate,” the case was kicked out because it did not “rise to the level of actionable sexual harassment.”!!!!! The court justified the decision: they’d previously ruled asking a woman to watch porn flicks together and masturbate each other; suggesting a woman would professionally advance if she caused a male to orgasm, or if a male grabbed a woman’s body parts – none of this would be “actionable sexual harassment.” !!!!! What would ?????
“Character attack: Being Skyler White” [Anna Gunn, 8/27/13, N.Y. Times]: “My character..has become a flash point for many people’s feelings about strong, nonsubmissive, ill-treated women. As the hatred for Skyler White blurred into loathing for me as a person, I saw glimpses of anger that, at first, simply bewildered me…Could it be that they can’t stand a woman who won’t suffer silently or ‘stand by her man”? …It’s notable..viewers have expressed similar feelings feelings about other complex TV wives…I finally realized..most people’s hatred of Skyler had little tom do with me and a lot to do with their own perceptions of women and wives.”
“Female patients: It’s not ‘all in your head'” [Emily Dwass, 8/3/17, L.A. Times]: “In my case, it took four years and several doctors…Even after my diagnosis I had to contend with dismissive, condescending doctors…”We don’t know what’s wrong with you – but we think this problem is all in your head.” is still amazingly common…the number one concern among women with autoimmune disease is..doctors don’t listen to them…elderly women have to contend with ageism on top of sexism.”
Consider what we know, II:
-Lianne Russell, a refugee from Nazi Germany, changed what we know about X-rays, embryos, Y chromosomes. The benchmark for study of mutations and genetic risk assessment.”
-Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton: treatment of wounded soldiers, the Red Cross
-Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson: African-American NASA workers- the brains behind astronaut John Glenn’s orbit, and more. [“Hidden Figures”. DVD]
-Odette Sansom, World War II’s most highly decorated spy; captured by Germans – survived without divulging locations of other Allied spies
-the “Code Girls,” 10,000 American WW II women who worked to break German and Japanese codes [Liza Mundy’s book by the same title]
BUT. – we will. NEVER know what women have NOT. done – because they weren’t allowed to try……
THE. BIG. QUESTION: can the human race expect to EVER. reach 100% success potential, if we continue to oppress 50% of US? because they were born as a member of the “wrong” gender???????????????????
With Justice For All 