You've (Not) Come A Long Way, Baby...

March 8th is International Women’s Day.  Nicaragua celebrates Day of the Woman…though not as much as it used to be celebrated in the 1980s and '90s.

This day is marked by countries the world over calling to attention the progress women have made as well as all the inequalities heaped upon women that still exist today especially in the poorer nations. 

And there are many problems…and it makes me mad:

• Women make up 70% of the world’s poorest people
• Women work 2/3rds of the world’s working hours
• Women grow ½ of the world’s food
•  yet earn only 10% of the world’s income
• and own only 1% of the world’s wealth
• 7 in 10 women have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lives
• 100 -140 MILLION women as girls are genitally mutilated including 6.5 million in western culture
• 80% of the 100 MILLION people trafficked…slaves…are women and 79% for sexual exploitation
• Worldwide up to 50% of the sexual abuses are against girls under the age of 16
• More than 100 million girls are “missing” due to prenatal sex selection
• Of the 500,000 mothers who die in childbirth 99% of them live in poor countries (1 mother a minute dies)
• Of the 61 million children who are denied access to BASIC education 60% are girls and as the level of education is raised, (i.e. secondary and university) the gap widens greatly.

In Nicaragua…in my home:

Photo Solomon Bill

• 83% of working women are heads of households and earn less money than men
• Women in sweat shops work on average 72 hours/week with no sick days
• 1 in 4 women will die from complications due to type 2 diabetes
• More Nicaraguan women of reproductive age die of cervical cancer than any other cause (easily preventable and treatable through early detection) than any other country in the Western Hemisphere
• 1 in 2 women have been physically assaulted by their husband/partner
• 1 in 4 women were assaulted in the last 12 months
• Rape and sexual assault is still prominent and 2/3rds of the cases reported are by girls under the age of 17
• Nicaragua has more teenage pregnancies than any other Latin American country per capita due mostly to poverty and lack of opportunities

Globally women have little to no power in governments. In many sects of different religions women are abused in order for men not have to take responsibility for their own actions.  Women are kept under the thumb of male members of their families, kept ignorant and poor...and yet, women are the vast majority of the caretakers of the human race.

Why?  It is time for this ludicrousness and injustice to end…NOW. -Kathleen

http://www.un.org/en/women/endviolence/pdf/apromiseisapromise.pdf 
http://www.globalcitizen.org/Content/Content.aspx?id=058f8fee-01f4-4508-a54d-464ff22a4716   
http://www.campaignforeducationusa.org/educating-girls-women-in-developing-countries