The U.S. budget for 2004 is over $2 trillion, of which 18% or about $400 billion goes directly to support the Pentagon. This constitutes 51% of all discretionary spending - and doesn't include money spent in Afghanistan or Iraq, or on benefits and services to veterans. (Women's Action for a New Direction, Read it, PDF, 299 KB)

Global military expenditures currently exceed $800 billion per year, with the U.S. topping the list at $343.2 billion. (UNPAC, Women and the Economy, A Project of UNPAC, Read it)

In the U.S., only agricultural production receives more subsidies than the arms industry, and arms are often given away in the form of "aid." (Women and the Economy, A Project of UNPAC, Read it)

For fact sheets:

Women's Action for New Directions

For links to reports, papers, and proceedings, click here to READ IT!

All women, and particularly women of color and poor women, are endangered by the ballooning budget deficits. When money for the military is increased, programs that benefit women and families are often slashed. (Women of Color Resource Center, Read it; see also National Council for Research on Women, "Taxes ARE a Women's Issue," forthcoming)

Women in immigrant communities are among those who have been heavily affected by the rollback of civil liberties pursued under the umbrella of the "war on terrorism." There are increasing reports of women of Arab, North African, Central and South Asian descent having been harassed and assaulted. (Women of Color Resource Center, Read it)

2.6 per 100,000 of the world's inhabitants were killed by war related injuries in 2000. (World Health Organization, Read it)

For fact sheets:

Women of Color Resource Center
Women for Women International

For links to reports, papers, and proceedings, click here to READ IT!

No one would argue against security - for our nation, our families, our children. The question is, how does security get defined and who defines it?

Skewed priorities: As a nation, we appear to define national security predominately in military terms, prioritizing weapons and armaments over domestic tranquility. In 2002 the Pentagon budget (already at $325 billion) increased by $14 billion - an increase that is more than the federal government spends on higher education.

Unnecessary: The military budget is over 22 times as large as the combined military spending of the seven countries identified by the Pentagon as our most likely adversaries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, North Korea, Cuba and Sudan.

                        -Women's Action for New Directions (WAND)
                         Read it (PDF, 1.1 MB)

As of September 2003, the U.S. has the highest percentage of women in the armed forces, making up 15% of the military. (Women's Research and Education Institute, Read it)

Women in the military, and the wives of servicemen, often are doubly negatively affected by war. Recent studies have documented the surge in both violence against women within the military, and violence against military spouses during war time. (National Council for Research on Women, Read it)

From 2002 to 2003, the number of alleged sexual assaults investigated by the U.S. military increased by 111. In the Middle East region, 94 female members of the military reported being sexually assaulted, up from 24 reports in the same region in 2002. (CBS News, Read it)

For fact sheets:

Family Violence Prevention Fund (PDF, 145 KB)

For links to reports, papers, and proceedings, click here to READ IT!

The 1970 Constitution of Iraq supported equal rights for women, and since the mid-20th century, unlike women in the neighboring countries of Saudi Arabia, Iraqi women have not been required to cover their heads or move only in the company of a male relative. (NCRW, "The World's Women," forthcoming)

Conditions for women in the economic, education, and health sectors have steadily declined as a result of war and international sanctions beginning in the early 1990s. (NCRW, "The World's Women," forthcoming)

In October 2001, women held 8% of Parliamentary seats in Iraq, a higher percentage than 12 other countries in the Middle East, including: Turkey, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. (Population Reference Bureau, Women of Our World 2002, Read it)

In June 2004, Iraqi women were not appointed to any of the five seats in the interim government. They held only six of the 33 cabinet seats, and are none of the provincial governors. (Women, Environment, and Development Organization, Global Women's Issues Scorecard on the Bush Administration, June 2004, Read it)

Women in Afghanistan were involved in the drafting of the Afghan constitution in 1964, which guaranteed equal rights for men and women under the law. In 1978 the ruling People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan instituted many rights for women, including compulsory education. Afghanistan was also one of the first countries to sign the United Nations' Convention on the Elimation of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1980. (UN Women Watch, Afghan Women's Summit for Democracy, December 2001, Read it)

Women's rights in Afghanistan were severly curtailed during the war against the Soviet Union, led by a coalition of tribal forces known as the Mujahidin, and under the subsequent civil wars after the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and early 1990s. Under the Taliban (1996-2001), harsh laws against women were enforced, including: banning education for girls after the age of nine, requiring full hijab (clothes and veil covering all but the eyes), and restricting women's access to medical care. (Women's Human Rights Resources, Read it)

In 2003, Afghanistan made a symbolic gesture to women's rights by ratifying the United Nations' Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which has been signed and ratified by over 180 parties to the U.N. (NCRW, "The World's Women 2005," forthcoming)

As of March 2004, Afghan women were registering to vote twice as fast as men, although the total number of women registered was 445,812 compared to 1,149,491 men, a fact made all the more distressing when considering that Afghani women make up 60% of the eligible voting population. (Human Rights Watch, Read it)

Afghan women have been barred from registering to vote and female election workers have been attacked. Human Rights Watch released a report in mid-September 2004 which found that the number of registered women - 41% of 10 million - may have been overestimated. (Human Rights Watch, Read it)

Afghanistan has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world - approximately 15,000 Afghan women die due to pregnancy-related causes every year. In 2000, reproductive health-related causes were also listed as the leading cause of mortality among Afghan women refugees living in Pakistan between the ages of 15 and 49. (NCRW, "The World's Women 2005," forthcoming)

For fact sheets:

Women's Edge