Women make up a majority of the world’s poor; more than half of immigrants, refugees and casualties of armed conflicts; and they are often the first to feel the brunt of economic, political, environmental and humanitarian crises. At the same time, women are essential partners for promoting conflict resolution, reducing extremism and promoting post-conflict reconstruction and sustainable development. However, governments and international organizations often overlook the significant contributions and vital perspectives of women and girls, thereby undermining effective security policies and peace-building initiatives. Human rights advocates and security experts are calling for more efforts to invest in women, implement gender-sensitive laws and policies and ensure that women are included at decision-making tables.
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Teaser:
The Pentagon made official what already has been happening by default: women in uniform are moving closer to the front lines.
Editorial:
From Time:
“Women are contributing in unprecedented ways to the military’s mission,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement heralding the change, which was
detailed at a briefing Thursday. “We will continue to open as many positions as possible to women so that anyone qualified to serve can have the opportunity to do so.”
But the move still bans them from key infantry, armor and special operations units, leaving many advocates unimpressed.
Responding to an order from Congress, the Pentagon said it was tweaking the 1994 rules on the issue:
– Women will no longer be barred from jobs simply because those jobs require those holding them to be located with ground-combat units. That means women will be able to serve as tank mechanics, radio operators and in other support billets, opening up more than 13,000 jobs to women.
– Women will be permitted to serve in 800-troop combat battalions, a smaller unit – closer to the front — than the higher-level 4,000-strong brigades where they had been limited to serving in support roles further from the action. More than a thousand jobs will be open to women under this change, although many already have been serving in those jobs as temporary “attachments.”
URL:
http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2012/02/10/women-not-quite-in-combat/
Teaser:
Sylvia Ann Hewlett explains how, in places like China and India, younger professionals are gunning for work-life balance over a full-on career.
Editorial:
From Harvard Business Review:
As the first university graduates to emerge from Communism to a newly developing China in the 1980s and 90s, those women didn't hesitate to dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to their careers. But according to data from the
Center for Talent Innovation (formerly the Center for Work-Life Policy), today's younger generation is different. "The mindset has really changed," notes an HR manager for a major multinational corporation. "Women now talk about facials and traveling and all the things that the older generation didn't think about until they were more established."
[...]
URL:
http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hewlett/2012/01/dissecting_female_diversity_in_br.html
Teaser:
Opinion piece by Gloria Steinem and Lauren Wolfe on how rape is used as tool of war to devastate women and communities.
Editorial:
From CNN:
We first thought about starting this piece with the story of
Saleha Begum, a survivor of Bangladesh's 1971 war in which,
some reports say, as many as 400,000 women were raped. Begum had been tied to a banana tree and repeatedly gang raped and burned with cigarettes for months until she was shot and left for dead in a pile of women. She didn't die, though, and was able to return home, ravaged and five months pregnant. When she got home she was branded a "slut."
We also thought of starting with the story of
Ester Abeja, a woman in Uganda who was forcibly held as a "bush wife" by the Lord's Resistance Army. Repeated rape with objects destroyed her insides. Her captors also made her kill her 1-year-old daughter by smashing the baby's head into a tree.
We ran through a dozen other stories of women like Begum and Abeja, and finally realized that it would be too difficult to find the right one -- the tale that would express exactly how and in what ways
sexualized violence is being used as a weapon of war to devastate women and tear apart communities around the world, conflict by conflict, from Libya to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
[...]
URL:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/08/opinion/steinem-wolfe-rape-war/index.html
Teaser:
A team of former Olympic and national athletes has been working to create the first organization dedicated to advocating for the safety of young athletes.
Safe4Athletes' mission is to ensure a safe environment for young athletes in all sports, free from the sexual abuse and harassment that have made headlines of late.
Editorial:
From the press release:
Until now, sports federations, teams and private clubs have attempted to police themselves. Safe4Athletes is noteworthy for shifting the paradigm from efforts focused on a single sport to protecting athletes across sports.
Safe4Athletes recommends that every sports organization adopt codes of conduct and establish policies for athlete welfare. The nonprofit's website provides model policies for ethical conduct, promotes appropriate avenues for reporting incidents and offers educational materials targeted to young athletes, parents, coaches and sports organizations. Safe4Athletes also lists the clubs that are dedicated to keeping athletes safe.
Based in Los Angeles, Safe4Athletes was founded by former British Olympian Katherine Starr with a diverse board of directors and advisory councils comprised of world-class athletes, sports psychologists, the assistance of the Women's Sports Foundation and youth advocates.
[...]
URL:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sports-champions-and-medalists-call-for-end-to-sexual-abuse-bullying-and-harassment-of-young-athletes-2012-02-07
Teaser:
Child marriage is one of the most shocking and disturbing practices facing girls around the world today.
Editorial:
From the Huffington Post:
Every year, ten million girls are forcibly married before the age of eighteen, many as young as twelve or thirteen years old. That is something like 25,000 girls a day. These young girls suffer sexual abuse and domestic violence and are frequently forced to become mothers at a very early age, putting them at a much higher risk of maternal injury and death. The epidemic of child marriage has mostly received little attention and continues unabated year after year. An organization called
The Elders, a group of global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela in 2007, seeks to change that, launching an ambitious Global Partnership to End Child Marriage called
Girls Not Brides that aims to stop the harmful practice in one generation.
This week, a delegation from The Elders, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, will visit India with a focus on girls' development and the impact of child marriage. The primary objective of the Elders' visit is to learn about the causes of child marriage in India, discuss the harmful impact of child marriage on human rights and development, and to encourage local efforts to end the practice. The Elders will meet political and business leaders, UN and NGO representatives, members of the media, and communities affected by child marriage. Because of its large population, India is home to an estimated one third of the world's child brides. The Elders will visit New Delhi and Patna and will also attend a regional meeting hosted by
Girls Not Brides.
I asked Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson about the implications and factors contributing to child marriage and their hopes and goals for the
Girls Not Brides Partnership.
[...]
URL:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-schnall/desmond-tutu-and-mary-rob_b_1254218.html
Event flyer - Afternoon Program 2012: Taking a Worldwide Reading - Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Teaser:
A new action plan opens far-reaching possibilities to improve the security of women and the world. With some caution, women’s peace advocates plan to monitor its implementation.
Editorial:
From the Women's Media Center:
The
National Action Plan On Women, Peace and Security (NAP) issued by President Obama shortly before the end of last year has the potential of being a significant step forward in addressing the impact of military conflict on women and the necessity of women’s participation in conflict resolution. In response to a UN resolution, it provides a plan for the U.S. government to implement, “a gender responsive approach to its diplomatic, development, and defense-related work in conflict-affected environments” by mandating:
- Women’s participation in peace negotiations.
- Increased efforts to protect “women and children from harm, exploitation, discrimination, and abuse, including sexual and gender-based violence and trafficking in persons, and to hold perpetrators accountable in conflict-affected environments.”
- Increased efforts to promote women’s roles in conflict prevention.
- Post-conflict aid and recovery efforts that address the specific needs of women and children.
The order provides a blueprint for strengthened support and implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (SCR 1325) and other resolutions concerning the effect of conflict on women and their role in peacemaking and recovery.
[...]
URL:
http://womensmediacenter.com/blog/2012/01/exclusive-u-s-acts-on-women-peace-and-security/
Teaser:
Rohini Pande and colleagues recently published new research analyzing the impact of gender quotas on girls' aspirations in Indian villages.
Editorial:
From the WAPPP wire:
To be a young girl in certain Indian villages now is an opportunity --- the 1993 national quota law requiring a third of local village councils to be led by women has changed the way a new generation of girls envision their future. Rohini Pande, Mohammed Kamal Professor of Public Policy, HKS and WAPPP faculty adviser, and colleagues recently published new research analyzing the impact of gender quotas on girls' aspirations in Indian villages.
The paper:
Female Leadership Raises Aspirations and Educational Attainment for Girls: A Policy Experiment in India (with Lori Beaman, Esther Duflo, and Petia Topolava). Sciencexpress DOI: 10.1126/science.1212382, January 12, 2012. Reprint January 25, 2012.
URL:
http://wapppwire.blogspot.com/2012/01/pandes-new-research-shows-impact-of.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WapppWire+%28WAPPP+Wire%29
Teaser:
Plateau Coincides with Slowdown in What Had Been a Steady Increase in Contraceptive Use
Editorial:
From the Guttmacher Institute:
After a period of substantial decline, the global abortion rate has stalled, according to new research from the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization (WHO). Between 1995 and 2003, the overall number of abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age (15–44 years) dropped from 35 to 29; according to the new study, the global abortion rate in 2008 was virtually unchanged, at 28 per 1,000. This plateau coincides with a slowdown, documented by the United Nations, in contraceptive uptake, which has been especially marked in developing countries. The researchers also found that nearly half of all abortions worldwide are unsafe, and almost all unsafe abortions occur in the developing world. The study,
Induced Abortion: Incidence and Trends Worldwide from 1995 to 2008, by
Gilda Sedgh et al., was published online today by The Lancet.
In the developing world, the abortion rate was 29 per 1,000 in both 2003 and 2008, after falling from 34 per 1,000 between 1995 and 2003. The situation was somewhat different in the developed world, excluding Eastern Europe, where the abortion rate was much lower, at 17 per 1,000 in 2008, having declined slightly from a rate of 20 in 1995.
“The declining abortion trend we had seen globally has stalled, and we are also seeing a growing proportion of abortions occurring in developing countries, where the procedure is often clandestine and unsafe. This is cause for concern,” says
Gilda Sedgh , lead author of the study and a senior researcher at the Guttmacher Institute. “This plateau coincides with a slowdown in contraceptive uptake. Without greater investment in quality family planning services, we can expect this trend to persist.”
[...]
URL:
http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2012/01/18/index.html
Teaser:
As UN Women celebrated its first birthday, its executive director Michelle Bachelet stressed that political upheveal and shrinking budgets are no excuse to push back the hard-won gains made by the women's movement globally.
Editorial:
From IPS:
"My top priority for 2012 will be to make a renewed push for women's economic empowerment and political participation," Bachelet said at UN Women's one-year anniversary press conference Thursday.
Formally known as the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting women and girls' needs worldwide. Created by the U.N. General Assembly in July 2010, it became operational on Jan. 1, 2011.
Its six priorities are advancing women's political participation and leadership; improving women's economic empowerment; ending violence against women and girls; expanding the role of women in peace talks, peace building, and recovery; making budgets and plans benefit women and men equally; and increasing coordination and accountability across the U.N. system for gender equality.
[...]
URL:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106634
