Human Rights & Security

Globalization—as a political, economic and cultural trend—continues to have a mixed impact on women. Although it is strengthening promotion of gender equality around the world, it is also in many cases widening the gulf between rich and poor, accelerating environmental degradation and increasing the workloads of women and girls. The expanding global marketplace is increasing women’s employment opportunities but also producing jobs that may be temporary, unsafe or exploitive. Furthermore, economic reform programs imposed on developing countries by international financial institutions have often eroded critical services, such as public health and education programs, thereby increasing the caregiving burdens of women and girls. While globalization has opened up new avenues for some women, it has also led to increased hardship for others.

Two-Thirds of Young Arab Women Remain Out of Workforce

Teaser:

About one in three young Arab women between the ages of 23 and 29 participate in their country's labor force versus about eight in 10 young Arab men. This gender gap is generally consistent across the 22 Arab countries and territories Gallup surveyed in 2011, but young women's labor force participation is slightly higher in low-income countries than in higher income countries.

Editorial:

From Gallup:

These findings are based on a new Silatech Index report, "Workforce Participation Linked to Wellbeing Differences Among Young Arab Women," which examines how young women's workforce participation is related to their life evaluations, emotional state, and economic optimism.

In many Arab countries, chronic job shortages combined with cultural factors, such as pressure on employers to give young men jobs that enable them to marry and start families, may limit employment opportunities for young women. The World Bank recently reported that the Middle East and North Africa region continues to have the lowest female workforce participation rate of any global region.

These broad gender gaps persist despite impressive strides in many Arab countries toward gender equity in education. In high-income countries, women aged 23 to 29 are just as highly educated as their male counterparts and are more likely than young men to have a tertiary education (22% vs. 16%, respectively). In middle-income and low-income countries, young women are less likely than young men to have more than a primary education.

[...]

Source:

Gallup

URL:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/153659/Two-Thirds-Young-Arab-Women-Remain-Workforce.aspx

Date:

April 2, 2012

Affiliate:

New tool helps U.S. group track sex crimes in Syria

Teaser:

The Women's Media Center is using new crowd-sourcing techniques to track rape and other sexual violence across Syria in one of the first efforts to monitor assaults against women during military conflict in real-time.

Editorial:

From Reuters:

The effort by the Women's Media Center aims to shed light on such assaults and provide possible evidence to prosecute future human rights violations and war crimes. The group launched its website on Wednesday and said it was working with multiple Syrian activists whom it did not identify.

So far, the group has posted more than 20 reports, including deaths, from May 6, 2011, to March 17 and is verifying others.

Among incidents reported are undated allegations, labeled unverified, from a Palestinian news outlet that Syrian army forces raped 36 women near the villages of Kurin and Sahl Al-Rawj and from a YouTube video in which a man identified as a Syrian military volunteer says government forces kidnapped and raped 25 girls in Homs.

Crowd-sourcing allows the general public to provide information and report events very quickly. Reports can be made on the website, WomenUnderSiegeSyria.crowdmap.com, via e-mail or on Twitter using the hashtag #RapeinSyria.

[...]

Source:

Reuters

URL:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/28/us-usa-syria-rape-internet-idUSBRE82R1F120120328

Date:

April 1, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

New Families, New Friends: Organizations Working With Latina Immigrants, Strategy Forum Report

Submitted by asklar on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 10:37am

This report summarizes the presentations from a strategy forum co-hosted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) and Arizona State University (ASU) in April 2010. Held in Phoenix, Arizona, during the week the Arizona State Legislature passed the controversial legislation SB 1070, the forum brought together researchers, activists, clergy, and other community stakeholders working with immigrant women, especially Latinas.

by Aleesha Durfee, Ph.D., Cynthia Hess, Ph.D. (March 2012)

URL:

http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/new-families-new-friends-organizations-working-with-latina-immigrants-strategy-forum-report

Member Organization:

Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Fact Sheet: Empowering Women in Agriculture

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 03/23/2012 - 10:32am

Rural women around the world play a key role in supporting their households and communities in achieving food and nutrition security, generating income, growing small businesses, and overall well-being. They contribute to agriculture and fuel local and global economies. As such, women are active players in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Yet every day, rural women and girls face persistent structural constraints that prevent them from fully enjoying their human rights, and hamper their efforts to improve their lives and the lives of those around them.

From Bread for the World

URL:

http://www.bread.org/what-we-do/resources/fact-sheets/empowering-women-in-agriculture.pdf

Women at the frontline of climate change - Gender risks and hopes

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 03/22/2012 - 10:52am

Women are often in the frontline in respect to the impacts of a changing climate. Globally the world is seeing increasingly frequent droughts and floods which are having economic but also profound social consequences. The women and people of Asia are currently at greatest risk with over 100 million people affected in this region annually.

URL:

http://www.grida.no/publications/rr/women-and-climate-change/

Guide to World Water Day

Teaser:

Women's Environment & Development Organization's guide to water and gender.

Editorial:

From WEDO:

Water for Life
Water vital natural resource and a human right, and the right and access to clean, safe water is intrinsically linked to gender equality. From the miles & hours women and girls spend collecting water– the implications this has on their health, education and economic opportunity– to the threat of climate change on water resources affecting all aspects of women’s and men’s lives, it is clear that water is a human rights and women’s rights issue.

We must use World Water Day to call attention to this precious resource and ask ourselves some important questions: What if you didn’t have access to safe water for your family? What could you do with 6 hours a day? What actions are we taking to make water accessible to all?

On World Water Day, WEDO reminds you to protect this vital natural resource and work towards a world which promotes and protects the human right to water.

Get the Facts
(2011) WEDO on “Women and the Right to Water“- UN Human Rights Council
(2011) WEDO Recognizes World Water Day 2011
(2009) Climate Change Connections
(2006) Women’s Caucus Declaration: 4th World Water Forum
(2005) Women’s Major Group Statement on Access to Basic Water Services
(2003) Diverting the Flow
(2003) Untapped Connections
(1998) Women Transform the Mainstream

[...]

Source:

Women's Environment & Development Organization

URL:

http://www.wedo.org/news/guide-to-world-water-day

Date:

March 22, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Building Women’s Meaningful Participation in the Scale-Up of Vertical Transmission Programmes

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 03/22/2012 - 10:41am

The Center for Women Policy Studies is very pleased to share with you the Briefing Paper from our sisters at the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS (GCWA) and the AIDS Legal Network (ALN), South Africa.

URL:

http://www.womenandaids.net/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=c7ce0acd-8ac1-4c34-9098-c77096279025&disposition=inline

Female longevity offset by gender gaps

Teaser:

Women outlive men, while lagging behind.

That was the parallax view presented last week at an annual summing up by the National Council for Research on Women, a New York-based network of 100 leading U.S. research policy and advocacy centers, which held a panel here at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Editorial:

From TrustLaw:

Linda Basch, president of the National Council for Research on Women, pointed out women's larger share of poverty. "About 1.2 billion people worldwide--70 percent of them women--live in poverty," Basch said. "In the United States, the poverty rate of women rose to 14.5 percent in 2010, the highest in 17 years, so we have a way to go before gender equity is achieved."

Another disparity is domestic violence. While many higher-income countries have enacted laws, some developing nations still condone wife beating if the woman argues with her husband, refuses to have sex, or burns food.

[...]

Source:

TrustLaw

URL:

http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/news/female-longevity-hampered-by-gender-gaps

Date:

March 17, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Expert Profile

Location:

United States

43° 6' 19.5588" N, 89° 25' 36.9444" W

See map: Google Maps

Member Organizations:

Center for Research on Gender & Women

Aili Mari Tripp is Professor of Political Science and Gender & Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also director of the Center for Research on Gender and Women. She received her BA and MA from the University of Chicago, and her PhD from Northwestern University. Tripp has published numerous books and articles on women’s movements in Africa and internationally, global feminism, gender and politics in Africa and globally, and on women in post-conflict African countries. She co-edits a book series with Stanlie James on Women in Africa and the Diaspora for the University of Wisconsin Press. She served as co-editor of the journal Politics & Gender from 2007-2010. She is currently president of the African Studies Association.

Location

Madison, WI 53706

United States

43° 6' 19.5588" N, 89° 25' 36.9444" W

See map: Google Maps

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Expert Profile

Location:

United States

40° 41' 55.2372" N, 73° 59' 9.3876" W

See map: Google Maps

Miriam W. Yeung is Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF). She guides the country’s only national, multi-issue, progressive organization dedicated to social justice and human rights for Asian and Pacific Islander women and girls. With offices in New York City and D.C., and chapters in 11 cities, NAPAWF’s current priorities include winning rights for immigrant women, making nail salons safer for workers, conducting community-based participatory research with young API women and ending human trafficking. Prior to NAPAWF, Miriam held many positions during her 10-year career at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (the Center) in New York City. Born in Hong Kong and raised in the projects of Brooklyn, Miriam is a proud queer Asian-American immigrant woman activist who is committed to social-justice movement building and raising her two daughters to be fearless.

Location

Brooklyn, NY 11201

United States

40° 41' 55.2372" N, 73° 59' 9.3876" W

See map: Google Maps

Associated Issues & Expertise:

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NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

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