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.

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:

World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development

Submitted by asklar on Wed, 03/14/2012 - 10:18am

The 2012 World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development finds that women's lives around the world have improved dramatically, but gaps remain in many areas. The authors use a conceptual framework to examine progress to date, and then recommend policy actions.

URL:

http://go.worldbank.org/CQCTMSFI40

Female Longevity Offset by Lethal Gender Gaps

Teaser:

Women outlive men, while lagging behind.

Editorial:

From Women's eNews:

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.

Since 1980, women have lived longer than men in all parts of the world. In low-income countries, women now live 20 years longer, on average, than they did in 1980. In addition, over half a billion women have joined the world labor force.

At the same time, however, girls and women are often still treated as more expendable.

[...]

Source:

Women's eNews

URL:

http://womensenews.org/story/equalitywomen%E2%80%99s-rights/120313/female-longevity-offset-lethal-gender-gaps

Date:

March 14, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Engendering agricultural research, development, and extension

Submitted by asklar on Tue, 03/13/2012 - 12:21pm

Research has shown that women, when given the capital and opportunity, make unique, positive contributions to development outcomes ranging from agricultural productivity to poverty reduction. It comes as little surprise, then, that agricultural research, development, and extension systems are generally more successful when scientists, researchers, and extension agents pay attention to gender issues. However, women continue to be underrepresented and underserved, and their contributions remain mostly untapped in national and international agricultural research. Worldwide, gender roles are culturally defined in all aspects of farming, from control of resources to production and marketing, and these definitions constrain and marginalize women. Even within the agricultural research community, most scientists and extension agents are male.

URL:

http://www.ifpri.org/publication/engendering-agricultural-research-development-and-extension

Women 2012: Taking a Worldwide Reading - NCRW Expert Roundtable

Attachment:

Afternoon Expert Roundtable 2012 post-event PR.pdf

Post Date:

03/12/2012

Associated Issues & Expertise:

It Takes Women to End Global Poverty

Teaser:

Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours and produce half of the world's food. Yet, women earn only 10 percent of the world's income and own less than 1 percent of the world's property.

Editorial:

From Women's eNews:

While American women still earn about 77 cents for every dollar men earn and continue to work hard to close the salary gap, women in other parts of the world earn a mere 30 to 40 percent of what men do.

These are the women who never made it to a classroom, who often forgo already scarce food for themselves to feed other family members, who are unable to start their own businesses and who are likely to die in childbirth or from a preventable disease due to lack of basic health care.

The ability of families worldwide to pull themselves out of poverty -- through education, health and food security -- disproportionately rests on the shoulders of women.

Just ask Barbara Ayisa of Ghana. In her village of Affumkrom, she spends her day growing onions and maize, while taking care of her children. Her husband provides some economic support, but is engaged in other activities, leaving Barbara to manage the household. She benefitted from assistance that teaches her how to store her maize until she can sell it at the best price, earning the most she can for her family.

[...]

Source:

Women's eNews

URL:

http://womensenews.org/story/economyeconomic-policy/120308/it-takes-women-end-global-poverty?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email

Date:

March 11, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Women 2012: Good News on Health and Education Bad News on Pay and Clout

Submitted by vivhdem on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 4:02pm

By Natasha Cline-Thomas*

Each year, NCRW hosts an expert roundtable on the afternoon of its Awards Dinner. This year’s program Women 2012: Taking a Worldwide Reading was enlightening. It featured four leading experts who discussed findings from major national and global status reports on women and gender equality. They were: Iris Bohnet, Academic Dean, Professor of Public Policy, Director of the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School; Jeni Klugman, Director, Gender and Development, World Bank; Racquel Russell, Special Assistant to the President for Mobility and Opportunity, White House Domestic Policy Council; and Saadia Zahidi, Co-Author, World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report. Pat Mitchell, President and CEO, The Paley Center for Media moderated.

<< Back to the Full Blog

"Honor killings" require tougher laws, say Iraqi women

Teaser:

Women's activists in Iraq, led by the only woman in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet, Minister of State for Women's Affairs Ibtihal al-Zaidi, are lobbying to change the law.

Editorial:

From Reuters:

Near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a father doused his three teenage daughters with boiling water and shot them because, he told a court, he suspected they were having sex. Two died.

He said he killed them to defend his honor.

Murder in Iraq can carry a death sentence but under laws that activists say are far too lenient for so-called "honor killings," the father was jailed for just two years. Medical examinations showed the girls were virgins.

The light sentence was a result of Article 409 of Iraq's penal code which is often used in cases of "honor killings" by men. Women's activists in Iraq, led by the only woman in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet, Minister of State for Women's Affairs Ibtihal al-Zaidi, are lobbying to change the law.

But they say they face entrenched tribal values in a country where parliament includes many men from conservative parties.

For decades Iraqi women have enjoyed more freedoms than women in many other countries in the Middle East. They are generally free from the strict enforcement of dress codes or restrictions on movement, and can join political life.

But conservative tribal norms still prevail and all too often girls or women are punished by relatives for what are perceived to be crimes of honor.

Such cases can be difficult to document. An Iraqi Human Rights ministry report said 249 women were murdered in 2010, including for reasons of "honor crimes," without giving a breakdown. Amnesty International cites the ministry as saying at least 84 women were killed in Iraq in honor killings in 2009.

[...]

Source:

Reuters

URL:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/06/us-iraq-women-idUSTRE82510920120306

Date:

March 7, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Women, Business, and the Law

Submitted by asklar on Tue, 03/06/2012 - 10:36pm

Women, Business and the Law is a World Bank report that presents indicators based on laws and regulations affecting women's prospects as entrepreneurs and employees, in part drawing on laws contained in the Gender Law Library. Both resources can inform research and policy discussions on how to improve women's economic opportunities and outcomes.

URL:

http://wbl.worldbank.org/

Gender Equality and Female Empowerment

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 3:11am

Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), launched the Agency's new Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment.

Citing its importance, Dr. Shah stated, "We know that long-term, sustainable development will only be possible when women and men enjoy equal opportunity to rise to their potential. But today, women and girls continue to face disadvantages in every sector in which we work, and in other cases, boys are falling behind. With this policy, we can ensure our values and commitments are reflected in durable, meaningful results for all."

USAID Deputy Administrator, Ambassador Donald Steinberg, Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Development, and other senior White House officials participated in the launch.

URL:

http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/policy_planning_and_learning/documents/GenderEqualityPolicy.pdf

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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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