The CotoBuzz Journal : US Women Make Strides Toward Equality, But Work Remains

Tuesday, March 08, 2016

US Women Make Strides Toward Equality, But Work Remains – In Context, You are in heaven!

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – In honor of International Women’s Day The Voice of America (VOA) published an online article titled US Women Make Strides Toward Equality, But Work Remains. According to its website, the Voice of America, first went on the air in 1942, and is an international multimedia broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of 125 million people.

The VOA piece states that “The United States has made huge strides since that first march in 1908: women won the right to vote, they make up about half of the workforce and they now earn a higher percentage of college degrees than men, among other things.However, the U.S. rates 28th out of 145 countries in an annual world ranking of equality for women” according to the the World Economic Forum "Global Gender Gap Report 2015" which bases its equality ranking on economic, educational, health-based and political indicators.

The VOA piece uses so-called girl's empowerment expert , Keshet Bachan, in Washington, D.C., that “while the U.S. does well regarding three criteria of the gender gap report, “the political representation of women in this country is abysmal.”

The VOA piece cites a 2012 Pew Study that finds women are also more likely to continue in education after receiving a bachelor’s degree: in 2012, women earned 60 percent of all master’s degrees and 51 percent of all doctorates; in 2013, women earned 36 percent of master of business administration degrees.

Now put this the “abysmal” situation of US women in context. While the government in India has expressed a strong commitment towards education for all, it still has one of the lowest female literacy rates in Asia. In 1991, less than 40 percent of the 330 million women aged 7 and over were literate. This is more than the total US population! Numerous studies show that illiterate women have high levels of fertility and mortality, poor nutritional status, low earning potential, and little autonomy within the household. A woman’s lack of education also has a negative impact on the health and well being of her children. For instance, a recent survey in India found that infant mortality was inversely related to mother’s educational level.

Also, consider that

· A girl has a 1 in 4 chance of being born into poverty. Martin Ravalion and Shaohua Chen.“The developing world is poorer than we thought but no lesssuccessful in the fight against poverty.” The World Bank. August 2008. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/6322/WPS4703.pdf

· The #1 cause of death for girls 15-19 is childbirth. World Health Organization. “Adolescent Pregnancy.” http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs364/en/index.html
· Girls with 8 years of education are 4 times less likely to be married as children. Mensch, Barbara S., Susheela Singh and John B. Casterline. 2005. “Trends in the Timing of First Marriage among Men and Women in the Developing World,” in Cynthia B. Lloyd, Jere R. Behrman, Nelly P.Stromquist, and Barney Cohen (eds.), The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries: Selected Studies (pp. 118–171). Washington, DC: National AcademiesPress.
· 75% of AIDS cases in sub-Saharan Africa—the region hardest hit by the disease—are women and girls. UNAIDS, 2010. Report on the Global Aids Epidemic. http://www.unaids.org/documents/20101123_globalreport_em.pdf
· 14 million girls under 18 will be married this year; 38 thousand today; 13 girls in the last 30 seconds. UNFPA . Marrying Too Early: End Child Marriage. 2012,6. http://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2012/MarryingTooYoung.pdf
· 66 million girls out of school globally. 2012 EFA Global Monitoring Report. 359, 377. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002180/218003e.pdf

In other words, while feminists in the US demand free access to contraceptives and free abortion, over 99% of the girls on earth just want to make it to adulthood. Not trying to minimize the struggle for equality - simply trying to add context: