Top Stories On Womens Issues

Just because we've stepped into the 21st century and it's been some years into that as well doesn't necessarily mean that the rising sun on January 1, 2000 miraculously removed all the issues and problems that women faced all over the world. Assuming that in this day and age there's no longer any gender discrimination would be optimism bordering on ignorance.

The sad thing about women's issues is that has often been used as a political slogan to get women's votes. This is not to say that no politician has ever done anything for women, congressmen and democratically elected representatives across the world have put in their efforts and are tirelessly changing the legal and social frame to be more equal among genders. But when the presidential election of a country that is house some of the most active women's right champions actually puts up a vice presidential candidate to simply take female votes from the other side, it gets you thinking whether people are really putting any though into the history they write or simply acting on impulse (read self-interest).

So where do women stand today? Post the US Presidential Elections, it's certain that women aren't in the Oval Office. But even that would not have meant that women no longer had issues. A 15 year old girl dying in Nigeria because she can't get medical treatment and her body is worn out to the marrow from giving birth to dead children, really doesn't care who is the head of what state. And this is what the reality of women's issues is. The majority of HIV positive individuals are women. A recent study has show that in the United States the annual income of women fell 1.2%, hence the feminization of poverty.

If disease and poverty aren't enough there's also the toil of the working woman. As the up-coming First Lady Michele Obama has made a point to give voice to the problems working moms face all over the county, new hope is found and a realization is also made that a lot still needs to be done for the women contributing to the economy in the workplace. While policies have been made to accommodate women and the versatile roles they play in society, women still don't have enough support to comfortably balance their multiple roles.

We also have an alarming increase of the number of women being raped in Iraq which seems like an endless trauma for the country. And while claims are tall that the new democratic government has the full support of the people, I find it very hard to believe it's soliciting any kind of support for its utter failure to bring a halt to such atrocities.

And in the close of it all, the new century also sees one of the darkest trades being practiced without cease. Human trafficking and that too of women and children has not seen the end of the tunnel. More and more women from the countries stricken by poverty and internal conflict are being smuggled out to be sold into human slavery and prostitution.

In short, yes we have come far from the time that women had to fight a mob to cast a vote, but for this race to really earn the title of being one that is fair and just, there's plenty of work to do.

• John Palsson
• 17/12/2008, 2:59 PM
• 0 Comments