Showing posts from category gender.
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Wood Gathering Risky Business for Ethiopian Girls, Women
›January 26, 2007 // By Alison WilliamsIn the hills near Addis Ababa, the protected eucalyptus forest presents a lucrative but risky enterprise, reports the Christian Science Monitor. The forest wood, often collected by women and young girls, can sell at market and greatly subsidize meager Ethiopian incomes. But if caught, the women are beat or raped by forest guards. No one, it seems, looks out for them:“When the guards find us with wood, they beat us hard,” says Maselech [Mercho], who is now 10. “If we give them money, they leave us alone. If they get drunk, they try to rape us. We will scream for help, but when we scream in these forests, there is nobody to lend us a hand.”
But the organization Former Women Fuel Wood Carriers Association is expanding its operations in Ethiopia to teach girls and women new skills and livelihoods that will keep them out of the forests, away from danger, and also protect the environment. -
Tackle Violence to Address AIDS, Say Experts
›January 25, 2007 // By Ken CristViolence against women was highlighted as a contributing factor to the spread of HIV/AIDS at the World Social Forum, taking place this week in Nairobi. Ludfine Anyango of Action Kenya-International argued that women still have little say in negotiating their sexual relationships, which increases their susceptibility to infection:“Many women cannot even choose when to have sex or not. Many cannot ask their husbands to use a condom because in addition to being thought as unfaithful, they fear being beaten. The woman then has no choice but to continue having unprotected sex with her spouse.”
AIDS activists are calling for new and strictly enforced laws aimed at protecting women from all forms of violence, particularly sexual violence. -
Measuring the Global Glass Ceiling
›January 11, 2007 // By Wilson Center StaffA World Economic Forum report ranks 115 countries—together comprising 90 percent of the world’s population—by their relative gender gaps. Countries were ranked by the relative inequality between men and women in economics, education, political status, and health and survival. According to London Business School Dean Laura Tyson, who helped shape the report’s methodology, the rankings reveal a lost economic opportunity:“Countries that do not fully capitalize effectively on one-half of their human resources run the risk of undermining their competitive potential. We hope to highlight the economic incentive behind empowering women in addition to promoting equality as a basic human right.”
Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland have the smallest gender gaps. The Philippines, at six, is the only Asian country in the top 10. The United States comes in at 22.
