Group items tagged

Enloe, Cynthia. 2004. "Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives" The University of California Press. "Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives" by Cynthia Enloe discusses the the extent to which states' militaries have relied on women in order to conduct unethical military operations like war rape and sustain a political legitimacy. In particular I will be using the chapters, "The Laundress, The Soldier, and the State" which discusses the beginning acts of political violence against women, in particular the concept of camp following and the chapter "When Soldiers Rape" which contains a literal discussion of soldiers use of rape as a weapon of war. These articles will help enhance my understanding of the political acts of violence against women, how they started, escalated, and how the military gets away with them.

Amnesty International is an organization that is working to enforce human rights through various campaigns. They work across countries with the government in order to change law and help push legislation to help further equality. This page in particular focuses on their work to stop the current violence against women occurring around the world. Here you can read about the problems facing various countries, learn more about what different governments are doing, and what Amnesty International believes needs to be done. Here you can find resources to help in your own activism such as fact sheets, videos, and specific campaigns.

I bookmarked this particular page because it is a petition to help end violence against women in United States foreign assistance programs by asking Congress to pass The International Violence Against Women Act. We are supposed to be bookmarking resources that respond to violence against women or provide a vision for change. This petition which is aiming to pass an important act does those things exactly because it is trying to change existing conditions of violence against women. If the act is passed there will hopefully be much less violence against women in US foreign aid programs. I think we in this class have a responsibility to be active which is why I posted this petition which we should all read and sign. I already have!

This site is a good way in raising awareness and encouraging people to participate in stopping violence against women. I really like how the petition opens with a few descriptions of imagining a world free of domestic violence, emphasizing how life for women would be safer, comfortable and prosperous. After looking through the site and reading more about the objectives/ goals of various organizations trying to stop domestic violence, I felt compelled to sign the petition and make a change myself. I think a lot of times we view issues such as violence against women out of our control or reach. However, I think by having petitions and sites like this that support the cause, will allow change and inspire people to be more active.

This is Amnesty Internationals page dedicated to the movie "Bordertown" and the killing in Juarez, Mexico. It has a lot of interesting links connected with these issues. 

I have bookmarked a specific event that takes place every year under The United Nations Population Fund. As an international development agency, UNFPA works across countries to spread awareness and to work towards equal rights and opportunities for all people. Working with the government of a specific country, the agency works on sustainable development taking into account the needs of the population now and for the future. This event specifically, the 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women is done every year and speaks out across the world on issues of gender violence. Apart from the set aside 16 days, this page lays out 16 ways the UNFPA is working to end this violence. As well, the website lists various other events they are hosting as well as sites to visit that show social and multi-media space on a variety of issues that one can use to network and learn more on such issues.

This is a great website, and I love that it happens every year. By not only providing websites and other resources for people to look at, just their presentation, as a worldwide event, makes it very effective in getting the idea of how bad violence against women really is. One thing that I thought was most effective about it is that it is not just the US, and not just a country that we hear about often with regards to their violence against women, but global. This globalness is very important because if someone who knew little about violence against women were to see this, then they could possibly become aware that violence against women is not just in the US, and not just in the rest of the world, something that is very important to ending violence against women.

I'm glad that you came across this website because people want to get involved and sometimes do not k now were to start. I feel like I can send some of my friends to this website to get started. I like that the ideas also involve men; it's something that everyone can do and feel good about. One of the 16 ways that jumped out at me was "Publicizing the issue of acid burning and other unusual forms of gender violence" because it is something that it is not spoken about and given a lot of attention to.

This is a link to the Battered Women's Justice Project. This site is helpful because it deals with both local and international domestic violence, and covers a wide variety of issues including battering, stalking, child abuse, immigrant rights, etc. It both provides resources for victims of domestic violence and also works to show how to change the legal system and criminal justice proceedings concerning domestic violence.

Doskoch, P. 2006. "Skewed Sex Ratio of Births in India may be the Result of Sex-Selective Abortion." International Family Planning Perspectives (32)2: 102-3. This short article provides an introduction to the affects of sex-selective abortion. She includes basic statistics in support of the imbalance of male to female birth rates in India, using sex-selective abortion as a justification for such results. I found it necessary to use statistics to better understand the depth and significance that sex-selective abortion and infanticide have in India.

Activist groups in Pakistan pressure to reform the law to protect women from violence. The U.S.A is also realizing how vital it is to incorporate violence against women in their international agenda. Violence against women is starting to be seen as a global struggle that crosses national interests.

This article is very important to our class because it is directly related to the reading we did on the Bosnia rapes. The article explains how almost 20 years later, the women who were raped are still struggling with everyday life. Additionally, justice has still not been found for many of the women and men who were raped. Taking steps in this direction would be a good response to violence against women.

This website lays out a description of and a schedule for the "Cuentos de Hadas (Fairy Tales) Art Exhibtion at Avenue 50 Studio, Inc. in California. It is the intent of the artists' collections to display the discrepancy between the assumed and enforced male and female gender roles within fairy tales. The physical appearance, control of emotions, and psychological mind-set of the leading heroin and hero roles are pre-destined and the same stereotypes in most fairy tales. This exhibition asks the viewer to acknowledge this fact and address the underlying issues and implications within it. Furthermore, the weekend of the Art display is a march where participants will march in the name of a prayer for Juarez, Mexico where Femicide is both an immediate and devastating reality.

I LOVE this idea! Since I seem to be in connection mode... this really made me consider the fairy tales and new renditions of fairy tales and short stories I read over the past month for my English class, "Romancing the Novel." Typical tales do seem to subjugate women, and set them up for interactions of violence towards and against them, while the Angela Carter renditions of past fairy tales set up new heroines much like this artwork is attempting to do. Also, I think it is great that the institution and artist are relating these works to the Femicide in Juarez. Rather than make art for arts sake, they are trying to force more impact and meaning within the work, and this really appeals to me. It is scary to think that most young girls are read or watch the more traditional versions of fairy tales... perhaps this sets us/them up for ignorance of violence against women???

This article shows how certain activist groups have pressured to restructure Guatemalan law regarding violence against women. It discusses how addressing rape is slowly changing with the support of international organizations and national groups. However, the article also highlights how Guatemala's corrupt government and gangs makes it hard to eradicate violence against women, where respect for women and for peace is not rooted.

report

This is article was on the front page of the Economist on March 4th, 2010. This article has a great deal of information on the current phenomena seen on how "technology, declining fertility and ancient prejudice are combining to unbalance societies" This article focuses on China, India and South Korea but touches on the general issue a lot. This article is a good resource to understand how violence against women can start even before they are born. Furthermore, you can see the political prejudices that go into it.

I think that this issue relates a lot to violence against women and cultural perceptions of women around the world. By choosing not to keep, or evening killing a child simply because it is a girl you are putting forth the image that girls are not as important as boys, and have less worth. I know that in many cultures this is believed to be true at all ages, but it especially hits home when those involved can't in any way defend themselves.

This article is very important because it shows how economical factors, cultural factors, technology and the goverment contribute in some way to "gendercide" and how they also sustain the hatred against women. This factors help us understand that violence against women, even when they havent been born yet is connected to other factors beyond culture. This article is important in the aspect that it shows that hatred and violence against women may take place even before they are born and it is also important because it discusses a number of factors that contribute to it. This article conncts to my articles on Guatemala because the goverment and other social factors also perpertuate inequality and violence against women.

This is a horrific story that exemplifies one of the many different forms of femicide that exists throughout the world. The child marriage that commonly occurs in Yemen is motivated by dowry payment; the young girls' lives are continually jeopardized for monetary gain. Though the minimum marriage age was changed to 17 in 2009, it was repealed due to conservative pressure, further proving that social change often cannot happen without men's approval. This needs to be changed.

This story is horrendous. I often find it difficult to critique other cultural practices that are not my own because I do not want to be insensitive to their traditions and customs. However, when it comes to child welfare laws I am always disgusted that such antiquated practices are permitted in contemporary times. It's ironic because some may even view this child bride as a child who was a victim of legalized rape and made to live with her rapist/murderer. I wish there was more information regarding such practices because than I could make a stronger argument.

This story brings me back to the Economist article link i bookmarked on Gendercide today. I think the Economist makes a great overview of the problem using examples from China and India,but I think it would be interesting to add Yemen to the mix, since this is such a recent ocurrence that exemplifies the current world crisis. In China they kill baby girls who are born to have a chance at having a boy, because having a girl means that she is only good to be married off and you need a dowry for that. In Yemen, the problem is not that they are killed at birth or before birth, but that they are being married off underage and become victims of violence and in this case of murder as a result of the violence.

"The study described in this paper looked at homelessness law in the UK before the passage of the recent Housing Act (1996) in Britain. It does not bear out the supposition that homeless families, including women escaping from domestic violence and their children, were unfairly favoured under the previous legislation. The paper argues that the withdrawal in the new Act of the statutory link between homelessness and a lifeline to permanent housing is an example of the ambivalent and contradictory nature of government policy in relation to families and to the social position of women, and is a potentially disastrous development for many women experiencing domestic violence and for their children."

(couldn't bookmark the PDF version so I had to find a summary) This article is based on interviews with women that have sexually exploited within the US. They looked at the networks that were instrumental in gathering the women, the methods used to control the women, and the social consequences for sex trafficking.

This article talks about ways to help end trafficking within the US by focusing on targeting the source countries and creating stronger penalties for people who are trafficking humans. Author also talks about reasons for why human trafficking within the US will probably increase in the coming years.

George, Sabu M. 1997. "Female Infanticide in Tamil Nadu, India: From Recognition Back to Denial?" Reproductive Health Matters. 5(10): 124-132. This article was published in the issue titled, "The International Women's Health Movement," which I found very helpful in aiding my understanding of female infanticide. It offers a different perspective on the relatively recent phenomenon of female infanticide and discusses the circumstances that led to its entrance into the political sphere as well as critiquing programs such as the 'Girl Child Protection Scheme' that are intended to stop female infanticide. I found this article very interesting and educational.