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2015 is the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action regarding the status of women. Though 189 governments signed the document, much remains to be done in democratic and non-democratic states to improve women’s lives. Democracy in any nation is a mirage unless all citizens have equal rights and equality of opportunity. This includes both genders as well as LGBT, racial, ethnic, and religious groups. However, women still are denied equality in some countries, a continuation of their previous status.
Bias against women has been ingrained since prehistoric times, with women only deemed fit to bear children and run the home. This was reinforced by religious texts, which placed proscriptions upon women’s activities outside the home. Accepted doctrines also made men the rulers of the family with women expected to be obedient. And some religions allowed men to have multiple wives. Eve, representing women in the Old Testament, led Adam astray, resulting in both being banished from Eden. Women were perceived as dangerous, seductive creatures who could lure men into liaisons. That is why in some religions, the characteristics defining women’s sexuality had to be hidden when they ventured out in public, the onus for temptation placed on women. While praying or at religious ceremonies, women would have to sit separately from men so that the latter would not be distracted. And none of the major religions allowed women into the religious hierarchy in positions of power.
Gradually, in post-enlightenment Western democracies women’s roles and activities began to evolve, with religion less dominant in society. Some of the more modern religions even permitted women to assume functions within the faith previously allocated only to men. And over the last two centuries, as civil societies began to change, women became wage-earners outside the home, able to live self-sufficiently. When married, they were also permitted to divorce their husbands if dissatisfied, these actions no longer engendering shame. Eventually, women attained the right to vote and to run for political offices. (It was not until 1920, with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, that women’s suffrage became American law.) However, women’s rights still lag behind men’s in Western democracies, and women remain far from equal to men in the emerging democracies of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
And even in this day and age, women globally are subject to high levels of physical and sexual abuse, both domestically and in society. According to a U.N. analysis, over one third of women throughout the world reported that they had suffered physical violence during their lives and one in ten girls under age eighteen had been forced to have sex. 38 percent of women who are murdered are the victims of their partners, as much of the violence women encounter is domestic in origin.
In Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, including nominal democracies, a woman’s father still arranges her marriage. If she defies him or marries another man for love, she is liable to be murdered by members of her family in what are considered ‘honor killings.’ Brides in India may also be killed if their dowries are thought to be insufficient. Arranged marriages mean that women are considered chattel or the property of men, unable to choose their mates and how they will live their lives, a concept deeply rooted in Islamic cultures. A girl of twelve or thirteen may be betrothed to an elderly man by her father, to pay off a debt or because of some other arrangement. Sex before marriage by a woman is also punishable by death for dishonoring the family. And gynecological surgery on young girls is still accepted by many Muslims to prevent women from deriving pleasure from sexual intercourse.
The U.N. study also showed that though more women are employed than twenty years ago, they are paid less than men for the same work. Because the pay gap is closing so slowly, it is likely to take another seventy-five years before equality is achieved. In Western democracies, women appear to be approaching equality with men more quickly, but still do not receive equal pay for their work. They also do not advance as rapidly up the corporate ladder as men, and there is an apparent glass ceiling that women have difficulty cracking. Many fewer women are employed as CEOs or as top executives than men, or sit on the boards of major corporations. In 2012, only 4 percent of top corporations in the U.S. were run by women. And only seven of the Fortune 500 companies had boards that were at least 40 percent women. (Interestingly, companies with more women outperformed those with the fewest.)
With women in the workplace, the issue of sexual harassment also has to be frequently addressed, when women are in positions where they are outranked by men. It is true as well, that men on the same level can harass or denigrate women. While businesses and the military may have specific rules regarding this issue, men may not be aware of these regulations or may simply ignore them. Whether harassment complaints are handled by corporate human resources offices, special committees that deal with these problems, or have to be resolved in a court of law, men must understand that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated.
In their Constitutions and codified laws, democracies pledge equality to all their citizens, along with security and protection from violence. Before these objectives are realized for women, a long road still needs to be traveled. If cultural expectations and religion interferes with these goals, they must be changed.
Resurrecting Democracy
www.robertlevinebooks.com
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020