GENDER EQUALITY FOR WOMEN: MILES TO GO
by Kumkum Ramchandani

Amongst all the excited rhetoric surrounding the recent US elections, there was one small story which was almost missed by the reading public. Multi -millionairess and scion of the mighty Heinz business family, Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of presidential contender John Kerry, was not deemed a “fit” role model for First Lady. Unlike the ever smiling Laura Bush, she was not content to follow in her husband’s shadow, was not always impeccably dressed and worst of all, actually had opinions of her own! Her perceived unsuitability seems surprising in a nation that is the world’s leading economic power.

Also shockingly, the USA is the only industrialized nation that has not signed the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Most of the other countries which have not ratified this agreement are in the Middle East

Not surprisingly, mainly due to the media, eastern women are envious of the liberation reached by women in the developed countries. What they don’t realize is that this so called gender equality has a price tag attached to it, one that many western women are now eschewing. The desperation to be younger than ever, fitter than ever, thinner than ever and more employable than ever is taking its toll.

Western women too are influenced by the media which depicts Muslim women as oppressed humans with no rights and have to suffer perceived restrictions like wearing the hijab.

Barbara Siddiqui, a Canadian who turned to Islam for to satisfy her quest for equality, has this to say, “I do not think that Muslim women are oppressed. The Quran gives women many rights. The trappings of dress are often perceived from the perspective of the “west”, not from the perspective of Muslim women. Too often the “west” speaks for others without letting them speak for themselves.”

The obsession to look young is reaching epidemic proportions in the developed world, overwhelmingly in the case of women. Men are still considered ‘distinguished’ when they reach middle age and show a bit of grey. Feminist writer Susan Sontag says, “Women have an option…..They can let themselves age naturally and without embarrassment, actively protesting and disobeying the conventions that stem from society’s double standard about aging. Instead of being girls, girls as long as possible, who then age humiliatingly into middle-aged women and then obscenely into old women, they can become women much earlier….Women should allow their faces to show the lives they have lived.”

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, total cosmetic surgical procedures in the USA in 2003 were 1.78 million, of which 82% were performed on women. Total Botox procedures numbered 2.89 million of which 88% were performed on women, a shocking 269% increase between 2001 and 2003.

Trying to address this quest for physical perfection, the 2004 Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is trying to wean the public away from the commonly held opinion that women should be young and thin to be beautiful. Images of several women, aged, greying, plump and freckled, to mention a few, are being put to the vote by the reading public. A plump but joyous girl in black has two boxes for viewers to tick, “fat” or “fab”. An older woman is featured with two boxes, ‘gray?’/ ‘gorgeous’. At last count, ‘gorgeous’ had received 47,571 votes as compared to ‘gray’ (9579).

Dove conducted a survey of 3000 women in 10 countries and found that a pitiful 2% of women dared to describe themselves as ‘beautiful’. An overwhelming 75% thought their beauty was “average” while almost 50% said their weight was too much. Japanese women were found most likely to rate their beauty poorly while Italian and Argentinian women were most likely to say that their weight was “just right”.

If equality means that women are able to make more choices, then western women have more equality. But this can also work adversely as in the case of the sexual revolution. Let’s face it, when a woman gets pregnant out of wedlock, she is the one to suffer. The burden of teenage pregnancy is often too hard to bear. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, between 2000 and 2003, the number of poor children in single mother families increased by over 780,000.

Some people argue that as long as women are physically weaker than men, true equality will never be reached. Dhun Ward, who works for Canada Life Insurance, begs to differ. “I don’t think equality is measured by a person’s ability to handle weights, nor do I think that it plays a major role in achieving equality. It is the mind that needs to be educated and to acknowledge that women are not dependent on men for their identities.”

However, the physical and psychological weakness of women, particularly in developing countries is one of the reasons why AIDS is spreading rampantly in the female population. Of 37.2 million HIV positive people in the world today, 17.6 million are women, according to a 2003 report by UNAIDS/World Health Organization. Shockingly, three quarters of new infections amongst women worldwide are in the age group 15 to 24. The face of AIDS is becoming rapidly young and female mainly because women are still being coerced into unsafe sex, not having the physical or mental strength to refuse their men. Is this gender equality?

So what is gender equality? According to a report, Gender-based Analysis:a Guide for Policy Making, Status of Women Canada, 1996, “Gender equality means that women and men enjoy the same status. Gender equality means that women and men have equal conditions for realizing their full human rights and potential to contribute to national, political, economic, social and cultural development, and to benefit from the results.”

It adds, “Gender equality is therefore the equal valuing by society of both the similarities and differences between men and women and the varying roles that they play.”

By this definition, women in developed countries have achieved more gender equality than their sisters in the developing countries especially in the economic areas. But the truth is that globally, as reported by the International Labour Organization, ILO, women are paid less than men and there is no indication that this will change soon.

The ILO states, “Though undeniable progress has been made in terms of female participation in the workforce during the last forty years, the progress has been neither universal nor sustained. The majority of women continue to earn on average only 50%-80% of what men earn. In Japan and the Republic of Korea, women’s salaries are roughly half of men’s salaries. In developed countries, the disparity varies between 30% to slightly less than 10%.”

Women have been pushed into jobs that are deemed ‘fit for women’. In developed countries 60% of women are concentrated in the service sector. In Sub-Saharan Africa 80% and in Asia 50% of women work in the agricultural sector.

Another ILO report states that though the Internet age has led to increased work opportunities for women, only 25% of Internet users in the European Union are women while in the Middle East it is even lower, at 4%. In the UK and US, the proportion of women in IT courses is less than 20% of the total.

Some shocking statistics (source: Women’s Learning Partnership)
• Only 1% of the world’s assets are in the name of women
• Men in the Arab states have 3.5 times the purchasing power of their female counterparts
• 70% of people in abject poverty – living on less than $1 per day – are women
• Among the developed countries, in France only 9% of the workforce and in the Netherlands 20% of the workforce are female administrators and managers
• Among the developing countries, in Ecuador and the Bahamas, 33% of the workforce is comprised of women administrators and managers
• Women’s participation in managerial and administrative posts is around 33% in the developed world, 15% in Africa and 13% in Asia and the Pacific. In Africa and Asia-Pacific these percentages, small as they are, reflect a doubling of numbers in the last twenty years
• There are only 5 women chief executives in the Fortune 500 corporations, the most valuable publicly owned companies in the United States. These are the CEOs of Xerox, Spherion, Hewlett-Packard, Golden West Financial and Avon Products
• In Silicon Valley, for every 100 shares of stock options owned by a man, only one share is owned by a woman


In politics the picture is quite bleak as well. As of December 2003, out of 180 countries, only 12 were headed by women. Other women leaders were 5 Vice Presidents, 4 Governor Generals and 4 major Opposition leaders. Surprisingly, Rwanda and Uganda has more women members of parliament (25.7% and 24.7% respectively) than the US (12%), France (11.8%) and Japan (10%). Significantly, only 7% of the world’s cabinet ministers are women.

The fact is that women all over the world suffer from gender inequality in some way or the other. As Barbara Siddiqui points out, “I think that western women (and how do we classify “western”?), like all women, are on a continuum. Stereotypes abound so easily and I think it is crucial not to buy into that when we are discussing being really and truly liberated. In the “west” there are certainly opportunities for women but there also continue to be glass ceilings (career-wise), media misrepresentation (body image, role expectations, sexual objectivism and so on), single mom syndrome and less value in regards to equal pay, expectations for child rearing and household tasks.”

Dhun Ward sums up, “Women have to be encouraged to recognize their true worth. After all, no women equals to no future generation. They have to recognize their individuality and not see themselves as an appendage to males. This misconception has to be eradicated from the minds of both males and females. Education for both is essential.”


Can be put in a box:

CANADIAN MUSLIM WOMEN: OVEREDUCATED AND

UNEMPLOYED

Twenty year old Canadian Maryam Mirza made history during Eid Al Fitr in November 2004 as she stood in front of a congregation of 200 people to deliver a sermon at a local mosque in Toronto. Said the leading daily Toronto Star, “In doing so, she marked the end of Ramadan (the month of fasting) and what many called a new beginning for Muslim women as she took on a role traditionally left to men.” The ten minute sermon was delivered after the imam’s prelude and dealt with the challenges facing Islam in today’s changing world. This move is being hailed all over Canada as a breakthrough for Canadian Muslim women. It is hoped that this will set a precedent and more women will come to the forefront to deliver Islam’s messages.

However, the Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW) released a report which paints a bleak picture of the progress made by Muslim women in this country. Entitled Muslim Women: Beyond the Perceptions, the study, by Daood Hamdani, presents a demographic profile based on the 2001 Census of Canada. Key points:

• Nearly one in three Muslim women has a university degree compared with one in five among all women; twice as many Muslim women hold masters and doctoral degrees as compared to all women in Canada.
• Nearly two-fifths (37%) specialize in a science or engineering discipline compared with 31% of all women.
• Twice as many adult Muslim women compared to all adult women were enrolled in educational institutions for improving and upgrading their skills.
• Less than one half (49%) of eligible Muslim women participate in the labour market compared with the national average of 60.5%.
• The rate of unemployment (16.5%) among Muslim women is more than double the rate of 7.2% for all women.
• In spite of their higher levels of education, Muslim women are concentrated in lower paying clerical, sales and service operations.

According to Razia Jaffer, national president of the CCMW, “We hope the findings in this study will propel the Canadian government to address the underutilization of this highly skilled and knowledgeable segment of our population. It is tragic to see such talent and potential go to waste when Canada needs these resources to compete in today’s knowledge-based economy.”

Canadian Muslim women’s organizations are making a strong case for the promotion of women’s rights. With studies like these, they hope to approach the media, government, businesses and broader spectrums of society with hard facts which will help their cause. A significant step in the giant struggle to achieve gender equality and recognition.