Women's Empowerment

Here is my video. It is a reflection of the paper I wrote on "Redefining Empowerment."

The Women's War

I just read over an article from last year about women fighting in Iraq and the trauma associated with it. The article mentions a report from the Department of Defense that says that one-third of female veterans experienced rape or attempted rape while in service, with 37% of those being raped multiple times and 14% being gang raped. I have always assumed that this occurred in our military, with women only making up 15% of the armed forces but the numbers to me were pretty astonishing. These women are fighting for our country and putting their lives on the line, and all the while they are getting raped by the men fighting beside them. Its sad that only one-tenth of the rapists in these cases are court-martialed, causing most female soldiers to not even bother reporting it and just put up with it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/magazine/18cover.html?pagewanted=5&_r=1

Sexual Harassment

Three students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem filed complaints of sexual harassment against their professor after they accused him of forcing sexual relations on students in exchange for advancement and scholarships. The professor is also accused of misusing university funds to fund trips abroad with the female students and also to buy them gifts. It's sad to see how people use their status to discriminate against women and force them to do things they do not want to do.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1008511.html

shameless self-promotion

This really is not class-related at all -- just an fyi. A friend of mine launched an online feminist magazine, and he's sucked me into writing for it. Based on our class, I thought some of you might be interested. Also, as I've asked you to put yourselves out there with this blog (and of course I get to read your papers and such), I thought I'd return that and give you the chance to read my non-teacher-esque writing, if you felt so inclined. You could also critique it, if you wanted. :)

Modest Witness

A View of women in marriage

I was at my cousin’s wedding yesterday, and I found it very interesting that the preacher they had was quoting a bunch passages from the Bible about a women’s role in a marriage. Well, after the fifth quote about women being submissive to her husband coming from the bible, I started to get rather mad. I believe one of the preacher’s quotes was “The husband should be head of the household , as Jesus was head of the Church.” So, I started do some research within the bible on such passages. And, I found this one from the New Testament in I Timothy 2:11-12, “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, and do not permit a women to teach or have authority over a man, but to be in silence.” As I said before, this comes from the New Testament and it’s very sad that there are people out there who believe every word of the bible as God’s word and truth. And, if you believe that it is God’s word, then there are some men out there who would justify a women’s subjugation because it’s in the Bible. There are also some women out there who would submit because it is in the Bible. It’s just really sad, that’s all.

birth control 101

A friend sent me a link to the following article in the New York Times:
"Weighing the Health Benefits of Birth Control"

Here's an excerpt:

Unveiled in 1960, the birth control pill revolutionized contraception. Yet despite an abundance of birth control options today, almost half the pregnancies in this country are unintended, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than in any other developed nation. What’s the reason?

The issue is not technology. But economics and human behavior are another story. Nearly a third of women who start a new type of birth control stop within a year, according to one recent study, largely because of changes in their insurance coverage. All methods have some side effects. And the current crop of intrauterine devices, or IUD’s, despite having a nearly perfect efficacy rate, have been slow to catch on, experts say, partly because more doctors need to be trained in inserting them.

Women Are Now Equal as Victims of Poor Economy

Across the country, women in their prime earning years, struggling with an unfriendly economy, are retreating from the work force, either permanently or for long stretches. The pattern is roughly similar among the well-educated and the less educated, among the married and never married, among mothers with teenage children and those with children under 6, and among white women and black. The biggest retreat has been in manufacturing, where more than one million women have disappeared from payrolls since 2001. Like men, many have not returned to jobs in other sectors.

Here is the link to the entire article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/business/22jobs.html?_r=1&oref=slogin