Are You A Feminist?
The word “feminist” triggers varying, frequently big feelings in people and often has a negative connotation. The Oxford dictionary’s definition of the word is “the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.”
March 8th is International Women’s Day (IWD), a day of global celebration of women’s social, economic, cultural and political achievements. That’s nice! But the fact that women around the world even feel the need to celebrate these types of achievements, should give us pause. I mean, it’s 2023, and haven’t women won all of their battles for equality? And why write about this topic on a wellness blog?
Because women’s health is the cornerstone of economies and societies worldwide. There’s a direct link between the health of families and communities and the health of women. And that’s where gender equality comes in. Let’s face it, we know all too well the longevity and ingrained complexity of patriarchy. Case in point, in the US women are still paid only 74-84 cents to the dollar compared to their male counterparts. According to research done by the AAUW, at the current rate of progress the gender pay gap will not close until 2111. Yep, you read that correctly!
Achieving gender equality requires concrete measures to eliminate gender inequities. For instance, gender norms still position girls as caretakers, which leads to gender inequality in how roles are distributed at the household level and beyond.
In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Special Program HRP and the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) in partnership with the British Medical Journal (BMJ) released a special series of papers on “Women’s Health and Gender Inequalities.” This series lays out the following agenda:
Bodily autonomy — enabling women and girls to make informed sexual, reproductive, and healthcare decisions—a human right for all.
Promoting equitable gender norms, including those that make violence against women and girls, including harmful practices such as early/forced marriage and female genital mutilation, unacceptable. Financing universal health coverage and social protection to cover health costs, child care, paid parental, sick and family care leave and old age pension.
Valuing paid employment and unpaid care work equally and enabling men to share care work with women.
Addressing male bias in the development of vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics.
Strengthening health systems to include safe, decent working conditions for the majority female health workforce including eliminating sexual harassment and violence.
Investing in feminist movements, which have been instrumental in fostering positive changes towards gender equality.
Ensuring women’s and feminist leadership in governments, health and development agencies, and other global organizations.
New and emerging threats, including COVID-19, have worsened existing inequities with reports of rising violence against women, as well as higher negative economic impacts caused both by increased unpaid care-giving and the fact that women work in more insecure, low-paid and informal jobs.
“National governments and the global community need to do better together to support and enable women and girls to enjoy their health and fulfill their rights.” Ian Askew, Director, World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, including the United Nations Special Program HRP.
If the above agenda resonates with you, you might just be a feminist.
Sources: https://www.aauw.org/issues/equity/pay-gap/, https://theenterpriseworld.com/top-7-women-dominated-industries/, https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Activity/15586/The-history-of-IWD, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/09/gender-equality-starts-with-women-s-health/, www.who.int