Archive for February, 2010
The search for change
Posted on February 28, 2010, by Kudzai, under Gender Masala.
Dr Wendy Harcourt
Guest Blogger Wendy Harcourt on Beijing +15 -– Commission on the Status of Women March 1 to 12
When told about the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) some might think, so what? Surely this is just yet another big U.N. affair with little impact in the real world? So why, then, are thousands of women from around the world coming to New York during the first two weeks of March? So many indeed that registration closed early and those who managed to register on time are being warned that there will be restricted entry both in the official U.N. event and in the NGO sessions that are held parallel to the main events. Undeterred, more events are being scheduled in New York and emails are whizzing around with invitations to impromptu sessions set up as the parallel of the parallel.
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297 Comments
Fifteen years after Beijing
Posted on February 23, 2010, by Kudzai, under HIV/AIDS, harmful practices, health, human rights, media, politics, reproductive health, violence, war rape, women, men and more.
Kudzai Makombe
Women live longer than men but these extra years are not always healthy, says WHO. Credit: WHO/UNAIDS/K.Hesse
With the Beijing +15 review coming up next week at the Commission on the Status of Women, it seems an appropriate time to have a look at where we are globally in terms of gender equality and women’s empowerment in line with the 12 Critical Areas under the Beijing Platform for Action.
172 Comments
Is it ever okay for a woman to exercise her sexuality to gain political power?
Posted on February 15, 2010, by Kudzai, under Gender Masala, arts, human rights, politics, stereotypes, women, men and more.
Kudzai Makombe
Queen Elizabeth I kept a reign on power by becoming "The Virgin Queen" Credit www.PDImages.com
This question has been puzzling me since a late-night, noisy get together with friends where we got talking (some might say gossiping) about the alleged cross-party sexual politics taking place in our government. The men, it was said, were using sex as a strategy to silence the women from the opposite camps. The woman targeted loses her standing once she’s been seduced as it quickly becomes general knowledge among other politicians.
“Once you see that so and so who used to be so vocal has gone quite then you know they’ve been had,” said one friend. Much like the boarding school strategy employed by male students to remove the top performing girl student’s ranking as number one in class I’m told. But, never having been to boarding school, much less a co-educational school, I am not aware.
As much as this dirty trick is an age-old male strategy to silence female opponents, women throughout history have used their sexuality, that is — whom one has sex with (or not), in what ways, why, under what circumstances, and with what outcomes — as a strategy to gain power. (more…)
52 Comments
Sherezade y el sultán, en el siglo XXI
Posted on February 12, 2010, by Kudzai, under Gender Masala, arts, culture, media, stereotypes.
Diana Cariboni
Espero entre indignada y divertida el próximo 8 de marzo, Día Internacional de la Mujer… El anterior me deparó una pasmosa sorpresa. Sobre mi escritorio había una enorme rosa de pétalos amarillos y bordes rojos y una tarjeta dirigida a las mujeres del siglo XXI, en su día. (more…)
158 Comments
When migrant labour hurts families
Posted on February 8, 2010, by Kudzai, under Gender Masala, children, human rights, women, men and more.
Tess Bacalla
How does one tell a child that it is for his own future that his mother has to go offshore in search of the proverbial ‘greener pastures’, leaving behind a family that has never known the meaning of separation?
Just what does that assurance mean to a child anyway whose notion of a secure tomorrow could simply be waking up each morning with his mother by his side.
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117 Comments
Feminizing resistance to mainstream politics
Posted on February 1, 2010, by Kudzai, under Gender Masala.
Paula Fray, IPS Africa Director
Guest Blogger: Paula Fray, IPS Africa Director
Early in January, I joined project managers from around the world at UNIFEM’s “Women Deepening Democracy: Transforming Politics for Gender Equality” workshop in India. Its apt that the workshop was held there. With over 714 million voters, India is arguable the world’s largest democracy with a long record of women in all levels of politics.
One such woman, Brinda Karat, Raj Sabha Member for the Communist Party of India, touched a nerve when she wondered whether we really want women to be part of the mainstream politics or whether women should reclaim the subversive role they have played in history.
Surely women do not want to be part of the mainstream – they want to change it?
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279 Comments
